Good evening ladies and gentlemen welcome back to faithful word baptism shirts very good. See you all here for our Sunday night service
Find your seats now and grab a hymnal and go to hymn number 26, and we'll get started tonight hymn number 26
Number 26 hallelujah for the cross hymn number 26
You have to sing this song nice and strong so sing it out with me on that first now the cross that stand it fast
Him number 26 sing it out now
I want to go before the Lord as a blessing on the service.
So I've asked for the Fidel Gonzalez
to give me some prayer, please.
Father in heaven, we thank you for our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
We also thank you for bringing Pastor Anderson
and his daughter home safely
and the souls that were won while they were there.
Father, we ask you to bless our voices
as we lift them up to you in praise.
Please bless Pastor Anderson,
fill him with your Holy Spirit
and let his message be edifying to us all.
It's in Jesus' name, we pray, amen.
Amen, go back to hymn number 12, hymn number 12.
As we continue the theme of the cross here number 12 blessed redeemer him number 12
This will begin sub Calvary's Mountain one dreadful morn him number 12 sing it out together
Up Calvary's
and blessed spawns, blessed redeemer,
precious redeemer, since now I've seen him
on Calvary Street, rolling and bleeding,
for sitters pleading, blinded and bleeding,
dying for me.
On the last.
Oh, how I loved it.
Stayed your best friend.
Nothing my friends did.
Ever by then.
Three years of number.
On heaven's shore.
Alright, this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside, we have our service time.
Sunday mornings at 10.30 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week we will be in Psalm 77,
continuing to go through those Psalms of Asaph on Wednesday night.
We've got the soul winning times below, notice the highlighted times have been slightly altered.
And so if you have any questions about that, you can ask, but the church-wide soul winning just meets here at the church at those times.
And then the regional soul winning groups meet in those different parts of town.
So you've got to get in touch with that particular leader, whether that's Brother Milan,
Brother Steve Tilson, Brother Dan Serret, and then you can arrange where the meetup is on that.
And notice that there are soul winning opportunities
every single day of the week.
There are multiple soul winning opportunities
every single day of the week.
And the purpose for that is just to make it convenient.
so that no matter what your day off is or no matter what your schedule is like,
you can squeeze in some soul winning, you can get out there, and really the best way to do it
is to develop some kind of a habit where you kind of have certain times
that you show up at as a routine and that way you can consistently get out there preaching the Gospel
because that is what it's all about.
And then below that, we've got Salvation and Baptisms
for the year thus far.
And across the page there is our first quarter update
about how the cruise missions trips are going.
This is a brand new idea that Brother Kevin had last year
and he successfully executed one of these last year.
And then I did one of these last year,
but not counting those two trips.
Just 2025 alone, January 1st until now,
eight cruise mission strips total.
We've had 39 different people participate in these trips
to go on the cruise mission strips as soul winners.
We've gone to 10 countries soul winning.
and we visited 16 ports, where we did soul winning,
and 1,081 salvations.
So this is just only a quarter of the way into the year.
We've had these incredible results.
Now, here's the thing,
obviously getting a lot of people saved
is a big part of our goal.
That's super important to us.
But I also get really excited about things like,
getting new people out, soul winning, or getting new people out on the mission field, right?
Because getting somebody saved today is awesome, but what's even better is making a lifelong soul
winner that's going to keep on getting people saved for the rest of their lives or getting someone
a taste of the mission field who's going to go to the mission field again and again and again.
It was pretty cool this week when we went soul-winning in the Bahamas.
We actually were able to meet up with some online listeners and take them out soul-winning.
We love doing stuff like that because, you know, we're training people and getting them
a taste of what it's like to get out there and do soul-winning.
And so one of my biggest goals for this year was to have at least 100 people participate
in crew's missions.
out there on the mission field, think about how amazing that is, how incredible that is.
And we're already so far toward that goal with 39 people involved. So we're 39% of the way there.
And, you know, we're only, like, what, 27%, 28% of the way into the year, so we're doing
great on that.
I'm pretty excited about that.
Other goals that I'd like to see us hit is we've already gone soul winning in 10 countries
this year.
I'd like to hit 30 by the end of the year, right?
soul winning in 30 countries. I mean that's far beyond anything our church has ever done in the past.
We've never gone soul winning in 30 different countries in a single year. Nothing even close
to that. I don't even think we've ever done 10 countries in a year. And so we're probably already
past that. But I'm hoping to see many more thousands of people saved.
hit many more countries and most importantly get more people involved.
And so great job everybody who has been participating, praying
and supporting this and so we're excited about the rest of the year.
Below that there's a soul-winning marathon down in Tucson.
This coming Saturday April 19th, of course, Pastor Corbin Russell is down at Straight Paths Baptist Church in Tucson
That's a church that we planted down there many years ago. It's independent now
But they're holding a soul-winning marathon and if you would like to participate the whole itinerary is there
It would be helpful if you could RSVP, but you don't have to you can just show up
But RSVP would be nice because he is offering refreshments.
He's offering a catered lunch from Juanitos.
Yes.
Oh, right.
So we're going to run the church van also down to Tucson.
So if you want to just show up at the church building,
ride down in the church van and then get brought back
in the evening, that is an option.
Obviously, the space is limited.
It's a 15 passenger van.
Do we have a sign-up sheet for that?
Okay, so we're gonna we'll get some kind of a sign-up sheet or something, but definitely communicate with us brother Fidel
I think is the one who's going to be driving that thing. So brother Fidel is going to be driving the church van
so get with brother Fidel we'll get some kind of a sign-up sheet going and
Accommodate as many people as we can otherwise you can just you know drive your own vehicles down there
It's only like an hour and a half from here probably even a little less than that, you know
Depends on how fast you drive, I guess.
But, you know, hour and 20, hour and 25,
realistically, you can get down there.
And then, so that's gonna be cool this coming Saturday.
On the back, the Mother-Daughter Tea Party.
This is the last day to, or the last week to RSVP,
so get your RSVP in on that.
Church Roller Skating Night.
April 29th, it's gonna be awesome.
I love these, I just love roller skating.
I guess I'm just kind of a child of the 80s,
but I just love roller skating.
Six to nine p.m., April 29th,
and it's just like all of other of our church activities,
it's totally free.
And so you just show up and give them the password,
and the password is Shibboleth.
And then below that,
We've got the other upcoming events.
I'm preaching in Seattle on April 25th,
KJV Conference in the Portland area,
May 15th through 18th,
and then Pastor Dylan Oz is gonna be preaching right here
on Sunday, the 25th of May.
So that is about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning
from the past few days, going back to Thursday.
Anything from Thursday.
Okay, I got you there, yes?
Okay.
Okay, gotcha there.
All right, Baron.
Okay.
All right, anything else from Thursday?
And then how about Friday?
Anything from Friday?
Gotcha?
Okay, gotcha in the back.
Okay.
All right.
And then what about Saturday?
Okay, got it.
Got it.
There you go.
Gotcha.
All right, and then what about today?
Do we have a total from Brother Ian?
Okay, so eight with the main group with Brother Ian.
Okay, and then I got, is that a three?
Okay, four.
Okay, anybody else for today?
There we go.
Anything else?
All right, very good.
Keep up the great work on soul winning with that.
Let's sing our next song.
Come lead us.
All right, you should find the insert in front of your hymnal with the hymn entitled 10,000 Angels if you don't have an insert
Please raise your hand. One of the ushers will get you one and we'll sing it on that verse together
They bound the hands of Jesus in the garden where he prayed
Based at crucified in East Ukraine
He could have called
They laughed and said, we hold the King.
