All right, we're here in Psalm chapter 40, and I'm not for sure what's going on, but
I saw them carrying Mary on this big thing, so some sort of idolatrous Catholic festivals
going on outside.
But anyways, we're here in Psalm 40, and the name of the sermon is, Waiting Patiently
for the Lord, Waiting Patiently for the Lord.
And in verse number one, the Bible reads, I waited patiently for the Lord, and He
inclined onto me and heard my cry.
Now I want to give you an example in the Bible of being very patient for God's will.
Go to Genesis chapter 25 in your Bible, Genesis chapter 25, Genesis chapter 25.
And I'm going to show you an example where this kind of shows us the importance of when
we read the Bible to really pay attention to what we're reading and not just let our
minds kind of just read it, but not really focus on it.
Notice what it says here in Genesis 25 verse 20, and Isaac was 40 years old when
he took Rebekah the wife, the daughter of Bethel, the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister
to Laban the Syrian.
Now during this time, people would live longer time.
You know, Abraham, I think, was 175, and then Isaac, and afterwards, they lived longer
lives than they do today.
So getting married at 40 was probably not that, you know, late in life, but he gets
married at 40, and it says he marries Rebekah.
Then it says here in verse 21, and Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because she
was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
And of course, when you first get married, one of the big things that you want is
to have a family.
Right?
You pray that God will bless you.
You pray that God's going to give you a child, and when you look at verse 21, if you just
read that, what it sounds like is, hey, you know what, Isaac and Rebekah, they get married.
They don't have kids immediately.
She's barren.
They pray, and then God answers the prayer.
And that is what is being said, but it's not just like that because let's keep
reading here.
Verse 22, and the children struggled together within her, and she said, if it be so,
why am I thus?
And she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said unto her, two nations are
in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one
people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elders shall serve the younger.
This is the story of Jacob and Esau.
And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
And the first came out red all over like in hairy garment, and they called his name
Esau.
And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel, and his
name was called Jacob, and Isaac was three score years old when she bared them.
Now, wait a minute.
At what age did Isaac get married?
Forty.
What is three score?
Score is 20.
So three times 20 is 60.
So he gets married at 40, and his wife is barren, and he's praying, he entreats
the Lord.
And entreating the Lord is not just praying, it's where you're really heavily praying
for something.
You know, hopefully we all pray on a daily basis, but if something's really, really
important to you, it's something you're begging God for, you're asking, you know, God,
please bless me in this way.
So this is a big prayer request that they have, and when he's 60 years old is when
she bares them.
So this is a prayer request that is answered in about 20 years, or 19 years, because,
you know, 60 years old, maybe after the first six months they don't have a child
and then they're praying about it or whatever.
But I mean, when you just read verse 21, what it sounds like is they pray and God
answers.
And that is true, but not just like that.
And we've got to realize that, you know what, God is not like Santa Claus, where he just
gives you whatever he wants.
It's like, yes, I've been a good boy, just give me this, right?
It's like, no, I mean, you can pray about things to God, and here's the thing, it
might not be as well, or it might not be as well immediately.
And maybe time goes by.
Well, here's an example, 20 years that they're waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting.
They're entreating the Lord, entreating the Lord day after day after day after day.
What you're seeing is waiting patiently on God's will.
Go back to Psalm 40, Psalm 40.
Now, that is actually something that my wife and I can partially relate to because, you
know, when we got married, you know, we, I guess, just had the general expectation
we're just going to have kids immediately because I had friends who got married, and
then it's like a month later or, you know, two months later, like, hey, you know,
my wife's expecting.
And so, I thought there was a good chance, you know, we get married, you know, we're
expecting to have children, we're hoping to have children, and then we didn't have
children for, it's not like it was a super long time, but it was, you know, two and
a half years, and to us, it felt like a long time.
Now, that's not 20 years.
I mean, 20 years, it's like, that would be very, very difficult, but it didn't just
come immediately.
Now, God did answer that prayer, and of course, you know, we don't regret anything,
you know, with all of the children that God has blessed us with, but I'm just saying,
God can answer your prayers, it does not mean it's going to be immediate though.
It's in God's timing.
And we don't know the mind of the Lord, you know, it's not like we have a full
comprehension of why God allows things to take place and other things not to take
place.
I mean, you think back to Abraham, right, the father of Isaac, and Abraham and Sarah,
they waited a really long time, right?
And so we don't always know the mind of the Lord or why things happen, but the Bible
speaks here in Psalm 40 about waiting patiently for the Lord.
Verse two, he brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay and
set my feet upon a rock and established my goings.
And there's a lot of symbolism here, and it says first, a horrible pit.
Now a pit is like a really deep ditch, right?
And so you're seeing a horrible pit, and it would be like in a situation, let's say
that you were, you know, I don't know, the ground caved in and you fell down like 20
feet, right, or 10 meters or whatever, and then it's not like there's a ladder inside
to get you out.
