That does not mean you have perfect faith throughout your life in every area of your life.
Sometimes we doubt things. Sometimes we don't have strong enough faith, okay?
Notice what it says in verse number 18.
And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him.
And the child was cured from that very hour.
Then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said,
Why could not we cast him out?
And Jesus said out of them, Because of your unbelief.
For verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed,
ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence the yonder place,
and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
And he says the reason they weren't able to cast it out is because of their unbelief, okay?
Now the Bible says that, you know, without faith, it is impossible to please God, okay?
It says you must believe that he is, which is referring to salvation,
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him, okay?
When it comes to faith, you believe on Jesus Christ,
you're saved, you're on your way to heaven,
but you're meant to live your lives based on having strong faith, okay?
Turn to your Bible to Galatians 6. Galatians chapter 6. Galatians 6.
I mean, your success in the Christian life is based on how strong is your faith.
Everything we do is based on having faith.
When we go soul-winning, we don't see a bright light that just shows up
and tells us that person got saved, okay?
We go off what they say, but quite honestly, we're not going to know for sure until we get to heaven.
We take it by faith that when we go soul-winning that it's real,
that when we say we have 3,000 salvations,
it's not just a number to try to get people to donate online,
it's actually hard work, and we believe it's real, okay?
But we believe it by faith. It's not a math problem.
It's not 2 plus 2 equals 4, here's the proof we have 3,000 salvations, okay?
We take it by faith that the soul-winning we do, it works, okay?
So I want to look at four different areas in our life where we have saved people,
we intellectually understand something,
but the way we live our lives, it doesn't really seem like we actually believe it.
One area is this, the punishment of God, the punishment of God.
And when I say the punishment, I'm referring to the punishment upon believers in this life if you do wrong.
Because we would say, Brother Stuckey, I believe if I live a sinful life, God's going to judge me in this life, right?
Notice what it says in Galatians 6 verse 7,
Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption,
but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
We believe and teach that salvation is a free gift, but look, as a child of God,
if you disobey God's rules, God is going to judge you in this life.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Just like my son will always be my son.
But what if he disobeys me? Am I going to be like, no big deal?
Okay, son, okay, you can eat ice cream for breakfast, ice cream for lunch, ice cream for, you win.
No, I'm going to punish him if he doesn't obey me, right?
What's the same thing with God?
When you get saved and become a child of God, hey, it's forever.
It is eternal life.
But if you disobey God's rules, he's going to punish you in this life, right?
Turn to Genesis chapter 16, Genesis chapter 16, Genesis chapter 16.
So you have to ask yourself in this room today, why is it that you keep committing the same sins
over and over and over again and think God's not going to punish you for it?
Because you've heard a priest a million times, you know what the Bible says.
You know the Bible says you're going to reap what you sow, you're going to be punished in this life,
and yet we do the same sins over and over and over and over again and just kind of assume
that God doesn't see us, right?
Because God's not omnipresent.
He can't see everything, right?
No, God sees everything.
And yet we do the same sins, the same worldliness, the same things you know are wrong
and you willingly do them.
Why? Because you're an unbelieved believer.
You've believed on Jesus Christ, you're saved, and yet many of the things in the Bible,
we don't have that strong of faith to actually believe.
Here's an example of Judges 16, verse 4.
This book in the Old Testament, they got saved by faith and they had eternal life.
They weren't saved by works, they were saved by faith, okay?
Samson's an example of this, verse 4.
And it came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah, okay?
This is not Samson's wife.
So basically, he's committing a communication with this woman that he loves.
He loves in a lustful way, not in a Godly way, okay?
And so he loves this woman, Delilah, verse 5.
And the lords of the Philistines came up under her and said unto her,
Entice him and see who are in his great strength live,
and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him,
and we will give thee, every one of us, eleven hundred pieces of silver.
And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, where in thy great strength live,
and wherewith thou mightst be bound to afflict me?
Now look, the Bible says Samson loves this woman.
Does it seem like she loves him?
No.
I mean, she's perfectly fine with just destroying his life, right?
And he lies to her in this situation, but she's trying to get any information.
Why is he so strong?
Now look, if you would think about Samson, if you would go to Google
and just type in pictures of Samson from the Bible,
you're probably going to see some sort of bodybuilder guy with big muscles.
But quite honestly, I don't think people would be super amazed
if somebody who looked really strong was really strong.
I mean, look at him, I mean, I'm really strong, right?
Now I'm just kidding.
But I think what was amazing about Samson is he just looked like an ordinary guy.
He didn't have these big muscles.
He wasn't a bodybuilder, but he was super strong.
And that strength was given to him by God, okay?
That's why the people were so amazed.
It's not like, hey, where's your great strength?
Yeah, it's right here, right?
No, it's like, where is your strength?
I mean, you don't look that strong, and yet there you are just, you know,
mentioning 800 pounds.
It's like, how is that possible, okay?
Verse number seven.
And Samson said unto her,
If they bind me with seven green wits that were never dried,
then shall I be weak, and be as another man.
Then the Lord of the Philistines brought up to her seven green wits,
which had not been dried, and she bounded with them.
Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber,
and she said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson,
and he break the wits as the tread of the toe was broken
when it touched the fire, so his strength was not known.
So Samson's committing fornication with this person,
and then all of a sudden he tells Delilah,
well, this is my strength, and he's lying, okay?
And they tried this method, and he just breaks it immediately,
and he's perfectly lying, okay?
Look at what it says in verse number 10.
And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked me,
and told me lies.
Now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound?
