Just to promise you there's still room for basically four to four units of variance.
But then you're looking for the rest of this class.
You're looking for the rest of this class.
Yes, sir.
Yes.
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
You can join with her.
Thank you.
Please do.
Good morning, Paul Mulis.
Welcome, Paul Mulis, Averity Baptist Church.
A starting second service.
Hymn number 61. Hymn number 61. Hymn number 61.
Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye.
Well, how many cows are happy and guys are always fine
And absent ones will greet them In the city hallways cryin'
We'll never say good-bye in the morning
In the morning over yonder
We'll never say good-bye in glory
We'll never say good-bye up there on the third
We greet and bark with dear ones
We say hello good-bye
And let us find our fellow sheep
With mist and cold we try
To feel them always near us
And follow them with fear
But forty days are ended
We'll meet them in the end
We'll never say good-bye in glory
In the morning over yonder
We'll never say good-bye in glory
We'll never say good-bye up there on the last
Oh happy glad homecoming
With Jesus in the sky
For sometimes he stands for a way
Though always here we cry
He might give in to help us
His spirit draws within
But only perfect good will
When the heaven men turn rich
We'll never say good-bye in glory
In the morning over yonder
We'll never say good-bye in glory
We'll never say good-bye up there
Amen
Hymn number 281
Pass me not O gentle Savior
Hear my humble cry
While on others thou art calling
Do not pass me by Savior
Savior, Savior
Hear my humble cry
While on others thou art calling
Do not pass me by order again
Let me at a throne of mercy
Find us with relief
Feeling very thick with where to shine
Help my unbelief
Everybody
Savior, Savior
Hear my humble cry
While on others thou art calling
Do not pass me by order again
Trusting only in Thy Spirit
Would I seek Thy grace
Heal my wounded broken spirit
Save me by Thy grace
Savior, Savior
Hear my humble cry
While on others thou art calling
Do not pass me by order again
Let us bring our moment on board
For the life to be
Hope not by a purpose I be
Hope in Him God be bruised
Savior, Savior
Hear my humble cry
While on others thou art calling
Do not pass me by
And let's go through four things real quickly.
First, let's count up salvations.
Did anybody have any salvations to report?
Any salvations?
One.
All right.
Three.
All right.
Anybody else?
One.
All right.
It'd be a lot easier if that big pillar was not in the way.
It's hard to see back now that we've got lots of people.
But anybody else?
All right.
Well, great work, everybody.
We'll have soul winning here roughly 2.15 p.m. here today.
And a couple other things.
We're going to have a quick choir practice here today
And also on the 19th in two weeks.
Next week there is going to be a basketball game.
You can ask Brother June for more details.
So, you know, bring your basketball shorts and bring the ones that go down.
Everyone's going to be wearing like dress pants or something to play now.
They're like, oh, man, I've got to make sure.
And also there is going to be a soul winning marathon on Wednesday.
So I said nearby.
Case on Memorial Circle is kind of nearby, right?
So it's not too far away.
So I think it's going to be a Case on Memorial Circle, right?
That's what I heard.
So that will be on Wednesday.
Obviously our normal Wednesday is soul winning time at 5 p.m.
I'm not guaranteeing people are meeting here at 5 p.m. at the building
if they're going to be going soul winning.
Things might be a bit magalo or whatever.
But if you want to go soul winning, you can talk to Brother Ehrman about that.
And that will be on Wednesday.
And I think that's it for announcements.
We'll have Brother Rafi lead us in another song.
Hymn number 433. Hymn number 433. Hymn number 433. Hymn number 433.
Away in the matron.
First song.
Away. First song.
Ready, sing.
Away in the matron.
Amen.
For your scripture reading, please open your Bibles to the book of Psalm.
Psalm 32.
And as our custom, we will be reading the entire chapter.
Psalm 32.
Right in the middle of your Bible.
Psalm 32.
Please say amen if you're there.
Amen.
Psalm 32, verse 1.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputed not iniquity.
And in his spirit there is no guile.
When I kept silence, my bones waxed all through my roaring all the day long.
For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me.
My moisture is turned into the drought of summer, Selah.
I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid.
I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord.
And thou forgaveth iniquity of my sin, Selah.
For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou may'st be found.
Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.
Thou art my hiding place.
Thou shalt preserve me from trouble.
Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance, Selah.
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go.
I will guide thee with mine eye.
Be ye not as a horse or as the mule, which have no understanding whose mouth must be held in with bit and brittle, lest they come near unto thee.
Many sorrows shall be to the wicked.
But he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall come pass him about.
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice.
Be righteous and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
Bless the beauty of God's word. Let's pray.
Lord God in heaven we thank you, Lord, for the stage you've given to us.
Say for the Lord your wisdom and knowledge for this day, and bless the Lord for the preaching of your word, Lord this day.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright, we're here in Psalm 32.
The name of this sermon is Songs of Deliverance.
Now, I don't normally do this, but I did want to mention something I forgot to mention during the last sermon.
And so, talking about the conscience, so you got basically like a five-minute sermon before the next sermon, okay?
I promise we'll be done on a normal time. It's not going to be a super long second sermon.
But in regards to the conscience, as I said, something might seem like it's okay to you, but it doesn't mean that it is okay.
But the Bible does also teach that if you feel guilty about something,
if you believe something is wrong, then you need to hold that standard even if somebody else doesn't hold that standard.
And I want to give you an example that's kind of a gray area situation.
But for example, you know, I love working out.
You know, obviously I talk about it a lot in sermons and stuff.
But, you know, I used to go to the gym all the time.
In the U.S. you'd call somebody a gym rat if they're there all the time.
And I was always at the gym in college and everything like that.
But, you know, with a lot of gyms and the gym I used to go to, especially as I started reading the Bible more and everything,
I just felt wrong about being in that atmosphere.
Not about lifting the weights, but just the way that women were dressed at the gym.
I didn't want my eyes to see certain things.
I was trying to get rid of all this worldly music I used to listen to.
And of course when you're lifting, especially at the gym, they got that, you know, hard pumping music to, you know,
you know, that you're listening to as you're, you know, working out, right, that's always at a gym or whatever.
And I just felt like it was, I felt guilty when I would go there just because of the atmosphere.
And I felt like my, you know, I was being, you know, my heart was being smited when I went because I just felt it was a bad atmosphere.
But at the same time, I can't point to a verse in the Bible that would say that would be wrong.
And I'm not saying I'm definitely correct on that or I'm just saying that I personally felt guilty about it.
So for me it would be wrong. The Bible says that.
If you believe something's wrong, you need to hold that standard.
But somebody else might not have that same standard.
It might be a bit of a gray area situation.
And I couldn't just say, thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not go to this specific gym
because I don't have a Bible verse or anything like that.
It's just kind of the way I felt in the situation.
