Now Psalm 34 is one of my favorite Psalms actually, different times when I've been down
or when I was going through a difficult time.
This is a very encouraging Psalm and I've turned here many times just to get encouragement
from this Psalm.
Let's start on verse number 1, it says, I will bless the Lord at all times.
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.
The humble shall hear thereof and be glad.
The Bible right there is telling us we should be praising God all the time, blessing the
Lord at all times.
The Bible says in everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you.
There are times when things are going bad, we should still be blessing the Lord and praising
God because really, even on our worst day, we don't really have anything to complain
about because of the fact that we deserve to go to hell and we're saved, we're on our
way to heaven, we have eternal life.
All our sins have been washed away and blotted out and so we have a lot to be thankful for
no matter what, no matter how bad life is, this life is just a vapor that appears for
a little time and it vanishes away and we have an eternal inheritance waiting for us
in heaven and so we should always be praising God, bless the Lord, not get a bad attitude
toward God because we go through hard times in our life.
Go down just a little bit in the chapter, it says in verse number 19, many are the afflictions
of the righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of them all.
Many preach a prosperity gospel and they say that if you do the right thing, if you obey
God and if you serve the Lord, you will not go through any problems in your life and you'll
be healthy and this is the type of message that Joel Osteen preaches, basically your
best life now and it's all about how if you do the right things and if you follow God's
rules, you'll be rich like me and your teeth will be perfect like me and you'll be happy
all the time.
The Bible says that Jesus himself was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
He wasn't just walking around smiling nonstop.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous.
The Bible says ye and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
I mean all throughout the Bible, God's people suffered but they rejoiced with joy unspeakable
and full of glory because even though they suffered, even though they went through affliction,
they knew that God was going to deliver them, they knew they were saved, they knew they
were on the winning team, they knew they were doing the right thing and so therefore we
should be blessing and praising God at all times.
There will be bad times.
If you don't go through any bad times in your life, you're just not righteous because the
Bible says many are the afflictions of the righteous and so the middle of the road, watered
down, namby-pamby Christian, he might go through life without very many afflictions.
He just kind of cruises through life comfortably.
But those who are righteous are going to go through trials and tribulations.
They always have and they always will.
Look at the Old Testament.
Take my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of
suffering affliction and of patience.
Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is
very pitiful and of tender mercy.
That's James chapter 5 that I was quoting.
Basically it says look, look at the prophets.
Look at Job, the greatest man that there was, the most righteous man.
He suffered.
The Bible says in Philippians chapter 1, for unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ
not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake, Philippians 1.29.
That's part of being a Christian.
You signed on for suffering when you signed on to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Now you might be saved but not following Christ, not a disciple of Christ, but if you're going
to follow him, you better not pick up the plow and look backward because the Bible
says that you're going to go through hardship.
He said you better count the cost.
He told people that said they were going to follow him.
He said oh man we're going to follow you everywhere you go.
Jesus, why be your disciple?
He said you should count the cost of that because he said there's a man who goes to
build a tower and he doesn't count the cost and he can't finish it.
And people look at him and say this man was not able to finish what he started.
He said a king might go to warfare but he first must calculate how many troops he has,
how many troops he's going against so he doesn't get there and realize that he cannot win.
And he says so must you count the cost if you're going to be my disciple and decide
whether you're willing to pay the price to serve God.
Whether you're willing to pay the cost of serving God because there is a cost.
It only costs you something to serve God.
I think I even preached a whole sermon a few months ago called The Cost of Serving God
and I went through the Bible and showed that concept many times.
But you're going to go through afflictions, you're going to go through hard times, you're
going to go through pain and suffering.
That's part of life and especially it's part of the Christian life.
But you say well that's kind of depressing.
No, because we can rejoice and bless the Lord.
The Bible says even though now if necessary for a season we're in heaviness, yet we rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
And so we have the comforter Jesus Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit living
inside of us and so we can rejoice.
So verse 1 says I will bless the Lord at all times.
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.
The humble shall hear thereof and be glad.
O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.
Now what does that mean to make your boast in the Lord?
The Bible says elsewhere him that glorieth let him glory in the Lord.
Same thing, glorying, boasting.
Now we can't boast about our salvation because the Bible says it's not of works lest any
man should boast.
Jesus paid it off.
Jesus gets all the glory for our salvation but really we should make our boast in the
Lord and praise God and be humble about any achievements that we have in our life.
You know sometimes somebody might ask you a question like, they might ask you how business
is going or how your job is going.
And you know how I like to answer that and how you surprise, and I'm not one of these
hyper spiritual people and everybody who knows me knows that I'm not one of these that just
you know, hey brother how you doing, God bless you, praise the Lord.
That's not really how I am.
But you know what I say if things are going good and sometimes business is going good
for me, sometimes it's going bad but if it's going good, you know what I say?
I say God is blessing me.
You know I don't say oh man I'm doing great.
I just say you know what, God has really been blessing me.
Things have been going good.
God or thank God that I have a job.
You know you could say thank God that I'm staying afloat financially.
Thank God that when others are suffering financially right now and struggling, and you ought to
be thankful if you have a good job right now because a lot of people are going through
a lot of really hard times right now financially, but you ought to say thank God, not just oh
lucky me.
Say thank the Lord that I have a good job.
Thank God.
I'm not trying to talk about being all bubbly and spiritual with people, but even today
I was at Home Depot and the guy asked me something about how business was going.
I said you know what, thank God it's doing good.
Praise God because he's the one we really have to thank for.
And so we should be blessing the Lord, opening our mouth, not even just inside being thankful
to God, but opening our mouth and saying to someone else, boy isn't God good, hasn't God
blessed our church, and isn't God blessing you and he's blessing me and things are going
well for us.
