to put away some of the distractions, dear God, that may be in their mind.
And in Jesus' name, we pray these things. Amen.
Now, in Psalms 22, of course, this is a very famous, well-known passage.
And part of the reason why it's so famous and well-known
is because of the fact that it prophesies Jesus Christ being on the cross.
It talks about his hands and feet being pierced.
It goes through a lot of the different things there.
But turn to Romans, chapter 4.
I want to just explain to you something about the Bible
and Bible prophecy in general.
Romans, chapter number 4.
And if you would, look down at verse number,
let's see here, the verse I'm looking for
is in verse 17. It says,
As it is written, Romans 4, 17,
I have made thee a father of many nations,
before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead,
and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
You see, the Bible is teaching here, and it gives this quote from the Old Testament
where God said to Abraham, before he even had one child,
he used the past tense,
I have made thee a father of many nations,
even though he was not yet a father.
And the Bible says here that it's because that God
calleth those things which be not as though they were.
A lot of times when you're reading the Old Testament,
something being prophesied will be spoken about in the past or present tense.
Like, for example, in Psalm 22, if you want to flip back there,
Jesus did not yet been crucified, but this is a prophecy
telling us about what it's going to be like when Jesus was crucified,
even though it's spoken in the present and past tense.
That's normal. That's the way God speaks in the Bible.
It says in verse 1,
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not,
and in the night season, and am not silent,
but thou art holy, O thou that inhabits the praise of Israel.
Now this is David crying out to God.
He's begging God to answer his prayers.
He's looking for God to bless him, to protect him from his enemies,
and he feels like God is not listening.
Later on in the chapter, he mentions the fact that God really is listening.
That's just the way he felt at the time.
But this is quoted by Jesus.
Go to Matthew 27, because usually when you're reading the book of Psalms,
or when you're reading these prophetic books,
there's an immediate primary application
where it's David speaking about his current situation,
but then he's also prophesying about things in the future,
about Jesus on the cross and so forth.
So not every single thing in Psalm 22 applies to Jesus.
A lot of it is David in his current situation.
And then parts of it, he's prophesying about things
that are going to happen to Jesus Christ in the future.
Look at Matthew 27, and look what it says in verse number 40.
Actually, 39 will start.
And they either passed by or reviled him, wagging their heads.
So Jesus hanging on the cross, they're walking by,
they're shaking their head at him, they're ripping on him.
And it says in verse 40, and saying, thou that destroyest the temple
and buildest it in three days.
Save thyself if thou be the Son of God.
Come down from the cross.
Likewise, also the chief priests mocking him with the scribes and elders
said, he saved others, himself he cannot save.
If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross
and we will believe him.
He trusted in God.
Let him deliver him now, if he will have him.
For he said, I am the Son of God.
The thieves also which were crucified with him
cast the same in his teeth.
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land
until the ninth hour.
And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying,
Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?
That is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Some of them that stood there when they heard that said,
this man calleth for Elias.
You see, why did they think it was Elias?
Because they did not speak Hebrew, and they
didn't understand that when he said Eli,
Eli is Hebrew for my God.
They thought he was saying Elias like he was calling for Elijah.
They just misunderstood what he said.
But back in Psalm 22, watch how many things,
and you can keep your finger there.
We'll probably be back there.
Watch how many things in Psalm 22
were fulfilled in Matthew 27.
First of all, we have Jesus crying out, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?
You say, why did he cry that out?
Well, see there were three hours of darkness
upon the face of the earth from noon until 3 o'clock,
from the sixth hour to the ninth hour.
And during that time of darkness, basically,
you know, Jesus Christ, the Bible
says he himself bear our sins in his own body on the tree.
So while Jesus was hanging on the cross,
he'd bear in his body the sins of the world.
And we don't understand everything.
We're not as all knowing as God is,
and we can't say that we have everything figured out.
But we do know that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
That's what the Bible teaches, that God
was manifest in the flesh.
We believe that the word was in the beginning with God,
and that the word was God, and that that word became flesh
and dwelt among us.
And we beheld his glory, the glory
is of the only begotten of the Father.
But basically, with Jesus Christ in his humanity,
because although he was 100% God, he was also 100% man.
And so in his humanity, Jesus Christ
was bearing the sins of the whole world.
He who knew no sin became sin for us,
the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
So he became sin.
He took all the sins of the whole world,
although he had never sinned, into his own body.
And when he was on that cross, basically,
God the Father up in heaven in his holiness
basically had to pour out his wrath upon his own son.
He was basically bruised for our iniquities, the Bible says.
He was punished for our sins.
And who do you think was doing the punishing?
I mean, who punishes for sin?
Who punishes us for our sins?
Who punishes the unbelievers in hell for their sins?
It's not the devil.
The devil wants you to sin.
It's God who punishes sin.
And basically, God had to punish Jesus Christ for our sins,
because he took the sins of the world upon him.
And that's why Jesus is calling out and saying that,
because he's basically experiencing God's wrath.
He's basically experiencing the wrath and punishment
of a holy and just God.
The Bible says in Habakkuk chapter one,
he said, thou art of pure eyes, speaking of God,
than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity.
God can't even look at sin.
I mean, God hates sin, he's holy,
and so basically he was pouring out his wrath.
That's what Jesus went through when he died on the cross.
And then, of course, his body was buried in a tomb.
The Bible says he descended into the lower parts
of the earth, into hell, and was in the heart of the earth
in hell for three days and three nights.
And in Jonah chapter two, it was prophesied,
he said, the earth with her bars was about me forever.
So somehow he suffered an eternity of hell
in three days and three nights, and then
rose again from the dead, having conquered death and hell
and paid the price for our sins.
And so it's not just that Jesus Christ went to the cross
and just took a beating.
Now, he did take a serious beating.
39 stripes with a whip, he was scourged,
he was punched in the face, he was hit in the head
with a stick, he had a crown of thorns driven into his head,
which was extreme, and I'm not trying to downplay
the torture that he was put through physically.
Nailed to the cross, pierced in his hands and feet,
crucified was a brutal, torturous way to die,
but he also faced God's wrath.
