["Hymn Number One Two Five"]
Hey, ma'am, good morning.
Good morning, community.
Welcome to the Verity Baptist Church.
I'm going to sing a hymn for you guys.
I'm going to sing a hymn number one, two, five.
Can you hear me?
Let's sing hymn number one, two, five.
Hymn number one, two, five, the solid rock.
I'm going to sing hymn number one, two, five.
Hymn number one, two, five, the solid rock.
Let's sing hymn number one, two, five.
My hope is filled.
First, are you ready?
Sing.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not cross the sweetest frame, but fully lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ the sodding, on Christ the all-other crown is seen in sand.
All other ground is sinking. When darkness fills his lovely place, I rest on his son's cheek.
Everybody! On Christ the sodding, on Christ the all-other crown is seen in sand.
All other ground is sinking. When darkness fills his lovely place, I rest on his son's cheek.
And all around my soul he's made, he then is all my hope and say.
On Christ the sodding, on Christ the all-other crown is seen in sand.
On the last, when he shall come with crown and sound, oh, may I then he be found.
He will sing his righteousness up, on Christ the all-other crown is seen in sand.
Everybody! On Christ the sodding, on Christ the all-other crown is seen in sand.
On Christ the all-other crown is seen in sand.
Amen.
First hands are ready. Sing.
For us.
Say.
Sing.
My sins are all part of my gift.
He's all gone.
Sing.
I'm saved by the blood of the crucified.
One, two, three.
I'm saved by the blood of the crucified.
The Father is clean and he's filling the sky.
The great rise of my heart on his own precious side.
I'm saved by the blood of the crucified.
For us.
Say.
Sing.
My sins are all part of my gift.
He's all gone.
Sing.
I'm saved by the blood of the crucified.
For us.
I'm saved by the blood of the crucified.
All hail to the Father.
All hail to the Son.
All hail to the Spirit of God.
I'm saved by the blood of the crucified.
For us.
Say.
My sins are all part of my gift.
He's all gone.
Sing.
I'm saved by the blood of the crucified.
Amen.
All right.
Just a couple quick things here.
First, let's count up salvations.
Did anybody have any salvations to report from this past week?
Anybody?
Two?
All right.
Let's see.
Anybody else?
Any salvations?
All right.
Well, I'm soul winning this afternoon.
And the only other thing is, after the service today,
I will have a quick announcement.
So just to the church family, though.
So we're going to turn off the Facebook and the YouTube.
So after the last song, I'll just come up here before we do a prayer
and just kind of make an announcement and then close in prayer.
So I believe that's it for announcements, though.
We'll have Brother Raffi lead us in another song.
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Let's do this.
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Amen.
For scripture reading, please open your Bibles to the Book of Psalm.
And as our custom, we will be reading the entire chapter, Psalm 27.
Psalm 27, please say amen if you're there.
Amen.
Psalm 27, verse 1.
The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Whom shall I feed it?
The Lord is the strength of my life.
Of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat of my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.
Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after.
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion, and the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me, he shall set me up upon a rock.
And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me.
Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifice of joy.
I will sing, yea, I will sing praise unto the Lord.
Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me and answer me.
When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.
Hide not thy face far from me, put not thy servants away in anger.
Thou hast been my help, leave me not, neither forsake me, O God, of my salvation.
When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me out.
Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in the plain path because of mine enemies.
Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such is breed out cruelty.
I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord.
Bless the reading of God's word, let us pray.
Lord God in heaven, thank you, Lord, for the state you've given to us.
Your religion will give us good weather for our soul winning later on.
And also, Lord, our fellowship.
Please bless the preaching of your word.
Lord, let us pray. Amen.
Alright, we're here in Psalm 27, and this is not the longest chapter, so we're going to be able to finish this in one week.
And the name of the sermon is, Wait on the Lord, Wait on the Lord.
Of course, I'm trying to encourage you to memorize the Bible.
I would just say that if you memorize this chapter ahead of time, it's probably going to help drive it home more.
And that's why we're trying to get you to do the memorization as I'm preaching through this.
It kind of puts me in a position where I'm saying, test my words then.
Because I'm trying to get you to deeply study this chapter because, you know, I want you to know God's word.
I want you to stand on what the Bible says for yourself and what you know it teaches, not just what I say.
But notice what it says here in verse 1.
The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.
Though wars should rise up against me, in this will I be confident.
So, the first couple verses, he talks about not being afraid in difficult situations.
And he made this statement in verse 1, The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Now, think about being in a situation of darkness, right?
Think about, for example, it's at nighttime.
And let's say you're a kid and you're staying up late at night and everything.
Your parents are asleep. You're like 12 years old.
All of a sudden, all these small little noises in the house really scare you, right?
You hear something in the corner like, oh, man, it's a robber or something like that.
And then it's like every single little sound really scares you, right?
And see, when you're in physical darkness, it's a position where you're going to be afraid of things that come up.
You hear something and you can't see with your eyes. You don't know what it is, right?
But if you're in light, you're not going to be afraid because you realize it's nothing, okay?
Well, the same thing is true in a spiritual standpoint.
If you're walking in darkness, whether you're saved or lost, you're going to find yourself living in fear.
Your life is going to be one where you're afraid of everything that might happen,
it could happen, but never actually will happen, right?
I mean, isn't that true? People that are serving God, they're more bold.
They're more confident. They're more bold. Things are going to work out.
We go soul winning, and if you're right with God, you don't mind if somebody makes fun of you.
Somebody who's not right with God, though, oh, somebody might slam the door in my face.
They might be rude to me. What am I going to do?
