Hey
You
Amen good morning wasabi the hot welcome to very deep Baptist Church Manila
Let's start our second service by turning he books to him number 423
Him number 400 units. Let's sing a song joy to the world
Oh
That's me
Far you think Lord for a good car that you have given us for this morning
I pray that you invest us Lord as we go to our second service
I think that you would help us look to understand preaching of
The sermon Lord and I pray that you feel very sucky with your own spirit
So that he could be rich with all boldness and clarity Lord, I prayed to help us to
be a
Blessing Lord and to continue to
Holy life in our in our own personal
Question even Lord and I pray that you would also bless our soul winning this afternoon. Give us a good fellowship
We're asking all these things in his name. We pray amen for our next song. Let's turn to him number 43
Let's sing the song away in a manger
You
Amen for scripture reading please open your Bible is to Psalms to the book of Psalms
chapter
149
Psalms 149 right to the middle of your Bible Bible and as our custom wheel rooting the entire chapter
Psalms 149
Please say man if you're there
Amen
Psalm 149 verse 1
Praise see the Lord sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation of saints
Let Israel rejoice in him that made it that the children of Zion be joyful in their kingdom
Let them praise his name the dance
Let them sing praise unto him with the timbrel and heart with the Lord take a pleasure in his people
He will beautify the meek with salvation
Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds
Let the high praise of god be in their mouth and the two heads short in their hand
to execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people
To bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron
To execute upon them the judgments written this honor have all his saints. Praise you the Lord
Bless the word of god's word. Let's pray
Lord god in heaven. Thank you for the state given to us and I swear that you bless our second service
For this morning and I prove that your blessed feature and the future of your will go this day. I love you in Jesus name we pray
All right, we're here in psalm 149, uh one thing I did forget to mention before you get started in the sermon
I do believe we have baptisms here today if you're here to get baptized today, you know, the water's ready
We'd love to have you get baptized when I get done with the sermon
During the last song men can get changed up here in the comfort room and then ladies back there in the mother baby room
If we could also allow the people that are getting baptized to basically have
Preference with the rooms first to get changed and everything because obviously we have a lot here to go
To do today a lot of activities. We want to try to be as quick as possible
But um, anyways just during the last song you can get changed and ready to go so
Anyways, uh, we're here in psalm 149 and you know, usually I would preach a christmas sermon
And then the week after I picked a sermon about reading the bible
But just kind of the way the days align i'm doing both of these things here today
And we'll talk about later on during the sermon in your bulletin. You should have
This we have a lot of people here. So maybe not everybody has one of these we have more in the back table
I can send them to the group chat and things like that. We'll talk about this chart chart
But but during this time of year here, you know, of course, we're trying to worship the lord and remember him
But things get very busy you have family over you get out of your routines
And this is often a time of year where people's bible reading actually goes down
You got so many activities and holidays or structures all over the place at the start of the new year
It's good to just get back into your personal time with god, right?
And if i'm honest i'd say this time of year is tougher for me as well, you know, you're staying up later
You're spending time with family. You're eating a bunch of junk foods. You have to sleep longer and everything
I mean, it's tough this time of year, right?
But then on january 1st, which is going to be on saturday
We want to kind of hit the ground running for the start of the new year
And we're trying to challenge you to read your entire new testament in the month of january
We're going to do that as a church family. So the name of the sermon is holding the word of god in 2022
Holding the word of god now in this chapter psalm 149
I do believe there's a link to the millennial reign of jesus christ because it talks about him being our king. Okay
However, there's also symbolism. I want to take from this chapter as well. Notice what it says in verse six
Let the high praises of god be in their mouth
And a two-edged sword in their hands
Now, of course the bible refers to the word of god as being a double-edged sword or two-edged sword
The sword of the word of god, right?
