those being faithful church here pray most importantly lord those who are out in the
bombas and that they work for you our souls will be saved throughout the week king filled
brother spirit this evening better christians in jesus name i pray it's on this evening page
c442 gather together page 442 gather together coming to steadfast baptist church go ahead and
go through our announcements and our bulletin here if you don't have one you can go lift up
your hand and we'll make sure you won and at the front there we have our bible memory passage
jude 1 verse 25 on the inside we have our service times soul winning times as well as our church
stats on the right we have our expecting ladies so that we can be in prayer for them and upcoming
events right now we have the bahamas mission strip and as you can probably notice pastor shelly and
a lot of our church is over there so keep praying for them that they keep doing great keep getting
a lot of salvations and keep getting the opportunities that they're hoping to get
on october 19th we'll have pastor bruce mihiya preaching for us all three services
spanish morning and evening on october 26 we'll have our fall swap on the 31st we'll have our
chili cook-off and of course it's texas chili so no beans at all uh november 5th through 9th
faithful words having a missions conference if you want to go to that on november 23rd
pastor will be preaching up at anchor baptist church on the 20 november 29th we'll have our
turkey bowl on december 5th it's the ladies christmas party december 8th christmas caroling
december 21st we'll have our cookie bake off december 24th we'll have our christmas candlelight
service and on the 31st of december we'll have men's preaching night and pizza and then on back
we'll go ahead and go through our prayer list real quick we've been praying for the carlson's
and their mother and father's health there we've been praying for miss miller her friends mom's
cancer treatment we've been praying for the scots and their health we've been praying for
the garcias and brother tony's health we've been praying for the foley's dad and kidney disease
we've been praying for the urbanics and friends recovery from heart surgery we're also we also
have that praise report that the grandmother's home covering that's good to hear we have uh brother
gabriel praying for his mom and miss ginger as well we have a praise report there the cousin
tammy had a successful surgery for cancer so that's also good to hear we have the mad ranges we're
praying for their uh daughter and friend martha's their health issues we've been praying of course
for the weathers and um their recovery and healing we've been praying for the illies for work help
with work and also some health issues there with their grandmother we've been praying for the good
winds sister-in-law gingy's husband passing away we've been praying for miss lola and phoebe for
passing of their husband and father we've been praying for brother michael and his aunt that
passed away and we've been praying for brother philip hackenberg there and his father's health
there and his nephew also a personal request so we'll go ahead and say a quick word of prayer
for our church family this evening heavenly father thank you for allowing us to be in church thank
you for all the people that came thank you for the great work that's being done in the bahamas
i just pray that you'd bless that they'd keep getting a lot of people save lord and keep opening
up doors for them to preach pray for our church family for the expecting ladies lord that everything
goes well and as planned and if there's no complications we also just pray for all the
health issues that are going on in the church lord that you'd give grace and favor there
that everything would resolve well i just pray that you'd also just bless our church family in
general and people that need you know favor and help in their relationships or anything like that
and i just pray that you bless his church service bless the singing and the preaching tonight and i
praise in jesus name amen so that's all for announcements and we'll go ahead and go to our
psalm of the week psalm 11 ppast around you can turn your bibles to malachi one malachi chapter
one chapter one the bible reads the burden of the word of the lord to israel by malachi i have loved
you say the lord yet you say wherein hast thou loved us was not esau jacob's brother sayeth the
lord yet i love jacob and i hated esau and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons
of the wilderness whereas edam sayeth we are impoverished but we will return and build the
desolate places thus sayeth the lord of hosts they shall build but i will throw down and they
shall call them the border of the wickedness the people against whom the lord hath indignation
forever in your eyes shall see and he shall say the lord will be magnified from the border of
israel a son on earth his father and a servant his master if then i be a father wherein is mine
honor and if i be a master where is my fear saith the lord of hosts unto you oh priest that despise
my name you say wherein have we despised thy name we offered polluted bread upon my ye offered
polluted bread upon mine altar and you say wherein have we polluted thee and that you say the table
of the lord is contemptible and if you offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evil and if you
offer the lame and sick is it not evil offer it now unto thy governor will he be pleased with
thee or accept thy person say the lord of hosts and now i pray you beseech god that he will be
gracious unto us this hath been by your means will he regard your person say the lord of hosts
who is there even among you that would shut the doors for not neither do you kindle fire on my
altar for not i have no pleasure in you say the lord of hosts neither will i accept an offering
at your hand for from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be
great among the gentiles and in every place instance shall be offered unto my name and a
pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathen say the lord of host but you have profaned
it and that you say the table of the lord is polluted and the fruit thereof even as meat is
contemptible you said also behold what a weariness is it and you have snuffed at it say the lord of
host and he brought that brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick thus she brought
an offering should i accept this of your hands say the lord but cursed be the deceiver which
hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the lord a corrupt thing for i am a great king
say the lord of host and my name is dreadful among the heathen let us play pray dearly father lord
we pray for the service tonight that you bless brother diego filling with the holy spirit help
us to learn open our hearts lord and ears to the word and i pray that we take something home tonight
lord that we can apply it to our lives in jesus name we pray amen amen you're there in malachi
chapter number one malachi one i want to look down there at verse number six again and first of all i
do want to say thank you to pastor shelly for the opportunity to preach it's always a great privilege
and honor especially to preach behind this pulpit uh but malachi one there look at verse number six
says a son honoreth his father and a servant his master if then i be a father where is mine honor
and if i be a master where is my fear sayeth the lord of hosts unto you oh priest that despise
my name and ye say wherein have we despised thy name so there in the first part of chapter verse
six notice that starts by giving two comparisons says right a son honoreth his father and his
servant his master and so god is just giving this carnal first example to the children of israel
here and he's saying look a son honors his father and a servant his master and what's interesting
about this is that the bible actually emphasizes both of these points a lot in throughout so when
we think about honoring your father right in that exodus 20 verse 12 it says honor thy father and
thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the lord thy god giveth thee and when
