- Good evening everyone.
Welcome to Faithful Word Baptist Church tonight.
Good to see you all here for a Wednesday night service.
Find your seats please.
Take a hymn and go to hymn number 260.
We'll begin tonight.
Hymn number 260.
He is able to deliver the hymn number 260.
Once you find your place,
we'll begin together singing on that verse.
260, "Tis the grandest theme through the ages wrong."
Hymn number 260.
Lift your voice together now to six zero.
"Tis the grandest theme through the ages wrong.
'Tis the grandest theme for a whore."
We're gonna go before the Lord
and ask his blessing on the service,
so if you would bow your heads together with me.
Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we come before you tonight.
We just give you the thanks
for bringing us here safely to church this evening.
We ask that your blessing upon us, Lord,
as we come before you now and just assemble
and sing these praises unto you.
We ask that you fill us with your spirit.
Help us to be edified and encouraged
as we sing out these songs and hymns unto you.
Help us to focus on the words.
As we're singing them.
And Lord, that you'd also just open our hearts and ears
to hear the message tonight.
And that you'd fill the preacher with your Holy Spirit.
Fill him with power and unction.
And that he may preach boldly with authority and with clarity.
And that you just give him the word to speak.
And that all that's said and done would give you the honor
and the glory that you deserve for him.
We thank you for it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
- Amen.
- Back to hymn number 258, 258.
Christ receive us sinful men.
Hymn number 258.
Sinners, Jesus will receive.
Hymn number 258.
Sing it out with me on that first now, 258.
Sinners, Jesus will receive.
Sound this word of praise to all who receive.
For him you rest, and Christ receive.
Sinful men, he is sinful men.
Christ receive us, and this is why.
Christ receive, sinful men within.
- At this time, we're gonna go over the bulletins,
so if you need one, please raise your hand,
and we'll get you one as soon as we possibly can.
So if you have your bulletin, go ahead and open it up,
and we'll quickly go over it.
On the left side, we have our service times,
sowning times, and at the very bottom,
salvation and baptisms for the year.
Once again, happy anniversary and happy birthday
to everyone that had one this month.
The donors that we had on Sunday
was a way for us to appreciate you.
And right at the bottom, an announcement
on Pastor Corbin Russell from Straight Pass Baptist Church
down in Tucson.
You know, he will be here on Wednesday, June 18th
to preach for us on a Wednesday night service,
and that will be at 7 p.m.
Go ahead and turn your bulletin around.
Once again, more information about the Father's Day weekend.
So any high-key trip that's gonna be on Friday, June 13th,
the schedule's right there for Friday,
and it's going through Saturday, June 14th.
The schedule's right there for the 14th.
Now, the next announcement is about our first Fridays
that we do, and join us in downtown Phoenix.
It'll be on June 6th, 6 p.m.,
and the meetup is right there by the Phoenix Library,
and the address is right there as well.
You can take a look at that when you get a chance.
And also, if you have any questions,
talk to Brother Tilson.
If he's here, I believe he is.
He's back there raising his hand.
So if you don't know who that is,
talk to Ramon, talk to me.
Talk to somebody and ask who is Brother Tilson,
and we'll get you to him, amen.
All right, the upcoming events are right there.
Take a look at those when you get a chance.
Obviously, the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship in Texas.
That is one thing that somebody asked me earlier this week,
if we can provide for hotels
for anybody that wants to go down there.
Right now, I don't know.
Pastor gets back on Saturday night.
If we can afford it, we definitely will do it.
We've always done it in the past.
At least provide hotels
for anybody that wants to go to any of these conferences.
So if we have the finances, for sure we'll take care of it.
So if you guys are also wondering the same thing,
I wanna go, but I don't know, it's kind of pricey,
the hotels, I don't know if we can afford that,
whatever the case may be.
I'll get with you guys as soon as I speak to Pastor,
and obviously Pastor will be here,
he lands at midnight on Saturday,
so he'll be preaching this Sunday.
Other than that, take a look at those announcements,
and let's quickly go over the soul winning for the week.
If you got somebody saved on Monday,
go ahead and raise your hand.
I'm gonna start with my left side.
So if you got anybody saved, go ahead and raise your hand.
We got one right here, and he's solving three.
All right, we got three over here.
Brother Alex, anybody else for Monday, Tuesday?
Four?
All right.
Any other salvations for Tuesday?
And today?
Daniel, go get someone to save ASAP.
Oh, never mind.
We got one right over here.
All right.
How's about this day?
It's okay.
Any other salvations?
Going once, going twice.
All right, Brother Daniel.
Hymn number 134.
"My anger holds."
Hymn number 134.
"The angriest urges roll on my tempest-driven soul."
Sing it out with me on that verse now, 134.
"The angriest urges roll on my tempest-driven soul."
Sing it out with me on that verse now, 134.
"The angriest urges roll on my tempest-driven soul."
Sing it out with me on that verse now, 134, "The angriest urges roll on my tempest-driven
soul."
Sing it, everybody.
Go up to hymn number 459, hymn number 45, Lord Jesus, hymn number 459, Paris, Lord
Jesus, ruler of all, sing it out with me on that first verse now.
At this time, we're going to pass the offering in place, and as we're passing around the
offering in place, please turn your Bibles to Joshua, chapter number one, Joshua, chapter
number one.
The first chapter in the Bible reads, "Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the
Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister,
saying, 'Moses, my servant, is dead.
Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which
I do give them, even to the children of Israel.
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as
I said unto Moses.
From the wilderness in this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates,
all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun,
shall be your coast.
There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life.
As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee; I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Be strong and of a good courage, for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance
the land, which I swear unto their fathers to give them.
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to
all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee.
Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever
thou goest.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein
day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.
For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Have not I commanded thee?
Be strong and of a good courage.
Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever
thou goest.
Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, Pass through the host.
And command the people, saying, Prepare your victuals, for within three days ye shall pass
over this Jordan, to go into possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you to possess
it.
And to the Rubanites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh spake Joshua,
saying, Remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying,
The Lord your God hath given you rest, and hath given you this land.
Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave
you on this side Jordan, but ye shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty
men of valor, and help them, until the Lord hath given your brethren rest, as he hath
given you, and they also hath possessed the land which the Lord your God giveth them.
Then ye shall return unto the land of your possession, and enjoy it, which Moses the
Lord's servant gave you on this side Jordan toward the sun rising.
And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever
thou sendest us we will go.
According as we hearken unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee, only
the Lord thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses.
Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy commandment, and will not hearken unto thy
words in all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death, only be strong and
of a good courage.
Dear Lord, thank you for Faithward Baptist Church, Lord, and we thank you for your word.
And Lord, I pray that you'd help us all be better Christians, and to love one another
more, and to love the lost more, and to better love you and serve you.
And Lord, I pray that you'd fill Brother Segar with your Holy Spirit, and Jesus, amen.
Amen.
But really quickly, I got word from Brother Brock that his wife is expected to be released.
Where's Brother Brock at?
Monday?
Tomorrow, Friday?
She's been in the hospital with health problems, so he just wanted me to pray for her for a
speedy recovery.
So I'm just going to do that right now, if you all don't mind.
Dear Father, thank you so much for all that you've done, Lord.
And obviously, Father, we have a need, so we ask you to fill that need.
And not just that there, Lord, whatever other needs that people have here in this auditorium,
you know them.
We ask you, Lord, to just bless them for being faithful to church tonight, and ask you to
just help Mrs. Brock just recover as fast as your will would allow.
And I ask you to do this in Jesus' name, Amen.
All right, Joshua chapter number one, the verse I want to focus on is verse eight that
says this book of the law should not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate
therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.
For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have, these are the two
words that I want to focus on, good success, good success. And I don't know about you,
but I want to have some good success in my Christian life before I'm gone and I'm on
my way to heaven. But what I want to do today is talk about success, and the title of my
sermon is this, Sagan, Sagan, the secret of my success. Sagan, the secret of my success.