They struck him and they cursed him and mocked his holy name.
All along he suffered every day.
He's your death law.
He stood and called, and doubted any doubt, but he died alone, for you have me.
When they nailed him to the cross, his mother stood here by, he said,
than the simple work of that was done.
Not for mercy's pride, but for the cause of shame he took alone.
And when he cried in Spanish, he gave himself to die.
Salvation's wondrous plan.
Good thing everybody take our hymns now and go to hymn number five hymn number five
When I survey the wondrous cross hymn number five
Number five when I surveyed the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died hymn number five sing it out on that first now
this time we'll go through, actually we'll go through
and take the offering, pass the offering plates.
And as the plates are going around,
let's turn in our Bibles to Psalm 37.
Psalm 37, as we always do,
we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number one.
Fall along silently with Brother Dan as he reads,
Psalm 37.
Psalm 37, the Bible reads,
Fret not thyself because of evildoers,
neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity,
for they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
and wither as the green herb.
Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass,
and he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noon day.
Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.
Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way,
because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
Cease from anger and forsake wrath.
Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.
For evil doers shall be cut off,
but those that wait upon the Lord,
they shall inherit the earth.
For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be.
Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place
and it shall not be.
But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight thyself in the abundance of peace.
The wicked ploddeth against the just, and gnashes upon him with his teeth.
The Lord shall laugh at him, for he seeeth that his day is coming.
The wicked have drawn out the sword and have bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy,
and to slay such as be of upright conversation. Their sword shall enter into their own heart,
and their bows shall be broken. A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches
of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholdeth the righteous.
The Lord knoweth the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever.
They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs.
They shall consume, and to smoke shall they consume away.
The wicked borroweth and payeth not again, but the righteous showeth mercy and giveth.
For such as he blessed of him shall inherit the earth, and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.
I've been young and now I'm old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his
seed begging bread.
He is ever merciful and lendeth, and his seed is blessed.
Depart from evil and do good, and dwell forevermore.
For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsakeeth not his saints.
They are preserved forever, but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.
The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.
The law of his God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide.
The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.
The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.
Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land.
When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.
I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.
Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not.
Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace but the transgressors shall be destroyed together
The end of the wicked shall be cut off
But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord
He is their strength in the time of trouble and the Lord shall help them and deliver them
He shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him
Dear Lord, thank you for Faith Word Baptist Church Lord and Lord
I pray that you fill Pastor Anish with your Holy Spirit and
Give us all yours to hear the message Lord and I pray that you'd help us to love one another and love you more every day
And do you send a prayer man?
Man the title my sermon this evening is a better way to live a better way to live
I've been spending a lot of time lately studying the poetic books in the Old Testament
Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and I noticed this word coming up over and over
again, especially in the book of Proverbs, better, better, better.
This is better than that.
Just over and over again, and I was thinking about how God is showing us a better way to
live our lives and that if you're a Christian and you love the Lord and you follow the Bible
you end up doing things better and just having a better time of it and just having a better outcome.
And so tonight I want to show you some things from the Bible about how to live a better life,
a better way to live. Some of it's going to be from Psalms and Ecclesiastes,
but the vast majority is going to be from Proverbs. But right here in Psalm 37,
if you look down at verse 16, it says,
than the riches of many wicked, for the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord
upholdeth the righteous." And so right away we see that it is better for you to be godly,
righteous, and have integrity than for you to have a bunch of money.
And so many people in this world, they are living for money and they think that if they
can just make it financially, then they will have arrived and they can just enjoy this
wonderful life of luxury, of having all the things that they desire and so forth.
But money is not going to make you happy.
And in fact, a righteous man, just the little bit that he has actually is better than the
riches of many people.
Okay, because just having a little bit the righteous man actually can appreciate that little that he has and the Lord
Actually allows him to enjoy that little bit that he has
If you would flip over to chapter 84 of Psalms
Psalm 84 verse 10
And while you're turning there, I'll read you another verse from Proverbs 16, it says,
better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.
You know, it's better to just be content with what you have, have a little bit,
you're going to live a better life, just being a godly righteous person.
Look at Psalm 84 verse 10, it says, for a day in thy courts,
is better than a thousand.
I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
And so the Bible is teaching us here that the Christian life is so superior
to being just a worldly person out there
that just being a doorkeeper in the house of God,
just being a lowly servant,
being a humble person who just kind of gets the door and usher or something like that,
is better than being the guest of honor in the tents of wickedness, you know, going to some
important presidential dinner or some ministerial association, prayer, breakfast or something like
that, right? You'd rather be just a doorkeeper in the actual bona fide house of God, right?
And so that's how superior the Christian life is and church is to anything that the world
has to offer. Flip over to Proverbs chapter number three.
Proverbs chapter three, while you're turning there, I'll read for you from
Psalm 1-1972.
The law of thy mouth is better unto me
than thousands of gold
and silver. So again, there's this theme that keeps coming up when we look at the
verses that talk about what's better than what
Everything's better than money, you know.
It's better to have integrity than money.
It's better to be righteous than money.
It's better to have, you know, a good position in the house of God,
even if it's just getting the door, sweeping the floor, cleaning a toilet.
You know, that's better than having the luxury and opulence of what the wicked enjoy.
The law of God's mouth is better than thousands of gold.
and silver. Look at Proverbs 3 verse 13,
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,
and the man that getteth understanding.
For the merchandise of it, verse 14 of Proverbs 3,
is better than the merchandise of silver,
and the gain thereof than fine gold.
She is more precious than rubies,
and all the things thou canst desire or not
to be compared unto her,
length of days is in her right hand,
and in her left hand riches in honor.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace.
Again, the Bible is just really hammering this idea
that the Christian life, the godly life, the righteous life
is better than the life that is spent seeking money
and going out there and getting all the gold and the silver
and the precious stones and the stocks and bonds.
None of that can even compare to the wisdom found in God's Word,
live in a Christian life, go into church,
having integrity, having a good conscience,
these things are all just so much more important.
And as we can see in this passage anyway,
that when you do get the godly wisdom,
when you do live a life of integrity and righteousness
and goodness, God ends up blessing you
with some good things anyway.
He gives you a long life.
He gives you some riches and honor and things
and your cup's gonna run over when you're serving God anyway.
So if you go out seeking money,
maybe you'll get the money and maybe you won't.
because a lot of people want to be rich and they never really make it financially.
But they're trying. Whether you get it
or not get it, it's not going to satisfy, it's not going to make you happy.
Whereas serving God will
satisfy, it will make you happy. It is a superior way
to live your life. If you hunger and thirst after righteousness, you'll be filled.
Whereas if you hunger and thirst after wealth, well, maybe you'll get it, maybe you won't,
but once you do get it, you're probably going to have an empty feeling because it's not
all that's cracked up to be.
Whereas if you hunger and thirst after righteousness, you'll be filled and then along the way,
God will give you the desires of your heart.
God will pour out a blessing unto you that's so great that you won't be able to receive
it.
Your cup will run over with blessings.
Proverbs 8, 1st 10, we'll see the same thing reiterated again.
Receive my instruction.
not silver and knowledge rather than choice gold for wisdom is better than
rubies and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
Wouldn't you rather be sitting in church on Sunday night hearing wisdom from God's
word than at some seminar in a hotel conference room somewhere listening to
some wealthy man tell you how to make money in the stock market or through
real estate or through multi-level marketing or whatever. Folks, it's vanity!
Now look, obviously we all got to go out and work and make money and make a living and we got to put food on the table and pay the bills.
