Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Welcome to Faith Award Baptist Church.
It's so nice to see you all here for our Sunday morning service.
Find your seats now.
Grab a hymn.
We'll go to hymn 410.
We'll begin this morning.
Hymn 410.
410.
faith is a victory.
Hymn 410.
Let's sing it out on that first verse now.
Hymn 410.
Faith is a victory.
Sing it out.
It's our magic song.
Faith is the victory.
Faith is the victory of glorious victory
that overcomes the world.
His banner over us is love, our sword, the word of God.
We tread the road that saves above,
with shouts of triumph drawn.
My faith may hide the whirlwind's breadth,
swept under every field.
The faith my rich become her death
is still our shining shield.
Faith is the victory.
Faith is the victory of glorious victory
that overcomes the world.
On every hand, the flow we find, drawn up in dread of rain.
Let dents of ease be left behind and onward to the fray.
Salvation's held, and on each end,
with truth all girded about.
The earth shall tremble in our tread, and echo with our shout.
Faith is the victory.
Faith is the victory of glorious victory.
Faith that overcomes the world, to him that overcomes the folk,
wide reign it shall begin.
Before the angels, he shall know his name confessed in heaven.
Then onward from the hills of light,
our hearts will love the flame,
will languish all the hosts of night
in Jesus' hungry name.
Faith is the victory.
Faith is the victory of glorious victory
that overcomes the world.
Thank you, Lord, for singing this morning.
We're going to ask Lord's blessing on the service,
so I'll ask Brother Alexander to Lord's name, please.
Father in Heaven, we pray, God, that you please bless all aspects of this service.
Help us, God, to praise you, Lord, in singing hymns and psalms to you, Lord.
And we pray, God, that you please bless Pastor Anderson with the Spirit
as he preaches your word. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Amen, 364, number 364.
Standing on the promises of God.
Hymn number 364, we'll sing it out on that verse now.
364, standing on the promises of Christ my King.
Let's sing it out, 364.
Standing on the promises of Christ my King.
Through eternal ages, let his praises ring.
Glory in the highest time, shout and sing.
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing.
Standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing.
I'm standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises that cannot fail.
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail.
By the living Word of God, I shall prevail.
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing.
Standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing.
I'm standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord.
Bound to him eternally by love's strong core.
Overcoming daily with the Spirit's sword.
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing.
Standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing.
I'm standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises I cannot fall.
Listening every moment to the Spirit's call.
Resting in my Savior as my all in all.
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing.
Standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing.
I'm standing on the promises of God.
All right, at this time we'll go ahead and go through our announcements.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside we have our service time.
Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week we'll be in 2 Chronicles chapter number 24.
We've got the so many times listed there below as well as salvation and baptisms.
Congratulations to the Jeffrey family on the birth of baby Abigail Evelyn Jeffrey.
Born October 14th, 2024 at 1006 a.m.
Six pounds, six ounces, measuring 19.75 inches.
Man, these are some really precise statistics today.
Please pray for Mrs. Jeffrey's speedy recovery.
And we'll be taking portraits for the yearbook every Sunday through November 3rd.
That's getting pretty close here.
So just a couple more weeks to go to get your yearbook picture taken.
There's a sign up over here to my right.
This is for everybody, singles, couples, families, whatever your situation.
We want to make sure that everybody gets photographed.
You get a beautiful portrait.
You get the high quality electronic image sent to you.
And then you're also in the yearbook.
And then we all get to enjoy the yearbook when it comes out in a few months.
All right, and then below that the annual chili cook-off is coming up on Thursday, October 31st.
So next Thursday.
And all chilis must be made from scratch.
And they have to be entered, if you're planning on competing, by the 5 p.m. cutoff.
If you're not competing with the chili cook-off,
then if you have no family member or relative that has entered a chili,
you can also put your name in to become one of the judges.
So that's right here from 4.30 to 7.30 on October 31st.
On the back we've got the detailed schedule for the missions conference.
This is going to be awesome.
I'm really looking forward to this.
I love this thing every year.
And so we're going to be emphasizing a lot of great countries.
Samoa, Fiji, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Dominican Republic, Columbia, Germany, and Armenia.
These are all places that we've done soul winning in the last 12 months.
So we're not talking about the glory days.
And we're not talking about some future that may or may not happen.
We're talking about real life missions and soul winning that's current,
that's fresh, that's from 2024.
And so I'm looking forward to hearing a lot of great preaching
and also going out and doing some fun activities.
There's going to be soul winning. It's all right there.
And so make plans accordingly.
Or if you just want to go about your normal schedule as usual,
our Wednesday and Sunday services will be the same.
You can always pop in for an evening service or whatever you have time for.
And then that's about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us.
All right, you should find the incident in front of your hymnal with Psalm 11.
If you don't have an incident, you can raise your hand and we'll sing it on that first.
Psalm 11, in the Lord put I my trust.
In the Lord put I my trust.
Now say ye to my soul.
Cleanly as the birds to your fountain.
For lo, the wicked bend their bone.
They may ready their arrow up above the stream.
That they may ready their arrow above the stream.
The upright and hard in the foundation be destroyed.
What did the righteous do?
The Lord is in his holy temple.
The Lord's throne is in them.
children of man, the Lord tried the righteous,
God the wicked, and him that bothered violence,
his soul hated, his soul hated, upon the wicked.
He shall withstand fire and ransom and
implore a bolt and vest, this shall be
the portion of their cup for the righteous Lord.
Love and righteousness is countenance,
doth behold, doth behold the upright,
in the Lord would I my trust.
Amen, good singing everybody.
Go in your hymnals now to hymn 12, hymn number 12.
Blessed Redeemer, hymn number 12.
We'll sing it on that verse now.
Hymn number 12, love Calvary's mountain,
one dreadful morn, walk Christ my Savior.
Hymn number 12, sing it out together now.
Up Calvary's mountain, one dreadful morn,
walk Christ my Savior, weary and worn,
facing for sinners death on the cross,
that he might save them from endless loss.
Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer,
sings how I see him on Calvary's tree,
wounded and bleeding for sinners pleading,
blind and unheeding, dying for me.
Father forgive them, thus did he pray,
in while his life loved and flowdressed away,
praying for sinners whose qualities such woe,
no one but Jesus ever loved so.
Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer,
sings how I see him on Calvary's tree,
wounded and bleeding for sinners pleading,
blind and unheeding, dying for me.
Oh how I love him, sacred friend,
how can my praises ever find them?
Thirty years of comfort on heaven's shore,
my tongue shall praise him forevermore.
Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer,
sings how I see him on Calvary's tree,
wounded and bleeding for sinners pleading,
blind and unheeding, dying for me.
Man, good singing this morning.
All right, it's time to pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles
to Matthew chapter 6.
Matthew chapter number 6, as we always do.
We'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1.
Follow along silently with Brother Corbin Brock
as he reads Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse number 1.
Matthew chapter 6.
Take heed that you do not your alms before men
to be seen of them, otherwise you have no reward
of your Father which is in heaven.
Therefore, when thou doest thine alms,
do not sound a trumpet before thee,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may have glory of men.