And they're so afraid, man, maybe I'll run into some high-level Mormon that knows his scriptures
and I'll be put to shame and embarrassed. They're afraid of everything that could go wrong.
You know, when you're serving God, you're not really afraid of all of those things,
because who are you fearing? You're just fearing God, right?
Go to 2 Kings 6. Let me show you an example of this.
Because he said, though, when hosts shouldn't camp against me,
and the great example we have is in 2 Kings 6.
Now, let me say this. It's one thing to say, I will not be afraid if this takes place.
It's another thing to not be afraid when it does take place.
I mean, everybody in this room, I'm sure right now you're saying,
hey, you know what, I'm not going to back down from the truth.
I'm going to serve God. I would never deny you, Jesus, like Peter says.
But when you're actually in the situation, it might be a different story.
It's easy to say that you're not going to back down and you're going to serve God no matter what comes up.
But what about when you're actually in that situation?
And so in 2 Kings 6, we see a situation of two men that love God,
two men that are good people, and one gets afraid and one doesn't.
2 Kings 6, verse 11, Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing.
And he called his servants and said unto them, Will you not show me which of us is for the king of Israel?
And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king, but Elisha the prophet that is in Israel,
telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.
And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may sin and fetch him.
And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.
So here you have Elisha, the man of God.
He's just going about his life, serving God, reading the scriptures,
getting people saved, teaching the Word of God, and all of a sudden he's just getting attacked.
You say, Brother Stuckey, if you're serving God, why would you ever get attacked by anybody?
That's the way it works. It's that way all throughout the Bible.
He's just serving God. I'm for peace.
I'm just waking up, going about my business.
And then there's this army that wants to kill me.
I mean, did I murder someone? Right?
I mean, did I commit some crime? Did I blow up some building?
No, I'm just teaching the Word of God, and I'm blamed. Right?
That's what the Bible is saying here. That's the truth in real life.
You get blamed for stuff that has nothing to do with you.
Verse 14, Therefore sin heed they their horses and chariots and a great host,
and they camp by night and compass the city about.
Because what it said in Psalms was, though in host should encamp against me.
That's exactly what we have in 2 Kings 6.
And when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth,
behold, in host compass the city, both with horses and chariots.
And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do?
So he wakes up, and he's afraid at what's taking place.
You say, Why? Well, probably because he didn't start off with Bible reading and prayer.
He just wakes up. All of a sudden there's this enemy, and he's afraid.
Verse 16, And he answered, Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see.
And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw,
and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
So Elisha hears about this. There's all these people that want to destroy us,
and Elisha's like, Fear not. There's nothing to be afraid of.
God is actually going to protect us through this situation.
Now, I've never been in this exact situation before,
but something kind of similar was when we were protested in Sacramento,
our church, Verity Baptist Church, which was about five and a half years ago,
and our church was compassed about with people that hated us.
Now, the difference was it was only kind of like a two to one or three to one advantage.
Here it's like a thousand people versus two, okay?
But we were compassed about with a bunch of rabid Sodomites
and friends of Sodomites that hated us just because of a sermon that was preached.
Now, I can say this, that you know what? There were people at our church that were afraid.
You say, How do you know that, Brother Stuckey? Because they didn't come to church.
In fact, some quit the church just from that moment.
It's like, Oh, no, people are going to protest us, and then whoops, I'm never coming back to church.
You say, Why is that? Well, I mean, according to the Bible, if you're afraid,
it's probably because you're walking in darkness.
You're not walking in light.
I mean, most people were there at church because it's like,
Well, if you're serving God, I believe God's going to protect us.
He's my light and my salvation.
I'm not going to be worried about all these things that might end up happening or could end up happening.
Look, of course, there's a possibility of being martyred,
but the truth is when you're serving God,
one of the major things that typifies your life is you're not afraid.
You're just living with boldness, right?
You're not thinking about everything that could go wrong.
You're just serving God and trusting in God.
Now, go to Proverbs 4, Proverbs 4, Proverbs chapter 4,
and see what the Bible teaches, and there's a lot of, you know,
earthly examples that are given in the Bible that we're meant to kind of understand,
but it talks about light and darkness, okay?
And when you look at these paths, you know, there could be a misunderstanding
because you might think that the paths are very bright and very dark,
but that's not really the way it is.
What takes place is you have two paths, and they look about the same at the beginning,
but one path is going to be shining more and more and getting brighter as you get close to God.
The other path is slowly leading you away from God.
It's not like you're serving God, and of course sometimes there's things that are obvious sins
and this path that is just terrible right off the bat,
but oftentimes in life there's this path that's going to lead you down to destruction,
but the start of that path doesn't really look that much worse than the other path, right?
Notice what it says in Proverbs 4 verse 18.
But the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more onto the perfect day.
The way the wicked is as darkness, they know not at what they stumble.
So there's these two different paths, but what I want you to understand in life is this,
that the start of the path might not seem that bad.
Maybe you see, well, I know this is not a good idea,
but is it that big of a deal?
Well, the question, though, is what direction are you headed?
Because if you're headed upwards to serve God,
hey, it's going to shine brighter and brighter as you get close to God.
But what if you take this side path and now all of a sudden you're walking backwards?
Slowly it's getting darker and darker and darker and darker.
Now, you didn't realize that when you started on the path,
but that's the way it goes when it comes to backsliding and committing sins.
You start on the path that's the wrong path,
it slowly leads you out of the will of God.
And then a couple of years down the road, you're like, what happened to my life?
I mean, I wasn't trying to commit these major sins,
but you started heading down the wrong road.