He didn't just go through a physical punishment.
Other people have gone through physical punishments,
other people have been beaten, and today Roman Catholics
in the Philippines, they try to somehow pay
for their own way into heaven, and what they do
is they basically crucify themselves on a yearly basis.
Who's ever heard of this, who knows what I'm talking about?
There are Roman Catholics in the Philippines
who will literally crawl on their knees
through broken glass, not just a figurative saying,
but they will crawl upon their knees
and they'll carry a cross and they'll beat themselves
and they'll nail themselves to a cross
and they think that they're paying for their own sins.
Let me tell you something, they will pay for their own sins,
but it's not just gonna be a beating,
it's gonna be God's wrath in hell
when they pay for their sins, and wouldn't God,
somebody would tell them they don't have to beat themselves,
they don't have to pay their own way down
because Jesus already paid it all,
and they don't have to go through any of that.
All they have to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and they'll be saved, but they're trying
to earn it themselves.
Well, let me tell you something.
Their crucifixion and their beating
will come short of the glory of God.
It's not gonna be good enough,
it's not gonna get them to heaven.
Only the blood of Christ can save them,
and their beating themselves is not it
because it's not just the beating,
it's everything that Jesus did.
It's the whole process of his death, his blood,
his burial, his resurrection, his atonement,
the burnt offering, basically when his soul was made
an offering for sin, the Bible says,
and that's all part of it.
And so Jesus is the only way to heaven.
But look if you would at Psalm 22.
First we have that statement.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Why art thou so far from helping me
and from the words of my roaring?
Oh my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not, and the night season am not silent.
But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest
the praises of Israel.
That's an interesting statement.
Thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest
the praises of Israel.
So basically God lives inside.
That's what inhabit means.
Basically God dwells within the praises of God's people.
So basically when we're singing the hymns,
okay, that's why the Bible said,
be filled with the spirit,
speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs.
Now here's my question to you tonight.
If God inhabits the praises of Israel,
who inhabits the garbage that you listen to on the radio?
Who inhabits all the bunch of hip hop
and all the Elton John and all this bunch of sodomite,
queer little sissy music that you listen to?
Because if it's not God's spirit,
who inhabits Marilyn Manson?
Who inhabits your CD of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails?
And who inhabits R.E.M.?
Who inhabits all this godless music?
It's not God.
You say music is not spiritual,
but yet God inhabits the praise of Israel.
Now I wonder if the devil has his own music.
I wonder if God is so big on music
and God has the longest book in the Bible
being a song book, the book of Psalms,
the longest book in the Bible.
If God said you're filled with the spirit
when you speak to yourselves in Psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs,
I wonder if the devil,
since he counterfeits everything else God does,
since he has a fake Bible, fake church, a fake minister,
the devil himself is transformed into an angel of light,
his ministers are transformed into ministers of light.
I wonder if he has music that he'd love for you
to listen to, to corrupt you and deceive you,
not to teach and admonish you
so that you would have Christ's word
dwelling in you richly with all wisdom,
but rather to teach and admonish you how to be like him,
how to follow him, the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
I'll guarantee you that the devil is in the music business.
I promise you.
And you say, oh, it doesn't matter.
I don't listen to the words.
It's going into your subliminal subconscious
whether you think you're listening to it or not.
It's getting into your head.
It's programming you.
And let me tell you something,
the music that the world produces will corrupt you.
And you know what, I wouldn't even mess with it.
In fact, I don't.
I don't mess with it.
I don't mess with anything that the world puts out.
You know, and I used to listen to all of it.
Yeah, I used to listen to REM
until I found out the lead singer was a faggot.
Then I was done listening to REM.
But then pretty soon, the more I looked into it,
it seemed like all of the music that I listened to
was godless and wicked.
You know, I used to listen to U2
until I went to a U2 concert
and Bono came out for the encore presentation
after the main set of songs
dressed up like the devil with red horns on
and calling himself Memphisto.
You see, we could go down the list
and maybe I'm not hitting on your genre.
Maybe I'm not hitting on your music.
But let me tell you something.
You know as well as I do
that if it's not of the Father, it's of the world.
It's ungodly.
Be not conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the newing of your mind.
David said he put a new song in my mouth,
even praise to our God.
And most of the music that's on the radio
has nothing to do with praising God.
It's completely anti-God, anti-Jesus.
And you know, the Christian rock genre, the Christian rap,
all it is is just a lame version
trying to copy the world to make money,
producing a Christianized version
so that they can get you to quit listening to this,
you know, hard rock.
They'll give you some lame version of their own hard rock.
And it's not produced by a bunch of soul-winning,
independent, fundamental Baptists.
It's produced by a bunch of charismatic and Pentecostal
and tongue talkers and everything else.
Just look into these groups.
I used to listen to some of the Christian rock.
And then I looked at the groups.
I saw where they go to church.
They were Catholics in many cases.
There are these holy rolling assemblies of God.
There are all these tongue talking, different denominations.
They're using all these phony Bibles
that I looked up where they said how they got saved.
And they just said, well, I just started going to church.
And I just kept going and I really got into it.
You know, but there was nothing about,
hey, I believe God, Jesus Christ.
Nothing about, it's by faith alone,
not of works as any man should boast.
So quit listening to that garbage.
Music is spiritual.
Every religion is based upon music.
Every religion is filled with music.
Show me the religion that doesn't have music.
And you say it's unspiritual, it doesn't matter.
It's just, has nothing to do with anything.
I mean, pretty much every religion in this world
is heavily based upon music, including Christianity.
There's an emphasis of God on music.
And so God inhabits the praise of Israel.
I don't even want to know who inhabits
the music of today's rock and roll
and whatever that you listen to.
But he said in verse four,
thou art holy, O thou that inhabit us,
the praises of Israel.
Our fathers trusted in thee.
They trusted and now didst deliver them.
They cried unto thee and were delivered.
They trusted in thee and were not confounded.
You see, David realized the truth
that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday
and today and forever.
And he's saying, look, if you did it for them in the past,
if you did it for our fathers, you ought to do it for us.