And so let the word of god be in your hand in 2022
To execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron
To execute upon them the judgment written and notice this this honor
Have all his saints praise ye the lord oftentimes we look at things that god tells us to do
We consider it a burden
But it's not
It's an honor
And let me tell you something in 2022
It is an honor to have the word of god at our fingertips and to be able to read the word of god
And yes, god commands us to read his book, but that is not a burden
It is an honor that god allows us to do that. All right, go to hebrews four real quickly hebrews four
hebrews four
And by the way, the bible said this honor have all his saints not just all the men
Not just all the women not just all the parents
everybody
So whether or not you know, you're a parent that's very busy and your kids have a lot of free time
It's for all of you. It's for the kids. It's for the adults. It's for men. It's for women everybody
This honor have all his saints. It is an honor for us to be able to use god's word in 2022 for the purposes
God intended as a safe person. God is a place for you. Notice what it says in hebrews 4 verse 12
For the word of god is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing
Even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart
The bible refers to the word of god as being sharper than any two-edged sword
Right and what the bible describes is that this book has a power to do something that nothing else in this world can do
Do something that nothing else in this world can do
This book has a way to get on the inside of you
It says piercing even dividing asunder of soul and spirit
And of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart
I mean you'd refer to your thoughts and your tenses intents as synonyms
But the bible says the word of god has a way to get to the inside and divide
And see the word of god has a way to get on the inside of your heart
And it makes you feel uncomfortable
And then you've got to make that decision whether or not you're going to listen to what the bible says or just go off
What you want, right? This word of god has powerful. It's alive and it's powerful in 2021 and 2022
Go to second samuel 23 second samuel 23
So god told us
That this double-edged sword ought to be in our hands now
I do believe that literally during the millennial reign of christ a literal sword
But symbolically speaking that god's telling us a double-edged sword ought to be in our hands
And it says to execute judgment
Upon them the judgment written this honor have all of the saints. So what are a few of the things that are in honor to us
As christians as saved people in 2022
One of the honors that god has given us to use this word of god for is soul winning
Soul winning is not a burden. It is an honor to us that we get to win souls
All right
second samuel 23 verse 9
And after him was eliezer the son of dodo the ahoy
One of the three mighty men with david when they defied the philistines that were there gathered to battle and the men of israel were gone
Away, he arose and smote the philistines until his hand was weary
And his hand clave onto the sword
So basically he's fighting a battle and everything and you have a sword in your hand eventually your hands going to get tired
Right, I mean you you might not believe this if you've never done song leading but you know what song leading actually gets tiring on
Your arm when you do songs that are just you know, right?
Is that not true song leaders your arm can get tired just leading music without anything in your hand
Right, imagine having a sword and going out to battle for hours and just wielding that sword and carrying it. It's probably very tiring
Right
I mean there's exercises for lifting weights where you're just holding weights and then it gets tiring after a little while when you're moving them
Just a little bit and see the bible is saying this he was smiting people until his hand got weary
And what took place is his hand clave onto the sword?
And basically what the bible is saying is that he was using the sword so much
It's almost as if his hand got stuck into the sword where he couldn't let it go
Right if you hold something for a while
It's almost like it starts to form into the object you're holding and then it's like stuck to you
Right and symbolically speaking, you know, we ought to be holding this word of god and basically saying, you know
I got to keep going
So what i'm gonna let this clean on my hand go out there and win souls for the war
You say for how long until you get tired?
Until you get weary
until you get exhausted
Right, if we only went soul winning when it was easy and we didn't get tired, you know what you wouldn't go for very long
Because you get tired after just a little while
right
One thing is just physically you're walking around but a large part of it is just mentally it's draining
You preach the gospel for 20 minutes and then you preach to another person and i'll be honest with you
I've had times you preach the gospel a couple times and someone says they want to listen to the gospel
I'm, almost like oh no
I'm tired
I want to rest kids. I do the one who gets the one who nobody wants to talk to
I mean, it's it's tiring sometimes right? Is that not true?
It gets tiring preaching the gospel and i'll be honest sometimes inside of your your flesh. You got to fight
To basically make sure you do a good and thorough job because on the third and fourth time
You kind of want to just be a bit lazy with it because you're tired
And it's not right to do i'm just being honest to you that when I go soul winning I get tired
I get exhausted
Right. I mean it gets tiring after a little bit of time to see our job and
That god has given us is to go out and execute judgment. You say well, how do you execute judgment?
Well, you explain to people that if you don't believe you're going to spend forever in hell
Now that's not my words
That's the words of god. Here's the thing. They can either decide to get saved or if not
They understand the judgment that's coming to them. Now, of course we do it in love
Of course we show that we care about them i'm not saying we become rude and obnoxious out there
But what i'm saying is we're literally explaining. This is the judgment that god has given and a lot of people are not aware of this
They have no idea what the bible teaches about this, but that is our job. But see here's the thing don't consider it a burden
This honor have all his saints
Go to second chronicle 17
second chronicle 17
Yeah
You say brother stuckey, why do I have to be born in new testament times?
I mean, we got to go soul winning. There's so much to do. Well, actually they went so many in the old testament
Right, and maybe you need to read your old testament a little bit more
Right so you can see that so maybe after january get started on an old testament bible reading challenge, right?
Because notice what this says in second chronicle 17 verse 9
And they taught in juda and had the book of the law lord with them and went about throughout all the cities of juda
And taught the people
Now, what do you think that they're teaching the people?
They're teaching them how to get saved and go to heaven
You say how do you know this because here's the thing inside of a church setting we have people gather and I teach and I preach
a sermon
Why would we go to some random door and just explain something random from the bible?
Right what they're doing is going and explaining the first thing that people need to hear and that is the message of salvation
If someone's not saved, it doesn't matter what they hear or what they know or what they learn
It's just like they need to hear the gospel first above anything else
And it says, you know what they had the book of the law of the lord with them
They held the word of god and they went throughout all the cities of juda and taught the people now turn to matthew 28 matthew 28
matthew chapter 28
matthew 28
Now yes, we understand that you know what soul winning gets tiring and there's times that we don't want to go soul winning
We feel like resting
But but don't consider it a burden though
It's an honor that job is that god has given us a job that we should do
Because here's the thing. Let's say that all god wanted from you in your life is to get saved
Well, what's the purpose of living after you get saved then?
