We'll begin tonight with hymn number 364, Standing on the Promises of God.
Hymn number 364, let's sing it on this first verse, nice and loud all together, number
364.
Standing on the promises of Christ my King, through eternal ages let his praises ring.
Glory in the highest I will shout and sing, standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises of man my King, when the howling storms of doubt and fear
assail, by the living Word of God I shall prevail.
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises of Christ my Lord, bound to him eternally by love's comfort.
Overloud and daily with the Spirit's sword, standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises I cannot fall, listening every moment to the Spirit's fall.
Resting in my Savior as my all in all, standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God.
Amen.
Thank you for the opportunity to praise you in your house this evening.
And thank you for faith for Baptist Church, Lord.
And thank you for our faithful pastor.
And I pray that you just soften our hearts and open our ears to hear the preaching this evening.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen, hymn number 122 is next.
Oh God our help, hymn number 122.
Oh God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come.
Our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home.
Under the shadow of light from thy saints' house,
our hope for years to come.
Oh God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come.
Our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home.
Under the shadow of light from thy saints' house, our hope for years to come.
Sufficient is thine art alone, and our defense is sure.
Before the hills, before the hills, o'er earth we see her frame.
From everlasting thou art not, to endless years the same.
A thousand ages in thy sight are like an evening gone.
Short as a watch that ends the night before the rising sun.
Oh God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come.
Be thou our guide while life shall last, and our eternal home.
Amen, good singing.
All right, 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 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at six.
Wednesday nights at seven is our Bible study.
This week we'll be in Ezekiel chapter number five.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms.
And then across the page are a couple of pictures from the ladies retreat.
And thank you to everybody who pitched in.
Especially thank you to our deacon Corbin Russell who worked really hard to get everything going.
And if you have any pictures that are your favorites, then you can post them in the church Facebook group.
What's that?
Oh right, and then also one of the activities, the zip line, I guess got cut short.
So a lot of people got to do it, but then a lot of people missed the boat on that one.
So if you didn't get to do it, the company is providing some kind of a voucher.
Yeah, groups two, three, and four.
So if you got cut short or if you didn't get to do it, they're providing like a rain check.
So my wife was going to organize a group to go back down, you know, and just do like a day trip or something
to use up all those vouchers that they're going to provide.
So anyway, bottom line, if you got cut short or if you didn't get to do it, then be sure to get with my wife
and so that we can take care of you on that.
Also, my wife worked really hard on this event, so let's give her a big hand for putting it together.
All right. And then on the back, the monthly music emphasis night is this Thursday, September 2nd at 7 p.m.
And it will continue the first Thursday of every month.
The night will include a time of lessons, singing, games and food.
Please sign up if you're planning to attend.
Speaking of signing up, also, if you need the religious exemption vaccine letter,
if you would like that letter sent to you, then there's a sign up sheet over here where you can just put your name and email
so that we can just email you a copy of our official letter on that in case you need to show that to your boss or whatever.
So below that, please join us next Sunday, September 5th at 10 a.m. for donuts and coffee before the service
in honor of those celebrating their birthdays in September.
Other announcements are listed there below, and that's about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning for the past few days.
Going back to Thursday, anything from Thursday?
How about Friday? Anything from Friday? Okay.
Anything else from Friday? What about Saturday? Okay.
Okay. Anything else from Saturday? There we go.
Okay. And then what about today, Sunday?
All right. One, two, one. Got it.
Okay. Got it. Anything else from today?
All right. Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning.
And with that, let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us.
You should find the insert of Psalm 150 in your hymnal there. If you don't have one, please raise your hand.
Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary.
Praise him in love.
Burn the lift of his power.
Praise him for his mighty acts.
Praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him with love,
love of the trumpet.
Praise him with love,
psaltery and heart.
Praise him with the temple and dance.
Praise him with strength,
instruments and organs.
Praise him upon the loud cymbals.
Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
God, everything, bad, bad, bad.
Praise the Lord.
Praise him the Lord.
Amen. Great singing in your hymnals. Now please turn to hymn number 219.
My burdens rolled away, hymn number 219.
I remember when my burdens rolled away, hymn number 219 on this first verse all together now.
I remember when my burdens rolled away.
I had cared for them for years, night and day.
When I sought the blessed Lord and I took him at his word.
Then I called and told my burdens rolled away.
Roll away, roll away.
I am happy since my burdens rolled away.
Roll away, roll away.
I am happy since my burdens rolled away.
I remember when my burdens rolled away.
That I feared you'd never leave night and day.
Jesus showed me to the lost so I left them at the cross.
I was glad when my burdens rolled away.
Roll away, roll away.
I am happy since my burdens rolled away.
Roll away, roll away.
I am happy since my burdens rolled away.
I remember when my burdens rolled away.
That in the painful years, night and day.
As I suffered from the grace just a glimpse of Jesus' face.
And I knew that my burdens rolled away.
Roll away, roll away.
I am happy since my burdens rolled away.
Roll away, roll away.
I am happy since my burdens rolled away.
I am singing since my burdens rolled away.
There is a song within my heart, night and day.
I am living for my King and for joy and jealousy.
Hallelujah, my burdens rolled away.
Roll away, roll away.
I am happy since my burdens rolled away.
Roll away, roll away.
I am happy since my burdens rolled away.
Alright, this time we'll pass the offering plates around.
And as the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to 2 Peter chapter number 3.
2 Peter chapter number 3.
As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1.
2 Peter chapter 3, verse 1.
Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads.
2 Peter 3, beginning in verse number 1.
In 2 Peter 3, the Bible reads,
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you,
in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance,
that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets,
and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,
knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers,
walking after their own lusts,
and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
For this they willingly are ignorant of,
that by the word of God the heavens were of old,
and the earth standing out of the water and in the water,
whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store,
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing,
that one day is with the Lord is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness,
but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night,
in the which the heavens shall pass away with the great noise,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,
the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved,
what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God,
wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things,
be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless,
and account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation,
even as our beloved brother Paul also,
according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you,
as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things,
in which are some things hard to be understood,
which they that are unlearned and unstable rest,
as they do also the other scriptures, under their own destruction.
Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before,
beware lest ye also, being led away with the air of the wicked,
fall from your own steadfastness.
But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To him be glory, both now and forever. Amen.
Father in heaven, thank you for this church.
I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson as he preaches your word,
and help us, your children, get better at your word.
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Amen.