But I also know that I've been at other gyms before where I didn't feel bad at the atmosphere at all
because I didn't feel like women were really dressed like that and the music wasn't so, you know, loud or whatever.
So somebody might have a stronger standard than me in a certain situation like that
and say, Brother Psyche, I'd feel bad about any of them.
And somebody might have a weaker stand.
Obviously, you know, we need to be long-suffering with people that might have a different standard and stuff like that.
But I just want to point out that if your conscience tells you something's wrong,
well, then that is something that you should uphold for yourself even if somebody else might not quite see it the exact same way.
Okay? That leads to a lot of gray area situations.
And honestly, when it comes to gray area situations, I kind of like to let everybody just kind of decide for themselves.
It's like, you know the Word of God. You've got to make your decisions.
You know, obviously there's a lot of situations that are gray area.
You know, raising kids, you know, there's a lot of different situations.
Maybe people do things a little bit differently.
And I might do things one way and I might feel like this is not the best thing to do.
But it doesn't always mean that I can point to a Bible verse that says I'm right and somebody else is wrong and vice versa.
So there are those situations, but if your conscience tells you something's wrong,
then that's something that you should personally follow. Okay?
Now, Psalm 32. That was Sermon number 2. Now on to Sermon number 3 for today. Okay?
Songs of deliverance. Songs of deliverance. So this is not the longest Psalm.
It's only got, what, 11 or 12 verses here, so it's not going to be too long.
But notice what it says here in verse number 1.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord impudeth not iniquity, and in his spirit there is no guile.
Now in these verses, you see something that's very common in the Bible where God will kind of define words.
And the way He does this sometimes is He states the exact same thing just in a slightly different way.
And what I mean by that is this. It says transgression in verse 1. It says sin in verse 2.
It says iniquity in verse 3. And in verse 2, it also says guile.
It says iniquity in guile in verse 2, and it says transgression and sin in verse 1.
Well, those are synonyms. Right? They're saying basically the same thing.
When it says blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered,
it's basically saying the same thing just in a bit of a different way.
And oftentimes, depending on how He words it, there's various images or symbolism that you can see to help it make more sense.
But then it says in verse 2, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord impudeth not iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no guile.
So if God does not impute iniquity unto you, then that means in your spirit there is going to be no guile.
So it's basically restating the same thing. Okay?
This is quoted in the New Testament. Go to Romans 4. Romans chapter 4. Romans 4.
And so what he's describing in the first two verses of Psalm 32 is basically blessed is the man who's saved. Right?
If you're saved, you know what? Consider that a great blessing. Right?
Even if everything goes wrong in your life, you know what? At least you're saved. Right?
And sometimes, you know what? We can just kind of pass over that in our heads.
Because I remember when I first got saved, I was so relieved. I mean, I was so thankful.
But then as time goes by, you kind of forget about it. Right?
And I've been saved for over 18 years. You kind of forget about it.
But honestly, if we would just go back to that time period when life is difficult, it's like praise the Lord that we're saved.
No matter what happens in this life, very few people in this world are actually saved.
And when you stop to think about hell and how few people are saved, it's a pretty scary thought that 99% of this world or so is going to hell.
And you know what? We are in probably one of the more Christian countries in this world in terms of percentage of people saved.
And when we go soul winning, what percentage of people we talk to are actually saved before we talk to them?
Not a lot. I think all of us, we talk to people and we hope some of the people we talk to are just really confused on stuff.
I hope that. Right? I hope they're just brainwashed. They're actually saved.
And I really hope that, you know what, my standard was a bit too strict and people could get more confused than I thought.
But honestly, the vast majority of people we talk to are not saved. Right?
So blessed are you if you're actually saved because that's very few people.
It says in Romans 4, verse 6,
Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sins.
So you see Romans 4 quoting from Psalm 32.
Now, Romans 4 is a passage we would often go to on salvation. Right?
I mean, Romans is New Testament, isn't it? Am I correct about that?
After the death and resurrection of Jesus. Right?
So this is in the, I mean, I don't call it dispensation. That's not the word the Bible would use.
But it's in the time period we live in, post-resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And you know what? It's going back to Psalm 32.
And what the Bible's saying is, you know what?
The person who is blessed is the one who gets saved, but not by their works.
They're imputed with the righteousness of God by putting their faith in Jesus Christ. Okay?
But see, here's what's interesting.
Many people will say, Well, Brother Stuckey, you know what?
You're right. People are saved by grace through faith.
But that's just today.
I mean, in the past they were saved by works.
They'll say, Well, in the past they had to sacrifice all those animals.
They had to live a good life. They had to do all these things.
Salvation was different back then.
Well, if that's the case, then why would the New Testament be quoting from the Old Testament about salvation?
It's not quoting about something else. It's quoting about salvation.
And what that shows is David understood salvation is by grace through faith,
just like we are saved by grace through faith today.
Romans 4, verse 1. Romans 4, verse 1.
What shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found?
Now, help me out. I mean, I don't know the Bible that well.
Abraham, Old Testament or New Testament?
Old Testament, right?
And way, way back in time.
I mean, not that much after the flood, right?
I mean, Abraham pops up pretty early in Genesis, right?
And Abraham pops up, and you know what it says is,
What shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found?
So what did Abraham teach?
What did Abraham preach?
For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God.
So the Bible says that if Abraham got to heaven by his works, he would be able to glory, right?
And, you know, what the Bible is showing you is this,
that Abraham was saved by grace through faith.
And verse 2 is interesting because it sounds a lot like Ephesians 2, 9, doesn't it?
Right? We're saved by grace, you know, not of works, lest any man should boast, right?
Very similar to saying, you know what, that no one's going to be able to glory, right?
Nobody can be my yabang in heaven and say, look at me, look at what I did, look at how good I am.
So here's the thing. Nobody today can be saved by their works because there's none righteous, no, not one.
Believe it or not, there was none righteous, no, not one before the time of Christ 2.
I mean, Abraham was a sinner. David was a sinner, right? Everybody's a sinner.
I mean, there's only really a couple characters in the Bible where it doesn't even mention them committing a sin.
I mean, Daniel never mentions them committing a sin, but, well, there's none righteous, no, not one.
He was still a sinner. It just doesn't specifically mention him doing anything wrong, at least that I'm aware of, right?
Of course, there's not as much written in the Bible about Daniel either compared to some of the other prophets.
So maybe if there was like 50 chapters, then you'd start to see some mistakes he makes or something.
But what I'm saying is, nobody gets saved by their works today because we're sinners.
Well, nobody was ever able to get saved by their works because we've always been sinners.
And we would be able to boast in heaven, whether it was pre or post Jesus Christ, if it was by our works.
I mean, what sense would it make to say that people before Christ can be up in heaven and say,
Look at how good I am because of my works, but after the time of Christ, you've got to get there by faith.
It doesn't make any sense, right?