He said unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes
that never were occupied, then shall I be weak,
and be as another man.
Delilah therefore took new ropes and bounded them with,
and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson,
and there were liars in wait abiding the chamber,
and he break them from off his arms like a thread.
So once again, he lies to her, they try to bind him off,
he immediately breaks it, no big deal, he's perfectly fine.
And look, when we read this story of Samson,
we think, what a fool he is.
Like, what is he doing in this story?
He's acting stupid, right?
And yet, we do the same sins over and over again,
and we think nothing's gonna happen to us.
The same as Samson.
You see, what takes place is the first time
you commit that sin, you're really scared.
You're like, God, please forgive me.
Please don't judge me for this sin.
And then you do it again, and you're still scared,
but not quite as scared.
And then after a few times, inside of your own heart,
you have this attitude.
Well, I guess God doesn't really care that much.
I mean, I'm a soul winner, right?
So it's okay if I commit this sin, right?
I read the Bible a lot, so it's okay if I commit this sin.
And inside of your own heart,
you don't really believe God's gonna punish you.
You say, why?
Because you're an unbelieving believer like Samson.
Samson was saved, and yet he didn't really believe
in the punishment of God, okay?
Notice what it says in verse 13.
And Delilah said unto Samson,
hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies.
Tell me, wherewith thou mightest be bound?
And he said unto her,
if thou weepest the seven locks of my head with the web,
and she fastened him with the pen, and said unto him,
the Philistines be upon thee, Samson.
And he waked out of his sleep,
and went away with the pen of the beam, and with the web.
And she said unto him, how canst thou say I love thee,
when thy heart is not with thee?
Thou hast mocked me these three times,
and hast not told me where in thy great strength lie.
So once again, he's playing around with this sin,
committing fornication again,
and then all of a sudden, he gets away with it, right?
Don't mistake God being long-suffering with you,
with God not actually caring for what you're doing.
You might do something wrong,
and God might be very long-suffering,
because he loves you, you're his child,
just like I would be long-suffering to my children.
That doesn't mean that the parent doesn't care, though.
Just because God is being long-suffering,
be not deceived, God is not mocked,
for whatsoever man soweth, that's how he also grieves.
That is what the Bible teaches.
Go to verse 16.
And it came to pass when she pressed him daily
with the words, and urged him,
so that his soul was vexed unto death,
that he told her all his heart, and said unto her,
there have not come a razor upon my head,
for I have been a Nazarite unto God for my mother's womb.
If I be shaven, then my strength will go for me,
and I shall become weak, and be like any other man, right?
And so he actually tells her what the truth is here.
He's not thinking very clearly,
and then he just makes a big mistake.
And look, when you play around with sin,
that is what will happen in your life.
All of a sudden, you're gonna make a mistake,
and you're not thinking very clearly,
and you're gonna destroy your life, okay?
Notice the result of this in verse 18.
And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart,
she sinned and called for the lords of the Philistines,
saying, come up this once, for you have showed
the all his heart.
Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her,
and brought money in their hands.
And she made him sleep upon her knees,
and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off
the seven locks of his head, and she began to afflict him
and his strength went from him.
And she said, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson.
And he awoke out of his sleep and said,
I will go out as at other times before and shake myself.
And he wished not that the Lord was departed from him.
See, this is the attitude we have
when we play around with sin.
We think, you know what, I'll just shake it off,
just do what I always do, no big deal.
It's just this one sin in my life.
I get it that Brother Saki preaches against this,
but you know, I go soul winning, I'm at church,
I'm serving God, and I'm just gonna keep this one pocket
of sin in my life.
No big deal, it's wrong, I'm just gonna shake myself off
and then just show up to church like it's no big deal.
No, there's gonna come a point
where you can no longer shake yourself.
There's gonna come a point where God's mercy is gone.
Now look, you'll still go to heaven
because you have eternal life,
but God's judgment will be poured upon you in this life.
And the Bible says the Spirit of the Lord departed from him.
Now in the Old Testament,
they were not in dwell with the Holy Ghost,
but the Spirit of the Lord would come upon him
just like if you can come upon us today, okay?
We are in dwell with the Holy Ghost,
but even if you're still in dwell with the Holy Ghost,
look, the Spirit of God will depart from you
and you will be judged by God
if you're playing around with sin.
Verse number 20, and she said, actually verse 21,
but the Philistines took him and put out his eyes
and brought him down to Gaze
and found him with fetters of grass
and he did grind in the prison house.
I mean, the end of Samson is his eyes are taken out.
He no longer can see.
How does this happen?
Judas sinned.
Now look, I can't really imagine something much worse
than just immediately losing my ability to see.
I mean, isn't that about the worst thing
that could happen to you?
You're going along with your day, things are going well,
and then overnight you no longer can see.
That'd be miserable, wouldn't it?
Because look, in today's world,
if you have vision problems,
you can usually just wear contacts or glasses, right?
I'm wearing contacts right now.
If I was not wearing contacts, I would be like this,
stumbling around because I'm very blind, okay?
But Samson completely loses his ability to see.
They completely take out his eyes
and he can no longer see the rest of his life.
Why?
Judas sinned, okay?
Turn to your Bible, Deuteronomy 17, Deuteronomy 17.
Deuteronomy 17.
I mean, maybe what we should do
is meditate on stories like this
and we should ask God to scare us into obeying him, right?
I mean, if you've got certain sins in your life
that you're not getting rid of,
look, go to extreme measures to avoid it.
Amen.
Whatever that problem is, go to extreme measures
so you can't even have the ability to commit that sin, okay?