2 Peter chapter number 3 is a great chapter on the latter days,
the end times, the last days that we find ourselves living in.
Of course, we don't know exactly when the end will be.
It could be right around the corner.
It could be many decades or even centuries from now.
But obviously, in general, we know that we are in the last days.
And in 2 Peter chapter 3, there are a lot of teachings
that are very relevant to the times we find ourselves in,
and so we should be able to relate very much to these things.
Again, this is an important chapter for us to know now in 2021.
The Bible says in verse number 1,
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you,
in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance.
The first thing I want to point out here is that
not all preaching or Bible teaching necessarily needs to be something brand new.
A lot of times we just need to have our pure minds
stirred up by way of remembrance.
I think when he says pure mind there,
he's highlighting the fact that it's not that there's some deficiency,
like you're ignorant, you don't know these things,
and so I've got to tell you these basics.
He's telling them, no, no, no.
I'm just trying to stir up your pure mind by way of remembrance.
We need to be reminded of things that we already know frequently,
because otherwise if we don't take heed unto the things which we've learned,
we could let them slip,
or sometimes we just need to hear things that we already know
in order to motivate us or get us fired up,
and let's face it, the world out there is constantly
hitting us with things that are contrary to the Word of God,
and so we need to come to church as an antidote for that and say,
no, this is what the Bible says.
Here's what we believe.
We need a reality check in the house of God a few times a week
to make sure that we don't start getting brainwashed by this sinful world,
and so the Word of God and the preaching of God's Word
is often to stir up our pure minds by way of remembrance.
Verse 2, that we may be mindful of the words which were spoken before
by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior.
So even if we know these things,
there's knowing something and then there's being mindful of it.
This is something that you hear a lot of New Agers or Buddhists talk about,
being mindful. Who's heard that term used in that way,
in like a New Age Buddhist way?
And so they'll talk about practicing mindfulness.
So what do they mean when they say practicing mindfulness?
You know, often they're just telling you to like be in the moment,
focus on your breathing, you know,
and just feel everything and think about it.
Right? And we've heard that kind of mumbo jumbo.
But here in the Word of God, he's saying be mindful, practice mindfulness,
but not because you're obsessing over your breathing
or just feeling what it's like to be in your body right now
and just feeling the wind, you know.
What the Bible is saying here is, you know, be mindful of the words
which were spoken before by the holy prophets.
So focusing on the words which were spoken before of the holy prophets,
being cognizant of them, thinking about them,
meditating on them, because it's one thing to know what God's Word has taught us
and it's another thing to be thinking about it throughout the week.
You know, it's a big difference between knowing what the Ten Commandments are
and actually sitting down and thinking about them on a Monday or Tuesday.
You know, we all know what the Trinity is,
but are we sitting down and thinking about these things, meditating on these things?
You know, God wants us to dwell on and be mindful of
and meditate upon and think about the things of God
throughout our daily lives and throughout our weeks
and just kind of have these things on our mind.
You know, I remember when I was a teenager,
sometimes I would feel guilty every once in a while
because this thought would cross my mind,
I haven't even thought about God all day.
Or I haven't even thought about God in a couple days.
And I remember thinking that, that it was something sinful,
you know, that I didn't have God in all my thoughts
or just that I would go days without acknowledging the Lord
or just thinking about who God is and thinking about what the Bible says.
You know, we don't want to be that way, right?
We want to be thinking about God and being mindful of the Word of God.
So we need preachers and we need church on a weekly basis
in order to make us mindful of these things.
Now, I think it's important to always be learning new things as well,
but there are a lot of things that we just might already know,
but we need to be mindful of them and be reminded of them.
And he said that we need to be mindful of the words
which were spoken before by the holy prophets.
That's talking about the Old Testament.
So we need to have the Old Testament on our mind.
We need to be mindful of the books of Moses.
We need to be mindful of the Psalms.
Be mindful of books like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel,
thinking about them, applying them to our lives.
But then he says, and of the commandments of us,
the apostles of the Lord and Savior, that's the New Testament, right?
Our faith and hopefully our lives are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets.
Prophets referring to the Old Testament guys
and the apostles in this context, you know, referring to the New Testament guys.
We need to be mindful of both, thinking about both, and applying both.
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days
scoffers walking after their own lusts.
Now what does it mean to scoff at something?
To scoff at something is basically to ridicule it,
to think it's stupid, to laugh at it, to make fun of it.
And so many people today in the last days,
they scoff at the Word of God.
They hear a Bible verse, they'll make fun of it, laugh at it,
anything about Jesus or the Bible, they just kind of think it's a joke,
they blow it off, they think it's stupid.
And the Bible predicted that in the last days,
there would be a lot of people like this,
that would be scoffers walking after their own lusts.
So because they scoff at the Word of God,
and maybe even scoff at the very existence of God,
they're going to do whatever they want to do.
They're not going to try to seek His will,
or figure out what God wants for their life,
it's just they're going to follow their lust.
As an animal, just following whatever cravings or desires that they have in their body,
they're just going to go after their own desires and lusts,
and scoff at the Word of God.
And the way that they will justify this attitude of mocking God's Word,
and just living life however they want to live it,
is that they will ask this question.
It says, and really they're not even asking, they're saying.
You know, because it's just a rhetorical question.
Verse 4, saying,
Where is the promise of His coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
These people are saying, look, where's the second coming of Christ?
It ain't happening, it isn't ever going to happen,
and so they'll scoff at it and mock it.
And of course the Bible is going to address that in a moment,
but before we get to the answer to that question of where is the promise of His coming,
I want to show you some interesting statements here toward the end of verse 4.
It says, For since the fathers fell asleep, meaning died,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
Now this is a very significant statement about how people are going to think in the last days,
they're going to think that all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
You know, one time I heard just a really goofed up sermon,
where a guy read this verse, and then he said,
you know, it says creation there, this is talking about Christians,
because they're the only ones who believe in creation.
It's like, come on, hello, is anybody home?
We're talking about people who scoff at the word of God.
We're talking about people that are non-Christian, they don't believe in Christ,
they don't believe He's coming back.
So why does it use the word creation?
It's not because they're some kind of a creationist,
believing that God created the heaven and the earth,
or believing that the Lord Jesus Christ is the creator.
It's because of the fact that today, even atheistic scientists
and people who think about these things from an atheistic point of view,
they now believe that the universe was created at some point.
Now, you say, what are you talking about?
