But over comes the world.
Faith is the victory.
Oh, glorious victory,
that over comes the world.
It's better over us
since the Lord's sword,
the Word of God.
We tread the road,
the streets above,
this house of God and God.
By faith they light the world
with friends who have come
from every year.
A game by which they comfort them,
they steal our shiny shield.
Faith is the victory.
Oh, glorious victory,
that over comes the world.
On every hand the foe we find
brought up in dread of rain.
That dance of ease we left behind
and onward to the fray.
Studies shows now and on each end
the truth all heard about.
Later shall tremble in our dread
and we'll live our shout.
Faith is the victory.
Oh, glorious victory,
that over comes the world.
To think that over comes the foe,
a great deal shall be given.
Before the angels we shall know,
his name confessed in heaven.
Then onward from the hills above,
our hearts full of a flame,
we'll vanquish all the hosts of night.
May Jesus not remain.
Faith is the victory.
Oh, glorious victory,
that over comes the world.
Thank you for this opportunity to be here tonight.
I pray that you would bless this service
and please keep us all safe this upcoming week.
It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen.
Okay, please flip your hymnals over to song 401.
We're going to sing Set My Soul Afired.
Song 401.
And your hymnals, Set My Soul Afired.
Set My Soul Afired,
for Thy holy Word.
Wern't it be with Thee in me?
Let Your voice be heard.
Billions broke in darkness
in this day and now.
I will be Your witness.
Fill me with Thy power.
Set My Soul Afired, Lord.
Set My Soul Afired.
Make my life a witness
of Thy saving power.
Billions broke in darkness
waiting for Thy Word.
Set My Soul Afired, Lord.
Set My Soul Afired.
Set My Soul Afired, Lord.
For the lost and sick.
Give to me a passion
as I seek to win.
Help me not to falter.
Never let me fail.
Fill me with Thy Spirit.
Let Thy will prevail.
Set My Soul Afired, Lord.
Set My Soul Afired.
Make my life a witness
of Thy saving power.
Billions broke in darkness
waiting for Thy Word.
Set My Soul Afired, Lord.
Set My Soul Afired.
Set My Soul Afired, Lord.
In my daily life.
Far too long I've wandered
in this day of strife.
Nothing else will matter
but to live for Thee.
I will be Your witness
as You live in me.
Set My Soul Afired, Lord.
Set My Soul Afired.
Make my life a witness
of Thy saving power.
Billions broke in darkness
waiting for Thy Word.
Set My Soul Afired, Lord.
Set My Soul Afired.
This time we'll go through our announcements.
If you don't have a bullet,
then 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 10.30.
Sunday nights at 6 o'clock.
Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week will be in Psalm 52.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below
as well as salvation and baptisms.
Congratulations to the Taylor family
on the birth of baby Joshua,
born Sunday, June 14th at 2 o'clock p.m.
Weighing seven pounds, six ounces.
Be sure to congratulate them.
And then every father in attendance
got a bag of kettle corn this morning.
There's still a few left
if you want to grab one after the service
if you didn't get one this morning.
And then below that, the ladies tea party.
There have already been two installments of this
on the 7th and the 14th.
Well, the final date for that is June 28th.
So if you haven't yet enjoyed that activity,
be sure to get an RSVP in
and let us know if your RSVP changes on that.
And then on the back,
we've got the Bible memory passage,
Romans 15, one through six.
We're on the third verse.
Great little passage of scripture there to learn.
And then below that, also just the note
that the coronavirus cases
are increasing rapidly across our state.
If you look at the numbers and the data on that,
Arizona is one of the hardest hit states right now
as far as new cases per day.
They've been just climbing very rapidly.
So we want to make sure that we are cautious.
So instead of doing handshaking,
we're doing fist bumps.
And we want to just be clean, wash our hands,
try to take reasonable precautions with that.
And then below that,
we've got the weekly events listed.
Preaching class on Tuesday nights
is for participants only.
And then Thursday nights is the opportunity
to ride down with Brother Russell to Tucson
if you want to tag along to soul winning, dinner, church,
if you happen to be free on Thursdays.
That's about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning
from the past few days.
So going back to Thursday, anything from Thursday?
Any soul winning to report from Thursday?
What about Friday?
Anything from Friday?
How about, okay.
And then what about Saturday?
Okay, team had four, okay.
What was that?
Is that a five?
Okay.
What else have we got for sat two over here?
Okay.
Two back there.
Okay, anything else?
Is that a one?
All right.
And then anything else from Saturday?
What about today?
Let's start with our main teams.
Brother Scott?
Eight for the main group with Brother Scott.
Chandler?
Nothing for Chandler.
What about another one over here?
What about Brother Tilson's group?
Any other groups?
Is that 10?
Okay.
All right.
And then anything else from today?
All right, very good.
Keep up the great work on soul winning.
With that, come lead us in our next song.
Our next song is going to be the psalm of the week.
So if you need one of those pink sheets, salmon colored sheets,
go ahead and put your hand up.
Psalm 81.
Psalm 81, sing it out loud.
Sing aloud unto God our strength.
Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
Take a psalm every giver the temple,
the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
Blow up the trumpet in the loo.
In the time appointed on our solemn feast day,
for this was a statue for Israel,
and the love of the God of Jacob.
This he who ordained him Joseph,
for our testimony when he bled out.
Through the land of Egypt, where I heard of Egypt,
through the land of Egypt, where I heard the language
that I understood on, I heard Luke's shoulder from the burden,
his hand was delivered from the pause.
Thou called to Joel I delivered thee.
I entered the secret place of thunder.
I'm groovy at the waters of Arimah
See, I love the Arrow, my people
And I will testify unto thee
O Israel, thou wilt hearken unto me
There shall no strange God be in me
Thy there shall thou worship any strange God
I am the Lord, thy God, which brought me out of the land of Egypt
O when thy mouth, wide and high, was bled
But my people would not hearken to my voice
And Israel would none of me
So I gave them all one to their own heart's lust
And they walked in their own counsels
O that my people would have hearken unto me
And Israel had walked in my ways
I should soon have some future enemies
And turned my hand against their adversaries
The haters of the Lord should have submitted
Themselves unto him, but their time should endure forever
He should have fed them also
With the finest of the beaten with the needy
Out of the rock should I have satisfied thee
Okay, one more song. That will be song number 471, Cleanse Me.