I mean, I preach against worldliness and things like that,
which those are wrong,
but there's worse sins you can be addicted to.
Look, as I talked about in the last couple of weeks
with the statistics, there's a large percentage
of young people addicted to pornography.
Let me tell you something.
You got that problem?
Get rid of your computer.
Get rid of your smartphone.
Do you need a smartphone to survive
or can you survive in this world without a smartphone?
Look, as long as you're able to get to work and come home,
hey, if that is causing you to commit major sins
in your life and you can't control yourself,
get rid of the ability to even commit that sin.
Get an internet blocker on your phone,
whatever you need to do, okay?
But don't allow sin to destroy your life
because the end of it could be like Samson
where God just says, you know what?
I'm gonna take your eyes, okay?
You're gonna lose the ability to see.
Point number one is the punishment of God.
Sometimes us and the same people,
we can say we believe in God's punishment,
but we're believers that are unbelieving.
Unbelieving believers in some of the things written in Bible.
Point number one is the punishment of God.
Point two is the purified, preserved, perfect word of God.
In this room, we would say we believe in a perfect Bible.
The King James Bible is 100% perfect, 100% purified,
100% preserved, 100% perfect,
no need to change anything, right?
The perfect, preserved word of God.
We would say that with authority.
Ask yourself this question.
How much time did you spend this morning reading the Bible?
I mean, if you think it's a perfect word of God
and it will change your life,
doesn't it make sense that you would set aside some time
in the morning before coming to church just to read his word?
Deuteronomy 17, verse 18.
And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne
of his kingdom that he shall write him a copy of this law
and a book out of that which is before the priest
the Levites, and it shall be with him,
and he shall read therein some of the days of his life.
Is that what it says?
And he shall read therein six days a week except Sunday
because it's a church day.
Is that what it says?
And he shall read therein pomence and mence.
Is that what it says?
No, it says all the days of his life.
Why?
That he may learn to fear the Lord his God,
to keep all the words of this law,
and these statutes to do them.
The Bible says that by reading and meditating on God's word,
it will cause you to obey.
It will cause you to do what's right.
Verse 20, that his heart be not lifted up
above his brethren, that he turn not aside
from the commandment to the right hand or to the left,
to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom,
he and his children in the midst of Israel.
And see, the Bible says that by reading God's word,
it will cause your heart not to be lifted up.
It will cause you not to be prideful, okay?
So look, if you hear a pastor that's very arrogant,
you know what that tells you?
He doesn't read the Bible.
Amen.
That's what it says in Deuteronomy 17.
And look, there are a lot of Baptist pastors
here in the Philippines.
I mean, look at this big church that I've built, right?
Yeah, I remember Nebuchadnezzar saying the same thing.
Right.
And it's like when you see these arrogant Mayavim pastors,
it tells you they don't read the Bible.
What they read is commentary.
What they do is they go to a website that says,
hey, just print off my sermon
and I'll just repeat these words.
That's what they do.
Why?
Because Deuteronomy 17 says if you read God's word,
you won't be arrogant.
And yet there are many pastors here in the Philippines
that are arrogant.
And you can tell by the words coming out of their mouth.
Look, what comes out of your mouth
tells what's in your heart.
Right.
And if they're arrogant with what they say,
that shows what's in their heart.
They always talk about money,
it shows what's in their heart, okay?
What comes out of your mouth
will indicate what's inside your heart.
Go to 1 Kings 19, 1 Kings 19, 1 Kings 19.
Look, it's not my personal agenda
to just have every Baptist pastor hate me, okay?
But the problem is, as far as I know,
all the ones nearby are preaching work salvation.
Right.
It's like I have no interest in fellowshiping
with someone preaching a work salvation.
Amen.
Who is Baptist in name only.
I have no problem if there's a church nearby
being friends and fellowshiping with them
if they're teaching the same things.
But when they're teaching a work salvation,
why don't we fellowship with them?
Right.
Why would I have anything nice to say about them?
They certainly aren't gonna say anything nice about me,
I can promise you that.
Look, I want you to realize the biggest enemies
that we have as Bible believing Christians
is not the Catholics here in the building.
Right.
I mean, I'm thinking in my head of certain people
that wanna come to our church
and their families won't allow them.
Guess what?
They're not Catholic homes.
Right.
If they're Catholic homes,
they say, sure, you can go to church.
They are Christian homes, right?
That's reality.
1 Kings 19, 1 Kings 19.
Here's a story where there's a lot of symbolism
with the word of God mentioned in 1 Kings 19.
1 Kings 19, verse five.
And as his leg had slept under a juniper tree,
behold, then an angel touched him and said unto him,
arise and eat.
And he looked and behold,
there was a cake baking on the coals
and a crucible water at his head.
And he did eat and drink and laid him down again.
And the angel of the Lord came again the second time
and touched him and said,
arise and eat because the journey is too great for me.
Now here, Elijah, who basically comes to the end and says,
man, I can't take it anymore.
I'm exhausted.
I can't take it in the Christian life.
An angel tells him just to rise and eat, okay?
Now the symbolism is us as Bible-believing Christians,
we need to arise and eat God's word every day.
And if we don't,
we're gonna get exhausted in the Christian life.
Then in verse eight, he says,
and he arose and did eat and drink
and went in the strength of that meat
40 days and 40 nights on the forehead, the mouth of God.
And see, because he ate a lot,
he was able to go 40 days and 40 nights.
Look, the determination of how far you're gonna go
in the Christian life and how much God can use you
is how much time do you spend in God's word?
How much alone time do you spend with God?