Well, when you think about mainstream science over the years,
their beliefs change.
You know, as they discover more and learn more,
their beliefs are constantly changing.
In fact, one person said that science advances one funeral at a time,
because it's basically just each theory is born and it lives and it dies
as some new, better knowledge that's, you know,
supposedly bringing us closer to the truth,
whatever that means, since we don't really know what the truth is
when it comes to science all the time.
But anyway, you know, science advances, they learn more,
and they have to discard old theories and come up with a new theory,
and they don't really know for sure any of the things
that they often state as fact, okay?
But here's the thing, you know, means,
and a lot of people might not realize this,
because obviously we've grown up with this idea of,
oh, the people who believe in evolution and that, you know,
that basically God didn't create human beings in his image,
but that they're just evolved from animals
and everything came about without God.
You know, we are familiar with the idea of the Big Bang,
because that's what we grew up hearing about, right?
But what you have to understand is that the Big Bang is actually something new
that only came out in the 20th century,
and it didn't really even become mainstream science
until the middle of the 20th century,
and even a little bit past the midpoint of the 20th century.
So it's really a pretty modern thing,
because, you know, the mainstream view of science before that
was that the universe was eternal, that it just always existed.
So a lot of scientists throughout history,
most scientists throughout history,
just believed that the universe was just always here.
It just always existed.
It's just eternally existing.
Then in the 20th century, you have this idea of the Big Bang that came out,
and now all of a sudden, what are they saying with the Big Bang?
They're basically saying that the universe had an origin,
that it had a starting point, is what they're teaching.
Now, of course, their teaching is 13 and a half billion years ago or whatever,
but they're acknowledging the fact that the universe had a starting point.
This is something that they didn't really like,
but they're studying this and they're looking at the evidence,
and they decided, no, I think that this had a beginning,
it had a starting point, it's the Big Bang,
they got together all their evidence,
and now the mainstream view is that the world, the universe,
everything has an origin or a point of creation,
that there was a point of inception where it all started.
That's what this is referring to when it says,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
They're not referring to God saying,
let there be light and God creating the world in six days,
according to Genesis chapter one.
What they're referring to when it says,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation,
is they're basically saying everything's continuing in the same way
since the Big Bang, since the universe was created out of nothing.
Now if you think about it,
we as Christians believe that God created the universe out of nothing.
Sometimes this is called ex nihilo creation.
We believe that God created the universe from nothing.
He didn't take something existing and just transform it.
He created the universe out of nothing.
The things which are made, the things which are seen,
I'm quoting that wrong, I'm sorry.
Let me go there in Hebrews chapter 11 just so I don't misquote this.
The Bible says in verse three,
through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God,
watch this, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
So God did not make the world from existing materials.
He created it from nothing, created it out of nothing.
Now the scientists come along and now what are they saying?
In the 20th century and onward,
they're saying that the universe was created out of nothing, right?
They're saying it all goes back to the Big Bang,
there was nothing there, it was all just crammed into some infinitesimally small space.
I would say, why not just go a little further and say there's nothing there?
You know, God created the world from nothing, okay.
And so they're pointing to that as the creation, not the biblical creation,
but rather they're pointing to their version of creation,
their creation story that says once upon a time there was nothing
and then nothing exploded and it just inflated at an incredible rate,
even defying all the laws of physics and going past the speed of light and everything.
But then, you know, within a second or so everything calmed down
and followed the normal laws of physics
and ever since then all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
Now, of course, we as Bible-believing Christians,
we do not believe that the universe is 13 and a half billion years old.
You know, we believe that God created the heaven and the earth approximately 6,400 years ago,
somewhere around that neighborhood of 6,400 years ago.
And the thing is, though, that when God created the universe 6,400 years ago,
he created an old universe because everything God created is mature and adult.
You know, when God creates the Garden of Eden, for example,
the Bible says that God planted a garden in Eden.
It doesn't say that he sowed seeds.
He planted a garden in Eden and in the Garden of Eden were fully grown trees from day one.
And when God created humans, he did not create a baby.
He created a fully grown man and a fully grown woman.
So if we would have had a doctor in the Garden of Eden examine Adam and examine Eve
and decide how old they were, what would he say?
Oh, they're about two days old.
No, I mean, he's going to look at them and say, oh, this is a 30-year-old couple or something.
Actually, he'd probably say 40 because I think 40 is when you're really in your prime, amen?
So, you know, he's going to basically say, hey, this is a 40-year-old man.
No, I'm just kidding.
So the point is, you know, God created an adult Adam, an adult Eve, adult trees.
Also, right away, what do we see in the Garden of Eden?
Rivers.
You have rivers and you have all these features that we see on the earth
like mountains and valleys and caves and canyons.
Those things already existed when God created the heaven and the earth.
So you can't look at those things and say, well, these look like they're millions of years old,
you know, therefore the Bible can't be true.
Here's the thing.
Okay, maybe they do look like they're millions of years old.
Maybe Adam looked like he was 30 years old.
Maybe certain trees in the garden looked like they were 50 or 100 years old or 200 years old.
But does that mean that that's how old they were?
No.
So for someone to say, well, the universe looks like it's 13 and a half billion years old
or the earth looks like it's 4 and a half billion years old, you know what?
I'm not even going to argue with that.
I'll just say like, yeah, yeah, the earth does look like it's 4 and a half billion years old
because God created an old earth and an old Adam and an old Eve and an old universe
and an old everything because it's an existing creation.
I mean, it's not like God just created the earth and it's just like totally smooth
and then rivers have to start carving canyons from scratch
and geologic processes have to start slowly, you know, creating mountain ranges.
Isn't it obvious that God created it with mountain ranges already?
He created a finished product.
I mean, if we believe in a literal six-day creation 6400 years ago, which I believe in,
then you know what?
Obviously, we believe that God created it done, finished.
It's very good.
It's ready.
Well, then it's an adult.
It's old.
But is it really old?
No, because he just created it, but he created it as an adult.
And this is often called a parent age.
Things can appear to be old and I have no issue with the earth appearing to be billions
of years old, but I realize that God created it out of nothing 6400 years ago.
Okay.
That's my faith in the word of God because that's what God said he did.
That's how God said it happened.
And so I believe what God has said.
And I don't think that there's anything you're ever going to find out there that's
going to disprove the word of God because the word of God is true.
Right.
And so it's not, you know, well, this rock is really old.
It's like it just looks old.
Things look old.