Obviously those things are important, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.
Flip over if you would to chapter number 15 of Proverbs.
Proverbs chapter number 15, we're just going through kind of in order in Proverbs looking at what God says is the superior life.
righteous living, serving in the house of God, being a humble servant in church,
getting the door in church is superior to kind of making it in this world. The
life spent seeking after wisdom and knowledge and understanding from the
mouth of the Lord, from the word of God, is superior than the pursuits of this
world. Look what it says in Proverbs 15-15, all the days of the afflicted or
But he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast
Continual feast, you know my kids sometimes will laugh at me because I will always act like everything is a party
You know like whenever we're going anywhere. I'm like, hey, are you guys ready to party?
You know or just like, you know what any meal any outing. I'm just always using that word
You know, we're gonna party. This is a party. We're partying, you know
And they kind of laugh at me like that's silly you think everything's a party everything's just a party to you
But this is why because he that is of a merry heart had to continue a feast. Here's another word for feast party
Right if you have a good attitude
If you have joy in your heart, if you have the joy of the Holy Spirit,
life is one big party!
Life is a series of parties.
I party on Monday, I party on Tuesday.
I just party all the time.
And here's the thing, you know, I don't mean the same thing that the world means the world says party
They're probably talking about snorting cocaine
They're probably talking about drugs. They're talking about fornication
I remember when I was a child my older sister who's nine years older than me said hey listen Stephen
If anybody ever asked you do you party the answer is no
Because she said, when they ask you, do you party, what they mean is, do you take drugs?
That was the slang at the time.
I don't know if that's still how people talk now.
I don't know if that's the slang anymore, but back then, you know, 20, 30 years ago,
whenever that was, she said, if they ask you, do you party, you say, no, I do not party.
But if I told you today in 2025 that I don't party, I'd be lying
because my whole life is a party.
But it's not drugs, it's not fornication, it's not drinking,
it's not that kind of party.
Hey, it's just called joy.
It's called enjoying what I have.
It's called enjoying the things that God has blessed me with.
And it doesn't have to be something fancy.
It doesn't have to be something cool by the world standards, no.
Because here's the thing, you appreciate the little things.
You know, I mean, to me, I'm just enjoying the sunsets,
I'm enjoying nature, I'm enjoying a good meal,
and it doesn't have to be some $50, $80 meal.
I mean, Chipotle is a party, amen?
It's a party in my mouth.
In-N-Out Burger's a party.
Mod Pizza's a party, right?
I don't need any expensive fancy things.
You see, heathers of a merry heart have the continual feast,
meaning that it's just a never-ending non-stop party.
I'm just kind of a 24-hour party person, it turns out.
Which is kind of funny because I'm so straight-laced,
I don't drink, I don't do drugs, you know,
I'm super straight-laced Christian,
but it turns out I'm a 24-hour party person.
Who would have thunk it? You know, who would have figured that?
But it's true.
It's real because if you have a merry heart, if you have a good attitude, if you have a joy, you know what?
I consider soul-winning a party.
Mission strips are a party. Getting people saved is a party.
You know, it's just, we just can't stop partying around here. This is the most partying church ever.
Proverbs chapter 15 verse 16 says, better is a little with the fear of the Lord.
then great treasure and trouble they're with, right?
Because even if you just got a little money in the bank,
just a little food in the fridge,
if it's with the fear of the Lord, you know God's going to take care of you, God's got your back.
Whereas if you have great treasure and trouble they're with,
you're not going to be as happy as the guy who's serving the Lord
and just enjoying the little that he has.
And then, following up with that, it says,
better, in verse 17,
better is a dinner of herbs where love is
than a stall docs and hatred they're with.
And this is me once again defending
my vegetable lasagna, meal choice, you know,
because you don't have to have meat with every meal.
It's okay to have a dinner of herbs,
it's okay to have a spinach lasagna,
or a bean and rice burrito.
or tostadas or enchiladas with no meat in them, okay?
Because I'd rather have a dinner of herbs
where love is than a stalled ox and hatred.
They're with, look, every man would rather be served
a vegetarian meal by his wife who is smiling
and respectful and reverent and loving.
than to be served a steak dinner
by some arnary, disrespectful, loudmouth woman.
Am I right?
All you men out there, if you be honest,
I know you guys are so into eating meat.
And look, I eat meat every day.
But let me tell you something.
We would rather eat grilled cheese and tomato soup
with love.
Okay, why?
Because the atmosphere of the home is more important
than what kind of food is on the table.
right? We would rather have love with a dinner of herbs than to have the stall
docks, you know, all that wonderful beef and hatred they're with, right? Would you
rather sit down and have a beef dinner with people you hate or would you rather
sit down with friends that you love and eat a bunch of vegetarian food, you know?
And if you are gonna go for the meat dinner your priorities are all wrong and
The Bible says in chapter 16 verse 18 if you flip over there chapter 16 verse 18 pride goeth before destruction and
a haughty spirit before a fall
Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly
Than to divide the spoil with the proud, you know because when you get around these proud people, you know
There's only so much room in the building for all those egos
You'd rather be of a humble spirit with the lowly, you'd rather hang around with friends
where everybody's humble, everybody's preferring one another, putting other people's needs
first than to be in this atmosphere with a bunch of egos and everybody's fighting for
preeminence and fighting to be the boss and fighting to be a big shot, it's a bad atmosphere.
Christianity is just teaching you a better way to live your life.
Everything about God's will and following the Bible just ends up being superior when it comes to how you live your life.
And so it's a lot more superior to follow the Bibles of ice and be humble,
hang around with humble people than to try to divide the spoil with the proud, you know,
and arguing and fighting over what my cut is and what your cut is and what percentage I get and what percentage you get, right?
amongst humble people.
Flip over or same chapter verse 32 of chapter 16. It says he that is slow to anger is
better than the mighty and he that ruleeth his spirit
Then he that takeeth the city now look, I'm all for bodily exercise. I'm all for lifting weights cardio playing sports
I think especially in our modern day
with all of the appliances and conveniences,
you've got to get some exercise.
You got to make a point to shake them bones
or your body's just going to atrophy and decay
and you're going to be unhealthy.
So I'm all for exercising,
but you know what the Bible says?
Exercise yourself rather under godliness
because bodily exercise profited little.
Right by the exercise probably a little in comparison with
exercising yourself unto godliness, right?
So what is more important physical strength and brute force or
having self-control and being able to rule your spirit and not be consumed by anger, right?
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, right?
So be now stop and think about how this plays out in real life, okay? The mighty, right?
He's not worried about getting in fights
because he's just gonna kick everybody's butt, right?
Now, he that is slow to anger doesn't get in fights.
He that is slow to anger, he's out in public,
people mess with them, people pick a fight with them,
and what does he do?
The soft answer turns away wrath.
You know, when somebody comes and tries
to pick a fight with me, says a bunch of wild,
you know, somebody just yesterday was just saying
a bunch of wild and crazy things to me.
And I'm just kind of like, okay.
I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about.
You know, I'm not just like, what'd you say?
You know, I'm just kind of like, okay, bye, you know, whatever.
You know, and sometimes people will get mad at you in public
because maybe they think that you cut them in line
or you bumped into them or you did this or did that.
You know what, it's easier if you're slow to anger
and you just be cool about it.
and just say, oh man, I'm sorry, no problem.
Hey, don't worry about it.
And let the soft dancer turn away wrath.
See, he that is slow to anger is superior
because he's not gonna get in fights, right?
It's gonna be extremely rare
that a godly Christian who's slow to anger
gets in a fist fight.