And it might not seem like that big of a deal, the choices you make,
but look, the choices you make and the path you're headed is vital.
You're either going to slowly get close to God or slowly fade away from God.
And if you start to slowly fade away from God,
the problem is you don't realize from day to day that you're fading from God.
You don't realize from day to day that you're getting in more and more darkness.
I mean, every single day it looks almost the same.
It's kind of like every single day you look in the mirror and you look the same age, right?
There's only a slight change in your age from day to day,
and you don't really feel like you're getting older until you pull out an old photo.
It's like, whoa, man.
It's like, I haven't always had these wrinkles and everything like that, right?
I mean, I don't really like photos personally.
I like family photos, but individual photos, I don't have a lot.
Because you don't really feel like you're getting older from day to day,
but then if you look back, it's like, whoa, five years down the road there's a big difference.
It's the same thing serving God.
If you start going down the right path and serving God more and more,
you're not even going to notice a major change from day to day.
Even if you look backwards six months in the past, it's like, wow, I've changed a lot, right?
And if you've been at our church for any length of time, whether a year or two years or three years,
and you're probably going to notice some major changes if you look back from a couple years ago.
Maybe you don't notice a change from day to day because it's only a small change from day to day.
It's kind of like lifting weights.
Nobody goes from lifting 100 pounds to 200 pounds in a week, right?
Not even steroids are going to get you that far ahead, right?
It's a slow steady, but you're right.
I want to be the president, right?
I want to be a CEO.
I want to be famous.
Or it's like, I want to do this or I want to do that.
One thing if I desire to the Lord, that will I seek after.
Well, what should the answer be?
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
To behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
I'd imagine that if you ask most Christians, most genuinely saved people,
what is your goal, what is your desire in life?
I don't really think you'd have a lot of people that would list this as their desire to serve God,
be in church their entire life.
That might be a secondary thing, and I'm not saying there can't be other things
because obviously if you said, I want to sow one until the day I die,
well, that's a great answer too.
I want to read the Bible until the day I die.
There's a lot of good answers, but the way a lot of people live their lives,
their desire is not for the things of God, it's for the things of the world.
And their goal is not to serve God their whole life or to dwell in God's house forever,
but they have all of these other goals that they have.
And so the question is, what are some of these things that would get you to fade out of serving God,
fade out of the house of God?
Well, first go to Psalm 92.
Then we're going to look at a couple of things that cause people to fade out.
Say, why is it important to be in church?
Why is it important to dwell in God's house?
Well, there's many reasons why, and that's a sermon in and of itself.
But let me just show you what it says in Psalm 92, Psalm 92 verse 12.
Psalm 92 verse 12.
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree.
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age.
They shall be fat and flourishing.
And the Bible says that if you're planted in the house of God,
if you dwell in God's house, you will bring forth fruit at an old age.
Now, what does that mean, brother?
Does that mean you're going to be a good farmer when you're an old...
No, that's not what it's saying.
What it's saying, bring forth fruit,
it's saying that you're spiritually winning souls to the Lord.
Obviously, the Bible says that as the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
and he that winneth souls is wise.
Winning souls to the Lord is our fruit.
And the Bible says the secret to winning souls to the Lord
even when you get old is dwelling in God's house.
Well, what if you don't dwell in God's house?
Well, the indication is you're probably not going to bring forth fruit till an old age.
It's hard to serve God by yourself.
We motivate each other.
We encourage each other.
You say, what's the proof of this, brother Stuckey?
Well, many of you listened to a lot of online preaching a couple years ago,
but you weren't winning a lot of people to the Lord.
What's the difference?
You weren't in God's house.
And I'm not saying it was your fault,
because you know what, if there wasn't a church for you to go to,
but I'm just saying that's the reality, that if you want to be successful,
you need to be in God's house.
You need to be around God's people.
You say, why?
Because your friends make fun of you.
Your family makes fun of you.
Your co-workers make fun of you.
They criticize you.
But when you go to God's house, it's like, wow,
it's like everyone's encouraging me.
It's like everybody's going through the same things that I'm going through.
And then you have a soul-winning time that's listed.
It's like, all right, soul-winning.
Right?
Because that's what we do.
That's the pattern.
You need to be in God's house.
You're not going to accomplish these things.
I mean, do you really think that you're going to memorize a lot of chapters in the Bible
without encouragement to do it?
Now, I hope you do, but I'll be honest, those charts of memorize,
that is helping me memorize the Bible.
I mean, I'm doing all of these memorizations that we have,
and it kind of forces me as I put in the bulletin,
I better make sure I know what I'm talking about.
I mean, I don't want to preach something.
Whoops, somebody already memorized it.
They know more than me.
It's just like, but it's encouraging me to do it.
Otherwise, I probably wouldn't do it.
You say, why?
Memorizing the Bible is hard.
It's difficult.
It's really difficult.
I mean, you're trying to quote the chapter,
and then you think you got it,
and then you make one mistake,
and you're like, no.
It's like, all right, verse number one.
And then you keep doing it over and over and over and over again.
But you know what happens is when you do the hard thing,
it causes you to really understand the chapter.
I mean, I think the best way to understand the Bible
is to actually memorize the Bible.
And then it's amazing.
And you know, it's good to do hard things in life
because to be successful at anything, it takes hard work.
So it's good to do something that's difficult.
It teaches you to endure in discipline and patience.
It's a good thing for you.
But I don't think I'd be memorizing a lot of the Bible
if we didn't have this push where we're all trying to motivate each other.
Right?
In January, we have our New Testament Bible reading challenge.