Go to Matthew 6.25 if you don't mind, go to Matthew 6.25. Now Sagan, I'm not referring
to my son over here, even though I may talk about my son, Sagan, but this sermon is not
about him. And even though this sermon has nothing technically to do with him, you know,
it does have a little to do with my success, amen, especially when he prays. You are praying,
right? There you go. But Sagan isn't just a word. It's an acronym that I use as a blueprint
that changed my life and it continues to help improve my life. And when people ask me about
how can I start getting their life on track, this is what I like to show people. This is
what I like to bring up. And obviously the acronym is S-A-G-A-N. And obviously Sagan,
if you really want to know, I did name my son after this acronym. So how old are you now?
He's going to be 16. So for the last 16 years, I've been using this to guide my life.
And I want to tell a quick story about a girl named Stephanie, not Stephanie, actually her name
is Stephanie, my bad. I want to talk about a girl named Stephanie that I used to work for or work
with. Sorry, he's late. I need to wake up a little bit. But this girl, Stephanie, I don't know if you
remember Stephanie from work. You know, when I used to do security, I was in charge of the public
safety at a mall in Palo Alto, California. And I'm just in my office one day and I'm just sitting
down doing paperwork. And out of nowhere, she just, you know, ends up just going in my office. She
just opens the door, goes into my office and just closes it really quickly. And then she starts crying.
She's just crying her face off and she just tells me, "I'm sorry, just give me a minute. I just
needed to just get away. You know, I just need to calm myself down." And I'm just like, "Whoa, okay,
no worries. We had a chair. I'll totally go ahead and just take a seat, sit down and just relax and
just calm down. You know, that's all I can really think of at the moment." You know, so she's like,
"I'm just sorry. I don't mean to come in here and start crying, but you know, I just got some really
bad news. You know, I just found out that my boyfriend, which happens to be my cousin, is
cheating on me!" She's going crazy and I'm thinking, "Oh man, you know, what the heck is about to happen?"
So she's just crying and she's upset and she starts just, you know, hating her life. "I just
hate my life. I just wish I could die right now. I don't cheat on me. Blah, blah, blah, yadda yadda yadda."
And then she's just like, "I don't do it. I'm just like, how do you do it? How do you do it? I got
100 kids." That's what she told me. Remember when I told you this story? And I'm like,
"You really want to know? I got one word for you. God." That's what came out of my mouth.
God. And she's like, "Yeah, I should know that." You know? And so, of course, I tried to get her
safe. You know? So I'm like, "Listen, if you really want to know, because obviously the HR
Department of Human Resources will never approve of this, but she started it, so I'm going to
finish it." She asked, so I'm going to tell her. I tell her, "Listen, I deal with the same stresses
of life that you do, but honestly, if it weren't for God, I would probably be melting down,
you know, because I do work a lot. I don't have a good assistant. I'm pretty much, you know,
running solo right now, and you see me here way too many times, way too long, and I haven't taken
a day off, and who knows how many months or whatever the case, you know, but I told her,
if you really want to know the truth, you know, God is the secret to my success. God is the reason
I'm not breaking down. But if I can go back in time and give her more specifics, you know, I would
tell her, you know what, Sagan. You know, Sagan is the reason I don't break down. What do you mean?
It's an acronym I use to help me stay successful. And so, of course, let me just talk about this
acronym that I have, you know, but nobody's ever asked me how to stay motivated, how to stay spiritual
until that day, and ever since then, I don't think anybody's ever really asked me. But my kids, they
know what a heart bond, they know how I do business. So if you don't believe me, you can talk to them
and they will verify a lot of what I'm about to say. You know, but if you're right there, where's
the time to go? Matthew 625, you know, just stay in Matthew 625. I'm going to be in Matthew 7-7,
you know, because in case you're wondering, how many acronyms does Brother Cigarra have?
The quick answer is two. The one from last Wednesday and this one. I might work on some
others, but hey, call it a marine thing. Any marines in the house? One marine? I don't even
know that. So you know the acronyms, right? You know BAMFs. Begin the planning, erase the
reconnaissance, make the reconnaissance, complete the planning, issue the order, and supervise.
You still love to shoot, I hope. Okay, how about this one? BRASS. B-R-A-S-S. That helps you shoot,
remember? When they're teaching you how to be a killer, how to get that nice little shot,
how to hit something at 500 yards. Come on. Breathe, right? Relax. Aim. Stop. And squeeze.
Oh man, this guy. Did he show you a Marine? Hey, this is Stolen Valor, people. Get him out of here.
Busted. Where's Brother Fervet when you need him? Is he around? Anyways, I think he's a real Marine.
Sorry, Brother Dan. We're going to have to talk later, brother. But acronyms work. You know,
I still use those acronyms today when I plan things, when I have to go check things out.
I still use them today. So, even though I don't, you know, prove that people just run into the
military for obvious reasons, like no church, you're going to be in who knows where fighting
a war that is just to make someone super rich. So, there's a list that goes on and on. But,
I thank God. He loves acronyms. Why? Because of Matthew 7-7 and 7-8. Let me just quickly go over
this in case you're like, "Man, what's up with these acronyms? I don't really like them." Well,
I don't know, but you tell me if this is an acronym. Matthew 7-7, "Ask, and it should be
given you. Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Seems like that's an
acronym that spells the word "ask." And then he says it again, "For every one that asketh, receive
it; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened." So I'm just preaching
like Jesus tonight in case you're wondering if I'm able to go, "Amen, he use acronyms, I'm using
acronyms." So let's get to the acronym. So the first letter obviously in the word "Sagan" is the
letter "S." And this is what it stands for in case I've never told you, which I'm pretty sure I've
told some of you. But the "S" stands for this, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God." Enough said,
let's go home. Just kidding. But I'll tell you to go to Matthew 6.25. I'll just try to go to the
verses as fast as I can. Obviously, I'm keeping an eye on the clock. And let's start with verse
number 25, I believe. It says, "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life,
what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.
Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold, the fowls of the air,
they sow not, neither to their reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feedeth them."
Are you not much better than they? And the answer is yes, we're much better than the birds,
and whatever your favorite animal is. Verse 27, "Which of you taking thought can add one
cubit unto his stature? And why take you thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon,
in all his glory, was not a ray like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field,
which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you?"
And here's the problem that a lot of us have. Oh, ye of little faith. Oh, ye of little faith.
And what does it cause? Or what's the issue with having little faith? It can cause us to stress
out. So of course, how can we fix that? Well, there's a cool little verse in the Bible
that faith comes by hearing and hearing by what? The Word of God. So if you don't want to be a
stressed monkey, I highly recommend you start seeking the Word of God. How do I know? Let's
keep reading. It says, "Take no thought, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or
'Wherewithal shall we be clothed?' For after all these things did a Gentile seek. For your heavenly
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and his righteousness." Not your righteousness, his righteousness. "And all these things." What
things? Eating, drinking, being clothed, they'll be added unto you. "And take therefore no thought
for the morrow, for the morrow should take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof." So what are we learning here? What is Jesus saying? Listen, you have to learn
to put me first in everything. That's the first hours of the day. That's the first of whatever
money I give you. You have to learn to put me first. And I had to learn this lesson the hard way
when I was going through the police academy back in 2004. Man, 21 years ago? Really? Am I that old?