In your song book, song number 471. 471.
Cleanse Me, song number 471.
Search me, O God, and know my heart today
Drive me, O Savior, though my loss I pray
See if there be some wicked way in me
Cleanse me from every sin that set me free
I praise thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin
O fill thy burden, make me pure within
Fill me with fire, there once I burn with shame
Ram my desire, magnify thy name
Lord, take my life and make it holy thine
Fill my poor heart with thy great love divine
Take all my will, my passion, self, and pride
I now surrender, Lord, in me abide
For it only goes, revival comes from peace
Send the revival, start the work in me
Thy word declares, thou wilt supply our need
For blessing now, O Lord, I humbly be
O Lord, I humbly be
All right, this time we'll pass the offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3.
2 Timothy chapter 3, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter beginning verse number
1.
We'll follow along silently with brother Nick as he reads 2 Timothy chapter 3, starting
in verse number 1.
2 Timothy chapter 3.
This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers
of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power
thereof from such turn away.
For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captives, silly women laden
with sins, led away with divers lust, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge
of the truth.
Now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt
minds reprobate concerning the faith.
But they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs
also was.
But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity,
patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra,
were persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, but evil men
and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and been has been assured of,
knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the holy
scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished unto all good works.
We just thank you Lord for this chapter and the important warnings that it contains Lord.
We just pray for this sermon tonight Lord that you bless Pastor Anderson and fill him
with your spirit and it's in Jesus name we pray, amen.
Man the title of my sermon tonight is Unthankful, Unholy, Unthankful, Unholy, I've taken that
from the end of verse 2 there, if you start reading at the beginning of verse number 1
the Bible reads this note also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, true spracers, false accusers,
incontinent fears, despises of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers
of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power
thereof from such turn away.
Whenever I've read this, those two words always just kind of went together to me, that
unthankful, unholy, and so I'm constantly just meditating on those two words together.
It's always jumped out at me in this passage.
Obviously this is a list of a lot of bad attributes but those two things are just back to back
and they seem to go hand in glove in many other places in scripture as well, being unthankful
and unholy.
So the first point that I want to make tonight is that people who are unthankful are also
unholy, alright?
Being unthankful is a major sin and it goes hand in hand with being unholy.
Now I also think it's interesting that being unthankful comes right after disobedient to
parents because our parents are one of the groups of people that we should be the most
thankful to.
So isn't it interesting that the same group of people that's disobedient to their parents
are the same ones who are unthankful.
You know we think of today being Father's Day and we really ought to appreciate the
things that our parents have done for us.
I don't care who you are, I'm sure that there's something for you to be thankful for about
your parents even if your parents had issues or whatever.
But many of us were privileged to really grow up in a Christian home and to be raised by
godly Christian parents and that gives us a huge advantage in life that not everyone
has going in.
You want to talk about privilege, I'll tell you what the privilege is, is growing up in
a home where your parents are saved.
You know I'd rather grow up in total abject poverty and have saved parents taking me to
church than to grow up rich and privileged and have everything handed to me being taught
by people who don't love the Lord.
You know we ought to be thankful to our parents.
The Bible says that we should requite our parents, pay back our parents, honor thy father
and mother, the Bible says, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well
with thee and thy days may be long on the earth.
Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.
We should honor, respect, and be thankful to our parents for everything that they have
done for us in our lives, just taking care of us, raising us, paying for everything,
educating us, and if they brought us to church, if they gave us the gospel, you know that's
an unspeakable gift and we can't even begin to be thankful enough for those things.
But of course it's not just our physical parents but what about our Father which is in heaven?
He's obviously the one that we should be the most thankful to.
So the Bible talks about this group of people in 2 Timothy 3 that are unthankful and unholy
and it talks about how in the end times this is how people are going to be.
So as we approach the end times, you're going to see more people with these attributes because
it says in the last days in verse 1, perilous times shall come.
Perilous means dangerous.
Peril is just another way of saying danger.
So when the Bible says perilous times shall come, he's saying in the last days it's going
to be dangerous and here's why it's going to be dangerous because you have these kind
of people running around and these are dangerous people.
People who love themselves, people who don't care about other people and are just obsessed
with themselves, narcissistic, psychopathic, whatever, hey men that are lovers of their
own selves are dangerous people.
Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, these are
the signs of the times as we approach the end times.
Now here's the thing, some people have an attitude that the world's getting better.
But scripture teaches that we're on a downward spiral spiritually.
You know we might improve technology or living conditions in certain places and obviously
our lives personally can get better as Christians and we can enjoy greater blessings as we go
forward in life, but in general the world is not getting better, the world is getting
worse.
We want to make sure that we understand that from the Bible because in the last days perilous
times are going to come and you're going to have all this godlessness.
And when you study Matthew 24 that talks about the tribulation, it says because iniquity
shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
So going into the end times, you've got love on the decline and you've got this kind of
wickedness abounding.
And so we're not bringing in the kingdom or turning the whole world Christian and then
Jesus comes back, rather things are going to keep getting worse and then Jesus is going
to come and intervene.
That's how this works.
That's what we believe about scripture.
Now go to Romans chapter 1, so first of all I want you to see that people who are unthankful
or unholy, it's the same group of people that are disobeying their parents, that are unthankful,
that are unholy.
When we take that term disobedient to parents, we can extend that to all authority figures
in their life.
Disobedient to parents is also going to manifest in disobedience to God.
It's also going to manifest in disobeying the boss at work.
It's going to manifest in just a complete disdain for authority in general, not wanting
to obey anyone.
I mean think about the same girl who doesn't obey her parents probably isn't going to obey
her husband.
Even though the Bible commands the wives to be obedient to their own husbands, yeah that's
actually in the Bible, hello.
