Good evening everyone that welcomed the faithful word Baptist Church tonight. It's good to see you all here for a Wednesday night service
Find your seats, please take a him long go to him number 260 will begin tonight him number 260
He is able to deliver the him number
260
Once you've found your place, we'll begin together singing on that first
260, Tis the grandest theme, through the ages wrong. Hymn number
260, lift your voice together now to 6-0.
Tis the grandest theme, through the ages wrong. Tis the grandest theme, for a more...
We're going to go before the Lord and ask his blessing on the service.
So if you put your heads together with me, your heavenly father, Lord, we come before
you tonight.
We just give you the thanks for bringing us here safely to church this evening.
We ask that you're blessing upon us, Lord, as we come before you now and just assemble
and sing these praises unto you.
We ask that you'd fill us with your spirit, help us to be edified and encouraged as we're
seeing out these songs and hymns unto you.
Help us to focus on the words as we're singing them.
and that you'd fill the preacher with your Holy Spirit,
fill him with power and unction,
and that he may preach boldly with authority and with clarity,
and that you just give him the words to speak,
and that all that's said and done would give you the honor
and the glory that you deserve for it.
And we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Back to hymn number 258, 258,
Christ received us sinful men.
Hymn number 258.
Sinners Jesus will receive him number 258 singing up with me on that first now two five eight
Trust Him for His word is plain
He will take the simple as
Christ receive a sinful man
Sing it all and all again
Christ receive
You see the sinful man, Christ receive the sinful man
Make the message plain, make the message plain
Christ receive the sinful man
All the last
Christ receive the sinful man
Even me with all my sin
Purge my members, God has made
All right, at this time we're gonna go over the bulletin.
So if you need one, please raise your hand
and we'll get you one as soon as we possibly can.
So if you have your bulletin, go ahead and open it up
and we'll quickly go over it.
On the left side, we have our service times,
so many times, and at the very bottom,
salvation and baptisms for the year.
Once again, happy anniversary and happy birthday
to everyone that had one this month.
The donors that we had on Sunday was a way for us
to appreciate you.
And right at the bottom, an announcement,
Pastor Corbyn wrestled from straight past Baptist Church down in Tucson.
You know, he will be here on Wednesday, June 18th,
to preach for us on a Wednesday night service,
and that will be at 7 p.m.
Go ahead and turn your bulletin around.
Once again, more information
about the Father's Day weekend.
So, any high-key trip that's gonna be on Friday,
June 13th, the schedule's right there for Friday,
and it's going through Saturday, June 14th,
the schedule's right there for the 14th.
Now, the next announcement is about our first Fridays
that we do.
and join us in downtown Phoenix.
It'll be on June 6th, 6 p.m.
and the meetup is right there by the Phoenix Library
and the address is right there as well.
You can take a look at that when you get a chance
and also if you have any questions,
talk to Brother Tilson if he's here.
I believe he is, he's back there raising his hand.
So if you don't know who that is,
talk to Ramon, talk to me.
Talk to somebody and ask who is Brother Tilson
and we'll get you to him, amen.
All right, the outcome of events are right there.
Take a look at those when you get a chance.
Obviously the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship in Texas.
You know, that is one thing that somebody asked me earlier
this week if we can provide for hotels
for anybody that wants to go down there.
Right now, I don't know.
Pastor gets back on Saturday night.
You know, if we can afford it, we definitely will do it.
We've always done it, you know, in the past,
you know, at least provide hotels
for anybody that wants to go to any of these conferences.
You know, so if you have the finances for sure, we'll take care of it.
So if you guys are also wondering the same thing, I want to go.
But I don't know, it's kind of pricey.
The hotels, I don't know if we can afford that, whatever the case may be.
You know, I'll get with you guys as soon as I speak to Pastor.
And obviously, Pastor will be here.
He's lands at midnight on Saturday, so he'll be preaching this Sunday.
Other than that, take a look at those announcements
and let's quickly go over the so-wining for the week.
If you got somebody saved on Monday,
go ahead and raise your hand.
I'm gonna start with my left side.
So if you got anybody saved, go ahead and raise your hand.
We got one right here.
Any salvation?
Three?
All right, we got three over here.
Brother Alex.
Anybody else for Monday?
Tuesday.
Four?
All right.
Any other salvations for Tuesday?
And today.
Daniel, go get someone save ASAP.
Oh, never mind.
We got one right over here.
All right, how's about this day?
It's okay.
Any other salvations?
Going once, going twice.
All right, brother Daniel.
All right, hurry up, handles.
Him number 134, him number 134.
My anchor holds him number 134.
Though the angry surges roll on my tempest-driven soul.
Sing it out with me on that first now, 134.
Though the angry surges roll on my tempest-driven soul.
I am peaceful, Florida.
makes the child love
Good singing everybody. Go up to him number 459. Him number 459. Ferris Lord Jesus. Him number 459.
Ferris Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature. Him number 459. Sing it out together on that first verse now.
All right, at this time, we're gonna pass the offering place,
and as we're passing around the offering place,
please turn your Bibles to Joshua, chapter number one.
Joshua, chapter number one.
Joshua chapter on the Bible reads now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord
It came to pass that the Lord spake into Joshua the son of Nun
Moses his minister saying Moses my servant is dead now therefore arise go over this Jordan
Thou and all this people under the land which I do give them even to the children of Israel
Every place that the soul of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.
From the wilderness in this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites,
and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your coast.
There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life.
As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Be strong and of a good courage, for unto this people shout thou divide for an inheritance
the land, which I swear unto their fathers to give them.
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all
the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee.
Turn not from it to the right hander to the left, that thou mayest prosper with us or
ever thou goest.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein
day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein."
for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Have not I commanded thee, be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid,
neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest.
Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people saying,
pass through the host and command the people saying,
prepare you victuals for within three days
ye shall pass over this Jordan to go into possess the land
which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it.
And to the Rubinites and to the Gadites
and to the half tribe of Manasseh spake Joshua saying,
remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord
commanded you saying, the Lord your God hath given you rest
and hath given you this land.
Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side, Jordan,
but ye shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of Valor, and help them,
until the Lord hath given your brethren rest, as he hath given you.
And they also hath possessed the land which the Lord your God giveth them.
Then ye shall return unto the land of your possession and enjoy it,
which Moses the Lord's servant gave you on this side, Jordan, toward the sun rising.
And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us, we will do,
and whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go.
According as we hearken unto Moses and all things, so will we hearken unto thee.
Only the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses.
Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy commandment and will not hearken
unto thy words and all that thou commandest him,
he shall be put to death. Only be strong and have a good courage.
Dear Lord, thank you for faith we're Baptist Church Lord and we thank you for your word and
Lord I pray that you'd help us all be better Christians and to love one another more and to love the lost more and
To better love you and serve you and Lord. I pray that you'd fill brothers to grow with your Holy Spirit and Jesus. I'm a pray man
Amen, but really quickly I got word from brother Brock that his wife is expected to be released. Where's brother Brock at?
Monday
Tomorrow Friday, she's been in the hospital with health problems, so he just wanted me to pray for her for a speedy recovery
So I'm just gonna do that right now if you don't mind your father
Thank you so much for all that you done Lord and obviously father
We have a need so we ask you to fill that need and not just that they're Lord whatever other needs are there people have
Hearing this auditorium, you know them we ask you Lord to just bless them for being faithful to church tonight and ask you to just help
Mrs. Brock just recover as fast as your will would allow and ask you to do it and just press name amen
Alright, Joshua chapter number one, the verse that I want to focus on is verse eight that says this book of the law should not depart out of thy mouth,
but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous,
and then thou shalt have these 32 words that I want to focus on.
Good success, good success, and I don't know about you, but I want to have some good success
in my Christian life before I'm gone and I'm on my way to heaven, you know, but what I
want to do today is talk about success, and the title of my sermon is this, Sagan, Sagan,
the secret of my success, Sagan the secret of my success, go to Matthew 6.25 if you don't
mind, go to Matthew 6.25.
I'm not referring to my son over here, even though I may talk about my son Sagan, but
this sermon is not about him.
And even though this sermon has nothing technically to do with him, you know, he does have a little
to do with my success, amen, especially when he prays.
You are praying, right?
There you go.
But Sagan isn't just a word. It's an acronym that I use as a blueprint that changed my life
And it continues to help improve my life and when people ask me about how can they start getting their life on track?
This is what I like to show people. This is what I like to bring up and obviously the acronym is S-A-G-A-N
And obviously Sagan if you really want to know I did name my son after this acronym. So how old are you now?