Good night. But anyways, obviously the police academy is very stressful, right Daniel? Besides
being pepper sprayed, besides being beat up, besides the testing, besides the exercises,
it's a very stressful time if you ever end up doing it. But of course, I never had any confidence in
any test that I ever took, except for one. One test. And one of the biggest things that I struggle
with was giving God the first of my day. I struggle with that a lot. Daniel, what time
did you start your academy? 5 a.m. You think he struggled with devotions? Don't answer that
because we know. The answer is yes. But he's hardcore. In case you didn't know, this man was
up at 12 30 every night straight gets gets going starts praying for at least an hour then right
into the word starts reading for an hour then he starts shaving and getting ready putting on his
uniform then he gets into the car and he gets there and he's there 30 minutes before class starts
he's there by 4 30 every morning right Daniel yeah right he wishes but the facts are that day
this one day where i got up and i'm like oh man i think i'm good with this test i looked at the
clock i'm like man i don't have too much time for devotions the one day that i decided you know what
god you're gonna have to forgive me you know please understand i'm tired i gotta go got in
my car and left well took the test and an hour later when they checked them because they checked
them right away they got the ability to do that we're looking at the scores and sure enough i
failed the only test i was super confident i was going to pass but my wife she wasn't my wife at
the time but she was always trying to like check in on me see how i'm doing and i was always saying
i don't know i'm gonna fail this test i'm gonna fail this test i'm gonna fail this test was there
ever any time where i told you i got this in the bag except for that one time right and that's the
one time that i didn't pray i didn't read i just got lazy whatever the case may be and sure enough
i just got in my car took off and that's the one test that i failed coincidence i think not but the
rest of them i had to make an effort to get up pray read then get out of my house and go to the
academy and hope for the best and i don't know how test after test after test after test after test
it was like 99.9 95 90 days 90 that and i'm like how in the world is this even happening
but i was glad that he did but i highly doubt is because i you know skipped on my bible reading
or skipped on my prayer which was very tempting to do and you may be saying well brother girl
can't you just wake up and just jump in your car and pray while you're in your car absolutely
but i recommend that when you get up you just spend time with god and him alone as much as
you possibly can where did i get that from we'll take a look at some things and see put god's
kingdom and his righteousness before anything that's where success really begins and when i
say say again the secret of my success i've never ran a business you know i've never been rich
you know i don't even know how much you got in my bank account but at the end of the day
i got saved in 2002 it's already 2025 i'm doing pretty decent and i'm still going out sewing and
then i'm still reading my bible and i'm still coming to church and i don't know what god was
thinking when he decided to put me behind the pulpit 23 years later but here i am and all i
can tell you is that if it weren't for these things i don't think i would be here and let me
continue to explain why and see when you put god first he gives you things that you didn't even
expect that you didn't even want that you didn't even ask for best example is solomon solomon put
god first did he not he asked for wisdom to judge god's people not for riches not for the life of
his enemies not for fame and god gave him those things anyways daniel daniel said i'm going to
put god first no matter what and what happened with daniel he purposely is hard enough to defile
himself and what did god do god blessed them with wisdom and promotion mary you know mary bethany
What did she do? She sat at Jesus' feet. And Jesus says she shows that part, which is good.
So what does this look like? What does putting God first? What does the S look like?
Here's what I think it looks like. Here's a clue. Proverbs 8-17. "I love them that love me,
and those that seek me early, early shall find me." Early. What do I mean by early? Early. Early.
Like getting up early. Let me give you some examples. There are several examples in the
Bibles of prophets and godly people rising up early to pray, to see God, or just to meet with
him. And the one I can think of right now, I got a list, I'll just give them all to you, is Abraham.
Genesis 19-27 says this, "And Abraham got up early, early in the morning to the place where he stood
before the Lord." See, this refers to his habit of standing before the Lord, likely for prayer,
intercession, whatever your guess is, is probably as good as mine. Another person is Moses. Listen
to this. Exodus 34-4, "And he hewed two tables of stone, like unto the first, and Moses rose up
early, early in the morning, and went up unto Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in
his hands the two tables of stone. This early rising was to meet with God." Joshua, listen to
this, Joshua 6-12, "And Joshua rose early, early in the morning, and the priest took up the ark of
the Lord." See, Joshua is frequently, you know, shown rising up early to obey God, to lead the
people. Let's talk about Hannah. Hannah, Samuel's mother, it says the first time in 1-19, "And they
rose up early, early in the morning, and worshiped before the Lord." Let's take a look at David,
Psalm 5-3, I preached about this last Wednesday, one of my favorite verses to motivate me to keep
getting up. "My voice should thou hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning will I direct
my prayer unto thee, and will look up." Psalm 6-3-1, "O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee."
And obviously Jesus is the best example, Mark 1-35, "And in the morning, rising up a great while before
day, he went out and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." So we got Abraham, Moses,
Joshua, Hannah, David, and Jesus all getting up early. Some just to stand before the Lord,
some to meet God on Mount Sinai, some out of obedience, some to worship the Lord,
some for morning devotion, and Jesus just to get out of wherever he was at, just to be him,
and God alone, he got up early. And how early is early? As early as humanly possible is what I'm
going to tell you right now. And of course, we all know that the body has limits. If you can go with
one hour sleep a night, you're about to die. That ain't healthy. I know. But what would you say
is a good sleep, you know, in regards to the human body? You guys tell me. What? Eight hours, right?
If you talk to Arnold, Arnold Schwarzenegger, he did all kinds of stuff when he was getting,
you know, whatever famous, he was going to, you know, I think he was going to work in the morning
or to work out. Then he did like a construction job. Then he went to college to learn how to
speak English. Didn't work so well, but whatever. But then he would go and do a second workout.
Who's ever heard of that schedule? And he said, yeah, some people are like, yo, I needed hours
of sleep. Well, you know what? I did it with six. So six is like the least that I hear from these
guys that are successful people, but they'll have one thing in common. They all get up early,
whether it's eight, 10 hours, whatever, assumingly possible. The goat, the football goat. And please,
nobody tell me my homes, okay? Who's the football goat? Come on, football fans. What? No way. I'll
help you guys out since you guys are backsliding tonight. It ain't Jerry Rice. It ain't Joe
Montana. It's Tom Brady. Let's just face it. Tom Brady, seven Super Bowls, should have had 10,
but he had one of the crappiest coaches, and yes, I said it, crappiest coaches in the history of the
NFL. Tom Brady carried that man. I don't care what anybody has to say. You have a problem with me?
Fucking ears. That's all I got to say. But Tom Brady, he didn't start out smart with his career.
He was just partying, barely getting to sleep. It was affecting his health. Then he decided,
hey, I want to do this for a long time. So he ended up getting on board with a healthier,
I guess you could say sleep schedule. And supposedly, Mr. Tom Brady will get up at
330 in the morning. But guess what time he went to bed? 7pm, if he could. He knew sleep is like
your superpower. Sleep can help you better than any energy drink out there. And trust me, I know.
Yes, I got to quit. I'm just confessing my sins, but I got coconut water now. Hopefully that can
help me, you know, get weaned off. Ramon's like, yeah, I look at the garbage can. I know what's in
it. Don't worry. I'm working on it before I die by next year. But all I'm saying is this. We got to
be people that get up early. You have to. I'm telling you, if you ever notice Brother Segura
not in his best mood, slacking off, you kind of notice that, hey, this guy, you can tell that
he ain't all there right now. It's probably because of this. When I notice that I make excuses, I'm
like, well, I can pray when I drive. You know what? I can pray, you know, during my lunchtime. God
knows I overdid it. You know, I was out till midnight with Pastor Shelley and I had to pick
him up at 430 in the morning. God knows! Yeah, he knows you're being lazy. Do you really think God
expects your brother Segura to pray? Well, maybe he gave me a pastor that one because I did pray,
Lord. I don't know. I gotta, I gotta roll. I gotta jump in the car and go or this man's gonna miss
his flight. I'll just pray on the way there. It's 15 minutes, Lord. Hey, I think God accepted that.
But if you really don't think that this is important, you need to keep looking at scriptures
early in the morning, early, early, early. How early? I don't know. It depends on what time you
go to sleep. But if you want to get up early and know what I'm talking about, you gotta go to bed
early. Right, kids? And that's my goal is just to go to bed as early as I can, get up as early as
I can. That's not gonna mess me all up. Maybe six, maybe eight hours. Sometimes I need 10 hours to
recover from what I did the previous couple days when I don't sleep like I should. But my goal is
always the same. Getting up early, it matters. It's what's gonna cause God to meet you there.