Many times the Bible says that wives are to be obedient to their husband.
That's fallen off the face of the earth.
That's not even being preached today even in Christian churches.
But yet the Bible teaches that and is the little girl who can't obey mom and dad just
going to grow up and just magically start obeying her husband?
No way.
You think that the guy who can't obey his parents is going to go to work and just everything's
a yes sir and he does what he's told?
Obviously not because this is a character flaw about not obeying authority and it's
ultimately due to his relationship with God because God is our Father which is in heaven.
So people who are unthankful are unholy.
Today our country is becoming unholy in many ways and that is as a direct result of being
unthankful.
Now what do I mean by that?
Well look down at your Bible in Romans chapter 1 verse 20, for the invisible things of him,
of God, from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things
that are made.
Even his eternal power and Godhead so that they're without excuse.
So God's creation is testifying of him.
Verse 21, why are they without excuse?
Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became
vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves
to be wise they became fools.
So if we were to find the atheists of this world and the people who deny the fact that
God created the heaven and the earth, the fools that have said in their heart that there
is no God, what's really their root problem?
According to this it says that their root problem is that they're not thankful.
They would not, they knew God, they were aware of God, they were exposed to God.
Everyone told them about who God was but they did not acknowledge him as God neither
were they thankful.
They did not glorify him and they did not thank him for what he created.
And today you have all of these people talking about God's creation but they don't call it
God's creation, they call it Mother Nature.
And they just talk about the marvels of evolution and adaptation and oh look at all the things
that nature.
Isn't it interesting how nature selected and nature, who is this nature?
Who's making all these decisions?
You know and they don't believe in God then who is it that decided all these things?
Who is it that decided on all these laws of physics and all the laws that govern the universe?
See God is a God of law that has created laws to govern the universe.
He is the source of all these things and the reason why they don't believe in God,
the reason why they don't worship God, the reason they don't glorify God, the reason
they don't read the Bibles or go to church or care about these things, it's not just
because they're just too logical and too rational for the Bible.
Folks, the Bible is a very logical and rational book.
Far more rational than to think oh everything came from nothing, we're just a big cosmic
accident but in the multiverse.
That's not scientific, that's someone's philosophy.
There's God's philosophy, there's a Christian philosophy and then there's an atheistic philosophy.
Neither one of them is science.
The Bible is not science and atheism isn't science.
It's a different belief system.
And I'm going to put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the word of God, I'm not
going to put my faith in a theory that says that everything came from nothing.
It's nonsense, it's crazy.
Now here's the thing about that though.
The reason why they have chosen that philosophy and they've chosen that belief system of saying
well everything just came about by itself is because they don't want to thank anyone.
They don't want to thank God, they don't want to be thankful to him, they don't want to
be accountable to him, they don't want to glorify him, they don't want to love him,
they don't want to worship him, they don't want to read his word.
They want to say, it'd be like this.
What if I come down from my room on Christmas morning and my parents have put Christmas
presents under the tree for me, right?
To Steven from mom and dad, right?
And I come down the stairs and I've got those presents.
What am I going to say when I open those presents if I'm a good boy?
What am I going to say to mom and dad?
I'm going to acknowledge them, I'm going to thank them, I'm going to be grateful to them,
I'm going to appreciate them, I'm going to love them, I'm going to obey them, am I right?
Okay, or what if I just came down the stairs and said, you know what, these presents got
here by themselves.
These presents were not purchased by mom and dad.
These presents would have been here anyway without mom and dad.
They didn't spend any money, they didn't do anything.
This all just came about on its own.
So therefore I don't have to thank mom and dad.
I don't owe mom and dad anything.
Who's mom and dad?
Mom who?
That's basically what's going on today is that God has given all these gifts because
the Bible says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and coming down from the
father of light with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
So the unchanging God gives us all of these wonderful gifts and you know what, he doesn't
just give it to the good.
The Bible says that he gives gifts unto the unthankful and the evil.
Specifically it says to the unthankful, he sends his reign upon them, he blesses them,
he has given good gifts to every person on this planet.
I don't care what religion they are, I don't care what they believe or don't believe, every
single person on this planet has been on the receiving end of God's bounty.
At some point God has blessed them with something.
He sends reign on the just, he sends reign on the unjust and you have two kinds of people
in this world.
There are the people who receive those wonderful gifts from God and say, wow, God is good.
God loves us.
What a wonderful God.
Isn't it such a blessing to be able to know God and communicate with God and have a relationship
with God?
And then you have another group of people that are just saying, no, no, this gift, no,
that's not a gift, it's just here.
This present is here.
Well why, where did it come from?
I don't know, but someday I'll figure it out.
Scientists, where did life come from?
We don't know, but we're working on it, we're going to figure that out.
Just because we don't know right now where these presents came from, I mean, well wouldn't
it make more sense just to say that mom and dad put these here?
No, there's no evidence for that.
Well it says right here on this card, to Stephen from mom and dad.
We have man wrote that.
Right?
You're going to trust that man wrote that.
Folks, this is the note right here.
To Stephen from the Father in Heaven.
Every gift.
This is the little label, gift tag for every good thing that you've ever received in your
life.
This is a gift tag and you can just rip that off.
This got here on its own.
This came from its own accord.
The universe can and will create itself.
You know, you're unthankful is what it is because you don't love your parents.
If you love your parents, you'd want to acknowledge them, you know, when you get that gift you'd
be thankful and you'd want to recognize them.
It's not a burden to say thank you to someone who gives you something and it's a blessing
to you and you love them.
You want to thank them.
You know, you want to communicate with them.
You want to have a relationship with them.
So there's something in the heart of someone who doesn't believe on the Lord.
There's something wrong in their heart where they're not thankful.
This is really the root of a lot of things is just an unthankful attitude, ungrateful,
not wanting to be thankful but to just say, no, no, no, no, I did this myself.
I did everything myself or it's all a big accident or it did it on its own because they
don't want to give glory to anyone else.
They don't want to thank anyone else.
You know, it'd be like if someone invested greatly in my life or helped me achieve something
and then I didn't want to give them any of the credit for what they helped me to achieve,
right?