It's going to be 16, so for the last 16 years, I've been using this to guide my life.
And I want to tell a quick story about a girl named, not Stephanie, actually her name is
Stephanie, my bad.
I want to talk about a girl named Stephanie that I used to work with, sorry he's late,
I need to wake up a little bit.
But this girl is Stephanie, I don't know if you remember Stephanie from work.
You know, when I used to do security, I was in charge of the public safety at a mall in Palo Alto, California.
And I'm just in my office one day, and I'm just sitting down doing paperwork.
And out of nowhere, she just, you know, ends up just going in my office.
She just opens the door, goes into my office, and just closes it really quickly.
And then she starts crying.
She's just crying her face off, and she just tells me, I'm sorry, just give me a minute.
I just needed to just get away.
You know, I just need to calm myself down.
And I'm just like, whoa, okay, no worries.
We had a chair.
I told her, go ahead and just take a seat, sit down
and just relax and just come down.
You know, that's all I can really think of at the moment.
You know, so she's like, I'm just sorry.
I don't mean to come in here and start crying,
but you know, I just got some really bad news.
You know, I just found out that my boyfriend,
which happens to be my cousin, is cheating on me.
She's going crazy, and I'm thinking oh man, you know what the heck is about to happen?
So she's just crying and she's upset and she starts just you know hating her life
And then she just
That's what she told me, remember when I told you this story?
And I'm like, you really want to know?
I got one word for you.
God.
That's what came out of my mouth.
God.
And she's like, yeah.
I shouldn't know that, you know, and so of course I try to get her safe, you know, so
I'm like, listen, if you really want to know, because obviously the HR Department of Human
Resources will never approve of this, but she started it, so I'm going to finish it.
She asked, so I'm going to tell her, I tell her, listen, I deal with the same stresses
of life that you do, but honestly, if I weren't for God, I would probably be melting down.
You know, because I do work a lot.
I don't have a good assistant.
I'm pretty much, you know, running solo right now,
and you see me here way too many times, way too long,
and I haven't taken a day off,
and who knows how many months or whatever the case.
You know, but I told her,
if you really want to know the truth,
you know, God is a secret to my success.
God is the reason I'm not breaking down.
But if I can go back in time and give her more specifics,
you know, I would tell her, you know what, Sagan.
You know, saying is the reason not to break down.
What do you mean?
It's an acronym I use to help me stay successful.
And so, of course, let me just talk about this acronym that I have.
You know, but nobody's ever asked me how to stay motivated,
how to stay spiritual until that day.
And ever since then, I don't think anybody's ever really asked me.
But my kids, they know what a heart bond.
They know how to do business.
So if you don't believe me, you can talk to them and they will verify a lot of
what I'm about to say.
You know, but if you're right there, where do I tell you to go?
Matthew 625, you know, just stay in Matthew 625.
I'm going to be in Matthew 777, you know,
because in case you're wondering how many acronyms does Brother Segura have?
The quick answer is two, the one from last Wednesday and this one.
I might work on some others, but hey, call it a marine thing.
Any marines in the house?
One Marine, I didn't even know that.
So you know the acronyms, right?
You know BAMSIS.
Begin the planning, erase the reconnaissance,
make the reconnaissance, complete the planning,
issue the order in.
Supervised.
You still left to shoot, I hope?
Okay, how about this one?
Brass, B-R-A-S-S.
That helps you shoot remember when they're teaching you how to be a killer how to get that nice little shot
How to hit something at 500 yards? Come on
breathe right
relax
aim stop and
Squeeze oh man
You show your marine. Hey, this is stolen valor people get him out of here
Bust it! Where's brother Furbey when you need him? Is he around? Anyways, I think he's a real marine.
Sorry, brother, dad. We're gonna have to talk later, brother. But, acronyms work.
You know, I still use those acronyms today when I plan things when I have to go check things out
I still use them today
So even though I don't you know prove of people just run into the military for obvious reasons like no church
You're gonna be in who knows where fighting a war that is just to make someone super rich
So there's there's a list that goes on and on but I think God he loves acronyms
Why because the Matthews seven seven
and seven eight. Let me just quickly go over this in case you're like, man, what's up with these acronyms?
I don't really like them. Well, I don't know, but you tell me if this is an acronym.
Matthew seven seven asking it should be given you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be
open on to you. Seems like that's an acronym that spells the word asked. And then he says it again
receive it, and he that seek it, find it, and to him that knock it, it shall be opened."
So I'm just preaching like Jesus tonight in case you're wondering if I'm Biblical. Amen.
He use acronyms. I'm using acronyms. So let's get to the acronym
So the first letter obviously in the word say again is the letter S
And this is what it stands for in case I've never told you which I'm pretty sure I've told some of you
But the S stands for this sticky first the kingdom of God. No said let's go home. Just kidding
But I'll tell you to go to Matthew 6 25. I'll just try to go to the verses as fast as I can
Obviously, I'm keeping an eye on the clock and let's start with verse number 25
I believe it says therefore I say unto you take no thought for your life
Why you shall eat or why you shall drink nor yet for your body what you should put on
It's not the life more than meat and the body than raiment behold the files of the air
They so not neither to their rape nor gather into barns yet your heavenly father feedeth them
Are you not much better than they?
And the answer is yes, we're much better than the birds
and whatever your favorite animal is.
Verse 27, which of you taking thought can add one qubit unto his stature?
And why take ye thought for raiment?
Consider the lilies of the field how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin.
And yet I say unto you that even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if thou so clothe the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow's cast into the oven,
shall he not much more clothe you?
And here's the problem that a lot of us have, O ye of little faith.
Oh ye of little faith, and what does it cause, or what's the issue with having little faith?
It can cause us to stress out.
So of course, how can we fix that?
Well, there's a cool little verse in the Bible that faith comes by hearing and hearing by
what?
The Word of God.
So if you don't want to be a stress monkey, I highly recommend you start seeking the Word
of God.
How do I know?
It says therefore take note thoughts saying what should we eat or what should we drink
or whatever thoughts should we be clothed for after all these things to the Gentile
Seek for your heavenly Father know that you have need of all these things but seek ye
first the kingdom of God.
and His righteousness, not your righteousness, His righteousness, and all these things, what
things?
Eating, drinking, being clothed, they'll be added unto you.
And take therefore no thought for the morrow.
for the moral should take thought for the things of itself.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
So what are we learning here? What is Jesus saying?
Listen, you have to learn to put me first in everything.
That's the first hours of the day. That's the first of whatever money I give you
You have to learn to put me first and I have to learn this lesson the hard way
When I was going through the police academy back in 2004, man 21 years ago. Really?
I got old. Good night. But anyways, obviously the police academy is very stressful, right Daniel?
Besides being pepper sprayed besides being beat up besides the testing besides the exercises
It's a very stressful time if you ever end up doing it
But of course, I never had any confidence in any test that I ever took except for one
One test, and one of the biggest things that I struggled with was giving God the first of my day.
I struggled with that a lot.
Daniel, what time did you start your academy?
Five a.m.
You think he struggled with devotions?
Don't answer that because we know. The answer is yes.
But he's our core, in case you didn't know, this man was up at 12.30 every night.
Straight gets up, gets going, starts praying for at least an hour.
Then right into the words, starts ready for an hour.
Then he starts shaving and getting ready, putting on his uniform.
Then he gets into the car and he gets there and he's there 30 minutes before class starts.
He's there by 4.30 every morning.
Right Daniel?
Yeah, right.
He wishes.
But the facts are that a this one day
Where I got up, and I'm like, oh man, I think I'm good with this test. Oh look at the clock. I'm like man
I don't have too much time for devotions.
The one day that I decided, you know what?
God, you're gonna have to forgive me.
Please understand, I'm tired, I gotta go.
Got in my car and left.
Well, took the test, and an hour later,
when they checked them,
because they checked them right away,
they got the ability to do that.
We're looking at the scores, and sure enough, I failed.
The only test I was super confident I was going to pass.
But my wife, she wasn't my wife at the time,
but she was always trying to like check in on me,
see how I'm doing.
And I was always saying,
I don't know, I'm going to fail this test.
I'm going to fail this test.
Was there ever any time where I told you I got this in the bag?
It's it for that one time, right?
And that's the one time that I didn't pray, I didn't read,
I just got lazy, whatever the case may be,
and sure enough, I just got in my car, took off,
and that's the one test that I failed.
Coincidence? I think not.
But the rest of them, I had to make an effort to get up, pray, read,
then get out of my house and go to the academy and hope for the best.
And I don't know how, test after test, after test, after test, after test.
It was like 99.9, 95, 90 this, 90 that.