And of course, there are more examples. For example, Job. Job 1.5. And it was so when the
days of their feasting were gone about that Job sinned and sanctified them and rose up early,
early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. Talking about
his children. Job rose early to intercede for his children. And that's just a clear picture of early
morning prayer and sacrifice. Jacob. It says even though this is not necessarily about prayer,
it could, it could have something to do with prayer. But Genesis 28 18 says this and Jacob
rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillows and set it up for
a pillow and poured oil upon the top of it. It was to honor God. Now he could have just woke up
during the day or a little later but I don't know why he chose early in the morning probably because
he wanted to just I don't know just get it done as fast as he could have. But obviously the
disciples Luke 21 38 and all the people came early early in the morning to him in a temple
for to hear him. To hear him who? To hear Jesus Christ. King Hezekiah 2 Chronicles 29 20.
Then Hezekiah the king rose early early and gathered the rulers of the city and went up to
the house of the Lord and of course that's just him another example getting up early Mary Magdalene
you know Mark 16 2 and very early in the morning you see early in the morning early in the morning
early in the morning this time is very early in the morning the first day of the week they came
up to the sepulchre at the rising of the sun though not a prayer you know it just shows their
devotion their dedication and understand the importance of getting up early like it says
those that seek me early shall find me so whatever time you go to sleep hey try to get
up as early as possible hey that's my goal to get up as early as possible and when i
do i enjoy my day a little bit better not always but a little bit better you know i
just feel like i was able to just spend time alone with god just me pouring out my heart
casting all my cares because he carried for me and i think it's important and you think
if you guys think that i'm just up here you know just kind of like doing my own thing hey
i like getting up early and guess your favorite pastor loves to do that too i don't know if
that's him losing his rewards because i'm saying that but i don't think so so if you if you ever
have him here at 10 pm 11 pm just remember he wants to get up early so somebody do the right
thing and just all leave no i'm just kidding so what is the key thing that we see with all these
verses here's why i think is early early early early early early early because by getting up
early and some people i've heard especially people that have like success you can say
success financially or whatever i heard people get up at 2 45 and they go straight to reading
i mean i've heard people get up at 4 30 jacob willing constantly takes a picture of his watch
and puts it on his facebook i'm up i'm at the gym 4 30 4 30 4 30 and i don't know but somebody
mentioned i forgot who it was that there's some kind of scientific something scientific about
being up at three or four in the morning that's where you have your most clear mind where you can
think the best is from what i've heard so if that's true then that's the time that i think if you're
able to get up that early to give that time to the lord and not waste it trying to plan your next
financial adventure if you know what i'm saying but getting up early i think getting up early
you know seeking god early shows your priority shows your priority to god and it shows your
love to god see god often shows himself to those that rose up early like jacob and moses
and early prayer sets the tone for the whole day you don't believe me go to psalms five three if
you want you can look at those when you get a chance and when you see the leaders and the
spiritual giants they all have one habit and what is that habit getting up early seeking god early
if you start at 5 a.m daniel no excuses hopefully that's like the end of that but it wasn't easy
was it you knew what you had to do you knew you still have to do your bible you just you know what
i'm saying you know and let me ask you this hey you made it through right and probably because
you wanted it really bad you probably spent more time praying than you usually did right
by getting up early and praying if you don't believe that it's something that's special talk
to daniel he has six months of it correct and he'll let you know so that's the s seek you first
the kingdom of god obviously is not just obeying god's word i think literally seeking him first
first thing in the morning your first hours give them to the lord how long should i pray depends
how much you have on your heart obviously we all have a time schedule if all you can do is 30
minutes i think that's great i try to aim for maybe that but it is what it is after that you
should be besides getting up early you should be reading your bible as well so give yourself
enough time whatever your goal is for the year to finish it in a year finish it in 120 days 90
days 30 days whatever the case may be you know what we should all start reading the bible early
in the morning but that's what the s stands for seek your first the kingdom of god and tell my
kids that's getting up early i try to get them up early i haven't been pushing them as much and
this is kind of like a refreshment for me to just remind myself how important it is to get up early
and pray and give god the first hours of the day super important but of course if you want to get
up early you gotta go to bed early so i'm gonna start locking these doors at 8 30 every service
from now on just kidding i would never do that i'm like hey you know what we got push bars now see
you later but the s stands for seek your first the kingdom of god the a stands for always pray
let me just read this i know i didn't have you go anywhere but if you want to go somewhere and meet
me somewhere i guess you can go ahead and go to mark five let's go to mark five i'm just going
to quickly go over the a the a is always pray i know already spoke about it but when i say always
pray pray throughout the day pray when you drive i mean we see different examples of people praying
throughout the day obviously the most obvious example people getting up early before day where
they got up to meet the lord luke 18 says this and he speak a parable unto them to this end
that men ought to always to pray and not to faint so key thought prayer is how we stay connected to
god you know with prayer we can get stronger without it we will grow weaker here's some
examples of people obviously coming to god for prayer because they needed something big hannah
hannah she prayed earnestly for a son and god gave her samuel paul and silas what were they doing
they were singing praises in prison you know what happened with him hey god delivered them and why
because they were two or three had gathered there he is in the midst of them and the apostles man
did they pray so you can pray when you're together you can pray when you're alone
we can pray whenever but just pray and obviously apostles are a good example of prayer but they
prayed a lot because they're being persecuted a lot here's an example acts 424 when they're being
persecuted it says and when they heard that they lifted up their voice to god one accord and say
lord thou art god and i like their confidence thou are god lord thou are god which has made heaven
and earth and the sea and all that in them is they came with boldness why because that's what the
bible tells you to do when you come to god so you're getting up early you're seeking god
you're you're coming to him well come to him like the apostles come with him with boldness
hebrews 416 says this let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need not just with boldness but you know come to him righteous
obviously i don't want to just talk about prayer prayer prayer prayer prayer and not let you know
that you know what there is a catch when it comes to prayer and that's being righteous james 5 16
confess your false one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed the effectual
fervent prayer of what a righteous man availeth much so don't just come to god boldly come to god
righteous and of course come to him anytime you know it says in matthew 21 22 and all things
whatsoever should ask in prayer believing ye shall receive so not just with boldness and righteousness
but also with faith and just pray as much as you possibly can abraham's servant he prayed for help
when he was in the middle of just praying that's when rebecca showed up at the well and she watered
his compass so that's what the a is i'll quickly finish with the other ones it's not going to be a
long sermon but the g is something that our church does a lot and i hope when i'm dead and gone it
will continue to do it for many many years after that but the g is to go ye therefore and teach
all nations go ye therefore and teach all nations matthew 28 18 don't worry i'll get to mark i'll
tell you to go to mark stan mark you know but matthew 28 18 says and jesus came and spake
out to them saying all powers given unto me and heaven and earth go ye therefore teach all nations
baptizing them in the name of the father son and holy ghost teaching them to observe also all things
will serve where i commanded you and law in which you always even unto the end of the world amen and
of course the word teach you know when it comes to teaching you know that's not just getting people
saved that's i believe like it says right there teaching them to observe all things whoever
commanded you and whatever way you can do that do it whether it's through youtube cards giving
people a youtube card that takes them to a length of the sermon so they can learn god's word whether
it's a mom teaching their kids like the prophets 31 and 30 and 31 teaching their kids what right and
wrong is you know that's more than one way to teach not just giving the gospel but teaching god's
commandments to anybody and everybody that you possibly can co-workers you name it you know we're
commanded to preach the gospel so when in this part of true success besides obviously seeking god
first that's real success i don't know exactly where it is in the bible i forgot but the story
about the guy who has barns that always comes to my brain because people have this warped idea
that a gain is godliness hey i know i'm doing good look how look how i'm doing i got a wife i got
my child we're doing great i got a house whatever whatever just like i said i think in the last
sermon we have some bozo that got kicked out of this church you know for being a racist
