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Now let's take our offering.
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Genesis 49 near the end of Genesis
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The Bible says this, wisdom hath builded her house.
She hath hewn out her seven pillars.
So wisdom hath builded her house.
It speaks about wisdom and in a symbolic sense it says,
hath builded her house.
Now in many ways we are like a house.
You say why?
What does the end of the Sermon of the Mount talk about?
It talks about how we're like a house that's going to go through various storms
and if you're built on the rock, you stand.
If you're built on the sand, you fall.
Right?
You go through the same problems, you go through the same storms,
but the question is what are you built on?
Because what you're built on is going to determine how stable you are.
And what it says here in Proverbs 9 verse 1,
wisdom hath builded her house.
She hath hewn out her seven pillars.
Now what is the purpose of this?
Is this here for decoration?
It looks nice.
To be honest, I would love to remove all of these things from our building.
It's such a pain when you're trying to set up the chairs.
And sometimes I'm over here and I'm like, okay, the people that are back there,
I can't really see them.
They can't see me.
But the purpose of this is not for decoration.
The purpose of this is to support the weight of the building.
And see as you have pillars in a building, it's going to help support the weight
and you can build bigger buildings if you design it correctly.
I had a class in college called statics where you would basically calculate
how much weight you could have at various areas
depending on how tall something is, what are the angles,
you know, all these various different things.
And see these are useful to support.
So if you're building a house, you want a pillar or a marker as a support
so that way it's successful.
And the Bible is saying if you're a wise person and you have a house
or you have an area of your life that you want to be successful,
you put underneath that support so it's going to stand.
Turn in your Bible to Acts 20.
Acts 20.
And what this pillar does is it provides stability for this building.
So if there is a storm, it's probably not going to fall.
But what if you don't have much support on a building or a house?
Well, if there's a storm, it's going to easily fall.
Right?
You want to put as much support as possible so it's likely to last during a storm
or an earthquake or whatever the situation is.
And see, the pillar is used to support the building.
Point number one is supports.
Supports.
Well, when it comes to our walk with the Lord, here's what you need to realize.
God has actually told you what the pillars are to be successful.
Because see, some of you, your life is a mess right now.
You're always angry.
You don't have any patience.
You're worldly.
You're depressed.
One week you want to live for God.
The next week you don't want to live for God.
One week you're in a good mood.
Then the next day you're yelling at your wife.
You're yelling at your kids.
You're yelling at your husband.
You're frustrated.
You're mad.
You don't want to go on.
You say, why is it that your life is all over the place?
Because that would indicate no stability, right?
There's no stability if one day you're in a good mood and the next day you're miserable.
One day it's like, I have the greatest husband in the world.
I have the greatest wife in the world.
I want a divorce.
I hate my spouse.
I am plotting their murder right now, right?
You would say there's no stability.
Now when it comes to our spiritual life, if you have a good spiritual life,
it's going to give you strong stability overall for all areas of your life.
But why is it that some people, one week they want to serve God.
The next week they don't want to serve God.
One week they're meditating on God's word.
The next week they're not.
What is the problem?
Well, one of the big problems is found in Acts 20 verse 7.
And upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread,
Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continue his speech until midnight.
We see here in Acts 20 verse 7 that the pattern they had was meeting the first day of the week.
What is this called?
It's called church.
Church is a pillar for your spiritual life.
It's the pillar and ground of the truth.
Do you see how everything lines up in the Bible?
Church is actually a pillar in your life.
There's something about coming to church every week and it resets your mind back how it's supposed to be.
Because if you're out of church for a long time, your mind is just going to go off in the wrong direction.
But being in church every week and having that habit, it resets you how it's supposed to be.
Because this world is lying to you.
This world is deceiving you.
This world is misleading you.
But see, when you're in church every week, you get redirected into exactly what the Bible says.
Go to verse 20.
Part of church is obviously preaching the gospel, getting people saved.
Acts 20 verse 20, notice what it says.
And how I kept back nothing that was profitable on you, but I've showed you and I've taught you publicly and from house to house.
So house to house is like when we go door to door soul winning and we get people saved.
You say, why is it important to have a habit of going soul winning?
Because it teaches you when you go soul winning that your life is not about you, it's about other people.
Did you know that's the whole message of Christianity?
Your life is not about you, it's about other people.
And see, if we would understand that principle, it would fix all areas of our lives.
You want to be a good parent?
Well, if you understand the principle that your life's not about you, but it's about your kids, it's going to make you a good parent, isn't it?
Instead of just focusing on what you want, you're going to focus on what's good for your kids, right?
And see, the Bible says here in Acts 20 verse 20, they're going house to house, preaching the gospel.
And when you do that, it resets your mind to realize, hey, it's not about me and what I need in life, it's about other people.
See, church is one of the pillars that's going to give you a strong spiritual life.
It's the pillar and ground of the truth.
And if you don't have a habit of regularly being in church, your spiritual life is going to bounce all over the place.
Sometimes you're going to be in a good mood, sometimes you're going to be in a bad mood.
You're going to be patient one day, not patient the next day.
You're going to be bitter and envious.
You're going to be bouncing back and forth with no stability because you're not in that habit of being in church, the pillar and ground of the truth, on a weekly basis.
Turn your Bible to Deuteronomy 17.
Deuteronomy 17.
See, one reason why people's lives are just a mess and just, it's like, why is my life so magulo, it's all over the place, everything's messed up.
Well, it could be because you don't have a habit of just being in church every single week.
Look, I'm not the one who set up the system of church.
It's not like, well, this is Brother Stuckey's opinion.
I mean, honestly, it's kind of like the first step.
You basically line up with who you believe in, God's people.
When I got saved and I started going to church, I realized, you know what, this is the group of people that I believe the same doctrines, I support this church.