And I'm like, how in the world is this even happening?
But I was glad that he did.
But I highly doubt it's because I, you know, skipped on my bavarian or skipped on my prayer,
which was very tempting to do.
And you may be saying, well, brother, girl, can't you just wake up and just jump in your
car and pray while you're in your car?
Absolutely.
But I recommend that when you get up, you just spend time with God and Him alone as
much as you possibly can.
Where do I get that from?
We'll take a look at some things.
And see, put God's kingdom and His righteousness before anything.
That's where success really begins.
And when I say, say again, the secret of my success, I've never ran a business.
You know, I've never been rich.
You know, I don't even know how much you got in my bank account.
But at the end of the day, I got saved in 2002, it's already 2025, I'm doing pretty decent
and I'm still going out sewing and I'm still reading my Bible and I'm still coming to church
and I don't know what God was thinking when He decided to pull me behind the pulpit 23
years later, but here I am.
And all I can tell you is that if it weren't for these things, I don't think I would be
here.
And see, when you put God first, He gives you things that you didn't even expect, that
you didn't even want, that you didn't even ask for.
Best example is Solomon.
Solomon put God first, did he not?
He asked for wisdom to judge God's people, not for riches, not for the life of His enemies,
not for fame, and God gave him those things anyways.
Daniel.
Daniel said, I'm going to put God first no matter what.
And what happened with Daniel? He purposed his heart not to defile himself.
And what did God do? God blessed them with wisdom and promotion.
Mary, you know, Mary Bethany, what did she do? She sat at Jesus' feet.
And Jesus says she shows that part which is good.
So, what does this look like? What does putting God first? What does the S look like? Here's what I think it looks like
Here's a clue
Proverbs 8 17. I love them. They love me and those that seek me
early
Early shall find me
Early what I mean by early early early like getting up early
Let me give you some examples
There are several examples in the Bibles of prophets and God, people rising up early to pray, to see God, or just to meet with Him.
And the one I can think of right now, I got a list, I'll just give them all to you, is Abraham.
Genesis 19, 27 says this, and Abraham got up early, early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord.
See, this refers to his habit of standing before the Lord, likely for prayer, intercession,
whatever your guess is, is probably as good as mine.
Another person is Moses.
Listen to this.
Exodus 34-4, and the huge two tables of stone like unto the first, and Moses rose up early.
Early in the morning and went up unto Mount Sinai's the Lord had commanded him and took in his hands the two tables of stone
This early rising was to meet with God
Joshua listen to this Joshua 612 and Joshua rose early
Early in the morning and the priest took up the ark of the Lord
See Joshua is frequently, you know shown rising up early to obey God to lead the people. Let's talk about Hannah
Hannah, Samuel's mother. It says the first time in 119, and they rose up early, early in the morning and worship before the Lord.
Let's take a look at David, Psalm 53. I preached about this last Wednesday, one of my favorite verses to motivate me to keep getting up.
My voice should out here in the morning, O Lord, in the morning, while I direct my prayer on today and will look up.
Psalm 63-1, oh God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee.
And obviously Jesus is the best example, Mark 1.35, and in the morning, rising up a great
while before a day, he went out and departed to a solitary place, and there prayed.
So we got Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Hannah, David, and Jesus all getting up early.
Some just to stand before the Lord, some to meet God and Mount Sinai, some at Obedience,
some to worship the Lord, some for morning devotion, and Jesus just to get out of...
wherever he was at just to be him and God alone he got up early and how early it's early as
Early as humanly possible is what I'm going to tell you right now
And of course we all know that the body has limits
If you can go with one hour sleep a night, you're about to die
That ain't healthy. I know
But what would you say is a good sleep, you know in regards to the human body you guys tell me
What?
Eight hours, right? If you talk to Arnold, Arnold Schwarzenegger
He did all kinds of stuff when he was getting you know
whatever famous he was going to you know I think he was going to work in the
morning or to work out then he did like a construction job then he went to
college to learn how to speak English didn't work so well but whatever but
then he will go and do a second workout who's ever heard of that schedule and
he said yeah some people are like yo I needed hours of sleep well you know what
I did it with six
So, six is like the least that I hear from these guys that are successful people.
But they all have one thing in common.
They all get up early, whether it's eight, ten hours, whatever, seemingly possible.
The goat, the football goat.
And please, nobody tell me my home's okay.
Who's the football goat?
Come on football fans, hut.
Hell way, I'll help you guys out since you guys are backslidden tonight.
It ain't Jerry Rice, it ain't Joe Montana, it's Tom Brady, let's just face it.
Tom Brady, seven Super Bowl, should have had 10, but he had one of the crappiest coaches
and yes I said it, crappiest coaches in the history of the NFL.
Tom Brady carried that man, I don't care what anybody has to say.
You have a problem with me?
Bucking ears, that's all I got to say.
He was just partying, barely getting to sleep, it was affecting his health.
Then he decided, hey, I want to do this for a long time.
So he ended up getting on board with a healthier, I guess you could say, sleep schedule.
And so possibly Mr. Tom Brady will get up at 3.30 in the morning.
But guess what time he went to bed? 7 p.m. if he could.
He knew sleep is like your superpower sleep can help you better than any energy drink out there and trust me
I know yes. I got it quit. I'm just confessing my sins
But I got coconut water now. Hopefully that can help me, you know get weaned off
Ramon Ramon's like yeah, I look at the garbage can I know what's in it?
Don't worry, I'm working on it before I die by next year
But all I'm saying is this
We got to be people that get up early
You have to I'm telling you if you ever notice brother Segura not in his best mood
Slacking off you kind of notice that a this guy you can tell that he ain't all there right now
It's probably because of this
When I notice that I make excuses, I'm like walking pray when I drive, you know what?
I can pray, you know, during my lunchtime. God knows I overdid it, you know
I was out till midnight with Pastor Shelley and I have to pick them up at 430 in the morning. God knows!
Yeah, he knows you're being lazy. Do you really think God expects your brother girl to pray?
Well, maybe he gave me a pastor that one because I did pray Lord. I don't know. I got a I got a roll
I got to jump in the car and go or this man's gonna miss his flight
I'll just pray in the way there. It's 15 minutes Lord. Hey, I think God accepted that
But, if you really don't think that this is important, you need to keep looking at scriptures.
Early in the morning. Early, early, early. How early? I don't know. It depends on what time you go to sleep.
But, if you want to get up early and know what I'm talking about, you got to go to bed early. Right, kids?
And that's my goal. It's just to go to bed as early as I can, get up as early as I can that's not going to mess me all up.
Maybe six, maybe eight hours. Sometimes I need ten hours to recover from what I did the previous couple of days when I don't sleep like I should.
But my goal is always the same. Getting up early, it matters. It's what's going to cause God to meet you there.
And of course there are more examples, for example Job, Job 1.5 and it was so
when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job said and
sanctified him and rose up early, early in the morning and offered
according to the number of them all, talking about his children. Job rose
early to intercede for his children and that's just a clear picture of early
morning prayer and sacrifice. Jacob
It says, even though this is not necessarily about prayer, it could, it could have something
to do with prayer.
But Genesis 28, 18 says this, and Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone
that he had put for his pillows and set it up for a pillow and poured oil upon the top
of it.
It was to honor God.
Now, he could have just woke up during the day or a little later, but I don't know why
he chose early in the morning, probably because he wanted to just, I don't know, just get
it done as fast as he could have.
But obviously the disciples, Luke 21-38, and all the people came early, early in the morning to him in a temple for to hear him, to hear him who?
To hear Jesus Christ, King Hezekiah, 2 Chronicles 29-20, then Hezekiah the king rose early, early and gathered the rulers of the city and went up to the house of the Lord.
And of course that's just him, another example getting up early.
You know, Mark 16 too, and very early in the morning.
You see, early in the morning, early in the morning, early in the morning.
This time is very early in the morning.
The first day of the week, they came up to the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.
Though not a prayer, you know, it just shows their devotion, their dedication,
and they understand the importance of getting up early.
Like it says, those that seek me early shall find me.
So whatever time you go to sleep,
Hey, try to get up as early as possible.
Hey, that's my goal to get up as early as possible.
And when I do, I enjoy my day a little bit better.
Not always, but a little bit better.
You know, I just feel like I was able to just spend time alone with God,
just me pouring out my heart, casting all my cares because He cared for me.
And I think it's important.
And he think if you guys think that I'm just up here, you know, just kind of like do my own thing
Hey, I like getting up early and guess your favorite pastor loves to do that, too. I
Don't know that's him losing his rewards cuz I'm saying that but I don't think so
So if you ever have him here at 10 p.m. 11 p.m. Just remember he wants to get up early
So somebody do the right thing it just all leave not just kidding
So what is the key thing that we see with all these verses?