Let's say someone taught me how to do something and I just wanted to say, no, no, no, I taught
myself.
I did it all by myself.
Instead of acknowledging, well, hey, actually it was my mom who taught me, it was my dad
who taught me that or it was my sister who taught me, it was my friend who gave me that
idea or something.
She's like, no, no, no, I did everything myself.
Be thankful.
Be grateful to the people that have done things for you and especially for God who has done
things for you.
So what I want to point out about this passage where it says, because that when they knew
God, verse 21, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, okay?
So let's get this in order.
When you read Romans 1, it's important to understand that there's a progression of events
here.
He's not just listing a bunch of things out of order.
It's actually A leads to B, leads to C, leads to D. There's a progression, a chronology
that's happening here.
So they knew God when, when you see the word when, that's cluing you in, we're talking
about time here, there's a sequence of time.
When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful.
Now when it says they knew God, it's not saying they were saved, obviously.
Knowing God doesn't mean that he's your savior.
Knowing my dad doesn't mean that he's your dad because you know him.
Knowing someone means you're aware of them, you're familiar with them, you've been exposed
to them, and it, this is like the Spanish word conocer, it's that type of no if you
speak Spanish.
So basically it's saying, you know, when they knew God, they, they, they heard about the
Lord and they didn't glorify him.
They didn't worship him, they rejected him, and specifically they weren't thankful.
And then it says, but, so at that point, when they should have been glorifying God, at that
point instead they became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened, professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools.
So here's what we learned from this.
First of all, we said number one, people who are unthankful are unholy as a result.
Unthankfulness and unholiness go together.
But number two, people who are unthankful become unholy.
If you're unthankful, you become unholy because if we follow Romans chapter one to its conclusion,
we get to the ultimate acts of unholiness at the end of the chapter.
So here these people start out by not being thankful.
What's at the end of that road of being an ungrateful little snot?
What's at the end of that road of being unthankful and ungrateful?
You go down that road, you're not thanking mom, you're not thanking dad, you're not thanking
other people who've invested in your life, you're not thankful to God himself.
What's at the end of that road?
You know what's at the end of that road?
The worst kind of depravity imaginable.
The worst kinds of unholiness and sin.
And we know, of course, in this chapter that the people there described in Romans chapter
one, they end up being sodomites, men with men, working that which is unseemly.
Even the women, you know, are going to that which is against nature and men are doing
these unseemly acts and all the disgusting perversion.
How did they get there?
Well, they're born that way.
No they weren't.
They are unthankful, unholy people.
And if you go down that road, when you get all the way to the bottom of that toilet bowl
and you go down that toilet, you end up in a septic tank called sodomy.
You end up in a big steaming pile of filth and dung known as sodomy.
And you know what, don't get desensitized to how wicked sodomites are.
Do not get desensitized.
There is an agenda to brainwash you about this.
And you know what, as long as you know that that agenda exists, you're going to be able
to be immune to it.
As long as you keep the scripture in mind and understand a couple things.
Understand number one, that according to the Bible, the homos are the worst scum of this
earth.
That's what the Bible teaches.
I don't care if you're reading Genesis 19, Judges 19, I don't care if you're reading
Romans 1, the book of Jude, 2 Peter chapter 2.
All over scripture, New Testament, Old Testament, we will find that the homos, the sodomites
are the worst scum on this earth.
They're the most disgusting, evil, hateful people that exist on this planet.
I don't care what Hollywood says, I don't care what the church down the street says,
that's what the Bible says.
I've done plenty of sermons to prove that from the Bible ad infinitum.
I have proven that so many times, I can't even count.
And so here's the thing, don't let, so realize that number one, and then number two, realize
that the world has a program to soften you up to these people and to get you to accept
them into church and accept them into your life and into your circle of friends and that's
an agenda that's being pushed hard.
I mean all the TV shows are including it, people don't want to see that junk, but yet
the TV show's included, the movie's included, it's in the magazines, the newspaper, it's
just a constant barrage of this because they know they're going to wear you down, just
showing it to you, teaching it to you, desensitizing you.
So as long as you know what the Bible says and then you realize, hey, there's an agenda,
then when you go out into this world, you're ready to recognize that bias everywhere you
see it.
So anytime you see it, you go, oh, this is them trying to get me to accept this junk.
That's what this is.
And in fact, the propaganda will start having the opposite effect on you.
It'll start having the opposite effect.
Whereas the same piece of propaganda is softening up some queer bait to think it's okay, you,
because you know what the scripture says and you're aware of what's going on, when you
see it, you're going to be like, I know what this is, you think I'm stupid?
And you can identify it and it'll actually make you mad and it'll actually make you even
less tolerant toward this junk.
It can actually harden you up more and, and strengthen your convictions to where you won't
be softened to this garbage at all.
Okay.
But you have to know the truth and you have to be aware of what's happening is that, you
know, knowing is half the battle, you know, in the words of, of GI Joe, you know, hey,
now you know and knowing is half the battle.
And that's true that once you know what's going on and you can identify it, you're immunized
to it.
It's not going to affect you anymore.
And in fact, you'll have the opposite effect on you once you realize how dare these people
try to cram this junk down my throat.
It's a lie.
So we know that at the end of that unthankfulness road is the worst iniquity, the worst people,
the worst sin.
How did they get that way?
By being unthankful.
That's how they got that way.
And today, as our country raises a bunch of spoiled brats who are handed everything and
don't even appreciate it, and then you wonder why so many people are going down that road
and reprobates abound in our land.
Why is that?
Why is it that there's so much wickedness, so much sin, so much just bleh?
I'll tell you why.
It's because of the fact that people are ungrateful, unthankful, spoiled little brats in this country.
I mean think about, and you know what, this whole uprising that's going on right now in
our country is a bunch of garbage.
And I made that crystal clear in the couple of sermons that I did on this, but let me
just say it again and just remind you again, this uprising that's going on in our country
right now is complete garbage.
Now look, does our country have issues?
Does it have problems?