You're stuck.
There's nothing you can do, right?
I mean, no matter how athletic you are, you're not going to jump out of that pit.
There's no way.
You're stuck in it, right?
That's the symbolism that's being mentioned.
You're stuck so far down where it's like, help, help, help, and you can't do anything.
Then it says the miry clay.
You say, what is miry clay?
Well, the word mire is a stretch of swampy or boggy ground.
Clay is a stiff, sticky, fine-grained earth, typically yellow, red, or bluish gray in
color and often forming an impermeable layer in the soil.
It can be molded when wet and is dried and baked to make bricks, pottery, and ceramics.
Miry clay, which is a combination of those, what I read is it's similar to quicksand.
I've never been in quicksand before, thankfully, from everything I've heard about it, but it's
like you get stuck in quicksand, and then when you try to fight, you just go down
deeper.
So, miry clay, I would assume, is the same thing that he's trying to bring forth
where basically, if you're in a bottomless pit, you can't get out.
If you're in miry clay and your feet are stuck, you can't get out.
You're stuck and you're fighting, and you just get worse and worse and worse.
And here's the thing, when people try to get out of disastrous situations in their
life and they do it on their own without God's help, they just get in a bigger and
a bigger and a bigger mess.
And what the psalmist is saying here is that, you know what, I prayed to the Lord.
I was stuck in a horrible pit in miry clay.
I couldn't do anything, and what did I do?
I cried unto God.
Plenty of examples in the Bible.
You think of Jonah and the whale, right?
It's like if you wake up inside of a blue whale's or a whale's belly or a large fish's
belly or whatever, it's like, God help me.
I'm in a, I'm in miry clay right now.
I'm in a horrible pit.
Like please get me out.
And what the reality is, oftentimes we have to hit rock bottom where we cannot figure
it out on our own.
And then we just finally get down and say, God, please, right, I need your help.
And I've noticed things in my life where I feel like God is allowing my patients to
be tested or seeing like if I'm going to rely on Him, because our natural tendency
is that when we get in trouble, we try to do it on our own, right?
And then when we can't figure it out, what do we do?
Then we say, God, can you please help me?
Instead of going to God first.
I mean, I am guilty of that.
I think of an example, several years ago, before we came to the Philippines, we're doing
the first missions trip in April of 2018.
And I remember that the day before, I was just gathering all the stuff together and
we had a men's preaching night.
And I remember I couldn't find my passport.
I'm like, what?
Because you know what?
I keep my passport in the same spot all the time.
And I'm like, what happened?
Where is it?
Right?
And I'm like, you know what?
I'm not going to go in all the details, but the thing is basically, I tried to figure
it out.
I got really frustrated.
And then it's like, my wife and I are praying about it.
And then once we pray about it, it's like, boom, right there, you find it.
And it's kind of like, why didn't I just go to God at the beginning instead of letting
my heart go to like 500 beats per minute, right?
But that's kind of the tendency we have to use God as a last resort.
Anyway, thankfully, God is there for us, even if He's the last resort.
But why not just use Him as a first resort before we'd get deeper and deeper and deeper
in that miry clay?
And then it says, and set my feet upon a rock and establish my goings.
Now, there's a couple of ways that you can look at this phrase, set my feet upon
a rock.
And throughout the Bible, I'm not going to go to verses, but the rock is referring
to the Lord, right?
We sing songs like, on the solid rock I stand, right?
So throughout the Bible, the rock is referring to the Lord.
And so I mean, over and over again in the Bible.
And so when it comes to salvation, it's kind of like if you try to work your way to heaven,
which is what people try to do, imagine being in quicksand or miry clay, and you're
trying and trying to get out and when you think you're getting further up, then
all of a sudden you go down.
Well, that's kind of the way it is with people trying to work their way to heaven.
Because every good thing you do does nothing to get rid of the bad things.
So for example, if you've committed one lie in your life, and that's it, and then you
do 100 good things the next day, but you tell one more lie, well, now you're a little
bit further in trouble, right?
Because now you're held accountable for another sin and you didn't get rid of the
first one.
Because the only way to do that is to set your feet upon a rock, right?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who died and paid for all of your sins.
Another way to look at this, which I think is kind of the more appropriate application
of the main thing we as believers should be looking at, is in our lives.
Obviously, to be saved, you set your feet upon a rock at one time.
You believed on Jesus, you were born into his family, you are now a child of God forever.
However, how are you living your life?
Are you trusting in the Lord or not?
In fact, go to Matthew 7.
Let me show you this.
Matthew 7, let me show it to myself because I want to add a verse here.
Matthew 7, and this is the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount and notice what it
says in Matthew 7, verse 24.
Therefore, and so therefore is a culmination of everything from the Sermon on the Mount
because it says, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine.
So the Sermon on the Mount is comprised of a lot of different sayings and passages.