Thank God.
And when things are going bad we say praise God anyway for the good things we do have.
And so that's what this is talking about here.
The humble shall hear thereof and be glad.
The humble man gives God the glory and a lot of people misunderstand what humility is.
The humble man makes his boast in the Lord.
The humble man is not the person that says oh man I'm an idiot, I'm stupid, and that's
what some people think humility is.
I'm such a terrible Christian, I don't even know why I'm the pastor of this church, I
don't even know why you come and listen to me preach.
I'm so unfit to stand up here and preach, I don't even know why anybody listens to me.
But do you think that's really the right kind of humility that God wants us to have?
Or I've heard people say this, we're just like dirt to God.
To him we're just dirt.
No we're not.
That's not true.
Or they'll just say oh man I'm the most rotten person and that's not humility.
Humility is when you give God the glory.
Because see people go around self, what is it called, self-deprecating?
Where they just go around and just oh I'm this, I'm that.
It's really just still a self-centered attitude.
Just as much as if they're going around saying look how great I am.
The girl who comes to work and says oh you know, I'm fat, you know what I'm talking about.
I'm having a bad hair day and nobody likes me, nobody's my friend.
It's still just a self-centered person trying to get some kind of attention for themselves.
And I don't think that I'm a loser, and I don't think that you're a loser.
And I don't think walking around saying that you're a loser is what God wants you to do.
You're going very humble.
You loser.
No, because we're not losers, we're children of God, right?
God's our Father, he's made us kings and priests, we're not losers, we're not worthless, or
preachers have gotten up and said we're all expendable, we can all be replaced.
No one can be replaced, no one's expendable, we're all unique.
And God loves each and every one of us, and God is our Father, and we are kings and priests
and children of God.
We're not losers, but you know what, we give God all the glory.
When it comes to this church, anything that we achieve, God gets the glory.
Only God can build this kind of a church.
It's not a man-made church because we do everything wrong according to the world standards of
how to operate a church, you know what I mean?
If you want to know what works, it's rock and roll, that's what works.
That'll fill the place up.
It's rock and roll, it's the NIV, it's a 20-minute sermon, it's never offend anybody, but you
know what, this church is built by God.
Jesus Christ said, upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.
That's why we go out almost on a daily basis, getting people saved, not each of us individually,
but as a church, people are constantly out.
That's why our church wins souls, that's why we love God, that's why this church has a
different atmosphere than most churches, because we are serious about it, because we've been
brought here by God, it's been built by God, it's about the word of God, it's about preaching
the gospel of God to every creature.
It's not a man-made thing, so we don't take credit for it and say, wow, look what we've
accomplished.
We've accomplished nothing.
We just did what God said, and God did the work.
We obeyed Him, we just followed the book, and you know what, I don't think I'm anything
special at all, but you know what, God is doing great things in our church just because
I preach the Bible.
It's not my preaching, it's the book that I'm preaching, and if others would preach
this book, they would have the same kind of results, and they'd have the same kind of
fruit produced if they would preach the same book that I'm preaching.
It's nothing to do with me personally, but we don't want to have an attitude that says,
I'm nobody, I'm a loser.
No, you are, you're important.
You're important to this church, you're important to God's program.
You're a very important person, and realizing that you're important doesn't make you not
humble.
It just means that you should be giving God the glory, and you see, when you're saved
by grace through faith, you're giving God the glory, because you're saying, I'm not
good enough to go to heaven, I'm a sinner, I'm saved because of Jesus.
The person who says, well I go to church, I live a good life, I've been baptized, and
I've made my commitment to Christ, and I've given my life over to Christ, and my personal
relationship that I cultivate with Christ, that's where they're boasting, it's all about
all the things that they do, or all the things that they've given up, you know, they gave
up the drugs and the rock and roll and the fornication.
That has nothing to do with my salvation.
My salvation is just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
And that's why when I want to talk about salvation, I want to talk about Jesus, not me, not all
the things that I gave up, or what I did, or what I used to do, or don't do, or, you
know, somebody said, you know, well, it's one thing to say you're saved, but what did
God save you from?
And they, you know, God saved me from drugs, alcohol, blood, you know, God saved me from
hell.
That's what he said, you know, sorry, I was six years old, okay, I wasn't strung out of
drugs or anything.
But you know what, it's the same way that I got saved, it's the same way that everybody
gets saved.
Whether you're on drugs or not, whether you're a dope dealer or not, you get saved the same
way by believing on Christ.
It's the same salvation, and it's all about Jesus, it's not, it works as any man should
boast, and say look at me, look what I've done.
That's pride, when you take the glory, when you take the credit, when you give God the
glory, and you let God have all the credit for it, for building the church, for getting
you saved, for all these things, that's humility.
And so it's focusing on God and not focusing on yourself.
But in the Bible it says in verse 4, I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me
from all my fears.
Now we as Christians should never be afraid.
How many times did Jesus say, fear not, fear not, fear not.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for
thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound.
Not only fearful is this among the sins in Revelation 21a, but the fearful and unbelieving,
the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and all liars saw their part
and the late was birthed with fire and brimstone which is the second death.
God has not given us the spirit of fear.
The Bible says that fear is a token of perdition and them that perish, but to us of salvation
that we do not fear.
O death, where is thy sting, O grave, where is thy victory?
The Bible says that Jesus Christ delivered them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage.
We as Christians should fear nothing except God.
Fear God and keep his commandments, but this is the whole duty of man.
We should fear God.
We shouldn't fear the devil.
We shouldn't fear what man could do unto us.