Many people at our church will read the entire New Testament in January.
But did you know that if we did not have a challenge,
there would be a lot less people that do it?
You say, why?
Because that motivates you.
We motivate each other.
That's the way it works.
Look, you need to be in God's house if you want to be successful in life,
especially in a spiritual sense, but also in a secular sense.
Being in church can also teach you a lot of things
that they're not going to learn in the world.
I believe if you have kids that grow up in this church,
they will be prepared for life when they're 18, 19, 20, 21 years old.
I think it's going to prepare them a lot better than playing video games
or going to some church where they're singing somewhere in outer space
during the kids' session or whatever.
Right?
Where they're actually learning and hearing the same preaching.
You know what?
It's going to help them.
It's going to motivate them.
Right?
Being in God's house is vital.
One thing the Bible says is you're going to bring forth fruit in old age,
which that ought to be one of your goals to be a soul winner until the day you die.
I want my life to have purpose, and if I had to retire from soul winning,
then it's just like, man, I miss soul winning.
I want to get people saved.
The Bible says you can win people until the day you die
if you're dwelling in God's house.
That's the secret.
Don't fade out of church or your whole life is going to end up being messed up.
Okay?
Go to 2 Timothy 4.
2 Timothy 4.
What are some reasons why people fade out of church?
Well, there's many reasons.
We're going to spend a lot of time on this verse.
2 Timothy is the last book that Paul the Apostle wrote.
Now, it's not the last one if you go from Matthew to Revelation,
but it is the last one chronologically.
And the reason why we know that is he says a lot of phrases
that show you that he's about to pass away.
I have fought a good fight.
My departure is at hand.
I have kept the faith.
The time of my departure is at hand.
I mean, he's saying he's about to die, right?
He's saying, hey, you know what?
I'm about to pass on.
It's the last book that Paul wrote,
and that's important to understand 2 Timothy 4 verse 10
because notice this.
For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.
Now, later on in the Bible, Demas is doing right,
but that's actually earlier in time
because 2 Timothy is the last book that Paul wrote.
So the last thing we know about Demas is that he was backslidden.
There's nothing to indicate he ever got right with God again.
As I said, there's a later book where Demas is right with God,
but that's not chronologically later.
So as far as we know, Demas backslides and never gets right with God,
and that's the truth with most people.
When they backslide majorly, they end up quit serving God.
And what it said is he's forsaken me because he loved the present world.
What Paul says is the reason that he got out of the will of God
is because he loved the things of the world.
What are the things of the world?
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
And there's many things that would cause people to fade out of church,
but when you really boil it down,
it's really that you're too attached to the things of this life
that are going to perish.
You're not going to take them to the afterlife.
We're not Egyptians that bury ourselves with their treasure
because we think, hey, if I have this gold bracelet on my hand,
you know, when I die, I'm going to have it in the afterlife.
It doesn't work that major thing that will cause people to quit serving God.
And I want you to notice what it says in Philippians 4 verses 11 through 13.
Not that I speak in respect of one,
for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.
I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound.
Everywhere and in all things I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry,
both to abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Now, Philippians 4 verse 13 is for sure one of the most misunderstood
or misapplied verses in the Bible
because it's like the most popular verse for professional athletes.
It's like I can win the NBA title because it's Christ who strengtheneth me, right?
But it's usually fighters.
Usually fighters are the ones that get that tattoo on their chest or whatever.
It's like I can beat this person unconscious
because God's the one who strengtheneth me, right?
But is that really the context of this verse?
I mean, what's the context?
Well, going back to verse 11, not that I speak in respect of one,
for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content or happy,
what he's going to be referring to is basically money.
And he's saying I can be happy if I'm abased or if I'm abounding.
If I don't have a lot of money or if I do have a lot of money, I can be happy, right?
Either way, I'm going to be happy.
And what's interesting is in verse 11 he said,
I have learned in whatsoever state I am.
See, sometimes we look at these Bible characters
and we almost treat them like they're a superhero, right?
Like they never get afraid.
They never get bitter.
They never get prideful.
They never get envious.
They never have any problems.
They're just on top of the world.
And sometimes you read about their successes and it feels that way.
Like Elijah, you read about the things Elijah did with the false prophets of Baal.
It's like, man, this guy's Superman.
And then the next chapter you see the humanity and, whoa,
actually he's just like you and me because he gets scared
and he backslides.
And you know what?
It's kind of good to learn from the examples of these great people,
both the good things and the bad things,
but they're no different than you and me.
They're humans just like you and me.
And Paul said, I learned to be content.
And the indication Paul is saying,
when I first started as a missionary going from place to place,
I was used to a nice life.
I was successful.
Now all of a sudden I don't always know where I'm going to sleep.
He's like, I had to learn to be content.
When I first started this, I wasn't really content with it.
I mean, it was tough because I was used to having some nicer things
and now it's like I don't have those things anymore.
Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.
But I've learned if I do or I don't, I'll still be happy.
Well, ask yourself that question.
Are you content with serving God and not having all the things that you want?
One of the great examples we have in the Bible is the character of Ruth.
And Ruth is one of my favorite books in the Bible.
And what a great book it is.
Ruth does the opposite of Abraham, right?
She does the opposite of Elimelech because she basically says,
I'm going to serve God and I'm going to basically move into famine
because she's going to be not only taking care of herself but also her mom.
And she said, I live in Moab.
I can't serve God here.
By faith, I'm just going to go and just trust things are going to work out.
Now, of course, she works hard and provides her needs.
It's not like she's being lazy or whatever.