So he's saying, therefore, everything I mentioned in Matthew 5 and 6 and 7, therefore, whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken them unto a wise man which
built his house upon a rock.
Now, this is not in reference to being saved.
It's not like to be saved, you've got to do every single thing that he said and never
mess up.
But what the Bible is saying is that when you hear the Word of God preached as a saved
person, if you're wise, what are you going to do?
You're going to apply those things.
You're going to do them.
You're going to do what the Bible says, right?
You know, you think about, you know, a house, you want to build it on a strong foundation.
You don't want to build it on a weak foundation.
Everything that's strong says upon a rock.
And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house
and it fell not.
Why did it not fall?
For it was founded upon a rock.
Now notice what it says in Matthew 7-27, and it says, or actually verse 26, and everyone
that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish
man which built his house upon the sand.
And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house
and it fell and great was the fall of it.
You got two groups of people, those that do the sayings, those that don't do the
sayings.
For both groups, the rain is going to descend.
For both groups, the winds are going to come.
For both groups, the floods are going to come.
You got storms coming from above, from the sides down below because storms come in every
direction in your life.
Anyway, here's the thing, you've heard the expression, when it rains, it pours.
When you get one problem, you get a bunch of problems at the same time.
Well, here's the thing, generally when it's raining, you got heavy winds and you
have flooding.
It all happens at one time.
The only difference between these two people is one group did the sayings of the Lord
and one didn't.
See, here's the thing, whether or not you obey what God says, it's not going to change
the fact you're going to have storms and problems in your life.
And here's the thing, when somebody's house falls apart in a storm, symbolically
speaking, your life is destroyed because we are the temple, the Holy Ghost.
We are like a building, right?
It's not the storm that made you fall.
What the storm did is reveal the problems with the foundation.
You understand what I'm saying?
See, here's the thing, when you go through problems in life, everybody thinks they're
spiritual.
All of us.
We naturally think that.
The proof of whether or not you're spiritual is not when things are going well.
I mean, if everything's going well in your life, it's very easy to be like praise
the Lord, you know, everything.
But what about when you're going through problems?
And when you go through storms, that will reveal how strong your house is.
That will reveal whether you've been doing what God says or not.
And here's the thing, if you haven't been doing the sayings of the Lord, you are going
to crumble during a storm.
There's no way to avoid them.
We are not a health, wealth, and prosperity gospel church.
That is a lie of the devil.
You can be perfectly right from God and have bad health, bad wealth, and all kinds
of problems.
And you can be very ungodly and everything's going well.
But here's the thing.
If you are doing the sayings of the Lord and you're obeying God's will and you're
trying to serve Him, it's not going to make the storm fun, but your house can withstand
through it.
And see, your life is going to be a series of ups and downs.
I mean, the floods come and it's terrible, but eventually the water goes down, right?
When it's raining really hard, it's miserable, but the rain stops.
The winds come and it's pretty rough, but the wind will end up going away.
Same thing with storms in our lives.
Turn back to Psalm 40, Psalm 40, Psalm chapter 40.
So the question is, are you doing what God says?
Are you founded upon a rock?
Now look, I know that when you got saved, you set your feet upon a rock.
You believed on Christ and you're saved, but here's the thing.
God wants more from your life than just to be saved.
And you ought to want more from your life too.
Because doing the sayings of the Lord, though difficult, will help you in your
life.
The storms are coming.
I mean, little kids can kind of just close their eyes and pretend that mom and dad didn't
see them.
I mean, they can do that in a foolish way, but it's like, come on.
If you're an adult, you realize God knows everything you're doing.
And you're a fool according to Matthew 7 if you don't do what God says.
You say, why?
Because your house is going to crumble during difficulties.
Now look, I'm not up here saying I perfectly follow everything God says.
I am a sinner saved by grace, just like all of you, and we are all trying to work
our way to get closer to God.
Obviously you're saved.
I'm not saying you've got to work your way to heaven, but if you want to draw close
to God, it's an uphill battle.
It's hard.
But here's the thing.
It's a warning for all of us that if we don't do what God says, we are going to crumble
when the storm ends up coming.
You can get a full sense of hope and feel like, hey, everything's going well in my
life.
I don't have to worry.
But wait a minute.
The storm is coming.
So if you're not doing what God says, you do have a reason to worry because when that
storm comes, what are you going to do?
Right?
The Bible says in Psalm 40 verse 3, And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise
unto our God.
Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord.
One of the big things that is kind of a distinguishing factor about someone who's
saved and wants to serve God versus someone who's not trying to serve God, whether they're
saved or not, is the music they like to listen to.
Right?
The Bible says, I would say probably all of us before we were saved probably did not
listen to good music.
I listen to rock music.
You know, I definitely listen to sinful music, probably just like all of us listen
to some sort of bad music.
And the Bible talks about he hath put a new song in your mouth.
Now here's the thing.