I want to be a part of it because it's God's institution.
One reason why your house is falling all the time, it might be because you don't have a habit of regularly being in church.
That is a pillar.
But see, it's not just a weekly pillar that God gave us.
He gave us a couple of daily pillars.
What's a daily pillar?
Reading the Bible.
Deuteronomy 17, verse 19.
And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein some of the days of his life.
Is that what the Bible says?
And he shall read therein when he feels like reading the Bible.
Is that what it says?
He shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord as God to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them.
See, if you read the Bible every day, you will fear God and obey his commandments.
If you don't read the Bible every day, the opposite.
You're not going to fear God, you're not going to keep his commandments.
Right? I mean, isn't that what it says?
If you read the Bible every day, you're going to fear God and keep his commandments.
So the contrary would be true that if you're not reading the Bible every day, you're not going to fear God, you're not going to keep his commandments.
And see, when it says every day, it means every day.
You say, but Brother Sucky, today's a Sunday.
Yeah, you should still read the Bible today.
You say, well, Brother Sucky and I never read the Bible on Sunday, I'm just so busy and everything.
Look, I probably drive from a further distance away than anybody at this church at this point.
Right?
It takes me a long time to get here on a Sunday, but you know what?
I still read my Bible this morning.
You say, why?
That's a pillar of my spiritual life.
It's important to me.
I need to read the Bible every day.
Right?
All of us need to read the Bible every single day because that is going to put us daily in that routine of resetting our mind, putting on the new man, putting off the old man, putting on the new man, and that's a daily thing you need to do.
Go to Daniel 6.
Daniel 6.
You say, Brother Sucky, what if you don't read the Bible every day?
Well, if you're not reading the days you don't read the Bible, you're going to be in a bad mood, you're going to be depressed, you're going to be angry, you're going to be complaining.
Everything is going to be a mess.
That's the truth.
The days you don't read the Bible, your life is a mess, and you know that's true.
You're in a bad mood.
You're getting in a fight with your wife or your husband.
You're getting mad at your kids.
Right?
On days you're reading the Bible and your child accidentally spills something, you know what?
It's not the end of the world to you.
But if you don't read the Bible, it's just like you're the worst son in the world.
You're the worst.
But, you know, really the problem is just your own heart because those things are going to happen around you.
You need to fix your own spiritual walk.
And a daily pillar that God has given us to make that house stand during a storm or difficult times is called reading the Bible.
Read it every day.
You say, Brother Sucky, I know I should read the Bible every day, but, you know, it's just not happening.
You know, what can I do to fix that?
Make a Bible reading chart.
Find a Bible reading chart online.
Did you know that when I wake up in the morning, I never have to decide what to read?
You say, Why?
Because I have a chart that tells me what to read at that time.
It's day three.
I'm on a three-month schedule.
Matthew 15 through Matthew 21, you know, Proverbs 3, Psalms 11 through 15.
You say, Brother Sucky, when did you decide that?
I just woke up.
It's like, OK, well, this is what I'm supposed to read today, so I read it.
Right?
I mean, I decided at the end of 2020 what my Bible reading schedule was for all of 2021.
And when you do that, when you mess up on a day, it forces you to get back on that schedule because you're committed to that schedule.
You just kind of make a schedule and then you stick to it.
Look, people that are successful in life, they live off routine, not emotion.
You live off routine, not emotion.
It's like that with any area of your life.
It doesn't even matter what the area is.
You want to say, Brother Sucky, you know, I'm trying to, you know, I got a New Year's resolution to get in shape and work out.
Pick a time and a location because people that work out regularly, they have a time and a location, and then they just stick to it.
Whatever you want to be good at, you do it by routine, not based on emotion.
Why?
Because your emotions are going to fly all over the place.
It's better to decide ahead of time when you've got a clear head than just always trying to figure out what am I going to do.
Can you imagine how successful you're going to be in your job if you wake up and say, Do I feel like going to work today?
Well, good luck lasting two weeks at your job because honestly, you know what, I never, I never felt like going to work.
My job in Maryland, you know, I didn't mind the job.
I mean, it's fine, but it's not like I woke up and it's like, Man, I'm so excited to just go to work and everything.
It's like, but see, you know, you live your life by routine, and then you're just successful at things.
That's the way it works.
See, we don't have to figure it out.
God gave us one of the daily routines is read the Bible every day, right?
It's not the Beau Sanchez method of it's not important to read the Bible.
It's a good thing, but it's not necessary to grow.
Well, the Bible says his newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby.
See, that's the advantage of reading the Bible.
You're not going to like say something completely wrong and have a verse to completely disprove what you're saying.
You know, another one of the pillars of your Christian life and your walk with the Lord is praying every day.
You say, Brother Stuckey, this is not a complicated sermon.
You're right.
It's not a complicated sermon.
But, you know, the truth is that if we would all examine our hearts and answer these questions honestly,
many people are like, OK, I don't read the Bible every day.
OK, I'm not in church every week.
OK, I don't pray every day.
It's like I don't have some complicated calculus formula to solve all your problems.
Here's the problem.
You're not reading the Bible every day.
You're not praying every day.
Notice what it says in Daniel 6, verse 10.
Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house,
and his windows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem,
he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before God.
Notice this.
As he did a four time, OK, this was the pattern in Daniel's life to pray three times a day.
Now I'm not saying that we need to pray exactly three times a day
or pray five times a day facing Mecca or whatever like that.
But that's what Daniel did, though.
He had a pattern of praying three times a day.
What I am saying is the Bible says pray without ceasing.
So you could at least pray once a day.
Just pick a time to set aside.
And you know, a very smart time to pray is at the beginning of the day
because you're praying, God, please guide me down the right path today.