She works hard and then God steps in and helps her out.
But she basically says, I want to serve God so much.
I am willing to move into famine to serve God
because I am content with having nothing and just humbling myself
and just having the bare necessities that God will provide in order to serve God
and win souls and get to know God.
She says, I'm willing to give up everything in order to serve God.
See, it would have been a lot easier for Ruth to just stay with her mom
because Naomi wasn't her physical actual mom.
She basically becomes her mom.
But it would have been a lot easier for Ruth to stay with her mom and dad
and just stay with them and have them provide
because she doesn't have a husband providing for her.
She doesn't have a father to provide for.
And Naomi is not going to be able to provide for herself.
She's older now and obviously they're laboring jobs
and it's going to be very difficult.
So Ruth says, you know what? I want to serve God so much.
I'll work twice as hard and provide for two people
and have very little just in order to serve God.
So the question would be to all of us, are we willing to serve God
if that means sacrificing some things that we want?
If you had to make that choice, money versus serving God,
well, all of us are going to say serving God,
but we also have a lot of characters that choose money,
so we have to ask ourselves that question.
Now go to James 4. James 4. James 4.
James 4.
Now, when he talked about the desire to dwell in God's house,
he mentioned two things in that verse,
and one of them was to see the beauty of the Lord.
One of the reasons why he wanted to be in God's house
was to see the beauty of the Lord.
So what's the application? This is a beautiful fan, isn't it?
Right? Right, my cool eye, right? Colorful. It's nice.
Right? I mean, I don't think he's talking about a physical building
because here's the truth. You know what?
Most religions have some really, really, really nice buildings,
really nice ones.
I mean, the other day, my wife and I, we looked at a list,
the 50 most beautiful temples in the world,
which temple is usually the term for any religion.
They'll put under that. There are some magnificent buildings,
I mean, some amazing ones from every religion,
whether it's under Christian or Catholic or Protestant
or Hindu or Buddhist.
Now, some of the buildings, they look magnificent,
and I'm just thinking that's very impractical,
like it's on top of a mountain or something,
and I'm like, why not just have that in another place
where people can come into church?
It was a beautiful building.
I mean, they probably spent hundreds of millions of pesos
or a billion pesos or whatever to make some of these buildings.
I don't think that's what the Bible is saying by the beauty of the Lord.
Let me show you something, though, in the Bible that is actually a beautiful thing.
James 4, verse 7,
Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Prepare to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.
Did you know there's something beautiful about people drawing close to God?
There's something beautiful about people getting rid of the sin in their lives
and serving God and talking about the Bible.
There's something beautiful about people
that take their time to go soul-winning and win people to the Lord.
And when you come into the house of God and you talk to people,
it's a beautiful sight to see people that love God.
Isn't that a great thing to see?
Because during the week, you're not around God's people.
During the week, you're around people that are worldly
and talking about all these things that don't matter.
Then you come to the house of God and you see people that want to serve God.
That's a beautiful thing.
Look, for those of you that are not married,
you want to find somebody to marry, look for true beauty,
not just what's on the outside,
but somebody who wants to talk about the Bible and go soul-winning and serve God,
someone who's got beautiful feet.
And beautiful feet, the Bible says, is soul-winning.
You say, Brother Sucky, I usually don't make my choice
based on how beautiful their feet are.
Well, maybe that should be a big determining factor.
How beautiful are their feet?
Are they using their feet to go out soul-winning?
What are the things you should look for?
Maybe look for a Bible that's all wrinkled up because they're using it.
Maybe look for a Bible that has some torn pages on the salvation verses
or on the memory sections because they're obviously using it.
Why not somebody who's not just on the outside,
oh, they're so beautiful, but on the inside they actually want to serve God?
Because look, that outward beauty is going to fade.
Look, some of those buildings that are very beautiful,
I mean, there are some very beautiful buildings in India.
Let me tell you something.
Even the Taj Mahal is in India, the Muslim building,
like the most beautiful architecture.
It's very beautiful on the outside,
but what if you actually walked inside those buildings?
People are just doing all kinds of sin and wickedness
and there's all these false idols there and everything.
No longer beautiful, right?
Well, it would be the same thing if you marry someone that doesn't love God.
That outward beauty is going to fade away.
And see, what David said is, you know what?
I want to be in God's house to see the beauty of the Lord.
I want to be around people that are serving God and doing right.
That is actually a beautiful thing.
Go to 1 Timothy 3, 1 Timothy 3.
1 Timothy 3.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I want to spend my whole life
just seeing the most beautiful places of the world, right?
You say, Brother Stuckey, if I got rich,
I would just visit every country and see the most beautiful things that are made.
I'm not saying it's wrong to see those things.
And look, there's a lot of amazing places that God has actually made,
just the mountains and waterfalls and all these things would be very amazing to see.
But if that's what your life was, that beauty would start to fade.
Your life would be miserable.
If you want to see the beauty of the Lord, come to a place where people are serving God.
Anyway, you're going to see the beauty of the Lord.
You're going to see people that are making changes in their life.
I mean, you'll see kids that are memorizing the Bible.
I mean, where else are you going to see that except in the house of God?
That is a beautiful thing.
The other thing that he said is this, not only to see the beauty of the Lord,
but to inquire in his temple.
Inquire in his temple and inquire in his temple.
You should come to church excited to study and read God's Word.
You should be like, man, this is great.
I'm learning things from God's Word.
What does this say?
What's the Bible teaching?
You learn something new.
Oh, man, let me write that down.
I don't want to forget it.
Right?
You should be excited to hear God's Word.