The songs that you sing after you're saved and after you start serving God ought to
be different than the ones before you were saved.
Right?
Because before I was saved, I listened to rock music.
And rock music glorifies, you know, drugs and sleeping around and all kinds of sin
and wickedness.
Now here's the thing, obviously after you're saved, it's like you ought to be listening
to something different.
And the Bible says he's put a new song in your mouth, even praise unto our God.
So the songs that we sing should be about what?
Praising God.
Not praising ourselves.
Not the lusts of the flesh.
Not the pride of life.
But songs that praise and glorify God.
Right?
Now in our hymnal, I'm not going to stand here and say that this, I mean, this is
not the Bible.
We understand that.
I'm not saying every song is perfect or anything like that.
You know, there's, I mean, the songs that we sung, the first song, to God be the
glory.
I was thinking about this when we were singing it.
And it's like, I love that part where it says the vilest offender who truly believes
because Jesus died for the sins of the whole world.
That moment from Jesus, a pardon received, doesn't that teach great doctrine?
That moment, not pagnamatai, but the moment you believe.
I mean, what a great song to sing, explaining salvation, praising God, to God be the glory.
That's a new song.
You say, why is it a new song?
Because before I was saved, if I sung this song, I'd be like, what kind of garbage is
this?
I'm just being realistic.
Before I was saved, I would not have liked this song.
I wouldn't have understood it.
It's like, what's the purpose?
It's like, what do you mean that moment?
What's the big deal?
But see, when you understand salvation and you're a soul winner, you're like, hey,
that's very significant.
That moment.
I mean, I stand up here today and know for sure that if I die, I'm going to go
to heaven.
Why?
Because that moment I believed on Christ 20 years ago, I was saved.
Those are powerful words in this song, and that's certainly a new song.
It's not something you're going to sing before you're saved.
See, the music you listen to afterwards and the music you sing afterwards should
just be completely different.
Now you say, Brother Stuckey, what are you trying to say?
Well, think about music that's very popular in the so-called Christian realm.
You know, CCM music, Christian contemporary music, right?
I remember when I first got saved, I was in college, and you know what?
When I first got saved, I felt very guilty about the music I listened to because I knew
it was wrong, and it didn't really bother me much before I was saved, but I felt guilty
about the words I was hearing.
And these other people that are in these Bible study groups, they're like, yeah, you
ought to try to listen to Christian music.
Check out this or that or that.
And I was thinking, man, I need to correct my music.
And I remember they invited me to a, it was a free Christian concert at the college.
So I was listening, there was like a Christian rock band that was playing there.
And so I went to it and I was thinking, yeah, I need to start listening to better
music.
And all the people that were in this band had long hair, and I get there and they're
just like this, and I'm thinking, it's not what I expected.
I was expecting something different.
And they look like ACDC.
It's like, they look like the, they look like Aerosmith.
It's like, they look like the Rolling Stones.
They don't listen.
They don't look anything different.
It's like, man, the lead singer looks like Axl Rose.
This is not what I expected.
I expected it would be different because I knew what I listened to was wrong.
I felt bad about the words.
I felt bad about everything.
I just, I just, I just knew.
I didn't know this Bible verse.
You could just tell.
I felt it.
And then all of a sudden, I show up and I was like, it wasn't really that much different
than the music I already listened to.
I mean, the tune was just a really loud, heavy metal sort of, you know, sound.
And what takes place with this Christian rock music is everybody has different types
of music they like, and there's like this so-called Christian version that's like
the same thing.
We just changed it to Christian lyrics.
You know, the Christian lyrics are not like that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
The Christian lyrics are very generic.
Why?
Because they're trying to reach everybody.
Look, think of my preaching.
Do you think that most people would like the sermons I preach?
Not a chance.
Do you think most people within the Christian realm would like this preaching?
Not a chance.
Well, here's the thing.
It's similar with music also, where it's like, you know what, if the world loves
the music, it doesn't make sense, because the world shouldn't understand.
I mean, they're just not going to understand this.
If you're not saved, you just don't understand this.
You're not going to understand the preaching.
You're not going to understand why do we sing these songs?
Why are we going soul-winning?
They're not going to get it.
Before I was saved, I didn't get it.
Right?
And the Bible says a new song even prays unto our God.
And so the music that you sing, the music that you're listening to, is it praising
God or is it just something that you find enjoyable to your ear?
The Bible says, many shall see it in fear and shall trust in the Lord.
I mean, this music is going to be so unique that people hear you singing it, and they're
amazed by it.
In fact, go to Acts 16.
Acts 16 reminds me of the story in Acts 16.
And obviously we know the story of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, but I want you
to notice something in Acts 16, verse 25, Acts 16, verse 25.
And here you've got Paul and Silas.
They've been arrested for preaching the Word of God.
They've been thrown in prison for preaching the Word of God.
Boy, we got it so tough in the Philippines.