Not how many sermons you've heard online.
How much time personally with God have you spent?
And look, if you wanna be a preacher one day,
say, I wanna be a pastor.
You know, you need to read God's word a lot
to teach people something.
Amen.
Because guess what?
It's not easy to preach three sermons every week
and you're actually teaching people in every sermon.
You gotta learn constantly, constantly,
reading, reading, reading.
You say, how many times is the minimum
I need to read the Bible to be sent out as a pastor one day?
Why are you going for the minimum?
I wanna just barely get to it, right?
It's just like, why not go for as much as you can?
Don't even come close to it.
It's like, learn as much as you can.
You say, why?
I'm gonna help you on the other side.
Teach people something, okay?
Look, it's difficult.
This is one of my fourth and fifth sermons this week
because I preached different sermons yesterday.
It's not easy.
It takes time.
You gotta study the Bible.
You gotta learn the Bible.
But if you're gonna teach, you gotta know these things.
You gotta know what God's word says.
Go to Psalm 12, Psalm 12.
Psalm 12.
And look, if you're in this room today
and you say, Brother Stuckey,
I mean, I believe in Bible reading.
I believe we have to preserve the word of God.
Then why is it so hard for you to read the Bibles?
Why is it that just week after week you say,
I'm gonna start reading the Bible
and you only read a couple chapters during the week?
Now look, when January starts,
it is going to be your opportunity to join us
in taking the New Testament Bible reading challenge, okay?
And our goal is that everyone would strive
to read the entire New Testament in one month.
Now you say, Brother Stuckey, that sounds impossible.
You know, that would take you less than an hour a day.
Right?
And for most of you, you could probably
just get off Facebook for one month.
And you know, here's the thing.
If you get off Facebook for one month,
nothing's gonna change in the world.
They still won't have a president in the US, right?
There'll be war in the Middle East.
Nothing's gonna change, right?
It's just, I mean, you could go a month
without seeing what's going on on Facebook,
without finding out what friend broke up with whomever
or who's having marital problems.
And you know what, your life's gonna be the better.
Amen.
But you know, you need to get into a pattern
of reading God's Word every single day.
Not just every once in a while, okay?
In this story, the symbolism with Elijah
is basically he's at the point where he's,
I can't take it anymore.
Now some of you, instead of getting revived
with God's Word every day,
you basically don't read during the week
and you stumble into church like, man,
I don't know why you can't make it in the spiritual life.
When you've spent zero minutes reading the Word of God,
I give you a lot of Bible and a couple of sermons,
I revive you from the dead temporarily,
and then you stop reading the Bible during the week,
and then the next week you're gonna roll in like,
I don't know if I can make it anymore.
And I revive you again, right?
Just read the Bible every day.
Amen.
Instead of being at the point
where you just feel like giving up all the time, okay?
Read God's Word every day.
Psalm 12, verses six and seven.
The words of the Lord are pure words.
As silver trident furnace of earth purified seven times,
thou shalt keep them, O Lord,
thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.
God promised to preserve his Word,
and we believe we have it,
and the King James Bible name was a concrete Word of God.
And I'll tell you what,
throughout the millenniums that have existed,
most people didn't have a Word of God.
In fact, there's plenty of countries in Asia right now
where it actually might be dangerous to read the Word of God.
I mean, try living in North Korea and try serving God,
and see how easy it is.
Or communist China, and see how easy it is.
Look, in our country, there's no excuse.
I mean, there's no persecution to serve God,
and you can freely read God's Word, no big deal,
nobody stopping you, and yet every single day,
you got your Bible right there.
So I'm gonna be ready to go home today,
and you're gonna look at this thing like,
man, when was the last time I read it?
There's gonna be dust all over,
and everybody's gonna be moldy.
It's like, man, when was the last time I read this thing?
It's like, just get in the habit of reading it every day.
Go to Hebrews 4, Hebrews 4, Hebrews 4.
Say, Brother Slacky, what do I need to do to start reading?
What you need to do is get rid of distractions,
do it first thing in the morning,
and you need a Bible reading chart
to tell you what to read each day.
I have a Bible reading chart.
Do you know what I read today?
First Kings chapters 12 through 22.
You know why?
Because that's what's on my schedule for today.
You know what?
People that are successful in life, they live by routine.
It's not just, I'll just wake up
and do whatever I feel like.
You can't go to doing anything successfully.
Live your life based on routine.
Tonight, write it down.
Hey, tomorrow morning,
this is what I'm gonna read in the Bible.
See, in January, we're gonna give you charts,
and you can mark it off each day.
What we're gonna do differently this year
is there's gonna be a lot of options
for 11-month charts after January.
So you don't just stop in January and just quit.
In all of these charts I made myself,
I lined them up for how I thought they were good.
I'll give you plenty of options
where you can go through January,
and here's what you can do.
If you get behind today, no big deal.
Just miss that day and just move on to the next day, okay?
Because otherwise you're gonna get bogged down
and you're just gonna quit along the way.
But you need to be in a habit every day
of saying I need to read God's Word every day.
And look, you have 15 minutes, you have 30 minutes,
you have time, it's just, it's not a big priority.
Why?
Because you're an unbelieving believer.
You say you believe God's Word will change your life,
but you never read it.
Something doesn't add up.
Hebrews 4, verse 12.
For the Word of God is quick and powerful
and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit, of the joints and marrow,
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The Bible talks about the Word of God
being quick or alive and powerful.
And look, when you read God's Word,
sometimes you read verses in the Bible
and you're like, ouch, guilty, right?
The Word of God has a power like nothing else.