jesus quotes this in the new testament he even brings up the idea of that someone that curses
father mother should die matthew 15 4 it says for god commanded saying honor thy father and mother
and he that cursed father mother let him die the death so these are two things that uh these
so honoring your father is a big thing that the bible brings up and this is important for the
context i'm trying to build here the other example we bring up is a servant honoring his master
in first timothy six verse one it says let as many as are under the yoke count their own masters
worthy of all honor that the name of god and his doctrine be not blasphemed and so the bible is
emphasizing that both of these positions deserve respect and authority and just in a carnal sense
there are a lot of generally speaking right fathers that get honored by their children
and masters or like bosses that get honored by their servants and then so god then goes on to
say if then i be a father where is mine honor and if i be a master where is my fear and this is where
i want to focus my sermon tonight is simply this title simply being honoring god honoring god god
is mad here at israel because he's saying look even in a carnal sense you have this idea of
children honoring their parents children honoring their father and servants honoring their master
so then if god being our father and god being our lord why are they what not honoring god
and that's a very big issue that god is dealing with here honor here just means respect or
reverence and fear here does mean to be afraid right even in christianity you have a lot of
attempts to minimize what it really means to fear god i grew up in a southern baptist church and
over and over and over i heard it said well when the bible says to fear god it's not really saying
to be afraid of him it just means to have respect for him but that's not really an idea that the
bible teaches the bible actually does say that we should fear god we should fear and tremble
and i want to look at a few verses on this go if you would keep your finger here but go if you
would to hebrews chapter 10 hebrews chapter number 10 and while the idea of fear does i
think include the idea of reverence and honor it's more than just that in the bible especially we
talk about fearing god hebrews 10 look at verse number 30 hebrews 10 verse number 30 says for we
know him that said vengeance belongeth unto me i will recompense save the lord and again the lord
shall judge his people it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living god so notice
in verse 30 it talks about the lord judging his people so it is not directed at unbelievers it's
not directed at the unsaved but it's directed at god's people and it says in verse 31 that's a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living god so when someone is just severely sinning
against god they're being wicked god will take that seriously and he can punish very severely
and it's something that a christian should be afraid of they should be afraid of god's punishment
coming down on their life look at hebrews 12 verse 28 it kind of connects these ideas of honor and
fear being coupled together hebrews 12 look at verse 28 says wherefore we receive receiving a
kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve god acceptably with reverence
and godly fear for because our god is a consuming fire so here again we have the idea that yeah we
have reverence toward god love respect towards god but we also serve him with godly fear knowing
that he can punish us knowing that he is just he is holy and so when we sin against him we should
be afraid of the punishment consequences that he can have toward us so go back few wood to malachi
one and again just to recap here god is right complaining that why is it that the earthly
fathers and earthly masters get more respect than god himself and even many christians today i think
have this attitude to where they treat god in a way that they wouldn't treat their father or they
wouldn't treat their boss at work right they they just ignore what god says they don't care what he
says they don't try to obey but if you were to do that at work you'd get fired that wouldn't work
you wouldn't ever uh ignore your boss in the same way or talk back in the same way or be really
bitter against him the same way and so god is bringing up this idea and our society at large
also just makes light of honoring and fearing god they make light of sin they make light of the idea
of god even being punished or punishing people right you have this idea of people have that god
just kind of in the new testament very nice very happy doesn't judge sin but again these aren't
ideas that the bible actually teaches and so number one i just want to give a few points about how we
can honor god and number one we can honor god by offering him our best look there in malachi 1
look at verse number seven he offered polluted bread upon my altar and say wherein have we
polluted thee and that you say the table of the lord is contemptible and if you offer the blind
for sacrifice is it not evil and if you offer the lame and sick is it not evil offer it now
into thy governor will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person saith the lord of hosts
and so here god is bringing up the idea that the priests right are despising god's name but then
they're acting like they're not right notice that they're constantly questioning back to god
starting in verse six right says wherein have we despised thy name then wherein have we polluted
thee and so god is just giving an example here in verse eight of how they're doing this and it's by
offering the blind the lame and the sick as sacrifices unto god now this is directly commanded
against in deuteronomy 15 verse number 21 it says if there be any blemish therein as if it be lame
or blind or have any ill blemish thou shall not sacrifice it unto the lord thy god so god actually
commanded they couldn't sacrifice things that were um diseased or right disabled unto god and of
course i think the primary reason is because the sacrifice is being a picture of jesus christ being
without sin being perfect and so to keep that picture but as well as that i do believe that
we have this concept in the bible of offering god our best because notice the comparison that god
brings up in verse 8 he doesn't really bring up the commandment lotus what he brings up he says
offer it now into thy governor would will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person so god's
giving comparison hey you're offering me all of these the worst basically of the animals they're
all ill they're blind they're lame they can't walk right now offer that to your governor would
he accept that would you offer this just worst animal unto your president unto your governor
unto your leaders and obviously the answer is no yet they were offering this to god and so if we
want to honor god something we can learn from this that we should offer god our best we shouldn't
offer our leftovers we shouldn't offer what we don't want we should offer god our best this made
me think of growing up in church this always happened where people would have something at
home that they no longer wanted and what would they do they would just donate it to the church
right they'd have a beat up couch or beat up whatever furniture that they didn't want and
they'd say hey this is for church and it's what this made me remind me of it's like look you don't
even want it you won't you wouldn't even offer it to someone else why are you offering it to god why
are you offering it to church like that's a super wicked mentality and attitude to have of just
saying well i'm just gonna give god the leftovers i'm just gonna give god what i don't want what i
wouldn't offer god wants us to give him our best and i want to look at a few verses on this go
with me if you would to deuteronomy six god wants us to serve them with all that we have
not just this extra effort or this afterthought look at deuteronomy six look at verse number five
says or starting in verse number four says hero israel the lord our god is one lord and thou shalt