You know what I'm saying?
Because you know what, I make people mad for a living.
And I have not gotten in a fist fight in the last 25, 26 years since I was a teenager.
Last time I got in a fist fight I was a teenager, okay, you know, you know, high school, stupidity.
But the point is, you know, in my entire 25 years of adult life...
I've gotten in precisely zero fist fights, even though I have tons of enemies,
make people mad all the time.
I've had people get angry, I've had people shove me, I've had people slap me across the face,
and you know what I did?
I turned the other cheek, and I've never gotten in a fist fight in my adult life.
I just didn't, because here's the thing, it's superior not to fight.
Here's a good way not to ever get your butt kicked.
Don't get in fights.
Be slow to anger now. Here's the thing. That's better than being mighty
We say well the other the other option is to be mighty and I'm just so tough
And I'm hitting the gym and getting real strong and I get super strong
And then I go down and I learn all the jiu-jitsu and the muay thai and all the martial arts
So now I'm just a beast and no one can defeat me
That's better than being slow to anger because I just go around just choosing people off and I'm just gonna win every fight
Well until you don't
because I don't care how tough you are,
I don't care how big and strong
and what kind of fighting skills you have,
guess what?
A knife or a bullet or multiple opponents
can still destroy you.
And one day you're gonna mouth off to the wrong person,
you're gonna get in a fight with the wrong person,
and I don't care if you think your Jean-Claude Van Damme
and Jackie Chan and Rocky Balboa all rolled into one,
you are eventually gonna meet your match.
No one is invincible. No one can just beat anybody because there could be
multiple opponents, there could be weapons, and guess what? Time and chance
happen to them all. The victory doesn't always go to the strong. The best man
doesn't always win and you never know when your ticket's gonna be up. You go
out and pick fights with people one day you're gonna mess with the wrong person.
So what's superior? Be in slow to anger or be in mighty?
Well, you know what? As far as surviving, as far as going through life and getting through it unscathed, it is better.
Are you there in chapter 16 verse 32?
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty.
In the final analysis, isn't he?
And he that ruleth his spirit, then he that taketh a city, right?
Instead of trying to control other people and trying to control things outside of yourself,
you know, controlling yourself is a better way to go through life.
And so God's showing us how to live a better life.
Flip over to chapter 17 verse 1, and this sort of reiterates an earlier point in the sermon.
Better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith.
than a house full of sacrifices with strife.
And when I think of the dry morsel,
I think of bread with no butter on it.
You know, cause I don't know about you,
I put a lot of butter on my bread.
You know, when I was growing up,
we applied a very thin layer of butter
that would sort of almost disappear into the bread.
But then my wife kind of taught me a better way to live, which is just like thick layers of like
smeared butter like like a like putting it on there like a real like frosting on a cake type of a thing, you know
And when I think of the dry morsel, I'm thinking of just the bread with no butter
Okay, but you'd rather have that bread with no butter
and quietness they're with, peace, tranquility, calm,
then a house full of sacrifices,
and sacrifices, we're talking about animal sacrifices,
we're talking about, again, meat.
But then you got fighting and bickering and fussing,
because here's the thing, all that bickering and fussing
and fighting and yelling and screaming,
you know, it doesn't really help
with your digestion very much.
It gives you a little bit of acid reflux and gives you a sour stomach and you'd rather
just kind of peacefully eat your little dry bread.
You'd rather be on a bread and water diet, the bread of affliction and the water of affliction
than having an acid reflux of your steak dinner because of all the strife in your home.
Look at chapter 19 verse 1.
And so as we go through these, you're going to see a lot of themes coming up as God tells us what is better,
how to live a better life, some of the same themes come up over and over again.
It says in chapter 19 verse 1, better is the poor that walketh in its integrity than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool.
You'd rather be just a poor man, maybe you don't have a lot of money or resources, but you're walking in integrity.
And I know that the word fool in the Bible,
especially in the book of Proverbs,
the word fool is usually just referring
to somebody who's stupid, right?
It's like the opposite of being wise.
There's a wise man and there's the fool.
You could call him an idiot or someone who's stupid.
But you know, when I see the word fool,
I also think about the word clown.
Because I think about how throughout history, in our English-speaking cultures,
people who are clowns professionally are also known as fools, right?
And we go back to, like, the Middle Ages or something.
And, you know, you think about, like, when you're playing cards
and you have the picture of the Joker, you know,
or you think of these medieval kind of fools that are like a court jester, right?
and you think about a fool and you know I'm thinking to myself you know I would
rather just be a poor man that has integrity than to basically make videos
for a living that are perverted making like perverse videos so that I could be
an internet clown entertaining people
Right an internet clown making dirty jokes an internet clown making perverted jokes an internet clown
going around and
Messing with people
Harming people pranking people hurting people's feelings lying to people. Oh, it's just prank bro
It's just prank doing the stupid stuff
You know what I'd rather just be a poor man who has my integrity my integrity than that and by the way
The par excellence idiot fool Cassidy Campbell
Okay, who criticized me as a husband, now is divorcing his wife.
So who's the fool now?
And let me tell you something, anybody who wants to criticize me as a husband who's divorced,
I'm not interested in listening to your marriage advice, fool.
Okay?
Why would I who have succeeded at marriage, why would I who have been happily married
for 25 years listen to someone whose marriage is failing right now criticize my marriage?
Let me just tell you something.
I have succeeded as a husband.
My wife's sitting back there. She's happy. She loves me. I love her. We're in love. We're happy.
We have a great marriage. We've been married for 25 years, and you got a bunch of people who are on their second, third wife.
And look, if that's you, I'm not criticizing you. You know what?
Whatever's in the past is in the past, but you know what? Don't you dare come criticize me, because that's stupid and hypocritical.
You know what I'm saying? It just doesn't make any sense. Like, bro, I stayed married.
My wife stayed married. We're still married, and we're happy. I don't need some court jester clown prankster fool idiot loser retard
Other than that. He's a great person telling me
How to run my home when he failed at running his home, and I succeeded at running my home
Everybody in my home is doing great
It's funny how people, when they get out of my home, is when they start acting a fool.
And you know what else is funny?
It's funny how when people leave the NIFP, they start acting like idiots.
Pastors separate from the NIFP, and then they just start preaching heresy,
like a week or two later, or a month later.
I guess they were hiding all their weird doctrines,
and then once they finally get free and break loose,
they can start preaching all the weird heresy that they've been waiting to preach.
You know it's not funny. It's funny how people leave our church and start acting like complete fools and idiots
You know, it's just and it's like I'm not saying that you're weird or an idiot if you leave our church
Hey, if you leave our church and go to another good church and go serve God somewhere else. God bless you
But you know what when you're leaving our church and then saying oh, hey, can I get money to do IVF?
Can I get money to kill my kids through IVF even though I already have four kids?
It's like hey idiot God already blessed you with four kids. Why don't you just be happy with what God gave you?
I'm sorry am I bothering you because this is hard preaching. This is faithful word Baptist church. The preaching is hard around here
You know you're supposed to come here wearing a asbestos suit or else go somewhere else where it's a little softer for you, buddy
But let me tell you something. I'm gonna tell the truth. It's kind of funny when somebody comes to our church
Here's a bunch of Bible preaching
Here's a rip roaring sermon against IVF on September 1st,
2024
And then a couple weeks later quits the church and is now publicly begging for money to do IVF so that they can kill children.
And folks, didn't the Alabama Supreme Court rule that those frozen embryos are human lives that you're killing?
Amen.