Because before I was saved I remember wondering inside of my own mind like what's the purpose of life?
Right, like I was in college. I was majoring in engineering. I was like, okay, i'm gonna get a job, you know, lord willing
You know, I have a family one day, but I just felt like I was missing something
Right
And here's the thing when I got saved what I realized immediately was
My job is to try to help other people get saved now. I didn't know what that meant
But just inside of my mind it just made sense it's like wow I didn't know about this
And I was like, I wonder how many other people don't know about this
Right. I've got to find a way to help people know about this now
I didn't know what soul winning was. I didn't know bible verses or anything like that
I just knew that man I got to do something, right?
And see here's the thing if all god wanted from you was to get saved and he didn't care about anything else
Then your life is basically vain and meaningless
But we do have a purpose here because god left us to reconcile souls to the savior
Matthew 28 verse 18 and jesus came and spoken to them saying all power is given on to me in heaven and earth verse 19
Go ye therefore and teach all nations now didn't it say they went and taught the people they taught in juda
They they had the word of god with them and they taught everybody and see god's jesus says here. He's like teach all nations
It's like your job to teach all nations now, of course
We hope people will come to church so we can teach them more than just salvation
But the bare minimum is people need to hear about salvation
And i'll tell you what
There's a lot of people that we get saved and they're never going to come to church
They're never going to make changes in their life and you want that's sad that they won't make changes
But praise the lord that we're going to see them again in heaven
We're meant to go out there and teach the nations teach the people go here for and teach all nations
Baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son of the holy ghost
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I commanded you and law them with you always even on in the end of the world. Amen
And so the bible says we go out there and we teach all nations now. Here's the thing
Jesus left them with that commandment. Did they really obey that?
Not really
Right when you read the book of acts, do they really listen to what jesus said?
Not really. They were perfectly comfortable just being in jerusalem and just hey, we got a good church here
We got good fellowship. They didn't really go until what happened
Well, god said i'm going to send persecution so that way you get scattered
And the persecution actually led them to go to other locations
It was actually a good thing for them because before that they just kind of wanted to teach locally rather than teaching all nations
And see here's the thing. That's the error of the jews in the old testament
Even those that were saved they were still very comfortable with what they had but it was their job to bear fruit
Right and that is our job in 2021
Now, of course individually none of us can teach all nations
Right. I mean we put sermons online. Hopefully people listen to them and things like that
But realistically we can't but the the concept is getting churches started and spreading out and doing more for god
But being here in this local church, our job is to win souls the lord
in the surrounding areas
One thing that's great is when we go soul winning now, we start going to areas that are a bit farther out
Hop onto a gypney 20 minutes later. Boom. Here's my location because we've hit everything in that area
Right that's closer
Right. That's a good thing because we're trying to teach as many people as possible and with more soul winners
You can always send so many people to these villages before they'll just burn this place down, right?
They'll eventually get mad at us, right?
We we've knocked these doors a lot and look we're going to keep knocking these doors because it's a good way to try to bring
People to church we have people at our church that came from this village that live nearby
But we want to try to expand and reach people this is not a burden
It is an honor
Consider it an honor this honor have all the saints go to second corinthians five second corinthians chapter five
second corinthians five
Second corinthians chapter five
And second corinthians chapter five notice what the bible says in verse 18 second corinthians chapter five verse 18
verse 18
And all things are of god who hath reconciled us to himself by jesus christ
And hath given to us
The ministry of reconciliation now when he says he's he's given it to us
He's referring to save people
Not the angels
God did not give this ministry
to angels
Right now you can ask yourself this question if you want to get philosophical. Why is that?
Well, it doesn't really matter why it's just a matter of fact that he's given it to us
Right, it's given to us. It's our job. God's not coming down from heaven to preach the gospel to these people
Sometimes I mention this to people after they get saved i'll ask them that question, you know
Do you think most people know this or most are confused and they'll say most are confused and I say well
Do you think god's going to come down from heaven and tell your neighbor how to go to heaven or you think it's your job?
And they're like, it's my job
Right now the reason why I try to do that is try to encourage them
Even if they never come to church at least that's in their mind to try to reach people and I don't I don't know how
Effective is you know, but it's just like you want to leave them with something because most people who get saved
We're probably not going to end up coming to church
right
But they understand immediately god's not going to come down from heaven
And preach the gospel of my neighbors, right? The only ones who might get confused on that are maybe the pentecostals, right?
