["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Amen.
We are in the home of the Baptist Church.
We are here as an HEAM network.
We are going to introduce the Baptist Church.
We are in the home of the Baptist Church.
We are here as an HEAM network service.
We are here as a service service.
In the home of the Baptist Church,
we are in hot number 256.
Hymn number 256, Look to the Lamb of God.
Hymn number 256, Hymn number 256, Look to the Lamb of God.
Say Amen.
First Sansa.
If you from sin, first Sansa already sing.
Look to the Lamb of God.
If you from sin, first Sansa already sing.
Look to the Lamb of God.
If you from sin, first Sansa already sing.
Look to the Lamb of God.
If you from sin, first Sansa already sing.
Look to the Lamb of God.
If you from sin, first Sansa already sing.
Look to the Lamb of God.
Peace, love, and cheering in your heart bestow.
Look to the Lamb of God.
For he alone is free from the sin.
Look to the Lamb of God.
Fear not, my she-man, whose honor hath been gone.
Look to the Lamb of God.
Enjoy our sorrow, rise thus long and warm.
Look to the Lamb of God.
For he alone is free from the sin.
Look to the Lamb of God.
For he alone is free from the sin.
Look to the Lamb of God.
Amen.
Hymn number 200, Hymn number 200, Hymn number 200,
he is a wonderful Savior to me.
Hymn number 200, Hymn number 200, he is a wonderful Savior to me.
First times I bow down, I was lost in sin.
First times I already sing.
I was lost in sin.
But Jesus was with me.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
I was found by fear.
But Jesus was with me.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
For he is a wonderful Savior to me.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
I was lost in sin.
But Jesus was with me.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
He is a friend so true, so patient and so kind.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
If you believe in me, believe in all his love.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
For he is a wonderful Savior to me.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
I was lost in sin.
But Jesus was with me.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
I was found by fear.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
He believes my sins.
He tries my everything.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
For he is a wonderful Savior to me.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
I was lost in sin.
But Jesus was with me.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
I was lost in sin.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
I was found by fear.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
I was lost in sin.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
For he is a wonderful Savior to me.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
I was lost in sin.
But Jesus was with me.
He is a wonderful Savior to me.
First off, let's count up any salvations.
Anybody have any salvations to report from this past week?
One? All right. Anybody else?
Anybody? All right.
And other announcements, just a few other things.
We do have choir practice here today,
and then next week and the week after.
Our anniversary is going to be in three weeks,
so start making plans to attend the anniversary on November 28th.
It's going to be a great time.
And so we're going to have our ping-pong tournament that day,
so we're going to have a lot of, obviously, food and fellowship and everything like that.
We're going to have something special for the kids as well,
so it's not Kids Day 2.
It's Men's Day, right? No, I'm just kidding.
But we will have something special for the kids as well.
We're going to have food. It's going to be a great time.
And also, if you are planning to attend the pampanga anniversary,
which is this coming Saturday, let me know ahead of time,
because we are ordering food just to have the right amount.
So I believe that's it for announcements.
We'll have Brother Raffi lead us in another song.
Amen.
For scripture reading, please open your Bibles to the book of Psalms, Psalm chapter 30, Psalm
30, 3-0, at the middle of your Bible, Psalms 30, and as our custom, we will be reading
the entire chapter, Psalms 30, please say amen if you are there, amen.
Psalms 30 verse 1, I will extol thee, O Lord, for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made
my foes to rejoice over me.
O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.
O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave, thou hast kept me alive, that I
should not go down to the pit.
Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks to the remembrance of his holiness.
For his anger endureth but a moment, and his favor is light.
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning, and in my prosperity I said
I shall never be moved.
Lord, by thy favor, thou hast made my mountain to stand strong, thou didst hide thy face,
and I was troubled.
I cried to thee, O Lord, and unto the Lord I made supplication.
What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit?
Shall the dust praise thee, shall it declare thy truth?
Hear O Lord, and have mercy upon me, Lord be thou my helper.
Thou hast turned me for my morning into dancing, thou hast put up my sackcloth, and girded
me with gladness.
To the end, that my glory may seem praise to thee, and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee forever.
Blessed be we from our Godhood.
May we forgive God's word.
Let us pray.
We are here in Psalm 30 as part of our Bible Memorization Challenge.
And so we're gonna go verse by verse
and cover Psalm 30 here in this sermon.
And the name of the sermon is Praise the Lord Forever.
Praise the Lord forever.
So we're gonna look at three different things,
three different points here about praising God
because that's kind of the theme of this chapter.
And point number one is we should praise God
because of his protection.
Praise God because of his protection.
Notice what it says in verse one.
I will extol thee, O Lord.
Now you say, what is extol?
Well, extol means to basically praise God
very enthusiastically, right?
So for example, when we're singing blessed is the name,
it's like, blessed is the name, blessed is the name.
Not like, blessed is the name, blessed is the name.
I'm already hungry for lunch, right?