But I guess that's just me being radical.
Yeah, me and Alabama.
Me and the Supreme Court of Alabama.
Where were we?
Oh, yeah, he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool better is the poor that walketh in his integrity
You know what? I mean just be it making a bunch of perverted YouTube videos perverted jokes
pranks being a clown
for money, because you know what, here's the thing.
If you say a bunch of perverted, shocking, explicit things
and do a bunch of gross things or scary things
or weird things in public,
most normal people would be embarrassed to do.
But if you have the guts to go out in public and make a complete idiot of yourself
publicly
People will pay to watch because this world's filled with idiots and so you'll get millions of years
Bunch of retards watching you make an idiot of yourself publicly
You know I'd rather be a poor man that has integrity than to just be raking in the YouTube revenue from being a public court
Jester of fool an idiot full-time
Some be be some perverted comedian, right?
No, thanks. I'd rather just have an honest job and work for a living and then this clown this fool
This jester has the gall to criticize me as a husband
Who is coming home to my beautiful wife tonight and enjoying the not all I'm gonna get the stall dogs and the love
I'm getting both
I mean there's so many leftovers in my fridge right now, I don't even know which one to eat.
It's just like, you know what the hardest part about my day is, is just trying to figure out
how am I going to eat all this food because there's just too many good meals
and I don't know which one to pick.
It's like, yeah.
And then you end up doubling up and then it's just like, man, four appetizers, you know,
and then I come home and it's four appetizers again.
Just can't escape man. My life is is rough, but the you know, let's get back into the sermon here
flip over if you would to
Chapter 19 verse 22 it says the desire of a man is his kindness and a poor man's better than a liar
Right, you'd rather be poor and tell the truth than to lie and get paid
Right? So we talked about being a clown, being perverse, making dirty jokes, doing obscene things,
hurtful pranks,
harmful pranks, dirty jokes. But you know what? What about just getting up and preaching lies for filthy lucre's sake?
Right? Pastors that are out there raking in millions of dollars by preaching what people want to hear.
And we could go down the list of all these multi-millionaire pastors.
And for those in the future, this is being preached in 2025 when a million dollars was a lot of money.
But honestly, like these pastors are multi-millionaires, okay?
Preaching things which they ought not for filthy, lucrative sake.
Wouldn't you rather just be a poor man that walks in integrity?
And wouldn't you rather be a poor man than a liar?
Poor man who tells the truth.
Why? Because the poor man who tells the truth goes to sleep at night with a clear conscience.
And that's way better than going to bed at night, stressed out, guilty conscience, life falling apart, God's cursing you, God's not blessing you, but you've got a huge bank account.
So what? You can't even enjoy it. The treasure is no good. If you can't enjoy it, better is the little that a righteous man has than those great revenues of wickedness.
Flip over you went to chapter 21 chapter 21. We're gonna we're gonna look at three verses back-to-back on this next point three verses back-to-back
And again look I'm not I'm not down on people who are divorced because you know what?
Lots of people in our society are divorced tons of people are divorced tons of people in our church are divorced
Our church is filled with divorced people, but you know what they're you know what these divorced people are doing
They're not taking me aside after the service telling me I'm a bad husband
for staying married.
You understand what I'm saying?
For me, as a husband, doing what it takes
to rule my home my way
and make my wife happy
and to have my relationship with my wife
continue to grow and thrive
and we can grow old together, right?
They're not taking me aside telling me that I did it wrong.
When they're on their second or third spouse because again look there's nothing wrong with
Being a person who has made mistakes in the past because you're saying you can't change your past
You know and you know what don't beat yourself up about your past
You know, if you're divorced, I don't want you to feel guilty about that or beat yourself up about that
because it doesn't do you any good to beat yourself up about how you used to drink
and you used to do drugs and you used to party the wrong kind of party, not a Pastor Anderson style party.
You know, that you use, you know, the fact that you divorced or did these things.
I never want to make people feel bad about their past.
I never want to do that because you know what?
I think it's harmful for you to dwell on the past and sit around and think about those
things and beat yourself up.
You know what?
Stop beating yourself up about it.
You're human.
You made some mistakes.
You screwed up.
It doesn't matter.
All that matters is what you do from here on out.
All that matters is what you do all that matters is that you're staying faithful to your current spouse
And you know when I get up here and preach and say hey divorce is wicked and you got to stay married
You know what? I don't care if you're on there your fifth spouse. You can say amen to that
As long as you've decided in your heart. I'm staying married
I'm putting those mistakes behind me and I'm staying married now. Hey shout amen. You're not a hypocrite
Because you know what you've you you're that's who you are now
Now you're a person who stays married, now you're sober, now you're living a clean life, right?
Now you're doing the right thing. You know, forget those things that are behind and reach forth under those things that are before.
I'm not trying to make people feel bad about their past, but really?
Really? You know, you divorce your spouse and marry some younger model and then you're going to come and tell me.
How to have my home and how I'm doing it wrong when I have just objectively succeeded
It's not even an opinion.
I have objectively succeeded.
I have beat the odds.
I have remained married for 25 years and my wife and I love each other more than we ever
have.
And you say, I don't believe you.
Well, I don't care because I got two witnesses that say that my wife and I love each other
more than ever and it's actually the two witnesses that count the most, me and her.
You know, the people who have the inside information, me and her.
And I feel like those two opinions kind of have a lot more weight than other people's opinions,
but just even just objectively, you know what?
I have a thousand times, and you know what?
You can either like this or lump it.
I have a thousand times more respect for people that stay married,
even if they have a bad marriage.
A thousand times more respect for people who stay married
than people who forsake their spouse.
That's what I believe. That's where I stand much rather see you stay married
And
Since we're talking about marriage this kind of rolls into the next point look what the Bible says in Proverbs 21 9
It says it's better to dwell in a corner of the house top than with a brawling woman in a wide house, right?
Now there's this bizarre weird doctrine out there that says that this is like telling you
that if your wife picks a fight with you,
you go flee to the corner of the house top
and you find like a safe space
where you can go suck your thumb there.
Like it's like a panic room, you know.
You have a panic room in your house,
this corner of the house top little attic space,
it's like, oh, my wife is here, I gotta get out of here.
You go run and hide in the corner of the house top, you know.
because it's better to, it's better to retreat than to beat, you know, that's what they say.
But anyway, you know, it's better to dwell in the corner of the house top
than with a brawling woman in a wide house.
Here's what the Bible is saying.
The Bible is saying the same thing as when it said,
a dinner of herbs with love is better than the stall docs and hatred there was.
Okay, the way that these guys are interpreting this verse, Dave Bursons,
Joe Jones, sorry, just coughing.
The way that these people are interpreting this verse,
let's apply it to that other verse.
That would be like saying, oh, well, you know, we're having all this strife.
The problem is the meat.
If we would just get rid of the meat and start being vegetarians,
then we can all be happy.
Who thinks that that's what the Bible is teaching in that verse?
That's the same level of logic here.
That is governing the way they're interpreting these verses the Bible is not saying. Oh, well if I go dwell in the corner of the
House top then everything will be fixed
That's not what it's it's just saying like bro dwelling in the corner of the house top is uncomfortable
It's not nice, but it's still better than being in a wide house with a brawling woman
You'd rather have some tiny cramped little apartment
Up in the corner of house up then to be in a wide house with a brawling woman
because the house isn't even big enough to get away from her because she's so obnoxious.
That's what the Bible is saying. This is not saying,
oh, go flee to the corner of the house top.
You know, when your wife's on the warpath, well, you better just run,
just cut and run, turn tail and run, and get out of there.