Jesus said, fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather
fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
We're supposed to fear God and him alone.
A little bit later in the chapter he's going to teach us about the fear of the Lord.
In verse number 11 he says, come ye children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear
of the Lord.
But then a few verses up he says, he delivered me from all my fears, because the only right
fear is fearing God.
And so we shouldn't be scared, and so many people today are scared.
Why is it that a lot of people will never go soul with him?
They're scared.
They're afraid.
Why is it that some will never get up and preach when they have the ability to preach?
They're just afraid to do it.
They're just scared.
They have fear.
And that fear did not come from God.
People are afraid to go soul winning in a bad neighborhood because of fear.
They think that the drug dealers are going to kill them or something and kidnap them
and all these different things.
And we've gone to so many bad areas for so many years.
I've been soul winning for almost 12 years now and I've never had any kind of a problem
as far as anyone trying to kill me or shooting at me or trying to stab me or anything like
that.
And I've been in the worst ghettos in America soul winning.
But I just believe that God will protect me.
And if something happens to me it's because God allows it to happen to me.
But the Bible says a little bit further down, this is one of my favorite verses too, if
you go down a little bit where it says in verse number, I'm sorry I got in the wrong
place here.
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them.
I believe that.
I believe that God's angel encamps around me and protects me.
And so if something happens to me it's going to be because God allows it to happen.
So I don't have to fear, I don't have to worry about it.
And we're living in perilous times, dangerous times.
If ever there was a time to be afraid, it's now.
And yet God commands us not to be afraid, there's no reason to be afraid.
Fear thou art with me, he said.
I'll fear no evil for thou art with me.
If God's with us, who can be against us?
And so try to work on that in your life if you're a person who's given to fear.
And some are more fearful than others.
Pray for boldness because it's not something that should be a part of you as a Christian
and so it's just a sin like anything else.
It's really just you're in the flesh, you need to put on the new mane, you need to walk
in the spirit, which is characterized by boldness and get rid of fear.
And so if you have a lot of fear in your life, that's natural in the flesh but you just need
to put that off and then put on the new mane.
Get these verses on fear and memorize them and quote them to yourself.
There have been times when I was afraid.
I'm not just Mr. Fearless, never been scared of anything.
Obviously there are times when I've been afraid but I quoted a lot of these scriptures when
I was afraid and God gave me the boldness and the courage I needed in whatever the situation
because I used these verses to basically put on the new mane.
And there have been times when just earthly fear, not even just a fear of something spiritual
like giving somebody the gospel or something but I remember there were times when I'd be
working in South Chicago in the ghetto at like 3 in the morning and I'd already been
robbed a few times.
I'd be coming out of a job at like 2 a.m. because I worked second shift and your natural
instinct is just fear and it's a legitimate fear.
But yet I'd quote these verses and just fear no evil.
God's with me.
God can protect me and so get that down.
It's an important concept throughout the Bible.
It says in verse 5, they looked unto him and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed.
This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him.
Notice again, fear him.
How many times does that listen to the Bible?
Many.
And deliberate them.
O taste and see that the Lord is good.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
Keep your finger there and go to a really famous verse, Proverbs chapter 3.
Proverbs chapter 3.
But sometimes the famous verses we pass over because they're so famous we don't really
stop and think about them because we've heard them so many times.
Kind of like John 3.16.
How many times have I stood at the door and given somebody the gospel and I get to John
3.16 and they finish the verse for me but they're not saved.
How many times?
I mean hundreds of times.
They'll finish the verse.
Who shall believe in himself?
Well, it's not just believe.
You've got to do this.
They start listing all the things you have to do to be saved.
And they have the verse memorized but it just kind of goes right past them.
This is a key verse and it became famous for a reason but then people forgot why it was
famous and they just quote it.
The Bible says in Proverbs 3.5, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto
thine own understanding.
Man, if you could just get that concept down.
It's not as if you just blow past that.
Just say, trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord.
But wait a minute.
What does it mean to trust in the Lord?
He explains it in the last half.
He said trust in the Lord with all thine heart.
Here's how.
And lean not unto thine own understanding.
That's the opposite of trusting God.
Not trusting God is when you feel like you have to understand everything.
If you don't understand it, if it doesn't make sense to me, then I'm not going to believe
it or I'm not going to obey it or I'm not going to follow it.
This doesn't really make sense to me so I'm just not going to worry about it.
I'm still waiting for somebody to explain this to me.
Wait a minute.
Trusting God is just, well God said it, maybe later I'll understand it but in the meantime
I'm just going to do it.
I'm just going to believe it.
There are so many things when I was younger that I didn't understand that I understand
now.
And there are things I don't understand now that I'm probably going to understand later.
And there are things that I don't understand now that I'll probably never understand until
I get to heaven and God can explain it to me.
But the point is that trusting God means that you're not leaning on your own understanding
and saying, well let me get this figured out, let me see if I comprehend this.
This is where a lot of people get into false doctrine, they try to just figure out and
logic everything in the Bible instead of just believing the clear teaching.
If they can't understand, I mean look at those who are in a cult where they don't believe
that Jesus is God like the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Well I just don't see how He could pray to the Father and look, it doesn't matter whether
you see how.
Hebrews 1-8, unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
Isaiah 9-6, His name shall be called, the everlasting Father, the mighty God.
Talking about the Son of God.
I mean how many times does the Bible make it so clear, you know, in the beginning was
the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glories of
the only begotten of the Father.
And without controversy, 1 Timothy 3-16, if you're reading the King James Bible, if you're
reading these new Bibles they totally change this, but in 1 Timothy 3-16, and without controversy
great is the mystery of God is, God was manifest in the flesh.