drug addict idiot you know he ended up getting kicked out and then he ends up messaging me like
three months later i'm pretty sure it's him i'm not 100 sure talking about how hey how's your
impractatory prayers going i'm thinking to myself i don't think i really prayed an impractatory
prayer for this dude but if he wants me to you know what i can start right now but one of the
things he said is like i heard you said i will never get a house and i'm thinking to myself why
would i ever say that that's not any sign of being righteous oh i know this guy's a wicked individual
because he doesn't have a house what the heck thinks like that wicked people do how do i know
because guess what this guy in the bible he's building his barns and then he has so much stuff
he's breaking down and building bigger barns and then what ends up happening he starts thinking
yeah man i got it really good you know i got the wife i got the kid i got the house
hey i i got a lot stored up you know what i can't wait to retire you know what i'm just going to
retire i'm just going to take it easy and this is a guy that's rich it says that he was rich
but what did god call him in that parable now that's what he called them now full why because
this person is rich but if you keep reading that parable it says something like you know woe unto
them or something like that they are rich but they're not rich towards who god that's real
success when you're getting rich towards god not how much money you have not whether you have a
house or anything that's not what's real in god's eyes it's whether you're serving him or not that
shows whether you're a wise individual and that shows whether you're a successful individual not
how much you make or what job you got i don't care what job my kids have i don't even care what job
i have i just happen to be in this one you know i don't care but what i'm going to focus on is
making sure that i keep that acronym sagan going because that's somebody who's truly successful
someone who's seeking god early someone who's praying that's a successful individual and i
don't care what you do in life i don't care what my kids do in life as long as they're not breaking
the commandments and they're still going to church you know that's a real successful person
but the individual that thinks look how much i have man i'm really really good no you're not
you're a fool and i highly doubt this individual is out knocking doors like you guys i highly doubt
this individual is going to church more than once a week and who knows but once a week it's just
going to make you weak and sooner or later it'll be once a month and once a month it's not going
to be good for you then it goes to once every three months then once every six months the next
thing you know they'll say oh there's no good church in my area this is what we need to do you
know we see it all over the bible we see philip the evangelist giving the gospel to the ethiopian
eunuch that's one-on-one going above and beyond i don't know about you but i never ran after a car
to try to give someone the gospel maybe you have but i haven't and i'm not telling you to do it but
hey here he did it peter he preached to a big group you know so winning this all over the bible
this is something that you should do you have to do if you want to be a successful person because
without you cannot truly be blessed by god the woman at the well another one-on-one opportunity
is christ showing us how he wants us to live our lives he's just sitting around woman comes by
takes the opportunity to try to see if she's receptive ends up getting her saved but this
is something that i think we all need to tell people to start doing right away you're mark five
remember mark or matthew 28 18 says go ye therefore and teach first thing he's saying go teach
then baptize and then teach him to obey whatsoever things are commanded mark five one talks about the
story of the guy that was devil possessed let's just quickly go through it it says and they came
over in the other side of the sea into the country of the gatteries and when he was come out of the
ship immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit who had his dwelling
among the tombs and no man could bind him no not with chains because that he had been often bound
with fetters and chains and the chains have been plucked asunder by him and the fetters broken in
pieces neither can any man tame him and always night and day he was in the mountain the tombs
crying and cutting himself with stones but when he saw Jesus so far off he ran and worshiped him
and cried with a loud voice and said what have I to do with thee Jesus the son of the most high god
I adjure thee by god that thou torment me not for he said unto him come out of the man thou unclean
spirit and he asked him what is thy name and he answered saying my name is legion for we are many
and he beside him much that he will not send them away out of the country now there was there nigh
unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding and all the devils inside this man beside him
saying send us into the swine that we may enter into them and for if Jesus gave them leave and
the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine and he ran violently down this deep place
into the sea there were about two thousand and were choked in the sea and they that fed the
swine fled and told it in the city and in the country and they went out to see what it was that
was done and they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion
sitting and clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid and they that this and they that saw
it told him how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil and also concerning the swine and
they began to pray him asking Jesus to depart out of their clothes and then when he was coming to
the ship here's the part that I want you guys to notice here's a guy who's just out of his mind
filled with devils you know constantly Jesus is casting out devils in a book of Mark then this
person has these devils cast out of him he's in his right mind he's clothed and not just that but
he wants to follow Jesus it says how did Jesus suffer them not but instead Jesus baptized them
you guys see that right you guys see it in your Bible whoever say yep it's crazy because it's
not there I don't know what Bible you're reading but it doesn't say that Jesus baptized them
so here's a crazy dude he has devils he's going around cutting himself just freaking out everyone
Jesus comes on the scene this guy comes to worship him Jesus says hey devils get out of there you
know go and go into the pigs they go possess some pigs they basically run off a cliff or whatever
the pigs drown then this guy's in his right mind the people are freaked out they don't know what
to think Jesus get out of here please you're freaking us out Jesus is about to leave almost
about to get in his boat this guy shows up and he's like yo I want to go with you but it says
that Jesus suffered him not but said go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord
had done for thee what does that sound like so winning evangelizing so next time you're out there
so winning and you get some devil possessed person saved tell him you know what I want you to do now
go get people saved and I don't know about you but I didn't get baptized right away you know
what got me on track was so winning so winning the pastor's like hey you haven't been baptized
right no I haven't you want to get baptized nope I'm good maybe later let me think about it do I
really need to he's like yes you do it's commanded well let me just wait because I was embarrassed
that's why but when he kept saying hey come out so winning you have to say a darn thing just show
up a silent partner I'll do all the talking I'm like you know what it's important I see what you're
doing hey it makes sense to me I'm safe I should go out there and get somebody safe and when they
took me out so winning you know what I went home and I started to clean up my life I said you know
what I got to do better I got to go out there and not look like a thug that just accidentally
walked into church because that's how I always dress like right Joan I had the beanie no no I
had the bandana and the beanie right I'm all gangster with the bandana not gangster enough
put the beanie on right poofy white jacket so the whole world can notice me because I'm a
attention-loving idiot right that's not enough I gave myself a big 8k 47 round big chain around
my neck just trying to show everybody I'm hard remember that and then back in the day big baggy
sweats were in style so I tried to look like him in my big gray sweats and whatever tight my belt
nice and tight you know so that way if I get into a fight nobody can pull him down and they're like
whoa this guy what's up dumbest thing to walk around with and get into a fight is a pair of
baggy sweats not a good idea and I got the big sneakers the white poofy sneakers right my wife
was like yep yep remember you being an idiot and when I noticed that it was affecting people when
I noticed that they weren't taking me serious when I noticed that it was an issue I'm like you know
what I can't let this get in the way of me getting somebody safe I need to get right with the lord
and then I ended up showing up with a suit and they're like who is this dude remember that the
pastor's like dang bro I thought some mafia guy just walked up in here I'm like whoa that's Chris
it's in the suit I didn't even know you own one I was like yeah well you know what when we went out
soul winning the other day I noticed that people look at me crazy you know what I need to do better
thanks for taking me out soul winning and um I'm also interested in getting baptized
think you help me with that of course yeah let's do this tonight as soon as possible remember that
and then from there it just started getting more and more serious because of soul winning
so you run into that guy hey 100 sure you're safe absolutely why Jesus what do you mean
what do you have to do to go to heaven just believe on Jesus can you lose it
no what if you end up committing a really bad sin like murder nope what about suicide god forbid
you're saved right god forbid you do that you know where do you think you go still going to heaven
man it's forever sweet you know so hey you know now that you're saved you know what god wants you
to do he wants you to get other people saved are you doing it well i'm kind of in my own little way
you know because we can help you with that you know don't you want your family to get saved don't
you want your your neighbors to get saved i mean if there's anybody that you want us to go talk to