If you never change, he said, I'm the Lord, I change not.
And so if God did it for them, he'll do it for us.
I love what Elisha said when Elijah died,
when he smote Elijah's mantle on the water.
And he said, where is the God of Elijah?
And God parted the river for him.
You see, he didn't just do it for Elijah.
He'll do it for Elisha because it's not a man.
It's the same God.
It's not a certain person, Elijah.
Elisha said, I want a double portion of that spirit
that's upon you.
And he got it.
You see, God doesn't change.
And if God did it for one, he did it for the other.
If Pastor Anderson can go out, sow money,
and win people to Christ and get people saved, so can you.
Just as much as I can.
There's no difference between me and you.
Are you saved?
Then you have the same Holy Spirit living inside of you.
I don't have some special anointing.
The Bible says the same anointing is on you
if you're saved, 1 John chapter 2.
All of us as believers are anointed
with God's Holy Spirit.
And therefore, you can do what I can do.
And I can do what you can do.
Don't make an excuse and say, oh, it's not for me.
Hey, God can use you in the same way as he's using me
or he's using other people in the church
to get people saved.
You're a young man and you think that, you know,
you're gonna start a church someday.
If you desire the office of a bishop,
the Bible says you desire a good work.
Hey, if God gave you these commands in the Bible
to go out and preach and win souls,
and if you're a man that's qualified to do it
according to the qualifications that are listed
in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and Titus chapter 1,
then God can give you the ability to go out
and start a church and preach God's word.
You say, oh, I don't know if it's gonna work.
If God will do it for one, then he'll do it for the other
if you meet the criteria, if you're filled with the Spirit,
if you win souls, if you do the work of an evangelist,
if you do all the things that God told you to do
in order to be a pastor, in order to be a bishop.
But it says in verse number six,
but I am a worm and no man,
a reproach of men and despised of the people.
All they that see me laugh me to scorn.
They shoot out the lip, they shake the head.
Remember how I mentioned in Matthew 27,
they're shaking their head at him,
saying he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him.
Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted him.
Remember when they said that?
But thou art he that took me out of the womb.
Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.
You see, God is telling us here
that Jesus Christ was ridiculed, reviled.
He was also mocked, which means made fun of.
And let me ask you something.
If you're following Jesus,
don't you think that the same thing is gonna happen to you?
He said they hated me, they'll hate you.
You see, don't be ashamed to face persecution
or revilement for preaching God's word,
for being a good Christian.
I'm sure that almost everybody in here
has had somebody make fun of you one time or another,
because you're a Christian.
You know, because you're not worldly.
Because they think it's strange
that you don't run to the same excess of riot that they do.
They think you're weird if you don't drink
or if you don't party with them,
or you're this, you're that,
and you believe in Jesus Christ and they make fun of you.
But really the joke's on them, my friend.
Jesus said in Luke chapter 23,
when he was on his way to the cross,
they were making fun of him and spitting at him
and mocking him, and then some people felt sorry for him
when they saw how he was being treated.
And Jesus looked at them and said, don't weep for me.
He said, weep for your children,
who one day are gonna cry out
for the mountains and rocks to fall on them
when God's wrath is poured out.
You see, don't go through life trying to please man,
because if you do, you're not following Jesus Christ.
Paul said in Galatians chapter one,
if I yet pleased men,
then I should not be the servant of Christ.
And so you have to choose between popularity
and serving God.
People liking you or being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
And if you are a disciple of Jesus Christ,
people are gonna mock you.
People are gonna ridicule you.
You're not even gonna believe this.
Did you know that people have ridiculed me?
I know, it's crazy.
I can't even imagine it either, but it's true though.
People have made fun of me, they've mocked me,
they've ridiculed, they've called me everything.
I can prove to you that literally,
if I go to my email right now, give me any word.
Because I have it all in a folder.
It has like 10,000 messages in it.
Just give me any word you want.
I'll hit search on my Gmail,
it'll be like 60 people have called me that.
I mean, it might not even be a word you wanna say out loud,
but if I type it in here, it'll come up about 60 times.
I'm not kidding.
You know, it's just part of being a Christian.
You know, he said, blessed are ye
when men shall revile you and persecute you
and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad,
for great is your reward in heaven,
for so persecuted may the prophets run before you.
I hope I get some kind of reward
based on how many times I've been called these names,
because if so, it's gonna be huge.
I think it's probably more based on, you know,
the stuff that I do for God, how many people I get saved,
but you know, if there's a special reward
just for being called a dirty name,
I don't know, I don't know.
I mean, I guess I'm gonna be rejoicing pretty big up there.
But anyway, I'm just saying, you know,
don't let it flip you out.
I've seen people, you know, get called a dirty name
or something on soul winning
and then they don't wanna go soul winning anymore.
You know, grow up.
Toughen up.
If Jesus went through it
and you're gonna follow in his footsteps,
just expect it, just be ready for it.
He said in verse, they're mocking him,
and by the way, it's like the prosperity preaching crowd.
Well, if God delights in him, you know,
then he's gonna deliver him.
You know, if God's really blessing you,
then you're not gonna go through anything bad.
It's basically what a lot of these people believe.
It's just like Job.
Job was the greatest Christian in the world,
and yet he lost his whole business.
His wife told him to curse God and die.
His children all died.
He was covered in boils and sores,
and his three Pentecostal friends came over and told him,
oh, you know, it's because you're not right with God.
God's not blessing you.
Name and claim it.
You know, Joel Osteen, your best life now.
You know, so whenever Joel Osteen came to comfort Job,
he told him, you know,
Joe, I can't even do his little queer voice,
but, you know,
Joe,
God wants to bless you, Joe,
but you just gotta give it to him, Joe.
You gotta just let go and let God.
Y'all, they're stupid little,
if you go through the Christian life,
you're gonna be persecuted.
All that live Godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution,
and you're gonna go through sickness.
Paul said he went through famine and thirst and nakedness,
and he was in prison, he was cold,
he was getting thrown in jail.
I mean, literally, half the book of Acts
is about somebody getting thrown in jail.
That's like the whole book.