Okay
But I mean like, you know, we understand god's not coming down from heaven to preach the gospel to anyone it's our job
Right. We have to go and preach the gospel and get people saved. He's given to us the ministry of reconciliation
Right. This is the ministry that god has given us right verse 19
To wit that god was in christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses onto them
And have committed unto us the word of reconciliation
So in verse 19, it talks about the word of reconciliation
And what do we use to get people saved?
the word of god
Right, we use the word of god the word of reconciliation. That is an aspect of soul winning
So we hold the word of god as we go out in 2022
2021 2022 and then thereby into the future to win souls to the lord and then it says this in verse 20
Now then we are ambassadors for christ as though god did beseech you by us
We pray you in christ said be reconciled to god. Now. It says that we are ambassadors for jesus christ
What is an ambassador?
Basically a representative of a nation or organization
It's it's a very big responsibility. For example, let's say somebody's an ambassador
For the philippines. It means that they will go on behalf of the philippines and they represent the entire philippines to make a decision on something
Right, you know there's ambassadors in the us ambassadors for the united nations
And they'll go out on business meetings with other people from around the world to basically represent that country
We are the representatives of jesus christ in 2021 and 2022
That's a big responsibility
Look, if you're selected as an ambassador
That's not a burden. You should consider it an honor
Like what if your boss comes up to you and says, you know what? I think you're doing a great job at this company
We've got a very very important meeting. I need you to fly to sabu
And it's just like you're going to represent our company on this big account
You know, you would consider that an honor that your boss selected you
above other people
Wouldn't you say that's a blessing not a curse now? Here's the thing. Is that going to be difficult? Yes
Is it going to take work? Yes
Are you going to get nervous? Probably are you going to get scared? Yes. I mean, are you worried you're going to mess up?
Yes, but you know, it's not a burden though. It's not like oh no
The boss picked me right now. I mean he picked you because he trusts you
And that also might mean you're the next person getting a raise sometime if you do a good job
Right if he selects you you would consider that an honor
Right. I remember my old job in maryland. My boss came to me and said I want you to fly with me to kansas on
This project I was like man, that's awesome
Right, you know, he selected me to go with him on this project and and basically he had this account that we were doing and
It was an honor
Now did it mean extra work there's a lot of extra work, right?
But it was an honor
It wasn't something that was a burden and then christ god says here in the bible second corinthians five. We are ambassadors for christ
Christ obviously
Is not with us now
Right. He resurrected he was here for a time and he went up to heaven
Well, we are now the representatives of jesus christ here on earth
right
That's not a burden consider that an honor and that's not just an honor to some people no this honor have all his saints
Everybody who's saved right now go to deuteronomy chapter six deuteronomy six
Now realistically speaking
I would say probably most if not all of us if we got dropped into a battle from thousands of years ago with a giant sword
In our hand, we probably would not last very long
Right because I I assume it's more about being trained on how to use it than just I mean, I don't think you know
It doesn't matter. I mean if you're strong or whatever
I mean, you're probably going to get killed by somebody who has experience using a sword, right?
Well, likewise when you go soul winning if you just have a book in your hand
You know the king james bible the word of god in your hand and you go out there and you don't know what you're doing
Good luck
Probably not getting anybody saved though
Right, you're not going to get anybody saved unless you know what you're doing
Right, and here's the thing if if you do know how to get people saved then praise the lord for that
But if you don't know how to get people saved it actually takes some training to learn how to do that
Or how to do it effectively
Because you can go out there without knowing what you're doing and you know, you might plant seeds and stuff
But actually getting people saved it's it's probably not that likely if you've never done it before
Because you got to be able to explain what the bible says
Right now the good thing is what we're sharing with people is not that complicated
So it is something you can learn
You don't have to get uh, you know a doctorate in chemical engineering or anything to learn how to preach the gospel
All you have to do is learn how to explain a gift, but to explain salvation to an unsaved person. You got to be clear
And honestly, you know, you got to practice it memorize the verses think about how to explain it because honestly you only have a limited amount
of time
And then if you're not ready, you don't know how to do it
You might not be able to do it
Right. You got to you got to memorize the verses practice and know what you're doing
But you know, this is an honor that god has given to us
You need to make sure you're prepared for it. So here's the thing
Let's say for example, you don't know how to get somebody saved or you've never gotten somebody saved
Or it's something you're not that good at. You know what you need to make sure you know how to do this
Memorize the verses on salvation take the word of god very seriously figure out how to do it while you're reading through your new testament
In january pay attention to what jesus is saying when he's preaching the gospel pay attention to what paul the apostle's saying
Pay attention to the soul-winning conversations to learn some things start going out there getting some practice
Start as a silent partner, but learn how in 2022 to hold the word of god and go out and win souls of the lord
One thing that's an honor to us is soul winning in 2022
Another thing that's an honor is to show our children or teach our children the word of god
deuteronomy chapter 6
verse 6 deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 6
And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine hearts and thou shalt teach them diligently onto thy children
And shalt talk of them when thou sitest in thine house
And when thou walkest by the way
And when thou liest down and when thou risest up and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand and they shall be
As frontless between thine eyes and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates
God says that it's the job of parents to teach their kids the word of god
Now this is not a burden
This is actually an honor that god has given to us to be able to hold the word of god and to teach our children
I can say that as a father even though my kids are young i'm very excited when i've taught my son
Zephth things and he knows them and he learns them
Right, and here's the thing if you don't teach your kids they're going to learn from some other source
You better hope they've got a good source they're learning from
And most of what's out there is not a good source
And look you might know something it might seem very obvious
But you know
It's going to take time for your kids to understand things
Right, like when we first started teaching when I started teaching my son when we taught him that santa claus was bad
You know
My son understood that but then when he saw like christmas, he's like christmas is bad. I was like no no, no christmas is good
Santa claus is bad
And santa claus is trying to steal christmas from god
I mean he figured it out as we explained it
But I mean when everything's new there's going to be stuff that it takes them some time
We have to actually explain it and sometimes when we understand something and know something
We just kind of assume that everybody's going to know it. It's going to be easy, but actually everything we know we want
And look it is an honor to be able to teach our kids you say when do you do this?