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know
what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret,
and thy Father which seeth in secret himself
shall reward thee openly.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are,
for they love to pray standing in the synagogues
and in the corners of the streets,
that they may be seen of men.
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,
and when thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret.
And thy Father which seeth in secret
shall reward thee openly.
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions
as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard
for their much speaking.
Be not ye therefore like unto them,
for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of
before ye ask him.
After this manner therefore pray ye,
our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
for thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory forever. Amen.
For if ye forgive men their trespasses,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites
of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces,
that they may appear unto men to fast.
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
But thou, when thou fastest,
anoint thine head, and wash thy face,
that thou appear not unto men to fast,
but unto thy Father which is in secret.
And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth,
where moth and rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves break through and steal.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The light of the body is the eye.
If therefore thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil,
thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness!
No man can serve two masters,
for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.
Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Therefore I say unto you,
take no thought for your life what ye shall eat
or what ye shall drink,
nor yet for your body what ye shall put on.
Is not the life more than meat,
and the body more than raiment?
Behold the fowls of the air,
for they sow not,
neither do they reap,
nor gather into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.
Are ye not much better than they?
Which of you by taking thought
can add one cubit under his stature?
And why take ye thought for raiment?
Consider the lilies of the field how they grow.
They toil not, neither do they spin.
And yet I say unto you,
that even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore if God so clothed the grass of the field,
which today is,
and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
shall he not much more clothe you,
O ye of little faith?
Therefore take no thought,
saying, What shall we eat,
or what shall we drink,
or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.
For your heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow,
for the morrow shall take thought
for the things of itself.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Lord, thank you for allowing us to gather here
to hear your word today.
And Lord, I ask that you would be with Pastor Anderson
and fill him with the Holy Spirit
that he may preach boldly things that we need to hear.
And Lord, let it enter into our hearts
and let us do what your will is.
Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
This morning, we're continuing to talk about
the Sermon on the Mount.
And in chapter 6, there's kind of a theme
that goes throughout this chapter
about how some of the things
that people care the most about in this life
are the things that ultimately end up
not mattering at all in the scheme of things.
And the things that have no eternal value.
The Bible says there in verse number 1,
Take heed that you do not your alms before men
to be seen of them,
otherwise you have no reward of your Father
which is in heaven.
Now, alms has to do with giving unto the poor, right?
This is not talking about coming to church
and putting money in the offering plate,
giving your tithes and offerings and things like that.
Obviously, throughout history,
churches have passed offering plates
and people can see you throwing money in the plate
or not throwing money in the plate.
Nobody's looking around.
Some people have misinterpreted this and said,
Hey, we need to make sure
that the offering's all done secretly
and that we kind of put the box somewhere
where nobody can see it
and just kind of slip over and put it in.
Obviously, in the Bible, we see them putting money
and laying it down at the apostles' feet.
Passing the offering plate is a normal practice.
That is not alms.
Tithing is not alms.
Giving and offering is not alms.
I've had some people say
that they will not write a check to the church
because they want it to be secret, you know,
and so they'll basically just only give cash,
make it all anonymous.
And look, there's nothing wrong with doing that,
but I just want to make sure that you understand
the context here.
We're talking about alms giving,
which is talking about helping poor people.
That is what it means to give alms.
The Bible says in verse 2,
Therefore, when thou doest thine alms,
do not sound a trumpet,
before thee, as the hypocrites do,
in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may have glory of men.
Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward.
Now, this sounds kind of extreme, doesn't it?
Giving to the poor and literally sounding a trumpet.
Doo-doo!
Hey, look at me, everybody.
I'm giving to the poor right now.
But what's funny is that today,
we have people doing something even more extreme
than sounding a trumpet.
We have people literally videoing themselves
giving alms and then uploading it to the Internet
so that it can be seen not by 15 people
or 20 people or 50 people,
but so that thousands of people can see them
and say, hey, look at me, everybody.
And there are YouTube channels
and Facebook videos and things
just of people giving money to the poor,
not for the right reasons,
but rather to be seen of men, to be glorified.
And this is contrary to Scripture.
It's unchristian.
Right?
When we help the poor,
it needs to be something that we do privately, secretly.
We don't brag about it.
We don't talk about it.
And in fact, the Bible says in verse 3,
when thou doest thine alms,
let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.
You know, make it so secret that your left hand
doesn't even know what your right hand is doing.
Obviously, that's an exaggeration,
but the idea here is don't go around telling people
about your charitable giving.
Right?
Do it for the poor.
Don't do it to be seen of men.
Do it for the Lord.
The Bible says in verse 4
that thine alms may be in secret
and thy Father which seeth in secret
himself shall reward thee openly.
And when thou prayest,
thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are,
for they love to pray standing in the synagogues
and in the corners of the streets
that they may be seen of men
verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
So we see this pattern here at the end of verse 2,
the people who give their alms
so that everybody can see them being charitable,
it says they have their reward.
And then when it talks about people praying publicly
and making a big show about their prayer life,
it says again, they have their reward.
And the idea here is that if you go through this life
doing righteousnesses to be seen of men,
you have your reward right now.
God's not going to reward you.
Your reward is those accolades
that you receive from other people.
Now here's the thing about that.
That is a very empty reward indeed
to receive accolades from other people.
One of the other themes in this passage
is the temporary nature of things on this earth
like money and the things that we care so much about
amassing on this earth,
the treasures that we lay up on this earth.
And it's kind of interesting
if you think about laying up treasures on this earth
in the form of money,
another thing that people like to rack up are accolades
and getting people to like them
and getting people to think that they're wonderful,
not just money but also fame, prestige, and things like that.
And if you stop and think about it,
just like the money Jesus is going to later tell us
is not permanent
and that if you lay up your treasures on the earth,
moth and rust will corrupt them
and thieves will break through and steal.
Let me tell you something.
Having fame and popularity is just as temporary
and just as impermanent as those things
and it's just as insecure.
What do I mean by that?
I mean, think about how many people
were super famous in their time
or super famous when they were younger
and then just nobody knows who they are now.
Nobody cares.
And I'm not even talking about a hundred years later,
sometimes even just two years later,
five years later, 10 years later,
how many people have been that flash in the pan
where they were just the big thing,
super big thing, super popular,
and then it's like, what, who?
Nobody cares.
Not only that, even if we step outside the realm
of celebrity and just talk about normal people
living their normal lives,
how many people have you seen in your life
go from being really popular
to not being popular at all
and having everybody like them
to having everybody dislike them?
I mean, you could even see this
just in elementary school, junior high,
or high school in your own lives.
But let me tell you something.
It's very fickle, this thing of popular opinion, right?
How many presidents become the president of the United States
with a super high approval rating,
and then their approval rating just goes down
and down and down.
They go from being the most popular
to the least popular, right?
People's opinions of you are all over the place.
They don't matter, okay?
And especially as preachers of God's word,
we cannot go through life wondering
what people think about us
or caring what people think about us.
We have to preach the word of God
and let the chips fall where they may.
And it doesn't matter if people like it
or they don't like it,
if it's popular or not,
because the Bible says to the preacher
to be instant, in season, out of season,
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
And so if you're going through life
trying to just rack up accolades
and praise and popularity and fame,
it is a fool's errand
because there are two reasons why.