I mean, persecution, people turn and say, we don't have any persecution here.
We're able to freely preach the gospel in this country.
We don't have to worry.
There's a lot of countries around the world, communist China, Muslim countries, you couldn't
preach the Word of God.
And here they preach the Word of God, they get arrested.
And notice what it says in verse 25.
And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners
heard them.
You say, Brother Stuckey, why are they up at midnight?
Well, I don't know if they were just singing until the entire time, or they're
like, hey, I can't really sleep on the ground, let's just praise God.
But they're singing praises to God, and the prisoners hear them.
There's probably a reason why, just a few verses later, he's like, what must I do
to be saved?
You know why?
Because he's hearing words that are praising God and talking about salvation, and then
he sees this miracle, he's like, what must I do to be saved?
Right?
I mean, they're literally planting seeds through the music.
You say, what?
Because the music itself had scripture in it, it had the Word of God in it, and it
left an imprint on his mind.
You say, why?
And it was a lot different than the Roman music or whatever that he would normally listen
to.
Look, a song like, our God is an awesome God, I mean, that's not going to cause
people to say, what must I do to be saved?
And what's it going to cause?
It's going to cause Hindus and Muslims saying, hey, we can all join together.
I agree, our God's an awesome God, right?
But wait a minute, God's music ought to be new, it ought to be different.
Go back to Psalm 40, Psalm 40.
That's certainly one of the big things, that when you get saved and you start serving
God, because music is powerful, it's hypnotic, and it is a hard thing to cast down.
You know what I mean?
It's tough.
It's really hard to change your music.
Now, I can stand up here today and honestly say, you know, the music I used to listen
to, I never listened to.
And honestly, I don't really feel a desire to listen to it either.
But that's because it's been a long time.
When I first got saved and I tried to get right with God, it was hard.
It was very hard to get rid of that music.
You say, why?
Because I had been listening to it for a long time.
And then, of course, when I did get rid of it, I'd still hear the songs at various places,
and it just kind of draws your heart back.
It takes a while to kind of get rid of that desire.
The encouraging thing is that when you overcome obstacles in your life, it's very hard, but
your desire toward it is going to go down with time.
I mean, if somebody quit smoking cigarettes 10 years ago, they probably don't feel much
of a desire to smoke anymore.
But I guarantee you, when they first stopped, it was probably very hard.
Psalm 40, verse 4, blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth
not the proud, nor such as turn aside the lies.
You say, wait a second, I thought we were supposed to respect everybody.
Well, apparently not respecting the proud.
Now, I don't think that this is directly referring to gay pride, but it's just like
they themselves are like, hey, we're proud of being homos, right?
Here's a quote from a singer named Taylor Swift, who I'm assuming she's famous here
too, right?
In the US, she's very famous.
And this is, I remember when she first became famous, because she was into the country
music scene.
And the country music scene is usually one that Christians will listen to in the US.
And you know, country music is very big where I'm from in West Virginia.
And she was known as like the conservative, good little Christian girl, upstanding.
She changed a lot since she first became popular, right?
And here's a quote from her, we don't need to share the same opinions as others, but
we need to be respectful.
Really?
Is that what the Word of God says?
The Bible says not to respect the proud.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I get it.
You don't believe in Islam, but you know, you need to respect Islam.
I don't respect that religion one bit.
Number one, it's leading billions of people to hell.
Number two, they blaspheme Jesus Christ.
There's a whole world of problems with that.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I mean, don't you, I get it, you're not a Hindu, but how
are you going to reach the Hindus unless you respect them?
You know how you reach the Hindus?
By knocking doors and asking, do you know for sure you're going to heaven?
Could I show you what the Bible says?
Now, I don't hate the individuals, but the false religion I do.
Right?
I mean, here's the thing, we talk to Catholics all the time.
Most of the people in this country are Catholic.
There's a multitude of very nice Catholic people, but I don't respect the religion.
I don't respect the religion that has a pope leading it that is just covering up all
this pedophilia in their church.
I don't respect the religion.
Right?
No, we don't have to respect every single thing.
No, if you disagree with something, it's actually okay not to respect it.
There are things that we should not respect.
And look, there are some things that we can agree to disagree on.
Certain things are not that important.
In my opinion, the greatest sport in the world is soccer.
And you know what?
Honestly, I'm very, very dogmatic about that.
And when I was younger, I would argue that with my friends.
It's like, I am extremely dogmatic, but you know what?
Honestly, it doesn't matter.
If you think basketball is a better sport, you're wrong, but it's okay.
If you think football is a better sport or baseball or whatever, I mean, I agree, football,
you're right, is the best.
But it's not that important.
We can agree to disagree on that.
It's not a big deal, right?
But whether or not Islam or Christianity is correct, that's something you can't agree
to disagree about.
It's like, no, and it's funny because I was given the Gospel to a Muslim, a group
of three Muslims at Astro Park several months back.