Have you ever read the book of Acts?
And then the prosperity crowd is telling you,
you know, Joel Osteen's gonna tell you,
God wants to heal your finances.
God wants to heal your body, he's gonna,
you know, and anything that you're doing good
is gonna produce these good results,
and anything that you do bad,
that's when bad things happen.
A lot of times, a lot of bad things happen
when you do something good,
because that's when you get opposition from the devil.
That's when you get persecuted.
And so don't be in the mindset that,
well, if something goes wrong,
that means God's not blessing me.
And I've seen people live their life this way.
They'll set out to do something really good for God,
and then they'll start running into some opposition
or some roadblocks.
Oh, God's not in it.
You know, it's like they're reading what's right and wrong
from external circumstances.
You know, sometimes when I was doing the most for God,
it seemed like things were going the worst.
So I shouldn't sit back and say,
well, let me reevaluate,
because look how bad things are going.
Maybe I shouldn't be doing this.
This should be the only deciding factor of what we do,
just what the Bible says.
And so whether things go good or bad,
I do what the Bible says.
If I want to know if I'm doing right, I don't say,
well, let me see.
My finances have gotten a lot worse lately,
so whatever I'm doing, I think I need to change.
That's not how I base my decision-making.
It should be based on what the Bible says.
Other times when I've been the most backslidden
was when things were going great.
But does that mean I'm just going to continue down that road?
No, because it doesn't matter what happens.
Whatever comes my way, I need to do the right thing
and just do it because God said it,
not because, you know, when I push the button,
the light bulb comes on.
You know, whenever I do this, I get persecuted,
so I'm better quit doing it.
If God said to do it, then do it.
Doesn't matter what happens.
But he said here in verse number,
let's move on through the chapter here though.
It says in verse nine,
"'But thou art he that took me out of the womb.
Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.'"
Now, Brother Dave can probably appreciate this verse
because his wife just had a baby.
You know, God is a part of that process of childbirth.
The Bible says, and turn to Ecclesiastes 11
because it's such an important verse.
Keep your finger in Psalm,
but just a couple pages to the right in your Bible.
You see, today's doctors and science,
they don't believe in God.
And that's why I don't like going to the doctor.
You know, and I'm not against going to the doctor.
You know, the Bible says,
they to behold need not a physician,
but they that are sick.
So if I'm sick, I'll go to the doctor if I need a doctor,
but I don't go just for checkups or just to say hi.
You know, like these people who have insurance
and especially elderly people,
they just like to just kind of stop in with the doctor
every once in a while, just something to do.
You know, just say hi, get all checked out.
Yeah, I try to stay away from the doctor.
And you say, Pastor Anson,
why are you always so against, you know,
a lot of stuff in the medical world and modern medicine?
I'll tell you why,
because it's based upon the philosophy
that says that there is no God.
Are you going to dispute that with me?
Do you actually believe that the medical world,
and you say, well, I know a Christian doctor,
but he's educated by heathens
who believe that there's no God.
All these medical schools, all these universities,
all the state schools,
they believe that there is no God,
and therefore their science is flawed.
And that's why I don't trust what they do.
Now, there are certain things that they do well,
but I'll tell you right now,
a lot of what they do is wrong
because they're coming at it from the whole wrong angle.
A lot of their science is false
because they don't believe that there's a God.
Like my wife was just telling me that when she was a child,
you know, they took out her tonsils,
and then they took out this other thing.
I can't remember what it was called,
but she named this other part
that goes back in her throat or nasal passage or somewhere.
Start with a P, I don't remember what it was.
But they just say, oh, we'll just remove this too
because you don't need it.
You know, but then now there's more research
showing what that part that they took out does
and how it's actually necessary.
And they used to say that there were 105 parts of your body
that were just kind of leftovers from evolution
that you don't need.
Now there's about five things that they say that about.
And let me tell you something,
I'm sure you need those five for something.
You know, they just haven't figured it out yet.
I mean, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
We went to this crater up in Northern Arizona,
the big meteor crater,
and went to this meteor crater,
and it said that this crater
was from when a meteor hit about a thousand years ago.
But then they said all these other craters
all over the world were like from millions of years ago
and 10, you know, 20,000, 30,000.
And we asked, we said, well, okay,
well, this goes from a thousand,
but then all these other ones are from millions.
Say, how do you know?
And this is what they said, well, we used to think.
They said, we used to think this one was from,
you know, millions of years ago.
And we're like, well, how did you figure out
that it's only a thousand years ago?
Well, you know, we start digging down
and we found all kinds of people, bones and stuff.
So then we just kind of decided,
oh, well, this has to be only like a thousand years old.
And so here's what I said,
well, do you think maybe you're wrong
about all these other ones too?
Maybe you guys need to just dig a little more.
You know what I mean?
They just assume that it's millions of years old
and then they dig down and find all these people
and all the, oh, whoops, strike that, make it a thousand.
Oh, what happened to all your dating methods?
I mean, that's, come on, that's a pretty big mistake
when it's a giant crater
that's three quarter of a mile across,
it's 0.7 miles across.
And they don't know anything about it.
And it blew all kinds of debris all over,
like for tens of miles in every direction.
I mean, it was a massive meteor hit the earth
and made a crater three quarter of a mile across.
Who's ever been to that crater up there?
And they just, it's, you know,
this many million years old.
And then all the, oh, whoops, there's it,
we found an Indian, you know, okay, you know.
Make that a thousand, you know,
give or take a few billion or whatever, you know.
I don't know what they're talking about.
And so, where did I get off on that?
Oh yeah, look at Ecclesiastes chapter 11.
See, this is what we need to tell science.
This is what we need to tell the doctor.
In verse five, it says,
"'As thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit,
"'nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her
"'that is with child,
"'even so thou knowest not the works of God
"'who maketh all.'"
You see, so many people today want to say,
well, you know, this is where life begins
at this point in the pregnancy,
at this point in the pregnancy.
When the Bible teaches, of course,
that life begins at conception,
you know, and I've preached on that,
there's so many scriptures that mention,
just look up the word conceive,
conceive seed.