Number one, it's temporary.
You're not gonna be able to hang on to it.
You're not gonna be super popular forever, okay?
That's number one.
But number two, it's empty
simply because it's just per se empty, right?
Because if you've ever achieved anything in your life
and if you've ever received those accolades
and if you've ever received those praises,
you know that you have kind of an empty feeling
because it's never quite what it's cracked up to be.
I guarantee you that a lot of Olympic athletes
have felt this when they got that gold medal.
That a lot of singers or actors and actresses,
when they got that little golden idol
handed onto them or whatever,
that they probably got that and thought,
oh, this is gonna be the greatest moment of my life
and then they realized it doesn't really satisfy, okay?
Praise from other people is vain.
It's empty, okay?
Fame, popularity, being loved by this world is empty.
And so I would much rather receive the reward
that God has for me because I guarantee you
that whatever God rewards you with
is gonna be something meaningful, something genuine,
something that's gonna last.
He's gonna give you real joy
and real rewards that have eternal value
and even the rewards he gives in this life
are far more meaningful than just,
oh, hey, I get my 15 minutes of fame
because like I said, those things are temporary anyway.
Just think of so many people who were so big
and now nobody cares.
You know, famously, John Lennon from the Beatles said,
we're more popular than Jesus Christ right now.
And he said, 50 years from now,
people won't believe in Jesus anymore
but they'll still be listening to the Beatles.
And yet here we are in 2024
and if you talk to young people,
they don't know who the Beatles are.
They don't care who the Beatles are.
And if you talk to young people, they say,
yeah, I heard some Beatles songs and they were total trash
and I don't even understand what all the hype is about.
That's what I'm hearing from young people, okay?
And yet churches are packed today across America.
Churches are packed with people
worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ
and there are far more people in 2024 singing
blessed assurance Jesus is mine
than are singing I wanna hold your hand
or something like that.
Nobody cares.
And by the way, every decade that goes by,
the Beatles are gonna become less and less relevant.
They're not gonna matter.
And John Lennon is burning in hell right now
a blasphemous, wicked sinner
who did not put his faith and trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he's not popular down there.
He's just burning.
He's just suffering.
And so do not go through life
seeking to be popular
or to be looked at as great by this world.
And here's the thing.
When you do good works,
do them because they're the right thing to do.
Do them because you love the Lord.
And God will reward you for those things.
And God's rewards,
remember, they take place in this life
and in the next life.
Because Jesus said that whatever you
give up for him in this life,
if you give up houses, lands,
if you give up brothers, sisters,
you know, mothers, sons, daughters,
whatever you give up for him,
he says he'll give to you a hundredfold in this life
with persecutions
and in the life to come, everlasting life.
And so you've got the rewards in the future,
but even on this earth right now,
God's going to give you meaningful rewards,
meaningful blessings now that are far more meaningful
than everybody liking you,
everybody thinking that you're great,
whatever that's even worth,
which is very little and for a very short time.
And so the Bible says in verse 5,
When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are,
for they love to pray standing in the synagogues
and in the corners of the streets
that they may be seen of men.
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward,
but thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet,
and when thou has shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret,
and thy Father which seeth in secret
shall reward thee openly.
The Bible here is telling us
that prayer predominantly,
primarily, is something that we do alone
by ourselves
when no one is looking.
Now, this is not to say
that public prayer
is never appropriate.
First Timothy chapter 2 says,
I will therefore that men pray everywhere,
lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
And so there's nothing wrong with
praying anytime, anywhere.
Being in a restaurant,
praying for your food,
praying in a group, whatever,
praying in church, of course.
But remember that the Bible warns about
people who all their righteousnesses
they do for to be seen of men.
Matthew 23.
And he talks about how
they love to make long prayers.
Now here's the thing,
long prayers are something that you do
by yourself alone.
Public prayers should not be long and drawn out.
That's just showy
when you go publicly
and you got to preach for, or excuse me,
you can preach as long as you want, amen.
You know, pray for five minutes
straight, pray for ten minutes straight,
pray for a half hour straight,
45 minutes straight.
You know, obviously, that's not
the point of prayer
to put on a show for other people, right?
God does want us to pray publicly,
but mainly
our praying is done privately,
enter into the closet,
shut the door, pray in secret,
because if you're just praying publicly all the time,
then you have your reward, because people are looking at you
saying, oh man, look how super
spiritual this guy is with his long prayers.
And by the way,
this is another reason why these
people who have the pre-written prayers
are not legit men of God.
You know, they show up
at some political event or some
kind of a charity event or whatever,
and they have like a speech that they
pull out and read, they're praying off a teleprompter,
they're praying off a piece of paper or something like that.
You know, we need to pray
from the heart. Praying is just
speaking to God. Just talk to God.
We don't need to have some kind of a scripted
prayer, and we're going to get to that in a moment,
because it says in verse 7,
when you pray, use not vain repetitions
as the heathen do, for they
think that they shall be heard for their much
speaking. Be not you
therefore like unto them, for
your Father knoweth what things you have need
of before you ask him.
And so what the Bible is saying here is
that it's not just about
the quantity of time you spend
praying that actually
gets your prayers answered. It's not just about
putting in minutes or hours
or time and just saying
things over and over again.
Now, obviously we do, again,
have examples in the Bible of people
praying for a long time. Praying
for hours, praying through the night.
There's nothing to say that that
doesn't take place, but if
you are going to pray for a half
hour, if you're going to pray for an hour,
if you're going to pray through the night,
you should be saying different things
the whole time. Like, for example,
if I stayed up late talking with my wife
and we just talked
for hours,
you think I'm just like, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I just be like
SHUT UP!
But then we have people today
praying for hours
and it's, you know, Jesus Christ,
Son of David, have mercy on me, the
sinner. Jesus Christ, Son of God,
have mercy on me, the sinner. Jesus Christ,
Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.
Four hours of doing that
in these Greek Orthodox
monasteries, they'll chant something like
that for four hours straight. This is
not Christianity, my friend.
This is more like Buddhism
or Hinduism where it's some kind of a
weird emptying of the mind
and chanting and
transcendental practice of meditation
or something like that. That is not biblical
Christianity.
Biblical prayer has
to do with talking to God,
speaking to God just as
Moses spoke to God as a man speaks
to his friend. So you're
talking to God. And so, look,
yeah, I may talk to my wife for several
hours, but we're going to be saying different
things. I'm not going to be chanting.
Chanting is irritating.
I mean, think about how kids sometimes will
chant to you.
Does it make you want to give them what they want
when they chant?
Mom, can I have cereal?
Mom, can I have cereal? Mom, can I
have cereal? Mom, can I have cereal?
Mom, can I have cereal?
And that's how some people's praying is.
Twenty
Our Fathers and fifty
Hail Marys and all these different, Hail Marys
praying to the wrong person, of course.
But just all of this chanting
is irritating
and it's not biblical. It's what the Bible
calls a vain repetition.
He says, look, you're not going to be heard because of your much
speaking. You know, just because
you talk to just because you ask
20 times doesn't mean I'm going
to give you what you want.
OK, the Heavenly Father
knows what things
you have need of before you ask
him, the Bible says in verse eight. So he
already knows what you
need. So you don't need to sit there
and go on and on
and on and repeat the same thing over
and over again and chant the same thing over and over
again. You tell God what you
want. You speak to God.