love the lord thy god with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might so god
wants us to love him with what pretty much with everything with our heart with our soul and with
our might with our strength in mark 12 verse 29 jesus brings this up again and jesus answered him
the first of all commandments is hero israel the lord our god is one lord and thou shall love the
lord thy god with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength
this is the first commandment so when jesus asked what the greatest commandment is he responds that
it's loving the lord with all our heart soul mind and strength hey what is this talking about giving
god our best effort giving god our all not just half-heartedly serving god not just half-heartedly
coming to church half-heartedly reading our bible half-heartedly living the christian life
no we should serve god with all that we got we only have one life to live we have very short time
here on earth and we should give it all that we got should give it our best shot at the christian
life because it's at the end of day it's not a game it's something serious and we should take
it seriously go if you would with joshua 22 joshua chapter number 22 joshua 22 look at verse number
five says but take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which moses the servant
of the lord charge you to walk to love the lord your god and to walk in all his ways and to keep
his commandments and to cleave unto him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your
soul so again here we talk about loving god keeping his commandments and to cleave onto him
right to serve him with all our heart and with all our soul ecclesiastes 9 verse 10 says
whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might so we should serve god with our strength
with our heart with our soul and so what does this look like so i just wanted to make some
practical applications here of what i think we application i think we could make from this
principle from this concept how about coming to church looking uh how about coming to church
actually dressed up actually coming presentable see in our culture churches become so casual so
many churches are come in as you are church stay as you are leave as you are leave the same no
change in a lot of churches you look at the congregation and it looks like you went to
walmart right it's like people are in pajamas girls are in the short shorts and leggings and
all the most inappropriate dress and that is not acceptable for church when we come to church we
should give god our best in how we dress hey when i go to a job interview i at least dress in a
button-up when i go to a wedding or a funeral right i dress up in a suit a tie at least so why
when we come to church why when we come to the house of god would we not show the same respect
why would we not show the same honor as we would to some carnal special occasions i mean what's
what would be more special than you know us as believers gathering together and hearing the word
of god preached and singing praise into god and i think it's a and obviously look if you're coming
from work especially on wednesday night i'm not really talking about you it's mostly the people
that come sunday morning and it looks like they put zero effort into their appearance
right they their hair is all over the place their their beard isn't trimmed you can tell it basically
looks like they just rolled out of bed and came to church and that's not really offering god our
best i wouldn't even go to work that way i mean i work from home and i have to do meetings and stuff
and i even i'm more presentable than that for those meetings and when i go into the office i
wear at least a colored shirt and so we should we should show god at least the same honor and
respect as we would just our carnal boss or carnal special occasions how about giving our best
effort by actually participating in church not just coming to church to see what you can get out
of it not just coming to church to see well what ministries what programs do they have but actually
come to church to try to be a blessing actually come to church to try to participate right a lot
of people especially out soul winning they'll ask you know hey do you have a kids program do
you have a teen program and i'm not saying there's anything wrong with those things but ultimately it
is a bad mindset of thinking well what can church give me instead of thinking hey what can i
contribute to church hey let's actually participate in church let's actually see where i can plug in
how can i help you can for sure plug in the soul winning but there's even other things that you
can do right we have our music ministry people clean the temple in the church we have ushers
and we have all types of opportunities to serve in the church if you really want to but even in
serving we should give god our best right give god our best hey if i'm going to play the music
ministry i'm going to give god my best i'm going to practice i'm going to prepare i'm going to give
god my best right i'm not just going to get up and see what happens same with you know cleaning the
church hey i'm going to clean the best i can i'm going to do the best i can i mean i take that
attitude towards preaching i mean what if i just didn't even know what i was going to preach didn't
prepare didn't do anything i just got up read some random chapter and tried to go with it right it
would be really disrespectful to you and it'd be really disrespectful to god so overall we're
serving god we should give him our best hey give god your best out soul winning actually try to
get better and actually try to give a good presentation and actually you know try to be
there soul winning not just hey it's not a chore it's just something i have to do i have to go
through the motions but we should give god our best when we're serving him in any capacity how
about giving god our best in the congregational singing the bible really emphasizes the idea of
singing unto god especially in the psalms so if you want you can go to psalm 30 but i'm just
going to kind of quickly read through a few psalms here that just talk about singing into the lord
singing unto god psalm 30 verse 4 says sing unto the lord oh ye saints of his and give thanks at
the remembrance of his holiness psalm 33 verse 2 praise the lord with harp sing unto him with
the psaltery and an instrument of 10 strings sing unto him a new song play skillfully with a loud
noise sing psalm 47 psalm 47 verse 6 sing praises to god sing praises sing praises unto our king
sing praises for god is the king of all the earth sing ye praises with understanding so i mean that
verse really emphasizes the idea hey sing unto god sing unto god and notice that in psalm 33
talked about playing skillfully with a loud noise and then in verse in psalm 47 verse 7 it talked
about seeing praises with understanding hey the songs that we sing have doctrine we're not just
singing random lyrics we're not just singing right a lot of the ccm songs that just repeat the same
seven words over and over and over and they're meaningless there's meaningless platitudes right
hey our songs actually have doctrine in them and so we can see with understanding psalm 57 verse 9
says i will praise the oh lord among the people i will sing unto thee among the nations psalm 98
psalm 98 psalm 98 verse number four says make a joyful noise unto the lord all the earth make a
loud noise and rejoice and sing praise and i just chose those five psalms but i mean you basically
just go through the whole book of psalms and it's emphasizing singing unto god praising him for the
mighty acts he's done and singing unto god and so it's important that hey especially when we come
to church we're actually singing out we're giving it our all right we're giving god our best and
singing praise unto him hebrews 2 hebrews 2 verse 12 says saying i will declare thy name unto my
brethren in the midst of the church will i sing praise unto thee so in hebrews talks about singing
praises to god in the midst of the church so what am i trying to say hey my whole first point is
this we should honor god by giving god our best and i centered a lot around church but really this