All of us should.
Right?
Now, look, I can't see right now, you know, in the mother-baby room.
I hope right now there's ladies in there that are excited to hear God's Word,
that are paying attention.
You say, why?
You should be excited to inquire in God's house.
You should be excited to come and hear the Word of God preached.
And, look, if you're not coming here to hear the Word of God preached,
I honestly don't know why you would come to this church.
Right?
Because other churches have a much more beautiful building.
Right?
If you're not coming to serve God,
there really would be no point to go to this church.
There's plenty of churches that you could go to,
but one of the main things people come to this church,
they want to hear God's Word preached.
1 Timothy 3, Terry Long,
that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God,
which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth.
See, you go out in this world and you get lied to all the time,
but you come to God's house and the truth is expounded to you.
You should be excited about that.
You should be excited coming to church just to hear the Word of God preached.
And, look, if you don't enjoy the sermons,
I'll be honest with you,
it's probably just because you need to make some changes in your life.
Right?
Because what I've found in my life is when I'm at churches
and I'm really enjoying the preaching,
it's because of the fact I'm more right with God.
You know, sometimes I'll say, you know, when I was at Sacramento,
I'll be like, man, that was like the greatest sermon that he's preached.
And then other people are like, that's just like a normal sermon.
What are you talking about?
It's like, well, I guess I've been reading the Bible a lot recently.
You get more excited. Right?
But if you're in church and right now you're thinking about, man,
what's for lunch? Right?
You know, what's going on with this or whatever,
and you're not paying attention and you're not excited to hear God's Word,
it's actually revealing something that's wrong with you. Right?
You should be in church to inquire in his temple
to try to find the answers to the mysteries of life,
and they're found in the Word of God.
Go back to Psalm 27.
Psalm 27.
So, honestly, you should try to find the most beautiful church you can find.
Right?
But I'm not talking about on the outside of the building
or even on the inside of the building.
I'm talking about the people that are within the building,
people that have beautiful feet. Right?
It's like, Brother Stuckey, do the people at our church have beautiful feet?
Well, here's the thing.
If you don't understand what I'm talking about,
then you need to dig into the Bible
because the Bible says that soul winning, people that are winning souls,
God looks down and says, beautiful feet. Right?
And you look at all the souls that got saved.
It's like, beautiful feet.
That's the way God looks at it.
You say, why?
Well, that's the purpose of our feet.
One of the main purposes is to go out soul winning,
go out to the church, not to just, well, you know,
my feet are just here to just kind of hang out at this bar or whatever.
Well, God would say ugly feet.
I don't care how many pedicures or manicures.
Are those the same thing?
I don't even know.
Pedicures, manicures, or whatever you get.
It's just like, you know what?
The question is, well, how much are you going soul winning?
Right?
Psalm 27, verse 5.
For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion,
and the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me.
He shall set me up upon a rock,
and now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me.
Therefore, I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy.
I will sing, yeah, I will sing praises unto the Lord.
He talks about basically setting them upon a rock,
and of course, the Bible talks about if your life is founded upon a rock
during the storm, during the difficult time,
you're going to last through that rock.
And he links that, though, to being in his tabernacle.
So kind of like being in God's house is kind of like you get protected from the storm.
Now, we're not talking about a physical storm here.
We're talking about from a spiritual sense.
But your life is basically a house,
and if it's founded on the right foundation, it's going to last.
So the Bible is saying if you're in church, you're going to last through the storms.
You say, Brother Stuckey, is it really that simple?
Look, if you come to church and listen to the preaching and apply the stuff,
it really is that simple.
You come to church. You learn the things you need to fix.
You make the fixes. You make the changes.
And you know what? Your life is going to be successful.
But if you just kind of go down your own path in life and say,
I'm going to forsake church and do whatever I want,
well, who knows what's going to happen to your life?
Now, go to verse 7. Verse 7 says,
Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice,
have mercy also upon me and answer me.
When thou saidst, Seeking my face, my heart said unto thee,
Thy face, Lord, will I seek.
Notice in verse 8 that what he says is,
My heart said unto thee.
And kind of the indication is,
the psalmist is not just trying to do the things on the outside
to be seen of man, but on the inside he says,
I want to do what's right.
I want to seek God.
Now, go to Romans chapter 6. Romans 6.
Because here's the thing.
You could come soul winning just to be seen of man,
not because you want to do it.
You might just do it because, well,
I mean, people are going to notice if I don't come.
Now, look, the truth is that if you don't want to go soul winning
and you just do it to be seen of man,
I still want you to come out soul winning,
and hopefully your heart will be changed as you see people get saved.
You say, Brother Psyche,
I'm going to do the memorization challenge because I really like candy.
Well, if that's the only thing I can do to get you to memorize the Bible,
go for it.
We're not going to pay for the dentist bill.
Let me just make that very clear.
We don't pay for the dentist bill if you get a cavity or whatever from the candy.
But honestly, the truth is we need to learn to desire to serve God on the inside.
And you can do things on the outside just to be seen of man,
but it doesn't mean on the inside you actually want to serve God.
And, look, you can't necessarily tell with people
whether they actually want to serve God or not.
Now, look, if somebody's saved at the judgment day,
at the judgment seat of Christ, it will be revealed.
And the Bible says that if you're not doing it for the right reason,
your rewards could just be gone.
Right.
And, look, I don't know what's inside your heart.
I can't see your heart.
And so the thing is you know that yourself personally,
but if you're not doing things for the right reason,
God actually cares about what's on the inside, not just the actions,
but are you doing it for the right reason?