Well, you do it when you're sitting in your house
You do it when you're walking by the way
You do it when you're lying down and when you're rising up so it sounds like when you're getting ready to go to sleep
Use that time to talk to your kids about the word of god if you have a chance
You're waking up use that time. I mean, it sounds like the bible is saying at all times be ready to teach your kids the word
of god
And look they don't know these things
And just simply coming to our church. They might hear certain things. But you know what they're going to learn more from mom and dad
Than they are for me preaching a sermon if you're actually teaching the word of god
Now the great thing about kids at a young age, they believe what their parents say
They trust their parents
If mom and dad say something they believe it
Right. We've told our son stuff and you know, he automatically believes it and you know what?
Later on in life. You start always asking why but our son we say something he believes it
Right, we say something he'll repeat it. I say god created us or something like that. God created us, right daddy. I was like, right
Because they love their parents and they want to be like mom and dad, you know, you teach at a young age
They're going to believe it
Right, if you don't teach who knows what they're going to end up believing
Go to daniel chapter one daniel one
daniel one
You say what does that really mean though to teach your kids at all the time
Well, one thing I mentioned was you're walking by the way. So here's an example
Let's say you're walking with your kid to
You know, I don't know grocery store 7-eleven or whatever going to the park
And then there's somebody who's basically just drugged out of their mind or doing alcohol
Hey as you're walking with your kid take time to explain why alcohol is evil
Take time to explain why doing drugs is evil
right
Because that's an opportunity where they see it then explain it to them
Right when you're walking by the way, you know
You're seeing events that are happening use that opportunity to teach your kids the word of god
Don't let those opportunities slip away. That's what the bible is saying and look it's a big responsibility
Because that basically means that there's never a time where you get to say
Hey, I get to relax and I don't have anything to do now. I mean if you're a parent there's always something to do
You always need to be ready to teach your kid according to the bible
But you know what your your child's going to believe it and the bible says train up a child in the way
He should go when he is old. He will not depart from it
But if you do not actively train your child
Who knows what they're going to believe when they get older and maybe they still get saved, but it doesn't mean they're going to love god
see
Most people that get saved don't love god
Right. They don't serve god with their lives
And look if you're in this room and you're going soul winning and serving god, you know what you are the minority of safe people
But our kids are not automatically going to end up serving god and soul winning and loving god
Even if they get saved they're in this church. You need to actually take the time to teach them right as I do as well
Right with my kids. I need to take the time to do that. I mean, I can't have this attitude
Well, i'm the preacher so obviously my kid's gonna love god. I mean have you seen a lot of preachers kids?
They don't all love god, do they?