is our whole christian life give god your best with your bible reading give god your best with
your prayer life give god your best all around this is one way that we actually honor god if
we actually take him seriously if we actually fear him then we should try to give him our best point
number two we should honor god with our money should honor god with our money go if you would
to proverbs three proverbs three and look at verse number nine proverbs three verse nine says honor
the lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase so shall thy barns
be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine and so here in verse nine we see
that says talking about honoring god with our substance with what we have and it brings up
specifically the first fruits of all thine increase now in the old testament right you had
the idea of the first fruits just the first of the harvest first of the crops and you had different
offerings and stuff that they would have to do which we don't have to do in the new testament
but i still think the same concept applies when we talk about the tithe the tithe being the first
fruits i personally believe that the tithe should be some the first thing that we budget the first
thing that comes out of our check being that first fruit of our increase but the bible brings up
specifically that this is a way that we honor the lord and if we honor the lord with our money what
will he do verse 10 so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with
new wine by honoring god with our money god brings us blessing and god blesses us in return obviously
this is not the jollof sing prosperity gospel i'm not promising a mansion or in fancy cars but the
bible does bring up the concept that if we honor god with our money he will return uh the same
blessings to us go if you would to malachi 3 malachi 3 probably the most famous passage on
this topic of tithing malachi chapter number three look at verse 8 the bible says will man
rob god yet ye have robbed me but you say wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings now in
the old testament you had offerings that you'd have to do with the animals right you had sin
offerings and different offerings like that Passover and so that part doesn't apply anymore
to us in the new testament but the tithe still applies and look at verse 9 you are cursed with
the curse for ye have robbed me even this whole nation bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse
that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now herewith saith the lord of hosts if i will
not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out of blessing that there shall not be room enough
to receive it and so in verses 8 and 9 it makes it very clear that if someone is not tithing
someone's not honoring god with their money and their tithe that they are robbing god and it is a
sin there's this there's this movement of people that try to say that tithing is not for the new
testament they try to say tithing was an old testament concept and it was only right crops
and it was only different materials it was never money and they try to do this in an attempt for
that they don't have to tie this is not this is none other but the house of god and this is the
gate of heaven and jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for
his pillows and set it for a pillar and poured oil upon the top of it and he called the name of
that place bethel but the name of that city was called luz at the first and jacob vowed a vow
saying if god will be with me and will keep me in his in this way that i go and will give me bread
to eat and raiment to put on so that i come again to my father's house in peace then shall the lord
be my god and this stone which i have set for a pillar shall be god's house and of all that thou
shall give me i will surely give the tenth unto thee so here we see jacob saying that he's vowing
vow that he's going to tithe and this is before the old covenant this is before you know that is
all given and so the tithe has preceded that the tithe is not tied directly to only the mosaic
covenant at all and so it still applies in the new testament and in the new testament if you're
not tithing to the church if you're not tithing to god you are robbing god that is what it says
in malachi 3 but go back with me if you would to malachi 3 i want to finish out that passage
because we also see that god makes some good promises for tithing so in verse 10 malachi 3
verse 10 bring you all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house
and prove me now herewith say the lord of hosts if i will not open you the windows of heaven and
pour you out of blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it and i will rebuke the
devourer for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground neither shall your vine
cast your fruit before the time in the field say it the lord of hosts so god makes a couple promises
here he's saying hey if you tithe i'll open up blessings in heaven but i really like in verse 11
also where it says i will rebuke the devourer for your sakes god's saying hey you won't have
this loss of crops this huge loss of crops because i will make sure to rebuke the devourer the
diseases whatever plagues or whatever could come on those crops and that same promise comes to us
we might supply it differently hey how could god rebuke the devourer hey maybe layoff time comes
and i'm not one of the people picked to be laid off hey maybe he just um maybe and you know he will
make sure or he will help that some devastating loss that would have happened to some property car
house or something like that doesn't happen right god is literally promising to rebuke the devourer
for our sake so why would you not tide them why would you not give money to god god is really
promising hey if you tithe if you just trust me show faith that you give me 10 percent of your
income then i will bless you and i will also make sure to retain those riches to retain those
blessings that you don't have all this miscellaneous random bad stuff happening that will cause you to
lose all that so we have great promises here from god for tithing for giving money and so we can
honor god by giving god our best we can honor god with our money and tithing was the thing i
brought up but the bible also brings up the idea of people that have money they should be willing
to give unto others willing to give to other people's necessities and that's another way
that you could honor god with your money point number three is honoring god with our time
honoring god with our time go with me if you would to ephesians chapter five ephesians chapter number
five there's a lot of distractions out here in this world that are all competing for our time
and we one way that we can honor god is by focusing our time correctly blocking our time
correctly there's a lot of people that are just wasting hours upon hours on facebook or on tiktok
or on instagram just wasting doing nothing right just mindlessly scrolling mindlessly looking
right with what they call brain rot or whatever just mindlessly filling their mind with junk
and that is not really honoring to god we can use our time better than you just spend hours upon
hours a day doing nothing and filling our mind with nothing look at aphesians 5 verse number 15
says see then that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the
days are evil so the idea of walking circumspectly is the idea of you're walking with the purpose
you're walking in a particular path and not like a fool just wandering around but you're walking a
particular path being wise one verse 16 redeeming the time because the days are evil so the bible
talks about here that we should redeem our time time is a thing that we can never have buy more
of right if i have money i can always lose money and get more money but if i lose time i can never
get that back we're just constantly losing time and so we should redeem it we should make the
best out of it and we should choose to do things that would actually honor God look at Colossians
chapter four Colossians chapter number four we have very similar verse here in Colossians four