You let your request be made known
unto God. OK.
And then the peace of God
which passeth all understanding shall keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Sometimes we have a lot to say to
God. Sometimes we have a little to say to God.
But at the end of the day, everything
we say to God should have meaning
and not be
vain, not be empty,
not be simply an exercise
in letting words
come out of our mouth. And this is what
prayer is in heathen religions. That's why
he says, be not
like heathen. He says in verse seven,
use not vain repetitions
as the heathen do. They think
that they shall be heard for their much speaking. That's
what the Buddhist guy thinks. That's what the
Hindu thinks, chanting. That's what the
Muslims think with their chanting,
with their five times a day vain
repetition toward a God that doesn't
even exist because
it's not the God of the Bible because if you don't have
the Son, you don't have the Father. And it's
not the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. It's not the
true God. And they sit there
and they chant and the Roman Catholics
will chant through their rosaries
and chant through their prayers
and they are using
vain repetitions. They think that they'll be heard
because they did it 20 times.
Because they did it 50 times. That's
what they think. When in reality, you do it
one time and you mean it and
it's from the heart and God will hear you.
I mean, think about Elijah.
You know, Elijah
gets up and prays and I think it's like
53 words or something that he
prays and God sends fire down from heaven
and consumes the sacrifices on
Mount Carmel. Why?
Because the effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.
You see, we know
that we have the things that we asked of God
because we love him.
We keep his commandments. We do those things
that are pleasing in his sight and
so the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much, right? If we pray
passionately, fervently
and we're praying from the heart
and we are following God's
commandments in our lives and we fear God
and love God and we pray according
to his will, you know, that's powerful
and it could take just a couple minutes.
It doesn't have to take hours.
And again, I'm not against praying for hours.
There are examples of that in Scripture
but not chanting for hours.
It would be an actual real
pouring out of your heart to God for
hours. That would actually make sense.
And so the Bible says
here, be not ye therefore like unto them
verse 8, for your
Father knoweth what things you have
need of before you ask him.
After this manner therefore pray
ye, our Father which art in heaven
hallowed be thy name. Now of course,
pay attention after this manner.
Manner is
style, fashion
in this way. He's saying pray
like this. After this
manner therefore pray ye.
And here's the thing about this, is that
people will then take this exact prayer
and chant it. He just said
don't use vain repetitions. You're not going to
be heard for your much speaking. Don't be like
these heathen weirdos. Pray like
this and then, oh, chant this prayer.
Got it. I mean
isn't it crazy that they literally chant the
prayer that he gives them as an example
when he just finished telling him not to chant.
Okay. He says, after
this manner therefore pray ye.
And of course, it's not a super long prayer, is it?
It's not a super
long prayer, but it's a pattern prayer.
It's the type of things that we should pray.
It's the type of prayer that we should
do. After this manner
therefore pray ye, our Father which
art in heaven hallowed be thy name. You know
the first thing that we see here is that we're praying to
God the Father. Okay. In the
name of Jesus Christ, we pray
to the Father through the Son.
And so we pray to God the Father
and we speak to him
respectfully. Right.
Right. We should have respect
and reverence for the
God of the universe and we should
not have this disrespectful
casual attitude
toward God. We should
treat him with respect and what
does that mean? It means not taking his name in vain.
Not throwing his name around.
Hallowed be his name. Amen.
Not just throwing it around. And by the way,
that's why I'm not for these cheesy
t-shirts that
basically make a mockery of the Lord,
you know, this blood's for you
or something like taking a beer slogan
and turning it into a Christian thing
like instead of this buds for you, it's
this blood's for you or
you know, he is risen.
Riz. It's
not, first of all, it's not funny. Number one, it's
stupid. And number two,
it's blasphemous and it's not
respectful toward the Lord Jesus Christ
when we're sitting there and saying
you know, oh the Lord's gym, his
pain, your gain and you got Jesus
lifting weights or something. You know, again,
this stuff is blasphemous.
We need to be respectful in the way
that we treat the name of the Lord
and by the way,
let's not have images of the Lord Jesus
Christ since no one knows what he looked like
and there's no physical description in the Bible
and the long-haired hippie
painted by the Renaissance painters
is a figment of their own
reprobate imagination.
Bunch of
sodomites.
Seriously,
I mean these Renaissance painters,
a lot of them were homos. Let's
face it. If you don't believe me,
just look at some of their artwork. It's kind of faggoty
stuff.
But he says after this manner
therefore pray, our Father
which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. So
we start out by acknowledging
God's greatness.
By acknowledging his lofty
position, his magnificence.
And again, if you want more
teaching on how to
pray, the Book of Psalms
is replete with
prayers unto God, right? And we see
all kinds of examples of prayers.
This is one example that Jesus gives us
but it's not the only example because we can go back to the Book of Psalms
and a lot of those
psalms are prayers.
They're obviously meant to be
sung but many of them are in the
form of prayers. The prayers
of David. And so
when we see these Old
Testament psalms, what are they doing? They're
talking about God's greatness. They're
praising him for his magnificence. And
often when I pray, I will
talk about some of the great things that God has done in the Bible.
And praise God for his
wondrous works. And all
the wonderful acts that he has done. Praise
him for his power. Praise him for his
greatness. That's what this first portion
here represents. Our
Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. And then verse 10 says this
thy kingdom come, thy
will be done in earth
as it is in heaven.
Now this is a very important component
to our prayer life is that we
should be praying according to the will of God.
According to the will of God.
You know, the Bible says you
have not because you ask not.
So first of all we need to be praying
if we want to get blessings from God. He said
you have not because you ask not.
But then he said you ask and receive
not because you ask
amiss that you may consume it upon
your lusts. So
the best way to not get your
prayers answered is just not to pray.
Because then you just have not because you ask not.
If you're not praying you're not getting anything.
But he also says that
some people are praying and they're
not receiving because they're praying
selfish prayers.
They're praying for things to consume upon
their own lust. So they're just praying for
money and praying for
possessions and praying for
wealth and fame and all these things
that are vain. And
when they just pray those kind of prayers
you know it's not going to do anything.
God's not going to sit there and answer that. The Bible says
if we know that he hear us
whatsoever we ask we know
that we have the petitions that we desire
to him. But what about the previous verse?
He said if we ask anything according
to his will he heareth us.
And if we know that he hear
us whatsoever we ask we know that we have
the petitions that we desire
to him. So if we're praying things that are
contrary to the will of God, God's
not up in heaven just saying oh well
I got to do this because you asked me to do it.
Not if it goes against
his will. Okay?
You have to pray according to God's will
if you want your prayers to be answered.
Now some people will twist this
concept and get
kind of a Calvinist fatalistic
kind of a point of view that says
oh well if we're just praying
according to God's will anyway
then what's even the point of praying?
Praying doesn't really change anything because
God's going to do his will no matter what and us
praying isn't going to change anything.
Wrong. That is false.
Because here's the fallacy of what I just
said. The fallacy is the belief
that God's will is always taking place.
God's will is not
always taking place. All throughout
this world we have people living
and things taking place that are
contrary to the will of God.