But not only that, not only have things been created with a parent age, but also the Bible
says in verse five, for this they willingly are ignorant of.
And what does the word for mean?
The first word of verse number five.
Because.
For means because.
So, he says, they think that all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old
and the earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was
being overflowed with water perished.
But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved
unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
So the Bible says that these people are willingly ignorant of the fact that by the word of God
the heavens were of old.
You know that God created the heaven and the earth by speaking it into existence as the
Bible says.
And the earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was
being overflowed with water perished.
What are they ignorant of?
The flood.
They're willfully ignorant of the flood which is a catastrophe that made dramatic changes
to this earth.
That we can't really fully understand exactly what happened in the flood because we're reading
about it in scripture and there are very few details.
But we know that there were extreme processes happening on the earth that lasted for a year.
I mean you know Noah's on the ark for a year.
The waters are prevailing on the earth for many months.
It just the rain alone lasted for 40 days and 40 nights and so you have all kinds of
things happening.
The fountains of the great deep being broken up.
The windows of heaven opened.
The earth being flooded.
All these different things.
Not to mention the fact that if God is supernaturally flooding the earth he could have just supernaturally
done other stuff to change the environment or to change what's there.
How do we know what he did?
We don't really know.
You know you either believe the Bible or you don't.
You know and I'm just looking at this and saying I believe what the word of God says.
And I think that there is even a lot of evidence for a worldwide flood.
The first thing I would point to is the fact that virtually every culture in the world
has a flood story that they tell.
You know if you go back to the most ancient Hindu scriptures it's a flood story.
Everybody dies and one guy survives or one family survives.
This is a motif that you're going to find in all kinds of cultures.
And here's what these willfully ignorant atheistic types will say.
They'll be like oh we found all these other flood legends that just shows the Bible was
just copying them.
It's like did you ever stop and think that if everybody's got a flood legend maybe it's
not that they're copying each other.
Maybe it's that the flood actually happened.
And then what's interesting is you'll constantly see you know geological books and and maybe
documentaries that show all these maps saying oh this is what North America used to look
like.
It's like 90 percent underwater.
And I'm just thinking to myself just add just a little more water and we'll be in agreement.
You know they cover like 90 percent of it in water.
All this major flooding.
It's like why not just flood the whole thing and then we can just believe the Bible and
call it a day.
But here's the thing.
People believe what they want to believe.
The scorners who want to walk after their own lust they will not have this man the Lord
Jesus Christ to rule over them.
They don't want to believe in the creation according to the Bible.
They don't want to believe in the biblical flood.
They don't want to believe that they're accountable to God and that Jesus Christ is the only way
to heaven.
And so they choose to believe a lot and what they believe is frankly absurd.
Believing that the universe came from nothing is absurd.
And believing that every single animal and plant including also humans all evolved from
one common ancestor is absurd.
That non-living material came to life on its own is absurd.
There's no basis for it in science.
There's no evidence that anything ever could come to life on its own.
That any non-living material could ever produce life has never been demonstrated and probably
will never be demonstrated that you could even even with an intelligent designer that
you could even make life from non-living material.
I don't think you can even do it.
I don't even think it's possible.
I think only it's a supernatural divine act that could do it.
Not alone for it to do it on its own without a creator.
It's bizarre.
But then they act like we're the ones that are dumb, don't they?
The fool has said in his heart that there is no God.
That's what the Bible says.
They think we're foolish because we believe that God created the heaven and the earth
when they believe the absurdity that everything came from nothing on its own by itself with
no creator.
And really it doesn't even really explain anything because they have had to change their
tune in the 20th century instead of just saying, well, you know, matter and the laws
of physics are just eternal.
They've had to change their tune in the 20th century and say, nope, it had an origin called
the big bang, it started.
So then the question is, where did it come from?
If it started, if there's a creation point, what sparked that?
And then that's why you have these bozos making statements like Stephen Hawking made where
he said, because the law of such as gravity exists, the universe can and will create itself
from nothing.
So Stephen Hawking says the universe just created itself from nothing.
Well shut my stupid mouth, Stephen Hawking.
You don't, I mean, just what a mic drop.
The universe can and will create itself from nothing because gravity.
Thank you.
Now where, where is this teaching of the big bang coming from?
Where's this idea of the big bang coming from?
What basically, what you have to understand about the universe and about heavenly bodies
like the planets and the stars and everything is that their movements are extremely predictable.
Extremely predictable.
Okay.
So you can literally look at it like a clock and I don't even want to say it's like a clock.
It is the clock.
I mean when God created the sun, moon and stars, he said this is going to be for signs
and for seasons and for months and for days and for years.
I mean the universe isn't like a clock.
The universe is the clock.
Okay.
And so therefore astronomy over the last 400 years has become very advanced and able to
map these things and chart these things.
So that I have a software on my laptop where I can pull up exactly what the sky looks like
without going outside.
It shows me where everything is to just an incredible degree of accuracy where whatever
it's inaccurate by, you couldn't even pick up with your human eye.
It's so precise and I could go outside and that's exactly what it's going to look like.
I can then wind back the clock and see what the sky looked like, you know, when I was
born in 1981.
I could roll back the clock to, you know, December 25th, you know, 001 and witness the
birth of Christ.
No, no, but literally you could scroll back the clock to, you know, 6 BC or something
and see what the sky looked like in Jerusalem in 6 BC and where it all, because these things
are just, they're moving according to very predictable patterns and you say, well how
do you know this stuff is accurate?
Well, you know, you create these models on a computer and then basically you dig up all
the old, you know, Greek documents on astronomy and maybe ancient Chinese documents on astronomy
and they talk about, you know, different things that happened at different times and they
have star catalogs and they drew out the stars and then you compare it and it's like, well,
it's just where they said it would be.
And so you can see that the universe is like a clockwork universe.
So basically here's what they're doing.
They're basically saying, okay, the universe is expanding so if we kind of like reverse
that clock and if we just keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going,
keep going, then pretty soon it all just kind of sucks in to a point of origin and then
they calculate that if we were to back up the clock and get to where everything's together,
you know, then it would be like 13 and a half billion years if we did that, okay.
But here's the thing.
That doesn't mean that that's what happened because what actually happened?
God created existing universe with sun, moon, stars, done, ready formed, okay.
So it did not happen the way that they're saying that it happened because we know God
created it as a finished product, as an old universe 6400 years ago through a divine act
because there, what they would have you to believe is that this all just happened on
its own 13 billion years ago, just that there's no creator, that there's no God and as I said
before that's absurd.