And you can see that it's clear,
and I've preached all sermons on that,
I'm not gonna go into it for sake of time.
But life begins at conception,
and so many people today are going when they're pregnant
and getting all these scans and all these tests done.
I've heard of so many people where the doctor told them,
you know, your baby's defective,
or it's got this problem or that problem,
it's gonna die anyway just aborted,
or it's gonna be handicapped, aborted.
It's gonna die as soon as it's born,
just have an abortion,
or maybe they'll give it another euphemism
that they'll call it instead of an abortion.
But then I've known so many people
who didn't listen to the doctor
and then gave birth to a perfectly normal, healthy baby,
oh, whoops, we were wrong.
And so you don't know what God is doing.
You don't know how the bones do grow
in the womb of her that is with child.
God has a part of that process,
and yet today people want to tamper with nature so much.
Instead of just letting nature take its course,
they want to just tamper with it.
They can't have children, quote, unquote,
so then they want to go down to some fertility clinic
and do all kinds of sick things
and IVF, in vitro fertilization,
and all this eugenics
and all this kind of garbage that they do.
And it's just, it's wicked,
and it's going further and further in that direction
where people say, I want to have a boy.
So they'll fertilize a bunch of them in a laboratory
and kill all the girls and keep the boys
and inject them, inject five, see how many catch on?
Most of the time when you hear about people
having quintuplets and sextuplets, it's not just a fluke.
It's because they're doing all this crazy stuff,
and I'm sure there are some normal ones
that are maybe like one in a billion, literally.
That's, those are the chances.
But yet you hear about it all the time
because people are going in and doing all these processes
where they're playing God.
Instead of praying to God
and begging God to give them the blessing of children,
they go to some scientific clinic
and they murder human life in order to have a baby.
You know, because they fertilize like 30 eggs
and then just whichever ones live or whatever,
because they're not designed to be made in that way.
God is the one that brings people out of the womb.
God is involved.
God causes you to become pregnant.
God will cause that baby to grow in your womb,
and God will bring the child out of the womb.
Again, so many scriptures on this.
Isaiah 66 comes to mind.
All these different scriptures in my mind right now
about this subject, but we'll move on for sake of time.
God is the one that took him out of the womb,
remember verse nine.
Thou didst make me hope
when I was upon my mother's breasts.
I was cast upon thee from the womb.
Thou art my God from my mother's belly,
and you're gonna tell me that it's not alive?
He said that God was his God
while he was in his mother's belly,
and yet even Christians today will try to say,
so-called Christians that is,
false teachers will try to say
that it's not alive until it breathes air
because it's the breath of life.
No, that's how Adam was made out of a pile of dirt, okay?
That happened once.
The baby in the womb is not dirt.
It's a living human being inside the womb.
It's already alive.
And let me tell you something.
There are lots of things that don't breathe
that are still alive.
Yes, there are.
There are animals that do not breathe.
There are plants that do not breathe,
and yet they're alive.
And so that's a silly definition of life.
No one can define life.
Life comes from God.
If you look up the dictionary definition of life,
it makes no sense.
Anything that moves and reproduce,
there are things that are alive that don't move.
There are things that are alive and don't reproduce.
And so that's not a good definition.
But anyway, the Bible says here in verse number 11,
be not far from me for trouble is near
for there is none to help.
Many bowls have compassed me.
Strong bowls of bashen have beset me round.
They gaped upon me with their mouths
as a ravening and a roaring lion.
I am poured out like water
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax.
It is melted in the midst of my bowels.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd
and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws.
And thou has brought me into the dust of death
for dogs have compassed me.
The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me.
Watch this.
They pierced my hands and my feet.
I may tell all my bones.
The word tell there means count,
like a teller at the bank.
I may tell all my bones.
They look and stare upon me.
He's saying he could count his bones.
Basically, he could see his bones
because he'd been beaten so many times
by his midsection, the bones of his ribs,
he could see his bones
because he'd been beaten so badly.
The Bible says his visage was so marred,
visage means faith, more than any man.
Didn't even look like a man
after they'd beaten him so badly.
He said, I may tell all my bones.
They look and stare upon me.
They part my garments among them
and cast lots upon my vesture.
Of course, that's mentioned in the book of John.
But be not thou far from me, O Lord.
O my strength, hasty to help me.
Deliver my soul from the sword,
my darling from the power of the dog.
And on and on, he lists more
and David talks about a lot of things.
But basically, we see here,
Jesus Christ on the cross,
beaten, bloody, marred,
more than any man, the Bible says.
And yet today we have these paintings
of a long haired, queer little sissy
with just a little trickle of blood coming down his face.
This is why we shouldn't even try to make an image of it.
And they try to make an image
and they have him crucified nude, which is unbiblical.
The Bible makes it clear that they stripped him of his robe,
beat him, put his clothing back upon him
and then put him on the cross.
But there are a lot of painters
who just like to paint a naked man because they're sick.
And that's what it comes down to.
And so you got some naked guy on the cross,
he's on there, he's got just a little trickle of blood.
Jesus was beaten badly.
He was spat upon in the face.
He was beaten with a whip.
And you have to stop and think about all the physical pain
and he could have stopped at any time.
Because when they said to him,
come down from the cross, save thyself and us.
Look at Luke 23, if you would flip over to Luke 23.
He said that he could call scores of thousands of angels
to come and set him free at any moment.
But he basically was obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross in order to pay for our sins.
I mean, imagine, would you have the willpower?
Of course not, to go through what he went through.
See, Jesus was beaten, he was spat upon,
he was mocked and made fun of.
Have you ever had someone spit in your face?
I've had several people spit in my face in my lifetime.
And there's something about it
that just makes your blood boil.
There's something about it that just,
it insults you, it just enrages you
to have somebody spit in your face,
to punch you in the face, to slap you,
to beat you in the head,
to do all the things that they did.
But look at Luke 23, let's see some of this here.
In Luke 23, it says in verse number 26,
it says, as they led him away,
they laid hold upon one Simon,
a Cyrenian coming out of the country,
and on him they laid the cross,
that he might bear it after Jesus.