Turn there, we've got to see this great verse, it's not even what I'm preaching about but
I just want to show it to you because it's so important, how the punctuation is laid
out in this verse because, or I'm sorry, not punctuation, the grammar of the verse because,
let's get there, 1 Timothy 3-16, you have to understand that all the verbs in this verse
are following that original subject.
There's no new subject introduced, look down at the verse and I'll show you what I mean.
It says, and without controversy great is the mystery of God is, God was manifest in
the flesh, what's the next phrase there?
Justified in the Spirit.
Who was?
God.
See it's still God, you see what I mean?
God was manifest in the flesh, God was justified in the Spirit, God was seen of angels, God
was preached unto the Gentiles, God was believed on in the world, and God was received up in
the glory.
How can you read that verse and say, well I don't think Jesus is God?
But there's no new subject, it's just a list of all that God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world,
received up into glory.
But you see, I don't understand that, I don't understand how Jesus could be a man and yet
he's God.
Don't lean on your own understanding, just trust what God said in the Bible about that
subject.
About any subject.
Well I just don't see how this could work, it doesn't matter, just believe it.
Just do it.
A lot of people don't understand some of the laws in the Old Testament, why did God have
these laws?
Why are his laws this way?
Deuteronomy and Leviticus.
But you know what, they'll probably make more sense to you as time goes on.
But even if they don't, just know that the law of the Lord is perfect.
Just know that they're right.
Everything God says is right.
You say, well is this blind legally?
You know what?
It's not blind faith because faith is seeing the invisible, according to Hebrews chapter
11.
Faith is the evidence of things not seen.
So yeah, you don't see it physically, you see it spiritually.
And so that's important there to not lean upon your own understanding and think that
you can figure everything out and that you, you know, something just doesn't really seem
right about that.
I know that's what the Bible says, but that just doesn't sound right.
Your ear is wrong.
You know, it's not God's word that's wrong.
But go back to, well let's read the next verse too, the other famous verse.
He says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.
That's a great verse on God leading you.
God's going to take you to the right places and lead you as long as you're trusting him,
not leaning on your own understanding and acknowledging him.
Go if you would to Psalm 34 where we were.
That's probably the best passage that I know on trusting in God, trusting in the Lord,
what it means to trust the Lord.
But look at Psalm 34, he said in verse 8, O taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed
is the man that trusts in him.
That's how you're going to be blessed, you know, is when you're not leaning on your own
understanding.
And a lot of things don't make sense to you, you know, I don't see how it's going to make
sense financially sometimes.
You look at it on paper and you say, you know, having a child is not going to make sense
financially.
This is how much money I have, this is what I spend it on, but you know what?
You just have the faith to do it and God provides because he said he would provide and that
God has never forsaken the righteous.
His seed, which means his children, have never been seen baking bread.
The Bible says that God will feed us and clothe us.
He clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven.
Shall he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Behold the fowls of the air, for they, they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather
into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.
Are ye not much better than they, environmentalists?
You know, humans are better than animals, one of the many places the Bible says that.
And so don't always try to figure everything out and say, well, I can't see this financially.
Or people say, you know, or that they're afraid to get married, you know what I mean?
Because they can't figure it out financially.
You just trust me, you can't afford it.
You don't know how much it's going to cost.
It's worse than you think, but anyway, it costs more than you think, though, for real.
And so does having children.
But you know what?
God's going to provide.
You say, oh man, this economy, you know, I heard, I heard somebody recently say, well,
I got to see how my job turns out.
You know, some people who got married, they said, well, I got to see how the job turns
out before we have children.
We're waiting to see, you know, the economy, wait a minute.
You got nine months to wait and see.
God's going to provide in the meantime, if God, if you're doing what God told you to
do, you're doing what God wants you to do, you just have to believe that God's going
to work it out and not lean on your own understanding.
Or people who don't tithe because they say, well, I just can't figure out how it would
work.
If you do it, God's going to bless you because He told you to do it.
And so, on and on, we can give every example of just leaning on your own understanding,
trying to figure everything out yourself, versus just, well, this is what the Bible
says, I'm just going to do it.
You know, and that's what faith is.
But the Bible says here, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.
Basically what he's saying is just try it.
You know, just try stepping out in faith.
Try trusting God and not doing everything the way that you think.
He says, taste and see that the Lord is good.
God is the man that trusts Him.
Just like He said in Malachi 3-10, you know, prove me now, God said.
Prove me now here with, say the Lord, if I'll not pour you out a blessing that you'll not
be able to receive it.
And how many times have I stepped out in faith and then God stepped in and showed me that
I was on the right track by blessing me and taking care of things and so forth.
So many times, I've seen it in other people's lives too, when they took a step of faith,
it's like God took a step toward them and they tasted and saw that, you know, God was
going to take care of it.
But he says in verse number 9, oh, fear the Lord ye his saints, for there is no want to
them that fear Him.
Now the word want there, it doesn't mean want, like I desire something, it means lack.
Want to want something, if something is wanting, it means that it's missing, it's lacking.
And so when it says there's no want to them that fear Him, he's saying they don't lack
anything.
This is like when Psalm 23 says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, you make
me light-eyed green pastures, etc.
And so it says, there is no want to them that fear Him, the young lions do lack and suffer
hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.
Now what does that mean?
That means that if you lack something, you probably didn't really need it, right?
Come and think about that.
You say, oh man, I just wish I had such and so.
But hold on, that's what covetousness is, when you desire something that you don't have.
That's what it means when God said, thou shall not covet.
It means don't wish that you had something that you don't have.
That's what covet means.