Does our government have problems?
Are there problems with the police that need to be reformed and everything?
Of course there are many things we'd like to see changed about the police.
There are many things about our society that aren't right, but this uprising is fighting
all the wrong battles for all the wrong reasons.
Look, just because you know that there's some problem, it doesn't mean that every solution
is a worthy solution.
What's this uprising all about?
Who's behind it?
Who's running it?
Well, the organization Black Lives Matter, it has nothing to do with being black.
Because if you go to their website, it's all about being a homo.
You look at the people who run it and it's like, his preferred pronoun is they.
What does that have to do with being black?
Nothing.
But what they do is they try to hide something wicked behind something that sounds noble.
Because obviously good people, people who love the Lord, and by the way, loving the
Lord and loving people goes hand in hand.
You know, if you don't love your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you've
not seen?
So people who love the Lord, they also love their fellow man.
Because God is love and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God, right?
So here's the thing.
People who love the Lord, you know what they also do?
They love black people.
They love Asians.
They love white people.
They love people in general.
They're not hateful toward people of other races.
You know, if I see somebody that just hates everybody of another race, you know, I feel
like that person doesn't love the Lord like they should.
Because why do they hate God's creation?
Why do they hate God's children, you know?
When you see that obviously God has children of all colors and nationalities and so forth.
So the person who is hateful toward other races of people is not a person who loves
the Lord.
You know, because if we love the Lord, we're going to love our brother in Christ whether
he's black, Chinese, Hispanic, you know, that's not even going to matter to us, okay?
And if we study the Word of God and if we love the Lord, that's how we're going to feel
about these things.
We're not going to be, you know, a white supremacist or something stupid like that.
So what they do is they take something that on the surface sounds good like, hey, we want
to love people and accept people of other nationalities as being fully human and just
of equal value as us.
And that's great.
Great.
Amen.
Sure.
Wonderful.
But here's the thing.
To come in with sodomy, communism, just wickedness, debauchery, folks, if you fall for it, you're
not wise.
Don't be deceived by it.
So they put it in this package, black lives matter.
Obviously everyone agrees with that unless you're just a complete idiot.
I mean, what kind of a person would just say, well, black people's lives don't matter, just
trash their lives indiscriminately because they have no value.
Who would believe that?
Oh yeah.
Planned Parenthood.
That's right.
Yeah.
Planned Parenthood is the only people who believe that.
But what I'm saying is, do you really think that there's just a whole bunch of people
in this country who don't think that black people's lives matter?
That's ridiculous.
That's stupid.
So they put this slogan on it that everybody can get behind.
It sounds real good, you know, that everybody kind of has to agree with.
I mean, how can you not agree with that?
With the fact that black people's lives matter?
We all agree with that.
Everybody agrees with that.
But here's the thing.
That organization, do you support black lives matter?
Hell no, because I don't support a bunch of fags and communists and wicked people.
Because if you go to their website, that's what it is.
It's run by lesbians and perverts.
So I'm not going to support that garbage.
Just because you give it a nice name that sounds nice, it's garbage.
And folks, Antifa, anti-fascist, who here is for fascism?
Anybody here want to promote a fascist regime in our country?
None of us are fascist.
None of us want to be fascist.
None of us like fascism.
We're not socialists or fascists.
You know, we believe in the American way of life and liberty and justice for all in this
country, right?
We're not fascist.
But here's the thing.
What's Antifa or anti-fascism, what's that actually about?
It's about a Marxist communist revolution.
It's about a bunch of weirdo perverts who want to turn our country into a God-hating
utopia for libtards.
That's what's going on today.
Folks, we as Christians should not have anything to do with this movement.
It's a movement that's based on unthankfulness.
Is this a movement that does, this uprising that's happening in our country right now?
Is it one that's about glorifying God?
Are they out there saying, hey, let's lift up the name of Jesus Christ.
Let's make sure we acknowledge our creator.
Is that what they're saying?
Is that what it's about?
No.
It's not about loving the Lord, acknowledging the creator.
You know what it is?
It's a bunch of spoiled brats that are just like, America didn't hand me everything.
They went to college and racked up some big student debt.
And now they're whining about it.
Because they wanted to go for free.
They want us to pay for their gender studies degree.
And folks, you might think that's a joke, but that's what people study at college.
And I know people do go to college and study legitimate things as well, but you know what?
A lot of people are, they're going to college and they're saying, gender studies.
What is that?
And then you know what's so funny?
Define irony.
Go to school for four years, gender studies, and you still don't know the difference between
boy and girl.
Hey, you know what?
I can tell you this.
I haven't taken a single class toward a gender studies degree.
I don't even have an associates in gender study.
And I can tell you very clearly the difference between man and woman.
I mean, I could break it down to use six ways to Sunday.
I know the difference.
These idiots get a PhD in gender studies and they don't know the most basic human anatomy
to tell the difference between a boy and a girl.
You could hand them a dog and they couldn't even tell you whether it was a boy or a girl.
I don't need a gender studies degree to figure that out.
So the point is that today we have just a bunch of spoiled rich kids in America whining
about how bad they have it.
Well, you know, let's drop you off in the Soviet Union of the 20th century and see how
you like that, you idiot.
You know what these people ought to be doing in college is studying the Gulag Archipelago.
Maybe they should be reading about what the Soviet Union was actually like and maybe read
about what their little communist utopias of the 20th century, the hell holes that they
created in this world and the millions of people that died because of that ideology
and they just act like, oh, America is so bad.
They're sitting there.
They want to burn the American flag and wave around some communist flag or something.
It's like, hello, is anybody home?
We live in the lap of luxury here.
And look, I'm not one of these flag-waving, apple pie-eating, Muricans, okay?
My citizenship's in heaven.
I, you know, I have no dog in this fight, but I will say this, though.
You know what?
I'm thankful for the blessings that I have living here because you know what?
I have more blessings living here than anywhere else in the world.
Don't show me those pictures of Switzerland and Germany and all and tell me how great
I've been there.
And you know what?
Germany sucks.
There I said it.
I'm glad I live in America.