I mean, it doesn't logically make sense
because it's a spiritual book.
But literally, the Word of God has a power
to pierce you on the inside.
And it can change your heart.
That's what we're seeing here.
And look, if you would read God's Word,
you say, Brother Stuckey, but you know what?
I don't feel like reading God's Word.
I'll start reading it when I feel like it.
No, if you start reading it, you'll start to feel like it.
Because reading it gets to the inside
and changes your heart.
Just do what you're supposed to do.
It will change your heart.
Your feelings follow your actions.
Your actions don't follow your feelings, okay?
If you let your feelings guide you in life,
you're gonna be destroyed.
You need to live your life based on your actions
and it will change your heart.
Go to 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 2.
1 Peter chapter 2.
Say, Brother Stuckey, I mean,
the reason why I didn't read the Bible today
is because it's just so busy on Sunday.
I mean, it's a church day and everything.
Okay, why didn't you read it yesterday?
Oh, man, I don't know, I just had so much to do.
Okay, well, what about Friday?
Okay.
Ask yourself that question.
Hey, look, I'm not trying to be mean.
I'm not trying to be insulting,
but I'm just saying, literally,
if you go based on statistics,
most Christians don't even spend 10 minutes
reading the Bible a day.
And that tells you,
they just don't think it's that important.
Isn't that what the actions would imply?
That if you spend 10 minutes at the most reading the,
I mean, it shows you just don't think it's that important.
Because you do the things in life you think are important.
If you think something's important,
then you're gonna do it.
And if you're never reading the Bible,
what it shows is, intellectually,
you might believe and say,
okay, that's what the Bible says,
but you don't really believe it in your heart.
That faith is so small inside your heart regarding this,
and you're not reading it.
First Peter two, verse two.
As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word
that you may grow thereby.
The Bible says that you will grow
through the milk of the Word.
Just as a baby lives off of milk, okay,
at a young age, and that's how they grow,
this is how we grow spiritually.
Hey look, if you've been saved for 20 years,
and you've never read the Bible cover to cover,
you're still a baby Christian.
Yeah.
Hey look, our daughter is 10 months old,
10 and a half months old.
She's still pretty young.
It's natural that mom and dad will feed her stuff.
We feed her squash and things like that.
But wouldn't it be weird if 20 years from now,
I'm like, here you go, Christabel, right?
Here's your squash.
Here's your must-have banana.
I mean, you would think after 20 years,
she would start to learn to start feeding herself, right?
Now I get it, if you're a newly saved Christian,
it's difficult, you're learning the routine,
you're learning the principles, it's gonna take some time.
Look, if you've been saved five, 10, 15 years,
it's time to learn to walk, right?
I mean, you think about it, it's like,
yeah, I get it, babies, when they're first born,
they're completely dependent on other people for survival.
Here's the thing though, cults will teach
that you need them to teach you to work out.
I teach that you need not any man to teach you.
First John 2 27 says, if you're saved,
you have the Holy Spirit of truth inside of you,
that you can read this book on your own and learn.
Now obviously, church can teach you things
and motivate you, but you don't need me
to learn the word God.
You can read the Bible on your own and learn what God says.
But why is it that for many of us,
we're not reading the Bible?
Because we're unbelievably, that's why.
Turn your Bible to Malachi 3, Malachi 3, Malachi 3.
Look, today's sermons today,
they're not meant to be deep theological sermons,
meant to be motivational, not even gonna be that long.
Say, Brother Stuckey,
why don't you preach five hour sermons?
Well, they're gonna be shorter than that, okay?
Here's motivational sermons,
we're gonna have time for fellowship.
But you have to ask yourself these questions,
especially if you've been at our church for a long time
and you're still struggling
with the same things over and over again,
you need to make some sort of change, right?
It's foolish to keep doing the same things
over and over and over again when you keep failing.
You need to make changes.
Brother Stuckey, I try every morning to read the Bible.
Why is it so hard for me?
Well, because you stayed up till two in the morning
the night before.
Yeah, it's hard to go to bed at two in the morning
and wake up at six in the morning
to read the Bible before you go to work.
I get it, that's your problem.
Brother Stuckey, it's so hard.
I try to read the Bible and it's like,
man, everybody's sending me text messages.
Why don't you turn your phone on?
Brother Stuckey, it's so hard.
I always need to read the Bible
and somehow I'm just on YouTube,
you know, just watching random things.
Yeah, shut your computer off.
Go to a room away from everything
and just read God's word.
Get away from distractions.
You have to get away from distractions
if you're gonna actually meditate on God's Word.
You say, when's the best time to do that?
Right in the morning.
Because if you have kids and you get older,
it's gonna be hard.
Wake up before them, read the Bible,
spend your prayer time with God
and you're gonna start making major changes in your life.
Set yourself up for success.
One thing we as believers often don't believe in
is the punishment of God in this life or our sins.
Another thing we say we believe
but our actions don't always indicate it
is that we believe there's a purified,
preserved, perfect Word of God.
Another thing, point number three is this,
we would say, Brother Stuckey,
I believe in the pattern of church attendance.
I believe you have to be in church every single week, okay?
Look at Malachi three, verse 16.
Then I ask you the question, you know,
why is it you make every excuse to miss church?
Right.
You know, we go sowing and we'll always ask people,
you know, like, hey, do you go to church anywhere?
And what is the number one most common answer right now?
Oh, I don't go because of lockdown.
Right, because of work.
Okay, that's fine.
But what about Babylonian lockdown?
Before the lockdown.
And then all of a sudden there's no answer that comes out.