Right. I think sometimes the problem is people have this attitude. Well, you know what i'm teaching and preaching and everything
I'm already doing my job and then they let their own kids end up not loving god and I hope I don't do that
But it's a possibility for any of us to have that attitude. Well, they're at a good church
So it's okay. No, we have to actually take the time to teach and train our kids
Daniel 1 verse 3
Daniel 1 verse 3 and the king spake onto ashpenaz the master of his eunuch said he should bring certain of the children of
Israel and of the king's seed and of the princess children in whom was no blemish
But well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning and knowledge and
Understanding science and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace
And whom they might teach the learning in the tongue of the caldians
Now these are kids that are prepared and you know what I would say that there's a good chance that just naturally these kids are intelligent
But at the same time there's no way these kids are prepared for this unless mom and dad actually took time to invest in their kids
Right your kids aren't just born automatically and they're just knowledgeable about everything
Even if they're naturally gifted or intelligent, they have to actually be trained to actually know that stuff
Right here are kids that are at a young age and you know what they understand science
They're cunning in knowledge skillful in all wisdom
These are kids that have knowledge right verse five and the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine
Which he drank so nourishing them three years that the end thereof they might stand before the king
Now among these were the children of judah daniel hananiah michel and azeriah under whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names
for he gave under the name of
Gave unto daniel the name of belteshazzar into hananiah of shadrach into michel of meshach and to azeriah of abednego verse eight
But daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat
Nor with the wine which he drank therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself
Now look when we see verse eight here we understand that daniel is making a free will choice to serve god
Right and absolutely our kids have a free will choice, but I want you to understand something
There's no way that daniel would purpose in his heart and make a strong stand unless mom and dad had taught him at a young age
You've got to serve god and do right
Now, yes that child has a free will decision, but let's have a balanced perspective on this
Our children are just not automatically going to love god if we don't put in the time as parents
Daniel purposes in his heart and that is his free will choice
But I promise you mom and dad were training him at a young age to do right and obey god
No matter what the consequences are
And you're right
It worked
Daniel is actually prepared in life
Right, but it's not like daniel shadrach meshach and abednego are the only four
There were others and what many of them were probably saved but they were not willing to take a stand like those four were right
Turn your bible to psalm 119 psalm 119
psalm 119
Look if you put in the time as a parent and then your child grows up and then you see your child at the age
of 10 or 12 or 14
Going soul winning and serving god and they grow older and they love god
And then you know, they have a family one day and they raise their kids and everything. They're in church
They're dedicated serving god as a parent
That's going to make you feel pretty good
It's not a burden
Right. I mean, isn't that isn't that kind of our goal as parents the number one thing that our kids just grow up and love
God
Wouldn't you say that's the number one thing your goal for your kids when they grow up is to love god
Right. Look that's not a burden. We're all no i've got to teach my kids the word of god
I've got to read them the bible
Really? I just want to be on facebook or watch tv, right? That's a blessing
It's an honor that we get to teach our kids the word of god
It's an honor that god actually left us here with a purpose of something to do
One of those purposes is so winning
When do we get to stop? Well once we get tired
And then keep going
Stop once everybody's saved so never stop
right
How about showing your children or teaching your children the word of god when you get to stop well
I mean teach them as much as you can
Because eventually they're going to grow up and be adults and make their own decisions
You better you better hope you invest the time into it and you know many times you see this and and look
I'm, i'm not standing up here saying i'm going to do a perfect job as a parent because my kids are very young
What I am saying is i i've seen it when kids grow up in their adults and then basically the parents really regret
Not putting in the time and they wish they could basically go back and do things differently, but you know what?
Once that time's gone, it's it's done
Right. This is the way it is point number one soul winning is an honor point two showing your children or teaching your children
The word of god point three and lastly is slaying your flesh slaying your flesh
And what I mean by that is basically fighting against sin and doing right that is an honor. It's not a burden
psalm 119 verse 9
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word with my whole heart
Psalm 119 verse 10 with my whole heart. Have I sought thee? Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments
Thy word have I hidden mine heart that I might not sin against thee
See the bible tells us that if we hide god's word in our heart, it will help us not to sin
Look reading the bible and memorizing the bible is going to help you not sin
That's what the bible teaches
So see by holding the word of god reading the word of god memorizing the word of god
It is going to help you slay your flesh in 2022. You say brother stuckey. I know I should do right
But it's so difficult
It's so hard
Right somebody who's so many of the park recently outsold. He's like, you know maraming took soul, you know, so many temptations. I was like
It's like yeah, but you know what how we fight against that is say people we read the word of god
We memorize the word of god it will help you fight against your flesh
It will help give you the strength and power to fight against it because the bible says thy word have I hidden mine heart why?
That I might not sin against thee
By reading god's word. It's going to help you live a better and cleaner and holier life
You say oh, that's such a burden. I don't get to do what everybody else does. Look people are miserable in this world
You can pretend like they're happy. They're not they're miserable
And they're frustrated because they keep committing the same things do the same wrong things the same sense and they feel guilty about it
They can't make any changes about it and they're miserable, but they pretend to be happy
You say brother stuckey, you know, how do you know that because they that weep weep in the night?
They don't go i'm so sad during the day because they're faking it
People that are drunks hate their lives
But they that drink drink in the night they that weep weep in the night
That's what the bible says right people try to hide their emotions
You can't just look at someone they seem so happy on facebook
They had that smile on their face in that picture. They look so happy
Right. This is this is what they always say this looked like the perfect family ever and then it turned out the husband ended up
Like killing the family what in the world?
It's it's just a picture
That's what they always say when you have trials or like murders that everybody thought they were the perfect family
right because
Everybody just pretends to be happy
Most people 95 percent of people just pretend to be happy and not show their emotions in public. That's the way it works, right?
Go to james 4 we'll close up here for sake of time. I want to try to keep my
Light promise of a short sermon, right? We're not going to be done by 12 30 apparently but before 12 35. That's the goal now
James 4 verse 7
I'm not going to go to the to it for sake of time
but you know the story of of the devil trying to tempt jesus christ in matthew 4 you're going to james 4 but
He basically quotes the word of god three times, right?