Here's why I think it's early, early, early, early, early, early, early, early.
Because by getting up early and some people I've heard especially people that have like success
You can say success financially or whatever. I heard people get up at 245 and they go straight to reading
I mean, I've heard people get up at 430
Jaco willing constantly takes a picture of his watch and puts it on his Facebook
I'm up. I'm at the gym 430 430 430 and I don't know but somebody mentioned I forgot who it was
that there's some kind of scientific, something scientific about being up at three or four
in the morning.
That's where you have your most clear mind where you can think the best is from what
I've heard.
So, if that's true, then that's the time that I think if you're able to get up that
early to get that time to the Lord and not waste it trying to plan your next financial
adventure if you know what I'm saying.
But getting up early, I think getting up early, you know, seeking God early shows your
Shows your priority to God and it shows your love to God
See God often shows himself to those that rose up early like Jacob and Moses and early prayer sets the tone for the whole day
You don't believe me go to psalms 5 3 if you want you can look at those when you get a chance
And when you see the leaders and the spiritual giants, they all have one habit and what is that habit?
Getting up early seeking God early if you start at 5 a.m. Daniel
No excuses
hopefully that's like the end of that but it wasn't easy was it you knew what
you had to do you need to have to do your Bible you know what I'm saying you
know and let me ask you this hey you made it through right and probably because
you wanted it really bad you probably spent more time praying than usually did
right but getting up early and praying if you don't believe that it's something
Talk to Daniel, he has six months of it, correct?
And he'll let you know.
So that's the, seek ye first the kingdom of God.
Obviously it's not just obeying God's word.
I think literally seeking Him first, first thing in the morning,
your first hour is given to the Lord.
How long should I pray?
Depends how much you have on your heart.
Obviously we all have a time schedule.
If all you can do is 30 minutes, I think that's great.
I try to aim for maybe that, but it is what it is.
After that, you should be,
Getting up early, you should be reading the Bible as well.
So give yourself enough time, whatever your go is for the year, to finish it in a year,
finish it in 120 days, 90 days, 30 days, whatever the case may be.
You know what? We should all start reading the Bible early in the morning.
But that's what the S stands for.
Seek your first the Kingdom of God and tell my kids that's getting up early.
I try to get them up early. I haven't been pushing them as much and this is kind of like a refreshment for me to just remind myself
how important it is to get up early and pray and give God the first hours of the day.
Super important. But of course, if you want to get up early, you got to go to bed early.
So I'm gonna start locking these doors at 8.30 every service from now on. Just kidding.
I would never do that. I'm like, hey, you know what? We got push bars now. See you later.
But the S stands for seek you first the kingdom of God the A stands for always pray
Let me just read this. I know I didn't have you go anywhere
But if you want to go somewhere and meet me somewhere, I guess you can go ahead and go to
Mark 5. Let's go to Mark 5
I'm just going to quickly go over the A. The A is always pray.
I know I already spoke about it, but when I say always pray, pray throughout the day,
pray when you drive. I mean, we see different examples of people praying throughout the day.
Obviously, the most obvious example of people getting up early before a day
where they got up to meet the Lord, Luke 18 once says this,
and he spoke of parable unto them, to this end,
that meant ought to always to pray and not to faint.
So, Keith thought, prayer is how we stay connected to God.
You know, with prayer, we can get stronger. Without it, we will grow weaker.
Here's some examples of people obviously coming to God for prayer because they needed something big.
Hannah. Hannah, she prayed earnestly for a son and God gave her Samuel.
Paul and Silas, what were they doing? They were singing praises in prison.
You know what happened with him? Hey, God delivered them.
And why? Because, A, we're two or three, I gather, there he is in the midst of them.
And the apostles, man, did they pray.
So you can pray when you're together, you can pray when you're alone.
We can pray whenever, but just pray.
And obviously, apostles are a good example of prayer, but they prayed a lot because they're being persecuted a lot.
Here's an example, Acts 4-24, when they're being persecuted,
it says, and when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God one accord,
and said, Lord, thou art God, and I like their confidence, thou art God.
Lord, thou art God, which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is.
They came with boldness.
Because that's what the Bible tells you to do when you come to God.
So you're getting up early, you're seeking God, you're coming to Him, we'll come to Him
like the apostles come with Him with boldness.
Hebrews 4.16 says this, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need, not just with boldness, but, you know,
Righteous. Obviously, I don't want to just talk about prayer, prayer, prayer, prayer, prayer,
and not let you know that you know what, there is a cash when it comes to prayer,
and that's being righteous.
James 5-16, confess your faults one to another and pray one for another,
that you may be healed.
The effectual, fervent prayer of what?
A righteous man of valentine much.
So don't just come to God boldly, come to God righteous.
And of course, come to Him anytime.
You know, it says in Matthew 21, 22,
and all things whatsoever you should ask in prayer,
believing you shall receive.
So not just with boldness and righteousness,
but also with faith.
And just pray as much as you possibly can.
Abraham's servant, he prayed for help.
When he was in the middle of just praying,
that's when Rebecca showed up at the well.
and she watered his counts.
So that's what the A is.
I'll quickly finish with the other ones.
It's not gonna be a long sermon,
but the G is something that our church does a lot
and I hope when I'm dead and gone,
it will continue to do it for many, many years after that.
But the G is to go ye therefore and teach all nations.
Go ye therefore and teach all nations.
Matthew 28, 18, don't worry, I'll get the mark.
I'll tell you to go to Mark's stand mark.
You know, by Matthew 28, 18 says,
And Jesus came and spake unto them,
Saying, all power is given unto me, and heaven and earth.
Go ye therefore and teach all nations.
Baptize in them, and in them,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Teaching them to observe also all things will serve where I commanded you and long with you always even until the end of the world
Amen, and of course the word teach, you know when it comes to teaching, you know
That's not just getting people say that's I believe like it says right there teaching them to observe all things
Whoever commanded you and whatever way you can do that do it
Whether it's through YouTube cars giving people a YouTube car that takes them to a link to a discernment so they can learn God's word
Whether it's a mom teaching their kids like the prophets 31 and 30 and 31 teaching their kids
what right and wrong is, you know, that's more than one way to teach, not just giving
the gospel, but teaching God's commandments to anybody and everybody that you possibly
can.
Cold workers, you name it.
You know, we're commanded to preach the gospel, so when in this part of true success.
Besides obviously seeking God first that's real success. I don't know exactly where it is in the Bible
I forgot but the story about the guy who has barns that always comes to my brain
Because people have this warped idea that a gain this godliness
Hey, I know I'm doing good, look how I'm doing.
I got a wife, I got my child, we're doing great.
I got a house, whatever, whatever.
Just like I said, I think in the last sermon,
where I had some bozo that got kicked out of this church,
you know, for being a racist, drug addict, idiot.
You know, he ended up getting kicked out
and then he ends up messaging me like three months later.
I'm pretty sure it's him, I'm not a hundred percent sure.
Talking about how, how's your impractical prayer going?
I'm thinking to myself, I don't think I really prayed an impractical prayer for this dude,
but if he wants me to, you know what, I can start right now.
But one of the things he said is like,
I heard you said, I will never get a house.
And I'm thinking to myself, why would I ever say that?
That's not any sign of being righteous.
Oh, I know this guy's a wicked individual because he doesn't have a house.
What the heck, things like that.
Wicked people do.
How do I know? Because guess what? This guy in the Bible, he's building his barns, and then he has so much stuff
He's breaking down and building bigger barns
And then what ends up happening? He starts thinking, yeah man, I got it really good
You know, I got the wife, I got the kid, I got the house, hey, I got a lot stored up
You know what? I can't wait to retire. You know what? I'm just gonna retire. I'm just gonna take it easy
And this is a guy that's rich. It says that he was rich
but what did God call them in that parable?
Thou fool, that's what he called them. Thou fool, why?
Because this person is rich, but if you keep reading that parable
and say something like, you know, woe unto them or something like that,
they are rich, but they're not rich towards who?
God, that's real success when you're getting rich towards God.
Not how much money you have, not whether you have a house or anything.
That's not what's real in God's eyes, it's whether you're serving Him or not.
That shows whether you're a wise individual and that shows whether you're a successful individual.