So they want to say that all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation
but we know that that's not the case, that there was a cataclysmic flood that dramatically
altered processes on this earth.
And not only that, there could be other alterations that God made, other things that God changed
that we are unaware of, that we don't understand which means that it is impossible to speak
with certainty about what happened 5,000 years ago or 6,000 years ago or you know 7,000 years
ago or a million years ago or too many because you can't really talk about that with any
certainty because there's no actual proof that your methods work.
Because in order to calibrate any kind of a measuring device, you have to have a known
quantity.
So like when the first thermometers were made, how do you calibrate the thermometer?
I mean if you're the guy making the first thermometer, where do you draw the lines and
what number do you put by the lines?
You got to come up with something, right?
So the guys who are making these early thermometers, they chose known values such as water boiling
or the freezing point of fresh water or the freezing point of salt water, human body temperature
and they use these as points of reference.
Like okay well we know that water seems to boil at the same temperature every time if
it's fresh water so boom let's just mark that and let's call that 100 degrees Celsius, right?
And you know here's where fresh water freezes, let's call that zero.
Let's call the human body temperature 37 you know and here we go.
Or you can speak American and do the Fahrenheit scale and you know hey 212 degrees is the
boiling point of water, zero degrees is the freezing point of salt water and fresh water
freezes at 32, human body temperature 98.6 or whatever.
But if you're making a thermometer, you have some known values and you label it and you're
like okay this is what we know so now let's go test the temperature of other stuff and
see how it compares to the boiling point, the freezing point, whatever.
Does everybody follow?
Okay so what if I just, what if I took that thermometer and just extrapolated and said
hey I'm going to use this thermometer, this home thermometer and I'm going to measure
temperatures of you know negative 200 degrees Celsius with this thermometer that you know
is made for like home use to see if you have a fever.
You think that's going to work?
Or hey you know I'm going to take this home use thermometer and I'm going to measure stuff
that's 500 degrees, I'm going to put it in the oven and set it to 500 degrees and see
how accurate this thing is.
What do you think is going to happen if you put that thermometer in there, it's not going
to work right because it has a certain range that it's designed to operate on.
Now there could be other thermometers that are designed to handle really high temperatures
or really low temperatures but here's the thing, you have to have some basis for these
things.
So you know let's say you have some dating method and you say like okay well we know
that this document is 300 years old because the guy wrote in his diary today is February
17th and whatever the date so we know that that's this old and then we do this test on
it and then boom it tells us it's that old, it's accurate.
Okay but here's the thing what happens is when you go back to the time of Christ and
then you go back a thousand years before that and then you go back 2,000 years before that
you know what you're into what's known as prehistory because there there isn't any written
document that's reliable to go on at that point and so how do you calibrate your dating
methods if you don't know for sure when these things happen.
You're just assuming that the thermometer that works for my body temperature is also
going to work if I stick it in the turkey and put it in the oven for 400 degrees or
whatever you're just assuming it's going to tell you about subzero temperatures and so
forth but there's no way to be a hundred percent sure of these dating methods without a control
that you know is that old.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
You'd have to know like I know for a fact that this thing is 10,000 years old or something
in order to be able to know that that dating method works when you extrapolate it back
like it just like this idea of well if I can extrapolate the stars back to the time of
Christ and it matches what you know contemporary astronomers were saying in Greece and Rome
and China or whatever you know I can extrapolate back five billion years or ten but you know
it might not work that way because all things might not continue the way that they were
from the creation something might have changed at some point and so this is what God is saying
that in the last and I mean this is being predicted thousands of years in advance I
mean this is being predicted before there ever was a Charles Darwin or evolution or
especially at the Big Bang because like I said the Big Bang is pretty new you know some
of you were alive when the Big Bang got popular okay and and the thing is that the Apostle
Peter to almost 2,000 years ago is predicting there's going to come a time when people are
willfully ignorant of the creation they're willfully ignorant of biblical flood and they
are going to say that all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation
in science this is known as uniformitarianism you know that basically the present is the
key to the past and the process that are happening now have always been happening but do we really
know that the processes that are happening right now have always been happening at the
same rate in the same way all along when the Bible talks about a time before the flood
when things were dramatically different you know where where there's a mist coming out
of the earth and it's not raining the way that it rains now and where you have people
living much longer and animals are different and you know they're they're genetic differences
and so forth so you know these people that he's talking about I believe are the people
that we're dealing with right now because when he says all things continue as they were
from the beginning of the creation that's probably not something that a scientist from
the 1900s in the early 1900s would have said or in the 1800s would not have said that but
that's what they would say now because now they all believe in their own creation myth
the big bang they have a creation that they believe in and they will hammer the fact that
all things continue as they were from beginning of the creation that's what they believe and
so therefore this is applicable today the flood actually happened there is evidence
for it out there in the world the fact that all cultures talk about it happening in their
ancient literature the fact that we could look at geological evidence for the flood
or scientific evidence but at the end of the day none of that is why I believe in the flood
I'll tell you why I believe it in the flood because I read it in the Bible okay because
God's word is my final authority because I have faith in what the Bible says and you
know man's ideas come and go and they change but you know what God's word always ends up
being vindicated and God's word always ends up being shown to be the truth and here we
are thousands of years later and virtually all of the science from two thousand years
ago has been debunked virtually all of it you know the popular science back then was
Aristotle science and it's pretty much all considered wrong now virtually a hundred percent
but yet here we are two thousand years later and we believe this book just as much as Peter
and Paul believe this book we believe this book just as much this book is the rock and
a lot of the world's beliefs are like shifting sands that change and they become altered
because they're imperfect they see through a glass darkly we see face to face when we
look into the word of God we see clearly they're looking through a glass darkly out
there so it says that the world that then was being overflowed with water perished it
died it was destroyed but the heavens and the earth which are now verse 7 by the same
word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition
of ungodly men now remember when God flooded the world he promised that he's never going
to flood it with water again but he never said he wasn't going to burn the whole thing
to the ground so you got to pay attention to that promise don't get too excited about
that rainbow bunch of queers because he's not saying he's never going to burn you to
a crisp he just said he's not going to drown you he'll still smoke you and toast you so
keep way go ahead and wave your flag all you want it's not going to change the fact that
you are going to burn in hell someday but he says the heavens of the earth which are
now by the same word the same word that created the heaven and the earth the same word that
brought about the flood they're kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment
and perdition of ungodly men but beloved be not ignorant of this one thing here's the
answer to the scoffers who say where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers
fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation be not
ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand
years as one day so to God this doesn't seem like a long time for two thousand years to
go by and the second coming of Christ has not yet taken place now a lot of people will
try to tell you oh the authors of the New Testament they all thought Christ was coming
back in their lifetime sound like Peter thought Christ was coming back in his lifetime if
Peter thought that Christ was coming back in his lifetime when he wrote this epistle
then why did he say hey thousand years is like a day a day is like that you know what
it sounds like to me it sounds to me like he knows that it's gonna be like a thousand
years out at least think about that I mean he's he's preparing people for the fact this
might be a thousand years away it might be two thousand years away it might be three
thousand years away you know and if you think about it you know God created the heaven and
the earth he put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and when they sinned and God is doling
out the punishments and he speaks to the serpent in Genesis chapter 3 15 he prophesied the
coming of Christ in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 about how the seed of the woman is going
to bruise the serpent's head which is talking about Jesus Christ the seed of a woman made
of a woman made under the law Jesus Christ born of Mary that the seed of the woman's
gonna bruise the serpent's head how long did it take for that to happen I mean stop and
think about that you know we're talking about well over hundreds of years over 4,000 years
so we're talking way more than 4,000 years goes by before that seed of the woman comes
and bruises the serpent's head so you could have said the same thing back then like where's
this promise of the the seed of the woman the son of man that's going to come and and
destroy the power of the devil when's that going to happen you got to wait for it and
somehow you know it takes a long time it took over 4,000 years you know I mean just
from from Abraham Isaac and Jacob to Christ you know it's like 2,000 years going by right
so there are these huge time periods that pass in the Bible between these major events
and what's ironic is that these people who love to talk about millions of years and billions
of years think like hey we've waited too long for the second coming of Christ well to you
guys this is like one second you know to the Lord a thousand years like a day and a day is
like a thousand years but you know if you crack open a science book and they show you the the
history of the universe they claim that like oh I forget don't quote me on this but it's like oh
human beings are created at 11 59 p.m. or something like like if you you know who knows what you know
I'm talking about where they'll they'll show like a day superimposed on the thirteen and a half
billion years and they're like human beings arise at 11 59 p.m. one minute before midnight or
something for the three people who know what I'm talking about but basically it's hypocritical then
to have this attitude of where is the promise of his coming well you know when I read 2 Peter
chapter 3 it sounds like it could be thousands of years after this book is being written so he's
saying hey thousand years the Lord's like a day so for him to go from Abraham Moses Jesus second
coming I mean it he dwells outside of time not only did God create this world from nothing but
God created this universe from outside the universe he dwells outside space and time he's
transcendent he doesn't live inside of or be confined to his own creation because he is he
transcends the creation because he's the creator okay so he's not bound by space and time so for
him a day is like a thousand years thousand years like a day and then here's the key verse
9 the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness it's not that God
is just slack and he's just like okay I guess I'll come back but can I do it later like he
just doesn't feel like it or he's just waiting right it's not that he's slack concerning his
promise as some men count slackness he's long suffering to us word not willing that he should
perish but that all should come to repentance but eventually time is going to be up because the day
of the Lord is going to come as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass away with
great noise and the element shall melt with fervent heat jump down to verse number 15 here's
the key because he talks about you know the day of God and the fire and the brimstone and all that
but we need to make sure that we connect verses 9 and verses 15 because verse 9 says that God is
long suffering to us word that's why time is going by he's long suffering to us word not willing
that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and then it says in verse 15 and
account and in context saying we should account that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation
now what does that mean when it says the long suffering of our Lord is salvation he's long
suffering to us we're not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance he's
waiting to destroy the world because he's waiting and allowing more people to be saved you know I
mean think about it if let's say this all went down today let's say it all starts today and the
tribulation starts and all these cataclysms starts and then you know when the rapture takes place you
know the believers are removed from this world and you know you don't see a mass amount of people
getting saved during the the pouring out of God's wrath now I'm not saying that no one will get
saved I'm sure that some people will get saved because you got the 144,000 or two witnesses
preaching the Word of God you know if the Word of God's being preached people are gonna get sick but
in general what does God say I mean God basically is saying that they're blaspheming God while he's
pouring out his wrath in general man is blaspheming God and they're still worshiping Devils they have
not repented of worshiping the works of their own hands idols of you know wood and stone and silver
and gold and brass and so forth so you know you see that in the end times it's a lot of destruction
it's a lot of carnage a lot of people being destroyed it's not necessarily a time of a lot
of people getting saved now the time leading up to that could be but in the end it's a lot of death
it's a lot of destruction it's a lot of damnation for the people on this world okay and so we know
that in Revelation 7 the great multitude that no man can number that's not people who just got
saved that's every believer throughout history from all time if you actually you know get your
timeline right there that's all saved people from all ages that are there before the Lord because
they're probably not necessarily mass amounts of people getting saved in the end times during that
outpouring of God's wrath because there's no record of that in Scripture and there is a record
of God saying they're still worshiping idols they're not giving glory to the God of heaven
that's you know you have certain instances like when the earthquake in Jerusalem and people glorify
God but then you have other places where say they repented not to give him glory and they worship
idols and they kept doing it and whatever so the point is that God is long suffering to us word
not willing that any should perish but that also come to repentance and that the long suffering of
our Lord is salvation waiting a thousand years waiting 2,000 years waiting 3,000 years is giving
opportunity for more people to be saved because here's the thing you know how many people did
our church get saved this week right I mean what you know we get people saved almost every day as
a church we usually have scores of people getting saved every week maybe 20 people getting saved 30
people getting saved you know even just on a weekly basis constantly baptizing converts people
are constantly getting saved through the preaching on the internet and we're just one little church
in Arizona right and and what about all the other soul winning churches across the world what about
all the other soul winning preachers and people preaching the Word of God all over the world you
know there are multitudes of people being saved every single day as a result of just thousands
and thousands of churches all over the world just reaching thousands and thousands and thousands of
people with the gospel every single day you know there are thousands of people getting saved every
day if you look at all the churches combined you know all over the world and so basically God is
allowing that to happen he's allowing all these people to be saved and people to be saved and
people to be safe and he's allowing the gospel to spread throughout the whole world and so if