And they listened to me.
This one guy said, yeah, you know, I believe I ought to listen and be respectful to other
religions.
And during the conversation, I mean, he's listening to me, but I said, well, I mean,
let's just be honest with one another.
Your religion teaches I'm going to hell and my religion teaches you're going to hell.
Right?
So it's like, if you believe I'm going to hell, don't say that, well, you know, I
respect your religion.
It's like, no, you don't.
I mean, I'm glad he listened to me.
That's great of me.
I got to give the Gospel.
He didn't get saved, but I'm glad I got the chance to give him the Gospel.
But it's like, well, let's just be honest, though.
Muslims don't respect our religion.
They say we're going to hell.
And here's the thing.
Don't feel like as a Christian, I need to be the most loving person in the world and
respect everybody.
I mean, I got to respect and love the LGBT and everything like.
It's like, no, that's not what the Bible teaches.
Right?
And the Bible speaks about, blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust and respecteth
not the proud, nor such as turn aside delights.
That's what the Bible says.
The Lord, my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to us where they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee.
If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
The wonderful works of God cannot be numbered.
That reminds me of, go to John 21, a verse in John 21, John 21.
I mean, we have a small sample of the wonderful works of the Lord in this Word of God.
But the amount of wonderful works He's done is innumerable.
Even in our own personal lives, I mean, God has blessed us in a multitude of ways.
I look at my life sometimes and I, number one, if you're saved, you're one of the
one or two percent in the world or whatever.
I mean, honestly, even if you have the worst life of any saved person in the world,
you are truly blessed.
It's a fact.
And here's the thing, I don't have the worst life of any saved person in the world.
It's like, I've got a great church here of people that love God, that we can fellowship
with together.
Around the world, people don't have that.
We've got a lot of things God has blessed us with, right?
And the Bible says the things He's done cannot be numbered.
It's similar to John 21, verse 25.
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the witch, if they should be written,
every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should
be written.
Amen.
What a great verse to close out the book of John, right?
Go back to Psalm 40, Psalm 40, Psalm 40, verse 6.
Psalm 40, verse 6.
Sacrifice and offering, thou didst not desire.
Mine ears hast thou opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering, hast thou not required.
And so it's an interesting verse, and the Bible talks about sacrifices and offerings
He didn't desire.
There's other verses that are similar in the Bible, and here's the thing.
What the Bible says is, fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty
of man.
Right?
I want to give you an example to understand what He's talking about here.
God requires in terms of how much money we give the church, what percent, 10%.
That's the definition of the tithe, right?
10%, not 11, not 12, not 13, but 10%, right?
Another thing God requires is to read the Bible every day, right?
Read therein all the days of thy life.
So let's say there's a person that gave 90% of his money to church, and he never read
the Bible.
Nobody else gave 10% of his money to church, and he read the Bible every day.
Which one of those two is God happy with, according to the Word of God?
The one that gave 10% and read the Bible every day.
You say, why?
Because he obeyed both commandments.
I'm not saying you can't give extra.
Obviously, if you're generous, God can bless you.
We get that, but here's the thing.
Don't get this idea, I'm going to make all these sacrifices in my life, and I'm doing
this for God and this for God, but then you're just openly rejecting the things He directly
tells you to do.
Of course, anything you go above and beyond, of course God is going to be happy with this,
but if you are saying, well, I'm going to do this and this, all these things I've done
for God, but you don't do what God says, read the Bible every day, go to church every
week, then you're not right with God.
It doesn't matter how many sacrifices you make.
An example is King Saul in the Bible.
God said destroy all of them, all the animals, all the people, and then what happens?
Well, they keep the best of the animals to sacrifice to God.
Did God command you to do that?
He commands you to kill them, and then Saul's like, look at what I did that's so impressive.
It's like, no, you just disobeyed God, right?
God told you to kill them all.
You didn't do it, right?
Fear God and keep His commandments.
This is the whole duty of man.
Verse number seven, then said, I lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of
me.
I delight to do thy will, O my God, if thy law is within my heart.
You know, if God's law is in your heart, you will delight to do God's will.
If you are reading the Bible and memorizing the Bible and listening to good preaching
and hearing the Word of God, it's not a burden to serve God.
You delight to do it.
You enjoy doing it.
You're happy to do it.
It's not like, well, you know, oh, man, we got to go to church.
This is horrible.
It's like you're happy to go to church.
Oh, you got to go soul-wanting.
No, you're happy to do it if God's law is in your heart, right?
If you're reading the Bible, memorizing the Bible, and meditating on God's Word,
what happens is your desires match God's desires, and you will delight to do the will
of the Lord.
Isn't it true, though, that if you're a little bit backslidden, which all of us are sometimes,
you don't want to read the Bible?
You don't want to go soul-wanting, right?
But when you're right with God, and you're reading the Bible, and you're memorizing
the Bible, you want to do what God says.