And here he says that God is not going to cause you to lack any good thing, you're not
going to want any good thing.
Therefore, if you don't have something, it means you don't need it.
Now that's the way that our church has always operated its finances.
Since the day that this church began, we have just had a philosophy that said, if we don't
have the money for something, we must not need it.
Because if we needed it, God would have provided the money for it.
Does that make sense?
So we didn't just have a bunch of thermometers on the wall, we've never had a thermometer
on the wall, man, we've got to raise all this money and fill out a commitment card and we're
going to have a big series on giving and give, give, give.
This church has never been money oriented.
Never.
No one can, you can call us a lot of things, but that's the one thing you never accuse.
We probably talk about it too little, we never talk about it.
We never care about it.
Because of the fact we just have a philosophy.
We see what's there and then we spend it.
That's pretty much what we've done throughout our history.
That's pretty much how we've operated.
And when we started the church, we had nothing.
So we bought nothing.
We had a few hundred bucks.
We bought some chairs, we bought some song books.
We just had a little wicker basket that cost 20 cents, pass it around for the offering.
But you know what?
We went soloing.
It was free to go soloing.
It was amazing.
And it was free to preach and it didn't cost us anything to sing songs and so forth.
So we just started out at the bottom and then money came in and we spent it.
We used it to have church activities, to advertise the church, to print out more invitations,
to get a real live offering plate, to get chairs that have padding on them instead of
the plastic chairs that we had before.
And we used the money that comes in and we spent it on things that are God's work.
But you know what?
Let's say the money dries up.
Let's say Mr. Big Bucks quits the church because he doesn't like what I preach.
You know what?
Don't let the door hit you on your way out, buddy.
Because we were here before you were here and we'll be here after you're gone.
Because God provides our need.
And if we lack something, then we don't need it.
You see how that works?
Now apply that to your own personal life.
Okay, now it's like, whoa there, wait a minute.
That sounded great a minute ago.
But hold on a second.
People today, they just blow all kinds of money that they don't have.
And there are two ways, and I'm not getting into some big financial seminar tonight, but
there are two ways to operate your finances.
Just this one thing I'm going to explain to you is really important.
There are two ways to operate your finances.
And there's two kinds of people in this world.
One kind of person, one way, is where you see how much you have and then you decide
how you're going to spend what you have.
Does everybody understand that method?
Sound like a pretty good method?
You get the money, you put it on the table, you look at it, you see how much you have
and you say, okay, I'm going to spend this on this, and you see how much you have and
you decide what you're going to spend it on.
Method number two is, well, I'm only going to buy the things that I really need and then
I'm going to see how much I have left after I buy the stuff that I just have to have.
These are necessities.
I'm not buying anything frivolous, I'm just buying the stuff that I have to have.
You know what, it's more than what you have.
It's more than the money that you have.
Isn't that true?
If you buy all the stuff you just have to have, just the necessities now, you don't
make that much, okay?
It's true.
And that's when people mess up their finances and they get into all kinds of debt and they
end up paying a bunch of bankers and money changers through the nose their whole life
because they get too strung out, they get too far extended and they say, but you don't
understand Pastor Anderson, I only bought the stuff that I really needed.
But you know, it's funny when you don't have the money and you operate on method number
one, you just find a way to not need that stuff anymore.
It's true, you find a way not to need certain things.
When we were first married, we were poor, I mean we were dirt poor.
What was it that we were talking about the other day?
We were going through examples of how poor we were.
You remember what we were talking about, we went through like ten examples of how poor
we were.
You don't remember?
What's that?
That wasn't a very good example.
I don't know, we were going through something.
What was it?
Yeah, we didn't have a vacuum.
We would borrow somebody's vacuum to vacuum our house, but you got to have a vacuum, right?
You know, we didn't have the money for a vacuum, so we just didn't have a vacuum and we borrowed
the vacuum.
We ate on the floor at first when we first got married.
We slept in a twin bed, two people in a twin bed.
That's not what it's designed for, not even a twin bed, a twin mattress.
That's what we could afford, that's what we started with, a twin mattress.
We had nothing, I mean we had nothing.
I remember I used to go out, we'd never buy it, we never went out to eat for years, years.
We never went out, I mean never, unless someone else was paid, then we went out to eat.
I'm not kidding, we never for years on end, I'm not saying sometimes, every once in a
while, I mean we literally just didn't do it.
We just didn't even have the money to even think about it.
I mean we would just go and other people, my parents would take us out to eat all the
time, thank God for us, and that was our out to eat.
We never went out to eat.
I remember I go to work and everybody works, you know, going to the roach coach, and I
was just, you know, you're not even going to believe this, I was just lusting after
that food on the roach coach, you know, and everybody's buying their Gatorade and their
drinks and their chips and they're stopping at Arby's and they're going all, you know,
this is back when I used to eat all that junk food that I don't eat anymore, but, you know,
they're eating that fast food.
I remember I used to quote myself versus, I literally memorized a set of verses just
about food, just to resist the temptation of buying something off the roach coach or
buying something at Arby's.
I used to quote the verse about how people whose God is their belly, and about, I quoted
all these verses about fasting, and I quote all these verses about, I'm not joking right
now, I mean I'm dead serious that I memorized a bunch of verses because I was just hungry
and, you know, I had my boiling hot water bottle and they're getting their ice cold
Gatorade, but you know what, that's life.
That's what God wanted me to have, was a bottle of hot water, that's life, you know.
Other times I've had, you know, all the ice cold drinks I wanted, you know.
I know both how to be a base and I know how to abound, but you know what, God has taught
me in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content, and the opposite of being content
is what?
Coveting something and saying, I need something, I don't have it, it's not fair.