This is because as Jesus was carrying the cross,
basically he ran out of physical strength.
I mean, they had to have another guy
come and pick up the cross and carry it for him.
It says in verse number 33,
and when they were come to the place,
which is called Calvary,
there they crucified him and the malefactors,
one on the right hand and the other on the left,
then said Jesus, Father, forgive him,
for they know not what they do.
That's a pretty amazing statement to make
in that kind of a situation.
And they parted his raiment and cast lots,
and the people stood beholding.
And the rulers also with them derided him,
saying, he saved others, let him save himself,
if he be Christ the chosen of God.
And the soldiers also mocked him,
coming to him and offering him vinegar.
Basically, he asked for something to drink.
He said, I thirst.
And what do you think he wanted to drink?
You know, water.
And they basically bring him vinegar,
and he tasted it and didn't want it.
Yeah, that's not what you want when you thirst.
When was the last time you went out
and did some kind of a sporting activity
and then just big glass of vinegar to refresh?
You know, it's disgusting.
I hate vinegar, by the way.
You know, I'm not a picky eater at all.
I like almost everything, but one thing I hate is vinegar.
I remember when I was a kid,
we used to eat at Long John Silver's,
and no one in my family liked the vinegar
except my sister Lisa.
And she would dump that malt vinegar sauce,
and we literally made her sit at another table.
And our whole family would be sitting at one table,
and she would be sitting at another table.
She's probably still mad about it to this day.
But we would make her sit at another table.
So that's what they, they're making fun of him.
I mean, he's thirsty, he's in horrible pain,
and they offer him vinegar to drink.
And saying, if thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself.
It says, and a superscription was also written over him
in the letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew,
this is the king of the Jews.
That's what Pilate put on the side and put above his head.
The Jews got angry.
The high priest said, don't put that he's the king
of the Jews, put that he said he was the king of the Jews.
And of course, Pilate said the famous statement,
what I've written, I've written.
And he left it as it was.
Verse 39 says, and one of the malefactors,
which were hanged, railed on him saying,
if thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
Now, now wait a minute.
Before this, the Bible said that both of the thieves
that were crucified with him,
cast the same in his teeth and reviled him.
So basically they both reviled him,
but one of them has a change of heart.
And look what he says in verse number 40.
But the other answering rebuked him saying,
dost not thou fear God seeing that we,
seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
And watch what he says in verse 41.
And we indeed justly, he's saying,
look, we deserve to be up here.
You know, we've committed sins.
We've committed crimes worthy of death.
That's why we're here.
But he says, but this man had done nothing amiss.
So basically he's acknowledging Jesus Christ
that he was sinless, that he'd done nothing wrong.
And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me
when thou comest into thy kingdom.
And Jesus said unto him,
verily I say unto thee,
today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
And by the way, that's all that it takes
for you to get saved too.
God doesn't have some special plan of salvation
for different people.
This guy just admitted, hey, look, I'm a sinner.
I deserve to be here.
And he looked at Jesus.
He didn't even pray a fancy prayer
because what he said didn't really even make much sense.
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
I mean, if Jesus were to take that literally,
then okay, you know, he could die and go to hell.
And you know, when I get into my kingdom
and the millennial reign of Christ
a couple thousand years from now, I'll remember you.
You see, a lot of people are concerned.
They think salvation is about what you prayed.
You know, how you were, you know,
I don't know if I prayed this right.
It's whether you believe.
The Bible says that whosoever believeth in him
shall not perish but have eternal life.
You know, so many people said so many different things.
Here he said, Lord, remember me
when thou comest into thy kingdom.
Remember the publican who went to the temple and prayed
and he said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
And the Bible says that he was saved as a result.
You think of the Ethiopian eunuch who just said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.
It's not the words that you say,
it's the faith that you have in your heart.
You know, you confess with your mouth and whatever words,
but the important thing is what's in your heart.
All he did was just admit he was, did he get baptized?
Did he turn away from his sinful life?
I'm never gonna do that again.
He's on the cross.
He's gonna be dead soon.
Did he join a church?
Did he fill out a card?
Did he get baptized?
No, all he did was just believe in his heart
and just say it, say that.
He just said to Jesus, Lord, remember me
when thou comest into thy kingdom.
And Jesus said unto him, today, verily I say unto thee,
today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
And it was about the sixth hour.
And there was darkness over all the earth
until the ninth hour.
And the sun was darkened and the veil of the temple
was rent in the midst.
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice,
he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
That's also a quote from the book of Psalms.
And having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Look at verse 47.
Now when the centurion saw what was done,
he glorified God saying, certainly, this
was a righteous man.
And of course, thanks be to God that he was buried.
And then three days later, he physically, bodily
rose from the dead and walked out of that grave.
Let's go back to Psalm 22 and finish up with it here.
So there are so many things that were prophesied
in Psalm 22 about Jesus.
And really, a lot of the other Psalms,
too, are references to Jesus Christ.
In fact, did you know that Psalms
is the number one most quoted book in the New Testament?
More than any other book of the Old Testament,
the New Testament quotes Psalms.
And yet today, people will say that Psalms is not God's word.
You try to show them scriptures out of the book of Psalms.
And they'll say, well, that was David talking.
And David committed adultery.
David committed murder.
No, the Bible says, well spake the Holy Ghost
by the mouth of David the prophet, saying.
See, it wasn't David talking.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God.
No prophecy of the scriptures of any private interpretation.
The Bible says that holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Now, keep your finger in Psalm 22,
flip over to Zechariah 11
toward the end of the Old Testament.
So while you're flipping over there,
let's think about some of the things we saw.
The statement, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
People going by, wagging their head,
reviling him, making fun of him,
casting lots over his vesture,
gambling over who would get his coat,
because he had a coat that they divided his other clothing
into four pieces, four different piles of clothes.
That was his possessions.
It wasn't a very complicated will to execute,
because he had no house, he had no money, he had nothing.
He just had a few chains of clothes.
They basically took his clothing,
divided it up amongst four of them.
The coat was the nicest thing that he had,
was the coat that he wore.