But when it says extol thee,
what it's saying is you're praising God enthusiastically.
And you know what, honestly, we should know with ourselves
what the difference is.
When we're excited, we sing praises, we sing it out,
we're excited to be here,
but then sometimes you're going through the motions.
And so the idea is this.
The psalmist is saying, I'm gonna praise God,
but not just go through the motions,
but I actually feel it on the inside.
He says, I will extol thee, O Lord,
for thou has lifted me up and has not made my foes
to rejoice over me.
So your foes would be your enemies.
And what he's saying is he's praising God
because God has not allowed these people
to just basically triumph over him and destroy him.
Because look, David had a lot of enemies.
I mean, if you're the king,
you're gonna have a lot of enemies.
And if you're serving God,
you're gonna have a lot of enemies.
When you got that combination,
you're probably gonna have quite a lot of enemies, right?
And he had a lot of enemies that wanted to kill him
and destroy him.
But he praises God because even through all of it,
God protected him.
And he praises God because of the protection
that God did not allow these wicked people
to triumph over him.
Verse two, O Lord my God,
I cried unto thee and thou hast healed me.
O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave.
Thou hast kept me alive
that I should not go down to the pit.
And the idea is this when he says,
thou hast brought up my soul from the grave.
These enemies are surrounding him oftentimes.
They wanna kill him.
They wanna destroy him.
And yet in the midst of all of that,
he was perfectly fine.
I mean, literally King Saul goes to destroy David
over and over again and yet he's unsuccessful.
You say, why?
God's blessing was upon David, that's why.
Go to Exodus 15, Exodus chapter 15,
your second book in the Bible, Exodus 15.
And we see an example of a song in the Bible
that is basically praising God because of his protection.
If you remember, obviously the crossing of the Red Sea,
well, that took place in Exodus 14.
So we're gonna be looking at Exodus 15, okay?
And a song is being sung here in Exodus 15
and they're basically praising God
because of the fact that they were actually protected.
So if you remember, eventually Pharaoh lets God's people go
and then Pharaoh's just like, why did I let him go?
And then he goes after them, right?
And then obviously, the people are afraid
and immediately at the first sign of trouble,
they're like, we told you, Moses,
we should have just been in bondage our whole life.
And so then eventually, the crossing of the Red Sea,
it opens up, they go through
and then Pharaoh and his chariots and all of his men,
they follow after.
But then what ends up taking place?
God's people get out on the other side
and then God's like, and they're destroyed, right?
Just like that.
Now, by the way, I think I mentioned this recently,
but there was somebody I knew in college,
he was on my floor as a freshman in the engineering program
and this guy was an atheist, he didn't believe in God.
But I gave him the gospel one time
and he told me, he's like, one thing I cannot deny,
it's historically been proven, the crossing of the Red Sea,
because they find chariot wheels there in the water.
And so somebody who didn't even believe in God
taught me something like, oh, that's great,
I didn't even know that,
that there's historical proof of this,
that this actually took place.
But here it is in Exodus 15
and notice what it says in verse one.
Then sang Moses and the children of Israel
this song unto the Lord.
So basically, Egypt has been wiped out,
the people that were coming after God's people
and then all of a sudden they write a song about it.
Then sang Moses and the children of Israel
this song unto the Lord and spake, saying,
I will sing unto the Lord, for you have triumphed gloriously.
The horse and his rider hath be thrown into the sea.
I don't think animal rights activists
would be too happy about Exodus 15, verse one.
You're singing about horses being killed,
that's exactly what they're singing about.
The Lord is my strength and song
and he has become my salvation.
He is my God and I will prepare him in a habitation.
My father's God and I will exalt him.
The Lord is a man of war.
The Lord is his name.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I thought God was just all love.
Well, that's one aspect or one characteristic of God.
But the Bible says the Lord is a man of war.
Obviously, God sends people to hell for all eternity.
It's not the most loving thing to do
to those specific people, but you know what?
God is also holy, he's not just love.
The Lord is a man of war, it says in verse four,
Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath be cast into the sea.
His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.
The depths have covered them,
they sank into the bottom as a stone.
Thy right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power.
Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in peace as the enemy.
Now, I don't listen to Christian rock music
and I don't know the modern, most recent Christian rock songs
but I'm presuming that the words
to those songs are not like this.
I don't know, I mean, are there any Christian rock songs
where it's like, God hath destroyed the sodomites?
Are those songs out there?
I'm not sure, I'm asking, right?
It's like, God's destroyed the wicked heathen
that blasphemed God.
Because usually it's just, our God is an awesome God,
he reigns from heaven.
I mean, it's just nothing about God being holy.
I mean, in terms of actually judging people.
Because here's an actual song in the Bible.
And guess what, the book of Psalms is a song book.
150 songs.
And then Exodus 15 is an actual song
but what are they singing about?
Well, they're singing about the destruction
of Pharaoh and the chariots and the horsemen
and the enemies of God.