I've spent months over there.
I've been there many times and you know what?
Compared to America, it sucks, okay?
And you know what?
You should thank God every day that you live in America.
The life that I live here in America, I could not have lived that life in Germany.
I would not be where I am right now in Germany.
Hey, when I was 24 years old, I owned my own three-bedroom home.
I was a pastor of a church and I had three kids.
I married three kids, pastoring a church, owned my own home with the swimming pool in
the backyard when I was 24 years old, working a blue-collar job.
That's America.
You think I'd do that?
If I was in Germany, I'd be 30 years old, living in my parents' basement, marrying my
concubine that I've already got two kids with and living in the basement with her and my
two kids.
That's where I'd be in Germany.
You cannot succeed in Germany like you can succeed here.
Oh, no.
No.
You can't, you work a second job in Germany, they'll tax the second job 90%.
Okay?
Hey, I know people in Germany, they're successful, they have great careers, they went to school,
they got their degrees, they're working hard, they're living in a high-rise apartment right
now.
Okay?
We have people today, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, that are living in a big, nice
house with a pool in the backyard.
Folks, there's so much opportunity here, there's so much prosperity here, why do you want to
flush it down the toilet for some socialist junk that doesn't work?
And you know how many kids people have in Germany?
1.7 or something.
Okay?
Why?
Because that's the lifestyle over there.
Right?
You live in a high-rise apartment, and you ride the train to work, and you live with
your parents till you're 30 or something.
Look, and I know I'm painting with a broad brush, but let me just tell you in general
that we have it better in America, period.
And how about spiritually?
Do we have it better spiritually in America?
Today I saw some news story about how Germany is going to be placing a bunch of children
with pedophiles as an experiment to see what happens.
You know, these things, that's the kind of junk that's going on over in the godless country
of Germany.
And that's an example of Europe where there's just so many places in Europe that are so
godless and so socialist, and you can't get ahead.
Yeah, and it works out perfectly if you're a vegan lesbian living by yourself.
Yeah, you could probably do pretty well in Denmark, or whatever.
But if you're actually a normal hetero family person who wants to live a Christian life,
you're going to have a hard time in Germany where homeschooling's illegal, and where it's
super hard to find a good church to go to, and where you can't, when you get behind financially,
you can't work two jobs, because they'll tax the second job 90%.
You know, here you can work 80 hours a week, no problem, and just make boatloads of money.
You know what I'm saying?
I mean, if you get in a bind financially, you know what you can do, you can get a second
job.
And hey, it's not fun working a second job, but you know what, at least you can get things
done, and at least you can fix your life, and you can get out of a bind that way.
I've done it, who's done it?
I mean, virtually the whole building has done that at some point in your life.
But today we've got a bunch of ungrateful little snots who went to school on some government
loan, learned about a bunch of liberal garbage, and then now all of a sudden they want to
have their student debt forgiven, so they're marching and pooping in the streets and waving
around a rainbow faggot flag.
And I'm supposed to respect this movement, why?
Folks, that's the reality.
It's what's going on in this country.
This is not a godly movement, and you know what, you say, well, you know, we want change,
we don't want to change that way.
If that's what change looks like, if that Capitol Hill autonomous zone in Seattle is
what change looks like, if the ransacking of the Scottsdale Fashion Center is what change
looks like, then you know what, let's just leave it alone.
You know what I'm saying, let's just leave it alone then, alright?
But what are these people, what's wrong with them?
What's wrong with these weirdos is that they're not thankful to God, they're not thankful
that they live in America, they're not thankful for the prosperity we have, they're not thankful
for the freedom of worship that we have, because they don't even want to worship God anyway.
Now go to Deuteronomy chapter 28, did I already have you turn there?
Go to Deuteronomy chapter number 28, and you might think I'm being a little harsh on these
people, but let me tell you something, I'm not being harsh enough on them.
I'm not being harsh enough on them, the Bible calls them all kinds of horrible names, brute
beasts, children of the devil, okay, these people are wicked, okay, and we as Christians
need to stand strongly against this stuff, and don't be deceived by the racial propaganda.
That is an invented issue.
Now look, has our country had race problems in the past?
Yes.
There were times in the past when people of certain nationalities weren't able to go to
certain schools, and they weren't able to go into certain careers, and they didn't get
to vote, or whatever, right, I mean there are a lot of things that were not fair and
not right, where people didn't get a fair shake simply because of the color of their
skin, but not in my lifetime.
I was born in 1981, and none of that has existed in my lifetime, okay, and most of us here
were not even born when that kind of stuff was going on, but the media has just brought
this all up just to try, just an excuse, okay, and the civil rights movement has basically
been bastardized and co-opted into something perverted.
It went from, well you can't refuse black people from coming to your business, to, well
you can't refuse homos, you gotta bake a cake for their wedding, and now they're saying
you can't fire them.
And you know what's gonna happen, I'll tell you what's gonna happen, there are gonna be
people who deserve to be fired for other reasons, and then bosses are gonna be like, well I
can't fire them, because then it's gonna be like, I fired them because they're a homo.
That's what's going on.
And you know what, I don't care what law is passed, our church will never hire a homo
for anything.
Okay, never, and if I owned a business, I used to own a business, I wouldn't hire homos.
No way, you know my brother, he used to work for a company where he had to hire people
for his job, and he had a secret code that he would put on those applications, because
he can't write like, homo.
So if some queer dude comes, he had like a little code where he'd write something different,
but it meant, you know sort of like Brazilian was a code word for the Jews on our Beyond
Jordan film, it's sort of like that, he'd put some kind of a cryptic code of all the
things he wasn't supposed to discriminate against, because he's not gonna hire a homo.
Why should we have to have some disgusting piece of human trash, and you know what, that's
what the Bible says they are, friend.
It says they hate God, they're made to be taken and destroyed, it says that in Leviticus
2013, what does it say, if a man lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of
them have committed an abomination, they shall surely be put to death, their blood shall
be upon them.
That's what the Bible says.