you think about it if we are idle if we don't go out and evangelize this world then it becomes a
waste you know God is allowing this thing to go for two thousand years plus because he wants
people to be saved he's allowing the churches to do their job he's allowing Christianity to do its
job and to spread throughout the world and for the gospel to spread throughout the world that's the
whole point of waiting because what if what if Christ had just returned in in 70 AD like the
Preterists think he did you know what I mean like oh it's all over it all happened it's done you
know well that's funny because none of the stuff in Revelation happened or did we just not notice
one third of the water being destroyed and one third of wildlife dying I guess we just didn't
notice all the green grass in the whole world being burned up we didn't notice one third of
the trees being destroyed we didn't notice as it were a great star falling from heaven be cast into
the sea and turning it all into wormwood and people dying and blaspheming God every city
falling and every island being you know consumed in water we just didn't notice that no it hasn't
happened yet it's coming in the future it hasn't happened it's going to happen but what if God
would have just done all that in 70 AD and just just burned it all down in 70 AD and then just
it's all over so it's like you wouldn't even give it's like Christianity didn't even have a chance
to do its thing you see what I mean he's not even allowing Christianity and and the New Testament
and missions to do their thing and you say well yeah but do we really need this much time here's
the thing you know we didn't even really have the printing press to mass produce the word of God
until 500 years ago where it actually started churning out copies of the actual word of God
in mass right because you know that really started in the early 1500s as far as you know printing out
translations of the original Greek and Hebrew in common languages English German Spanish you know
throughout the 1500s and it's just being mass produced like never before missionaries like
never before soul winning like never before you know we might look at it as it's taking too long
but that's because we're looking on a human time scale but to God a day is like a thousand years
a thousand years like a day so you know 1500 years go by before you even really start mass producing
the word of God to where everybody can have one in their house the whole book 66 books in most of
the civilized world anybody in the vast majority of places in this world who wants to can have all
66 books in their language on the coffee table no issue no big deal take it for granted in fact
so these things take time and God is long suffering and allowing history to continue to
progress so that people can be saved the long suffering of our Lord what's it referring to
not coming back right away and destroying the earth and judging the earth in fire and brimstone
the long suffering is salvation it's not that he's slack concerning his promise that some men count
slackness he's long suffering to us we're not willing that and you should perish but all to
come to repentance he's giving people a chance to repent he's giving people a chance to be saved
and he's giving us as Christians a chance to evangelize this world and you know I believe that
in our lifetime we could evangelize this whole planet we could now I'm not saying that just like
our church is going to do that but I think fundamental baptists in general in our lifetime
if fundamental baptists would get excited about soul winning and if revival would spread and if
soul winning would spread and and maybe if we could show other churches and say hey here's what
we're doing here's how we're doing it here's our plan to knock every door in Phoenix and every
door in the entire state of Arizona here's how we're getting it done here's how we've knocked
all the doors of the Indian reservations here's how we're hitting the small towns you know if we
can first of all demonstrate that by example by doing it ourselves and then look at other
churches say go and do that likewise we could evangelize America and then we can send out
foreign missionaries and we could go out and do a lot of our DIY mission strips that we do and we
could evangelize whole countries we could do great works for God and you know what it just really
depends on what we're willing to do because God's hand is not shortened that he can't save the gospel
has unlimited power the Lord is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to
repentance and so God wants us to do this God's given us the tools to do it we just need to get
out there and do it and you know you might even think to yourself that what you do isn't that
important you know maybe you maybe you go to one of these small town soul winning trips that we put
on to places like Heber and Payson and you think to yourself you know why are we doing this why
did we drive three hours to go soul weighing a distant town why are we knocking doors in this
Indian reservation four hours from faithful word I don't even understand what we're doing or maybe
you go there and it's not really that receptive and you only get one or two people saved it's
kind of like man why are we doing this but you know you're a part of something really great
whether you realize it or not you're part of something great because you're part of this vision
of knocking every door in our entire state and preaching the gospel to every creature in our
state and you know what yeah we personally we're not going to reach the whole world with the gospel
ourselves but you know what we can reach our whole state with the gospel and it's possible and we're
doing it look at the progress we've made we're doing it we're getting it done it can be done
and you know what let's say you go on one of these small town soul winning trips
and it's the biggest dud of a trip and you didn't get a lot of salvations it was unreceptive
and maybe you didn't even like the restaurant or whatever but usually the restaurants are pretty
good right we do our homework don't we we we really try to take you to the best restaurants
and and buy you the best ice cream and everything else but you know what if you go on the trip let
me tell you something you're a part of something big part of something great because one day
when we knocked every door you were part of that and and not only did what you do have an impact
in arizona but i believe it's going to have an impact all over america that's right i believe
that even let's say christ doesn't return for another hundred years or something because we
don't know it could be it could be five years from now it could be a hundred years from now we don't
know let's say christ doesn't return for a hundred years imagine a little boy being born
75 years from now 75 years from now right the year 2097 a little boy is born in 2097
and he hears about what faithful word did in arizona back in the early 21st century
about how they knocked every door and he says you know what i'm gonna do the same thing where
i'm at that's a cool idea let's get that done you know we could be influencing him
but even in our generation you know what what about our friends that are in churches in places
like california texas washington state georgia right all illinois just all over the place all
of our friends in all these different places in places like idaho and all over america okay
what if they look at that and say well if faithful word knocked every door in arizona
what's to stop us from knocking every door in washington you know what's to stop us from
knocking every door in oregon you know or or saying well hold on if there's six and a half
million people in arizona i think i think it's more than that now because it's really growing
you know let's if there's seven million people in arizona and one church could do that well then
maybe six churches could knock every door in california you know a church in la a church in
fresno a church in sacramento three other churches six churches get vision it can knock every door in
the most populated state california and so god's long suffering is because he's relying on us to do
something with the time that we have you know it's not like we're just like can we hurry up
the second coming please because i'm getting bored and i want christ to come back now even so come
lord jesus let's do this i'm bored you know look in a sense we all want christ to come back
right away we all feel like even so come lord jesus we would love it if it happened tomorrow
now obviously things would have to start tomorrow because it's a process that takes many years but
the thing is hey if it started tomorrow i'd be like let's do it i'm ready bring it on
but but another part of me another part of me doesn't want it to start tomorrow and i'll tell
you why because i want time to evangelize more people i mean think about it like i want faithful
word to to do what we've set out to do you know now if christ returns that we didn't knock all