And they didn't want to tear it,
because it was all made of one piece of fabric.
It didn't really have a good place to divide it.
And so they basically cast lots to see who would get it.
That was talked about in Psalm 22,
the piercing of his hands and feet,
giving him vinegar to drink.
All these different things are listed.
Now, look at what it's Zechariah 11.
Here's another statement that's similar,
because it talked about in Psalm 22
about his hands and his feet being pierced.
Where's the verse that I was just looking for?
I just saw it, now I've lost my place.
Somebody have it?
1210.
1210, I'm sorry.
Is that it?
That's not the one I was looking for.
That's a good one, though.
They'll look upon him and they've pierced.
I was looking for the one where it talks about
the wounds in his hands and his feet.
I was just looking at it on the page,
and now I've lost my place.
Whoever finds it, I will acknowledge
your supreme Bible knowledge.
Does anybody know where it is?
Good night.
It's gotta be in chapter 11.
I just saw it.
Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.
The wounds that he received in the house of his friends
smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.
Come on.
Well, no one's going anywhere until we find this,
so the sooner we get out of here,
the sooner you find it.
If we have to read the whole book of Zechariah
and read it out loud, we'll do it.
What is it?
It's better not be another false alarm.
There we go.
Yeah, there we go.
All right, brother Dave Carl's.
Let's hear it for brother Dave.
All right, so verse number six, it says,
and one shall say unto him,
what are these wounds in thine hands?
Then he shall answer, those with which I was wounded
in the house of my friends,
awake, O sword, against my shepherd, speaking of Jesus,
and against the man that is my fellow,
sayeth the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd
and the sheep shall be scattered,
and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.
Now, the reason I bring this up
is because I've heard so many people say,
and I get so tired of everybody's got their cute
little new doctrine, and the Bible says this,
be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines,
for it is a good thing that the harpy established grace,
not with meats which have not profited them
that have been occupied therein.
Divers and strange doctrines is referring
to like a trendy thing or some new thing
that people come up with, and we don't want to be carried
about with every wind of doctrine, the Bible says,
and everybody's always trying to change what the Bible says,
and usually they're going to some other language to do it.
You know, oh, in the Hebrew, it's totally different,
in the Greek, and how many of you have heard this?
Jesus' hands were not pierced.
They tried to say that it was actually a nail
was put through his wrist.
You know, who's heard this?
You know, look, no.
Are you mean to tell me that in all these different places,
Psalms, Zechariah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
I mean, it's so clear that they pierced
his hands and his feet.
I'm not going to sit there and listen to some scholar,
some TV documentary, tell me, actually,
it was actually, he was stabbed in the wrist.
Does it say wrist?
No, it says hands.
It says they pierced his hands and his feet.
Now, who believes that they pierced his, I do.
Now, let's look at this.
I've got here this other phony Bible,
and you know, by the way, this church is King James only,
okay, without apology.
And not a week goes by that I don't pull out
one of these phony Bibles, is this true or not?
Pretty much every single week in one of the three services,
I pull out one of these phony Bibles,
and I show you that they're garbage.
And I don't want anybody to ever leave this church
and knowingly go to one of these,
or I mean, go to one of these churches
that preaches to have another Bible
just because they didn't know any better.
Anybody who goes to faith-forward Baptist church
will know better because I've shown so many things.
This is the living Bible by Kenneth Taylor.
I have crossed out on the front of mine the dead Bible.
Because of the fact that I'm just afraid
that somebody's going to find these and say,
oh, Pastor Anderson, you know,
when he wants a little more interpretation
goes to the living Bible.
So I have all of mine say like unholy Bible
on the NIV and all these different things
that I have in my pulpit here.
But listen to this, you look down at your Bible there,
the King James Bible,
and if you don't have a King James Bible,
then you haven't been coming here very long.
Look at verse six,
and I'm going to read you out of the living Bible.
And if someone asks,
then what are these scars on your chest and your back?
Now that's a little different, isn't it?
Now, first of all, the Bible doesn't say scars.
The Bible says wounds, okay?
Because when somebody puts a nail through your hand
or a nail through your foot,
that's going to be a wound, not a scar.
The scar is way later, okay?
A wound.
Now, by the way,
I don't know who would have been asking Jesus about scarring
because I mean, he has set it up to heaven 40 days later.
I don't know if he really had the time
to develop that kind of scarring.
I mean, he had wounds.
Now, I don't know what this was like,
but you know what?
I do know that I have had a nail go through my foot before
and go in the bottom and come out the top.
And I don't know if it was the same size nail.
I don't know what size nail.
I don't believe in TV documentaries
and Zondervan Bible Dictionaries,
but I will say this.
You know, I had a nail,
and they tried to say,
it couldn't have been pierced with a nail in the hand
because it would have just tore right.
Yeah, right.
Couldn't have pierced it right here.
You got a few inches to go.
I don't think it's just going to tear right off.
I don't think Jesus weighed that much,
especially if his feet are also pierced with nails.
But I had a nail one time.
I stepped on a nail,
and it went up through the top of my foot,
and it came out,
and I literally had to,
it was a board with a nail in it.
I stepped on it,
and I had to yank the board off my foot.
And it went through the shoe
all the way up out the top of my foot.
And I noticed that it went out the top
because there was a wound in the top
as well as the bottom.
And I couldn't walk for days.
I mean, it was bad.
But you see here,
it's not Jesus getting a wound in the foot.
It's scars on his chest and back, okay?
And then listen to what he says.
He will say, and remember, this is about Jesus.
I got into a brawl at the home of a friend.
I mean, is this unbelievable?
Yeah, we were bad.
We got to drinking.
We got in a brawl over at the home of a friend.
I mean, this is blasphemous.
First of all, you destroyed the whole prophetic meaning.
And he still says right after in the dead Bible,
you know, smite the shepherd,
the sheep will be scattered,
which is quoted in the New Testament about Jesus.
Jesus says it in the Garden of Gethsemane
when they take him, as it is written.
If you smite the shepherd, the sheep will be scattered.
And that's when they were all scattered from him.
Here it says, you know,
strike down the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.
That's a lot easier to understand.