He quotes from the book of deuteronomy and if you cross reference, it's those weren't the only three temptations
Those are the three that are highlighted though
But but here's the thing
He quotes the word of god
To basically fight against sin now. We know that the son of god was never going to sin
Right, we understand that but it's also giving us a template on how we fight against sin and what the bible is saying is hey
Hide god's word in your heart
If you're tempted to do wrong quote that verse in your head and you know what?
It can help you not commit the sin that you were thinking about doing
Right. It gives us a template on how to fight against sin. Here's the thing. You cannot quote a verse if you don't know that verse
Right the more you read the bible the more you're going to know and look we do these memorization challenges
We try to encourage you to memorize the bible and everything like that
But you know if you read the bible a lot, there'll be a lot of verses, you know
Just because you've heard them preached and you've read it over and over again
And you know, you can just kind of quote it by memory
Sometimes you might not know where the verse is, but you kind of quote from memory thus saith the lord
Right fear god keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man many people know that verse
Even though you probably didn't actively try to memorize it just because it's preached a lot
You've read it you've heard it and eventually, you know it, right?
So by reading the word of god and reading through the new testament in january, it's going to help
You know the bible better. It's going to help you fight against sin. It's going to help you slay your flesh, right?
James 4 verse 7. We'll close up here. James 4 verse 7
Submit yourselves therefore to god resist the devil and he will flee from you now
Doesn't this verse prove to be true when the devil flees from jesus in matthew 4?
Because he resists the devil and he flees from you and see the promise to us is that if we resist the devil
Eventually, the devil is just going to flee from us. You say why the devil cannot be everywhere at once
He can't waste all of his time on you
Now i'm not saying he's never going to come back to try to make you do wrong
But but what it's saying is basically hey, you know what i've lost lost this battle. I'm going to live to fight another day
The devil's wise
He doesn't fight battles. He's going to lose
Right something we can learn from the devil is we go out soloing if they're not getting saved just move on
But it's just like he doesn't stick there and just keep fighting that battle because he's like man
This person keeps reading the bible every day. No matter what I try to do to him
Why am I wasting my time? It's just logical
Right, but the way we fight against our sin and our sinful flesh is by knowing the word of god
And reading the word of god and quoting the word of god, which means you got to hold the word of god in 2022
In what ways do we need to do this? Well out soloing you're literally
Holding the word of god when you go out soloing and you're going out and it's an honor to all of his saints
the bible says
Showing your children teaching your children the word of god now. This does not mean that you're always going to literally be holding a bible
When you're teaching your children
All the more reason to memorize the bible all the more reason to read it
Because you need to have that word of god inside of you to show your children
right
And slaying your flesh. Well, you need to be ready for the temptations that will end up coming
meaning you need to read your bible and know the word of god, so
Quickly pull out your chart here that we have in our bulletin if you have one
if not, we should have extra back there and
I underestimated how many people are going to be here today. I think I printed off like 58 or something like that
I thought this is going to be plenty right? Well, I guess I was wrong but
But
Most of you should have one or maybe look off your neighbor we can send you one
I'll post it in the group chat. We should have extra back there
But basically this has two sides to it
Okay. Now it does not have two sides because I wanted a double-edged sword
These sides are different. Okay
so
One of the sides says nine chapters a day in the month of january. So this one's basically pretty simple. You basically read nine chapters
Every single day and basically you're going to finish on the 29th day
You'll have eight chapters to read if you keep this pace the entire time
And then basically you have two days which are known as grace periods and what that means is this
Basically, you finished up the reading early
But if you get behind by a day, it's okay because you're given two extra days to begin with
So basically reading nine chapters a day will get you through the new testament in january. Okay?
This is kind of the traditional version I I always did this version
And there's a few reasons why I like this i'm a math person. That's really the big reason
So when I see 28 chapters, i'm like it has to be four days of seven
Because nine chapters you get 27 chapters after three days. It leaves one chapter hanging
so
Basically, this list does the same thing
You have one grace period day instead of two but also because the early chapters in the bible the early books the chapters are super long
So this side gives you more of like an equal amount of reading every single day
But the advantage of the nine chapters a day is basically you get ahead of schedule if you keep to it
so if you get lazy on the 12th or 13th or 14th, well
It's easier because you've already basically gotten yourself an advantage by working extra hard
Now by all means you say better stuck if I have a list it's going to hold me back
You can always read ahead of schedule
Okay, I mean if you read nine chapters
Hey go for 18 if you can I know that when we do this challenge in sacramento the young kids
They finish the reading pretty early because they're like competing against one another
It's like one week later. We're all done and it's like us that are adults like man. I'm still in matthew
What are you talking about?
Right, I mean they have a lot of extra time they get excited and zealous and look that'd be great
If the kids get excited and say hey, I want to finish as soon as I can great
That'd be awesome, right
I would say this that the attitude that a chart is going to hold you back from reading the bible
I think is a very foolish statement
I use a bible reading chart not just in january. I have a chart that tells me what to read every single day
I wake up this morning. It's like well i'm in the book of daniel. That's what my chart says, right?