That's what they're singing about.
It says here in verse number seven,
and in the greatness of thine excellency,
thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee.
Thou sent us forth thy wrath
which consumed them as stubble.
And with the blast of thy nostrils
the waters were gathered together.
The flood stood upright as in heap
and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.
The enemy said, I will pursue.
I will overtake.
I will divide the spoil.
My lust shall be satisfied upon them.
I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.
Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them.
They sank as lead in the mighty waters.
And you know what, God just blew.
And then all of a sudden, the wind of God.
And it basically just destroyed,
some people got that joke,
others I can show you a video on YouTube after the sermon.
But anyways, and then he just blows and then just boom,
all of the enemies are just destroyed like that.
It's that simple.
Look, sometimes we cook food for our son and our daughter
and you're blowing on the food, trying to cool it down.
You got to blow like 20 times.
It takes five minutes before they can eat it.
God was just like.
And then just all of them are destroyed that simply.
Go to Matthew 10, Matthew 10, Matthew 10.
But I mean, it makes sense that they're writing
about something that they lived through.
This is a historical event
and they were afraid for their lives.
I mean, imagine if we were in this day
and we're in the midst with Moses
and we're basically fleeing from these people
trying to kill us because we want to serve God.
We want to serve God and they're trying to kill us.
You know, it makes sense that you're going to sing a song
and rejoice about it.
Obviously, these are the enemies of God right here.
I mean, imagine if our church one day was just surrounded
by all these sodomites, you know,
all these people that hate God.
I mean, that's what happened in Sacramento.
There's like 500 people out there.
Look, I'll make a commitment that if that takes place
and God destroys them, it's Exodus 15 2.0.
I'll write a song on it, just like Victory in Jesus 2.0.
I'll write a song.
We can sing in church about the triumph, you know,
over the enemies of God, okay?
Matthew 10, verse 28.
And fear not them which kill the body,
but are not able to kill the soul,
but rather fear him which is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell.
The Bible says, you know, we should not be afraid of people
that can kill our body.
Now, people are able to kill your body,
but notice, are not able to kill the soul.
You say, why is that?
Well, because your soul is what goes to heaven or hell
and you know what, there's no possibility
of actually killing it.
Even you yourself can't kill your soul.
If I shot myself with a gun, what did I kill?
I killed my body.
But I can't take my soul out and here's my soul
and it doesn't work that way, right?
You can kill your body.
I mean, see, that's why you don't lose your salvation
even if you were to commit suicide
because all you did was kill your body.
Well, your body does not have eternal life.
It's a spiritual promise, right?
Spiritual, it's not physical.
We're gonna die one day, okay?
But it's a spiritual promise.
Well, the Bible says, don't fear people
that can kill your body but aren't able to kill the soul,
but rather fear him which is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell.
Now, here's the thing.
As a saved person, God will never destroy
your body and soul in hell.
But God is the one who has the power to send people to hell
and he does send people to hell.
Now, if somebody dies unsaved now,
it's their soul that goes to hell.
But what takes place at the Great White Throne Judgment?
The body is reunited with the soul
and they're cast into the lake of fire, the Bible says.
So God will one day send their body and soul to hell.
So just as we get a glorified body,
those that go to the lake of fire,
their body goes with their soul, right?
I don't know what you'd call it, the unglorified body,
but their body's gonna be reunited with their soul
and their worm dieth not, the Bible says
in reference to their body, okay?
But the Bible says basically in verse 28,
we should fear God and not fear man.
Fear God and not fear the things
that could harm us physically.
Because it doesn't affect your soul, right?
Fear God and not fear man.
Anyway, the Bible says that God has not given us
the spirit of fear.
We're not meant to live our lives in fear,
but we're meant to have boldness to serve God and do right.
And if you have a spirit of fear in your life
that didn't come from God giving you that,
it's not a spirit that God wants you to have
because God wants you to have confidence and boldness.
He says there are not two sparrows sold for a farthing
and one of them shall not fall on the ground
without your father,
but the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear ye not therefore, year of more value than many sparrows.
The Bible says that God would not even allow
a bird to fall to the ground unless it was,
you know, something he allowed.
It's not gonna just randomly take place.
God could control that.
What it's saying is we're a lot more valuable than a bird.
Okay?
So basically the idea is this,
that if God allows you to die,
it's not something that was outside of his power to stop.
Now we understand that in the Bible
sometimes people get martyred.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,
when they went in the fiery furnace,
they said we will not bow but,
and we think God's gonna deliver us,
but if not, well we'll just die in the furnace
because we're not gonna sin.
Right?
And of course it could be possible
that we could be martyred one day.
If we live during the end times
and we're there during the great tribulation,
what, probably some of us aren't gonna make it
to the rapture.
There's probably a lot of us that are gonna get killed
during that time period, but you know what?
It's better to serve God until the day you die
and if God allows you to die, well that was in his will.
Okay?