But God said that those who fear the Lord will not want any good thing, anything that
God wants you to have, he'll give it to you.
And if he didn't give it to you, you don't need it.
And if you get that down, your finances will be a lot better, you know.
And if you have the money to spend, then spend away, but you know what, if you don't have
money, you don't want to become a slave to just debt and making foolish decisions where,
you know, your lips will tingle with that ice cold Gatorade, but that Gatorade could
cost you like 20 bucks by the time you pay all the interest for years and years, you
know, 20 years from now that Gatorade is still not paid off, you know, literally.
And you think that's a joke, but it's true.
And so you've got to just, you've got to get that in your mind just that, you know,
God gives me what I need, I'll just be happy with what I have.
You know, you say, oh, my house is that, you know what, just be happy with the house that
you live in.
Be happy with the car that you drive, Chris Broaden, okay.
Well, you got a better car now.
That's right.
Victor.
Be happy with the car that you drive.
You know, just be content, and you know what, people who aren't content with what they have
right now are never going to be content no matter how much they get because there are
two kinds of people in this world, the people who are content and the people who are covetous.
And the people who are content, it doesn't matter what they have, they're content.
And the people who are covetous, it doesn't matter whether they're a billionaire, those
are the most covetous people and greedy people in the world are people who have millions
of dollars.
All they want is more, more, more, more.
That's why all these big banking companies.
It's always in the news, right?
Goldman Sachs, right?
What are these other companies?
Chase Manhattan.
Why do you think they're always swindling us all and stealing from us?
Why are they always giving all these giant bonuses of multi-million?
You think they just say, well, we have enough.
It's never enough.
The Bible says, he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver.
And it doesn't matter how much you get, you'll always want more, more, more.
That's why you have to learn in whatsoever state you are there with to be content.
How did Paul learn that?
By getting thrown in jail, by having nothing, by going without money, without food.
That's what teaches you to be content.
And then when you do have money and you can go out to eat or do something fun, you enjoy
it so much more and you appreciate it more than the person who's just always had everything
given to him on a silver platter.
And you know, I thank God that we started out when we got married at the very bottom
because you know what, it's only up from there.
People say that, you know, people who didn't even know us but they just randomly criticize
us without even knowing us, you know, oh your church is shrinking.
It's impossible for our church to shrink.
We started with my family only four years ago.
It's only up from there.
You know what I mean?
Our first service we had nine people.
It's only up from there.
And we've been growing ever since.
And we grow every single year too.
We always have more this year than last year and so forth.
But the point is that when you start at the bottom, it's only up.
And you know, we were happy.
We were happily married.
We were happy with what we had in our, you know, small crummy apartment, you know, a
twin bed, you know.
What was your grocery allowance in those days, Yuzia?
I had $40 for those for the groceries and the house.
$40 a week for groceries and all the cleaning supplies, just anything.
Just 40 bucks to operate on.
That's not very much, is it?
40, divide it up, two people, that's 20 bucks each a week.
Now let's divide that by seven days in a week, about $3 a day for us to eat and whatever
other supplies.
She didn't even go to Wal-Mart for months because she, there was nothing, years, I'm
sorry.
She didn't go to Wal-Mart for years because there was just nothing for her to buy there
because she just, we just didn't buy stuff.
I mean our cleaning supply was like soap, you know what I mean, because that's cheap.
You know, you find ways to get stuff done.
You find ways to borrow that vacuum, you know, you find, it's true.
And I mean I could give you illustrations all day long.
We were reminiscing about it and going through all the things, but you know, I can't stand
here and say though that God ripped me off, I can't really say that I lacked anything.
And I remember we were living in a one bedroom apartment with two children, right, me, my
wife and two kids in a one bedroom apartment.
And we finally got into a two bedroom and I said to my wife, I said, honey, this is
great to be in a two bedroom, this is really wonderful to finally have a two bedroom apartment.
And I told her, I said, you know what, we were okay in the one bedroom.
You know what I mean, we were okay with it and this is just a blessing.
This is just bonus.
This is just extra.
But so many people with two children in a two bedroom apartment would say, oh, this
isn't big enough, oh man.
We were happy to have that, you know, and I thank God for that.
And so let's go on with the chapter, but that's a really important concept to get about what
God's saying here where he says that they that seek the Lord, the end of verse 10, just
get this drill in your mind, shall not want any good thing.
I mean, they've got what they need.
If you serve God and love God and you seek first the kingdom of God, all these things
shall be added unto you.
You will have what you need and if you don't have it, you don't need it.
So it says in verse number 11, come ye children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear
of the Lord.
So you say, what does it mean to fear the Lord, you know, because so many people hear
that and they say, well, be scared, be afraid, well, that is what fear means, you know, I'm
not going to tell you that it means something else, you say, well, why would you fear the
Lord?
Well, he says, okay, well, let me teach you what that means.
Come ye children, hearken unto me, I'll teach you the fear of the Lord.
What man is he?
This is the explanation of what the fear of the Lord is, isn't it?
He says, what man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good?
He's basically saying, okay, do you want things to go good in life or do you want them to
go bad?
That's what it means to fear God, because you realize that God blesses you when you
do the right thing and that God chastises you and chastens you and punishes you when
you do the wrong thing.
It's the same thing with my children.
I'm a child of God.
My children fear me.
They do and they ought to fear me.
When I was a child, I feared my dad.
You were afraid of getting busted by dad when you did something wrong.