Okay, so you think that I want that around my family, you think I want that around my
business, my co-works, and by the way, they're the worst employees anyway, because they have
all these horrible attributes that the Bible says.
That's not gonna be a teen player.
And you say, well I don't appreciate this kind of preaching, then, oh okay, then go
somewhere else.
You know, I'm not buying into this brainwashing, I'm not gonna change on this.
Now the Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 45, it says moreover all these curses
shall come upon thee and shall pursue thee and overtake thee till thou be destroyed because
thou hearkenest not unto the voice of the Lord thy God to keep his commandments and
his statutes which he commanded thee and they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder
and upon thy seed forever because thou servits not the Lord with joyfulness and with gladness
of heart for the abundance of all things.
He's saying, look, you had everything going for you.
You had the abundance of all things, you lived in the lap of luxury and prosperity and instead
of serving God during that, what did you do?
You disobeyed the Lord, you didn't keep his statutes, everything was going perfect.
Why can't you just follow God's rules?
Why can't you just do things his way?
Everything's going so good.
Just be thankful, just be grateful, just like it and do what God wants you to do.
Folks living for God's a good life, living for God's a good life.
Here we are, we're in, not only are we in the United States, we're in the best state.
There I said it, Arizona is the best state.
We're living and I don't get you, oh, it's hot outside, so what?
Feel the burn.
I love this heat.
Sweat out all the toxins, it's good for you.
Hey, and you know what, everybody's got so much air conditioning anyway, give me a break.
But you know what, this is a great place to live.
We're blessed.
We have all this prosperity.
We have great weather and beautiful palm trees and everything going for us here.
And here's the thing, God just says, hey, keep my commandments and my commandments are
not grievous.
God's not telling you what to do for a living.
He's not telling you who to marry.
He's not telling you what to do with all your spare time.
You know, God gives you all these wonderful choices.
He gives you all these blessings.
You live in a great place.
But you know, he just wants you to just serve him and keep his commandments.
You know, he just wants you to go to church, read your Bible, pray.
Go soul winning.
You know, fellowship with Christians.
It's a good life.
Right?
I mean, live the godly Christian life.
And it's, not only is it a good life, but then you get the rewards.
But when everything's going great, instead you whine and complain and you want everything
to change.
Well, what does the Bible say?
Therefore verse 48, shalt thou serve thy enemies which the Lord shall send against thee in
hunger and in thirst.
Does this sound fun?
Is this how you want to do it?
You want to do it in hunger?
You want to be thirsty, naked, and in want of all things?
And he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until he have destroyed thee.
See, here's the thing.
Jesus Christ said this, my yoke's easy.
What did Jesus say?
My yoke is easy and my burden.
Take my yoke upon you.
And you know what people are saying today?
Well, I don't want, I don't want to have any yoke on me.
I don't want to be free.
I don't want to have a yoke on me.
Don't get me rude.
Don't tell me what to do.
And you know what they're saying about the Lord and about his Christ?
Let's break their bands asunder.
Let's cast away their cords from us.
And here's what they do.
They break off the yoke of Christ, which is an easy yoke.
It's a yoke made of driftwood.
It's the driftwood yoke.
You know what driftwood is?
It's that wood.
You go to pick up the wood and it's like, whoa, it's just, it's incredibly light.
You can't even believe how light it is, right?
The yoke that Christ puts on us is this driftwood yoke.
You know, you look at it and you're like, oh man, I guess I got to put on the yoke.
Guess we got to follow God's commandments.
Guess we got to live for God.
And then you put it on and you're like, whoa, I should have put this on sooner.
There's nothing to it.
But you know what happens when you refuse the driftwood yoke that Christ is offering
you?
You get the iron yoke.
Now iron is incredibly heavy.
He shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck.
You know, my wife is constantly saying, honey, would you get down the cast iron frying pan,
you know, or the cast iron.
And she has these giant cast iron and it's just like, you know, I mean, they're heavy.
That stuff is heavy.
You know, and you don't realize how heavy iron is until you start, you know, doing some
cooking with cast iron.
There's a reason why lifting weights is called pumping iron, right?
Pumping iron.
Because look, iron is very heavy, very heavy.
Now imagine a yoke made out of iron.
Imagine that.
I mean, a yoke is pretty big.
You know, imagine a yoke, does everybody know what a yoke is?
A yoke is basically where you take two animals and you basically would hook them together
with some wood over their shoulders, the kind of lock, and they bear that and it can, you
know, getting in the yoke with Christ is like you're going to work together with Christ
and you're going to bear the burden with Christ.
You and Christ together are going to work together and bear that burden.
But Christ said, well, look, my yoke's easy.
This yoke's going to be a piece of cake.
The devil's got a yoke for you, friend.
The devil has a yoke.
You say, oh, man, you know, this yoke that we have in the United States, Antifa's got
a yoke for you.
Okay, BLM has got a yoke for you.
They've got a yoke that, you know, I'm trying to think of something even heavier.
Is there even anything heavier than iron?
Lead?
They want to put you in the lead yoke, all right?
I mean, you know, they want to burden you with a burden that you can't even imagine.
And you're like, oh, this yoke that God put on me, it's so hard.
Hey, one day you wish for that yoke.
And you know what?
Forget politics.
Just in your personal life, you're 18, 19, 20, 21 years old, and you're like, oh, I want
to throw off the yoke of my parents.
I want to throw off the yoke of church.
Throw off the yoke of God's rules, and I'm just going to go out and live my life.
You know what?
The devil has got a yoke for you called alcoholism.
He's got a yoke for you called DUI.
He's got a yoke for you called felony criminal record that he wants to put on.
Here's a yoke he wants to put on you, child support.
Man, this Christian life's so restrictive, I need to get out and sew my wild oats.
And then you're going to knock some girl up and you're going to have this big yoke
showing up with your name on it called child support.
Here's a yoke for you, alimony.
Here's a yoke for you, HIV.
Here's a yoke, syphilis, gonorrhea.
Folks, the devil has got all kinds of yokes.
Here's a yoke for you, gambling addiction, student debt.