man we can give them the gospel they can get saved yeah you know what i got a friend right down the
street but at the same time what are you doing get yourself to a church where they'll take you
so when he come join us and you know what if you're not baptized get baptized because i think it
will help that's what ended up happening i think it was owen remember owen the guy with the nose
ring i had a suit on i went and gave him the went up to this kid just dressed all crazy brother
madison probably remembers him remember him owen with the big nose sure enough i get him saved on
a saturday i'm like hey what you doing sunday i don't know he's like you want to come to church
he's like yeah he's like you know what i usually don't listen to people but and i don't even think
i had anything fancy but this is what he said he's like i don't usually listen to people but the way
you look you look serious you know i just have to see what you have to say and i'm thinking cool man
well i'm glad to see that you know wearing a suit in 100 degree heat kind of helps a little you know
but it was what it was you know he just wanted to just up his game as well you know i don't remember
i think we took him out soul winning did we take him out soul winning maybe i did maybe i didn't
but i spoke to him a lot about soul winning and then i brought him to church it was what it was
i took him to go eat at my house then after that i'm talking to him about soul winning to go out
with me knock some doors then he's like man can you do me a favor he's like what can you get rid
of this nose ring never had that request before and i'm like sure stand by i got some wire cutters
and like bro if i get you i'm sorry no you're good just go ahead and just take it off my nose
i'm like all right boom pop that sucker right off and no that's what happened we didn't make it a
soul winning but he really wanted to buy a suit or something and i'm like you know what let's go
to the gold whale see what they got go to the gold whale right here three minutes away sure enough
he's going through clothes and he didn't have really good fashion sense i mean he picked a
really wild jacket he had like gold buttons that looked like it belonged to a billionaire that
owns a yacht i'm like bro that's too flashy let's give you something a little bit better
and so we found something got him in it and man it just made it feel really good and he just
wanted to take church a little bit more serious because he wanted to get somebody saved that was
the whole thing behind going and getting the suit and talking to people and looking serious about
it he's like man i need to do this i need to get my friend saved so i'm like hey if you want to get
somebody saved you kind of have to look serious my bro but that made him want to take it a lot
serious and i think he did get baptized right afterwards but he had problems with drugs and
it is what it is he got back into the same crowd as before you know ended up basically going down
that drug road again don't know where he's at right now but who knows but at the end of the day
this is the first thing that we should start telling people they need to do maybe it'll get
him set straight and so it's not just you going so we're in helping other people to go out and get
so uh people saved or start getting people to go out so in an amen all right let me just wrap it
up in 47 minutes in i'll make up for the hour and 20 30 minute sermon that pastor shaley has on the
night i'm kind of responsible for that you know in case you're like man brothers and girls this
is the most you've ever preached before hey why don't you just you know share the love why can't
we preach if you want to preach come hit me up anytime you want but the biggest reason i didn't
hit anybody up this time is because right before the boss went on his trip he said this i'm going
to hold you responsible for anybody you put behind the pulpit so make sure you put somebody good
okay time to write a bunch of sermons because i did not want to have somebody up here and say
something wild is he straight out saying i'm gonna hold you responsible if you have people preach
i'm gonna hold you responsible you know for anything they say and i'm like okay okay well
if i'm gonna get in trouble i'm gonna get in trouble for something that i said not something
somebody else said it man but the next one if you really want to preach hit me up next time he's
gone for this long amen so we got the s which is seek you first the kingdom of god we got the a
which is always pray we got the g which is go you there for teach all nations now we got the a
which is in jesus increase in wisdom and stature and in favor with god and man or in other words
always grow always grow and jesus increase in wisdom and in stature and in favor with
god and man you got to keep growing that's part of the christian life that's part of
being able to have success is keep growing not just spiritually but physically i don't know
about you but i regret just giving up on working out i wish i didn't do that and hopefully i can
get back into it but it's hard to get back into it you got to schedule things and my message is
hey don't just grow in the knowledge of the lord and savior jesus christ grow also in stature but
don't grow like donald trump type of growing amen grow like hey i gotta get in better shape to serve
the lord for a long time that's the type of growth that i'm talking about and where do i get that
from let's take a look at these guys in the bible my favorite example is jacob who knows was jacob
when he said this who knows how old jacob was when he said this when he when he said and i was
as strong as the day that moses sent me to spy out the land he was 85 years old he was sent out
when he was 40 and he's saying i'm just as strong right now as i was when i was 40 now either he's
delirious crazy losing his mind and i've always wondered or is it being literal and then when you
google like 80 year old strong man you're like whoa i think he might have been literal when i
look at some of these guys that are 80 70 some even 90 and they're stronger than me i'm like whoa
what stairs are they on no i'm just kidding but it's possible so of course don't just learn a
bunch of bible let's work on our health and our strength we already read joshua 1 it says be
strong and very courageous you know but it says that you know samuel that he grew he grew in front
of the lord and was in favor with both god and man and it says in luke 252 that jesus increased
in wisdom how did he do it probably through god's word i mean he was the word but he also
read the word it says that he grew in stature obviously jesus wasn't a guy who just took a
donkey everywhere he walked everywhere even though he could have if he wanted to why did he do that
probably to give him more strength because he knew that what he was going to do was going to be hard
walking this distance walking that distance he knew that being on a donkey is not going to be the
best thing for him so he just walked everywhere maybe to get some prayer out of the way maybe
some meditation out of the way remember joshua says if you meditate day and night hey then you're
going to have good success why because when you meditate on god's word you're going to start
seeing things that help you be successful so what can you do to grow in favor with god and man
here's just three things number one this is just obvious obey god's word and you can be like jesus
and not just growing wisdom not just growing stature but growing favor with god and man
because when you're obeying god the bible says in proper 16 7 when a man's ways please the lord you
guys heard this before he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him you're like man i got
this guy that really hates me what do i do start obeying god start seeking god start getting up
early start praying start pleasing god start reading your bible if you don't have a schedule
hey talk to me i can give you a 90 day schedule 120 day schedule a 30 day schedule a one year
schedule a six month schedule and if you want to save time just download the olive tree app that
one has like 20 different schedules you can get on and if none of them do do it for you then
i guess just read a chapter from every book of the bible that'll keep you from being idle just
saying and so of course obeying god will help you to be in favor with god and man being a humble and
wise person will help you to be in favor with god and man why prophecy 11 2 says this when pride
cometh then cometh shame but with the lowly is wisdom what is lowly being humble what does that
do well it gives you wisdom because humble people please god and when you're pleasing god guess what
he makes your enemies to be at peace with you and he gives you wisdom and let's just be honest let's
just be honest i love guys that are smart that's why i listen to pastor anderson i love guys that
are valuable and what makes them valuable is not how much money they have what makes them valuable
sometimes it's how much knowledge they got because wisdom is the principal thing nothing can be
compared to it according to proverbs nothing and so if you want to be a valuable person what are
these guys these these guys that are part of the what is it like the manly club what are they called
not those guys those guys are manly it's the other guys that want the alpha guys there's a name for
the alpha guys what is it called the manual sphere those guys the manual sphere what do they always
talk about guys if you want to get some chicks you need to be a high value man they're kind of
right see the best lies are half right and obviously filled with lies what do i mean by
that because think about it if you do want god to bring you that woman right that you've been
praying for then you know what yeah you probably do need to focus on being a high value man
but here's what i mean by high value man is being a man with high values i'm not talking about a
guy that makes a hundred they try to tell you what a high value man is but they really can't
like get down oh a guy that does at least a hundred thousand a year at least a hundred
thousand a year what would you say about you know six pack abs yeah six pack abs you know
a hundred thousand a year and uh drives his own car you know has a nice car nice career yeah that's
that's a high value man yeah yeah guys you need to aim to be a guy that makes a hundred thousand a
year if you want to get the girls you got to make a hundred thousand a year you know you got to have
that job you got to have that body now pay me 1200 more dollars and i'll give you more tips
that's what i've seen and heard from the manual spirit the fresh and fit crowd the andrew tate