look at verse number five it says walk in wisdom for them that are without redeeming the time so
again here it talks about tells us gives us the commandment to redeem the time so what are some
ways that i can redeem my time well if we talk about just a weekly basis you know number one
i would just say go to church go to hebrews 10 hebrews 10 a lot of people are wasting their
sundays getting drunk watching cowboys lose just watching football all day on sunday and
that's not redeeming time there's even christians that don't even go to church because they don't
care about church they don't think church is important they don't think church is something
that should be taken seriously but the bible talks about how god jesus died and bled for the church
he purged it with his blood the church is the bride of christ it's something that should be taken
very seriously and it's a good way to use our time hebrews 10 look at verse number 24 and let
us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works not forsaking the assembling of
ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you
see the day approaching hey a good way to use your time just simply come to church and hear the word
of God preach but also have fellowship and get provoked by one another to do good works what's
another way a good way of using our time how about reading our Bible go with you if you would to
Matthew 4 Matthew 4 look at verse 4 says but he answered and said says Jesus talking now it is
written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God
and so it's not just important to have our physical meal our physical bread but we should
live by every word that comes out of the mouth of God and just like we need to eat daily and you
know a lot of us obviously more than once a day it's also important to daily eat spiritually to
daily read our Bible to daily know what the Bible says and this is the way that we can show that we
honor God because this is how we spend time with God this is how we spend time with Jesus by reading
the Bible imagine if I were to tell my parents hey I really love y'all I really respect y'all
I really fear you but I'm never going to spend any time with you I'm avoiding you I don't want
to even spend 30 minutes with you does it really sound like I honor them or respect them or have
them in this high esteem if I'm purposely just not even trying to make an effort to hang out
with them it's like no obviously not and but a lot of Christians treat Jesus that way treat God
that way. They say with their lips, "Oh yeah, I love God. I'm a very zealous Christian," but then
they don't go to church, and they avoid reading their Bible. They don't care what the Bible says,
they disregard what the Bible says, and it just shows that they do not truly honor God. They do
not truly fear God, because if you did, you'd want to spend time with them. If you really love God,
you'll spend time with them. If you really love a person, you'll spend time with them. Go with me,
if you went to Joshua chapter one, Joshua one, look at verse number eight, Joshua one verse eight,
"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
shall make thy way prosperous, and then shalt have good success." So Joshua one eight here,
we see that the Bible says that we should meditate on the book of law day and night.
We should constantly be thinking about the Bible. There's a good way to cleanse out all the junk
that you're inputting from Facebook and TikTok and Instagram is just by reading the Bible. Then
throughout your day, constantly think about what the Bible's saying. Oh yeah, what did that verse
I read in the morning? What is it talking about? What does it mean? What is it saying? And there's
a way better way than just ingest a bunch of junk. Hey, instead of listening to all your weird podcasts
and obviously there's nothing wrong with doing things outside of just the Bible. But I'm saying
instead of getting all this worldly wisdom and then filling yourself up with that, hey, make
sure you're reading your Bible, you're meditating on it, you're thinking about it, and it'll help
cleanse out all the junk that you listen to as well. Look at Psalm 1, Psalm 1, look at verse
number one, Bible says, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
standeth in the seat in the way of the sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his
delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be
like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season, and his
leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." And so if you want to be the
person, right, that is like a tree planted by the rivers of water, he's constantly bringing forth
fruit, and he's constantly prospering, hey, what do you do? You don't walk in the council of the
ungodly. You don't just listen to a bunch of ungodly people tell you what to do. You don't stand with
sinners. You don't sit with the scornful people that are just mocking, making fun of. And you know,
that sounds, just that sounds like a lot of social media, a lot of content today. Hey, if you actually
want to be the person that is blessed by God and you're rooted in God's word, then you don't hang
out with these people who don't constantly, you listen to these people who don't constantly
let them influence your opinions. Because here's the thing, our influences will affect us. Whether
we like it or not, people that we surround ourselves with, the people that we listen to
affect our thoughts, affect our opinions. And sometimes we don't notice that because it could
be subtle. It could be slowly. It could just be on little things that they're swaying us here or
there. But ultimately, if you want to be the guy that's just planted like a tree, that's just
bringing forth fruit all the time, you need to be rooted in the Bible. What is the guy doing? His
delight is in the law of the Lord, and his law of death, he meditate day and night. He's delighting
in the word of God, and he's constantly thinking about the Bible. And he's solid. He's steadfast.
He's like a tree, and he's constantly bringing forth fruit. And he just seems to prosper everywhere
he goes. So if you want to be a successful Christian, and honestly, this sounds like our
pastors in the new IFB, right? They're just constantly bringing forth fruit. They're
constantly prospering in all the mission trips and spiritual things that we're doing. But hey,
we as Christians can be this way, too. How? Just being planted in the word of God, constantly
consuming the word of God. So hey, how can we honor God with our time? By going to church,
by reading our Bible. How about by praying? Go a few with wood to Philippians chapter four,
Philippians chapter four. And I'll read to you from 1st Thessalonians 517. This is a very famous
passage of scripture where it says, "Pray without ceasing." Bible constantly commands us to constantly
be praying, right? And obviously it's not like one long drawn out prayer or something, but just
constantly thinking about things, asking God for things, praying for things. I mean, it's kind of
just how you would communicate with a friend, right? You're going throughout your day and you
think about something, maybe I'll text my friend something and they'll text me back and then we'll
just kind of be texting or calling or whatever throughout the day. So it can be the same with
God, where we just, hey, think of a need and just say a quick prayer to God then and there.
We just pray constantly throughout our day. Philippians 4, look at verse number six.
Bible says, "Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with
Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." So there in verse six where it says,
"Be careful about nothing," it's talking about having a lot of care, like worrying about things.
It's like, "Hey, don't just constantly be worrying about things, but rather bring it in prayer
and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your requests be known unto God." Instead of just
constantly being anxious about things, just take it to God in prayer. The Bible says that we have
not because we ask not. And so we should just constantly be spending time with God in prayer.