But the Bible says we are not supposed to fear man,
we're supposed to fear God.
And one reason why we should praise God
is the fact that God has protected us from our enemies.
God has protected us from physical harm.
You say, well how do you know that?
Well I'm preaching to people that are alive.
Obviously you're here today.
And I'm not saying nothing could ever happen to you
because maybe something happens in your life
and that doesn't mean that you did anything wrong.
I don't wanna be like Job's friends that look down on people
and try to judge a situation that we don't understand.
What I'm saying is if God were to allow you to pass away,
precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints and you go straight to heaven.
It's not like you're gonna be miserable after you die,
you're gonna be in heaven forever.
If God allowed it to happen, God allowed it to happen.
He does not want you to spend your whole life in fear.
Go to Psalm 30, Psalm 30, Psalm 30.
One reason we should praise God
is because of his protection.
God has protected us.
Another reason we should praise God is because of his purity
we should praise God because of his protection,
we should praise God because of his purity.
That God is pure, that God is holy, that God is righteous.
And that's what it says in Psalm 30 verse four.
Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his,
and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness,
at the remembrance of his purity.
We should praise God that we serve a righteous God.
We serve a holy God.
Anyway, this is actually mentioned in Exodus 15 as well.
Go to Exodus 15, Exodus 15, Exodus 15.
So if you remember the first 10 verses,
they're praising God because of the fact
God has basically destroyed the enemy.
He's protected them from his enemy, from their enemies.
But then in verse 11, notice this.
Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like thee, glorious in holiness,
fearful in praises, doing wonders?
So what the Bible's saying is nobody compares to God
in the fact that God is glorious in holiness.
Thou stretchest out thy right hand,
the earth swallowed them.
Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people
which thou hast redeemed.
Thou hast guided them in thy strength
unto thy holy habitation.
God is a holy God.
God is a pure God.
You say, well, what's significant about that?
Because every other religion in the world
does not have a holy God.
All you have to do is study a little bit on these religions.
Their God is not something they praise
because they think it's holy God.
They praise him for other stuff.
Right, now turn to 1 Samuel 2,
and I'll give you a couple of examples.
1 Samuel 2.
In terms of the umbrella of religions in this world,
Christianity is listed as number one.
Now when they say Christian,
two billion people are Christian,
that's including every Catholic, every Orthodox,
every Protestant, every cult,
everything that's loosely Christian, right?
But outside of Christianity,
the second biggest religion is Islam.
The third biggest religion is Hinduism.
The fourth biggest is Buddhism.
Well, Hinduism, are the gods of the Hindus
pure and righteous and holy?
I mean, if you were here for the sermon
I preached like a year ago,
you're like, I haven't even heard
of something so disgusting before, right?
Because the gods of the Hindus are sodomites,
cross dressers, they get gender changes,
they commit all kinds of sins.
I mean, the bestiality.
I mean, it's even on the temple artwork
in many of those temples in India
and other places around the world,
just bestiality.
It's like, can you imagine walking in
to a church service,
you wanna have a pure mind and a pure heart,
and then you just see all this wickedness
and pornography as you walk in.
Are the gods of the Hindus pure?
Not at all.
You can't really think of anything
more wicked than that, right?
What about Buddhism?
Well, who's their hero?
The Buddha.
Well, what's the story on the Buddha?
Well, Buddha was a married guy,
and he was having a child,
he had his son born,
and right when his son's born,
he's like, oh, I can't take this,
and he just runs away from home,
and he's gone for like 10 years.
Does that really sound like a good dad
and a loving dad to you?
Where basically, right when the child's born,
he's like, I'm outta here,
and doesn't even say goodbye,
doesn't leave a note,
doesn't contact his family for a decade?
Is that really the,
I mean, that's the leader of Buddhism, right?
I mean, in Islam, what about the story of Muhammad?
What about all of his wives, including Aisha?
It's just like, people argue about her age,
but everyone agrees she was less than 10.
I mean, it's like,
those religions are not about purity and holiness,
but see, when it comes to Christianity,
we sing songs like holy, holy, holy, right?
We praise God for his holiness,
and what's interesting is in our modern day
with the Christian rock songs,
they don't praise God for his holiness,
but yet in the Bible,
what is the number one characteristic of God?
That he's holy, right?
There's no comparison.
1 Samuel 2, verse 2, the Bible says,
"'There is none holy as the Lord,
"'for there is none beside thee,
"'neither is there any rock like our God.'"
The Bible's saying there's no comparison
between the God of the Bible, the true God,
the true Lord, and all of these false religions
and false gods, there's no comparison,
because these other religions don't focus on the holiness.
They sometimes focus on, are gods the most loving?
And look, God is love, we understand that,
but our God also created hell,
and we shouldn't shy away from that and be like,
oh no, our gods love,
but then shy away from talking about hell.
Well, that's part of God because God created hell.
These other religions, you know what they focus on?
Unity, right?