And, you know, we need to learn to serve God and love God on the inside,
not just a vain show on the outside.
Romans 6 verse 17,
But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin,
but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
And what the Bible says here in Romans chapter 6 is you obeyed from the heart.
And it wasn't just something on the outside, but from the heart you obeyed.
And, look, if you fix what's on the inside, it's going to manifest itself on the outside.
Go to Psalm 51, Psalm 51.
Look, when people first start coming to our church,
you know, I'm honestly just not that concerned with what's on the outside,
the way they're dressed, their hair length and things like that,
because, you know what, if I was so concerned,
I would just come up to them and say,
Hey, you know what, your hair should not be that length.
But that's not really going to help people make changes in their life.
What's important to people is if they get right on the inside
and then they want to do what's right.
And if people want to do what's right,
once they see it in the Bible, it's just going to happen.
If they don't want to do what's right, you might convince them to do something,
but it's not something they're going to stick with.
They're just doing it because, well, you know, that's what he said.
I don't want to look bad or whatever.
But the goal is to get people to love God on the inside.
And if we fix the inside, the outside is going to be fixed as well.
Now, of course, sometimes we preach on the outside,
but usually I'm trying to preach toward the inside
and get that word of God inside of you.
And once that sword's inside of you, if you want to do what's right,
it's going to end up manifesting itself on the outside
because you obeyed from the heart.
Psalm 51 verse six.
Behold, thou desire'st truth in the inward parts,
and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
And the Bible says, you know what, that God desires the truth on the inside,
not just on the outside, but the inside actually matters.
Now, the best way to fix the inside is to start doing what's right,
and it can actually change the desires of your heart.
If you don't feel like reading the Bible, read it anyway,
and your actions can actually change your heart.
So if somebody starts going soul-winding but they don't really want to go,
it's just like, well, I'm supposed to do this.
Well, eventually their desires are going to actually change.
Now, of course, there's going to be some weeks you're tired,
you don't feel like going, but what I'm saying is,
you start to do what's right, it's going to actually change the inside,
and the inside's very important because you're going to get rewards
not just based on your actions, but actually what you do on the inside.
Psalm 27. Go back to Psalm 27.
I'm not trying to on the outside just draw attention to myself or whatever.
The Bible says, you know, you should really worry about what's on the inside.
So look, if you read the Bible a lot, that's great.
You don't have to tell everybody.
I mean, if whatever area you're doing good,
you don't have to make it a point to let everybody know that, okay?
Psalm 27, verse 9.
Hide not thy face far from me, put not thy servant away in anger.
Thou hast been my help, leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.
And see, the indication is that sometimes you might have family
that chooses to forsake you.
They don't like the person who's serving God.
And I believe he used the analogy of parents
because when you get saved, you are a child of God.
Right?
And you have a loving father that will never forsake you.
He will not leave thee nor forsake thee, the Bible says.
Right?
And you're preserved forever according to the word of God.
You'll never lose your salvation.
God is there for you.
But in your physical life, you might have family that rejects you.
And the truth is that if you're serving God,
you probably are going to have people reject you.
Right?
One of the major things that happens when you start serving God
is many of your acquaintances and your friends and your coworkers and family,
they don't really like you that much anymore.
Right?
We don't really have to preach too much about
you need to separate yourselves from ungodly people
because if you start serving God, they separate from you.
I mean, when I got saved and started to serve God,
I wasn't trying to separate from my friends.
I was like, man, I want to try to impact them, get them saved,
and they don't like the new you.
Right?
Verse 11, teach me thy way, O Lord,
and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies.
So he says, lead me in a plain path.
And what he's basically saying is just help me go down the right road in life.
And not get led astray.
Now, go to Proverbs 2.
We'll look at a couple places on this.
Proverbs 2.
And in Proverbs 2, it talks quite a bit about going down the right path.
And it says in Proverbs 2, verse 13,
Who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,
who rejoice to do evil and delight in the forwardness of the wicked,
whose ways are crooked and they froward in their paths,
to deliver thee from the strange woman,
even from the stranger which flattereth with her words,
which forsaketh the guide of her youth and forgetteth the covenant of her God,
for her house inclineth unto death and her paths unto the dead.
None that go unto her return again,
neither take they hold of the paths of life,
that thou mayest walk in the way of good men and keep the paths of the righteous.
The indication is find people that you consider good people and godly people
and just kind of learn from them and just follow that path.
If you grow up in this church and you hear all of this preaching,
read the Bible every day, just read the Bible every day.
You hear, memorize the Bible, come to church, go soul winning, just do those things.
If you learn practical lessons from the pulpit, just apply it to your lives.
Especially young people in this room, I mean, if you grow up in a church like this,
that's a blessing.
It's not something most of us had.
I didn't grow up in a church like this.
I wish, and to lead me down the right road.
And look, you know what, if you grow up in this,
you need to realize that you're being led down a right path with doctrine
and things to believe and taking stands in life.
Keep that.
Don't get led away.
Well, maybe I'll be happier if I do this.
That's foolish.
The Bible says find good people and follow them.
You grow up in this church and someone's at our church for 10 years
going soul winning and serving God and volunteering and loving God,
the right attitude, the right character.
Use that person as an example.
Don't just say, well, you know what, I'm going to try this other thing
because I've never done it before.
Let me just help you out.
A lot of us already tried this method.
We tried this path and its darkness and foolishness
and we wish we were always on this path.
You're not missing anything.
Don't envy the wicked people.
Go to Proverbs 4.
A famous scripture, as your turn to Proverbs 4 is in Proverbs 3
where it says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart
and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.