So, I mean, if you don't go to church, that's fine.
I mean, I'm not trying to,
but it's like, why are you making that excuse
when you didn't go to church before that?
I mean, isn't that true?
I mean, I said, or so it is, you know,
where do you go to church?
Oh, I don't go to the lockdown, I can't go to church.
And then it's like, well, what about before lockdown?
Oh, don't go to church.
Are you Catholic?
I mean, well, what's your religion, right?
And it's just like, you know,
you say, no, it's like, because I get it.
In our church, there are people on various ends
of the spectrum of this whole thing.
Some people think this is the biggest thing,
this is the Spanish flu.
Some people think it's the biggest oak since 9-11.
Whatever.
I get it, you're on different ends of the spectrum
and I'm not here to judge you on your,
but what about before all this started?
Before all this started eight months ago, nine months ago,
were you here every single week?
Did you say you remember this church?
Or did you wake up sometimes and say, oh, I'm tired.
I'll just go next week to church.
Malachi 3, verse 16.
Brother, how often, Brother Succy,
how often should we go to church?
Malachi 3, 16.
Then they have feared the Lord's fate often,
one to another.
Often.
As much as you can.
They have feared the Lord's fate often, one to another.
Okay?
The Bible says that, look, as God's people,
we ought to speak with each other,
one another often.
Okay?
Come to church as much as you can,
because this sermon is a small part of this church.
Right, right.
It's a small part of this church.
A much bigger part is the fellowship
and everybody who's at this church.
It's not just my sermons, okay?
That's only a small part of what this church is.
Go to Ephesians 5.
Ephesians 5.
Okay.
Say, Brother Succy, I believe in church.
I believe what the Bible says.
Church is important.
You know, we ought to be there and stuff like that.
Well, what does it say in Ephesians 5, verse 25?
Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it.
You know, the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ died
for the New Testament church.
Now, that doesn't negate the fact
that he died for all of us as well,
but the Bible says he died for the church.
Gave himself for the church.
Acts 20, verse 28, you don't have to turn there,
but he gave himself,
he purchased it with his own blood, the Bible says.
And he died for the local church.
Maybe the church is important to God, right?
He died for the New Testament church.
You say, Brother Succy, I believe it.
That's what the Bible says.
Then why is it so hard to come to church?
Ask yourself that question.
Go to Hebrews 10, Hebrews 10.
Hebrews 10.
Hebrews chapter 10.
Look, I don't have the luxury of missing church, right?
I don't have the luxury.
And at this church, I miss two church services
other than when I was out of town.
Say, why'd you miss, Brother Succy?
Were you being lazy?
No, it's because my wife was pregnant
and she was in labor.
And I came to church to preach.
I dropped my wife off and I came here to preach
and then men met me downstairs and said,
get out of here, Brother Succy.
Don't be with your wife.
Is that not true?
And look, I mean, I was there for both of our children
being born.
I was there for Zach and I was there for Chris.
I'm very thankful.
I'm very thankful the men did that.
But I think church is important.
And I wanted to make sure.
I don't want people showing up
and there's no sermon to hear.
I want to make sure that we're prepared or ready for this.
Anyway, I'm just telling you,
I don't have the luxury of missing church
because something comes up.
You know, when I wake up and I don't feel like
I'm coming to church because I'm tired,
I still come to church.
This past month has been the number one busiest month
since I've been in the building.
Not just the two anniversaries,
but just my wife and I have come down this building
so many times just to fix various things
that will eventually get fixed or whatever.
And it's just like, it's been very busy.
But you know what?
I don't have the luxury of waking up on a sunny morning
and say, oh, I'm tired.
I mean, I joke about it almost every week.
I'm like, I said this morning with my wife,
honey, let's just skip church.
Maybe they won't notice.
I'll just sit in brother Chris' serve when I say that.
So I don't have that luxury.
You say, brother second, you know,
I don't miss church just because I'm tired.
But no, some of you miss church
when you feel a little bit back slim.
So when you're a little bit back slim,
what's gonna fix that is you skim church, right?
Now here's the reality.
There are times I'm more right with God than other times.
Isn't that true in your life?
Doesn't it make sense that there's times I'm not?
We've read about Elijah.
Elijah was more spiritual than I'll probably ever be.
But we saw him back slim.
There are times I'm a little bit back slim.
And you know what, I still have to get up here
and do my best to preach the sermon.
I don't have the luxury to miss church
if I don't feel like missing church.
You say, brother second,
but that's just because you run this church.
I didn't skip church when I was at Verity Baptist Church.
I missed three sermons when I was at Verity Baptist Church
other than when I was out of town.
On one Wednesday, I was sick,
and I told Pastor Mendez I won't be able
to make it to church, and then four days later,
my wife was in labor on a Sunday with Zef.
Say, brother second, all your babies are born on Sunday.
I was born on Sunday, my wife was born on Sunday,
Zef was born on Sunday, Christabelle was born on Sunday.
One in 2,401 chance, but I can pretty much guarantee
our next child will be born on Sunday.
So be prepared to preach now, okay?
It's like, I don't know, that's just the way it is, all right?
I was destined to be a pastor, you know what I'm saying?
But it's like, I don't have the luxury to miss church.
I only missed three times.
Say, well, brother second, that's because you were
at Stafford Verity Baptist Church.
I didn't miss church before that when I went to other
churches and I was just in that place, okay?
And there were definitely times I didn't feel like
going to church, but I think church is important
for many reasons, okay?
And I want you to realize this.
I went to some churches where the sermons
weren't the most entertaining, right?