This is not all God's will
unless you're some kind of a Calvinist
that just believes everything's predetermined
and whatever. Well then you're in the wrong
church. This is a Baptist church. This is not a
Presbyterian church.
And so the point is that no
we do not believe that everything that
happens is God's will because guess what? The Bible
says God's not willing that any should perish.
But that all should come to repentance
and yet we see people perishing
all day long. The Bible
says that God will have
all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge
of the truth. Do we see all men being
saved and coming to the knowledge of the truth?
No.
God's will
is constantly not
happening because God
desires all kinds of good things and
nice things and wonderful things
and humans are carrying out all kinds
of sinful, ungodly, wicked things
contrary to the will of God.
This is the will of God.
Even your sanctification
that you should abstain from fornication.
Does that mean every Christian abstains from fornication?
But yet it's God's will
that every Christian abstains
from fornication and yet Christians
partake of that. Why?
Because they're not doing God's will.
Because God's will is constantly
not happening. What
God wants doesn't automatically
happen. If you believe that it
does, then you believe God wants some weird
stuff because there's some weird stuff going on in this
world all the time. And
again, that's why a lot of Calvinists who take this
really all the way and the
people who are really extreme in their Calvinism,
they end up with a really weird, sick, and
twisted view of God like he's behind every
weird thing in this world.
And he just isn't.
God has made man
upright, but they have sought out many
inventions. You know, it's
man's sin. The foolishness
of man perverted his
prey and he fretted against the Lord.
Can't blame God
for the wicked things that are going on in this
world. Those are due to the sinful
humanity that dwells
in the world. And so
the point here is that
when we pray, we pray according
to God's will.
Okay, this does not mean
that prayer is a useless exercise.
Let me give you an example, okay?
Let's say that it's God's will
for us to do a certain missions
program or a certain, you know,
small town soul winning
trip and we need to reach these
people on the Indian reservations
or take a mission trip over and let's say
we just don't have the money to do it, right?
And then I prayed and said,
Dear God, please help us to
have the money to do this trip.
I know you want these people to be saved.
We want to get them saved. Please provide,
if it's your will that we do this,
provide what we need to get there.
If it's not your will, then we'll
just do something else. We'll just keep soul winning
here in Phoenix or whatever. But if it's your will
that we do X, Y, and Z, give us
the funds to do it. And here's
the thing, God
would then bless with the
funds to do what we need because we're
praying according to God's will.
Okay. Whereas, let's say I
just never prayed that prayer, then
the funds just don't show up and the work
just doesn't get done because we just didn't
even think about it or talk about it or even ask
God for help.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
I mean think about, what about, even
you think about like imprecatory prayers or
imprecatory psalms or something and
you know, obviously God
is willing to destroy some
super wicked people and so
if we prayed those psalms and then
God carried that out, it's because we prayed.
It's not like, oh that
was just going to happen anyway.
And you know, it's so irritating to get around
Christians where you tell them, hey
we prayed for X, Y, and Z and it happened
or hey I prayed for this blessing in my personal
life and God blessed me in this way.
And then, oh that was just going to happen anyway.
And you know what that is,
it's not giving God the glory for things
and just thinking that we achieved
everything. You know, look
it's God's will that you be
able to feed your family.
And that you be able to feed yourself. It's
God's will that you have what
you need, your daily bread, and that
you can provide for
the people in your home. Right? I mean God
wants you to be able to provide
for the people in your home. Right? Does that mean it's
meaningless to pray and say, God
please help me to provide this week.
Please help me to make the money I need to
pay my bills this week. No.
Because here's the thing, let's say you're not praying
at all and you
don't have what you need, you have not
because you ask not.
But you're not praying
to consume it upon your lust. You're not
saying, oh God give me steak and lobster
every day.
You're praying give us this day our daily
t-bone steak. No.
You're saying give us this day our daily bread.
And so if you're praying,
God I don't have the money
to pay my bills. I don't have the money
to feed my family. I don't have the money
to do what I need to do. Please God
give us this day our daily bread.
Help me out God. I'm working
for you. I'm working hard and I want
you to help me provide for my family.
You're praying according to the will of God.
God wants you to be fed. God wants
your family to be fed. That's a legitimate
prayer. You're not saying, oh God
give me a new Corvette. But you might be
saying, oh God give me transportation to work.
Give me transportation
to church. Well look
it's God's will that you go to work. It's God's
will that you go to church. Those are the kind of
prayers that God's going to help you out with, right?
Giving you the transportation that you need.
Giving you the food
and clothing and housing
that you need. There's nothing wrong
with praying things for yourself.
Okay? But not to just
consume upon your lusts with excess
and extravagant things. But praying
according to the will of God. And of course
it's God's will that we have what we need
and it's God's will that we do
his work and that we provide for our
families. And by the way I
don't think that God wants us to live in
poverty either. You know I think that
what the Bible teaches is that we should
strive to be neither poor nor rich.
And that that middle way
of finances is
what God would have for most
of us. Obviously some people
he's going to bless with riches for whatever reason.
Other people he's going to make
go through poverty and difficult times
for a season in order
to try them and test them. But
of course in Proverbs chapter 30
he said give me neither poverty nor riches.
Lest I be
poor, lest I be full and deny thee and say
who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor
and steal and take the name of my God in vain.
So what is he praying? We know
he's praying according to the will of God because it's in the Bible.
It's a spirit filled
proverb, Proverbs chapter 30. It's a
prayer from the man of God to
God saying give me neither
poverty nor riches. This guy's not trying to just
consume it upon his lust. He's not trying
to have a Lamborghini in a circular driveway
with a big fountain in the front. He's
he's just trying to
not be poor and
struggling to feed himself. And he
also is not trying to be rich and
he just wants to have what he needs.
Feed me with food
convenient for me. Neither
poverty nor riches. That's
God's will. So there's nothing
wrong with praying for yourself
but we don't want to pray
for things that are just
excessive or
selfish or self-serving.
So he says thy kingdom come
thy will be done
in earth as
it is in heaven. You know we should want what God
wants. And here's the thing. Let's say we want
to pray something that's not according to
God's will. You say well I want
God to answer me anyway
even though it's not God's will. This is what
I want. But here's the thing. You know what you're
basically saying is that my agenda
is more important than God's agenda.
And that's never true. At the end
of the day God's agenda is
the most important thing about our lives.
And sometimes our agenda
has to suffer. Sometimes our
agenda has to go on the back burner so
that Christ's agenda
can go forward. Because at the end of the day
it's God's kingdom and the
gospel of Christ that is the most
important. He must increase
and I must decrease. Right.
And so that's why we want our prayers to
all be according
to the will of God. And so
let's say we pray something that's not according to the
will of God. Well then the Bible says the
Holy Spirit makes intercession for us.
He knows the mind
of God. And so when we pray
the Holy Spirit will take our prayer and sort of
translate it. So let's say
and this is why it's better to pray something stupid
than to not pray at all.
It's better to pray wrong than not to pray at all.
Because a lot of times, what does the Bible say in Romans
chapter 8? We know not how to pray as we ought.
We've all prayed
stupid things. We've all been at a loss.
And sometimes we just go to pray and we're just like
ah! Because we don't even know
what to say. Because our
situation's so messed up or someone else's
situation is so messed up we don't even know what to
pray. And so we don't know.