You delight to do it.
You're excited to do it.
You're happy to do it.
But if you're not right with God, it's a burden.
And see, that really reveals your heart.
I mean, are you enjoying doing the things of God?
Because if you don't, then maybe you don't have God's law inside your heart.
I'm not saying you're not saved.
I'm saying you're not meditating on God's Word enough.
Because when you meditate upon God's Word, and read God's Word, and memorize God's Word,
it results in you wanting to do God's will.
Psalm 40, verse 8, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart.
Now, go to Psalm 119.
And I'll tell you the verse here in a second.
I want to see how many pages you turn, because Psalm 119 is so long.
It's all right, 25 pages I'll turn now, right?
Verse 11, Psalm 119, verse 11, thy word have I hidden mine heart, that I might not
sin against thee.
And one of the songs we have, I think this is in our hymnal, right?
It was thy word have I hidden mine heart.
I think that's in our hymnal somewhere.
I'm not 100% for sure.
But it's a song based on that verse.
And the Bible says that if you hide God's Word in your heart, it's going to help you not to sin against God.
And there's just something about it when you're reading God's Word.
I mean, this is not a normal book.
It is a spiritual book that goes beyond human explanation.
But when you're reading this and when you memorize this, I mean, it causes you to want to do what's right.
And it will help you to not sin against God.
There's many benefits about memorization, but that's one of those right there.
Go back to Psalm 40, Psalm 40.
Psalm 40, verse 9, I have preached righteousness in the great congregation.
Love not refrain my lips, O Lord, thou knowest.
Now, there's many things that you preach if you preach sermons.
But one thing is holiness, righteousness, a high level of living.
Not just your best life now, but actually preaching against sin and preaching about having a holy life.
And he says here, I preach righteousness in the great congregation.
And here's the thing.
If you have God's law within your heart, you cannot but speak the things which you have seen and heard.
Right?
You know, I heard Pastor Jimenez say this recently in a sermon where he's just like,
you don't have to tell me what you watch or, you know, what you do in your free time.
When I listen to you talk, I'll know.
And that's true because you can't help but speak the things you have seen and heard.
So if somebody's always talking about, you know, like, whatever, you know, movies, movies, movies,
it means they watch a lot of movies.
They're always talking about basketball, basketball, basketball.
They watch a lot of basketball because you can't help but speak the things that you have seen and heard.
And here he says, I preach righteousness in the great congregation.
Look, when you hide God's word in your heart, it's going to cause you to want to speak the truth.
And he preaches righteousness.
He doesn't hold back.
Because when you're memorizing God's word, you just can't help but just say everything the Bible says.
Right? I mean, I preach sermons, and I realize a lot of things I say offend a lot of people.
But I can't hold back the message.
I know what the Bible says, and I've got to preach the truth.
I can't just get up here and just preach a 25-part series on joy, joy, joy.
And after that, we'll have a 25-part series on happiness.
Look, those things are good to preach.
I'm not saying you just preach negativeness, but here's the thing.
There's a wrong balance in today's world in sermons.
It's all positive, positive, positive.
You say, why?
Because that brings more people in.
It brings more money in.
Right?
But I can't help but speak the things I've seen and heard.
He says, I preach righteousness in the great congregation.
By the way, it doesn't say how big the congregation is.
But this is a great congregation here.
You say, why?
Because our church goes soul winning every single week.
Because people are trying to serve God and do right.
Whether it's a small church or a big church,
it's like people deserve the truth.
Church is the pillar and the ground of the truth.
Doesn't matter whether it's 10 people here or 100 people here.
You deserve the truth.
You say, why?
Because God's Word can change your life.
And we need preaching from God's Word to motivate us.
Even if you already know what I'm saying, you need to be motivated.
I need to be motivated.
How do you do that?
By the truth of God's Word.
He says, I preach righteousness in the great congregation.
Lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest.
I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart.
I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation.
I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth
from the great congregation.
Here's what I would like to ask a lot of preachers.
They know what the Bible says about the LGBT,
but they don't preach it.
Are you hiding the truth inside your heart?
Are you hiding the truth of God's Word?
Because the psalmist here says, I didn't hide the truth.
I just preached the truth.
I'm not ashamed of anything that the Word of God says.
And I get it.
When people start coming to a church like this
and they first hear the preaching,
it's like a shock to the system.
Like, whoa.
They're shocked at what I'm saying.
If they've never heard preaching like this,
they're like, what in the world?
But this is what the Bible says.
We go verse by verse.
I mean, usually we go verse by verse two out of three
sermons a week.
When you go verse by verse, you
can't avoid what the Bible says.
That's one thing I like about it.
I have to preach what the Bible says,
whether I feel like it or not.
I'll just be honest with you.
Sermons that might offend people,
I don't have a desire naturally to preach that.
You naturally want to kind of avoid it.
You don't want to make people mad.
You don't want to offend people.
When you go verse by verse, nobody
can deny it's what the Bible says.
And it's like, I have to just preach the truth.
We need all of the Word of God.
Verse number 11.
Withhold not thy tender mercies from me, O Lord.
Let thy loving kindness and thy truth
continually preserve thee.
For innumerable evils have compassed me about.
My iniquities have taken hold upon me,
so that I am not able to look up.
You know, this reminds me of the publican and the Pharisee.
You got this arrogant Pharisee.
He's like, I'm not as other men are.
I fast twice in the week.
I give tithes of all that I possess.
And in the publican, and a publican had a very sinful job.
As a tax collector, you know,
they would often use extortion as a means to get money.
And this person did not lift up so much
as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast,
saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner.
Because he felt ashamed to even look at God.
I tell you, this man went home justified
rather than the other.
And what it says is, my iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I am not able to look up.
You know what, when people are struggling
with sins in their life or when they feel guilty,
it's hard for them to even pray to God or read the Bible.
Think about if your kids do something wrong
and you're trying to explain to them
or give them a rebuke,
they feel very uncomfortable looking at you.
They feel embarrassed.
They feel ashamed.
And the Bible's saying the same thing.
When we sin, it's like you can be even ashamed
to look up to God like you're not worthy.
And here's the thing.
None of us are worthy of any blessings
that we have from God.
It's like, don't have this attitude,
well, I'm not worthy to come to church.
Come to church anyway.
I'm not worthy to go soul winning.
Go soul winning anyway.
I'm not worthy to pray.
Pray anyway.
But the idea is when you're struggling
with sins in your life,
it's like you feel ashamed even to look up to God,
kind of like the publican
between the publican and the Pharisee.
Psalm 40 verse 12.
And it says, there are more than the hairs of my head,
therefore my heart faileth me.
And anyway, what's interesting about this is
if you're living a clean life
compared to the average person,
you're generally going to feel more guilty
than someone who's not living a clean life.
The fact that you're still making,
I mean, Paul speaks about how,
he's like, I die daily.
He's like, the things that I want to do,
I'm not doing and vice versa.
And Paul the Apostle feels guilty.
I guarantee you Paul the Apostle
was living a more clean life than me.
And than anybody in this room.
I mean, he's perhaps the greatest Christian
in the Bible other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
But the thing is, when you're striving to get,
an example of this,
let's say that you have a very clean white floor.
Let's say this floor is white
and let's say it's 100% white
and there's one red spot in the floor.
That red spot is going to stand out from the whiteness.
And here's the thing, when you draw close to God,
you start to really realize the areas
that you still need to make changes on, right?
Whereas someone who is not close to God,
it's like they make excuses for everything.
It's kind of like, if I were to preach a sermon
on why you need to read the Bible every single day,
those of you that read the Bible every day
would be like, man, I'm glad I got that reminder.
Those people that don't read the Bible every day,
it's like it goes over their head.
That's just the way it is.
Right, I mean, if you're living for God
and you hear a sermon, it's like, man,
I needed that reminder, right?
And what he says is, you know what,
my sins are more than the hairs of my head,
therefore my heart faileth me.
Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me.
O Lord, make haste to help me.
Let them be ashamed and confounded together
that seek after my soul to destroy it.
Let them be driven backward and put to shame
that wish me evil.
Let them be desolate for reward of their shame
that say unto me, aha, aha.
Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee.
Let such as love thy salvation say continually,
the Lord be magnified.
Do you love the salvation of God?
Because if that's the case,
you ought to be rejoicing and be glad
and be saying the Lord be magnified
and let God guide you in your life.
I mean, he died and paid for all of your sins.
That does not guarantee that as a saved person,
you're gonna be very thankful or glad about it.
But you should be.
Verse 17, but I am poor and needy,
yet the Lord thinketh upon me.
He says, you know, I don't deserve this,
but God still thinks upon me.
You know what, the same is true with all of us.
It's like we're really not worthy,
but yet God still thinks about us and cares about us.
Thou art my help and my deliverer,
make no tearing, oh my God.
Anyway, the thing I wanna highlight in this chapter,
because there's a lot of information here,
a lot of different points,
but it's like let us wait patiently on the Lord.
Let us keep serving God, keep doing right,
keep praying to God, keep letting God guide you in life.
In some areas, maybe things are not going the way
that you want them to go.
Maybe you feel like God is not blessing.
Keep obeying God, be patient, keep praying,
and let us wait upon the Lord.
Let's close in word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us
to be here today and for this wonderful chapter
in the word of God, I ask you to help us
just to apply this chapter to our lives,
including myself and my family.
Help us to just put our trust in you,
not just for our salvation,
but also just in our daily lives, God.
We ask you to help us guide you,
help stir back the love inside of our heart
to serve you and obey you, God,
and I ask you to help us rejoice
in the salvation you've given us.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.