All these new religions that are popping up,
Cao Dai, four million members in Vietnam,
or the Baha'i Faith's got like 12 million members.
It's all about uniting all the religions
of the world together, right?
You see those pictures on Google.
You got the pope here, you got a rabbi here,
you got some Buddhist in an orange whatever here
beside him, you got Hindu swamis and gurus and everything,
and they're like having this prayer time together.
All the religions of the world just coming together as one.
Right, that's what you see because all these religions
are about let's just unite together
and just prepare for the Antichrist.
And they don't realize they're preparing
for the Antichrist, but that's exactly what they're doing.
But see, our God is a holy God.
Turn to Leviticus 20, Leviticus 20, Leviticus 20.
And Leviticus 20 is a great chapter.
And it's not just because Leviticus 20, 13
is a famous verse, but let me just help you out.
Leviticus 20 is after Leviticus 19, right?
Because people often quote love thy neighbor as thyself,
and it comes from Leviticus 19.
And then Leviticus 20 is a very hated chapter in the Bible
because it's like oh, there's the death penalty, right?
It's like how could there be the death penalty, right?
It's funny because you look at other religions
that are false religions, the number one thing
people criticize Islam about is the fact
that they have the death penalty for certain things.
It's like that's the part I agree with about Islam, right?
The thing they criticize Islam about
is what I actually agree about, right?
Because the Bible has the death penalty for many things.
And Christians today are like oh, how could we say that?
Well, that's what the Bible says.
And see, notice what it says in Leviticus 20, verse seven.
It says, sanctify yourselves therefore,
and be ye holy, why?
For I am the Lord your God,
and ye shall keep my statutes and do them.
I am the Lord which sanctify you.
See, it would be pretty hard for God to tell us
to be holy if he's not holy.
It's like if you have kids and you're smoking a cigarette,
don't smoke, son, well, good luck,
because they're gonna follow your actions, not your words.
Most likely, they see you smoking, and you know what?
They're gonna do the same thing.
You say, Brother Stuckey,
why is it you didn't smoke and drink?
Because I've never seen my parents smoke a cigarette.
My parents didn't drink.
Brother Stuckey, why don't you curse?
I've never heard either one of my parents
ever say a cuss word.
So guess what?
I didn't say cuss words,
because you model the example that you have.
And see, God says, I want you to be holy because I'm holy.
Now look, if God was not holy,
could he really tell us to be holy?
I mean, if God was a sinner and doing all these things
that the Hindu gods are doing,
could God really tell us, but I want you to do right?
Well, it's like, well, that's obviously not gonna happen
if the example we have is a bad example, okay?
Now turn in your Bible back to Psalm 30.
Psalm 30, Psalm chapter 30.
111 verses in the Bible, you see the word holy
and you see the word God.
It is the number one feature you see about God in the Bible
is that he's holy.
Pops up throughout the Bible.
Number one, we should praise God because of his protection.
Number one, we should praise him because of his purity.
In his favor is life.
What's the Bible saying here?
His anger endureth but a moment.
Well, it's saying that, you know what,
when we as God's people, when we make God mad,
God will be mad, he will punish us,
but if we get right with God, in his favor is life.
God is a God of second chances, right?
And you know, that's a great thing
because great is thy faithfulness.
We get that song from the book of Lamentations
where it's basically just like we sin every day
and it's like his mercies are new every morning, right?
And it's like it's an attribute of God
that us as saved people, the fact that God is long suffering
is an attribute obviously we love
because of the fact we sin.
We mess up.
And his anger endureth for a hold of grudge
was my kids, I'd never be mad,
I'd never lose my temper with my kids.
It's like, yeah, I can tell you don't have kids
because as parents, sometimes you're tired,
you're frustrated and sometimes they make you mad
and unfortunately we're not perfect parents,
but we sin forever and ever and ever
and look, you know, hell never cools off, right?
I mean, the world can't understand
why the center of the earth is still hot.
Well, it's because God's anger never goes away
towards those that are unsaved.
But for us, one of the great privileges
of being saved people is his anger endureth
but a moment in his favor's life.
Hebrews 12 gives us an example of this.
Hebrews 12, verse five,
And ye have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children.
My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou are rebuked of him.
For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
And see, the Bible says that when God punishes us
and God disciplines us, don't faint
and just quit saying, oh man, it's not fair,
I can't take care of whatever
because God's disciplining you because he loves you.
That's what the Bible says.
He disciplines us so we get things right.
But with the unsaved world,
maybe he doesn't discipline them in this life,
he lets them get away with it and what takes place?
Well, they pay for everything in hell forever.
So we shouldn't be upset that God disciplines us
because look, I punish my kids.
I've spanked my children before, both my kids.
I've never spanked any of your kids.
Nor would I because they're not my kids, right?
I spank my kids when they act up.
I correct them, I discipline them.
I'm never gonna do it to your kids though.
You say, why?
Well, because obviously I love my kids.
Now, I like your kids, I'm glad they're at church,
but if there's a comparison of the love
between my kids and your kids,
well, there's no comparison in my eyes.
And if you're a parent,
you feel the same way about your kids.
You love them more than my kids
because they're your kids, God gave them to you, right?
And so the Bible says the one that God loves
is who he chastens and every son whom he receiveth
and of course, every son, every daughter is implied as well,
every child of God.
Well, it says in verse seven,
if he endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons,
for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Now, that was probably a verse that made more sense
when this was written because in today's world,
what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Well, there's many kids that don't get disciplined
by their parents, right?
I mean, in today's world,
what son is he whom his father doesn't,
well, I mean, lots, right?
There's lots of kids that never get disciplined.
Then it says in verse eight,
but if he be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers,
then are ye bastards and not sons.
Well, what is a bastard?
Well, it's a fatherless child.
And this is a word in the word of God.
It's not a curse word, it's what the Bible says.
But the Bible says that, you know what?
If we don't get punished by God, when we do wrong,
it's like we're not God's child.
But if he is our father, a loving father,
a loving parent does discipline their kids, okay?
Now go to Psalm 30, Psalm 30, Psalm 30, Psalm chapter 30.
And so it says in Psalm 30, verse five,
for his anger endureth but a moment in his favors life.
Then there's a very famous phrase here at the end,
weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning.
Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning.
That's often very quoted, even in the secular world,
you hear this quoted, you know,
weeping endures for a night and joy comes in the morning.
I mean, they often say it in sports
and all kinds of things, they use this phrase.
It's like somebody loses a fight.
Well, it's like weeping endures during the night,
joy comes in the morning, right?
But what's the context we're looking at?
Well, the idea is this, that when God disciplines us
and he punishes us, we're gonna be miserable, right?
But his anger is but a moment.
And when you wake up the next day,
it's like a brand new start.
Isn't there just something about the end of a day?
Because if you're in during a day
and you're not right with God or whatever,
there's just something about,
you gotta just kinda wait till you wake up
to flip the switch, right?
And that's what the Bible's talking about
because it says, joy cometh in the morning
and you wake up the next day and you read the Bible,
you memorize the Bible, you pray to God.
Even if you screwed up before, you know what?
It's just like, I'm happy that I'm serving God.
I'm happy I got things right.
Even if there's a punishment that came
and a big punishment because of the fact,
you know, his anger endureth but a moment
in his favor is life.
And if you get things right, you've gotten things right.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Now, let's look at verse number 11.
The Bible says this.
We'll look at the other verses here in a second,
but it says in verse 11,
thou hast turned from me my morning into dancing.
Thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.
So, thou hast turned from me my morning into dancing.
More morning or sad, more trial.
Dancing would indicate being happy, right?
Then it says thou hast put off my sackcloth
and girded me with gladness.
And in the Bible, people wore sackcloth as a sign of mourning
if there was a death, if there was a lot of problems.
They'd wear sackcloths showing that they're sad.
It was kind of similar where if you go to a funeral,
you'd probably wear the color black, right?
You wear a color that would be appropriate
for the situation, right?
You don't want to go to a funeral.
Funeral, like, it's not the occasion for that, right?
And so the Bible says he's turned our morning into dancing
and our sackcloth, and it says, girded me with gladness.
And see, the idea is this, we're gonna mess up
and we're gonna have bad times.
Anyway, we're gonna be sad when we mess up.
But God can turn that around, okay?
Now look at Psalm 30, verse six.
And this is probably the most important verse,
I think, in this chapter, Psalm 30, verse six.
He says, and in my prosperity I said,
I shall never be moved.
Now what does it mean to be moved?
Well, it's a reference often used in the Bible
to say being moved away from, like, you know,
you got your feet planted in the house of God,
I will not be moved.
Like, I shall not be moved, we sing.
And what we're saying is, I'm not gonna be moved away
from what I believe, I'm not gonna be moved away
from church, I'm not gonna be moved away from serving God.
I'm gonna serve God and read the Bible and go soul winning.
I'm not gonna change due to outside circumstances, right?
And it's a great attitude to have,
but notice how it says, in my prosperity I said.
You say, why is that significant?
Well, when we're saying prosperity,
we're saying when things are going well,
you make your decisions.
You don't make them indifferent,
I feel like going to church.
You should make that decision ahead of time
and just say, I'm going to be in church, right?
When you decide to read the Bible,
it should not just be something you like reading the Bible.
No, it should be something you're committed to
and saying, you know what, I'm gonna read the Bible,
I better make sure I read it at this time,
no distractions, I'm gonna wake up early,
I'm gonna spend 30 minutes with God in the morning
and not be moved away from that.
You make decisions with a clear head,
not when you're emotional, because when you're emotional,
you often make the wrong decision, right?
Some examples of this, I've had a couple moments in my life
where I got rid of a lot of worldliness,
because I got saved in college, okay?
And I didn't grow up smoking and drinking and those things,
but I was also a college student.
It's not like I was the exact same as I am today.
You know what, when I got saved,
I had a lot of worldliness in my life.
I watched the wrong movies, I watched the wrong TV shows,
I listened to the wrong music,
I had a lot of things in my life I had to change.
But I started going to church and reading the Bible,
and I started to feel guilty
about some of the things in my lifestyle.
And I remember I was listening to a sermon
against rock music and the wrong type of music,
and I remember listening to that sermon,
and I felt really, really guilty, and you know what I did?
I said, you know what, I've got a clear head right now.
I know what I should do, and I paused the sermon,
and I threw away all my CDs in just one second.
You say, why?
Because of the fact I had a clear head.
In my prosperity, I looked at the situation and said,
I know that the right thing to do is get rid of my music,
but here's the thing, what if I didn't do it,
and I woke up the next day and I said,
do I feel like getting rid of the music
that I spent so much money on?
Well, I might make the wrong decision, right?
You make decisions when you have a clear head,
and one of the things the Bible says is,
in your prosperity, you make decisions ahead of time.
Otherwise, if you do it off emotion,
you are gonna be moved.
You're gonna change your ideas.
You're gonna change your plans.
You should have an attitude right now,
I'm gonna be in church until the day I die,
and you make the decision now while things are going well.
You say, why?
Because things are not always gonna go well.
Our lives are ups and downs,
and if you make decisions when you're in a down,
guess what you're gonna do?
You're gonna be like in Jeremiah.
Well, things are going well for us
when we were worshiping the queen in heaven, right?
And then they just go off of emotion
rather than using common sense
and just listening to what Jeremiah said.
You make decisions when things are going well,
not when things are emotional and they're not going well,
because you're gonna make the wrong decision if you do that.
Notice what it says in Psalm 30, verse seven.
Lord, by thy favor thou hast made my mountain
to stand strong.
Now, your mountain is often used symbolically
to be something very similar,
because a mountain is something
that doesn't easily get moved.
Even when there's earthquakes and tsunamis,
sometimes the mountains can be in place
or not be moved too much,
but it says, thou hast made my mountain to stand strong.
Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.
I cried to thee, O Lord, and unto the Lord
I made supplication.
What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit?
Shall the dust praise thee?
Shall it declare thy truth?
What the psalmist says here in verse nine is this.
He says, if I die, then it's not a benefit to you, God.
He's saying, my life is more valuable being alive than dead,
because he said, who's gonna praise you if I die?
He's saying, I praise you,
because the context of this chapter is praising God.
And of course, one aspect is praising God in church,
but we should be praising God outside of church too.
And we praise God, and he's saying, you know what?
If I die, who's gonna praise you?
If I die, who's gonna declare your name, right?
A very basic question,
which hopefully has an obvious answer,
is your life more valuable to God being alive than dead?
Does your life even matter is what I'm asking.
You know, there's a lot of Christians
that should take an honest look in the mirror
and really ask themselves,
does it really even matter in the grand perspective
of things if I was dead?
I mean, if you don't praise God right now,
well, there's no difference than if you pass away.
You don't get people saved now,
it doesn't really make a difference.
If you don't read the Bible now,
it's not like, you know, there's not Bible.
Hopefully it's an obvious answer.
And if it's not, then you know,
you really might wanna rethink some things,
because you're gonna come into the end of your life one day
and it's just like, what a shame.
Because probably the number one thing
you should think as a saved person is,
you wanna serve God, you wanna do what's right.
Now, when I first got saved,
I didn't understand what that meant to serve God,
but I wanted to serve God.
I didn't know what that meant.
I knew I wanted to serve God and do right.
I didn't know what all that meant,
because I didn't know the Bible at the time.
I knew very little, I just knew the gospel
when I got saved, right?
But you should wanna do what's right.
And if you're at this church regularly,
you know what the Bible says.
Because I preach what the Bible says,
I show you what the Bible says,
and you should ask yourself this basic question,
does my life actually have meaning?
Or is my life just a waste?
And here's the thing,
if you compare yourself to other Christians,
then you might look at yourself and say,
man, I have a lot of value.
But the thing is, very few Christians are doing anything.
I mean, if 1% of this world is saved,
what percentage of saved people are actually doing something?
A couple, it's pretty small.
It's not like there's a lot of soul winners.
And you should ask yourself this question,
I mean, well, if I passed away, what's the result?
Well, hopefully that means a lot less people
will hear the gospel.
And if it doesn't mean that,
it means that you're not preaching the gospel.
And that's a shame, that's sad,
because we're here to bring people to the Lord.
I mean, you are privileged to have heard the gospel
and gotten saved.
And don't misunderstand me,
you had your free will choice,
and you chose to believe.
But I'm just saying, you know what?
You obviously got at least one opportunity,
maybe lots of opportunities to hear the gospel.
There's a lot of people,
maybe they only get one opportunity, right?
Maybe they're not around the gospel
and around the things of God as much.
And you should ask yourself,
does my life actually have meaning?
Because the Psalmist says, you know what?
If I die, is there any profit in that?
And he's saying, you know what?
The dust is not gonna praise you, right?
It's not gonna declare thy truth.
But he's saying, if I live, I will praise you
and I will declare thy truth
and I will preach the gospel and win people to the Lord.
Verse 10, hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me.
Lord, be thou my helper.
So point number one was praise him because of his protection.
Point two, praise him because of his purity,
that he is a pure and holy God.
And point three, praise him permanently.
Praise him permanently.
Psalm 30, verse 11, thou hast turned from me
my morning into dancing, thou hast put off my sackcloth
and girded me with gladness,
to the end that my glory may sing praise to thee.
What does he mean by to the end?
He's saying to the end of his life.
To the very end of my life, I'm gonna praise you
and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks onto thee forever.
And it's not a complicated point,
but you should be committed to saying,
I'm gonna praise God through my entire life, permanently.
Now what that means if you're committed to that
is that when you go through a difficult time,
you will still praise God.
That's what the Psalmist is saying
because he's been through a lot of difficult times
and he says, I'm gonna praise him forever, right?
We should have that commitment in our lives
that you know what, no matter what happens,
we're gonna praise God to the end, to the end of our lives.
Go to Psalm 92, we'll close up.
Psalm 92, Psalm 92.
I mean, we don't know what's gonna happen
the rest of our lives, right?
I mean, I hope this doesn't happen to any of us,
but it's possible for us to just be outside
in a jipney, tricycle, or car, whatever,
gets into an accident and then you lose your health.
It's possible, right?
I don't know what the future's gonna be.
You should be committed to saying,
you're gonna praise God even if the worst happens,
even if your life doesn't turn out
how you expected it to happen.
We don't know what the future's gonna be, right?
You see the life of Job and I don't think any of us
are gonna go through anything like Job went through,
but it shows us it is possible
for a saved person to go through that,
and here's the thing, Job was still praising God.
Now, he was obviously confused.
He didn't understand what was happening,
but you know what, he did not rebel or turn on God.
We should have the same commitment
that no matter what happens in our life,
we will still praise God forever, praise God permanently.
It says in Psalm 92, verse 12, we'll close up here.
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 start getting remotivated,
getting zealous, and getting excited.
It's just not gonna happen on its own.
It doesn't work that way.
And the Bible says that if you're planted
in the house of the Lord,
you're gonna bring forth fruit in old age.
So what does that mean?
It means you're gonna get people saved even in old age,
meaning your life has value onto the very end,
that you will not reach a point
where God will look at you and say,
doesn't really matter if this person's dead or alive,
but that you will win people to the Lord
until the day you die.
Verse 15, to show that the Lord is upright,
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
So look, we oughta praise God because of his protection.
God protects us from, I mean,
you could probably think in your life to situations
where you had a danger and God protected you,
and you ended up being okay.
I remember one time I was coming out of church
in West Virginia, and I was driving,
and generally when you drive a car, you need four tires.
Right, I mean, that helps to have four tires,
unless it's a tricycle, but a normal car,
we don't really have tricycles in America.
So it helps to have four tires, right?
Now usually when you get a flat tire, what happens?
Well, it slowly loses air and you start hearing the sound,
but sometimes you see a tire on the highway
that's in a million pieces.
While I was driving my car and my back tire exploded,
it sounded like a gunshot.
Look, when you go from four tires to three tires
and you're driving 120 kilometers per hour,
because they drive pretty fast in the US on the highways,
110 kilometers per hour, it's not very safe, right?
You go from four to three in a matter of seconds,
I think back to that moment, I'm so thankful
that car didn't just tip over.
Somehow, I mean, it was on one side and then on the other,
and then somehow in a matter of a couple seconds,
I was on the side of the highway
where I was safe from the traffic,
and I remember just, it happened in like five seconds,
and I was just sitting there like.
Right, you read in these books,
whenever they tell you to study for the driver's test,
if this situation happens, which way do you turn the car?
Nobody thinks of that in those moments.
You just go off instinct, you just do whatever
and you hope you don't die and you pray, right?
But I just think back to that moment,
like wow, God really protected me,
because you know what, I could have easily died, right?
You probably have moments in your life
where you can think of times where God protected you
and something bad could have happened to you.
We should praise God because of his purity.
God is pure, God is holy,
that's different than every other religion out there,
and we should also commit to praising God permanently,
no matter what happens in the future in our lives.
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 help us to have our lives typified
by just always praising you, not just in church,
but outside of church, being in a good mood
and excited and wanting to serve you
and just praising you, God.
We just pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Hymn number 167, hymn number 167.
Hymn number 167, all hail the power of Jesus' name.
["Hail the Power of Jesus' Name"]
Hymn number 167, all hail the power of Jesus' name.
["Hail the Power of Jesus' Name"]