And so then the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us.
And he takes our little
our groans and our weeping
and our crying and he translates
it into something intelligible for God.
Or if we pray something stupid like
how about this, Lord remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. You know that's not really
exactly what this guy wanted.
This guy doesn't actually want
God to go ahead and just let him die, let him go to
hell and then when he comes into his kingdom
he'll be like, man I remember that guy.
I remember that guy.
The guy that was crucified with me, he spoke
up for me. No, here's what he
really meant. Jesus saved me.
Jesus give me eternal life.
You know and this is why
when it comes to getting saved
it's not praying some magical word
that saves you. Right? It's not
saying this thing or not saying
this thing. What it really comes down to is
believing in your heart and then you
express that with your mouth. It's not like, oh you didn't
say it right. You're not
saying, you know, remember me when thou comest into
thy kingdom, you know, isn't necessarily
literally what this guy was after.
But you know what?
Jesus gives him an answer
different from what he asked because he says
remember me when
thou comest into thy kingdom. That's a future time.
And what does he answer? Today.
Today.
He answers him
differently than what he asked. He said
remember me when you come into your kingdom
and he said no, no, no. Today
you'll be with me in paradise. Today.
And so you see how when we pray
even if we don't pray exactly right
we get the right answer
because God knows our heart.
He knows the heart of God.
And he knows what we really need.
So sometimes we might pray and say
something stupid like, oh you know
give me, well I feel like
if it's too stupid though you might just
not get anything. You know like
if you say like give me the Lamborghini
he's probably just going to be like you
ask and receive not
because you ask him is that you may
consume it upon your lust. But let's
say something a little bit less
extreme. Let's say that you're
praying, oh God give me this motorcycle
so I can get to work. And then God says
well I'm actually going to give you a car instead of a motorcycle
or something. You know what I mean? Like he kind of
knows what you need. Or
you might think like, oh God please
do this for me. And he's like
okay I'm going to do that for you but I'm not going to do it
for you now. I'm going to do it for you two years from now.
And he's got a reason why
you need to be without those things for the next two years.
Learn some lessons. Go through
some things. And he's going to give it to
you maybe later. Even though you're saying
do it in the next six months. He's like
I'll do it in the next six years.
Or you might even say do it by the
end of the year and he says I'll do it today.
You don't know right?
But at the end of the day we should want what
God wants and we should strive to pray
for things that are according to
God's will. And at the end of the day
I'm constantly saying when I pray
I'm constantly just saying Lord let your will
be done in this situation. Whatever it is that's your
will I just want you God
to get involved in this situation.
And again don't
get mixed up by this foolish
Calvinistic notion that says oh
whatever's going to happen is going to happen anyway.
Praying is just an exercise.
Praying is not an exercise. Prayer
changes things. And so therefore
what you want to do is you want to
pray and say God get involved
in my situation.
I don't even know what to say. I don't even know how
to explain it but just get involved in this
situation. Just act.
Just show up. Just do
something and God will know what to do.
That's better than not
praying at all. And it will change
the outcome. If I
didn't think praying changed the outcome
I would stop praying. If I didn't
think soul winning changed the outcome
I would stop soul winning.
Just being honest.
But I do believe that soul winning changes the outcome.
Praying changes the outcome.
Everything that we do
in our lives is changing the outcome
for ourselves and others.
Our lives matter. Our actions
matter. The things that we say and do matter.
Thy will be done in earth
as it is in heaven. Verse 11.
Give us this day our daily
bread. And again
the idea here is that
we don't know what the future is.
We don't know
what the future holds. Later in the same chapter
I'm going to say sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Take no thought for
the morrow. And sometimes our
lives can be overwhelming.
Sometimes they can be overwhelmingly difficult.
And sometimes we might look at the next
week or the next month or the next year
and think like I don't think I can get through
I can't do this for another
six months or year or decade.
But here's what God's asking us to do
just one more day.
Can you do it today? I've talked to people who
said oh I'm at the end of my rope in my marriage.
Okay stay
married for one more day.
And then another day. And you know don't
try to think about the next five years of marriage.
Get through one more
day. But
constantly when people are making bad decisions
this is the kind of stuff they're saying. I can't live the
rest of my life like this.
But you don't know what the rest of your life is
going to be like. Think about when David
makes a bad decision to leave
Israel and go hook up with the Philistines.
What does he say? What does David
say? He says well you know what someday
someday I'm going to perish
at the hand of Saul. I need to just go
hook up with the Philistines.
But again instead of David
thinking about someday he should
have just thought well God kept me safe today.
God kept me safe
every single time. I'm safe now.
That's all
you know tomorrow we'll figure it out.
Tomorrow we'll keep moving forward.
Instead of this attitude that tries
to look at your whole life and plan your whole life.
No. We may not
know what we're going to eat tomorrow
but do we have food today?
We got food today
we're going to make it. We're going to get through.
You got to hang in there. Weeping
may endure for the night but joy
cometh in the morning. And think
about how the children of Israel they're out in the wilderness
and they're not having
food and not having water and they
don't have what they need and they're starving
and thirsty but then they murmur
they complain they get in trouble with God and
then just literally right after that they show
up and there's this huge oasis with
a bunch of palm trees and springs of water
and if they would have just hung in there
for literally less than one day
they would have gotten there and
God would have provided for them. So
we need to just kind of hang in there another day
that's why he says give us this day our daily bread.
We're not necessarily going to have our
retirement plan all planned out for the
rest of our lives and financially
secure forever with no
question but
God will give us our daily bread.
And he said I've never seen the righteous
forsaken nor his seed begging bread.
God will provide.
Give us this day our daily
bread and forgive us
our debts as we
forgive our debtors.