That's absurd. It would be just as absurd as saying, well, the Bible is telling you that if you're a meat eater,
you're gonna have strife and hatred in your family, whereas if you're a vegetarian,
it's gonna be peaceful and wonderful and calm. Now, I'm sure there are people out there that believe that, you know,
I remember we had this this lady come to our house to pick up raw milk,
and she was lecturing me in the driveway saying that if we feed our kids animals, they will act like animals.
And that's why, you know, and she said,
if we feed them animal products, they'll act like animals.
So, you know, if you give your kid a glass of milk,
you know, it's just like, blah, you know,
and then they're just gonna freak out.
And so that's not what this is saying.
I mean, I'm sorry that I even insulted your intelligence
by explaining that to you,
because I think virtually everyone reads this
and just understands that what he's saying is,
dwelling in a wide house with a brawling woman is really bad.
And the warning, here's the warning.
The warning is don't marry an obnoxious loudmouth.
That's what the Bible is saying.
It's saying this is a bad situation,
so don't get in this situation.
You'd rather be in these other worse situations, okay?
Look if you would at chapter 21 verse 19.
It says it's better to dwell in the wilderness
than with a contentious and an angry woman.
So according to this stupid interpretation,
they're saying like you gotta go camping.
You know and and this and this is what he literally said when things ain't swell
Find a temporary place to dwell
So when things are going bad in your marriage supposedly you're supposed to go flee to the wilderness
Flee to the corner of the house top or get a motel a temporary dwell when things ain't swell
You know and you got to go hide down at the motel aid or whatever
Folks, this is the wrong approach.
You know, running away from your problems, hiding, fleeing.
This is not the way that you take the lead and take charge as a man.
And by the way, women, you know, just as much as men naturally want to lead, women want to be led.
It's just true.
Women want to be led just as much as men want to lead.
It's just the natural order of the world.
And so here's the thing, when a woman is acting up
and mouthing off and contentious and brawling,
you know, a lot of times she's looking for a boundary
and you gotta show her a boundary.
You know what I mean?
You got to basically confront her and get her under control.
You got to take the bull by the horns, okay?
But the thing is, what a lot of people do in that situation is they think, oh, I'm just
going to back down and just do whatever my wife says and just give in to her every plea.
But what happens is, then in her heart, she's just thinking, oh, you're pathetic.
You pathetic loser and you think like oh if I just give my wife whatever she wants if I just give in to her then you know
She'll just you know
Love me so much and submit to me because I just gave her everything she wanted
Well, here's it giving people whatever they want isn't always the answer. I
Wish life were that so I wish it were that easy that you just you just whine and die in your wife and live happily ever after
It's not really the way the world works
are a little more complicated than that.
You know, it's like that book understanding women volume one, you know
That's like this thick because obviously life is a little more complicated
Relationships are more complicated life goes through cycles and ebbs and flows and there's pregnancies and postpartum and and
Seven years in and ten years in 15 years in 20 years in 25 years. Hey life's complicated
You better be consuming the book of Proverbs. You better be consuming the word of God. You better be praying
You better be in church
So you can get all the advantages that you can get.
At the end of the day though, you know what?
At the end of the day, it's not just as simple as,
oh, just be nice to your wife
and everything's gonna be great.
Because then sometimes she'll just think
you're a pathetic loser,
because you just are basically a doormat unto her.
Which is exactly the opposite
of how the world is supposed to work.
And just as much as you feel that, she feels that too.
I speak the truth, my friend.
I'm not saying it's easy. I'm not saying it's not complicated sometimes, but I am telling the truth
Okay, that it is not that easy, you know, I think and I'm gonna keep the story real vague
But many many years ago long long ago in a city far far away, you know a certain
Relative of mine a certain female relative mind, you know, and I'm you know keep a super vague
Maybe we can even just say it was a friend of mine, okay?
But basically, you know, she was dating this guy.
And this is when, you know, they were young, like, I don't know, 17, 18, 19, 20.
Like, that was that range of age right there.
And she was dating this guy, and she just felt like the guy was just weak.
And they ended up being engaged to be married.
and they were engaged, and it seemed like they were going to get married,
but finally she ended up having a break up with this guy because the guy was so weak.
And look, I'm not condoning this, I'm just telling you what she said.
Okay, this is what she said.
She said, this guy would just never call me out on any of my BS,
and he just took anything I did to him, anything I said.
He was just weak, he would never stand up to me, she said.
And this is what she did.
She said, I knew the, this is my favorite quote
from the situation.
She said, I knew the relationship was over
when I started physically abusing him.
Okay, and this is like, this is her Christian boyfriend.
Like these are like, these are like young people in church.
Right, and she's got her boyfriend
and she's beating him up.
And she's like, I knew that the relationship was over
when I started physically abusing him.
You know, she's like beating up her boyfriend
and her boyfriend is just, I guess,
finding a temporary dwell or whatever.
He's just going to the wilderness, you know, it's just,
and look, obviously that's a silly story.
It's a true story.
But it's funny, it's silly, we laugh at it.
But it kind of illustrates something
that obviously this woman is not gonna be happy
with a guy who just basically just never has any rules,
never enforces anything, never calls her out on anything,
and she actually starts hitting him
and just gets away with just beating him up
and hitting him, and he just takes it.
And she's just like, all right, I'mma head out.
of this relationship because, bro, it's just too weak.
And look, I'm not saying, obviously,
this is not right of her to do that.
I'm not condoning, it's just a story.
That's a true story.
And I bet you there's a whole bunch of other people
who getting beaten up by day wives and girlfriends.
Some of them are probably even, you know,
ex-NFB pastors.
But anyway, it says in Proverbs 21, 19,
it's better to dwell in the wilderness
than with a contentious and an angry woman.
And then if we go to chapter 25 verse 24,
I got to hurry up here for sake of time.
Proverbs 25 verse 24, it says,
it's better to dwell in the corner of the house top
than with a brawling woman.
in a White House. So here's what I take away from these scriptures. We have three
verses, two of them are almost identical, so it's really two proverbs that we're
looking at. Here's what I take away from this, is that from the female
perspective, if you're a woman reading this, you should look at this and say,
okay, these are the attributes I don't want to have, right? And what's
interesting is that it spells ABC. Okay, so these are the ABCs of being an
Because in Proverbs 21-19, it said an angry woman, right?
And then in 25-24, it says a brawling woman.
And then in 21-19, it said a contentious woman.
So, angry, brawling, contentious, right?
So if you're a woman hearing this sermon,
you should say to yourself,
well, if dudes are so miserable
when they're with an angry, brawling, contentious woman
that they'd rather be sleeping outside
in the wilderness with bugs crawling on them,
exposed to the elements,
they'd rather be in some tight, cramped, attic apartment.
Well, then I don't want to torture my husband
and make him miserable,
so I better not be going through life angry.
I better not be brawling and I better not be contentious and brawling and contentious
are really synonymous.
It has to do with being argumentative and just fighting and bickering and just arguing
with everything instead of just going with, you know, what the husband says.
Just fighting him on everything, arguing about everything, just being contentious, brawling,
picking a fight, that kind of thing.
Now, from the male perspective, right, what do we as men take away from this is that,
you know, well, we want to obviously teach our wives not to be angry, bawling and contentious,
but even more important than that, I think, is for the young man who's not married yet
to think about these three things when he is dating and not marry an obnoxious, loud
Brawling Betty, you know, that's not what you want because you don't want to be miserable for the rest of your life
And I don't care how beautiful she is
Right because here's the thing you'd rather have that you know herb wife
Then that stalled ox wife
You know, you'd rather have the godly wife
even if she's not necessarily as
Drop dead gorgeous as say this drop dead gorgeous wife who's angry brawling and contentious bad news run screaming in the other direction
Look at Proverbs chapter 28, verse 6, I'm almost out of time, but we'll just hit a few more of these.