Help lead me in the right direction.
And guess what?
God's ready to answer a good prayer like that.
But here's the thing.
If you're not praying daily, you might be just going down your own road every single day,
and God's like, couldn't you just spend ten minutes?
Right?
So we've got something in the hymnal, you know, sweet hour of prayer, blessed hour of prayer.
Can you just give God ten minutes?
Just ten minutes of prayer?
Once again, you say, Brother Sucky, I know I should pray.
Why am I unsuccessful?
Because you don't have a prayer list.
Once again, I have said things I pray for depending on what day of the week,
and then there's also additional things that might be important.
Maybe someone has a surgery or something important.
But I have said things where it's like, okay, today I'm praying for this.
On Sundays, the main thing I pray for is this church family,
because obviously we have church, we have soul winning, we have fellowship,
and the main thing I pray for on Sundays is for this church.
On Saturdays, the main thing I pray for is VBC Pampanga, right?
And I have different things depending on the day.
And here's the thing.
You take out your list in the morning, it's okay, I'm going to pray to God,
and you go through the list, and if there's anything else, you can add that as well.
Isn't that what we do on our monthly basis?
We've got a circle of people.
What's your prayer request?
Well, that's why you should have just a prayer list of things that you can pray to God about.
And I'll tell you what.
You could come up with a lot of things if you actually stopped and thought about it.
There's many things that we can pray for to God about,
and it's like oftentimes we do not have because we're not asking.
Turn in your Bible to Proverbs 22.
Proverbs 22.
Right now some of you are like,
why can't you just preach against the LGBT today, Brother Stuckey?
Well, because that's a sermon for another day, okay?
It's like I just changed the sermon a couple of weeks ago based on a new topic.
I'm not changing it because of Miss Philippines is a tomboy, okay?
It is what it is.
I'll let that pass this time, okay?
But this sort of sermon, though, can oftentimes step on your toes
because I'm not an idiot.
I'm positive that not everybody is reading the Bible every day.
I'm positive that not everybody is praying every day.
And if you want me to be completely honest,
I would say probably most people in this church don't pray every single day.
Now, I hope that's not the case.
I hope most people are reading the Bible every day.
I hope most people are spending real time in prayer per day.
But I've also been in churches for a long time since I've been saved.
I got saved 18 years ago next Sunday, okay?
October 10, 18 years ago.
Guess what?
Even in churches that are preaching the truth,
there are people at the churches that don't read the Bible.
There are people at the churches that don't pray.
What's going to happen, though,
is your life is going to be all over the place from day to day
because you don't have that daily routine of just reading the Bible,
of just praying to God, of just going to church every week.
The simple things are going to be what makes you successful in life.
It's like that with everything, right?
At my secular job in Maryland, you know,
the main thing I did all day was I was on Microsoft Excel
for more than five hours a day of my job.
Microsoft Excel, math, and formulas all day long.
There's probably a lot of men in our room who use Microsoft Excel a lot, right?
You say, Brother Stuckey, are you an expert at Microsoft Excel?
I know very little about Microsoft Excel.
There's like 55 million formulas in that computer program,
and I know this percentage of them.
But this percentage was basically my whole job.
99% of what I did was the same things over and over and over again.
Use a VLOOKUP function, just do basic data entry.
It's the same stuff over and over again.
There's a lot of complicated things in Excel I don't know how to do,
and that's what YouTube and Google is for, right?
You go to Google, it's like, how do you do this on Excel?
You see somebody else who did it.
You just change the numbers, change the letters.
It's like, all right, I got an error.
Let me figure out what it is.
Okay, I'm done, right?
That's the way it is in life, though.
With any area, if you're going to be successful,
it's not being able to do the complicated things.
It's being good at the basics.
Any area of life, that's the way it works, right?
I get it that when there's a literal physical fight,
the highlight knockout is this spinning cartwheel kick or whatever,
but most fights don't end that way.
And if that's all you train, you're going to lose every single fight, right?
You get good at stuff by doing the basics,
not just spending all your time on all the complicated stuff.
So the first application is with your walk with the Lord.
Look at Proverbs 22.
Another application is with your wife and kids or husband and kids,
with your family.
Notice what it says in Proverbs 22 verse 6.
It says, train up a child in the way he should go.
And when it comes to the pillar of being a successful mom,
when it comes to the pillar of being a successful dad,
what does the Bible say?
It says train up a child.
Train up a child.
You say, well, what does that mean?
Well, if you're training up a child,
it's going to imply you're spending time with those kids.
It implies that you're teaching them, giving them nurture,
you're giving them admonition, training up a child, right?
Here's the other thing.
If you are training up your child,
it also means that if you're going to be successful,
your spouse is going to be involved with you.
It's a team effort.
And see, if both mom and dad are working at training their children,
their relationship is going to be better because their effort and energy
is not focused on themselves but on their kids.
Because once again, your life is not about you.
It's about other people.
And when you have kids, guess what?
The focus is no longer on mom and dad.
The focus is on the kids.
You say, why?
Because the kids need you.
Those diapers don't change themselves.
I mean, if your baby's crying because they need a new diaper,
it's like they're not going to figure it out on their own, right?
And if you don't deal with it,
you have a much bigger mess on your hands 30 minutes down the road.
It's like you have to deal with it.
And see, here's the thing.
As a parent, your life is not about you.
It's about your kids.
That's the way that God set up the system.
And it's a great thing because it humbles you to realize
that you're not really that special.
What actually matters is your kids, right?
Turn to Exodus 34.
Exodus 34.
So the pillar to be a successful father or mother,
be successful with your family life,
is that your goal is just that you're training your child.
That implies spending time and effort and energy.
What about in your secular work?
You say, Brother Stuckey, I want to be successful at my job.