Not how much you make or what job you got. I don't care what job my kids have. I don't even care what job
I have. I just happen to be in this one. You know, I don't care
But what I'm going to focus on is making sure that I keep that acronym Sagan going because that's somebody who's truly successful
Someone who's seeking God early someone who's praying
That's a successful individual and I don't care what you do in life
I don't care what my kids do in life as long as they're not breaking the commandments and they're still going to church
You know, that's a real successful person
But the individual that thinks look how much I have man, I'm really really good. No, you're not you're a fool
And I highly doubt this individual is out knocking doors like you guys
I highly doubt this individual is going to church more than once a week
And who knows, but once a week it's just going to make you weak, and sooner or later it'll
be once a month, and once a month it's not going to be good for you.
Then it goes to once every three months, then once every six months, then next thing you
know they'll say, oh there's no good church in my area.
But this is what we need to do.
You know, we see it all over the Bible.
We see Philip, the evangelist, giving the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch, that's one
on one, going above and beyond.
I don't know about you, but I never ran after a car to try to give someone a gospel.
Maybe you have, but I haven't.
And I'm not telling you to do it, but hey, here he did it.
Peter he preached to a big group, you know so winning is all over the Bible
This is something that you should do you have to do if you want to be a successful person because without it
You cannot truly be blessed by God
The woman at the well another one-on-one opportunity is Christ showing us how he wants us to live our lives
He just sitting around a woman comes by takes the opportunity try to see if she's receptive ends up getting her saved
But this is something that I think we all need to tell people to start doing right away. You're in Mark 5
Remember Mark or Matthew 28
18 says go you therefore and teach first thing you saying go teach then baptize and then teach until obey
What's everything's I commanded mark 5 1 talks about the story of the guy that was devil possessed. Let's just quickly go through it
It's as if they came over in the other side of the sea into the country of the
Gadarees and when he was come out of the ship immediately they met him out of
the tombs a man with an unclean spirit who had his dwelling among the tombs and
no man could bind him. No, not with chains because he had been often bound
with fetters and chains and the chains have been plucked asunder by him and
the fetters broken in pieces. Neither can any man tame him.
And always night and day he was in a mountain in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones.
But when he saw Jesus so far off, he ran and worshiped him, and cried with a loud voice and said,
What have I to do with these Jesus, the Son of the Most High God?
I juried thee by God that thou tore met me not.
For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
And he asked him, What is thy name?
And he answered, Say, My name is Legion, for we are many.
And he bestowed him much that he will not send them away out of the country.
There was there, nine unto the mountains, a great herd of swine feeding, and all the devils
inside this man, beside him, saying, send us into the swine that we may enter into them.
And forthwith Jesus gave them leave, and the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine.
And he ran violently down this deep place into the sea.
There were about two thousand and were choked in the sea.
And they that fed the swine fled and told it in the city and in the country and they went out to see what it was
That was done and they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion
Sitting and clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid and they that this and they that saw it
Told him how it be felt to him that was possessed with the devil and also concerning the swine
And they began to pray him asking Jesus to depart out of their clothes and then when he was coming to the ship
Here's the part that I want you guys to notice.
Here's the guy who's just out of his mind filled with devils.
You know, constantly Jesus is casting out devils in the Book of Mark.
Then this person has these devils cast out of him.
He's in his right mind. He's clothed.
And not just that, but he wants to follow Jesus.
It says, how did Jesus suffer them not?
But instead, Jesus baptized them.
You guys see that, right?
You guys see it in your Bible?
Whoever say yep, it's crazy because it's not there.
I don't know what Bible you're reading, but it doesn't say that Jesus baptized them.
So here's a crazy dude. He has devils. He's going around cutting himself just freaking out everyone
Jesus comes on the scene this guy comes to worship him. Jesus says hey devils get out of there
You know going going to the pigs they go possess some pigs
They basically run off a cliff or whatever the pigs drown then this guy's in his right mind the people are freaked out
They don't know what to think Jesus get out of here. Please you're freaking us out
Jesus is about to leave almost about to get in his boat this guy shows up and he's like yo, I want to go with you
but it says that Jesus suffered him not but said go home to thy friends
and tell them how great things the Lord had done for thee
what does that sound like? soul winning evangelizing
so next time you're out there soul winning and you get some devil possessed
persons saved tell them you know what I want you to do now
go get people saved and I don't know about you but I didn't get baptized right
away you know what got me on track was soul winning
The pastor's like, hey, you haven't been baptized, right?
No, I haven't.
You want to get baptized?
Nope.
I'm good.
Maybe later.
Let me think about it.
Do I really need to?
He's like, yes, you do.
It's commanded.
Well, let me just wait because I was embarrassed.
That's why.
But when he kept saying, hey, come on, soul winning, you have to say a darn thing.
Just show up and sign a partner.
I do all the talking.
I'm like, you know what?
It's important.
I see what you're doing.
Hey, it makes sense to me.
I'm safe.
I should go out there and get somebody safe.
And when he took me out soul winning, you know what?
I said, you know what, I gotta do better.
I gotta go out there and not look like a thug
that just accidentally walked into church
because that's how I always dress like, right, Joan?
I had the beanie.
No, no, no, I had the bandana and the beanie.
Right?
I'm all gangster with the bandana.
Not gangster enough, put the beanie on, right?
Puffy white jacket so the whole world can notice me
because I'm an attention-loving idiot, right?
That's not enough. I gave myself a big AK-47 round, big chain around my neck just trying to show everybody I'm hard. Remember that?
And then back in the day, big baggy sweats were in style, so I try to look like I'm in a big gray sweats and whatever type, my belt nice and tight.
You know, so that way if I get into a fight, nobody can pull him down and they're like, whoa, this guy, what's up?
Dumbest thing to walk around with and get into a fight is a pair of baggy sweats. Not a good idea.
And I got the big sneakers, the white poofy sneakers, right?
My wife's like, yup, yup, remember you being an idiot?
And when I noticed that it was affecting people, when I noticed that they weren't taking me serious,
when I noticed that it was an issue, I'm like, you know what?
I can't let this get in the way of me getting somebody safe.
I need to get right with the Lord.
And then I ended up showing up with a suit, and they're like, who is this dude?
Remember that?
The pastor's like, dang, bro, what the hell, some mafia guy just walked up in here.
I'm like, whoa, that's Chris in the suit.
I didn't even know you owned one.
I was like, yeah, well, you know what, when we went out soul winning the other day, I
noticed that people were looking at me crazy.
You know what?
I need to do better.
Thanks for taking me out soul winning.
And I'm also interested in getting baptized.
You think you can help me with that?
Of course, yeah, let's do this tonight, as soon as possible.
Remember that?
And then from there I just started getting more and more serious because of soul winning.
So, you run into that guy, hey, 100% sure you're safe, absolutely, stinkingly.
Why?
Jesus.
What do you mean?
What do you have to do to go to heaven?
Just believe on Jesus.
Can you lose it?
Nope.
What if you end up committing a really bad sin, like murder?
Nope.
What about suicide?
God forbid, you're safe, right?
God forbid you do that.
You know?
Where do you think you go?
Still going to heaven, man.
It's forever.
Sweet.
You know?
So, hey, you know now that you're safe, you know what God wants you to do?
He wants you to get out of the people's safe.
Are you doing it?
Well, I'm kind of in my own little way, you know?
Because we can help you with that.
You know, don't you want your family to get saved?
Don't you want your neighbors to get saved?
I mean, if there's anybody that you want us to go talk to,
man, we can give them the gospel, they can get saved.
Yeah, you know what?
I got a friend right down the street.
But at the same time, what are you doing?
Get yourself to a church where they'll take you,
so when they come join us.
And you know what? If you're not baptized, get baptized because I think it will help.
That's what ended up happening. I think it was Owen. Do you remember Owen?
The guy with the nose ring? I had a suit on. I went up to this kid, just dressed all crazy.
Brother Madison probably remembers him. Remember him? Owen with the big nose.
Sure enough, I get him saved on a Saturday.
I'm like, hey, what you doing Sunday?
I don't know.
He's like, you want to come to church?
He's like, yeah.
He's like, you know what?
I usually don't listen to people.
And I don't even think I had anything fancy.
But this is what he said.
He's like, I don't usually listen to people.
But the way you look, you look serious,
you know, I just have to see what you have to say.
And I'm thinking, cool, man.
Well, I'm glad to see that, you know,
You know, but it was what it was, you know, he just wanted to just up his game as well
You know, I don't remember. I think we took him out so many. Did we take him out so many?
Maybe I did maybe I didn't but I spoke to him a lot about soul winning and then I brought him to church
It was what it was. I took him to go eat at my house then after that
I'm talking about soul winning to go out with me knock some doors and he's like man
Can you do my favorite? It's like what can you get rid of this nose ring? Never had that request before
And I'm like sure stand by I got some wire cutters and like bro if I get you I'm sorry now you're good
Just go ahead and just take it off my nose. I'm like alright boom pop that sucker right off
And no, that's what happened.
We didn't make it to soul winning,
but he really wanted to buy a suit or something.
And I'm like, you know what?
Let's go to the Goodwill, see what they got.
Go to the Goodwill right here, three minutes away.
Sure enough, he's going through the clothes
and he didn't have really good fashion sense.
I mean, he picked a really wild jacket.
Yeah, like gold buttons that look like it belonged
to a billionaire that owns a yacht.
I'm like, bro, that's too flashy.
Let's get you something a little bit better.
And so we found something, got him in it,
and man, it just made him feel really good.
And he just wanted to take church
a little bit more serious
because he wanted to get somebody saved.
That was the whole thing behind going and getting the suit
and talking to people and looking serious about it.
He's like, man, I need to do this.
I need to get my friend saved.
So I'm like, hey, do you want to get somebody saved?
You kind of have to look serious, my bro.
But that made him want to take it a lot serious.
And I think he did get baptized right afterwards.
But he had problems with drugs, and it is what it is.
He got back into the same crowd as before.
You know, he ended up basically going down that drug road.
Again, don't know where he's at right now, but who knows.
But at the end of the day, this is the first thing
that we should start telling people they need to do.
Maybe it'll get him set straight.
And so it's not just you going so we need helping other people to go out and get so people saved or start getting people to go out
So when in amen, all right, let me just wrap it up in 47 minutes in
I'll make up for the hour and 20 30 minutes sermon that pastor Shelly has on the night
I'm kind of responsible for that. You know in case you're like man, brother girl
This is the most you've ever preached before. Hey, why don't you just you know share the love?
Why can't we preach if you want to preach come hit me up anytime you want?
But the biggest reason I didn't hit anybody up this time is because right before the boss went on his trip
He said this I'm gonna hold you responsible for anybody you put behind the pulpit
So make sure you put somebody good. Okay time to write a bunch of sermons
Because I do not want to have somebody up here and say something wild.
Is this straight out saying, I'm going to hold you responsible.
If you have people preach, I'm going to hold you responsible, you know, for anything they say.
And I'm like, okay, okay, well, if I'm going to get in trouble, I'm going to get in trouble for something that I said.
That's something somebody else said, man.
But the next one, if you really want to preach, hit me up next time he's gone for this long, amen.
So we got the S which is seek you for the kingdom of God. We got the a which is always pray
We got the G which is go you there for and teach all nations now
We got the a which is in Jesus increase and wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men or in other words always grow
Always grow and Jesus increase in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man
You got to keep growing. That's part of the Christian life
That's part of being able to have success is keep growing not just spiritually, but physically
I don't know about you, but I regret just giving up on working out. I wish I didn't do that
And hopefully I can get back into it, but it's hard to get back into it.
You got to schedule things that my message is, hey, don't just grow in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Grow also in stature.
But don't grow like Donald Trump type of growing, amen?
Grow like, hey, I got to get in better shape to serve the Lord for a long time.
That's the type of growth that I'm talking about and where do I get that from?
Let's take a look at these guys in the Bible my favorite example is Jacob
Who knows what's Jacob when he said this who knows how old Jacob was when he said this when he when he said
And I was as strong as the day that Moses sent me to spy out the land
He was 85 years old. He was saying that when he was 40 and he's saying, I'm just as strong right now
As I was when I was 40 now either. He's delirious
crazy
Losing his mind and I've always wondered where is it being literal and then when you Google like 80 year old strong man
You're like whoa, I think he might have been literal
When I look at some of these guys that are 80, 70,
some even 90, and they're stronger than me,
I'm like, whoa, what stairs are they on?
No, I'm just kidding.
But it's possible.
So of course, don't just learn a bunch of Bible,
let's work on our health and our strength.
We already read Joshua one, it says,
be strong and very courageous.
You know Samuel that he grew he grew in front of the Lord and was in favor with both God and man and it says in
Luke 252 that Jesus increased in wisdom. How did he do it? Probably through God's word
I mean he was the word but he also read the word it says that he grew in stature
Obviously Jesus wasn't a guy who just took a donkey everywhere
He walked everywhere even though he could have if he wanted to why did he do that probably to give him more strength?
because he knew that what he was going to do was going to be hard.
Walking this distance, walking that distance,
he knew that being on the donkey is not going to be the best thing for him.
So he just walked everywhere, maybe to get some prayer out of the way,
maybe some meditation out of the way.
Remember, Joshua says that if you meditate day and night,
hey, then you're going to have good success.
Why? Because when you meditate on God's word,
you're going to start seeing things that help you be successful.
So what can you do to grow in favor?
with God and man. Here's just three things.
Number one, this is just obvious. Obey God's word
and you can be like Jesus and not just grow in wisdom,
not just grow in stature, but grow in favor with God and man because when
you're obeying God, the Bible says in Proverbs 16-7
when a man's ways please the Lord, you guys heard this before,
he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
You're like, man, I got this guy that really hates me. What do I do? Start obeying God
Start seeking God start getting up early start praying start pleasing God
Start reading your Bible
If you don't have a schedule a talk to me, I can give you a 90-day schedule 120-day schedule a 30-day schedule
A one-year schedule a six-month schedule
And if you want to save time just download the a la tree app that one has like 20 different schedules
You can get on
And if none of them do it for you, then I guess just read a chapter from every book of the Bible.
That'll keep you from being idle.
Just saying.
And so of course, obeying God will help you to be in favor with God and man.
Being a humble and wise person will help you to be in favor with God and man.
Why? Proverbs 11, 2 says this,
When pride cometh, then cometh shame.
But with the lowly is wisdom. What is lowly being humble?
What does that do? Well it gives you wisdom because humble people please God and when
you're pleasing God, guess what?
He makes your enemies to be at peace with you and he gives you wisdom.
And let's just be honest. Let's just be honest. I love guys that are smart.
That's why I listen to Pastor Anderson. I love guys that are valuable
and what makes them valuable is not how much money they have, what makes them valuable sometimes
Because wisdom is the principal thing.
Nothing can be compared to it according to Proverbs.
Nothing.
And so, if you want to be a valuable person,
what are these guys, these guys that are part of the,
what is it like, the Manly Club, what are they called?
Not those guys.
Those guys are Manly.
It's the other guys that want, the Alpha guys.
There's a name for the Alpha guys.
What is it called?
not migtow, the manospher, those guys, the manospher, what do they always talk about?
Guys, if you want to get some chicks, you need to be a high value man.
They're kind of right.
See, the best lies are half right and obviously filled with lies.
What do I mean by that?
Because think about it, if you do want God to bring you that woman, right, that you've
Then you know what? Yeah, you probably do need to focus on being a high-value man.
But here's what I mean by high-value man, is being a man with high values.
I'm not talking about a guy that makes 100, because they try to tell you what a high-value man is,
but they really can't get down. Oh, a guy that does at least $100 in a year.
At least $100,000 a year, what would you say about, you know, six pack abs?
Yeah, six pack abs, you know, $100,000 a year, and drives his own car, you know, has a nice
car, nice career, yeah, that's a high value man, yeah, yeah, guys, you need to aim to
be a guy that makes $100,000 a year.
If you want to get the girls, you got to make $100,000 a year.
You know, you got to have that job, you got to have that body.
Now pay me $1,200 more and I'll give you more tips.
That's what I've seen and heard.
from the manual spear, the fresh and fake crowd, the endur-take crowd,
but he charges 50 bucks a month to rip you off and teach you how to be a high value man.
But it's true, if you want God to bless you with these things, yeah, you should be a high value
man, but this is what I mean. Once again, having a lot of values. Because when you have, when you're
obeying God, you know, when you have values, he's going to make your enemies to be at peace with
And when you're obviously somebody who has wisdom, you're going to get wisdom because you're pleasing God,
because you're obeying God. When you're good in His sight, He'll give you wisdom. And guess what?
Hey, that's one of the things that I love about our pastor is he's very wise. He studies a lot. I love listening to him.
And Pastor Shelley, he preached for almost an hour and a half, but to me it felt like the typical service time.
He's like, how long do you think I went? I don't know. An hour?
Then I chop up the video. I'm like, an hour and a half? Okay, an hour and 20 minutes.
Now I know why he was asking. But that's something that we should all aim to do.
And here's another way, if you want to be in favor with God and man, you need to learn to serve others.
You need to learn to serve others.
Where did I get that from?
From 1 Kings 12-4.
This is where Solomon's son is asking like,
hey, how should I rule?
You know, he's trying to figure out the best way to rule
because they're coming to him saying,
hey, your dad was too strict.
You know, he gave us like too much stuff to do,
stuff that it was just, it's not fair.
Lighten the burden.
And this is what it says, he says,
thy father made our yoke grievous,
now therefore make thou grievous service of thy father.
And his heavy yoke, which you put upon us, lighter.
He's saying, listen, give us a break, make it louder.
And we will serve thee.
We will serve thee.
It's natural, it's natural to just be grateful
when people do things for you.
True or false?
Not all the time sometimes the more you do for people a later on, you know
They end up just espousing you for whatever wicked reason
But that's the thing about
Serving is that when you serve people
People that are actually people that that care, you know, they will appreciate you
And that's what we should aim to do whether you get appreciated or not because at the end of the day
What's ever a good thing you do the same to receive of the Lord even if that person doesn't do it back to you?
So keep doing right. Keep obeying God. Keep growing your wisdom. How do you grow your wisdom?
Obviously through the Bible, there's a nice book that helps you. The book of Proverbs, that'll help you, you know, to grow and knowledge, good knowledge.
And obviously, last but not least, the s-si-ki first, the kingdom of God, the a always pray, the g go, you therefore, and teach all nations.
And obviously, the other one is always grow, and the end, you probably already know where I'm going with this.
And it's not forsaken, the assembling of yourselves. In other words, never stop going to church.
When I realize, hey, when I get up early and pray, when I get up early and read my Bible, you know, when I'm constantly praying throughout the day,
you know, when I'm doing my best to win people to the Lord,
You know, it's like I kind of notice that life ain't so hard
Those things are hard
But it seems like if you take care of these little hard things because Jesus made it very clear to endure hardness
Obviously, it was the apostle Paul who said that but God can take care of the harder things and
literally going to church
Sometimes can pay
literally pay
look what it says in
Already read it in Hebrews 10 25, but what I mean by that
is that, hey, listen, you guys have no idea just how much being faithful means a lot to God.
And I'm telling you, if it weren't for my faithfulness...
I wouldn't have been blessed like I've been blessed
throughout the years.
And one of the biggest blessings I've ever received,
which was a trial in my opinion,
it was a 24-hour trial, but it was still a trial.
As I ended up just getting the best van
I could get my hands on that I can afford.
Nothing fancy, I still drive it, it's beat up,
but whatever, you know, I love it, it's paid off.
The best vehicle is the one that's paid off, amen.
And runs.
Even if the doors don't open.
But still
Man my wife calls me up at work. You're not gonna believe what happened. What happened the van broke down
The van broke down you mean the one that we literally just got the one that we just financed like less than what 90 days ago
What's going on is leaking everywhere? I'm like man. We could barely afford this van
I'm trying to do my best to provide for my family.
I'm working for a contractor.
I'm working for cost communications.
They're contracting side, which doesn't pay almost anything.
And I'm just like, whoa, what do you mean it's broken down?
It was a nightmare.
We just got the vehicle.
I still owe $16,000 on it.
I'm just thinking, what in the world am I going to do?
And I just said to myself, I don't know what's going to happen,
but one thing I know is going to happen tonight
That's one thing that's for sure gonna happen tonight regardless of anything else. I'm gonna go to the Wednesday night service
I'm gonna be there because it's the right thing to do and everything else can just I'll deal with it later
So it was what it was she called somebody to hop her out
I believe it was Mrs. Anderson she goes to get her it was a hot day was in the summer
Goes to get her grabs her but they were able to somehow go into some mechanic shop that was near her
Just basically limp it in there and so they took it
She got picked up went home and then sure enough another church member calls my wife and says a hate the bug you
But can you give me a ride to church?
Sure enough, she's like, I would love to give you a ride to church, but I need one too.
And she's like, what do you mean?
Hey, my vehicle's broken down.
Wow.
The reason I called you is because mine just broke down.
It's in the shop.
So is mine.
Sorry, can't help you.
So then I get home and I have one vehicle and I use it for work one seat
So I couldn't take anybody else so I did what a I would always do regardless of what's going on
Took a shower got my suit on and just drove to church by myself with no family feeling like crap like what the heck
And I said, Dad, if you've ever been there, you know what I'm talking about.
It's not a good feel when you can't provide.
It absolutely sucks.
So my wife already told me the mechanic quoted like, what, $5,000?
Is that what they quoted?
$4,000?
3,000 they quoted whatever I barely have 1200 in the bank
So I'm thinking well I guess we got to save some money or I got to figure out another way to make extra money because I was maxed out
On my hours at work. I was constantly working six days a week sometimes seven days a week
But they barely paid anything so I really couldn't save anything and the only reason I even got this vehicle because it was from a dealer
They said they checked it. They said it's good to go
I don't have the ability to take it on mechanic to look at it, but I just said to myself,
you know what?
God knows that we're not buying this vehicle because we just want a new vehicle, and it's
not even a new vehicle either.
You know, I had 60 or 80 dozen miles on it, selling it for 16, so I'm like, hey, we need
it because, hey, we all grew the other vehicle, ended up getting it, financed it for seven
years or whatever the case may be, just did what I had to do to get a vehicle for my family,
and then now it's broken down, doesn't even work, leaking everywhere, whatever.
So I go to church, I'm doing my thing, I'm happy to be there, it's lifting me up.
Then right afterwards, I didn't want to go home and face my family.
I'm like, forget this, I don't want to look at my kids and not tell them what's really going on.
I just don't want to deal with my family right now.
So I went straight to my shop, which was like three minutes away,
in my work vehicle, in my suit, just started to chop away.
And I'm like, you know, I'll forget this.
It's like, I'm going to read my Bible right now.
I'm going to just read the book of Psalms and just continue on by my reading.
This stuff can wait.
In an hour, I was planning to read for an hour, I'm like, forget these cables.
Then I start reading, and a minute into it, I start getting a phone call.
And I'm thinking, who the heck is calling me right now?
So I looked at it, and I'm like, oh, it's such and such.
I wanted to hang up so bad.
Because I wanted to read my Bible, but then I'm thinking, man, I don't want to be a jerk.
It's kind of late. I don't want to call them at 10.
So I decided to just pick it up.
So I picked it up and they're like, hey, what you doing? Nothing. I'm at the shop, bro.
What you doing at the shop? I'm just reading my Bible.
I'm about to do some cable. Just get ready for the next day.
You know, whatever.
And he said, oh, I heard what happened to your van.
I'm like, yeah, that's pretty sucky, bro.
He's like, that guy just sold me a lemon.
But what can I do?
And he's like, don't worry about it, man, I got you.
He's like, what do you mean you got me?
I got you.
How much is it gonna cost to fix it?
Well, from what I know, it's like four grand,
three, four grand or something.
And he's like, I got you, bro.
Don't even worry about it.
You know, he's like, I'll pay for it.
He's like, bro, I will pay you back as soon as I can.
He's like, not, don't worry about it, it's a gift.
I don't want you to pay back at all.
Just tomorrow, tell your wife to call the whatever mechanic,
to tow it wherever and get it fixed.
And then sure enough, it was what it was.
You know, he ended up paying for it a week later,
back in service, and it's been a blessing ever since, right?
That thing does not break down, it runs like new.
I love that van to death, and I'm never going to get rid of it.
And when I'm dead and gone, bury me in that van, please.
Just stick me in a big hole in the ground, pay extra if you have to.
I have a 1.5 million insurance, $500,000, whatever it takes to bury me in that van.
And then when people are like, what's the deal with the van?
You tell them the story behind the van.
You tell him, oh, oh, let me tell you all I got to say is never stop going to church
Never stop going to church. Let me tell you the story
And so I wonder what would have happened if I didn't go to church that night
Didn't God would have blessed me. I
Think not
But that's not the only time that I've seen people miss out on these opportunities
And maybe this O'Barrows Ramon, maybe I won't but he's a humble dude. He can handle it
But I quickly got to kind of mention this
This will be it and then I'm done, but
Here's the deal
Ramon was not my first choice
Second choice nah
their choice
Nope
It was number four
The three people beat in front of them. I mean, they're all good
I would have been happy with either one
But the biggest thing is that the other guys had preaching experience Ramon had no preaching experience
I'm not trying to be selfish, but just for the record Ramon was my number one choice
I wanted him right away
But I wasn't going to be super selfish because pass it like a whoever you want
I don't care. Just let me know and then I'll either give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down
So I didn't want to just be selfish
I'm like, well, you know what?
Ramon pretty much has everything this dude has.
It's a Ramon.
I don't know if he can preach.
And we need somebody that can go preach in Tucson
or preach somewhere else or preach behind this pulpit.
And this person has preached before.
So I'm thinking, you know what?
You're asking me what I think we should do.
We should get Mr. Number One.
But I said, I don't think he's going to take it
because he makes a lot of money, and I
don't think he wants a pay cut.
I don't know, maybe he'll say, hey, it's better to help pastor win billions of people to the Lord
or get the gospel to billions of people than to go do whatever.
Not that our job is like the super special job.
Everybody has gospel for their life.
Whatever you're doing, that's gospel for you.
Hey, the ministry is what you make of it.
And obviously going out there and winning souls,
it doesn't matter what you're doing in life.
Just win souls and you're super valuable in this world.
You're a high value man, amen.
So sure enough I called this person person told me exactly what I thought it was gonna say. Uh, nah, bro
I'll make this much if you guys can't match it. I'm good. It's like a no worries. Just wanted to make sure
So then the next person
That we wanted
Or that I thought would be a better fit because I wanted Ramon from the get-go, but the second person that I brought up
I'm like, I think this guy will benefit us because he can do this. He can speak Spanish
He's preached before and we need somebody who loves video editing
He's constantly walking around with his black magic camera everywhere and I'll say you know what?
What do you think of such-and-such and he said no way?
He's like, yeah, that's what I was thinking.
You think what I'm thinking?
Yup.
He misses too much church.
Too much church.
He's a Sunday morning only dude.
And I'm like, yeah, that's what I noticed.
But I thought maybe if we tell him,
hey man, we need you, you know,
maybe he would just like, just realize,
yeah, I need to go to church more
and kind of like help him out.
My pastor like, no, I don't want to find out the hard way
that he really don't want to be here.
It's like, you know what?
I just want to throw it out there
just so I can feel comfortable with it
that I brought him up.
And he's like, I like him, this and that, great attitude,
but he misses church way too much, forget it.
I'm like, all right.
Because we would have matched his pay and he probably would have made a little more too because guess what?
It is what it is, you know, we provide, you know other benefits as well
So what it gave him what he made at work gave him probably better hours
But we would have let them just work as many hours as possible
Then we had a third guy
that I'm just thinking, hey, this is my option in case you can't really afford
anyone right now because of the drama that we're going through.
And it's like, yeah, I like them too, but they miss too much church also.
It's like, yeah, I'm just throwing it out there because I don't want to regret not bringing it up.
But I was thinking the same thing.
They miss the church a little too much.
I was just thinking this person probably, you know, would accept, you know, less.
But that's probably because he's probably making less or whatever the case.
Then finally it came down to Ramon, and Ramon was unanimous, yes,
but if he would have been a Sunday morning only, he would not be here right now.
I guarantee you that.
And even if he was a Sunday morning, Sunday night, but no Wednesday night, he wouldn't be here either.
That's a fact.
And even though, yeah, we're not cost communications, Ramon, do you like working here?
Did he like go to the bathroom or something?
He's in the bathroom. Are you serious?
Anyway, so I'm trying to be Pastor Shelly's time. So I guess I can't do it anymore.
All that to say this, I wonder how many people
that decided to just say church is important but not that important caused God to say, okay,
well, I can't bless you like I wanted to.
Because when you see the people in the Bible that miss church like Thomas,
He is eternally known as who, doubting Thomas because he missed a church service and boy
that he missed a good one.
And that is my biggest, biggest fear is that if I missed church, God is going to say something
that would have helped me with whatever situation I was going through, only so later he can
say, hey, this is why I said not to forsake the assembling.
Because it's dangerous and we need more church not less church and that's why I'm not really so hot about jobs
That make you miss church, but if that's you hey, let me know and I'll fast with you to try to get something better
And I've been there. I've done that. I got the t-shirt. I know how hard it is
You know to to just say no to making extra money, you know because it's tempting
You know, especially when we got a big family. I get it
You know, but I did everything in my power to just never miss a service, and that's
why I even took my last job, because they're like, oh no, you'll completely have Sunday
Mondays off, Wednesday nights we'll let you off early, and they knew I was serious, but
I was a good employee, I never complained, never had an attitude, did everything they
wanted me to do.
But I said, hey, listen, I can't miss Wednesday nights.
You know that I got to be there Wednesday nights, no worries.
And then one day she gives me these jobs that are just a nightmare on a Wednesday night.
So I called back and I'm like, boss, hey, tell you this, but this job's a nightmare.
You know, and I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty upset that I have to miss church.
It's like, is there anybody that you can get out here?
Let me see what I can do.
Well, guess who she ends up sending.
the co-owner to come help me out.
So I see the big beautiful truck roll up
and I'm like, yo, what are you doing here?
I'm helping you get to church.
Now let's go.
What do you need? Where's the tap? What's the situation everything's good the taps over there go fix that
I'm fixing the wiring where's your equipment in the vehicle dispatch already has the serial numbers. Hey, it's all good
Just plug and play I didn't need somebody fix that what I'll fix this so I can get out here in time
No problem. Spends an hour with me. Hey, I'm done plug everything in get your butt the church. Yes, sir
Cances are that, hey, if you're one of those that just Sunday morning onlies and you're stuck with a job that makes you miss church,
I would start praying. Only you truly know whether you can get out of it or not. I don't. God doesn't.
But I'm going to tell you right now, we should be at church as much as possible.
And maybe you can say, well, I do go once in a while. I do go once a week.
You're missing out is what I got to say. You're absolutely missing out. And I'm just here to help you out.
And I'm not calling you out, I'm just saying that this is the facts, that God does not
want us to forsake it.
So hey, just start with prayer, that's what I did.
When the other job wasn't paying the bills, that's all I said, God, this job isn't really
paying the bills, you're going to have to hook me up, or you're going to look bad.
I'm not going to look bad, you're going to look bad, because I'm working 70, 80 hours
a week and that's all they can pay me, they can't pay me more, they can't afford more,
so either you give me a better job, or as soon as I start missing bills, you're going
to look bad, not me.
But ever since we've been married, John, we've never missed a bill, have we?
We've never had to beg for money or anything, have we?
Just coming to church, people find out just naturally when there's a need,
people step in and help you with that need.
And you guys want to know how that guy knew that my vehicle screwed up?
Because it was his wife that called my wife asking for a ride.
And why did she call my wife asking for a ride?
Because we have helped her in the past to come to church when their vehicle broke down in the past.
So I don't think there's a coincidence whatsoever. I didn't tell anyone that day. I went to church. It was in my heart
It was bugging me. I didn't tell a single soul what was going on and yet this guy
Just happened to find out because he called his wife and he said ask mr.
Girl she can take you to church. Let me know what she says. Hey, she came her vehicle broke down
What do you mean? Hey says that it's not working. They don't know what's gonna happen
They don't know what the deal is and then he calls me finds out about it has some extra cash
Gives it to me, but would that have happened if I would have missed church probably not
So all that to say this seek you first the kingdom of God pray all day throughout the day
You drive here you drive there keep it going keep pleasing God because that's what the Bible says
It says the prayers of the upright are his delight and last time I checked. We're not here for us
We're here for God
Then in Revelation said that for his pleasure
Everything is created
We're created to bring him pleasure so get your mind off of you put it on God when you pray even if you pray for the dumbest things
It makes God happy that prayer of the upright is his delight
So that's all that's all I can tell you and the soul winning I can't obviously tell this place enough
That we got to keep it going because you guys keep it going
You know and of course with everything else just do everything you can we want you for the long haul
We want you long as possible. So if you can start thinking about your health
I know brother Corbin. Hey, he's got some group going on that motivated me to try to get in shape
And it's gonna be embarrassing if he gets in better shape than me and now I'm the one that's out of shape
So, think about that because it will help you just like to help the men in the Bible.
And obviously, as I said, the end is never, never stop going to church.
Let's pray.
They're going to thank you so much for all that you've done.
Thank you for this people, Lord.
We can't thank you enough for faithful work at this church.
Obviously, Father, Lord, we are just excited that everything went well with Pastor and
no issues arose and we ask you now that their Lord has just blessed us, blessed him, blessed
everyone here.
We ask you to do this in Jesus' name, amen.
Hey man, the right ladies and gentlemen, take your hymnals please.
Go to hymn number 261, hymn 261, turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Hymn number 261 begins, oh, soul, are you weary and troubled.
Hymn number 261, turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Sing it out together now, 261, oh, soul, are you weary and troubled.
No light in the darkness you see, There's life for all, look at the Saviour,
And life for abundance and free.
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace
Through death into life everlasting
I
Excellent thing tonight, we are dismissed.