Hey, God talks to us through the Bible, we talk to Him through prayer. Go if you would to Luke 18,
Luke 18. In the ministry of Jesus, we see this is a constant theme in His ministry. We see plenty of
times where He finds, carves out time to spend time alone praying to the Father. And so if this
was a big thing for Jesus in His ministry, this should be a big thing for us. If Jesus found it,
Jesus being the Son of God, right, being the second person in the Trinity, found it necessary
to just be find time to get alone with His Father and pray, how much more do we need that? I mean,
we're not perfect. We have a lot of issues. We're constantly have bad ideas. We should be making
sure that we're carving out time in our life to pray. Look at Luke 18 verse one, "And he spoke
a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint, saying there was
in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city,
and she came unto him saying, 'Avenge me of my adversary.' And he would not for a while. But
afterward he said within himself, 'Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow
troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.' And the Lord said,
'Hear what the unjust judge sayeth, and shall not God avenge his own elect, which cried day and
night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.
Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?'" So the point of this
this parable is why? It's to motivate us to pray. And what's the motivation is that if
we have the opportunity, if we are constantly bringing requests to God, the same requests
to God, hey, just because we're asking a lot, He might actually answer that request. Some
people, I think the reason they don't get their prayers answered is because they stop
praying. They're kind of like the king that smoked a few times and then stopped. But God
wants us to just keep praying, keep asking, keep asking, keep asking, because it could
be that, hey, he just wants us to ask a little more and then he'll give it to us. And this
really isn't my main point, but notice that in verse seven it did say, "And shall not
God avenge his own elect, which cried day and night unto him, though he bear long with
them, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily." Some people get offended by the
idea of impregnatory prayers, but the prayer that God is bringing, that Jesus is bringing
up here is an impregnatory prayer, asking God to avenge his own elect, to avenge them
from their enemies. And so, hey, we should constantly be praying, including those impregnatory
prayers. Go with me if you would to John 15. So how can we honor God with our time? Hey,
by reading our Bible, by going to church, by praying, how about by going soul winning?
John 15. And obviously I'm choosing a list, trying to make it applicable. There's other
things. The Bible commands us to seek wisdom. And we should, and Proverbs especially talks
about this a lot, hey, we should try to carve out time to seek out wisdom. Not just from
the Bible, but I think even just carnal wisdom. God doesn't want us to just be dumb, stupid,
ignorant people. He wants us to be wise. He wants us to have knowledge. He wants us
to have understanding. So I think it's good to seek out time to increase knowledge, whether
that's specifically for your job and increasing skill there or just general wisdom that you'd
like to have and doing that. I think that is a good thing and that's a good way to
even honor God with our time because he commands us to do it. But John 15, starting verse
one, the Bible says, "I am the true vine, this Jesus speaking, and my father is the
husband man. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away; and every branch
that beareth fruit, he purgeth, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through
the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.
So here Jesus is saying, hey, the person that abides in Christ, not just that they're saved,
but they're actually fellowshiping in Christ, they're keeping the commandments, this person
will bring forth fruit.
And that's the goal.
But it also said in verse 2 that if you do not bear fruit, he takes you away.
And so you also have this idea that, hey, God wants Christians to bring forth fruit.
That's really the main purpose of our life.
Yeah, to serve God, to fear him, to keep his commandments, and ultimately what does that
drive us to do?
It's bring forth fruit, to get people saved.
Because what's the point of me just being really holy and cleaning my life up to then
never share the gospel?
God isn't commanding us to just do that.
God isn't commanding us to be these great people that never share the gospel.
No, the point of us getting sanctified is to bring forth more fruit.
I mean, do you notice that in verse number 2 at the end?
And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it.
Why?
That it may bring forth more fruit.
Hey, why do we get purged?
Why does God help us in this process of sanctification, getting sin out of our life?
It's to bring forth more fruit.
So the point of our Christian life, generally, is just to bring forth fruit.
Hey, God wants us to bring forth fruit.
There's an old parable that talks about a fig tree not bringing forth fruit, and it's
going to get one more year, and if it doesn't bring forth fruit, it'll be cut down.
And that's basically the Christian.
Hey, God wants you to bring forth fruit.
That's the expectation.
And a Christian that's not soul-winning, that's not getting people saved, they're pretty much
on a timetable because they're not being useful.
Look at verse number eight here in John 15, "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear
much fruit.
So shall ye be my disciples."
So we're talking about honoring God through soul-winning.
How does this honor God?
What glorifies God?
That we bear much fruit.
Some people get offended by the idea that we count numbers or that we rejoice in the
numbers that we get.
But here's the thing, the Bible is literally saying that God gets glorified by bearing
much fruit, right?
So we should try to get as many people saved as we can.
And there's nothing wrong with keeping tally of that to motivate us to bring forth more
fruit.
Go with me, if you would, to Proverbs 14, Proverbs 14, Proverbs 14, verse number 28.
Bible says, "In the multitude of people is the king's honor, but in the want of people
is the destruction of the prince."
So it's just giving this general truth that, hey, when there's a lot of people, it glorifies
the king.
It shows the king's honor.
But if there's a kingdom with a lot of very few people, then that space gets destruction.
It's downfall.
It's not really strong.
But if we think about it in the context of God being the king, this statement is so true,
"In the multitude of people is the king's honor."
Hey, why should we want to get more people saved?
It's to bring God honor.
It's to bring God glory.
The Bible is literally saying, "In the multitude," in a bunch of people, a lot of people, is
the king's honor.
So, how can we honor God with our time?
Hey, reading our Bible, praying, going to church, soul-winning, encouraging the brethren,
seeking out wisdom.
There's a lot of things the Bible commands us, I just chose a few, but these are way
better ways to spend our time, energy, effort that actually honors God rather than spending
time on things that don't honor God.
Spending time on things that are just promoting debauchery, spending time watching movies
that are promoting fornication and adultery and drunkenness is not really a good way
to honor God with our time.
Go with me if you would to 1 Corinthians 3, 1 Corinthians 3.
So how can we honor God?
Honor God?
We can honor God by giving him our best.
We can honor God by honoring him with our money.
We can honor God by honoring him with our time, and we can honor God with our body.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter number 3, and I want to look at verse 16.
1 Corinthians 3 verse 16, Bible says, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.
For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."
Bible's saying that our body, as believers, is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
And if we defile the temple of God, if we just do, desecrate it, do whatever we want
with it, hey, what will God do?
Him shall God destroy.