What is the secret to impressing my boss?
Well, I've got three things, and these are very basic,
very, very basic elementary school level.
Number one, wake up early in the morning.
Wake up early in the morning.
Exodus 34, verse 4.
And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first,
and Moses rose up early in the morning.
Now, I'm going to give you a homework assignment
where basically when you're reading the Bible,
you don't have to turn this in,
but when you read the Bible,
look for the Bible saying waking up early in the morning,
rising early in the morning.
And you know what you're going to find?
Every great character in the Bible
woke up early in the morning.
It's a fact.
If you haven't noticed that, just start looking for it,
and you're like, man, every single chapter,
Moses rose up early in the morning.
Not just Moses.
You can look at Joshua or any of the characters.
I talked about a few weeks ago,
Elisha's helper's like all worried.
What's going on?
And then Elisha's like, hey, it's all right
because he had probably spent his morning time with God
because he woke up early in the morning.
And if you want to be successful,
you need to rise up early in the morning.
You say, what does that mean exactly, brother Stuckey?
What it means is you don't wake up 10 minutes
before you start your job and then just stumble into work.
You say, why?
Because of the fact, if you woke up 10 minutes before,
you're still asleep when you get there.
Right?
And you get to work, and you're like,
capé, capé, sign on capé.
I'm so tired, right?
And you're basically worthless for the first 45 minutes.
But see, if you wake up an hour before you work
or an hour and a half or two hours, guess what?
When you actually start your day,
you're already energized and ready to go.
You've already had breakfast.
You've already had coffee or whatever,
and you're ready to go.
Don't just wake up right before you start.
For one, you're going to miss your walk
with the Lord in the morning.
But number two, you're going to be basically exhausted
while you're at work, and then you're not going
to be successful if you're exhausted.
And look, if you woke up early in the morning,
that's going to actually fix 95% of your problems in life.
That's the big problem people have.
They do not wake up early.
Go to Ecclesiastes 9.
Ecclesiastes 9.
I grew up being taught that if you wake up at 8 in the morning,
the day's already half gone.
That's what I was taught.
I wake up early in the morning.
I set my alarm for 5 in the morning.
Today I woke up at 4.30 before my alarm.
I was thinking, great, 30 extra minutes
to get stuff done that I need to get done.
You say, Brother Stuckey, how did you have time
to read the Bible?
Well, because I woke up early in the morning.
Let me be honest.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I wish this church
didn't have such a late lunch.
That's not my fault because I would love to start
this church earlier.
I would love to.
I just know that would hurt the attendance
because people have trouble waking up.
I would love to start it at 8 in the morning
or 9 in the morning.
I'm dead serious.
Early to rise and you're successful in life.
I would love to start it early, but I know people
have enough trouble getting here on time
when it's at 10.
What if it's at 8?
It's like people are showing up at lunch.
Did I miss soul winning?
Waking up early is going to make you successful
in life because there's less distractions
early in the morning.
Brother Stuckey, I want to read my Bible every day,
but there's so many distractions.
That's because you're waking up too late.
Wake up early, there's not distractions.
That's the way it works.
What's another thing that makes you successful?
What's your job?
Work hard.
You say, Brother Stuckey, that's really basic.
It is very basic, but most people don't work hard.
Ecclesiastes 9, verse 10.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.
For there's no work, nor device, nor knowledge,
nor wisdom in the grave, whether thou goest.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.
Here's the thing.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I don't have a secular job.
I'm a stay-at-home parent.
Well, that's your work then.
If you're a stay-at-home parent,
your work is being a stay-at-home parent.
Work hard at it.
Let me tell you something.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I can't find anything to do.
That's why I'm on Facebook for hours every day.
No, you're just not doing the things you need to do.
There are plenty of things that you could do
if you wanted to.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.
I really don't understand why people like to sit around
and do nothing because I've had jobs
where there wasn't a lot to do and I hated it.
Your first couple of days on a new job
and they don't have anything for you to do,
they're just like, read the company's manual.
It's like, I already read it twice yesterday.
It's like, can you give me something to do?
Do you need somebody to run an errand?
They're like, yeah, we need to get this box out.
All right, you need someone to get the box.
I'll go get the box.
Because I don't want to just sit around with nothing to do
and see a lot of times in life, people just sit around,
lazy, doing nothing.
The Bible says, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,
do it with thy might.
And you will impress your boss if you just work hard.
That's the truth.
And here's the thing.
As Christians, we don't have the luxury
of only working hard when the boss is around
because promotion cometh from the Lord.
God sees what you do.
Don't be a man pleaser, as the Bible says.
Actually work hard whether you're noticed or not.
And if you do that, you know what?
You're going to be successful.
It's that simple.
Turn to Psalm 75.
Psalm 75.
One thing is wake up early.
Another thing is work hard.
Another thing is rely on God.
Rely on God.
It says in Psalm 75 verse 6,
From promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west
nor from the south, but God is the judge.
He putteth down one and setteth up another.
Your goal is not to impress your boss at work.
Your goal is to impress the Lord.
It's a big difference.
And if your goal is to impress the Lord,
part of it is that you're actually working hard
as He commands you to do.
But part of it is that you're actually living a godly life.
I believe if you want to be successful at your secular work,
living a godly life is going to help you out.
You say, why?
I believe promotion cometh from the Lord.
Not from the west, not from the east,
not from the south, but from the Lord.
From above, God is the one who's going to promote you.
So if you want to be successful at your job,
wake up early, work hard, and rely on God.
And look, it's very easy to be lazy with these things when you're co-working.
I worked at an office setting before,
and it's like I really don't understand why if you smoke cigarettes
you get to have like six 15-minute breaks a day.
Because I'm like, should I?