crowd but he charges 50 bucks a month to rip you off and teach you how to be a high value man
but it's true if you want god to bless you with these things yeah you should be a high value man
but this is what i mean once again having a lot of values because when you have when you're obeying
god you know when you have values he's going to make your enemies to be at peace with you that's
a good thing it's a very good thing and when you're obviously somebody who has wisdom you're going
to give wisdom because you're pleasing god because you're obeying god when you're good in his side
he'll give you wisdom and guess what hey that's one of the things that i love about our pastor
is he's very wise he studies a lot i love listening to him and pastor shelly he preached for almost
an hour and a half but to me it felt like the typical service time he's like how long do you
think i went i don't know an hour then i chop up the video i'm like an hour and a half okay an
hour and 20 minutes now i know why he was asking but that's something that we should all aim to do
and here's another way if you want to be in favor with god and man you need to learn to serve others
you need to learn to serve others where did i get that from from first kings 12 four this is where
solomon's son is asking like hey what how should i rule you know he's trying to figure out the best
way to rule because they're coming to him saying hey your dad was too strict you know he gave us
like too much stuff to do stuff that it was just it's not fair lighten the burden and this is what
it says he says thy father made our yoke grievous not therefore make thou grievous service of thy
father and and his heavy yoke which you put upon us lighter he's saying listen give us a break
you know make make it louder and we will serve thee we will serve thee it's natural it's natural
to just be grateful when people do things for you true or false not all the time sometimes the more
you do for people hey later on you know they end up just despising you for whatever wicked reason
but that's the thing about serving is that when you serve people people that are actually people
that that care you know they will appreciate you and that's what we should aim to do whether you get
appreciated or not because at the end of the day whatsoever good thing you do the same tree receive
of the lord even if that person doesn't do it back to you so keep doing right keep obeying god
keep growing your wisdom how's how do you grow your wisdom obviously through the bible there's
a nice book that helps you the book of proverbs that'll help you you know to grow in knowledge
good knowledge and obviously last but not least the s c key first the kingdom of god the a always
pray the g go you there for and teach all nations and obviously the other one is always grow and
the end you probably already know where i'm going with this it's not forsaking the assembling of
yourselves in other words never stop going to church when i realize hey when i get up early
and pray when i get up early and read my bible you know when i'm constantly praying throughout
the day you know when i'm when i'm doing my best to win people to the lord you know it's like i
kind of notice that life ain't so hard those things are hard but it seems like if you take
care of these little hard things because Jesus made it very clear to endure hardness obviously
it was the apostle Paul who said that but God can take care of the harder things and literally
going to church sometimes can pay literally pay look what it says in um i already read it in
hebrews 10 25 but what i mean by that is that hey listen you guys have no idea just how much
being faithful means a lot to God and i'm telling you if it weren't for my faithfulness i wouldn't
have been blessed like i've been blessed throughout the years and one of the biggest blessings i've
ever received which was a trial in my opinion it was a 24 hour trial but it was still a trial
as i ended up just getting the best van i can get my hands on that i can afford nothing fancy
i still drive it it's beat up but whatever you know i love it it's paid off the best vehicle is
the one that's paid off hey man and runs even if the doors don't open but still man my wife calls me
up at work you're not gonna believe what happened what happened the van broke down the van broke
down you mean the one that we literally just got the one that we just financed like less than what
90 days ago what's going on is leaking everywhere i'm like man we could barely afford this van you
know i'm trying to do my best to provide for my family i'm working for a contractor i'm working
for cost communications their contracting side which doesn't pay almost anything and i'm just
like whoa what do you mean it's broken down it was a nightmare we just got the vehicle i still
owe sixteen thousand dollars on it i'm just thinking what in the world am i going to do
and i just said to myself i don't know what's going to happen but one thing i know is going
to happen tonight is i'm going to church that's one thing that's for sure going to happen tonight
regardless of anything else i'm going to go to the winston night service i'm going to be there
because it's the right thing to do and everything else can just i'll deal with it later so it was
what it was she called somebody to help her out i believe it was mrs anderson she goes to get her
it was a hot day it was in the summer goes to get her grabs her but they were able to somehow
go into some mechanic shop that was near her just basically limp it in there and so they took it
she got picked up went home and then sure enough another church member calls my wife and says hey
hate to bug you but can you give me a ride to church sure enough she's like i would love to
give you a ride to church but i need one too and she's like what do you mean hey my vehicle's
broken down wow the reason i called you is because mine just broke down it's in the shop so is mine
sorry can't help you so then i get home and i have one vehicle and i use it for work one seat so i
couldn't take anybody else so i did what hey i would always do regardless of what's going on
took a shower got my suit on and just drove to church by myself with no family feeling like crap
like what the heck and i said dad if you ever been there you know what i'm talking about it's
not a good feel when you can't provide it absolutely sucks so my wife already told me the mechanic
quoted like what five thousand is that what they quoted four thousand three thousand they quoted
whatever i barely have twelve hundred in the bank so i'm thinking well i guess we got to save some
money or i got to figure out another way to make extra money because i was maxed out on my hours
at work i was constantly working six days a week sometimes seven days a week but they barely paid
anything so i really couldn't save anything and the only reason i even got this vehicle
because it was from a dealer they said they checked it they said it's good to go i don't have the
ability to take it a mechanic to look at it but i just said to myself you know what god knows that
we're not buying this vehicle because we just want a new vehicle and it's not even a new vehicle
either you know at 16 or 80 thousand miles on it selling it for 16 so i'm like hey we need it
because hey we outgrew the other vehicle ended up getting it financed it for seven years or
whatever the case may be just did what i had to do to get a vehicle for my family and then now
it's broken down it doesn't even work leaking everywhere whatever so i go to church i'm doing
my thing i'm happy to be there is lifting me up then right afterwards i didn't want to go home
and face my family i'm like forget this i don't want to look at my kids and not not tell them
what's really going on i just don't want to deal with my family right now so i went straight to my
shop which was like three minutes away in my work vehicle in my suit just started to chop away and
i'm like you know i'll forget this it's like i'm gonna read my bible right now i'm gonna just read
the book of psalms and just continue one bible reading this stuff can wait in an hour i was
planning to read for an hour i'm like forget these cables then i start reading and a minute into it
i started getting a phone call and i'm thinking who the heck is calling me right now so i looked
at it i'm like oh it's such and such i wanted to hang up so bad because i wanted to read my bible
but then i'm thinking man i don't want to be a jerk it's kind of late i don't want to call them
at 10 so i decided to just pick it up so i picked it up and they're like hey what you doing nothing
i'm at the shop bro what's in at the shop i'm just reading my bible i'm about to do some cables just
get ready for the next day you know whatever and he said oh i heard what happened to your van i'm
like yeah that's pretty sucky bro he's like that guy's just sold me a lemon but what can i do and
he's like don't worry about it man i got you he's like what do you mean you got me i got you how
much is it going to cost to fix it well from what i know it's like four grand three four grand or
something and he's like i got you bro don't even worry about it you know he's like i'll pay for it
he's like bro i will pay you back as soon as i can he's like not don't worry about it it's a gift i
don't want you to pay back at all just tomorrow tell your wife to call the whatever mechanic to
tow it wherever and get it fixed and then sure enough it was what it was you know he ended up
paying for it a week later he's back in service and it's been a blessing ever since right that
thing does not break down it runs like new i love that van to death and i'm never going to get rid
of it and when i'm dead and gone bury me in that van please just stick me in a big hole in the
ground pay extra if you have to i have a 1.5 million insurance 500 000 whatever it takes to
bury me in that van and then when people are like what's the deal with the van you tell them the
story behind the van you tell them oh oh let me tell you all i gotta say is never stop going to
church never stop going to church let me tell you the story and so i wonder what would happen if i
didn't go to church that night think god would have blessed me i think not but that's not the
only time that i've seen people miss out on these opportunities and maybe this will embarrass ramon
maybe it won't but he's a humble dude he can handle it but i quickly got to kind of mention
this this will be it and then i'm done but here's the deal ramon was not my first choice second
choice nah third choice nope it was number four the three people be in front of them i mean they're
all good i would have been happy with either one but the biggest thing is that the other guys had