But these Bibles are garbage.
You know, you say, well, yeah,
it's just a little easier to understand.
There's nothing easier to understand about them.
They just say something different, that's all.
It's just a totally different message.
And so I believe that Jesus' hands and feet were pierced
because it says that in Psalms, Zechariah,
and in the New Testament.
And so I don't need a science lesson on nails
going through a hand.
We don't know how big the nails were.
Who knows?
I don't think it would have to be a railroad spike,
you know, to hold someone up.
But then again, I don't know.
Because, you know, I just believe the Bible.
Call me crazy.
But the Bible says hands, and that's where I believe.
Anyway, let's keep reading here.
It says in verse number, let's pick up where we left off.
Verse 20, deliver my soul from the sword,
my darling, from the power of the dog.
Save me from the lion's mouth,
for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
I will declare thy name unto my brethren.
In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
And I hope that that's something that you can say,
that you praise God in the midst of the congregation.
In the New Testament, this is quoted as,
in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
And so you ought to come to church
and sing out and praise God,
just like David said here,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren
in the midst of the congregation,
which is what a church is, by the way, not a building.
It's a congregation of people.
In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
Ye that fear the Lord, praise him.
All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him and fear him,
all ye seed of Israel.
For he hath not despised nor abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
neither hath he hid his face from him.
But when he cried unto him, he heard him.
So there's where he's saying here
that when David called out to him,
he had not forsaken him.
He really did hear his cry.
He really did hear his prayer.
He felt like he'd been forsaken, but he did hear David.
But you know, when Jesus Christ said it,
he really had been forsaken.
That was a different situation.
And David at the time felt forsaken,
but he was really just prophesying Jesus Christ,
who really was forsaken.
Cause obviously Jesus knew what he was talking about
when he said, my God, my God, why is thou forsaken me?
He said, my praise, verse 25,
shall be of thee in the great congregation.
I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
The meek shall eat and be satisfied.
They shall praise the Lord that seek him.
Look at this last phrase.
Your heart shall live forever.
There's your eternal life right there.
And he says in verse 27,
all the ends of the world shall remember
and turn unto the Lord.
And all the kindreds of the nations
shall worship before thee,
for the kingdom is the Lord's
and he is the governor among the nations.
This is referring to the millennial reign of Christ,
the future when all nations will come worship before him.
All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship.
All they that go down to the dust, watch this,
shall bow before him and none can keep alive his own soul.
You see, everyone who goes down to the dust,
everyone who's saved, everyone who's unsaved,
will one day bow down before God.
The Bible says that every knee should bow
of things in heaven and things in earth
and things under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
You say, man, I know some atheists, they won't do it.
You know what I mean?
Because the Bible says that every knee will bow.
I don't know, I know some pretty proud people,
some atheists, I don't think they'll,
you know what, after they've been burning in hell
for a thousand years,
because that great white throne of judgment
is after the millennium.
After they've been burning in hell for a thousand years,
you better know they're gonna get on their knees
and be begging for mercy from God.
And unfortunately, they're not gonna get any,
it's gonna be too late.
But let me tell you something, every knee will bow.
And maybe it'll take five minutes for probably most,
maybe it'll take 500 minutes, maybe it'll take 500 years.
But after a thousand years of torment in hell,
every knee will bow before God.
See, God will not allow his name to be blasphemed
and cursed, and people mock him now
but one day every creature in the universe
will acknowledge God and acknowledge Jesus Christ
and give him glory.
Every creature, everything, everything that has breath,
in heaven, on the earth, and under the earth,
the Bible says one day we'll praise God,
we'll acknowledge God, we'll get on their knees before God
and bow down before him.
But unfortunately, the books will be opened
and those that are not found in the book of life
will be cast into the lake of fire
and their torment will ascend up forever and ever.
And they'll have no rest day or night
and they'll go away to everlasting punishment
but the righteous send to life eternal.
Bible says that all they that go down to the dust
shall bow before him and none can keep alive his own soul.
You see, God is the one who sustains life.
There are people today who literally believe
that they will live forever.
There are, there are people, there are people today
who they spend, they're multimillionaires, billionaires
who spend all kinds of money trying to make technologies
that they can keep them alive and they, you know,
they'll, they want to abort babies and take the stem cells
and try to somehow, you know, keep their body young
and somehow do I think Walt Disney, you know,
had his head taken off his body and frozen
because he thinks that one day they're, you know,
they're going to bring him back or something
because he's into this new age religion.
People think that they can somehow keep alive
their own soul but they can't.
God is the one who creates life.
That's the one thing the evolutionist can't explain.
Where did life come from?
He has no answer.
You see, no one can keep alive his own soul.
God is the one keeping you alive.
Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar,
God in whose hand thy breath is.
Basically your breath is in God's hand.
God decides whether you take the next breath.
God decide whether your heart beats one more time.
And so we better acknowledge God for who he is
and fear God.
It says none can keep alive his own soul.
A seed shall serve him.
It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
They shall come and shall declare his righteousness
unto a people that shall be born that he hath done this.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the gift
that you gave us, dear God, eternal life
when you died on the cross and shed your blood.
Father, we thank you for enduring such contradiction
of sinners against yourself,
for allowing yourself to be mocked and spat upon
and ridiculed, for allowing yourself to be beaten
and shamefully hung upon the cross.
God, we thank you that you went down into hell
and conquered hell and death
and experienced all the punishment
that we deserve for our sins,
and then three days later, bodily,
physically rose again from the dead.
God, we believe what your word has said.
We believe that you have given us salvation,
a free gift, the gift of God, eternal life,
and we're thankful for it, dear God.
Help us to go through life praising you,
thanking you, fearing you.
Help us not to just want to live a comfortable
Christian life, but to realize that if you suffer for us,
we ought to be willing to suffer for you
and go through affliction and endure hardness
as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, the Bible says.
We love you and thank you for allowing us
to go to this church and to hear your word, dear God,
and to have a copy of it that we can read at our own home.
And we love you, and in Jesus' name, we thank you, amen.
All right, let's go ahead and sing a song before we go.