Now, many kids today aren't afraid of their parents and that's the parents' fault for
not being scary enough, you know, I'm serious, that's right, because these parents who just
let their children walk all over them and their children have no respect for them, no
fear of them, they don't fear any punishment because there never is any punishment or it's
this kind of a spanking, you know, and by the way, this doesn't hurt, and that's why
I recommend if you're going to spank your children, spank yourself first, okay, to see
what it feels like because you realize, wait a minute, this doesn't hurt and that's when
you move on to the wooden cooking spoon or the rulers or you get into the paint stirring
sticks from Home Depot, you know, or like my parents, they're the worst device of all
that I'm still afraid, I still have a nightmare, I'm just kidding, but anyway, they're still
afraid.
The sailboat rod.
Who's ever seen my sailboat rod?
I've never showed this to anybody in church, I guess not.
The kids, all the kids' hands pop open.
Oh yeah, you guys have seen the wrong end of it.
That was something that I inherited from my parents, but we don't use it very often, but
it is the spanking tool, I'll just put it that way, I'll show you in no time.
It's just the perfect rod and then it hurts when you get spanking with it.
But the point is I feared Dad because I knew that if I did the right things, Dad was going
to do good by me and I knew that if I did the wrong things, Dad was going to punish
me and I feared that punishment and that's what kept me on track, that's what kept me
doing the right thing.
When I was too young and little and stupid to understand why I needed to do the right
thing, Dad had to use fear to keep me in subjection, keep me on the right path.
Not because he hated me, but because he loved me.
The Bible says, he that spareth his rod hated his son, but he that loveth him chases him
because.
The Bible says, thou shalt beat him with the rod and he shall not die.
He said, thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell.
He said, if you love your child, you'll spank your child, you'll discipline your child.
And it wasn't out of anything selfish, it was out of love that my Mom and Dad spanked
me.
But then as I got older, I didn't need a spanking anymore.
I only got a spanking when I was a small child.
By the time I got to be about, I think, 11 or 12, I don't think I ever got a spanking
again.
And I'm sure that's a different age with every child.
But the point is that today I don't go through life just not doing things because I'm afraid
that some human being is going to spank me.
My wife doesn't beat me up and I do the wrong thing.
And I don't beat her up when she does the wrong thing.
That's a two way street.
So Pastor Anderson, how do you keep each other in line?
We've grown past that point.
We have enough maturity to want to do things for the right reason.
To want to do things out of love for God.
Love for each other.
And it gets to a point where you should love your parents and you want to obey them because
you love God and you love your parents and therefore you do the right things.
And so it starts with fear but then it moves toward love.
What's the same thing with God?
You start out, why did you get saved?
Just because I just loved God so much I just decided to get saved.
You got saved because you hear about heaven and hell and you're afraid to go to hell.
And you basically say, you know what?
I don't want to go to hell.
What else must I do to be saved?
And somebody shows you from the Bible, you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be saved.
You say, wow, that's great.
But do you really love God?
You might love him a little bit but I promise you that I love God more now than I did when
I was six years old.
I love God more now than I did when I was twelve years old.
I love God more now than I did when I was seventeen years old.
You grow in love.
And it starts out when you're a Christian, you're already saved, you don't commit fornication
because you're afraid to commit fornication.
Because you're afraid of what God is going to do.
And if you're not, then you just don't know the Bible.
You ought to be afraid of what God's going to do.
Because God will severely punish sin among his people, among Christians.
And you know what?
There were times in my teenage years when I was very worldly, I was very distant from
the things of God.
You know, I was maybe reading the Bible a little bit.
I was going to church on Sunday but I was not living a life of just meditating upon
God for a day and night.
I was more into just video games, movies, rock and roll.
Just the typical life of just forget God, let's just have a good time.
But I'll tell you what, I never committed fornication and I'll tell you why.
Because I was scared to death and that's the only reason why.
It wasn't because I thought, oh I'm saving myself for marriage, it's going to be so great
to be married.
That's a great reason.
But I wasn't smart enough to think that far or understand that much.
But one thing I knew, that God was going to severely punish me if I committed fornication
and I was afraid of that.
You know, and I also loved God, I wanted to keep his commandments but there was a lot
of fear involved too, of just fear of God's punishment.
You say whoa, it ought to be that way.
How many times did God say he basically threatens you throughout the Bible?
I don't commit fornication or this is what I'm going to do.
What's going to happen?
We need to find the real God of the Bible.
Go down a few, let's go down, it's right in this chapter God will tell you what he's like.
It says in verse 19, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth
them out of them all.
He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken.
Evil shall slay the wicked, and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.
The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants and none of them that trust in him shall be
desolate.
But look at verse 15 and 16, he says, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and
his ears are open unto their cry.
The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off remembrance of them from
the earth.
God is a God that punishes sin and he punishes it among his own people.
Go to Hebrews 10, Hebrews chapter 10, we're almost done tonight, but just go to Hebrews
10 toward the end of the New Testament.
Hebrews chapter 10, the Bible says this, verse 24, and let us consider one another to provoke
unto love and to good works.
So that's saying that we should encourage one another to do the right thing.
We should try to push each other to do the right things and try to build each other up
and so forth.
So he says, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together, that's part of why we need a church, as the matter
of some is, but exhorting one another.
And so much the more as you see the day approaching, for if we sin willfully, are we talking about
believers or unbelievers?
He's talking about believers because he's talking about us assembling ourselves together.
Paul and the people he's writing to.
For if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth.
There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.
Now that's referring to the last few chapters in chapters 9 and 10, he was talking about
all the sacrifices that they would bring and basically when they would do something wrong,
they'd bring a sacrifice, make an atonement and so forth.
We're saved, we have eternal security of the believer, but he says this, he says, but a
certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses.
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who had trodden
underfoot the Son of God and have counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was
sanctified an unholy thing and have done despite under the spirit of grace.