Okay now debts
here we're talking about
probably more like sins
right debt here is is just what we
incur we owe and
so I think that probably
obviously this could be like a
financial debt as well I'm not saying
that that's not an application
because it is. You know there
are examples in the Bible where
people fall on hard times they
can't pay back and you're supposed to be merciful
unto them right and so I
get that but in general
if we jump down to verse 14 it says if you
forgive men their trespasses
right what is a
trespass it's when someone
you know literally someone crosses you
okay it's when someone
sins against you it's when someone
does you wrong okay
I always jokingly say
whenever we're soul winning in an apartment complex
and they kick us out and say
we're trespassing I always just say hey forgive
us our trespasses you know
but the point is
that when people trespass against
us when people
sin against us the Bible
says if we forgive them then our heavenly
father will also forgive us verse 15
but if you forgive not men their trespasses
neither will your father forgive your
trespasses now in order to be
able to say forgive us our
debts as we forgive our debtors
you'd have to be a good forgiving person because
imagine if you're the unforgiving
type and then you prayed to God
God please forgive
me my debts the way I forgive other
people their debts
you'd basically be saying God please
kick my butt God
please punish me severely
for every little thing that I do
wrong because that's how I treat other people
in Jesus name amen I mean it'd be a stupid
thing to pray if you're sitting there
just raking everybody over the coals
for every little mistake
and you're bringing up stuff from five years ago
ten years ago then God's like well I got
something on you from ten years ago that I could do for
you oh you want to talk
about fifteen years ago well I got something
on you from fifteen years ago buddy
if you
forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father
will also forgive you now just
to be clear this is not talking about
salvation
salvation's a one-time thing
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
you're saved you're passed from death to life
you become a child of God you have eternal
life that's a done
deal but here's the thing
my children will always be my children
my parents will always be my parents
right but here's the thing about that though
okay is that
when we have children in our home
that disobey we can either
come down on them pretty hard
or we could show mercy
okay and here's the thing about that
if we see our children
forgiving one
another and being kind to one another
right then we're probably
going to be more forgiving and kind with them
whereas if they are
vindictive and spiteful
toward one another well then we
might come down on them much harder
because of the fact that if you
are merciful you will receive
mercy does everybody understand what I'm
saying the point is that
when we have children we
discipline them and we
forgive them and we let things go
but here's the thing about that
though is that God
also disciplines us
and he also can either
give us the maximum punishment
or he can
forgive us and again we're not talking about
salvation when it comes to salvation
all our sins are forgiven
from you know in the eyes of
God as far as the sins as far as
the east is from the west so far as God separated
us from our sins and so forth we're
we're fully forgiven
when it comes to like an
eschatological view you
know we're totally forgiven when it comes to our
salvation okay you
know when it comes to like heaven and hell
okay you know
we're going to be saved from wrath
through him but when it comes to
what about the fact that God is constantly
chasing and chastising us
we want God to go easy
on us then we better go
easy on other people everybody understand
what I'm saying that's what he means when he says
if you forgive men their trespasses
your heavenly father will also forgive you it
means that if somebody does something wrong to you
and you're just like hey man no big deal no
problem it's okay and you let it go
then when God sees you messing
up he'll be more likely to let things go
whereas if you're super
strict on other people God's going to be super strict
on you
and I guarantee you that this exact analog
does take place in people's homes
when you see one kid
really raking another kid over the coals
for a mistake that they make you're
probably not going to be
overlooking that kid's mistakes
because you want to show him what that's like
to be super critical
and super picky about other
people's behavior also it's
very hypocritical
to be not forgiving others
and then expecting God to forgive you
and by the way just while I'm on this point
let me just go off on a little tangent here
and say this okay
bringing stuff
up from a long time ago
is garbage
okay and let me tell you
why first
of all the Christian virtue
of forgiveness involves
forgiving and forgetting
okay forgiving and forgetting
is what the Bible teaches
you say well where do you get that
well how about the book of Hebrews
their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more I will be
merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more
the Bible says that God has cast all of our
sins behind his back
he's not thinking about it he's not dwelling
on it he forgives and forgets
okay but
you have people that hang on to
bitterness and grudges
for years and years and years
and let me tell you why it is unfair
to bring up something from
years and years ago because it is
impossible to defend yourself
against accusations years later
this is why in the criminal justice
system you have the statute of limitations
you can't just
be like oh well this guy stole
from me 20 years ago and then
it's like okay well where were you on the night of
February 23rd 2008
and you're like what the heck like how
do I know I mean
think about like if somebody asks me
hey where were you last Tuesday
night then
I could probably figure that out
you know might not be easy it might take
a minute and you know I have to look at my calendar
or look at things and you know
look at stuff on my look at text messages or
emails or whatever try to piece it together
but you know what I'd probably be able to
piece together stuff from this month
last month or whatever
or if somebody brings up some incident that took
place three months ago I can be like okay
I remember that and here's what actually
went down but when someone
pulls out some story from
10 years ago or 15 years ago
and you're like what in the world
like how can you even defend yourself against
that because it's impossible
for anyone to produce the
evidence years later you know
and let me just bring up one
specific accusation that's
been made against me recently
and just
how stupid this is to be bringing
this up 18 years later
this stupid foolish accusation
that I was never sent
here to start this church
right this is the new
accusation is that is that
Pastor Nichols and Regency Baptist Church never
send me here to start this church and then I'm a
self-proclaimed pastor
you know what but here's the funny thing about that
is that I already dealt with
this lie this
stupidity back in 2015
and I produced physical evidence
and I gave all the
details and just completely destroyed
this stupid lying
false narrative and even at the
time Pastor Nichols himself
even texted me and I have that
text message where he says well
yeah that is what happened but
and admitted that
he was not telling the truth about the way
things went down okay
but that it was just that after the fact
he regretted sending
me to start this church
because I preached against his precious little
pre-trib rapture
okay that's what actually went down
but here's the thing back then
it was a lot easier to
defend myself back then
first of all it would have been easiest to defend myself
you know 16, 17
18 years ago
but it was easier to defend myself in
2015 than it is in 2024
and in 2034
it's going to probably be even more difficult
why? because there were about
150 people there when he
got up in front of the church and said
we're sending Pastor
he didn't say Pastor we're sending Stephen Anderson
to go start this church in Phoenix and then he said
we're also going
to find a way we're struggling financially
right now but we're going to find a way to
support him financially
okay and there were 150
people there to hear him talk
about how he's sending me to start
a church in Phoenix and that we're going to
find a way to support him financially
but now he has this
lying story of oh I told him not
to start the church and he just
wanted to do it anyway and just
kind of went rogue and went on his own
but yet I produced in the video that I
made in 2015 the bulletin
where I
where he prints my words where he
prints my letter saying
thank you for your godly counsel
I went to Phoenix and
started the church and here's all the success
the letters that he wrote to me
and all these different just all this actual
physical evidence plus 150
eye witnesses
okay and you know thankfully I even
had that stuff 10 years after
the fact
but here's the thing I guarantee you
that if I were to ask people 10 years
ago or 15 years ago hey do you remember
being there that Sunday morning when that happened
they'd be like oh yeah of course
I was there and a bunch of people in 2015
were like yep I was there I remember
it but you know in 2024
I wonder how many people even remember
and it's kind of a stupid example but
the point is that the longer that goes
by these false accusations
become more and more difficult to
defend against when people
are bringing up crap from 15
10 five years ago
how do you even defend yourself against that
you know
what I mean it's and look now let's make
application for you that was from my
personal life okay how about
you you know when you're bringing up
stuff that your wife did
10 years ago or your husband
did five years ago you
know first of all what is wrong with
you move on
okay
do not live life carrying around this
bitterness and grudges
from your childhood from when
you were a teenager from five
years ago from when you first got married
oh remember when we first got married
and you did this jerk move
it's like what we've been married for 20 years
we've been married for
30 years and you're still talking about
the things that went wrong on our honeymoon
let it go
it's
stupid and it's un-Christian
and it's the best way to get God to come
down on you like a ton of bricks every time you make a mistake
when you want
to just harbor all this bitterness against other
people and be all mad at other
people and bringing up
and look accusing people of something
oh you know I got raped
25 years ago shut your mouth
because you know what you should have been
screaming and yelling the day it happened that's what
the Bible says
and if you weren't screaming and yelling
the day that it happened then shut up
but you bring out these
false accusations and you bring
out this crap years later it's impossible
for people to defend themselves
against and just to be clear
I've never been accused of raping anyone because I've
been accused of everything else under the sun
but that's not one of them
because I've only
had sex with my wife
and it's impossible to rape your wife
idiots out there online
you can't rape your wife that's not even possible
because she belongs to you
amen?