preaching experience ramon had no preaching experience so i'm not trying to be selfish
but just for the record ramon was my number one choice i wanted him right away but i wasn't going
to be super selfish because pastor like hey whoever you want i don't care just let me know and then
i'll either give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down so i didn't want to just be selfish i'm like well
you know what ramon pretty much has everything this dude has except ramon i don't know if he
can preach and we need somebody that can go preach in tucson or preach somewhere else or
preach behind his pulpit and this person has preached before so i'm thinking you know what
you're asking me what i think we should do we should get mr number one you know but i said
i don't think he's going to take it because he makes a lot of money and i don't think he
wants a pay cut you know but i don't know maybe he'll say hey it's better to help pastor win
billions of people to the lord or get the gospel to billions of people than to go do whatever not
that our job is like the super special job everybody has god's will for their life whatever you're
doing to ask god's will for you hey the ministry is what you make of it and obviously going out
there winning souls it doesn't matter what you do in life just win souls and you're super valuable
in this world you're a high value man amen so sure enough i called this person person told me exactly
what i thought i was going to say uh no bro i'll make this much um if you guys can't match it i'm
good it's like ain't no worries just wanted to make sure so then the next person that we wanted or
that i thought would be a better fit because i wanted ramon from the get-go but the second person
that i brought up i'm like i think this guy will benefit us because he can do this he can speak
spanish he's preached before and we need somebody who loves video editing he's constantly walking
around with his black magic camera everywhere and i'll say you know what what do you think of such
and such and he said no way he's like yeah that's what i was thinking do you think what i'm thinking
yep he misses too much church too much church he's a sunday morning only dude and i'm like yeah that's
what i noticed but i thought maybe if we tell him hey man we need you you know maybe he would just
like just realize yeah i need to go to church more and kind of like help him out my pastor's like no
i don't want to find out the hard way that he he really don't want to be here it's like you know
what i just want to throw it out there just so i can feel comfortable with it that i brought him
up and he's like i like him this and that great attitude but he misses church way too much forget
it i'm like all right because we would have matched his pay and he probably would have made a little
more too because guess what it is what it is you know we provide you know other benefits as well
so would have gave him what he made at work gave him probably better hours but we would have let
them just work as many hours as possible then we had a third guy that i'm just thinking hey this
is my option in case we can't really afford anyone right now because of the drama that we're going
through and it's like yeah i like him too but they missed too much church also it's like yeah i'm just
throwing it out there because i don't want to regret not bringing it up but i was thinking the
same thing they missed the church a little too much i was just thinking this person probably
you know would accept you know less but that's probably because he's probably making less or
whatever the case then finally it came down to ramon and the ramon was a unanimous yes but if
he would have been a sunday morning only he would not be here right now i guarantee you that and
even if he was a sunday morning sunday night but no wednesday night he wouldn't be here either that's
a fact and even though yeah we're not talks communications ramon do you like working here
did he like go to the bathroom or something he's in the bathroom are you serious anyways i'm trying
to beat pastor shelly's time so i guess i can't do it anymore all that to say this i wonder how
many people that decided to just say church is important but not that important cause god to say
okay well i can't bless you like i wanted to because when you see the people in the bible
that miss church like thomas he is eternally known as who doubting thomas because he missed
the church service and boy did he miss a good one and that is my biggest biggest fear is that
if i miss church god is going to say something that would have helped me with whatever situation
i was going through only so later he can say hey this is why i said not to forsake the assembling
because it's dangerous and we need more church not less church and that's why i'm not really so hot
about jobs that make you miss church but if that's you hey let me know and i'll fast with you to try
to get something better and i've been there i've done that i got the t-shirt i know how hard it is
you know to to just say no to making extra money you know because it's tempting you know especially
when you got a big family i get it you know but i did everything in my power to just never miss
a church service and that's why i even took my last job because they're like oh no you'll
completely have sunday mondays off winston s will let you off early and they knew i was serious
but i was a good employee i never complained never had an attitude they did everything they
want me to do but i said hey listen i can't miss wednesday nights you know that i gotta be there
winston nights no worries and then one day she gives me these jobs that are just a nightmare
on a wednesday night so i called back and i'm like boss hate to tell you this but this job's a
nightmare you know and i'm not gonna lie i'm pretty upset that after miss church is like is
there anybody that you can get out here let me see what i could do well guess who she ends up sending
the co-owner to come help me out so i see the big beautiful truck roll up and i'm like yo what are
you doing here i'm helping you get to church now let's go what do you need where's the tap what's
the situation everything's good the tap's over there go fix that i'm fixing the wiring where's
your equipment in the vehicle dispatch already has the serial numbers hey it's all good just
plug and play i didn't need somebody to fix that what i'll fix this so i can get out here in time
no problem spends an hour with me hey i'm done plug everything in get your butt to church yes sir
chances are that hey if you're one of those that just sunday morning onlys and you're stuck with a
job that makes you miss church i will start praying only you truly know whether you can get
out of it or not i don't god doesn't but i'm gonna tell you right now we should be at church as much
as possible and maybe you can say well i do go once in a while i do go once a week you're missing
out is what i gotta say you're absolutely missing out and i'm just here to help you out and i'm not
calling you out i'm just saying that this is the facts that god does not want us to forsake it so
hey just start with prayer that's what i did when the other job wasn't paying the bills that's all
i said god this job isn't really paying the bills you're gonna have to hook me up or you're gonna
look bad i'm not gonna look bad you're gonna look bad because i'm working 70 80 hours a week
and that's all they can pay me they can't pay me more they can't afford more so either you give me
a better job or as soon as i start missing bills you're gonna look bad not me but ever since we've
been married don't we've never missed a bill have we we've never had to beg for money or anything
have we just coming to church people find out just naturally when there's a need people step
in and help you with that need and you guys want to know how that guy knew that my vehicle
screwed up because it was his wife they called my wife asking for a ride and why did she call
my wife asking for a ride because we have helped her in the past to come to church when their
vehicle broke broke down in the past so i don't think that's a coincidence whatsoever i didn't
tell anyone that day i went to church it was in my heart it was bugging me i didn't tell a single
soul what was going on and yet this guy just happened to find out because he called his wife
and he said ask mr girl she can take you to church let me know what she says hey she came her vehicle
broke down what do you mean hey says that it's not working they don't know what's going to happen
they don't know what the deal is and then he calls me finds out about it has some extra cash
gives it to me but would that have happened if i would have missed church probably not so all that
to say this seek you first the kingdom of god pray all day throughout the day you drive here
you drive there keep it going keep pleasing god because that's what the bible says says the
prayers of the upright are his delight and last time i checked we're not here for us we're here
for god then in revelations said that for his pleasure everything is created we're created to
bring him pleasure so get your mind off of you put it on god when you pray even if you pray for the
dumbest things it makes god happy that prayer of the upright is his delight so that's all that's
all i can tell you and the soul winning i can't obviously tell this place enough that we got to
keep it going because you guys keep it going you know and of course with everything else just do
everything you can we want you for the long haul we want you as long as possible so if you can
start thinking about your health i know brother corbin hey he's got some group going on that
motivated me to try to get in shape and it's going to be embarrassing if he gets in better
shape than me and now i'm the one that's out of shape so think about that because it will help
you just like they help the men in the bible and obviously as i said the end has never never stopped
going to church let's pray dear god thanks so much for all that you've done thank you for this
people lord we can't thank you enough for faithful word baptist church obviously father was lord we
we are just excited that everything went well with pastor and no issues arose and we ask you
now dear lord to just bless us bless him bless everyone here we ask you to do this in jesus name
amen amen all right ladies and gentlemen take your hymnals please go to hymn number 261 hymn 261
turn your eyes upon jesus hymn number 261 begins oh soul are you weary and troubled hymn number 261
turn your eyes upon jesus sing it out together now 261 oh so are you weary in the darkness you see