Now look, it's talking about people that are saved because it says he counted the blood
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, which means made holy, an unclean thing and
done despite under the spirit of grace.
Basically somebody using the liberty that we have in Christ, basically we can do whatever
we want, we're still going to go to heaven, we have that liberty, we're saved by grace,
we're sinned about, grace much more about, those who just abuse that and just willfully
stand and say, well I'm saved, I'm going to heaven, so you know what, I'm just going
to do what I want.
You say, but wait a minute, that's wrong, the Bible says don't commit fornication, I'm
going to sleep around anyway.
Hey, the Bible says be in church, I don't need church, I'm too busy for church.
Hey, the Bible says this, the Bible says not to do that, I'm going to do it anyway.
God says if you sin willfully like that, when you know what's right, you know what you should
be doing, you're saved, you know what's right and you just willfully say, I don't care,
I'm doing what I want to do.
He says that you will have a sore, sore punishment and he said in verse 30, for we know him that
has said, vengeance belongeth unto me and I will recommend saith the Lord and again
the Lord shall judge his people, right, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God.
Now you don't want God to punish you, you don't want God to have to chastise you because
you think it's okay to just spit in God's face and say well nuts to you, I'm going to
do what I want to do.
And look, this is a pretty heavy passage, isn't it?
But God's just trying to warn you and how many times I've seen Christians live in sin
and then really bad stuff happens to them.
Irreparable damage is done and many times it can never be fixed or they even die or
whatever because of the lifestyle that they go into.
And so we've got to understand, what does it mean to fear the Lord?
Let's go back to Psalm 34, we'll wrap it up here.
What does it mean to fear God?
It's to realize that God holds your entire destiny in his hand.
I mean think about this.
That God holds your entire destiny in his hands.
All he has to do is just snap his fingers, he can elevate you like he took Joseph from
the prison to being the second in command in his nation.
From a jail cell, from a nobody, from just a young person 30 years old in jail, nobody
knows who he is, to being the most important person in the most powerful country in the
world except for the king himself.
Second in command.
He could lift him up like that or he could just bring somebody down.
Look at Haman, second in command, the most powerful man in a worldwide Persian empire.
And what happened?
From one day to the next he went from just having everything, I mean everywhere he went
people bowed down to him.
He had 10 children, money, power, fame, everything and like that he lost everything.
He was humiliated, he was physically assaulted, he was killed, all of his children killed,
everything that he was fighting against in life succeeded, everything that he was fighting
for failed, like that.
When you realize that that's who God is, God can do anything to lift you up or to put you
down, you'll tremble at that thought.
You'll tremble when you go to do the wrong thing.
You'll think, wait a minute, is it really worth it when God is the one who's controlling
my entire destiny in his hand?
He can cause my whole life to go down the toilet or he can cause me to succeed and to
prosper and to do great things with my life and to rejoice.
Get that in your mind and children, I hope you're listening to this children especially,
I hope children and teenagers are listening to me preaching right now because they're
the ones who still have all of life ahead of you and sin looks good, the billboard makes
it look good and the TV makes it look good and all your friends are into it and all this
but wait a minute now, it's not worth it when you realize that God is just up in heaven
just deciding, hmm, which way is this person going, up or down?
That's the fear of the Lord.
That's what he says here, that's what he said in Hebrews 10, but he says here, and
by the way Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, you know Daniel was a nobody at the time, but
he told Nebuchadnezzar, I mean you say he was a nobody, he was on death row, I mean
he was about to be killed in Daniel chapter 2, I mean he was ready to die, he was going
to die that day.
Remember they said all the wise men in the land are going to be killed and he went to
the king and just said, God in whose hand thy breath is, he said God can just go like
this and you won't be able to breathe in the next moment, he's God, he can do anything
to you.
But he says here in verse number 11, come ye children, so children listen up, the Bible's
talking to you, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord, what man is he that
desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good, what do you think is the answer
to that question?
Everybody, right, that's what everybody wants, he says okay well here's what the fear of
the Lord means, keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile, depart from
evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous
and his ears are open unto their cry, the face of the Lord is against them that do evil
to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth, the righteous cry and the Lord hear
them and deliver them out of all their troubles, you see that, the contrast, God will show
himself righteous to those that are righteous and to the fro word or wicked is what that
word means, he'll show himself unsavory, what does unsavory mean, it doesn't taste very
good.
So God can be bitter toward you or God can be sweet, you can taste and see that the Lord's
good or you can drink the bitter cup of God's wrath and God's anger and God's anger is kindled
against his own people many times, read Psalm 106, great example.
So let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer, Father we thank you for your
word dear God and I thank you for the fear of the Lord, the Bible says the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the Bible says by the fear of the Lord men depart from
evil and God thank you that I feared you as a child, that's why I received Christ as Savior
to be saved and on my way to heaven, I thank you Father that I feared you as a teenager
and therefore I was able to keep myself pure and I thank God that I fear you today and
therefore want to do my best to keep your commandments and be righteous dear God, thank
you for the love that you've shown us through Jesus Christ and thank you for the love that
we have for you but really we love you because you first loved us and God I pray that everyone
who's here would do the right thing because they love you but Father I pray that every
single person here would also understand and comprehend the fear of the Lord and make it
a part of their life, make it a part of their soul, make it a part of who they are and understand
that you are the one who's in control of their destiny, help us to be content with what we
have because it's what you gave us, help us not to covet things we don't have because
it's what you did not give us and help us to realize that you have the power to give
and to take away and that you'll bless us based on our obedience and so Father help
us to fear you and to love you and in Jesus name we pray, amen.