anybody who didn't say amen is suspect
because that's what the Bible says
I'm just saying it's what the Bible says the woman
hath not power over her own body but the man
the husband has no power over his own body but his wife
does
but let me tell you something
the best way to not get accused of raping
somebody is to not commit fornication
you know you got a bunch
of guys today saying oh man
we're constantly being accused of rape by feminists
well here's the thing quit
fornicating with feminists
quit fornicating period
and then you can't get accused of rape
except by retards like Tommy McMurtry
and Dave Berzins and Jason Robinson
they're the only morons that will ever accuse you of that
the idea here is that you
cannot bring up stuff
5, 10, 15, 20 years later
and expect to be taken seriously
you got a problem
with somebody bring it up now
because you know what the human
memory is so fallible
the human memory is so unreliable
even a week later
even a month later people remember things totally wrong
and then you're bringing up stuff
from 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago
it's impossible to prove
I mean Pastor Nichols said
that when he met my wife she could barely speak English
here's the funny thing about that
my wife taught English
in his Christian school
within a month of showing up
I'm not kidding
she literally
was at his Christian school
literally tutoring
English
to native speakers correcting their English
a month after showing up
but then you know decades later
oh yeah she barely even spoke English
you can say whatever you want 20 years later
because nobody even knows or remembers
nobody can fact check you
it's garbage my friend
you need to forgive
and forget
and if something wicked happens
if something bad happens if there's a problem
you know what you better call it out
right now instead of saying
oh I'll wait 7 years
let me wait 10 years just kind of pull this out
12 years later
when it's impossible to defend
and by the way let me just
go off a little bit here
on something unrelated
this is why these traffic
cameras are such baloney
the ones that give you the ticket
let me tell you why
because if I supposedly
broke a traffic law and the cop
pulls me over
it just happened 2 minutes ago
I know exactly what happened I can defend myself
and say well here's what
here's where I was here's how fast I was going
here's what happened here's what I did
how can I defend myself when something shows up
in the mail 2 months later
2 months later it's like you were speeding at this time
and then they're like oh you can go to court and fight this
well I'm gonna go to court and be like well you know I just
I remember at 5
36 pm driving down that road
and here's how fast I was actually going
and here's what I was actually doing
it'd be literally impossible to defend
does everybody understand what I'm saying?
who's ever been pulled over in your
entire life for doing something wrong
and you were actually not at fault
put up your hand if you feel like you've been pulled over
and given a ticket and you weren't at fault
no no you're all lying because the police
never make a mistake and everything's
always yeah
the point is though that
I hope you're getting the concept
how it's literally impossible to defend yourself
about things way later
and that's why things need to be dealt with right away
which is why the Constitution of the United States
actually guarantees us
a speedy trial
right? because of the fact that
the longer that goes by the less likely
you are to get justice because everybody's
memories are fading
evidence is going away
things are being deleted
things are being forgotten
and so trying to bring up something
that somebody did 10, 15
20 years ago
is ungodly
because of the fact that you're not practicing
the Christian virtue of forgiveness
it's also
unbiblical because you're supposed to bring up
crimes right away
and you can't just pull things out way later
and also
it's just not fair to the defendant
to be you know
tried for something that they can't really effectively
defend themselves and by the way this is why
the statute of limitations exist
some people they get upset and be like
man why does this crime have a statute of limitations
and you know what
a lot of crimes statute of limitations is one year
right?
I mean who knows a lot about law
that could tell me some crimes and some statutes
of limitations anybody have any examples
just right off the top of their head
anybody got something
nobody, nobody cares
alright wait we got something
you have to file a wrongful death
within one year of the date of death
okay so you have to file a wrongful death
lawsuit within one year
of the date of death right
wrongful death lawsuit you got one year
to file that thing and I guarantee there are a ton
of other things like that and that's pretty serious
right I mean wrongful death is a big deal
guess what the smaller the crime
the shorter that statute of limitations tends to be
you know typically
only things like murder
or something first degree murder might have no
statute of limitations or something like that
okay but the vast majority
of things they have that one year
two years whatever so that
you can't just be bringing stuff up
years later that's impossible
to defend impossible to prove
it just makes it too difficult
and so there are a lot
of good reasons not to bring
up the past okay because
our memories get distorted we
tell ourselves these stories in our mind
we exaggerate things in our mind we beef
things up in our mind we talk
to other people and mix their stories with
our stories and at the end of the day
you need to just stop bringing
up stuff that your
wife did or that your husband did
or that your kids did or that
your parents did or that your friends
did or that so and so did or
you know oh well you know 15
years ago I saw something
what the heck
and you're bringing
it up now
because you're a slanderer that's
why
the bottom line is
you speak now or you forever hold your
peace you know
and people who actually have
a real crime to report they actually report
it people who
don't they just sit on it and get all
sour and bitter and gall
inside of them and then want to bring it up years
and years later well
if you want God to forgive
you you better forgive other people
and we need to get back to the Christian virtue
of forgiveness
letting things go
and especially if people tell you that
they're sorry you have to forgive them
it's not even an option if somebody
comes to you and apologizes you have to forgive them
the Bible demands it
and so
if you're going to be able to pray the Lord's
prayer or something like the Lord's prayer
you're going to have to be able to pray forgive us
our debts as we forgive our debtors
and it would take a forgiving person
to be able to pray that prayer
we'll just quickly finish these last couple verses
of the Lord's prayer here it says
lead us not into temptation but deliver us
from evil for thine is
the kingdom and the power and
the glory forever amen notice
bookending this prayer with
great respect
for God's magnificence
praise for God and then
in between ask him for what we need
our daily bread
forgiveness we want things to go
according to God's will we don't want
to be led into temptation and we want
to be delivered from evil these are the
type of things that we should be praying and where do
we do that praying in secret
right most of our praying
is just between us and God
not for show let's bow our heads and have a word
of prayer Father we thank you so much for your word
thank you so much for
this great passage of scripture
the Sermon on the Mount Lord please
just bless us as we go our separate ways
now Lord and in Jesus name we pray
amen
let's take our hymnals together go to
hymn number one hymn number one
Jesus I my cross have taken
hymn number one
we'll sing it out on that first verse now
hymn number one
Jesus I my cross have taken
all to leave and
follow thee
destined to
despise for
saving thou from
hence nigh all
shall be
ever
every bond and mission
all I sought
and hope and know
yet how
rich is my
condition God
and heaven are still
my own
there the world
despise and leave me
they have left
my Savior too
human hearts
and looks
deceive me
thou art not like
man untrue
and while thou shalt
smile upon me
God of wisdom
love and life
foes may hate
and friends may
shudder me
show thy face and all
is right
that they trouble
and distress me
will but drive me
to that rest
my first
trials hard
they press me
and will bring me
to rest
oh does God
agree to heart me
while my love
is glad to me
those were
God in joy
to charm me
were that joy
unmixed with me
a sea of
praise to glory
armed by faith
and winged by
prayer and
eternal days
before thee
God's own hand shall
guide me there
soon shall
quote thy earthly
mission
which shall pass
thy pilgrim days
gold shall change
to glad fruition
made to
sigh and prayer
praise
Thank you for watching!