Man, there's so many great verses and Proverbs with this word better.
This is better than this.
And what do we talk about when we talk about the word better?
Priorities.
What are our priorities, right?
What's important to us?
Is money the most important thing?
No, integrity is the most important thing.
Righteousness, right?
walking in integrity and being sincere and honest,
seeking wisdom, seeking knowledge, seeking understanding,
being peaceful, controlling yourself,
being slow to anger, right?
This is the priority in our lives, being a better person.
This is not the priority, riches,
how much meat I can consume, okay?
All these kind of carnal things.
They're not as important, you know bodily exercise again. I love it. I'm big on exercise
I have to be because of quadrupling the appetizer
I don't want to I don't want to have to be brought in here on a furniture dolly
You know after these cruise trips, so I got an exercise, but here's the thing at the end of the day
What's more important exercise in the body or exercise in this the spirit?
Spiritual exercise what we need
Exercise and the godliness way more important way bigger priority if I have to skip reading my Bible or skip the gym
Which one should I skip?
Right you read no wrong you read the Bible at the gym. Okay between sets you rest for three minutes between sets
And you read your Bible during those three minute rests. Okay, so you all failed
Proverbs chapter 28 verse 6 better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness than he that is perverse in his ways
Though he be rich
Flip over to Ecclesiastes chapter 4.
We'll just quickly hit a few things from Ecclesiastes.
It's really just reiterating a lot of the same things that we've already seen.
Ecclesiastes 4-6, better isn't handful with quietness
than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit, right?
You'd rather have a little bit and God blessing you
than a bunch of problems and stress from living wrong
even if you have a lot of money, both hands full.
We'll skip some of this for the sake of time,
but look at chapter number, skip, skip, skip.
Let's jump all the way to chapter seven.
There's some good, betters.
You can just search the word better.
Look up some good stuff in chapter four, chapter five.
We don't have time.
Chapter seven, verse one,
a good name is better than precious ointment, right?
And again, precious ointment represents riches, wealth, money.
A good name represents integrity, doing things right.
Being a good person.
The day of death, then the day of one's birth.
It's better to go into the house of mourning
than to go to the house of feasting.
For that is the end of all men,
and the living will lay it to his heart.
Sorrow is better than laughter.
For by the sadness of the countenance,
the heart is made better.
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning.
But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
It's better to hear the rebuke of the wise
than for a man to hear the song of fools.
And really,
All four of those verses we just read are all kind of just saying the same thing.
Verse 2, verse 3, verse 4 and 5, they're all kind of reiterating the same truth that says,
going through life just about fun is not the best way to live your life.
The superior way is to afflict your soul and actually seek to be a better person.
And do right and serve God. Read your Bible. Be disciplined.
That's better than just, oh, have fun and goof off and joke around all the time, right?
You know, doing something serious, like reading your Bible, praying, coming to church, hearing preaching,
then constant, only fun and games.
And there's a place for fun and games, you know, and like, I just finished telling you
what a 24-hour party person I am, but at the same time, I know how to be serious.
You know, we need to also get serious about the things of God.
Verse 8, better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof, and the patient in spirit
That's the guy who goes to work every day, works hard, makes money through the sweat of his brow, then the proud in spirit
Right? The guy who's just proud and thinks that he's so cool and he's so arrogant and whatever
And he's gonna have some kind of a hasty little get rich quick scheme instead of wanting to work hard and do things the right way
Verse 9,
Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry.
We talked about that earlier.
For anger resteth in the bosom of fools.
It also rests in the bosom of obnoxious women.
Verse 10,
Say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these?
For thou dost not inquise wisely concerning this.
Let me say this, the present is better than the past.
Right? Let's close on that thought. The present is better than the past.
Say not that what is the cause that the former days were better than these for
that is not inquire wisely concerning this. Look, this sermon gave you a lot of
different things to think about of what's better than what, right? What's the
priority? What's important? What should we care more about? But at the end of the
day, here's one final thing that we should put into the equation is that the
So what I mean by that is, don't sit around and revel in your past glories.
Oh man, it was so good back then.
Oh man, our life was so good back then.
Oh, I love that church.
I love that place.
I love those people.
I love that time.
You know what?
This is a bad way to live your life.
You know what?
I think the coolest time to be alive is 2025.
I'm not wishing it were the 90s or something.
Oh, I wish we were back before technology.
No, man, embrace the technology.
You know, oh, I just, you know,
I wish I was back in the old IFB, back in the glory days.
No, the new IFB is where it's at, okay?
So it's like, why would we sit there
and just always be living in the past, okay?
The past is gone.
and don't think about how many souls you won 10 years ago.
And remember, what did I do on January 1st of this year?
On January 1st of this year, the first thing I did
was I pulled out a piece of paper
and I pulled out a Sharpie.
And what did I write on that piece of paper with my Sharpie?
What did I write?
I wrote zero saved, zero salvation.
Why?
Because I'm not just gonna live my life
based on whatever I achieved in the past.
I said, nope, I've had zero people saved.
and I am on track to have my greatest year of soul-winning personally this year.
In fact, I've almost already broken my all-time soul-winning record for a year,
and it's only April.
Amen!
You know, and God willing, I am planning on setting a brand new personal best
for the most souls that I've personally won to Christ face-to-face in a year.
I'm planning on hitting that goal
the first half of the year because I went into this year saying you know I'm
gonna have my best year of soul winning I'm gonna get more people saved than
I've ever gotten saved in a single year and I had a plan to do that over 12
months I changed my mind I'm doing it in six months I'm gonna do it in half the
time why because because the past doesn't matter and the best year to be a
member of Faith Forward Baptist Church is 2025 oh we sort of been there back
2016. You want to go to church with Tyler Baker? What the heck is wrong with you?
Oh, I wish I could be there in 2023 with Lionel.
Maybe you could sit next to Lionel. You know, it's just like, it's like, oh,
I wish I could just be there in the glory. Folks, the glory days is right now.
The present is superior to the past. You know what?
Instead of thinking about, oh man, our marriage used to be so good.
Why don't you just make your marriage good right now?
Why don't you just have a good time with your wife right now have a good time with your husband right now?
Why don't you have a renaissance in your marriage?
Why don't you push a reset button in your marriage and you know what the amount of time money and energy?
It takes people to go out and commit adultery if they put that time money and energy into their marriage
They'd probably have a good marriage
You know that the amount of time money energy and strain that they go through to go through a divorce and
Then go date someone else and go through all that and you know, it's funny. It's funny whenever I go to the dentist
The dentist tells me I need the braces on my teeth because my teeth are crooked and the dentist tries to sell me braces
And I always tell the dentist no
I don't want to do braces because I this is why we say to the dentist. I say if I get braces people think I'm divorced
You know 40 year old guy walking around with braces, you know, they're gonna think I'm getting a divorce and the reason
I say that as a joke is because that just that's just so real and here's why because there's what happens
Soon as people get divorced, what do they do all of a sudden woman starts losing weight
Guy starts going to the gym.
Guy starts grooming himself.
Everybody's straightening their teeth out.
Everybody's got braces, everybody's fixing everything.
You know what's funny is, why don't you fix,
maybe you should have fixed that stuff
and then you'd be less likely to get divorced.
Not because your weight's the problem,
because your weight's not the problem.
Not because your grooming habits are the problem,
because they're probably not the problem
unless they're real bad.
But here's the thing, the reason why I say
you should have fixed that stuff before
is because it's more just the spirit
of like putting effort into the thing.
Trying to be the best husband you can be for your wife.
Trying to be the best wife that you can be for your husband.
It's not about the weight or the teeth or whatever.
That's not what it's about.
But you know what it is about?
It's about giving a rip.
Amen?
It's about caring.
It's about trying.
It's about saying, hey, this relationship's important to me,
so I'm gonna put some work into it.
I'm gonna put some effort into it.
Whatever that looks like.
And look.
Here's what the idiots online don't understand. Here's what all the gossips and the critics and the slanderers don't understand
Is that everybody's relationship is different?
Oh, I would never do that. We don't care about you
Because everybody's different. Everybody's situation is different. Everybody's marriage is different. Everybody's life is and I wish I could just give you
Like a steps to success of just do these exact things and your wife will be happy
Do these exact things and your husband will be happy.
Now I can give you what the Bible says and that's a great start.
You know, husbands love your wives. Wives submit yourself to your husband.
But at the end of the day there's all this other stuff that you're going to have to do to make your marriage work.
That is totally different than my marriage because my wife is totally different than your wife and and and I'm different than your husband
And everybody's different. Okay, but but here's one thing I can tell you is that if you want to succeed at anything in life
You got to put effort into it
You know so here's the thing put effort into your marriage
Put effort into that relationship and again me putting effort into my marriage is not gonna look the same as you putting effort into your marriage
So quit judging me and worrying about my marriage here's the thing like some wives are probably like just begging for their husband
To spend more time with them and be at home more here's the thing my wife does not beg me
To be at home more and spend more time with her
She just doesn't. Okay. Why? Because she has other needs. She has other things that make her happy that I do
There are things that I do that make her happy that she wants and she but but you know what?
The stuff that I do to make her happy is gonna take effort
It's gonna take thought and it's gonna take consideration, but it's not gonna be the same for everybody
Does everybody understand what I'm saying? Yeah, you know some people
are looking for this.
Some women are looking for more of this,
more of that, less of this.
It's not going to be the same for everybody.
And that's why the Bible says
we have to dwell with our wives according to knowledge.
You know you got to get to know your wife. You got to figure out what makes her tick figure out
What's important figure out her love language or whatever and you know you got to meet her needs and
Same for you ladies. You got to figure out what your husband wants and meet his needs. Yeah, there's a basic thing
Every husband wants respect every woman wants to be loved and cherished
You know there are those basics that we get from scripture about the authorities
But the intricacies of our marriage every marriage is different
Every marriage is special, it's unique, it's different.
That's why a lot of people get divorced a third and fourth time.
Because they think like, oh, I learned from all the mistakes the first time.
And then they marry the second person, it's like a whole different set.
It's like a new maze, and they still can't find the cheese.
Because everything's different now.
You know, it's not like they're marrying the same woman again,
and they get a do-over.
No, now it's like a whole, it's like, whoa!
You know, it's like you trained for one thing and then it just it's you're starting out
Who would want to do that twice anyway? You know, I'm just glad I only did it once
You know feet figuring it out one time
It's hard enough. You know who wants to figure it out two three times
The point is though that if you'd put that effort in before you get divorced
You're less likely to get divorced because you're actually putting in the effort
You know and maybe you know and there's a thing again. I can't even tell you what that is
You know, maybe your husband does want you to lose weight
But maybe that's not really a big deal to him. Maybe he doesn't really care about that. Maybe that's not even the problem at all
Maybe it is the problem
I don't know because everybody's got different priorities,
different needs, different things,
and you can't judge other people
or impose other things on other people
because you just have to understand
every relationship is different.
But I think a common denominator is
that having a good marriage is gonna take effort.
As a husband, effort as a woman,
it's gonna look different in different situations,
but it's gonna take effort.
And you know what?
The present is superior to the past.
So, it doesn't matter what happened in the past.
Don't beat yourself up about the past.
Don't beat yourself up about earlier in your marriage.
Don't beat yourself up if you're divorced and remarried, because that's done.
That's over.
Here we are.
The present is superior.
Right now, focus on, hey, I'm going to have a great year in 2025.
I'm going to have a great marriage, I'm going to figure out how to make my wife happy, I'm
going to figure out how to fix things, she's going to hopefully, you know, have the same
attitude, women hopefully have an attitude, hey, I'm going to figure out how to be a better
wife, make my husband happy, right?
This is what we want to do, we want to think about now.
And we want to think about what are the great soul winning works we can do right now.
And look, faithful word Baptist church, this is the best our church has ever been.
Sorry, and you know what all the losers out there that want to whine and complain and criticize and that quit the church
You know what they quit the church. You know what they did they sold all their stocks
You know during the dip is what they did
It's what they did
It's what they did, you know faithful word
Had a little bit of a dip there
The stock was plummeting
And what did all these boneheads do?
They sold during the dip.
And everybody knows you're supposed to buy low and sell high.
And what did they do?
They sold low is what they did.
You know, they panicked.
They didn't trust the plan.
They didn't stay the course.
What did they do?
They sold the dip is what they did, right?
Other people bought the dip.
That's why we got so many new people at our church, so many new visitors and new people coming. Those people are buying the dip!
And now we're soaring.
We're soaring, right? When was the dip? I don't remember what month it was. What was the dip? What was the dip?
September, October? I don't know when it was. When the stock kind of bottomed out at Faithful Ward,
the FWBC stock kind of hit the bottom there. You know, I don't remember when it was August, September, October, somewhere around there.
We don't care because this because I don't think about the past think about right now
But you know what all those people who sold the dip they're missing out because faithful word is
killing it
We are doing greater works than we've ever done
greater atmosphere, great spirit, we're happy, we're thriving, we're moving forward and you know what?
They're sitting in some boring lame old IFB church, listening to some guest preacher talk about repenting of your sins.
And they're paying to go roller skating.
Okay, and they're paying to go roller skating and they have to listen to rap music the whole time.
And we're going roller skating for free, okay?
And it's N-I-F-B parody music.
No, I'm just kidding.
It's silence.
As far as enough, we're to prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
Thank you for showing us a better way to live.
And Lord God, please just help us to take your advice, to read your word, to meditate
upon it, Lord.
Help us to really dig into Psalms and Proverbs and these books of wisdom, and just learn
a more excellent way to live our lives.
Help us to have the best marriage that we can possibly have.
Help us to have the best year of soul winning.
Help us to be the best parents, the best children,
the best friends that we can possibly be, Lord.
Help us to follow the superior way, which is the Christian way, the biblical way.
And Lord God, please just continue to bless our church, help us thrive, and Lord God,
I pray that every person in this room would put effort into their marriage and care about
their marriage and work at having the best possible marriage, Lord.
And Lord, when the marriage experiences a dip, Lord, help them not to be so foolish as
to sell the dip in their marriage, but help them to stay the course in their marriage
and ride that wave to greater heights.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen. All right, everybody take your hymnals, please go to hymn number six. We'll close that are singing tonight hymn number six
Beneath the cross of Jesus hymn number six
Number six beneath the cross of Jesus I fame would take my stand number six
Beneath the cross of Jesus, I think would take my stand.
The shadow of a mighty rock within a re-reland.
I'm all within the wilderness, a rest upon life.
From the verdict of the noontime heat, and the burden of...
Man, good thing tonight we are the best.