It says in verse 4,
Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
And what the Bible says is this, that those that place their faith in Jesus Christ,
it's not that you're righteous, but it's counted for righteousness.
You're imputed with the righteousness of God.
And when you are imputed with the righteousness of God,
that doesn't mean that you're going to start doing good automatically either.
You're still a sinner. Nothing changes there, right?
I mean, the Bible says,
If there had been a law given where of right...
Man, if there had been a law given where of...
I'm misquoting from Galatians, but righteousness should have been by the law.
Right?
And the Bible says that if there was a way to get to heaven by your works or by what you do,
then that's the way it would have been.
Okay?
Turn to Psalm 32.
Psalm 32.
Alright.
Is the law then against the promises of God?
God forbid.
For if there had been a law given which could have given righteousness,
verily righteousness should have been by the law.
And what the Bible says in Galatians is,
if there was a way to get to heaven by our works,
that's the method God would choose.
But see, here's the thing.
What that's saying is,
if in the Old Testament they were able to get to heaven by their works,
well, we'd be getting to heaven by our works today as well.
So, salvation could have never been by works,
because if there had been a law given which could have given life,
verily righteousness should have been by the law.
But there is no law or works that you do
that are going to give you righteousness, according to the Bible.
But only that Jesus Christ died for you,
and you believe on Him.
That's what the Bible says.
Psalm 32.
It's always dangerous when you quote verses that are not in your notes.
Because then you're like,
man, how does that go again, right?
It's somewhere in Galatians, right?
Psalm 32, verse 3.
He says,
When I kept silence,
my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
You say, what is that talking about?
Well, what he's going to basically transition into
is talking about basically personal sin and personal iniquity, okay?
And he basically starts with these two verses about salvation,
and he's saying, hey, blessed are you if you believe on Christ,
if you're saved, right?
If you put your faith on the Lord,
you trust in Him to come and die for your sins,
the Bible says blessed are ye.
And you know what?
It makes sense,
because then he's going to start talking about how he's a sinful man,
and it's kind of like when we commit sins and do wrong,
sometimes it just kind of reminds us, man,
we're really blessed that God lets us be saved,
because we realize I don't deserve this.
You start realizing, man, I really don't deserve to be saved.
You're very thankful.
So he talks about that in the first two verses.
Then in verse 3,
he's going to start transitioning,
talking about personal sin,
and he says,
When I kept silence,
my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
Now, what he's going to start talking about is confessing your sins to God
and praying to God,
and he's saying,
When I kept silence,
I didn't pray to God.
I didn't confess my sins to God.
I didn't get right with God.
When I kept silence,
my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
And what the Bible's saying is the bones are actually crying out
and yelling out.
Now, I believe this is speaking symbolically,
but basically what the Bible's saying is that when you confess your sins to God,
what will take place is the rest of your body is going to basically cry out to God.
Now, I do believe,
and we're going to see this here in these verses,
that the best thing you can do for your physical health,
in my opinion,
is live a godly life.
You could have the perfect diet.
You could work out all the time.
The most important thing, though,
is that you're right with God.
It talks about your bones waxing old,
and kind of the indication is that sin will actually aid you.
So what do we need to do?
Well, when we sin,
we need to get right with God.
Now, go back to Psalm 31,
and we'll cross-reference here.
Psalm 31, verse 9.
Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble.
Mine eye is consumed with grief,
yea, my soul and my belly.
For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing.
My strength faileth because of mine iniquity,
and my bones are consumed.
So just the chapter 4 talks about your bones are consumed,
and he says,
My strength faileth because of mine iniquity.
So when you're committing sins,
you have no spiritual strength.
That's what the Bible's saying.
Now, in verse number 9 of Psalm 31,
what it said is,
Mine eye is consumed with grief,
which is talking about sadness,
and sin is something that will depress you.
Now, we're going to come back here in a second,
but go to Lamentations 3.
Lamentations chapter 3.
And the verses we're about to read,
this is actually where we get our song in our hymnal,
Great Is Thy Faithfulness,
which is a great song.
I think all of us would say that's one of the best, right?
I don't know.
It's not my number one,
but I don't think there's anyone who would say,
Man, I'm not really a fan of that one.
That's a great song, right?
Great Is Thy Faithfulness.
And it says in Lamentations 3 verse 22,
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed,
because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning.
Great is Thy faithfulness.
And the Bible speaks about how God's mercy
and His faithfulness towards us,
His compassions fail not.
It says they are new every morning.
There's just something about waking up
and it's a brand new day.
And it doesn't matter what happened yesterday.
It's a brand new start.
It's a new day.
The sun rises.
It's completely brand new from yesterday.
Anyway, I do believe that before we go to bed at night,
each night we should tell God,
I'm sorry for what I did.
Forgive me.
Help me do better tomorrow.
But obviously when you're waking up the next day,
you say something similar.
God, help me to do better than I did yesterday.
Please forgive me for my iniquity and my sins.
And you know what?
The Bible says that God is merciful.
I mean, if we come to God and say we're sorry
and we mean it, He will forgive us.
Now, for our personal salvation,
we don't have to worry about that
in terms of going to heaven.
That's done when we believe on Jesus Christ.
But when you believe on Jesus Christ,
you become a child of God.
And you know what?
If my son does wrong and disobeys me,
I expect him to say he's sorry.
And if he doesn't,
I'm not going to be very happy with him.
What's the same thing with God?
If you break His rules and don't obey what He says
and you don't say you're sorry,
well, then God's not going to be merciful to you.
But He wants to be merciful to you.
He wants to be compassionate.
And if you come to God and cleanse yourself
and you mean it, you know what?
Great is the faithfulness of the Lord, okay?
Now turn in your Bible to Psalm 32.
Psalm 32.
Psalm 32, verse 4.
He says,
For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me.
And when He's saying God's hand was heavy upon Him,
what He's saying is that God will judge His people.
If we do wrong, God is going to judge us.
And what He's saying is,
God, Your hand was heavy upon me
because I sinned and I screwed up.
Now what you notice here in this verse is
it says,
For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me.
Right? Past tense.
We're not talking about present.
He's saying it was heavy upon me
because He's speaking about how He got right with God
and it was heavy upon Him.
But then when you get right with God,
great is the mercy of God.
Then He says this,
My moisture is turned into the drought of summer, selah.
So my moisture is, is, is present tense.
Right?
So God's hand was heavy upon David,
but his moisture is turned into the drought of summer.
You say, what does that mean?
My moisture is turned into the drought of summer.
You know, what's that saying?
Well, a drought would be a period of no water.
And what the Bible's saying is during the summertime,
there wouldn't be a lot of rain,
not a lot of dew on the ground.
Obviously, things like this are dependent upon where you live.
Climates are very different.
Okay.
But what He's saying is this.
My moisture is turned into the drought of summer.
So it went from being wet to being dry.
You know, what is He talking about?
Well, He's saying when He got right with God,
His moisture dried up.
Because when you're sinning, you're miserable.
You're depressed.
You're sad.
Right?
Now, I don't think this necessarily means
that He actually had tears coming out,
but it's certainly at least symbolic of that,
of being sad and depressed.
Right?
You can be sad without any tears.
Okay?
But what He's saying is I was miserable.
Your hand was heavy upon me,
but my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.
What He's saying is when you get right with God,
you go from being depressed to no longer depressed.
Isn't that true?
When you live a sinful life, you're depressed.
You're miserable.
But when you get right with God,
it's like a brand new start.
Okay?
Go back to Psalm 31.
Psalm 31.
Let me cross-reference to show this to you.
Psalm 31, verse 9.
And it said,
Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble.
Mine eye is consumed with grief.
Okay?
Now, grief is sadness or sorrow.
And of course, when you're sad, you know what?
You might have tears coming out.
Right?
I mean, all of us, I'm sure,
have cried before in our lives.
Right?
And it's nothing to be embarrassed about.
I mean, Jesus wept in the Bible.
I know there's this thing in the modern day,
well, if you're a tough guy, you would never cry.
But you know what?
I've had moments in my life
where something was very sad to me,
where it brought tears to me.
I was very sad.
You know, I was depressed.
You know, we all cry from time to time.
Okay?
Now, if this is happening like 25 times a day
for like 20 years,
well, that's a little bit different.
Okay?
Crying is a normal thing that takes place,
you know, when people are depressed.
And He says,
Mine eye is consumed with grief.
And then He says,
You know,
Yea, my soul and my belly.
We talked about last week
how your belly represents the things
that you're allowing inside of your body.
And basically, you think of a diet
where, oh, I want to eat this.
I want to eat this.
And the Bible's saying that basically,
He's got this sin that's coming into Him,
and the result is He's miserable.
He's sad.
And He says in verse 10,
For my life is spent with grief
and my years with sighing.
My strength faileth because of mine iniquity,
and my bones are consumed.
And He's saying,
I'm miserable.
I'm depressed.
God's hand was heavy upon me,
but then I got right with God,
and you know what?
My strength came back.
Now, I do believe that we're mainly
primarily talking symbolically
when He's using these references.
But I don't think this is 100% symbolic
because the Bible says
a merry heart doeth good like a medicine.
Right?
I mean, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine.
The Bible says someone who's happy,
it's like a medicine to them.
You say, Brother Stuckey,
is that just symbolic?
No, I don't think that is symbolic.
One way to look at this is
living a sinful life will make you depressed.
And the Bible talks about many sins
that will actually aid you.
They'll actually be detrimental to your body.
I mean, certain sins
are just going to destroy your body.
Sin is always destructive.
But a merry heart doeth good like a medicine.
You know, being in a good mood,
that will actually help you.
You know, they say this as well
when people get sick or have major injuries.
It's just like as long as they're in a good mood,
it's going to be okay.
Right?
I know that's what you worry about
when you have kids.
It's just like if they're in a good mood,
then you know what?
They're not going to be that sick,
and they're going to recover from it
if they can stay in a positive mood.
Our daughter has actually been,
she got a stomach virus.
We think she was drinking
the shower water or something.
And a few days ago,
she's like really depressed and everything,
but now she's like,
well, she's in a good mood again.
Right?
But it's like being in a good mood
actually is like a medicine, the Bible says.
Now look, I'm not going on some crazy rabbit trail
just saying, you know what?
You break your leg,
just have a good attitude,
and it's going to heal back together.
I'm not saying that.
Okay?
It's like people can sometimes
go to too big of extremes to this.
Okay?
If you get a major wound, you know what?
You might need to get stitches.
You might need to make sure
there's no infection or whatever.
But what I am saying is, you know,
actually living a godly life,
it will be like a medicine to you.
Actually be very healthy for you,
the Bible says.
Psalm 32, verse 4.
But the contrary is true.
If you live a sinful life,
it's going to depress you.
It's going to be like the opposite of a medicine.
Psalm 32, verse 4.
For day and night thy hand
was heavy upon me.
My moisture is turned
in the drought of summer, selah,
so indicating that he's no longer depressed
and crying and filled with sorrow,
but he's gotten right with God.
And you say, well,
how do you know that, Brother Stuckey?
Well, verse 5.
I acknowledge my sin unto thee,
and mine iniquity have I not hid.
I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord,
and thou forgaveth the iniquity
of my sin, selah.
So the prerequisite to going from sadness
to being in a good mood
was the fact that he acknowledged his sin.
He confessed his sin.
He didn't hide anything,
didn't make excuses.
He just said, you know what?
I messed up.
I'm sorry.
Forgive me.
And you know what the result was?
God forgave the iniquity of David
because of the fact he had
the right attitude towards him.
And that really is the key, right?
Having the right attitude, you know?
And of course there could be people
that do wrong,
and then they just, you know,
don't really mean it.
It's just sort of like
a get out of jail free card sort of thing,
but obviously God sees our hearts.
But what the Bible says
is God's mercies are anew every morning.
So if we get right with God
and we mean it,
God will forgive us, okay?
Jonah 2.
Jonah chapter 2.
And Jonah 2 is a great example,
and you know, in Jonah chapter 2,
this is when Jonah is in the whale's belly.
Not Pinocchio,
but Jonah is in the whale's belly, okay?
And it says in Jonah 2 verse 8,
They that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy.
And you know, Jonah in Jonah chapter 2,
he's inside of a whale's belly,
and you know what?
He has a moment of clarity in his life.
He realizes, you know what?
My life is a disaster.
My life is messed up.
And Jonah has to look at the situation
and realize, you know what?
I'm the reason why I'm here.
I can't say it's because of the situation
or the circumstance.
I chose to just rebel against God
and do wrong.
The result is he's inside of a whale's belly.
But he makes a statement here
where he says,
They that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy.
Now ask yourself this question.
Was God merciful to Jonah
after Jonah chapter 2?
He was, right?
Jonah chapter 3,
God, you know, I mean,
he gets right with God
and God's merciful, right?
So what that shows is that Jonah
did get right with God
because of the fact,
what Jonah said is,
if I observe a lying vanity,
I make excuses for what I've done,
then I'm going to forsake my mercy.
And Jonah does get right with God.
Now, of course, in Jonah chapter 4,
he kind of goes right back into the old Jonah.
So he kind of goes back and forth.
But he does get right with God in chapter 2.
And I believe he means it
because of the fact God was merciful.
And so that's the only way
I would reconcile that verse
is that he really did get right.
I don't think he was just faking it.
I think he really meant it.
But obviously, you know,
getting right with God
is not an easy thing to do.
Well, staying right with God
is not an easy thing to do either.
And especially because
whatever sins we have
that are besetting sins
is the term they use,
people are different.
And certain sins that you might have
might be your besetting sin
that you struggle with, right?
Like maybe somebody here
struggles with drinking alcohol.
You know, I'm sure in a room this size,
I'm sure there are people
that struggle with that
from time to time,
you would say,
well, that's your besetting sin.
I don't personally struggle
with drinking alcohol.
But I have certain things
that I do struggle with.
And all of us,
we might have certain things
that we really struggle with.
Well, Jonah obviously
really struggled with
forgiving the Assyrian people
for being such wicked people.
And you know what?
That attitude kind of creeps back in.
But he does get right with God.
And he makes a great statement
here in verse 8
because he says,
they that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy.
So what he's saying is,
you know what?
If you acknowledge your sin,
as it says in Psalm 32,
God will be merciful to you, right?
Great is the faithfulness of the Lord.
He's very merciful to us
even if we've done wrong,
if we acknowledge our sin,
confess it, and don't hide it,
but just admit that we've done wrong.
Go to Psalm 32.
Psalm 32.
I mean, the Bible says
God has punished us less
than our iniquities deserve.
So, I mean, all of us,
you know, we've done wrong,
we've, and you know,
it's always interesting,
we go soul winning,
and then people say
that they're not that bad
of a person.
It's like, I'm a good person.
Like somebody yesterday told me,
it's like,
you know, I keep the
Ten Commandments.
I was like, really?
All of them?
And it's just like, you know,
have you ever lied before?
And it's just like,
of course this person
doesn't know the Ten Commandments, right?
And that's usually,
it's pretty easy to keep them
when you don't know them, right?
And it's just like,
he didn't know the Ten Commandments,
but you know, it's just like,
he's like, oh no, I'm pretty good.
I keep them.
And then it's like,
well, I mean, do you lie?
Yeah, but only from time to time.
It's like, well, then you haven't
kept the Ten Commandments.
But that kind of goes back
to the idea of wanting
to justify your own actions.
And that's what people want to do.
And honestly,
even when it comes
to an unsafe person,
they have to be willing
to acknowledge their sin.
And sometimes they'll say,
yes, there's none righteous,
no, not one.
They'll agree,
yes, we're all sinners.
They usually agree.
But if you get to Revelation 21a,
they don't always agree
that liars go to hell
after they die.
Because now that hits
a little bit too close to home, right?
It's just like,
oh, wait, no, no, no.
I mean, I agreed with you
on murderers and sorcerers
and liars?
No, I don't think so.
It's like, well, once again,
you're putting God on judgment then
and saying, well, God's ways
are unequal or not fair or not right.
But God's ways are always equal
and they're always fair.
Go back to Psalm 32, verse 6.
Psalm 32, verse 6.
For this shall everyone
that is godly pray unto thee
in a time when thou mayest be found.
And there's a couple of things
to notice in what I just read
that there is a time
when God can be found.
There is a time
when God cannot be found, right?
Because He's saying we're going to
pray to Him in a time
when He may be found.
And the indication is that,
you know, when we mess up,
God's willing to forgive us.
But you know what?
God's not Santa Claus, right?
God's not just,
well, no matter what you do,
you know, I'll give you something, right?
It's just like,
that's not the way God is.
It's like God has rules
that He expects you to obey.
And you know what?
Oftentimes people treat God
like He's Santa Claus or something,
where it's just like,
well, you know,
I'll just, you know,
ask for what I want
and then God's obligated
to give it to me.
But does that make any logical sense?
I mean, if you have a child
and your child does something
really wrong.
Let's say your child
just starts screaming
and just like throws something at you.
And then 30 seconds later,
you know, I want ice cream.
You're not getting ice cream.
It's like, are you kidding me, right?
I mean, it doesn't,
I mean, we're children of God
when we get saved.
So God is going to treat us
like, you know,
we would treat our children.
I mean, He's obviously a loving Father
and a perfect Father.
But what I'm saying is,
you know, we wouldn't do that
with our kids.
I mean, if they do wrong,
we're not just going to listen
to everything they say.
It's like, no,
you need to learn to obey me first.
Okay?
And the indication is
there is a time
when God can be found,
but there is a time
when He can no longer be found.
Now, oftentimes we think of this
in terms of people
that are reprobates before salvation
and there's a time
when God can no longer be found.
But I don't really think
that this is referring
to reprobates here
in verse number six.
I think what it's saying is this,
that, you know,
God is there for us,
but, you know,
you can't just be like King Saul
who didn't really mean it,
but basically he got caught
and he was guilty
and then it's just like,
oh, you know,
forgive me now.
It's like, well,
you could have come clean
at the beginning,
but you tried to hide your sin
and God can no longer be found.
You've been rejected.
But what it also says is,
everyone that is godly
shall pray unto thee
in a time when thou mayest
be found.
Well, this is also linked
with committing sins
and acknowledging sins.
So the indication is
that someone who is godly
is someone that can commit sins.
Right?
Because it talks about
getting your sins
and getting right with God
and, you know,
someone that is godly
does not mean that they're sinless
because none of us are sinless.
Right?
But what the Bible says is
someone who's willing
to just get right with God
when they actually mess up
and actually move on
and make the changes.
That's what the Bible
would define here in verse six.
And then it says,
surely in the floods
of great waters
they shall not come nigh unto him.
Thou art my hiding place.
Thou shalt preserve me
from trouble.
Thou shalt compass me about
with songs of deliverance,
Selah.
So the Bible mentions here
songs of deliverance.
Songs of deliverance.
Now, the book of Psalms
is a song book.
So he's basically singing
about songs of deliverance.
And you say,
well, what exactly does that mean?
Well, I believe the Bible's
indicating that the songs
we sing are songs of deliverance
or they should be.
Now, there's a couple ways
to look at this
and I want to just kind of
compare a song in our hymnal
versus a common Christian
rock song, okay?
Here's what it says
in Sound the Battle Cry.
Sound the battle cry.
See the foe is nigh.
The foe would be the enemy.
Raise the standard high
for the Lord.
Gird your armor on.
Stand firm, everyone.
Rest your cause
upon his holy word.
It talks about being
delivered from the enemy.
Delivered from a foe.
Well, that sounds like
a song of deliverance.
You're singing about basically
God, protect us and help us
and fight our fight
and be on our side
and help us in this battle.
Sounds like a song
of deliverance.
Roused in soldiers
rally round the banner.
Ready, steady,
pass the word along.
Onward, forward,
shadow out of Hosanna,
Christ is captain
of the mighty throng.
Strong to meet the foe,
marching on we go
while our cause we know
must prevail.
Shield and banner bright,
gleaming in the light,
battling for the right
we ne'er can fill.
Sounds like there's
a spiritual fight going on.
And look, if you're saved,
you are in spiritual warfare.
Now, hopefully you realize that.
Whether you realize it or not,
I mean, you're enlisted
for the fight.
God expects you
to go out to battle.
And the truth is, though,
that you know what?
When you're serving God,
there's gonna be enemies.
And we need deliverance
sometimes from those enemies.
We need protection
from those enemies
and things that would
actually fight against us.
And in certain times,
it might not be
an individual person
that's fighting against us,
but it's the devil
using certain things
to actually fight against us.
I mean, now's a good time
to sing songs of deliverance.
I mean, these are difficult times
in 2021 compared to 2011.
I mean, it's a much more
difficult world right now
than it was 10 years ago.
I'd imagine in another 10 years,
it's not gonna get better.
Right?
It's gonna get more difficult.
Right?
And so songs of deliverance
are very important.
It says here,
O thou God of all,
hear us when we call.
Help us one and all
by thy grace.
When the battle's done
and the victory's won,
may we wear the crown
before thy face.
You say, Brother Stuckey,
when is the battle done?
The battle is done
once you've passed away
and you're in heaven.
That is when your battle is over.
That is when you're no longer
enlisted for war for God.
Now, we're gonna have enemies,
and this is basically
a song of deliverance
praying for God's protection,
but let's compare it
to a common Christian song,
Our God is an Awesome God.
Who knows this song?
Our God is an Awesome God.
Okay?
Now, here's how
Our God is an Awesome God.
It says,
Our God is an Awesome God.
He reigns from heaven above
with wisdom, power, and love.
Our God is an Awesome God.
He reigns from heaven above
with wisdom, power, and love.
Our God is an Awesome God.
Wow, really deep lyrics.
Right?
Just repeating the same thing
over and over again.
Now, you say,
Brother Stuckey,
what's wrong with that song?
There's nothing wrong with it.
There's nothing right
about it either.
You say,
What are you saying,
Brother Stuckey?
Well, I mean,
Our God is an Awesome God.
That's true.
Our God is an Awesome God.
Right?
I mean,
He reigns from heaven above.
Doesn't God reign
from heaven above?
Well, that's true.
Right?
With wisdom, power, and love.
You say,
But what's the problem then?
Well, the problem is
it's not really saying anything.
Here's the problem.
There's this giant prayer breakfast
between the Hindus,
the Buddhists,
the Muslims,
the Jews,
and the Christians,
and they could sing this song,
Our God is an Awesome God.
He reigns.
It's like,
All right, you know,
let's bring up the Buddhists
to lead the next song.
Our God is an Awesome God.
He reigns from,
with His orange, you know,
like monk suit,
and His shaved head,
and everything like that.
It's all right.
Great job.
You know, for the next verse.
Right?
We got through one,
but for the next verse,
let's bring up the Muslim.
Our God is an Awesome.
This is the problem with modern day Christianity.
Right.
It's not very specific at all.
Let me give you an example.
If I got up here and I screamed,
Sin is bad.
Does anybody disagree with that statement?
No.
Do Muslims disagree with that statement?
No.
Do Hindus disagree with that statement?
No.
Now, they might define sin differently than we would,
but they're not going to disagree with that statement.
I mean, sin is still bad in 2021.
Wow.
That's a really thought-provoking sermon.
That's really deep.
Way to really step on some toes,
Brother Stocky, man.
Half the church is going to leave.
Sin is still bad.
I don't care what anybody says.
Sin will still be bad in another 20 years.
Right.
Well, no one's arguing that.
Right.
But see, that's the problem with modern day Christianity
is because they don't actually say anything.
Right.
I mean, Joel Osteen,
he's very popular.
You say, why?
He literally doesn't say anything.
Now, if you ever listen to him preach,
which I'm not recommending,
but he doesn't really say anything wrong.
I mean, usually what he's saying is correct,
but he's not actually saying anything.
And see, the point of actually preaching the Word of God
is to actually teach people something.
And if you don't actually say anything
and you're not specific about it,
you know what?
It's not going to matter.
I mean, look, if I preach a sermon on loving God,
of course, you know, hey, if I say we ought to love God,
it's like, well, that's a true statement.
But you've got to actually explain what that means.
Not just say, hey, we ought to love God in 2021
and never explain anything.
And people walk out saying, that's right,
we should love God.
But they don't realize they need to start reading their Bibles.
They don't realize they need to start keeping God's commandments.
Right.
So our hymnal here,
this is not the Word of God.
Right.
Obviously, we know that,
but this is sort of the standard in our types of churches.
Like, this specific hymnal is commonly used
because it's a very good hymnal.
But it's also not the Word of God.
I'm not claiming this is perfect.
You know, for example,
song number, let's see,
73, I think it is.
No, not 73.
That's the song.
That's a good song.
We just sang that song.
That's a good song.
Okay.
72.
That's the song.
Okay.
We will never sing song number 72 in our church.
You say, why?
Well, this is how it starts.
Jesus may come today.
Glad day, glad day.
You know, why don't we sing that song?
Because Jesus is not coming today.
It's just wrong.
It's a very heavy pre-trib rapture song, right,
which is very clear that it's teaching a pre-trib rapture song.
Or we don't sing the song Victory in Jesus,
which is a common song.
And Victory in Jesus has a great tune.
I think everybody loves the melody to it.
And we do actually have Victory in Jesus 2.0 here
where the words are changed.
But, you know, another song we don't sing is, you know,
the Lily of the Valley is a song that's, you know,
because Jesus is not the Lily of the Valley in the Song of Solomon.
And you know what?
Most songs we do sing,
but there are a handful of songs where, you know,
we don't sing them.
And then there's certain other songs as we talk about things
where sometimes you get to the gray area
because sometimes we're trying to figure out,
well, what did this person mean when he wrote this?
And some of these songs, some of them to me,
sometimes sound kind of Calvinistic.
And depending on what church you're at,
they might have certain songs that, you know,
they do sing or don't sing.
Some of them are kind of gray area.
So when you sing songs of deliverance in your free time,
use your brain also.
I'm not saying just sing every single word.
Jesus may come today, but it's like, no.
I mean, use your brain when you're reading this,
just like when you're reading the Bible.
You need to make sure you're paying attention.
But what I'm saying is, it's a good song book.
And the songs we sing, they should actually teach doctrine
and teach the things we believe.
They should be songs that are actually edifying to us.
Okay?
And look, just because a song has a good tune,
that doesn't mean that we're going to sing that song.
Victory in Jesus has a great tune.
It's got one of the best tunes in our hymnal.
I think everybody would agree with that.
I mean, that's the reason why it's so popular,
but it also very clearly says that Repented of My Sins
and won the victory.
Now, there are certain other songs where basically,
the song has already been edited before it was put in here.
We're actually in the original, it mentioned repentance,
but then it doesn't in our hymnal.
And that goes down to the gray area as well,
whether or not you...
I mean, I don't think that most of the authors
that wrote these songs were actually saved personally.
But if they're saying good doctrine,
then I think it's okay.
You know, Hark the Herald Angels Sing,
I think it's a great song, right?
But Charles Wesley, I mean, I grew up United Methodists.
Him and John Wesley are the ones
that founded the United Methodists.
You know, more primarily John Wesley,
but believed in loss of salvation and things like that.
But he's not saying anything wrong in that song
that I'm aware of at least, okay?
And sometimes it's tough,
because sometimes on the songs, I'm not really sure.
Sometimes I miss something.
Sometimes the song leaders point something out,
like, hey, that song, it's kind of gray area there.
It's unclear.
And sometimes we're scheduled to sing something,
and then we don't end up singing it
because it's like, oh, there's something
that's kind of questionable, right?
Now, turn your Bible to Psalm 32, Psalm 32.
Psalm 32, verse 8.
But the point is just that the songs that we sing
should be good doctrinal songs, not just a catchy tune.
Obviously, Our God is an Awesome God is a catchy tune
because people love it.
It's like, I mean, Baby Shark, Our God is an Awesome God,
it's like those two are like the catchy songs.
It's like, it's the Baby Shark of Christianity.
Right there, right?
I mean, it's the Baby Shark of Christianity.
It's got that catchy beat that everybody loves to repeat
and wants to hear it.
It's the Baby Shark of Christianity, right?
But just because it's got a catchy beat
doesn't mean that, you know, we're going to sing it, okay?
Psalm 32, verse 8.
I will instruct thee and teach thee
in the way which thou shalt go.
I will guide thee with mine eye.
Now, people use verses like this
when it talks about guiding with mine eye.
And, you know, the Bible is using symbolism here,
and I'll explain what it's talking about,
but you see these things like, who knows the eye of providence?
You know what I'm talking about?
You see that giant eye, it's like this satanic,
the Illuminati, Masonic,
all that sort of conspiracy theory stuff,
where it's got like this giant eye
that's kind of like looking over everything that's taking place.
It's actually a religion in Vietnam,
Cao Dai, which has like three or four million people,
and it's kind of a quick-growing religion.
It's kind of a new one.
And in their church, they have this giant eye up above
while they're singing songs or doing whatever
during their worship service or whatever they call it.
But they've got this giant eye that you can see up above.
They also have snakes around all of the...
Wouldn't that be interesting?
Instead of this backdrop, I'm up here preaching,
and you see this giant eye, and you're just like,
man, I think that eye is staring at me.
Like, this is creepy, right?
And they've got snakes everywhere and everything.
But they'll try to use verses like this,
people that want to try to say they're Christian,
but then they're into the Illuminati and stuff like that,
and say, well, see, I mean, God's going to guide you with His eye, okay?
Well, let me explain what that means.
The symbolism is this.
God, as we talked about during the first sermon,
He sees the end of something.
Like us, our vision is only so far, right?
No matter how...
I mean, I'm sure everybody in this room has better eyesight than me.
I mean, if I take these glasses off,
it's like, I got to...
I mean, I see colors, so I can see that,
but I got to watch where I'm going, right?
I don't have very good vision.
But no matter how good your vision is,
you can't see one mile in front of you, right?
I mean, your vision only goes so far.
Twenty-twenty vision only takes you so far.
But see, God knows the exact end of everything.
And it's not really speaking about a physical distance.
It's speaking about in terms of time.
Where our eye looks this far down the road,
God looks at the next hundred years.
So kind of a practical example of this is,
let's say you apply for two jobs.
Let's say you're looking for a new job,
and you apply for two jobs.
And you compare these two jobs,
and you're not really sure.
Maybe this job pays a little bit more money.
Well, that's a benefit, right?
But maybe this job has a bit better of a work schedule, right?
And then you're comparing all these different things,
room for advancement, job stability,
and you look at it, and you know what?
You might make a decision.
I think this is the best one.
This is the one I'm going to want to go for.
But God also sees the end of the matter.
Sometimes God might look at something and say,
you know what?
I'm going to shut down this and actually open up this
because, you know what?
I can see why you think it's better,
but it's actually not going to be better.
It's actually going to be better in the long run.
And here's the thing.
None of us have this vision 20 years down the road.
We don't know what's going to take place.
I use the example just because from college,
this was very specific in West Virginia,
that in the United States, petroleum engineering
was the best engineering degree to get,
at least in terms of money.
The one downfall is when you're in your early stages,
you have to be on an oil rig sometimes for a couple weeks.
You could be away from your family,
which is a pretty big negative,
obviously a big negative for church.
But at least in terms of finances,
it seemed like nothing is going to stop petroleum engineering
because obviously gasoline is really important.
But then you got a bunch of communists
in the office in America, and they say,
no, we've got to protect the environment.
You can no longer drill for oil.
Well, that pretty much makes your career
kind of plummet into the ground, right?
It's just like it used to be very valuable
because there's lots of oil,
but if they say, well, you can't drill any oil,
then it's like, well, what am I going to do now
because that's what I have my degree in, right?
No one would have foreseen that, though,
when I was in college.
I mean, that was 20 years ago.
You wouldn't have expected that, right?
The point is this. Things change.
I mean, you just look at the way computers are and technology.
You know what the truth is?
Some jobs could become obsolete in 5 years or 10 years.
I mean, the way technology is moving,
there are going to probably be jobs
that are obsolete or useless 10 years from now,
which right now we don't necessarily see that,
but they make some sort of new invention or whatever,
and all of a sudden certain jobs
just don't really have that much of a purpose now
because it's all automated or it's done with robotics
or computers or whatever,
and so the idea is this, that with our lives,
we can only see so far down the road,
and we make decisions based on the evidence we have
and we should based on what the Bible says,
but we also are looking toward the future of,
well, what's going to be best for me, right,
as long as it's not sinful,
but if you're right with God,
God can look down at you and say, you know what?
You're right with me. You pray to me.
You confess your sin to me. You're serving me.
You know what? I'm glad that you're serving me,
and you have this desire, but you know what?
It's not going to be the best,
and God shuts that door and leads you down the other path,
but see, the problem is,
if you're allowing yourself to guide yourself,
when you go down the wrong path,
you're just going to keep going down the wrong path,
and I do believe that God sometimes looks down at us
when we're not living a godly life,
and he says, you know what?
You're not listening to any of my rules anyway.
It's just like, I'll just kind of let you go down that road,
and sometimes we just have to learn by hitting rock bottom, right?
And so the idea is just that, you know what?
God is merciful, and he loves us.
I mean, it's for our benefit to pray to God.
I mean, what a friend we have in Jesus.
I mean, we really believe this, right?
We believe that God is our friend.
He wants to help us out.
He wants us to be successful.
He wants us to do well in life, and you know what?
The truth is, none of us are smart enough
to see into the future.
We do not know what's going to happen
5, 10, 15, 20 years from now,
so we better make sure that God is the one
who's actually guiding us.
Verse 9,
Be not as the horse or as the mule,
which have no understanding,
whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle,
lest they come near unto thee.
And what the Bible is saying here is,
you know, that with horses and mules,
you'll put the bit in their mouth,
and you can turn about their whole body,
as the Bible says.
The Bible says, don't be like an animal.
We're basically, the only way God says,
the only way I can get you to listen to me
is if I yank you,
or throw you inside of a blue whale,
or throw you inside of a whale.
I don't know if a blue whale,
but throw you inside of a whale, Jonah,
and then you're going to start listening to me.
And he's like, that's the only way
you're going to come near unto thee, right?
Well, we should just come near unto God every day
and just pray to God and say,
God, please guide me.
Otherwise, you know,
God sometimes has to yank us to get ahold of us.
And look, I'm preaching these things,
but you know what?
I'm guilty myself.
It's like, I don't spend enough time in prayer.
I don't come to God enough.
And you know what?
When you think of these things,
it's like, how foolish was I not to spend more time in prayer
when God can help me,
prevent me from having all these problems in my life?
It's like, maybe I feel like I'm too busy
for these 15 minutes,
but these 15 minutes in the long run
are really going to benefit me
as God basically directs my path the right way.
But don't be like a horse
where God has to basically yank you all the time
just to get you to listen.
Many sorrows shall be to the wicked,
but he that trusteth in the Lord,
mercy shall compass him about.
What about if you don't trust in the Lord, though?
What if you're saved,
you've trusted on God for salvation,
but every decision you make in life,
you're just trusting your own thoughts?
Well, good luck, right?
You could end up having the same sorrows
and the misery of the wicked
if you just trust yourself with your life.
I mean, isn't it foolish to trust God
with our eternal salvation,
but then just say,
well, I can't trust God, though,
with the decisions of my life?
I mean, I've got to just make those decisions for myself.
I mean, I know God says this,
but I mean, it's just not the best thing.
I mean, it's foolish.
Because to get saved,
we've got to put all of our trust on Jesus Christ
and take it away from ourselves.
But unfortunately, oftentimes as people,
we trust in ourselves for our lives.
We don't just go to God
and ask Him to guide us in the right path.
Verse 11,
Be glad in the Lord,
and rejoice, ye righteous,
and shout for joy,
all ye that are upright in heart.
And it kind of goes back to what I said earlier,
where basically, you know, be glad in the Lord.
It's talked about at the beginning,
you're blessed if you're saved.
And you know what?
No matter how bad life gets,
you can still rejoice in the fact
that you're saved here today.
If you had the worst life on earth,
worst life in terms of everything goes wrong for you.
You know, you just,
your health goes bad,
your finances are a mess,
and everything in life goes wrong,
but then you die and go to heaven.
Isn't that better than being the richest,
most famous, most powerful person,
most respected person in this world,
but then you die and go to hell?
And so here's the thing.
You know what?
Let's say 1% of this world is saved.
I always say 1%.
I personally think it's less.
I try to be optimistic, right?
Because I just think in my head,
and I could be wrong,
but I just kind of assume in Muslim countries
the percentage is going to be a lot less,
and in other countries where,
I mean, Christianity is very open here,
and it's very small.
I figure in Muslim countries
and Hindu countries and Buddhist countries
the percentage is going to be super low.
It's my opinion.
I could be wrong.
I don't know.
But let's say 1% of this world is saved.
Well, then you're basically living better
than 99% of the world at the very least.
I mean, your life is truly blessed just being saved.
I mean, you're in the top 1% of this world
even if everything goes wrong,
and oftentimes we don't look at it like that
because we just kind of go about our lives.
We just think about all the problems that we have,
and look, I do the same thing,
but an honest point of reflection
is just going back to the fact,
you know, man, I'm saved, right?
You can enjoy in the fact that you're saved,
and no matter what goes wrong around us,
because things go wrong around us,
and the world is so scared about everything.
But when you're saved,
I mean, you don't have to have the same perspective as them.
You can realize that, you know,
even if everything goes wrong, right,
even if everything goes wrong, World War III strikes,
that doesn't change my salvation.
I'm still saved.
I mean, we don't know what's going to happen.
Let's say that in the next five years,
this country goes through all kinds of wars
and gets bombed,
and it becomes like the most messed up country,
the poorest country.
Well, that doesn't change the fact that you're saved.
And even if life gets very difficult,
you're still living a better life.
You know, this is honestly something that, you know,
we should really think about,
especially over the last year and a half that's gone by,
because, you know, I know at least in Pampanga,
you know, we take our kids to,
like I took, you know, my kids to 7-Eleven yesterday.
My daughter did not want to leave 7-Eleven.
She thinks it's like the greatest thing in the world,
because she's not really used to grocery stores, you know,
and then there's like SM, Televistaga,
and we can take kids and stuff,
and they think it's like the greatest thing in the world, right?
All these toys and everything like that,
and it's just like, you know, they're so thankful.
Well, I mean, the last year and a half has been very difficult,
especially if you have young children,
and even more specifically, I would say for moms,
having young children,
because there's a lot of things you can't do.
You know, we need to go back to the fact and realize,
you know what?
I'm still very blessed, because I'm saved.
And, you know, it's not just the fact that we're saved.
I mean, we do live in a country where,
even though things are not as easy as they were five years ago,
you're freely allowed to read the Bible.
This is not Egypt, where God's people were not able to serve God.
I mean, even if things are a lot more difficult,
we're still able to read the Bible.
There's no law against praying to God.
There's no law against evangelism.
We can preach the gospel to anyone we want.
We can preach the gospel to Muslims all the time here.
Now, we couldn't do that in Iraq.
We couldn't do that in Iran, but we can do that here.
Right?
So, honestly, there's a lot of things that we should feel like
we're really blessed.
The fact that we're saved, but also just the fact that,
you know what, honestly, we're able to freely serve God.
Anyway, no matter what goes wrong in our life,
God's still providing our needs, and our lives are not as bad.
The key really is, though, taking the focus off the problems
and just thinking about the blessings God has actually given us in life.
Let's close in with 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 all of us apply this to our lives, including myself.
Help us to be people that are filled full of joy and are happy to serve you.
And, you know, that are happy that even if everything works out wrong,
you know, we're still able to serve you and we're saved.
Help us to be thankful for those things, God.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Oh come, first stanza, ready?
Sing.
For the King of Angels
Oh come, let us adore Him
Christ the Lord
Sing it.
Sing, O King of Angels
Sing in exultation
Oh, sing, O infant,
of heaven above
Glory to God
Glory in the highest
Oh come, let us adore Him
Christ the Lord
One last
Glory, glory, glory in Thee
For this happy morning
Oh Jesus, give me
all glory
Where of the fire
now in flesh adhering
Oh come, let us adore Him
Christ the Lord
Amen.