They were good churches.
I'm not saying they were bad churches,
but it's not like it was Verity Baptist Church, okay?
So look, I mean, unless you really hate my sermons
and they can do it, I don't know, then it's just like,
you're here to preach and you're learning things
from the Bible.
It's like church is important.
Hebrews 10, verse 24, Hebrews 10, verse 24.
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love
and to good works.
Now in verse 24, does that say let us consider ourselves?
Is that what it says?
Let us consider ourselves.
What do you want?
Because that's what the Christian life is about, right?
What do you want in your life?
Is that what it says?
Let us consider one another.
And then notice verse 25.
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another
and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
So look, when you wake up on a Sunday, you say,
man, I'm tired, I don't feel like coming to church.
Ask yourself this question.
Send a message in the group thread and say,
hey, do you guys want me to come to church today?
And when they say yes, then show up to church
because you should consider one another.
Now look, I understand there's times to miss church.
I've missed because I'm sick before or things come up.
I understand that.
But if you consider church important,
then it better be a big reason.
Now, I mean, it's up to you how often you come.
I mean, nobody's forcing you to come to the church.
But I mean, if you believe in church,
I would think you want to come.
Go to James 4, James 4, James 4.
You say, brother, second, I don't know, I mean,
I'm not that big of a fan of the preacher here.
Okay, I mean, that might be true.
There's a lot of people here, I'm sure some people,
I'm not your favorite preacher.
Maybe there's internet preachers you'd rather listen to,
but ask yourself this question, okay?
Is this the church in this area where God's people at?
Amen. Amen.
Even if you're not a huge fan of my preaching,
you say, brother, second, pass your ministry
to a better preacher, that's true.
That doesn't change the fact,
this is the area where God's people gather.
Amen. Right.
I mean, even if there's plenty of preachers
you'd rather listen to online, it doesn't change the fact,
this is where God's people gather in Metro Manila.
Right.
And I'm not saying that to be arrogant, that's the truth.
And if you've been in our church for a while,
you know that's true.
Amen. Right.
Even if I'm not your favorite preacher,
even if you disagree with some of these,
how I run them and things like that,
you say, brother, second, I wish you preached
on the cults of less or more or whatever,
doesn't change the fact,
this is where God's people decide to come in Metro Manila.
That's true.
They didn't hear the Lord's faith often, one to another.
Why is it that we have so much trouble
with the pattern of church attendance?
Because we're unbelieving believers.
We say we believe it's important
and it will change our lives,
but somehow other things are bigger priority.
Point number one was the punishment of God.
We live our lives sometimes making the same sense
and thinking God's not gonna judge us.
Why? We're an unbelieving believer.
Point number two is a purified, preserved, perfect word of God.
You believe and say we have a perfect Bible
and yet it's hard to read the Bible.
The pattern of church attendance.
Point number three, church is important
and yet many things come up all the time.
Point number four, prayer.
I think everybody would say prayer is important.
So ask yourself this question.
How long did you pray for this one?
How long did you pray for yesterday?
I mean, there's a reason why,
a lot of you, and I'm not asking for a show of hands.
We're not a typical Baptist church,
but I mean, ask yourself that question.
Is prayer important?
That's what it says in James 4 verse one.
From whence come wars and fightings among you?
Come they not hence even of your lusts
that war in your members?
He lusts and have nots.
He kill and desire to have and cannot obtain.
He fight and worry and he have not.
It's saying in James 4,
you have all of these problems in your life.
You have all these battles and fights.
You don't have the things that you want.
Why is it?
And some of you are like this.
We said, Brother Stuckey,
I'm just different than other people.
For some reason, I just have a lot of problems in my life.
Everything goes wrong.
Everything in my life is just so mud of the wall.
Everything's messed up.
It's different for other people.
Other people, it's just so easy.
Why don't I have other things?
That's what it says.
Because he has not.
Right.
You know why you don't have what you want?
Because you don't ask for it.
You serve a heavenly Father that loves you
and wants to give you things that are in his will.
Well, God doesn't want you to have a life
that's just, man, the worst life in the world
and everything's messed up.
No, I mean, God wants to actually give you things.
I mean, think about you that are parents in this room
and you have children.
Don't you want to give your kids nice things, right?
I want to give my son.
I want to give my daughter nice things, right?
You want to do nice things for your children quietly
because you love them.
We serve a loving God that wants to actually give you things.
He wants to bless your life.
Now, look, if you pray for things that are out of his will,
God helped me win the lottery.
Well, yeah, there's a reason why
he's not giving me that answer.
I mean, if you were to pray,
God, please help me get a job
where I can provide for my family,
why wouldn't you want to answer that?
Right.
I mean, many people in this room
are looking for the right person to marry.
I mean, what about the prayer?
God, please help me find the right person to marry.
I mean, isn't that a good prayer question?
Because oftentimes there's things that we want
and we pray for it like twice.
Man, God's never going to give me this
because you're not asking for it, right?
You ask for it once, you ask for it twice,
and then all of a sudden it doesn't come.
Man, this is never going to happen.
I mean, good night.
Isaac prayed 20 years in the Bible
that they prayed to have a child, 20 years, right?
Day after day, I mean, 20 years,
that's like 7,300 plus times in prayer,
over and over and over again
that God would bless them in that area.
And us, we pray for things oftentimes
and just give up after once or twice.
And look, I'm guilty of many things I'm preaching on.
Sometimes I am an unbeliever.
Sometimes I'm not praying for things.
And then it's just like once you pray,
it's like it's immediately answered.