And the indication is that if you are just trying to do what's right,
reading the Bible, coming to church,
God is going to direct you down the right path.
See, the problem with going down the wrong path
is you don't see what's at the end of that path.
I mean, if you're walking on a road and there's this other path
and then all of a sudden it's said at the end of this path
is you're going to be a drunk.
You're going to end up having your kids hate you.
You're going to end up living a wicked life and be a failure at life.
Well, of course you're not going to go down that path, right?
But it's not like it's written like that.
The way it looks is actually very enticing.
It looks very nice.
The devil makes the wrong paths look very good,
like, wow, it looks like I could have so much fun
and serve God and do all these things.
But it's actually leading you down a road of destruction.
And look, many people to various degrees
have gone down the wrong roads in life.
Many of us were not on the right path to start.
Now, of course there's a moment where you get saved,
but you know what, if these kids are growing up in church
at the age of one, two, and three,
they're on the right path, and assuming they get saved
when they're five, six, seven, eight years older
or whatever the age would be,
it's like they're headed down a good road,
memorizing the Bible, hearing this type of preaching,
this type of music.
Many of us in this room,
we have songs that are stuck in our heads
that we wish we could get out,
but it's so easy to bring that stuff inside.
It's so difficult to remove it.
Many of us, we could start hearing a song playing,
and we could sing every single word to that song,
even if we've gone 10 years since we listened to it.
But yeah, the kids in our church,
hopefully they're not hearing all of that stuff.
Hopefully they're growing up, the psalms and hymns,
and they're on a good path in life.
It says in Proverbs 4, verse 18,
but the path of the justice is of the perfect day.
The way of the wicked is as darkness,
and darkness they know not at what they stumble.
And it talks about basically different paths in life.
It's so important to be headed down the right path in life,
to be on the right road in life.
Now go back to Psalm 27.
Psalm 27.
You say, Brother Stock, you know,
I'm a parent in this room, and you know what?
I can't provide all the things that other parents can provide.
I wish I could take them to nice restaurants.
I wish I could take them to all these fancy things.
I don't have the sort of money that other people have.
But you know what?
You can give them something far greater.
You can help put them in the right path.
I mean, you can bring them to a very beautiful place right here,
right where they get to inquire in God's house,
and they get to see the beauty of the Lord.
They're part of a church that's going soul winning
and accomplishing something.
You might not be able to provide all the things on the outside
that the world looks at as being so important,
but if you can provide them with a good upbringing
of reading the Bible, hearing this type of preaching,
going soul winning, fighting against sin,
that is far more valuable than anything money could give you.
Right, man?
I hope my kids are successful in life.
I hope my son will be successful and have a great career.
But you know, if I heard that, you know,
30 years from now, Brother Stocky,
your son is going to be going soul saying about me,
but what I do know is this.
So look, if you're a follower of Jesus and you're doing what's right,
people might lie about you too.
Look, you might have co-workers that lie about you
because they don't like the fact that you're a Baptist.
They don't like your stance and the LGBT,
so they're going to lie about you.
That takes place, right?
So look, you ought to give people the benefit of the doubt.
If somebody says something against them, it's like, well,
where's your evidence?
Not just you said something.
Okay, where's your evidence?
Why saw them do this?
Okay, well, where's your video on iPhone or cell phone or whatever proving it?
Or are you just saying that you saw something,
saying you heard something?
Because look, when people say, I saw it,
people automatically assume it's true, even if it's a complete lie.
And it's frustrating because, as I said, in the memorization,
I'm getting all the chapters jumbled.
I can't remember what chapter, but it's like it talks about
when if people are lying about you, you're not going to be aware of it.
And it's like, that's definitely true.
You're not aware of it because they don't let you know.
They say it to people privately to try to make you look bad,
and you're not even aware of all that stuff.
And it talks about how basically you answer not.
Well, you don't answer because you're not aware of it.
It's like, well, why didn't you give an answer to this?
Because I didn't know there was a question, right?
How are you going to give an answer?
What's your answer to number 10 on this test?
I thought there were nine questions.
What are you talking about, right?
Psalm 27, verse 13,
I had fainted unless I had believed to see the good in the land of the living.
Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart.
Wait, I say, unto the Lord.
And see, the Bible talks about waiting on the Lord,
and that's really the name of the sermon is wait on the Lord.
And kind of the indication from this chapter of him strengthening your heart is this.
We're going to go through difficult times in life,
and when you're going through difficult times,
keep doing what's right, and God's going to strengthen you, right?
When people are going through tough times in life,
when they're going through a storm in life and they're at a low point,
I'm not saying that they have to come in here.
It's like, well, how are you doing? Never better.
My life is awesome right now.
I'm not saying that you have to lie, but what I'm saying is
if you keep coming to church and reading the Bible and serving God,
you know what? You're going to find that you don't just remain in that storm forever.
You get out of it.
You go through ups and you go through downs in life.
And look, here's the thing.
You might be going through an uptime right now and you say mega church,
but we're a big enough church that there are always people going through storms at our church.
There's never going to be a time where everybody's life is just awesome.
All of us are going to go through ups and go through downs,
and the bottom line is if you're going through a downtime right now,
you need to wait it out, keep serving God,
read the Bible tomorrow morning whether you feel like it or not.
Pray tomorrow morning whether you feel like it or not.
Come sowing this afternoon whether you feel like it or not.
Come to church next week whether you feel like it or not,
and keep doing what you're supposed to do, and you know what you're going to find?
Your feelings will actually change and your circumstances will change as well.