That's why literally people in the U.S. start smoking
so they can take breaks during the day at work, right?
But it's like I remember times where it's just like there's nobody in the office.
I'm thinking it's like two in the afternoon.
There's these phone calls bouncing in,
and I'm just thinking I'm not paid to organize things on the phone.
I'm paid to be on Microsoft Excel.
And you get phone calls that get bounced to you
because people aren't there at their jobs, and it's like, what are they doing?
They're getting paid, but they're not there, right?
And you end up covering for them, and you don't even know what's going on
because the phone call's been bounced to you, and you're like, I have no idea.
Let me try to find the right person.
I mean, I remember one time specifically
because we had the defined benefit section and the defined contribution section.
Defined benefit was math.
That's the section I was in, math and doing computer stuff.
Defined contribution was more secretarial organization.
We had like 30 workers in the D.C. section.
We had about 10 workers in the D.B. section.
I remember one time my phone rang,
and somebody asked me a question for the D.C. side,
and I'm like, hold on a second. Let me find somebody.
And I'm looking. There's nobody there, 30 people.
None of them are there.
It's like, but the boss wasn't there that day, right?
The cat's away. The mice will play, right?
And see, the boss isn't there, so they're not working hard.
But see, our boss is ultimately the Lord, so if you want to be successful,
you need to work hard whether you're seen or not.
Turn in your Bible to Genesis 49.
Genesis 49.
You say, Brother Stuckey, these are not these life-changing things
I was expecting to fix my life.
Yeah, it's the basic things that are going to fix your life.
Here's a famous basketball player that retired like five years ago.
Tim Duncan, he was known as the big fundamental.
And, you know, you look at the end of a game, it would be like Spurs-Lakers.
You've got Kobe Bryant who has like 35 points or whatever,
did all these fancy slam dunks.
Shaq did all these powerful moves, broke the rim.
You're thinking, man, Tim Duncan didn't do anything.
You look at the box score, 28 points, 14 rebounds, 4 blocks,
because it wasn't exciting, right?
We remember the exciting, but the boring fundamental stuff you forget about.
Well, it's the same thing in your life.
If you're good at the basics, the fundamental stuff,
that is what's going to make you successful, right?
Instead of worrying about all the complicated things,
worry about just reading the Bible every day.
Worry about praying every day.
Worry about going to church every week.
Man, if you do those things, you're going to find, man, my house is strong.
It's stable.
It's not falling in every direction, every single situation.
Point number one is support.
Point number two, you say, Brother Shaq, you already knew all of these things.
Well, but you're not doing all these things, so you need to hear them anyway.
But point number one is support.
But point number two, that support needs to be static, meaning unmoving.
Because if this was here, but it just kind of went back and forth in every direction,
it's not going to provide stability for this house.
And see, the problem with a lot of us is that we read the Bible every day
when we feel like reading the Bible every day.
It's not a static support.
It just kind of moves depending on the situation.
It's like, oh, well, I know I should read the Bible, but I got this thing in my schedule.
I wasn't able to do it today.
I'm going to read twice as much tomorrow.
No, you're not.
And the next day, I'm going to read three times as much tomorrow.
No, you're not.
And eventually you're going to forget about it and just say, oh, you know, I'll just start, you know.
And you're bouncing back and forth in your life, no stability whatsoever,
because your support system is not static.
It's changing depending on the situation.
Genesis 49, verse 4, it says, unstable as water, unstable as water.
Water is something that's unstable, right?
And it just moves in every direction, and it's not static.
You could put it here, and it's going to move depending on if this pulpit moves, okay?
Turn to Proverbs 4, Proverbs 4, Proverbs 4.
So before we get into the applications with our walk with the Lord, our wife and kids,
and then with our secular work,
I want you to realize something, that if you're considering making changes in your life,
the Bible teaches that that's something you should deeply consider,
not just make a major change without thinking about it.
Notice what it says in Proverbs 4, verse 26.
Ponder means to think, but to think very deeply.
It's a very strong word.
So the Bible's saying, deeply think about the path of your feet.
The indication is you're walking down a path, you've got this routine for your life,
and you're thinking about changing that routine.
You should really think about that before you change your routine, right?
I mean, if you're going down this path and you're successful,
before you make any big changes, make sure you think about it.
You say, why? You want your ways to be established or stable.
And if you're always changing directions, there's going to be no stability.
You've got to figure out what works and just stick with it, right?
Nothing complicated, nothing fancy.
You just find something that works, you have a routine, and you just stick to that routine.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I get bored with my routines, but that's what makes you successful.
You find a routine and you just stick to it, and that's how you're successful.
You say, Brother Stuckey, it just seems kind of boring every day,
waking up and reading the Bible, but that's what's going to make you successful,
that you have this routine.
I want to just do one day I'm going to read the Bible at five in the morning,
then tomorrow I'm going to read it after work and just bouncing around.
No, just figure something out and stick with it.
If it doesn't work for you reading in the morning, then find a time that works and stick to it.
You say, Brother Stuckey, my work shift's all over the place.
Well, then do this.
Your work shift is not like a seven or eight in the morning starting thing.
Before you go home, read the Bible after work, right?
Before you go home, take an hour break, stop on the side of the road,
stay at your job or whatever, and read the Bible before you go home,
because once you get home and there's distractions, you're not going to read the Bible.
That's the way it works.
You just have to figure something out and stick to it and just go by routine,
and when you have a routine or a schedule, it forces you to just keep that.
On my phone, I have a weekly schedule that says on Monday I do this,
on Tuesday I do this, on Wednesday I do this, on Thursday I do this.
Now, I'm not saying I perfectly stick to it every single day.
Obviously, we understand that it's not like every single day you're going to be perfect,
but you should try as much as is possible why you want stability in your life.