Have you ever lost something really important
that you really needed?
Like you lost your cell phone or something,
something that's really expensive,
like you're really afraid.
Man, where is it and everything?
And you spend 20 minutes looking around for it.
You're mad.
You start yelling at your wife.
You start yelling at your kids.
You're frustrated.
What did you do with this, blah, blah, blah, everything.
Then all of a sudden you calm down.
You spend just a minute or two praying
and then you try and get immediately.
I mean, am I the only one that that's happened to?
It's like I'm trying to find something
and then all of a sudden I pray for it
and then it's like it's right there, right?
Before we had the first missions trip,
this is like a deep, dark secret, all right?
In April of 2018, the day before we're leaving
for the missions trip, before we're actually here,
I was looking for my passport to get everything organized.
I couldn't find my passport.
And I was the one running the missions trip.
And so, you know, I'm, and look,
my wife and I, we were looking around for a lot of time.
I mean, for hours.
And I had to go to the church.
You're having like a preaching night
or a men's leadership class and I'm frantic, I'm scared.
My wife's looking online about like
how to get a last second passport
because you can expedite the process
and pay like 500 bucks or something like that.
But I mean, it was closed on the weekends.
I mean, there was no way we didn't find that passport.
And I was actually at the church
and my wife just took some time and prayed about it
and then she found it immediately.
Now, I'm not gonna say who it was.
It wasn't me, it wasn't my wife, okay?
Our son was too young to really act that makgeolli.
But there was a family member that had visited
and thought it was not in a safe spot.
Somebody might try to steal it.
So they moved it to a safe, secure location
and didn't tell us.
Because I knew where my passport was.
I always put it right here.
So I don't forget, I know where it is.
And then they never told us.
They had moved it and everything.
So we're just like frantic, we looked around for hours.
Like, where is this?
And it's like, oh, and then afterwards,
oh yeah, I looked into that location.
Oh, it would've been nice to know that, right?
But isn't it amazing you look for hours?
I mean, they say that prayer
is the greatest time saver you could ever do.
It's a time saver.
It's a future sermon, I'm sure I'll praise it.
Literally, by spending 10 minutes in prayer,
it's gonna probably save you a lot of time
with all this turmoil and problems that end up coming up.
A lot of those problems that always come up in your life,
they would probably vanish away, right?
I had a friend of mine in Sacramento, California.
He goes to Verity Baptist Church.
And he was talking about this in a sermon and everything.
He was talking about what he's found in his life
when he devotes his time to God.
He just doesn't have many problems in his life.
Just everything starts to go smoothly.
Why?
Because when you dedicate your life to God,
God's gonna help you out.
God wants to use you in a big way.
He wants to make your life easier
if you're gonna use that extra time to serve him.
But look, if our free time is like two hours on Facebook,
then maybe God says, you know what,
I gotta take away some of that free time, right?
I gotta make you start to be a little bit frantic,
you know, losing things and having all these problems
because I need you to get off Facebook
and get off the worldliness.
And so maybe God makes your life a little bit more difficult
because you're not using the time you gave him, right?
Isn't it amazing that people a couple hundred years ago,
they literally worked 72 hours a week,
still devoted a day completely to God,
and yet without the modern conveniences,
they had time to do everything.
It's like, well, maybe.
God blessed them because they're actually working hard
and not wasting their time.
Look, we would say in this room, we believe in prayer.
But if we were honest with ourselves, and myself included,
there are many times we go about our days
and then we don't pray to God, we have all these problems,
and then we stop and we pray to God,
and then all of a sudden things start working together.
That's reality, okay?
What are the four points we have today
about being unbelieving and believing, okay?
Point number one was the punishment of God.
Now, if you're saved in this room,
I'm sure you would say, well, yeah,
we believe and read what you sow in this life.
Ask yourself the question, though,
why aren't you living that way?
Because your actions don't always bear that out.
And look, if there is a sin that you're struggling with
that you're committing over and over and over again,
you will read what you sow.
Go to grade-A strings to get rid of that sin.
Point number two was the perfect Word of God.
If you say, I believe the Word of God is perfect,
it will change your life,
then why do you have so much trouble reading God's Word?
Look, get a chart.
Before we even start in January, go online tonight,
print off a chart of Bible reading.
And look, however much you wanna read it,
whether it's one time through a year,
two times through or whatever,
print out a chart and just start checking it off each day.
And you're gonna magically find that, you know what?
Wow, I did a lot more Bible reading.
People that are successful, they live by routine,
where it's not that they wake up and make a decision.
Wow, I mean, am I gonna go to work today?
Am I gonna eat healthy?
Am I gonna read the Bible?
But no, they just have a chart that says,
this is what you're doing, okay?
They make the decision when they have a clarity of mind,
and then they just live by those decisions.
Point number three was the pattern of church.
We say we believe in the importance of church
or the pattern of church,
and this is where God's people gather,
why is it so hard to come to church?
And point number four is prayer.
We say we believe in the power of prayer,
and God wants to answer our prayers,
and yet many of us, we spend very little time
actually praying to God.
What you should do is in your own free time,
write down the things that you really are struggling with
or you really need prayer about,
and make it a point to pray for that every day.
And you're gonna start to find
that God actually does answer prayer.
But you know what, if your faith is very small,
if you're an unbeliever, you might never learn this.
This goes in word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for the opportunity to be here today
and to be here now, Scott.
Help all of us, including myself,
to apply this to our lives, Scott.
Help us not to be unbelieving believers.
Help us not just to get saved,
but actually live our lives based on faith
and trust and promise to do the work.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.