What I found through the years of being saved is when I use a chart I read a lot more
And here's the thing when you have a chart by all means you can read ahead in that chart if you want to it
Doesn't hold you back from it. What I found is this when people say well, you know
I'm only going to you know, read when I feel like it or whatever. I'm not going to have a chart
I'm not going to have a plan what I found is they don't really do a whole lot of reading
The day just kind of goes by now the advantage of this is you've got a chart
You don't have to figure out every day. What am I going to read?
But it's like okay read these chapters and cross it off
Very simple and at the end of january
We'll give you basically bible reading charts to read through it the last 11 months during the year
And if you want to take one up, you know
By all means right many people in our church have asked me for bible reading charts
And I know people that have read the bible like never before because they have a chart
And you know what when you have a chart you just kind of read it whether you feel like it or not
That is why it's effective and helpful now
Here's the thing if you've got a method for reading the bible and it's working for you and you're reading lots
You know keep it
Right. I want to try to encourage you the best you can some people their idea is this
I'll read for a time length each day like 40 minutes and once the clock goes then i'm done
Nothing wrong with that. That's a good strategy or they'll say i'll read 10 pages or something like that
That's a good strategy. Also, I make bible reading charts where it just tells me every single day
And when you have a chart there are some days you get behind and then with a chart it helps you to catch up
So you say what's the secret brother stuck you to reading the bible
Well, let me give you a couple quick tips here
And tip number one is pick a time to read the bible every single day
If you're going to read the bible every single day pick a time
It shouldn't just be well i'm going to read the bible at some time during the day
Look, this doesn't work in any area of life
Well, i'm going to go to work at some point during the day, right you start a new business
It's going to be successful i'm just going to start working at some time during the day two o'clock in the afternoon. Oh, man
Yeah, all right. I'm ready to go right. That's the way it works
Right. It's like this in any even if you enjoy something, you know
If you're if you're into working out you pick a time and a place to work out
Right. I mean otherwise, it's just not going to be effective. That's the way it works. Right pick a time
Of when to read the bible
And pick a time where there's not many distractions
Meaning at the dinner table with your family is probably not the best time to read the bible
Right, you're going to get like, you know mashed, you know banana on you or whatever from your kids
I mean, it's not going to work out right pick a time
pick a location
Pick a location to read the bible now
Look by all means, you know
You can you can during the day go to some other place to also read i'm not saying every single day
It's always going to work. You can always have a backup plan if it doesn't work out or whatever but pick a time
Pick a location without distractions and when it says without distractions what I mean by that is not around your computer
Not around your cell phone
Turn off your cell phone
Put it on silence
Right, whatever you have to do to just spend some time with god because what I found is when people are just like hey
I'm gonna read the bible, but they got their cell phone around they got their computer and they got their tv
It's like oh, you know this happened today, right?
But then they don't actually get much reading done an hour goes by I didn't have any time
I only got through one chapter. I don't know what how wait another text
Oh, well, that's interesting, right?
It's like you're not going to be effective
You're effective when you get rid of distractions and look isn't this true with anything if you're studying for a big exam in college
What do you do go to a set location without distractions?
I got a big exam tomorrow. Let me just turn the music on full blast
And the movie on and just boom i'm going to be ready for that exam. That's not what you do
Right you go to a place away from distractions in order to be effective
And honestly what I like to do is go to basically an uncomfortable place
And what I mean by that is I don't think it's the best strategy just basically and if this works for you go for it
But just lie in your bed on a pillow with your feet propped up because you're more likely to fall asleep
I think the old-fashioned way of sitting in a hard wooden chair
Just with the book open with a cup of coffee. That's the way to go in the morning
That's what I found to be effective
You know, but by all means whatever works for you
But basically just try to do this chart and you know
We are going to have a prize if you memorize the prize is going to be different than last year
We're basically retiring the the the list of names. It's going to be basically like a food prize
But basically take up this challenge and you want january 1st start saturday now. This does not mean you're on vacation for five days
and then on saturday start reading the bible, but
I would encourage you to basically prepare yourself for day one basically decide ahead of time. This is the time i'm going to go for
This is the location at an old job. I had what I would do is just basically show up for work early like an hour early
Because showing up for work early none of the computers are on and all you do is have like your desk lamp there
What else are you going to do?
There's nothing around literally, right?
So you can try different things, but basically pick a time pick a location
Distraction free you say why because you know god has given us many honors in the christian life and they involve the word of god
We need to hold this word of god and read this word of god in 2022. Let's close in a word of prayer
Dear heavenly father
Thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your word on this topic and
And help all of us to put aside our distractions in our lives and get back
Into just the habit of reading the bible and having a daily walk with you every day god
And we just pray this in jesus name. Amen
Thank you
In number four to five let's sing the song no room in the end
Oh
No
For jesus
Is
Humiliation no place in the heart
Is
There is
No
Seeking his treasure no weeping for sin
No doing his pleasure
This you should hear at heaven's gate
Right here
Hey