And if you don't have stability, you're going to fail in life at whatever you do.
You need stability.
Go to Proverbs 20.
Proverbs 20.
Not only should you deeply think about before you make changes in your life,
but you know what?
You should also ask for godly counsel from people before you make major changes.
And the thing about godly counsel is it means ask for advice and counsel,
but actually be willing to listen to the advice and the counsel when it's given,
because there's no purpose of just asking 20 people and picking the one that you like.
This is not a...
Right?
This is real life.
And when you're getting advice, you know what?
The one that's the best is not always the one that you like the most.
In fact, sometimes the best advice is the one that hurts the most,
the one that you don't want to do.
But you get godly advice from people that are outside the situation,
and you need to be smart in life and realize that, you know what?
You're going to be misguided sometimes,
and sometimes it's good to go to somebody outside the situation and say,
Hey, can you just be honest with me?
I'm thinking about this.
Do you think this is a good idea?
Should I stick to this?
Right?
This is what it says in Proverbs 20, verse 18.
Every purpose is established by counsel, and with good advice make war.
See, the Bible says if you're going to make war, you need to have advice about it,
because war is a serious thing.
War is a big deal.
Right?
I mean, if just one person decided,
Well, I just feel like going to war with this country, you'd have a problem.
You'd have the United States of America, pretty much,
where they just want to go to war with everybody, get no advice,
and let's just go to war with this country and this country and this country.
But look, that's a dumb way to live your life.
And if you're going to make a big decision, you want to get advice about it.
Okay?
Every purpose is established by counsel.
Go to Matthew 12.
Matthew 12.
So as much as is possible, you want to develop a routine in life.
And look, I'm using three different things, your walk with the Lord,
your work, and then your wife and kids.
Those three areas, okay?
You might have another area that's very important to you,
and if you do, you want to set up a pillar so it's going to stand.
Okay?
But those are three very important areas, and you want to set up a pillar,
and you want it to be unmoving, static.
You set up support, and it is static.
And it doesn't change depending on the situation.
Well, when it comes with our walk with the Lord,
what is one of the big reasons why people don't serve the Lord?
One of the big reasons is because of their physical family.
People allow their physical family to cause them not to serve God.
Notice what it says in Matthew 12, verse 46.
While he yet talked to the people...
Matthew 12, verse 46.
While he yet talked to the people,
behold, his mother and his brethren stood without,
desiring to speak with him.
So here's an example where basically Jesus is preaching to the people,
and all of a sudden he's told,
hey, you know, your mom and your brethren are outside.
They want to talk to you.
Notice what the reaction is.
Then one said unto him, behold, thy mother and thy brethren
stand without desiring to speak with thee.
But he answered and said unto him that told him,
Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?
And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples,
and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren,
for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven,
the same is my brother and sister and mother.
You know what Jesus is basically saying?
My church family is more important than my physical family.
And you know what?
That is a tough thing for people to take.
What Jesus is saying?
He's saying, I'm preaching a sermon, and my mom wants to talk to me.
It's like, I got something more important.
I got something more important than Mother Mary right now, okay?
He's like, I got something more important.
I'm preaching a sermon.
And you know what?
There's a lot of people, though.
They'll go to church, but then their physical family
caused them to start skipping church.
Oh, we got a family function.
I can't be involved in this.
Oh, yeah, this is my only chance to hang out with them.
And they value their physical family more than their church family.
But see, the Bible says you should value your church family
more than your physical family.
And that's a tough reality check for people, but that is the truth
because you ought to have more in common with your church family
than your physical family.
Now, look, if your physical family loves God too
and they want to be a part of the things of God,
praise the Lord for that.
But for most of us, that's not the case.
For a few of us, is that actually the case?
OK, turn your Bible to John 21.
John 21.
There are many marriages.
Marriage are basically, well, what do our mom and dad think
and we'll just do what they say.
And look, you know, I don't care if that's the tradition
in your family.
That's not the tradition in the Bible.
That's not what God says.
When you get married, husband and wife,
you become one flesh, you are your own family
and you might love your mom and dad
and maybe they do give good advice a lot of times.
But if you're saying something and you disagree,
you go with what you believe is correct.
But many people allow their family to cause them
to get out of the things of God
or they start getting made fun of by friends and family.
I want to be a part of Verity Baptist Church,
Brother Stuckey, but man, just everybody hates you, right?
There's so much hate on this.
I mean, I can't be in a relationship with my family
and I can't be in a relationship with my friends
and I can't be in a relationship with my family
Why does Peter do this?
Because of feelings and emotions
I don't feel like serving God now
so I'm not going to serve God
Look, if you live your life based on feelings
you are going to fail
You have to just live it based on what is right
and stick to it
You say, Brother Stuckey, when should I read the Bible?
Not when you feel like it
Every day
You're not going to feel like going to church every day
Right?
There's times I don't feel like going to church
There's times I don't feel like reading the Bible
There's times I don't feel like going to so many
But you stick to it or not
That is how you're successful at life
Look, you're not...
Look, I am sure that in this room
many of you came to church today
and you didn't feel like it
You're like, Man, I really want to rest today
I don't want to be in church today
I've got all this going on
You're not going to feel like going to church every day
Have a time where you sit together
Have a time where you're just having dinner together
Or lunch together
Look, I understand people's work schedules are very different
So I'm not saying the same time is going to work for everyone
Maybe have a time during the week where you say we have a couple hours of family time
This day during the week
Where we spend family time together
Where basically no matter what the other distractions are
This is family time
Right? You know what works for my family
What works for my family is we pick Thursday morning
Is kind of what we've been doing
Now this Thursday is going to be family haircut day
Because I need a haircut, right?