God gets mad when people just think, "Well, it's my body, I can do whatever I want."
When Christians have this attitude, God gets mad at that.
And there comes a point where it's like, "Hey, you're just doing whatever you want
with your body.
Yeah, you're still saved, but God will destroy.
God will bring forth judgment."
And that comes back to the point that I made earlier that, "Hey, we should fear God.
We should actually honor God and realize this is not my body, and if I'm just constantly
destroying it with sin, God will destroy me."
What are some examples of things that we could do to destroy our body?
Well, how about fornication?
You're there in 1 Corinthians 6, look at verse ... You're there in 1 Corinthians, look at
chapter number 6, starting in verse number 12, says, "All things are lawful unto me,
but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought
under the power of any. Meats for the belly, and belly for meats, but God shall destroy
both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord
for the body. And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his
own power. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the
members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid! What, know ye not
that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a
man doeth is without the body. But he that comitteth fornication sinneth against his
own body. What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is
in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So again, it's
emphasizing the same idea. Look, your body is not your own. If you're saved, hey, it's
bought with a price. It's God's, and it's God's body. And God is giving a clear commandment
here to not desecrate it by what fornication. And notice that it even said that in verse
18, every sin that a man doeth is without the body. But he that comitteth fornication
sineth against his own body. Fornication is a very unique sin in that, you know, when
you sin, you sin against your own body here. Look at first, you're there in first Corinthians,
look at verse chapter 10. And there's a big issue that we have in America. This is a big
issue that we have in our society where people just don't even think this is bad. It's not
even taboo. And they just think, they almost think it's not, it's like weird to not commit
fornication. And that's how it's promoted in our society. That it's weird not to do
this. But the Bible is very clear that a Christian should not live this way and God could even
bring forth a severe punishment for doing this. Look at 1 Corinthians 10, look at verse
6, it says, "Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil
things as they also lusted. Neither be idolaters as were some of them, as it is written the
people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication
as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. So the Bible
is just saying that 23,000 people just died. Why? For committing fornication. Why? Because
this is something that God is really mad at that really destroys the body and God will
punish his people for committing wicked sins. And so this is something that we should take
very seriously is honoring God with our body and the decisions we make it's not just our
body it's God's body and we should take into account what the Bible says about these things.
How about the idea of tattoos? Go with me if you would to Leviticus 19. Leviticus 19
look at verse number 28. Leviticus 19 verse 28. "You shall not make any cuttings in your
flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you. I am the Lord." The Bible makes a clear
commandment here to not print any marks upon us, upon our body. Hey, how can I honor God
with my body while not committing fornication? And how about also just not getting tattoos?
The Bible, like I said, the Bible is very clear that this is forbidden. Yet a lot of
Christians see no problem with this. A lot of Christians even openly embrace the idea
of tattoos or have no problem getting other tattoos or telling other people to get tattoos,
but the Bible is saying that this is a sin. This is against God to get a tattoo and it's
not honoring God with our body. Go with me if you would to Deuteronomy 32. Another way
that we can honor God with our body is avoiding alcohol. Again, you could preach whole sermons
and all these ideas, but I just am trying to give a holistic kind of a general overview
on this, on some thoughts of how we can honor God with our body. Deuteronomy 32, look at
verse number 33, it says, or starting verse 32, it says, "For their vine is of the vine
of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters
are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps." The Bible here
is saying that alcohol here is poison. And why in the world would you just want to willingly
ingest poison? Why would you take the temple of God, right, the temple of the Holy Spirit,
which is God's, and then just ingest a bunch of poison into it? This makes zero sense.
But yet you have a lot of Christians that do it. You have a lot of Christians that not
only do it, justify doing it by saying, "Well, Jesus made water into wine." Well, it's like,
"Hey, the wine He made wasn't alcoholic." Look at Proverbs 20. I remember my old pastor
saying that he had a conversation with this youth pastor from some liberal church that
was upset that his church told him that he could only drink once a week and be on staff.
It's crazy that they're even allowing him to drink, but this guy's complaining because
he can't drink once a day or twice a day or however much he wants. He has to restrain
himself to once a week? This is insane that this is where Christianity is at today. Amongst
especially liberal Christians, there's this idea that, "Hey, we can drink so as we don't
get drunk." Well, the Bible doesn't teach that. Proverbs 20 verse 1, "Wine is a mocker,
strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." The Bible is
saying that if you're deceived by alcohol, by wine, you're stupid. You're a fool. You're
an idiot. You're not wise. Go with me if you would to Proverbs 23. Look at verse 29. It
says, "Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath
wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine, they
that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth
its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright; at the last it biteth like a serpent,
and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall
utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the
sea, or he that lieth upon the top of the mast. They have stricken me, thou shalt say;
and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not. When shall I say, thou shalt
awake, I will seek it yet again. So the Bible here is describing someone that's just drunkard,
and it says that he has contentions, he has wounds without a cause, he just has babbling.
It also brings up the idea of him just getting struck, and I'm just looking at this and
thinking who would ever want to experience these things? Who would ever want to just
drink alcohol, just be throwing up all over themselves, getting into random fights for
no reason, having no idea what happened to you or what you did, and then say, "Hey,
I will seek it yet again." Yet this is many people in America where they're just getting
drunk every weekend and they just love drinking. But the Bible is very clear here in verse
31, "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red." Hey, once it's fermented, the Bible
says to not even look upon it. We shouldn't even look at it, much less grab it, much less
drink it, much less promote other people to drink it, much less allow your church members
or church staff to drink it at all. I mean, the Bible says if someone's a drunkard, that
they should get church discipline for that. Because it's a major sin, it's a major problem
and it's easy to get other people, you know, caught up in that. Go with me. You're there
in Proverbs 23. Look at verse 20. It says, "Be not among wine-bibbers, among rightest
eaters of flesh, for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness
shall clothe a man with rags." So the Bible here is saying that another way that we can
honor our body is by not being a glutton, right? By not being a rightest eater of flesh
where we just have no self-control and we're just eating and eating and eating food. Bible
says that that's wrong, right? It's wrong. Just allow yourself to just overindulge and
become this really overweight, obese fat person. Bible's saying that we should have self-control
and it's God's body. Again, it's not my body, it's God's body and I should be a good steward
of that. I should keep it well, maintain it well as best I can. And so how can I honor
God with my body? Hey, by not getting tattoos, by not fornicating, by not drinking alcohol,
by not being a glutton. And the last point I had here is just simply, hey, by not being
an adulterer. Exodus 20 14 simply says, thou shalt not commit adultery. So it's a pretty
clear cut statement. Go with me if you would to Matthew 19. So what I think of typically
when I think of adultery is obviously just flat out cheating where, right, they're married.