the doors in phoenix did we we didn't knock every door in maricopa county did we we didn't knock
every door in the state of arizona did we no we didn't do everything that we want to do you know
and in a way i'd rather that christ would wait 30 years 40 years 50 years so that i can finish my
job here that god called me to do and god put me to do and you can finish your job and we can all
finish our job hey it would be kind of nice to finish am i right that's right what's going to
result in more people being saved christ coming tomorrow or christ coming 50 years from now now
it depends on us doesn't it if we're going to sit on our butts and do nothing he might as well just
come right now because we're just going to waste the next 50 years anyway and it's going to be more
people going to hell be better for some of those people they've just never been born but if we work
our butts off for the next 50 years and we're evangelizing in phoenix we're evangelizing in
the small towns we're doing foreign missions we're inspiring other people to do the same thing
then we're like yes thank you for that extra 50 years thank you for giving us the time to do the
work right but some of you aren't excited about it some of you don't even care but i want you to get
excited i want you to care i want you to realize that there's a reason why we're 2021 years into
this thing every time you write the date i want you to think about it hey we're 2021 years into
this thing and you want to know why it's taking so long because god wants us to have the time to do
the work but if you're not going to do the work you're wasting it what's the point god gave us
time it's a gift now i guarantee you that when i say things like hey i'm ready for jesus to come
back right now young people are like no no no no not yet now why are young people like no no no no
no no no slow down there why do they want it to not happen because you know what they're gonna say
well i want to grow up i want to get married i want to have kids i want to have my career you
know and that's all great great but you know what do you think you could squeeze into your busy
schedule the purpose that god has for your life and for this world in general and realize that
it's not just about you going up and getting married and having a house and kids and a car
and a minivan and the career and the retirement you know you're going to find out one day you
young people you know what you're going to find out one day that all those things don't satisfy
you that's right you know when you're a kid you think like man if i could just grow up on my own
my own house my own car my own wife you know it's gonna be great and it is great
but you know what you're gonna find out is that it doesn't satisfy you it's not enough
it's not enough for me it's not gonna be enough for you either because it's all vanity that's
right okay because because we're here for something bigger and don't get me wrong i love
adulting you know it's better than being a kid so you have something to look forward to you grow up
someday it's gonna be better as an adult i like being an adult i don't want to be a kid again
but let me tell you something you think you're different you think the pastor anderson doesn't
know what he's talking about and he doesn't know you and you you know when you get to that age
you're just gonna be totally satisfied with all the things that this world has to offer
the things that the world has to offer will never satisfy you you will not be satisfied
and you know what you will do if you go out there and try to satisfy yourself with all those things
you know where you're going to find yourself one day you'll find yourself right back here
looking for meaning in your life looking for meaning looking for purpose looking for something
that actually matters looking for spiritual fulfillment but you know what if you're smart
you'll just never leave if you're smart you'll stay with the lord all the way along the journey
and you'll stay with the word of god you'll stay with soul winning and your life will always have
meaning do you really have to go out there and get to a point where your life is totally meaningless
and where you just say i have no meaning i have no purpose you don't have to get to that point
you can just stay here and always have meaning and always have a purpose now are you know it's
easy for us to sit back and say oh man these bunch of atheistic bozos how could they think
life created itself from nothing how can they believe the universe creates itself from nothing
but you know what isn't it amazing how you want to live their exact lifestyle
what do they live for what do they live for themselves what do they live for they get married
they they they they plant they they they sow they live they reap they eat they drink they sleep they
go to work they have their family they raise their kids and you know that's if that's all you want to
do then are you really that different from them you know and that's what animals do you know maybe
not as sophisticated about the way that they do it but you know beavers you know they build a dam
and and they mate and produce little baby beavers and they swim around and eat stuff and have a
little family and they build they build a little beaver dam and they built something and admire it
sit back and admire what they've done but let me tell you something i i want to live a life
more than the life of an animal now these atheistic types they believe that they're an animal
so they're satisfied they're satisfied to just you know focus on their breathing or something
well you know what i'm looking for a little more out of life than that than just focusing on my
breathing i mean you know you know what my watch tells me i have a smart watch and it tells me hey
you need to breathe for 60 seconds and i'm just like dismiss
you know what i i definitely need to read my bible for 60 seconds
i definitely need to pray for 60 seconds i need to meditate on the lord for 60 seconds
but you know i guess that's what everything is to them it's just man just just be in the moment man
just feel the universe just breathe it in man it's so it's so amazing we're part of the cosmos man
i'm breathing in stardust right now man
i'm breathing in material from the big bang right now
this material is like billions of years old i just feel so plugged in man
the whole the universe is flowing through me
listen you big dumb animal that's right in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth
the lord jesus christ is our life that's right i'm telling you young people
make christ your life now amen because someday if you choose and i'm talking to people that are saved
you believe you're saved you're christian but you know what if you just choose to go out and
just kind of live for yourself and not really think about the things of god you don't you don't
understand this right now because you're young but one day your life will lose all meaning
and you will look at your wife and your children and your house and your car and you know what
you'll say vanity of vanities all is vanity that's right so live for christ and so let's
close on this one verse here in second peter chapter three
it says wherefore beloved verse 14 wherefore beloved seeing then that you look for such things
be diligent that you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless an account that the
long suffering of our lord is salvation he's saying look everything's going to be burned up
verse number 11 seeing then that all these things should be dissolved
what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness
saying that everything that you're working for is all just dust it's all going to be gone
be diligent that you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless an account
that the long suffering of our lord is salvation focus on getting people saved have a life with
meaning do something with your life that matters let's provide some word of prayer
father we thank you so much for the time that you've given us lord i thank you for
the 40 years of life that you've given me thus far lord and lord i don't know when you're going
to return but lord i would love to see our church finish the work that you've given us to do and
finish the goals that we've set out to accomplish for your sake that many people might be saved lord
but help us not to squander however many years we have left whether it's
five years 50 years or 500 years lord help us not to squander the time that you've given us
but help us to account or reckon that long suffering of of you waiting and tearing your
return lord help us to account that as salvation and realize that it's so that people won't perish
so that we could call people to salvation through the gospel lord help us to stay busy
during the time that you've given us in jesus name we pray amen
men number 419 your hymnals sound the battle cry hymn number 419
lord
ready
we go
and soldiers
now
he said he passed the world
Since captain of the mighty throng
Amen. Great singing tonight. You are dismissed.
You are dismissed.