It's not always the most exciting thing
But it's just a time where we make sure we're spending time as a family together
It's only a couple hours
But it puts you in that routine
If you have a set time where you're eating dinner together
Guess what?
You're sitting in your house together with your family
And then you have that time to train them
Look, I know how our schedules work
Where it's like, man, I'm really busy right now
I don't have time
But you know what, you'd be wise to pick a time
And make it static
And say, you know what, this is our time during the week or day
Where we spend a little bit of time with family
Even if the rest of my schedule is crazy
You know what, I can take 30 minutes
30 minutes is not that much
You can cut out 30 minutes of sleep
Or whatever you need to do
The port system is not very static
It's moving all over the place, right?
Or how about when thou liest down?
So when you think of lying down
You're thinking about at night time when you're going to bed
Now look, the time of day you're going to be your laziest
Is probably right for you too
Brother Stuckey, man, I know I should read the Bible every day
But I was on Facebook this morning
I mean, something really interesting happened
I had to check it out
And I watched this one video, but then there was this other
This is my Bible reading time
Yeah, your problem is you should have woken up and just read the Bible
And allow the other things to be something later
Here's what you need to realize
The things that are important in life should come first
And if other things you don't end up getting done
That's okay
Your hobbies are not essential
Look for work every third day
And say, well, you know, I was writing a poem
Right? Well, good luck
Good luck on your job, okay?
How about with work?
Well, notice what it says in Proverbs 6, verse 4
We see this
It says in verse 4
Give not sleep to thine eyes nor slumber to thine eyelids
Thine eyelids
That's called waking up early in the morning, right?
And linked with work is waking up early
Give not sleep to thine eyes nor slumber to thine eyelids
You say, Brother Stuckey, I'm always tired
I wake up
I have very little sleep
I'm exhausted
That's the way life works
You say, Brother Stuckey, I wish it wasn't like that
You're going to have many times you wake up
I'm so tired
I'm so exhausted
That happens
There's no temptation taking you, but such is common to men
In life we deal with that
Because you're training your kids, you're teaching your kids
You're going to have days you wake up, you're tired
You're exhausted
But you know what? That's the life that we have
And see, it's actually a good thing
If at a young age you learn the principle of
You know what? Waking up early and working
Rather than just waking up and just
Let me just relax for three hours and do nothing
Right?
It says Give not sleep to thine eyes nor slumber to thine eyelids
Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter
And as a bird from the hand of the fowler
Go to the ant for getting promoted
You have to become the employee where your boss can
Your boss doesn't have time to always
Check in every second of the day to make sure
You're doing it right
You've got to figure it out on your own
And in all areas of your life you need to just figure it out
Without an overseer
Just work hard
You say, Brother Stuckey, I don't know what to do
I have all this free time
Well just pray to God that he can show you something that you can do
That way you can work with all your might
You say at my job I don't feel like I have anything to do
But look, there's always something to do
There's always something to do
Turn your Bible to Genesis 49
Genesis 49
I mean, this sermon
I mean, maybe you say, well, Brother Stuckey
My toes have gotten stepped on
But this is going to make you successful at these areas of life
If you apply it
You want to be successful at your work
Wake up early, work hard
Rely on God, which implies
You're going to be successful
Right?
And look, there's a lot of people
That are saved people
But they're not good employees
They're not good workers
And some people have this idea
Well, you know, I'm a servant of God
So the only thing that matters is the spiritual
Except the Bible commands you to work hard
It commands you to be a good worker
And if you're getting paid to do a job
And you're not doing it because you're lazy
It's because you don't get promoted
And unless God is going to promote you
If you're doing a good job
You need to work hard whether you're not getting paid or not
Because the Bible says you're going to end up getting paid for it
That's what it says
If you're working hard
Even if you don't get a payment from your boss
Eventually it's going to come through
Eventually you're going to get that promotion
If God can look down and say, you know what?
This person is doing a good job
They love me, they're working hard
This person I'm going to promote
Because promotion cometh from the Lord, the Bible says
So point number one, we see a support system
Which is basically pillars in areas that are important to you
Point number two, that pillar needs to be static
This cannot be moving
Or this house is going to crumble
Wisdom hath builded her house upon seven pillars
The Bible says
She had to tune it out to Joshua 1
Later in Lebanon
Those that be paid
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age
They shall be fat and flourishing
So Brother Stuckey
What's the secret to getting people saved in old age?
Being planted in God's house
Going to church every week
And then another pillar is just reading the Bible every day
You go to church every week
You read your Bible every day
You're going to be successful
It's not complicated
There's nothing complicated
All you have to do is do the basics
And you're going to be successful
God wants you to be a good Christian
It's not like you have to spend ten years studying
I just figured out
What the secret is to being a good Christian
No, it's actually very simple
Just read the Bible every day
Pray every day
Go to church every week
You're going to be successful
It's really that simple
It's not complicated
Turn your Bible to Proverbs 22
We'll look at a few more places
Proverbs 22
Here's the thing though
It's very simple
I didn't say it was easy
It's simple
It's simple to understand what you need to do
The fun part is when you hit the game winning shot over somebody
God says if you train up your children
You will be successful
Now this is something you have to take by faith
Because of the fact
You know what?
You can't see 20 years down the road
But you know the great thing is this
You are on a path in life
And God says I'll tell you what the end of this path is
If you stick to this
If you train up your children
The end result is they're going to love God
They're not going to depart from it
They're going to serve God
That's what the Bible says
Now we don't see that when our kids are young
But that's the end result the Bible says
And if you just stick to this pattern of actively training your children
In your life
You're going to have success
They're going to grow up
And you know what?
If your kids are successful and they love God
It's going to cause you to have a good marriage as well
These things are going to go together
Because none of us live isolated lives
You're going to grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
The indication is
If you don't provide nurture and admonition to your kids
Then you're going to provoke them to wrath
Both of those things are important
Nurture is important
It's important to spend time with your kids and care about them
The admonition is also important
The admonition is the spanking
The discipline, the correction
Both those things are important in life
According to the Bible
Nurture and admonition
If you only have one you're going to have something lacking
So involving both those things
Nurture and admonition
Now the nurture is the fun thing
Playing with your kids
The admonition is also important
And if you do both of those things
When they are old they're not going to depart
They're going to love God
They're going to serve God
One of the saddest things you see
Is when people's kids grow up
And they don't really love their parents
Because of time into them
So when they grow up, guess what?
When you put energy and heart into your kids
When they grow up they're also going to love you
And want to spend time with you
Genesis 29 verse 14
What about with work?
You say, Brother Stuckey, I want to be more successful at my job
I'm trying to get promotion
I'm trying to get raised
How do I know this is going to work for me?
Well, Genesis 29 verse 14
And Laban said to him, Surely thou art my bone and my flesh
And he abode with him in the space of a month
Here's a story where basically
Jacob has nothing to do
There's always something to do in life
There are things to do
And look, if everybody just sat around
We'd have a lot of problems in life
In all areas
Imagine at our church
We have fellowship events and activities
What if everybody just sat around
And nobody's doing anything
Nobody's volunteering
Nobody's working
This place would become such a mess every single week
It would be a nightmare
But the Bible says, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do
Do it with thy might
And this is what Jacob does
And Laban says, Should you serve me for not?
You're my brother
I don't want to take advantage of you
Then he says, What shall thy wages be?
So basically Laban says, You know what?
You're working for me
I want to hire you
How much do I have to pay you
For you to work for me?
Can you imagine going to a job interview like that?
You go into the job interview
They're like, Okay, we're going to hire you
What does that mean?
Well it means that if you're working hard
You wake up early like Jacob was obviously
Waking up early and working hard
And being godly and relying on God
What's the result? Success
It's that simple
If you want to be successful at your job
The secret is, wake up early
Work hard, be a godly person
Rely on God and you're going to be successful
Now look, I didn't say you're going to be rich
I didn't say that you're going to be
Just swimming in dollar bills every day
Or Donald Trump or something like that
But you're going to be successful
God's going to provide your needs
That's what the Bible teaches
Look, it's like this with any area of your life
You want to be successful
You set up a support system
A pillar of things that you know
I must do this, right?
If you want to have a successful walk with the Lord
I only mentioned a few things
Make sure you're getting this done
You say, Brother Stuckey, you're having a fellowship activity
I'm in church, but I can't stay around for all of it
Hey, you're still in church
You got that pillar done
Maybe you're going to miss some things
But these pillars should not be moving in every direction
Where it's like, sometimes I read the Bible
I just don't feel like it today
Now I would say this
Let's say you're in this room
And you heard this sermon
And you say, Brother Stuckey, I see the points
It's very practical
This makes sense
If I say to myself, some of my pillars are out of place
Well, that should be something
That you're trying to work for
To get to the point where you can have established
A couple pillars in your life in these areas
And say, I will always get this done
I am not going to miss on this
It might mean you need to make some changes in your life
Maybe you need to make some changes
So these pillars are going to be in place
But here's the thing
If you don't have pillars set up
How is a house going to stand?
The Bible says at the end of Matthew 7
If your house is built upon the rock
It's going to stand
Why? It's got a strong foundation
If your house is built upon pillars
Wisdom hath builded her house
And it's upon seven pillars
It says in Proverbs 9
But if you don't have this
And then a storm comes
It could easily tumble
And you know, it's the same thing in our life
With various areas
We're doing something successfully
But once that storm comes
And these are three areas of your life
I would hope you all agree
These are three areas you don't want to lose
Your walk with the Lord is important
Right? Isn't your walk with the Lord important?
Job said, I've esteemed the words of God
More than my necessary food
Right?
Your walk with the Lord is important
But what about your wife and kids?
Your family
That's important, right?
I mean, I don't want to serve God my whole life
And then just screw up my marriage
And my kids grow up and they hate me
And they don't love God
I would consider that a failure
I don't want to screw that up either
I also don't want to screw up my work
That's important
That's how you get paid
Right? I mean, you got to work hard
Get paid, you got to be successful
All three of those areas are vital
And if you're smart
The way that you're going to make sure it stands during a storm
Is set up pillars and make sure these do not move
The end result
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today
And getting to see the subject, God
And I ask you to be with all of our church family
Help all of us to establish some pillars in our life
For these areas and things that are important to us
And help these pillars, this system of support
To be static and unmoving, God
And help all of us, including myself
To just, you know, develop more stability in our lives
So that we can excel, God
We just pray this in Jesus' name, Amen
Thank you again for that song
Let's turn to hymn number 105
Hymn number 105
Let's sing the song
All that fails my soul
On a first
Who can cheer the heart like Jesus
By his presence all divine
True and tender, pure and precious
Oh, how blessed to God and mine
All that fails my soul is Jesus
He is more than life to me
And the fairest of ten thousand
In my blessed Lord I see
Love of Christ so freely given
Grace of God beyond decree
Mercy higher than the heavens
Deeper than the deepest sea
All that fails my soul is Jesus
He is more than life to me
And the fairest of ten thousand
In my blessed Lord I see
What a wonderful redemption
Never can a mortal know
How my single red light grands such be me
And the fairest of ten thousand
In my blessed Lord I see
Every need his hand supplying
Every good in him I see
On his strength divine relying
He is all in all to me
All that fails my soul is Jesus
He is more than life to me
And the fairest of ten thousand
In my blessed Lord I see
Of ten thousand
In my blessed Lord I see
Thanks for watching!