Then one of the partners goes out and lays with someone else. And that is, the Bible
is bringing out that this is wrong. This is a sin. The Bible says that that person should
be put to death if we had a righteous government. And so adultery is a big sin in the eyes of
God. And it happens a lot even just in that traditional sense that I brought up. But another
sense that I see a lot of Christians justifying is, well, this idea of divorce and remarriage.
Look at Matthew 19. Look at verse number, let's start in verse number three. "The Pharisees
also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away
his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read that
he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? And said, For this cause
shall man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be
one flesh. Wherefore, they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder. They said unto him, Why did Moses then command to give
a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses, because of the
hardness of your heart suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it
was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except to be for
fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. And whosoever marryeth her which
is put away, doth commit adultery. And so Jesus is saying, Look, when you have someone
that gets divorced and remarried, that is adultery. And it gives one clause, except
to be for fornication. And Pastor Shelley has preached on this before and given this
idea that that's a very specific clause and it's like more of an annulment idea. This
does not mean that you can just grab the word fornication, read whatever you want into it.
I mean, a lot of even fundamental Baptists, I've heard the wildest interpretations of
this verse. I've heard ideas from the idea will like, Oh, this word in the Greek comes
from the word like, where we get our word pornography. So if a guy watched pornography,
that's grounds for divorce. Take what in the world? Oh, if a guy just, you know, emotionally
cheating or whatever, they basically just read in whatever they want to this clause.
But here's the thing, if you have all these exceptions, then it's not really a special
exception, right? If everything's an exception, then there's no point for Jesus to even bring
up this exception. It's an exception because it's a very rare case and Jesus making this
one clause, but in 99.9% of cases, this is not happening. And so divorce and remarriage
is very wicked and it's adultery. Look at Romans 7, and it's important that Baptists
get right on this. Why? Because again, our body's not our own. And if they're just telling
their congregation, "Hey, it's okay to get divorced and remarried," what they're basically
allowing their congregation to do is to defile the temple of God. And they're just setting
up their congregation to then get judged and destroyed by God. So this is why this is an
important doctrine, this important issue that we should be right on. Look at Romans 7, verse
7, "No ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath the
meaning over a man as long as he liveth. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by
the law to her husband so as long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she is loose from
the law of her husband. So then if while her husband liveth, she be married to another
man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from the
law so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Notice that the
Bible is very clear here that it says, "Hey, if she gets married to another man while her
husband lives, she shall be called an adulteress." And we shouldn't back away from that or mince
words. The Bible is very clear on this, that divorce from remarriage is adultery. And
how can I honor God with my body? By not doing that. And so just to recap here, what's the
point of the sermon? Is that God gets mad when he sees down from heaven, he sees his
children disobeying him, disregarding his commandments. God gets mad at that. He's
thinking, Hey, if I'm a father, where's my honor? If I'm a master, where is my fear?
We shall honor and fear God. And that's an easy statement to just say, Oh, I honor God.
I respect him. I love them. Okay. What are some ways that we can do that? How about you
honor God? Um, you honor God by giving your best. Are you offering your best to God? Or
are you just kind of going through the motions in your Christian life? Are you honoring God
with your money? Hey, we invest in things that we think are important, right? There's
a lot of people that think entertainment's really important and they spend thousands
of dollars on their entertainment system and they spend hundreds of dollars a month for
their little, all their different subscriptions, the streaming subscriptions. And so if something's
actually important to you, you'll show it by where you invest your money. When you can't
even give your tithe or you are begrudgingly giving your tithe, it just shows that you
really don't honor and fear God. Are you honoring God with your time? Hey, when you
wake up in the morning, what do you do? Do you grab your phone? Do you grab your Bible?
What are you spending most of your day on? Okay, working, that's good. But in your free
time, what are you doing? Scrolling TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, Twitter, whatever?
Or are you actually trying to think on spiritual things, think about the Bible, read the Bible,
pray, think about God, soul win, help others, seek wisdom? How can we honor God? Well, we
can honor God also with our body. And really, that's the catch all to just, we should constantly
be thinking of how to get more sin out of our lives. We should constantly be trying
to save ourselves and get sin out of our life. We're never going to be perfect. We should
be constantly striving for that, to get as close to that as possible. So with that, let's
go ahead and close with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for allowing
us to be in your house. Thank you for allowing us to be here. Thank you for all the souls
that are getting saved. Once again, I pray that you bless the trip in the Bahamas, that
they keep getting people saved, keep giving them opportunities, Lord, to get as many people
saved as possible on that trip. Keep them safe. Bring back safely, Lord. I also pray
that you would help us to take this message seriously and to think about how we can honor
you better and think about if we're actually giving you our best, if we're giving you
our money, if we're giving you our time, and in our body, if we're just constantly giving
into the flesh or if we're actually trying to honor you, Lord. Help us to honor you and
fear you more. And we thank you and praise you for all that you've done. Praise in Jesus'
name. Amen.
Our last song this evening, page 379 in your hymn books, "Bringing in the Sheaves." Page
379, "Bringing in the Sheaves."
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the snowing, in the sound. We shall come rejoicing, bringing
in the spring. We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheafing, snowing, weeping, little swelling,
in the sheafing, bringing in the sheafing. We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheafing.