The first that I'd like to preach on, I'm going to come back to this in Revelation Chapter 4, you can stay there, but I'd like to preach on this one verse tonight.
1 Corinthians 10-31, the Bible reads,
Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
That's what I want to preach on tonight.
Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Now, can you think of anything more mundane than just eating or drinking?
I mean, it's not exactly something that you would put up there as one of your most spiritual activities.
I sat down and ate lunch today, or I ate a bowl of cereal this morning, and I'm going to have a cheeseburger tonight at the church.
That doesn't sound spiritual, does it?
But God says, even when you're just eating or drinking, whatever you do, do it to the glory of God.
Even the mundane, I mean, whatever you're doing day in, day out, from the beginning of the day when you wake up,
to the time you go to bed, your whole life should be about bringing glory to God, according to the Bible.
Listen to this, 1 Corinthians 6-19,
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.
Your body and your spirit belong to God.
And he says, I paid for it on the cross, what Jesus said, and so I want you to honor me and glorify me with every second of every day, because you belong to God, is what he said.
One more verse, I'll read you an introduction.
Romans 12-1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
You see, God demands everything from the Christian.
Body, soul, spirit, every minute of every day, day in, day out, day, night, morning, noon, night, he expects us to glorify him with every aspect of who we are.
Now I'm going to give you several areas tonight that we ought to do all to the glory of God when it comes to these areas.
If you would, we'll get back to Revelation 4, but turn to Deuteronomy chapter number 6.
Deuteronomy 6, the fifth book in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 6, verse number 4.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, chapter number 4, or Deuteronomy 6, I'm sorry, verse 4.
Deuteronomy 6-4, read, hero is real, the Lord our God is one Lord.
There is only one God, is what the Bible teaches.
Tell that to the Mormons, with all their multiplicity of gods, all their different universes and galaxies, and long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, and all these different gods are being hostile.
No, there's one God, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, and one Lord Jesus Christ.
But look here, he says, hero is real, 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 thine might.
And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.
That's the command of God, to have God's word in your heart.
But the first area I want to talk about today, number one, do all to the glory of God.
When it comes to your conversation, what you talk about, look down if you would, and what God expects you to talk about.
He said, thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children what God's word, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou laggest down, and when thou risest up.
He said, when you wake up in the morning, talk about the Bible.
When you walk down the road, talk about the Bible.
When you're driving in your car, talk about the Bible.
Let your conversation be bringing glory to God, especially when you're talking to your children.
When you're driving down the road, you've got your children in the backseat, talk to them about the Bible.
That's what you've got to talk about.
What do you talk about at the breakfast table? The Bible.
What do you talk about at lunch? The Bible.
What do you talk about at the dinner table? The Bible.
You say, that sounds boring. There's nothing boring about the Bible.
Hey, the Bible's exciting. We talk about the Bible all day.
I love to talk about the Bible.
You see, I don't want my conversation to just be banter, to just be blah, blah, blah.
I want to talk about something that matters.
I want to talk about God's word.
When, when I wake up, when I walk down the street, when I sit down, when I eat dinner, when I go to bed at night,
it says, and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontless between thine eyes,
and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on my gate.
He said, take the word of God and just put it up on the wall, so you just look at it all the time.
So it's constantly in your mind.
You notice all the verses that are out there in the lobby of our church, all the descriptions that are up and framed?
And so that we can just walk by and constantly keep our values right.
This is what our church is about.
These verses define several aspects of what we believe and who we are.
You know, same thing in my house.
I've got verses up in my house.
When I was a teenager, I had verses on the wall in my bedroom.
When I was a teenager, you know, I probably had some rock and roll poster next to it in some cases.
You know, I was a worldly teenager.
But hey, I had to work.
Maybe that's why pretty soon the word of God was ready to rock.
Pretty soon the poster came down and just the word of God was the only thing left.
I said, the word of God has a way of doing that to you, okay?
But you know, for a while there was both.
And one of them had to go.
And so all the worldly garbage went.
But I'm telling you, from the time I was a teenager, I read this in the Bible as a teenager.
And I said, the Bible is telling me to put God's word on the wall in my house.
And I just printed it off on the computer, I wrote it down in my best handwriting,
and I began to put it on the wall, some of my favorite verses up on the wall,
so that I could think about it all day long, talk about it all day long.
You know what my wife and I talk about?
You want to be a fly on the wall with my wife and I?
We talk a lot about the Bible.
We do.
I mean, you drive down the road with us, hang around us.
We spend a lot of time talking about Bible doctrine.
We tell stories from the Bible.
When I get around my closest friends, you know what we talk about?
Getting there with the Bible is what we talk about.
It's what we do.
I mean, it's where our whole life revolves around.
You see, God doesn't expect us to just on Sunday morning,
oh yeah, God.
Oh yeah, Jesus.
Oh yeah, church.
Oh, that's right.
Oh, okay, let's go down there and do our...
No, I mean, the Bible should be such an integral part of your life all the time.
All the time.
I mean, why would I talk about sports when I talk about the Bible?
I mean, think about that for a minute.
Talk about somebody throwing a ball around,
and you know, sports has its merits,
like when you're playing sports, not watching it.
You know, I mean, it's good physical activity.
You can learn.
You can be educational and learn about teamwork,
learn about maneuvers, learn, you know, get your body in shape,
build up your tolerance to pain, and great.
There's no benefit from sitting around watching sports and talking,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
You know, the Bears this and the Suns this and blah, blah, blah.
Hey, did you hear about that?
I don't care.
Who cares?
Let's talk about the Bible.
Let's talk about Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers.
Hey, talk to me about the Bible.
You speak my language.
When I get together and talk to other creatures,
I like to talk about the Bible.
I mean, if I talk about some other creatures, I got the Bible.
I'm like, let's talk about the Bible.
Let's talk about Bible doctrine.
Let's talk Bible.
That's all I want to talk about.
You say, why is it that you like to talk so much about the Bible?
Because I find other subjects boring.
That's why.
I mean, it's a totally selfish reason.
Because sports is boring to me.
Because anything else is boring.
Except the Bible.
I think the Bible is the most exciting thing there is.
You know, other things interest me from time to time,
and I get off on this kick or that kick.
You know, I'm always on one big kick.
The Bible.
And so you ought to think about what you spend your time talking about.
And especially your kids.
I mean, you only have kids in your house for 18 years.
Well, you better make the best of that time.
How many parents whose kids are off the deep end,
they're trying to straighten them out now that they're adults.
Well, you've already blown it in many cases.
I mean, you could have spent those 18 years talking about the Bible.
Talking about the Bible.
You know, my kids, whatever happens to them,
I'll tell you one thing.
When they walk out the door of my house, they're going to know what the Bible says.
Talk to them right now.
Ask my kids that are six and five and three.
Don't ask the one year old, okay?
She won't be able to tell you any answers.
But ask my three boys here.
Ask them about internal security.
Ask them about heaven.
Ask them about hell.
Ask them any Bible doctrine you want.
You'll be shocked at how much they know about the Bible.
Why?
Because I talk to them about it.
Because I discuss it with them.
Because that's what we talk about.
That's what our life is about.
You know, my kids don't sit down and watch Barney and Friends
and Sesame Street and SpongeBob and what Bob the Builder and all this garbage.
You know what my kids do?
When they want to sit down in their room and play quietly,
you know what they do?
They flip on a sermon from Faithful Word Baptist Church.
Is that true, kids?
I mean, I get so sick of hearing my own voice.
Somebody said, drive me insane.
You know, I walk in my house, I just hear my own voice.
Kids, turn that down.
Who is that obnoxious guy?
We'll send them now to read the Bible.
And boy, they learn all kinds of things.
They're homeschooled, thank God.
And so they study, you know, math.
They study history.
Right now they're learning about North America and the 1600s.
And they're studying history.
They learn math.
They learn English.
They learn all these different things.
But you know what?
The biggest thing and the most important thing they learn is the Bible.
A lot of Bible.
Memorize the Bible.
My wife talks to them about the Bible.
Reads to them the Bible.
They listen to preaching.
And you know what?
They love to listen to preaching.
I mean, if you ask them right now,
Solomon, would you like to watch Barney and Friends
or would you like to listen to preaching?
All right, good.
That's the answer I was looking for.
All right, I'll give you a lollipop after the service.
You know, honestly, they love it.
They love reading the Bible.
I mean, Solomon, sometimes we'll forget to keep track of his daily Bible reading.
He's up on it.
I mean, he's with it.
You know, he's reading through,
working on reading through the New Testament in one year.
Okay, all on his own.
You know, he's a slow boy.
So he's working on the New Testament.
I mean, he blew through Matthew, Mark, Luke.
He's in the book of John.
I mean, that's a lot of reading for a little boy his age.
And so thank God for speaking to your kids about the Bible,
but not just that.
Friends, co-workers, talk about something that matters.
Let your conversation bring glory to God all the time.
I'm telling you, it'll change your life
when you just start talking about the Bible with your spouse,
talking about the Bible with your kids.
Just eat, breathe, and sleep the Bible.
I love it.
But not only your conversation, number two, your music.
Look back at Revelation 4 when we started tonight.
Revelation chapter 4.
So we talked about this.
We want to bring glory to God in every area of life.
And you say, well, pass your answers.
When you say every area, what do you mean by that?
Well, I'm talking about even eating food.
I'm talking about even the glass of wine that you drink.
And I want to bring glory to God.
You say, wait a minute.
How in the world can my food and drink bring glory to God?
Look.
Because the Bible says that you should eat for strength and ecclesiastes.
It says you should eat for strength and not for blood and meat.
So even when I eat, I'm fueling my body so I can serve God.
Even when I drink, I'm fueling my body so that I can serve God,
because that's what my life is really about.
See, my life's not all about food.
You ever meet people whose whole life is all about food?
Right?
I mean, it's all about food.
You know how it is.
It's eat, eating.
Have you ever heard this famous saying, I don't live to eat.
I eat to live.
There was some Roman orator, Cicero or something like that,
that said, hey, I don't live to eat.
I eat to live.
And that ought to be our philosophy.
We ought to eat and drink to bring glory to God.
And by the way, what eat or drink should bring glory to God?
Drinking Budweiser is not going to bring glory to God.
Drinking Coors, a Miller genuine crab, is not going to bring glory to God.
Eating junk food and garbage and filling your face
with all the trans fat, hydrogenated garbage, hey, that doesn't bring glory to God.
Smoking a cigarette is not going to bring glory to God.
You're defiling the temple of God, your body.
You see, eating all this junk all the time,
and I'm not some health food fanatic,
but eating all this junk all the time or smoking a cigarette, for example,
you're damaged.
That doesn't bring glory to God.
You're damaging your body.
When you eat healthy, nutritious foods,
when you eat fruits and vegetables and healthy foods,
you're fueling your body so that your mind and your body
can work at 100% so you can go out and serve God with your life,
so you can think clearly when you read the Bible,
so that you can be wide awake and have energy
to go out and win souls and preach and be healthy
so that you're not laying in bed sick all the time.
When you're out there serving God, you can,
and I was like, look, sickness happens.
I'm not saying somebody's sick.
It's their fault.
But some sickness is self-induced.
You know, let's face it.
And so that's why we ought to eat as healthy as we can.
Nobody's perfect on this.
We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God in the last 24 hours
in regard to the food or drink that we have,
and I'm not talking about liquor now,
but I'm saying, you know, we don't eat perfectly.
My health is not exemplary.
There are times when I don't sleep right, don't eat right,
but I'm going to tell you something.
I want to live my life in such a way that glorifies God,
where I'm eating food that glorifies God,
where I'm healthy, which is going to glorify God,
where I'm doing everything with a purpose in mind,
of saying, I want to serve God with every ounce of strength
that I don't want to be my best.
I want to be 100% to do that.
But not only that, how about your music?
Look at Revelation 4-11.
Let's see if our music should glorify God.
The Bible says, Thou art worthy, O Lord,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for Thou hast created all things,
and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.
For God's pleasure.
So who created music?
God.
So whose pleasure was it created for?
God.
God created music to bring glory to Himself.
That's why He created everything in this whole world.
It was for Him, not for you to just enjoy apart from God.
He said, no, you don't want to glorify me
if you're bought with a price of your Christmas.
Now, look, if you would, at Psalm 40.
Turn right in the middle of your Bible.
You just follow him right in the middle.
You find the book of Psalms.
Look at Psalm 40.
And while you're turning there,
I'll read you a different scripture.
The Bible says this.
And be not drunk with wine or any success,
but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your hearts of the Lord.
Listen to this.
Giving thanks always.
Now, who knows what always means?
It means all the time, constantly.
He says, giving thanks always for all things
unto God and the Father and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So constantly, all the time, we're
supposed to be filled with the Spirit,
and we're supposed to be speaking to ourselves
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
but the sentence isn't over there.
He says, singing and making melody in your hearts
of the Lord, semicolon, giving thanks always for all things.
All the time, your mouth should
be flowing with the praises of God, all the time.
Now, I just don't see where that leaves much room
for secular music, right?
I don't see where that leaves room for you
to listen to all this other music when God's saying,
I want my music, like songs and hymns and spiritual songs,
to be in your mouth all the time, always.
Constantly singing praises to God.
Look down at your Bible, Psalm 40.
It says, I waited patiently for the Lord
when he inclined unto me and heard my cry.
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit,
out of the mighty clay, and set my feet upon a rock
and established my bones.
And he had put a new song in my headphones.
Is that what it says?
And he had put a new song in my eardrums.
He had put a new song in my MP3 player.
No, it says he had put a new song in my mouth.
What are you talking about, David?
If you can praise unto our God,
many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.
Notice they're not going to hear the music
and trust in the Lord.
Music is not a tool for evangelism.
He's saying, they're going to see me.
They're going to see the guy who praises God with his mouth.
And that's when they're going to fear and glorify God.
You see, when you get saved,
or when you start living for God,
but you're not always happening at the same time
there ought to be a new song in your mouth,
not the same old junk that everybody else is singing.
I mean, if you're singing the same thing that some unbeliever is singing,
you don't have a new song in your mouth, do you?
I mean, if you're singing the same thing
that ungodly, unsaved people are singing,
how is that a new song?
It's not.
Why would I want to sing the same music?
I just think sometimes I'll be on an airplane or something
and there'll just be some flaming queer on the plane,
just right across the thing.
There was this guy, oh man,
there was this guy on the plane this week.
He was wearing a top hat.
What?
You know, I mean, the guy's wearing a top hat like this high,
like the Mad Hatter or something.
Like Abraham Lincoln.
A brown top hat with a rainbow ribbon around it,
right here around the bottom, okay?
He's wearing a bright purple belt
and he's wearing one of those purple plastic clogs
or whatever they're called.
His weird new sandals.
There's these sandals.
What are they called?
Crocs.
Crocs?
Okay.
He's wearing these purple crocs.
I hope you know what that means.
It's these little sandals.
To me, I thought this is a woman's shoe.
That's how I classified it.
I don't care what color it is.
I just looked at it and said,
this is a woman's shoe.
This is not something that a man wears, okay?
This guy's wearing a bright purple croc.
Crocs.
This is one of them.
And he's wearing a bright purple belt.
He's wearing a top hat that was like a hood high.
I'm not kidding.
With his little rainbow, you know, high on the queer.
You know, wearing it on his head.
And he walks it.
He takes off his top hat and puts it on the carry-on luggage.
You know?
And it's funny because during the plane, you know,
he's watching the movie that they're spooning us.
You know, the Hollywood movie that they play on the plane.
He's listening to all the music that they provide for him.
I said to him, I said,
why would I want to be listening to the same music as this guy?
Why would I want to be watching the same movie he's watching?
I mean, if he and I can both enjoy the same movie,
I think there's something wrong with me.
I think I need to change.
Do you see what I'm saying?
I mean, if he and I are that much alike,
we can watch the same movie, read the same magazine,
and listen to the same music.
That means he and I have a lot of fellowship.
Remember this morning's sermon?
I don't want to have fellowship with that.
Do you understand what I'm saying now?
Why does he love it so much if it's so righteous?
If it's so ungodly?
This flaming queer child molester loves it so much.
And that's what he is, by the way.
Oh, man, I have so many plane stories.
Can I just stop and tell an airplane story?
I was on my way back from Philadelphia.
On my way to Philadelphia, I get on the plane,
and usually if somebody sits next to me
who I'm questioning their orientation,
I just say, like, I need to be reseated.
You know what I mean?
I don't want to sit next to some flamer, right?
And so this guy, but what happened was
I'd already been reseated and switched around.
I had an appointment.
Get this.
I had an appointment where I was landing
at 5.50 a.m. in Philadelphia.
I had to be somewhere in New Jersey at 8 o'clock.
I paid a ton of money for the flight.
The only reason I was flying there
was just to go to this one class,
and it was really, it was far away.
I always get lost when I'm on the East Coast.
It's very confusing over there
if you've ever tried to navigate those streets over there.
And so I was just thinking, man,
this plane could not be delayed.
I was already kind of on thin ice here.
And they're moving things around, so it's too late.
The plane's about to take off.
This guy stumbles onto the plane, just totally drunk.
And I have never seen anybody this drunk on an airplane.
And I fly a lot.
Usually they don't allow you to fly when you're drunk.
You know, it's against the FAA to let people fly when they're drunk.
And so this guy was so drunk that he comes on, you know,
and he has his pants sagged down like a queer.
And he's a big fat guy, you know, a big old belly.
And his pants were sagged down like a queer.
And he was just kind of like pulling up his pants all the time.
It's just like disgusting.
You know, you see the guy's underwear is horrible.
And this guy was so drunk, I just smelled a beer on his breath.
He stumbles over, you know, and this and that.
I wasn't sure if he was a queer or if he just talked funny because he was drunk.
But he was talking weird, okay.
And so he sits down next to me on the plane,
and the guy is just repulsing him.
He's stunk and he's weird.
And the guy starts talking to me.
Hey, what's up?
I just said, whatever.
And then he just goes, that's all I did.
I said, dude, whatever.
And he just, he didn't say anything else to me the whole time.
And this guy was just repulsing.
Oh, man, I just, can you pray for me please?
But the point is, look, don't you think that guy just,
he likes all the music that they're putting out on the plane.
He loves all the movies.
Hey, God put a new song in my mouth.
That's not my crowd.
That's not who I want to be like.
And so I sing songs that are totally different.
Are you getting this?
They're totally new compared to what the world had.
I mean, totally different than anything the world has taken.
I mean, when was the last time you saw some kid walking down the street dressed like a gang banger
and you said, hey, let me see what you're listening to.
Give me one of your earphones off your iPod.
And it's like, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
Do you think anybody's listening to that that's not a Christian?
Think about it.
I mean, can you imagine just blasting that in some trendy store in the mall?
To God be the glory, great things he hath done.
So think about this for a minute.
So if somebody gets saved and then they start to sing that music,
it's very new to them.
But you see, all the Christian rock and roll is not really going to be new to them.
Because most of the Christian rock bands get played on the secular station.
You know, there are a lot of Christian so-called bands that are played on the regular rock and roll station.
You know, Creed, I think is one of them.
What's that one?
Flood or whatever.
What are they called?
Help me out.
Is anybody looking good?
Nobody knows.
We're all, we're all sanctified here.
But, you know, Amy Grunt, she's on the secular station.
These, they're called crossover arts is what they call them.
Right?
Christian groups who, they really make it big and they make it in the worldly billboard and everything like that.
No, but see, when somebody comes to this church, the music is new to them.
If they have not been in church before.
If they've not known God before.
And so, I want to have the new song in my mouth, not the old song.
And I don't just want to have it in my eardrum, I want to have it in my mouth.
And so, I don't spend my time listening to music.
Because nowhere in the Bible does it say to listen to music.
Show me one place in the Bible where it says, listen to music.
Nowhere.
So, what do I do?
I provide my own music.
I just believe, that's what I believe.
I believe that God would rather hear my voice and all that's in perfection, singing from my heart to God,
than hear some professional musician somewhere from a studio in National Tennessee somewhere,
coming out of the speakers of my stereo.
I just think God would rather just hear it from me.
From my mouth, opening my mouth and praising God.
Hey, let everything that has breath praise the Lord, praise you the Lord.
And so, I've said it before, this right here is my new stereo system.
Hey, does your car have a system?
Mine does.
I mean, this is my CD player right here.
This is my XM radio.
This is my HYMN radio right here.
I got this in my car.
And I literally, I try to bring this everywhere I go.
And you know, I know a lot of the songs in this hymn were memorized just from singing them so much.
All four verses, and singing them with my kids.
And we'll drive down the road with all my family.
Drive down the road, and as a family, we drive them in bed.
We sing the hymns.
Hey, I think that glorifies God more than anything we could be listening to.
Go ahead and buy all your little Christian CDs that are nothing more than a,
you know, a sorry version of what the world has.
And look, you don't have talent, people.
Here's a message to all these fundamental Baptists who are putting out their little CDs.
You don't have any talent.
Everybody's just humoring you to make you feel good.
Your CD's garbage.
Sorry about that. I said to get that off my chest.
We don't want to hear all these little, oh man, I'm a star.
You know, American Idol Baptist Church, and we have our own little star search for the next talent.
For the next big, independent Baptist CD sensation.
What? No. I don't care about that stuff.
I don't want to listen to music. I want to see music.
I don't want to be a spectator. I want to be a participator.
And so we drive down the road, as a family, and people of God places with us that probably haven't heard.
You know, when we go on a long trip, we sing the hymns.
In our cars in Colorado, we just sing the hymns.
Oh, that's weird.
Do you come to church and sing the hymns?
We sing the hymns in the van, as we drive.
We sing the hymns around the house.
Hey, it brings glory to God.
That's our music.
You say, well, you don't like music? I love music.
Music is a big part of my life.
I play the piano. I sing. I love to sing.
I'm not going to be cutting any CD's.
Unless you guys think I was wrong, let me know.
Maybe we can work something out.
But I'm not making a CD.
I'm not going to sell the new song for money.
No. I'm just going to sing the new song.
Because I want to praise God and be thankful to God all day long.
So, remember, what's the sermon about?
Doing all to the glory of God.
Our conversation.
Let's make it about God.
Let's make it about the Bible.
Let's talk Bible all the time.
People these days don't know the Bible.
It's because they don't talk about the Bible.
I mean, if people talk about the Bible all day long, Christians.
And they're constantly saying, hey, this is what I read in the Bible, honey.
Let me tell you about what I was reading this week.
If you have that kind of conversation with your spouse,
Christian, you know a lot of Bible.
Trading back and forth with your kids about what they're reading,
with your spouse about what they're reading.
Preachers trading with other preachers.
What I'm reading is what I'm saying in the Bible.
That's how you're going to know the Bible.
But not only that, your music should bring glory to God.
It should be the new song.
It should be always for all things unto God, giving thanks.
But not only that.
What about your thoughts and your meditation?
Look at Psalm 1.
If you're in Psalm 40, just go back to chapter 1.
Not only should our conversation be constantly,
just keep coming back to the same subject, the Bible.
Not only should our music be God's kind of music,
which is us singing to God with our mouth,
the praises of God, the new song.
And you say, well, I don't have a good singing course.
Well, part of that would be changed if you practiced well.
You know that?
I mean, think about it.
You may not have a good singing voice
because you're just not used to singing.
But if you start singing every day,
you'll probably get better at singing.
You know, some of you have ever known people
who just cannot carry a tune in a bucket?
I mean, they just cannot.
They can't find notes.
And to them, it sounds fun.
You know, because they don't have an ear for them.
You know, that ear can be trained.
And so as you begin to sing throughout the week,
you'll get better at singing.
But number two, even if you're not good at singing,
God still wants to hear you praising Him with your voice.
You know, God's the one that made the tongue in your mouth.
God's the one that gave you the voice that you have,
so He must like it, or else He wouldn't have given it to you.
And so God wants to hear each and every one of us sing.
That's why at our church, we never have any special music ever.
Did you ever notice that?
It's because we don't have enough talent.
And so we're on a constant search for talent
to get people up here and wow us and everything.
But there's no talent in this church.
So what we have to do is just in congregational singing,
because that old mask, it all kind of blends together
and nobody can really tell how bad of it.
No, we have congregational singing,
because the Bible says the midst of the congregation
will I sing praise and be.
And that should be everybody.
Speaking to yourselves, teaching and admonishing one another.
I believe in congregational singing.
There's nothing more boring than to go to church
and listen to special music.
It's a bore your brains out section as far as I'm concerned.
It's the most boring thing in the world
to watch little Susie up there wow us all with her singing.
You know what my kids do?
I love this.
I take my kids to every once in a while
go to a special preaching meeting somewhere.
And somebody will get up and sing special music.
My kids will just start singing along if it's a hymn.
If it's one of the hymns, they'll just start singing along.
I'm just like, what are you doing?
I'm supposed to be listening to them.
I wish we could start a trend across America.
I wish everybody knew this song.
We could start a trend.
Rebel against special music.
Stand up against special music in your church.
And here's how you do it.
Every time somebody gets up to sing,
we're going to do a civil disobedience.
We're going to be like Rosa Parks, OK?
Whenever anybody gets up to sing special music,
let's just stand up and start singing with them.
If they're up there singing,
To God be the glory.
Just be from your seat.
To God be the glory.
So everybody's singing.
Just turn it into congregational singing.
You think this will catch on?
Who gives this catch on?
Now, the sad thing is,
half the song, they're singing these new songs.
And it's not the new song.
It's some hot-up, oppressive Nashville new song.
Nobody knows it.
So you have a hard time doing your Rosa Parks on that one.
But I'm telling you, we should start this a wave across America.
Every time somebody gets up to sing,
I say we start singing along with them as loud as we can.
Drown them out.
Let's just turn it.
Who's tired of special music?
Let's just drown them out and let's all start singing.
Turn every song into congregational singing.
And I'm going to get the words to these new songs and learn them,
just so that I can do it.
Just so that I can sing along.
To every song.
No more special music.
Down with special music.
Up congregational singing.
But look at Psalm 1.
The Bible says,
Blesseth the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.
That's Oprah Winfrey.
That's Dr. Phil.
That's Dr. Laura.
That's all these counselors that are on the internet
to tell you how to handle your marriage
and how to handle your life
and how to handle your finance, how to handle everything.
Hey, don't walk in the counsel of these ungodly people.
Nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful,
but his delight is in the law of the Lord
and in his law does he meditate day and night.
Hey, bring glory to God with every thought that enters your mind.
Day and night.
It's just the Bible.
The Bible.
Jesus.
God's word.
The soul-winning.
The Holy Spirit.
Prayer.
That's what we ought to be thinking about.
That's what a sanctified holy mind is about.
It just eats, breathes, and sleeps the Bible.
I mean, look.
Do you want to hear about some of my personal hobbies?
Because everybody's got some hobbies, right?
Let me tell you some of my hobbies.
Because even my hobbies, I want my hobbies to bring glory to God.
Right?
I mean, whatever I do, eating, drinking,
I want my hobbies to bring glory to God.
Some of my hobbies, I love sightseeing.
I mean, I love traveling.
I love to look at nature, right?
But you know, when I'm looking at nature,
I'm thinking about God's creation.
That's what I'm thinking about.
When I go to the Grand Canyon or through Sedona
or if I go to the lake somewhere
or if I take a drive somewhere through the desert,
I love the desert.
But if I take a drive anywhere,
I'm thinking about this is God's creation.
Glory to God.
Look at this marvelous creation.
Now, look.
Why did God create all these beautiful landscapes
across America and across the world?
Why did He create the Grand Canyon?
Why did He create all the varied variety of trees?
Why did He create the variety of animals and wildlife?
Why did He create the forests and the hills and the rocks?
He created them for His pleasure,
according to Revelation 4, where we read.
It was all created for His pleasure.
So that means God enjoys His creation,
the landscape, the animals.
And when I participated in one of my big hobbies,
which is sightseeing and nature and all this,
I'm trying to see it the way that God sees it.
This is God's creation.
And God enjoys it, and I enjoy it.
Do you see how I'm taking something
that I already liked a long time ago
and I'm incorporating God into it
so that He can bring glory to God?
Or one of my other great hobbies is geography.
I love to study geography.
I love to study maps.
I mean, I can literally pick up a map
and just stare at it for like four hours.
I'm not kidding.
I mean, when I drive down the road,
you don't think that's fun?
When I drive down the road,
when I drive down the road,
I'm just like, now we're here,
now we're here, now we're here.
And I like to look at the map
and then see, okay, here we are.
I just love maps.
I mean, when I drive down the road,
I'm just looking at maps for hours,
just studying them.
And I look at maps and say,
man, I'd like to go there and see that.
You know, I just love maps.
I love geography.
But you know what?
I'm constantly thinking about how,
man, a life, God created this.
And then when I'm seeing
all these different cities and towns,
I'm thinking about soul building.
I think about how long
would it take to knock all these doors?
Who's going to knock these doors?
I mean, literally.
I was driving down the road yesterday.
I looked at a town
and there were all these tracked houses
and the houses all looked the same.
It's lined up for hundreds of...
The thought that I had was,
man, who's going to knock all these doors?
I wonder if there's a big church.
I wonder if there's a knock all these doors.
I wonder how long it would take
to knock all these doors.
Hey, that's what we ought to be thinking like.
It should be about God.
It should be about Jesus.
And there are other great hobbies.
Sports.
You know, I'm not against playing sports.
I think sports can be a great hobby.
Riding dirt bikes, basketball,
baseball, football.
But you know what?
It ought to have a means there
that you're strengthening your body,
you're strengthening your endurance
so that you can go solo any longer.
You know what I mean?
It should have something to do with God.
Like, man, I want to be healthy
so I can live longer
and do more for God.
Or, you know, I'm going to take sports
and I'm going to use it
as a way to win people to Christ
because I'm going to go out and play sports
and I'm going to try to win my teammates
and the opposing team to Christ
after the game, before the game.
I want to win people to Christ with my life.
You see, everything you do,
there should be a purpose.
If there's no reason that you're doing it,
if there's no purpose, then don't do it.
Or you might say,
I just want to play some sports
to blow off a little steam.
You know, I want to go out and play tennis
or racquetball or, you know, whatever
because I want to blow off a little steam
so that I can be rejuvenated
so that I can serve God 100% the rest of the time.
You know, nothing wrong with relaxing.
Nothing wrong with doing something
to blow off a little steam
so that you can come back the next day
and say, I'm going to read more,
I'm going to win souls more,
I'm going to preach more.
Hey, everything you do
should have a reason behind you.
It should be the reason
that you bring glory to God.
Everything.
Take an inventory of your life.
Step back and look at some of your pastimes
and say, does this bring glory to God?
Does this thing that I'm drinking
bring glory to God?
Say, well, I don't think drinking is wrong
as long as you do it in moderation.
Does it bring glory to God
to drink blood wiser?
I mean, can anybody really argue
this will bring glory to God?
This will bring me closer to God?
This can help.
Look, even if it weren't wrong,
which it is,
the Bible says it's wrong to even look at it,
but even if it weren't wrong,
why would I do something
that does nothing
to bring me closer to God?
All it does is open me up
to sin and temptation.
The Bible says,
thy eyes shall behold strange women
and thy mouth shall utter perverse things.
Why in the world would I drink it?
No good can come of it.
At best, you could argue with me
that it's just neutral.
I don't want to live neutral.
I want to live for God all the time,
and I'm not going to drink something
that doesn't bring me closer to God at all.
In fact, it's drawing me away from God.
In fact, it's opening the door to temptation.
I don't even want to make provision for the flesh
to fulfill the lusts thereof,
and so I'm not going to drink
and put myself in a frame of mind
where my inhibitions are gone,
where I'm ready to commit sin,
where my judgment is the first thing to go.
Even the DMV driving handbook
from the state of Arizona
tells you the first thing that happens
when you take the first sip of alcohol
is your good judgment goes out the window.
That's what it says.
It says even if your blood alcohol concentration
is zero, that's what it says.
One sip, one little drink,
and the first thing that happens is
you'll feel completely sober,
you'll be alert like you're sober,
but your decision-making will be impaired,
and you'll make foolish decisions
about your driving.
But don't stop there.
You'll make foolish decisions about what you say,
about what you do, about what you look at,
about who you look at, about what you're saying.
Why in the world would you want to drink
something that doesn't bring glory to God?
Put it away far from me.
I want everything I do to bring glory to God.
Think about this stuff on TV.
You think it brings glory to God?
You think Bob the Builder brings glory to God
because he doesn't?
You think SpongeBob and these obnoxious,
loudmouth kids programs bring glory to God
because they don't?
So what's wrong with these kids programs?
Well, most of the voices are Hollywood actors.
That's one of the biggest problems.
You're getting your kids used to the voice
of Eddie Murphy, a filthy, foul-mouthed comedian,
disgusting things that come out of his mouth.
You're getting your kids used to the voice
of Robin Williams.
When you let him watch these cartoons,
you say, oh, this is a cartoon.
It's mild.
It's fine.
Yeah, but the voice is Justin Timberlake.
The voice is Robin Williams.
The voice is Eddie Murphy.
You're getting your kids used to hearing these voices
of Arnold Schwarzenegger and all these filthy actors,
and they're going to grow up,
and they're going to learn and love that voice.
And when they hear that voice and see that,
they're going to say, that's familiar to me.
And then they're going to watch movies
that are much more wicked than the cartoons already
are wicked.
Do you understand what I'm saying now?
You're opening them up to the world of Hollywood.
What you do ought to bring glory to God.
There's no Hollywood movie that brings glory to God.
When was the last time you saw a Hollywood movie
that just glorified the King James Bible?
It just glorified God.
It really just glorified soul-winning.
Man, it made soul-winning look exciting.
It made soul-winning look good.
It made it clear that it's all about Jesus
and being a Baptist.
There's no movie like that.
I don't want to watch movies.
Do you understand what I'm saying tonight?
Stop and think about it.
From the time you get up to the time you go to bed,
give it the test.
Does this glorify God?
Does it bring shame to God,
or is it just neutral?
And just get on everything that's on the glorified God side
and start to phase out everything else that you don't need.
Say, come on, lighten up.
You know, just loosen up a little, man.
Do you have a life outside the Bible?
You know, and people have accused me
and other people of just,
oh, that's just all you have in your life.
It's like, lighten up.
You're just boring.
You're just, you're obsessed.
You know, I don't think I'm a boring person.
Am I?
I don't think I'm a boring person.
But you know what?
Everything I do does, hopefully,
revolve around the things of God.
And if it doesn't, I need to change.
But you know, I have a lot of hobbies.
You know, I play piano as a hobby.
I think that's fun.
But you know what I spend most of my time playing?
The hymns of the faith, right?
Praising God with my piano playing.
Okay, and then I do my little exercises.
You know, do, do-do-do-do do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do...
But you know, the purpose of it all
is to sing and to play on my piano,
praising God, okay?
That's a fun hobby to have.
I enjoy playing piano.
I enjoy sightseeing.
I enjoy traveling.
I enjoy some sports I enjoy playing.
I enjoy a lot of different things,
and there's a lot of hobbies you can have.
I love to study.
I love, I love history.
You know, I love to read history.
But you know why I'm studying history?
I'm studying history to bring glory to God.
Because I want to understand the world that we live in.
Because I want to understand science and math.
So that I can not go through life being a numskull.
So that I can preach and have knowledge about life and the world.
So that I can succeed at my job.
So that I can go out and make money.
So that I can pay my bills.
So that I can pay for my wife and my kids.
So that I can raise my kids to be preachers and soul leaders and love God with their lives.
That's why I study.
You see what I'm saying?
There's always a way to take what you do and say, let's make it bring glory to God.
Let's do it in a way that will bring glory to God.
Let's revolve our life around the things of God.
It's what life is all about.
Don't you understand that life is going to be over before you know it?
And the only thing that's going to matter is the things that brought glory to God.
That's it.
Nothing else is going to matter.
Any collections that you might have or any knowledge that you have about sporting statistics and all the batting averages.
It's not going to matter.
What's going to matter in eternity.
What's going to matter is the souls that you won to Christ.
What's going to matter is the Bible that you learn.
What's going to matter is the times that you went to church and the times that you sang praises to God.
And the people that you won to the Lord.
And the children that you taught to live for God.
And they taught their children under the third and fourth generation.
God to bless your family.
But you know what?
Go ahead and just spend your days on everything else.
Eating whatever you want.
Drinking whatever you want.
Going through life.
It's all about plopping down in front of the TV.
Watching sports.
When you talk to your kids and talk to them all about sports.
And then sit down and play a video game and do this and that and the other.
I'm not going to live like that.
Because I don't want to waste my life.
I don't want to waste any of my time.
And so I want everything I do to be wrapped up in the things of God.
When I think, I want to think the Bible.
I remember when I was a teenager feeling guilty.
And I guess a few days in my mind I never even thought on God.
You know this is when I was really worldly.
And I wasn't really soul winning.
This is before I really learned about soul winning.
And I was reading the Bible just a little bit.
And I remember just stopping and thinking to myself in my very worldly condition.
I remember just stopping and thinking, you know what?
I don't know why this even came to my mind.
But I just sat down and thought about it.
I said, you know what?
The last three or four days.
If I had not been a Christian.
I wouldn't have done anything different.
You know what I mean?
Like, God never even entered my mind for three or four days.
And it's not because I always did a wicked thing or anything.
I was just being a kid.
I was just getting up.
Pouring a bowl of cereal.
Watching a little TV.
Playing some video games.
Playing outside with my friends.
Playing a little ball.
Go to bed.
Get up in the mornings.
And I remember three or four days in my mind I just stopped and thought, wow.
That's pretty sad.
That for the past three or four days.
I wouldn't have done anything differently if I hadn't been a Christian.
I would have done the same activities.
And the thought of God and Jesus and the Bible never even entered my mind.
But you know what?
You can see how that happened.
You can probably think of days in your life, same thing.
Where you just got up and went through your whole day and God never even entered your mind.
You know, and hopefully not.
But I thought, you know, that's what I looked at myself when I saw that to be the case.
And I thought to myself at that point, I thought to myself, you know what?
The first thing I should do when I wake up is just acknowledge God in my thoughts.
Just say, okay, God is there.
Thank you, God, for giving me another day to let you know.
And just giving some kind of acknowledgement to God.
Opening the Bible.
Reading the Bible.
Thinking about God throughout the day.
I mean, okay, let me bring it down to the level.
Let's say I just went a few days without remembering that I was married to my wife.
Think about that.
What if I just lived three days in my life?
And it's not that I was hanging around other women.
It's not that I was thinking any thoughts along those lines.
But let's say I just got so carried away in my life.
You know, just busy in my job.
Because I'm out of town sometimes.
So, you know, just busy in my job.
Just working.
And the thought just never even entered my mind that I was married or I never even thought about my wife.
Oh, I wonder how she's doing.
Oh, I thank God for my wife and I can't wait until I get home to see her in two days.
What if I just never even thought about her?
And when I got home, I was just pleasantly surprised.
Oh, what? Great.
That's right.
I'm married.
Good to see you, honey.
Wow, that's a pleasant surprise.
Wow, this is really great.
Now how do you think I'd make her feel, though?
If I told her, you know what, honey?
I'm so happy to see you right now.
I forgot all about you.
You know what I mean?
And so this is great.
I'm really excited to be home.
I forgot all about you for the last three days.
This is going to be great.
Let's go out to eat.
Let's have a ball.
I don't think she would think that that was as wonderful as I did.
She'd probably think, well, wait a minute.
You just don't even think about me for days on end?
You just forget that I exist?
Or how would I feel if I walked in the door after being on a business trip
and I'm all of a sudden in the door and she's kind of stuck.
I knew it.
I'm like, oh yeah, that's right.
You live here.
How do you think that would make me feel?
And she made all her plans about things that had nothing to do with me.
She had it all planned out.
Didn't involve me.
She laid the table for dinner.
Didn't include me.
Forgot that I was even coming home.
In fact, she didn't even thought about me for days.
She was just in her routine.
Now, that wouldn't make me feel very loved, right?
I like to think that if I'm out on business and work,
my wife is counting down the minutes, right, honey?
You're tearing off little hours, like 36 more hours, 35 more hours, 34.
She'd fill out little close bits of how many hours left it is.
And I would like to think that she's looking for it
or at least is thinking about, oh, well, I wonder how my husband's doing.
Or I wonder how things are going.
Or, oh, it'll be nice to see him.
And maybe pick up the phone and give me a call.
Or I pick up the phone and give her a call.
Or some kind of acknowledgement that says, hey, I'm thinking about you.
You matter to me today, every day.
I think about how much more important God is to me than my wife is.
Now, my wife's very important.
You know, God is more important to me than my wife is.
That's true.
I mean, God is who I have the most love for.
And who has the most love for me is God.
So my relationship with God is even stronger than the one that I have with my wife.
So I would hate to just go days on end without him doing anything different
and saying, I'm going to do this because of God.
I'm going to think about God.
Don't go through life just forgetting about God
and then you stop into God's house and think I'm God
and then go back about your business.
You should be dating.
David said seven times a day.
Will I praise thee because I write some sentences?
Seven times a day, David looked up to God and spoke to God.
Seven times a day.
I mean, we've got to be speaking to God throughout the day.
Through song, through prayer.
Letting him speak to us through reading the Bible.
I mean, literally.
I'm to the point where sometimes I'll literally get to the end of the day
and be like, did I ever read the Bible today?
And then I'll think about it, I've read like 18 chapters.
I mean, I'm not even kidding.
I'll get to the end of the day and be like, I don't even know if I've read the Bible today.
But then I'll think about it and be like, oh yeah, I read 18 chapters of the Bible.
But it's because I'm just, to me it's like,
I read 18 chapters and I'm like, oh yeah, okay, that's like normal, you know.
And so I feel like, did I read, I mean, did I even really read it today?
You know, because if I read like 30 chapters, then I'm like, now I read the Bible, okay.
What I'm saying is, I get to the end of the day and I have a horror come over me.
Like, did I not read the Bible today? Have I forgotten to read my Bible?
And I did read it.
But what I'm trying to say is, reading the Bible once a day sometimes can not feel like enough.
You understand what I'm saying?
Because at the end of the day, it's like, have I read my Bible today?
Because I don't feel like God is speaking to me.
Because I read it 12 hours ago, and maybe I read 15 chapters of the Bible, but now it's 12 hours later.
It's like, have I even read my Bible today?
You understand what I'm saying?
And so I need to pick it up and read it again.
Okay, so what I'm saying is, reading your Bible daily, yes, but read the Bible throughout the day.
Think about God throughout the day.
Speak to God throughout the day, seven times a day.
Daniel prayed three times a day.
He didn't just pray in his head three times a day.
He would stop everything, go to his room, open the window, and get on his knees and pray.
You understand what I'm saying?
This is a major prayer time.
And so, speaking to God and letting God speak to you should be happening throughout the day.
Listen to this.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night.
Now, to me, that doesn't sound like just getting up in the morning and just reading the Bible and being done with it the rest of the day.
Does it?
I mean, just getting up, reading your four chapters or 14 chapters or whatever it is that you read, and just putting it aside.
Like I said, when I do that, I get to the end of the day, and I'm doubting that I've read it.
Because I feel like it's something that I need to read throughout the day.
You understand what I'm saying?
So, yeah, it's great to get up and read it, but why not?
And I'm not talking about doing anything extreme, although that'd be great, but why not just read one song in the middle of the day?
I mean, you know what?
You ought to get yourself a New Testament, a pocket New Testament.
I mean, if you don't have a pocket New Testament, you need to get a pocket New Testament.
And I don't know if there's any out there on the shelf, but I got all kinds of junk in my pulpit.
It's kind of like my junk heap here.
It's kind of like my grandmother had a big red trunk, you know?
You know, but here, look, here's a New Testament right here.
Whoever wants this, I'm putting it right there.
Just whoever's the first one to get it, don't trample on each other or anything.
And if you're really bold, you get a break out in the middle of the service.
Hey, if you don't have one, come take it.
And we'll get some more out on the shelf.
I need to remember to do that.
Or go out and buy it at the, you know, bagel in my bookstore or something.
Three dollars for a little New Testament.
But what I'm trying to say is you take this with you every day.
I'm not telling you to radically change everything in your life.
Although that'd be great in some cases, but think about this.
You get on an elevator, right?
You just flip this out and just read a couple of verses.
And then meditate on it.
Just think about it.
What did I just read?
What does it mean?
What's God saying?
See, this way you're bringing the Bible into your life throughout the day.
This way you're bringing your glory to God.
Your whole work day, turning that screwdriver for God.
Because you're thinking about God.
When you work, you work your hardest.
Because in your heart you say, I'm working for Jesus.
I'm going to work as unto the Lord, not the man.
Okay, keep the New Testament in your pocket.
Pull it out.
Do you know how many times you've weighed in your life at the post office?
There's a half hour of your day shot.
At the bank, there goes another five minutes.
In the elevator, on the job, lunch break, coffee break.
Whatever, you know, your smoke break.
Light up the cigarette and read the Bible.
I'm just kidding.
But anyway, hey look, what I'm saying is, get a New Testament and bring it with you.
You say, I don't have a New Testament.
Write some verses on note cards and bring them with you.
Memorize some verses on the Bible.
But bring God into every aspect and area of your life is what I'm talking about.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for loving us, dear God.
And God bless you.
Amen.