He wants to yoke you up with all kinds of other things because you don't want to listen
to your parents and listen to the Lord when God says, my yoke's easy.
But here, if you think you're going to go through life with no yoke, you're wrong.
Everybody's got a yoke, everybody.
See people think that they're choosing between Christ's yoke and no yoke, but you know what?
They're actually choosing between Christ's yoke and the devil's yoke.
And whosoever committed sin is the servant of sin.
Look I'd rather be a servant of Christ, his yoke's easy.
The way of transgressors is hard, the Bible says, it's a hard life.
You ever look at a woman and say, well she looks like she's lived a hard life.
It's not because she taught a lot of Sunday school.
That's not what that means.
Well she had a lot of kids, taught a lot of Sunday school, washed the saint's feet.
That's not what that means folks.
When they say she lived a hard life, you know what they're saying?
That she fornicated, got drunk, snorted cocaine, whatever, right?
That's the kind of stuff that we're talking about when we talk about a woman who lived
a hard life.
You know when you think about women that look like they're 75 when they're actually 45.
Or you can even see women that look like they're 55 when they're 25.
And you know what, they didn't get that way from serving God too much.
It's just one too many soul winning excursions.
One too many hours reading the Bible.
They went a little overboard on prayer.
That's not what happened.
No they've been wearing a really heavy yoke that the devil had for them.
And so God says, because you didn't want to serve God and enjoy all the good things
that he had for you, you know what you're going to do?
You're going to be hungry, you're going to be thirsty, you're going to be naked, you're
going to be in want of all things.
You're not going to have what you want, you're not going to have what you need, and you're
going to be wearing a heavy yoke that's going to cut into your flesh.
It's going to chafe you and you're going to bleed.
And why?
Because you weren't thankful for what God gave you.
And you say, I want something better.
I'll take what's behind door number two.
You know, God's saying, well look, you've already won this prize right here.
Here's what you got.
No, I'll take what the devil's got for me behind door number two.
And then when door number two opens, it's that boat that's just like broken in the middle.
You remember that?
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Almost no one.
It was a game show when I was a kid called Let's Make a Deal.
And you can either take what you've got, like they'd already have something worth a thousand
bucks or a couple thousand bucks, or you can take what's behind door number two.
And then sometimes they'll open door number two and it's like something way bigger.
Other times they'll open door number two and it would just be, it was just like a fishing
boat broken in half.
And that just, that was just a way to dramatically represent, you get nothing.
You know, so instead of just nothing being there, they'd have something broken or some
old broken wheelbarrow.
It's like this is what you've earned.
This is what you get.
Okay.
Well, that's how it is with the devil.
You know, you've got, you don't understand how good you have it.
And then you're just like, well, I want what's behind the door of that strip club.
You know what's behind the door of that strip club?
It's just a fishing boat just broken in half.
If you ever wonder what's inside that building and you hear the, you know, you hear the pulsating
music and the neon lights and it, and you know, you're just kind of like, oh, I'm just
curious about the bar.
I'm just curious that casino, it's got that big led screen.
If you want to know, you open the door of the casino and you know what's behind that
door?
Just a fishing boat broken in half.
Now that's the only one I remember.
You know, when you're a kid, certain things stand out in your mind.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
What else was there behind that door sometimes?
What were some of the bad prizes that were meaningless?
Everybody just remembers that, that broken boat, huh?
A donkey?
Who remembers a donkey?
That's what's waiting for you.
You're like, oh, I'm just going to check out the casino, go down to the rez, have some
fun.
I've seen all the billboards and you know what's just waiting in there?
A donkey.
I like the broken boat better.
But lastly, this go to first Timothy chapter four.
I got to hurry up and finish.
Be thankful.
You know, just God's been so good to us.
We have it so good.
And you know what?
Whenever I hear about this uprising that's going on in our country right now, to me it
just screams out ungrateful, unthankful, spoiled brats.
They want everything handed to them.
They want everything on a silver platter.
And here's the thing.
You know what?
Everything's not going to be handed to you in life.
And let me tell you something, you know, when, you know, I'm glad, I'm thankful to
God that long before I was born, the slaves were freed in this country.
I thank God for that.
And I'm thankful that long before I was born, all doors were open to people of all colors
to go to whatever school they want, do whatever job they want.
Hey, I'm, I'm glad that those doors have been opened before I was even born.
But you know what?
That doesn't guarantee, that doesn't guarantee the black people are going to be successful.
And there's no guarantee that white people are going to be successful.
And there's no guarantee that Hispanics are going to be successful.
And there's no, you know what?
You have to do that yourself, no matter who you are.
And you know what?
Some people have more advantages than others, but you know what?
There are people who have one arm that have succeeded in sports, am I right?
No legs, no arms, and you see people like that achieving things.
Now look, do they have a harder time?
But you know what?
You still see them getting things done.
And hey, we all have advantages, we all have disadvantages, but you know what, at the end
of the day though, God's good to all of us.
Even if, even if you say, you know what, you didn't understand what my upbringing was like,
you didn't understand the disadvantages I've dealt with, you didn't understand the uphill
battle that I've gone through.
You know what?
You are sitting here at Faithful Word Baptist Church, listening to the Word of God, sitting
in a comfortable chair, in a climate-controlled building, in the most prosperous place in
the world, and you're sitting here, and you're worshiping the Lord, and you're saved, and
you're going to heaven, I don't feel bad for you.
I just don't.
You know what?
The world has a lot of worse places to be than where we are right now.
There's a lot of worse places we could be right now, okay?
And I'd rather be in church on Sunday night than taking a beating in an alley somewhere,
amen?
All right, everybody should be able to agree with that.
All right, 1 Timothy 4, I'll close on this, it says in verse 1, now the Spirit speaketh
expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith.
And this is kind of similar to what we see in 2 Timothy, right?
2 Timothy is reiterating this to Timothy, hey, in the last days perilous times shall
come.
Here he's saying, hey, in the latter times some shall depart from the faith.
Well guess what?
Those two things go hand in hand, don't they?
Giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having
their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats,
you vegans, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe
and know the truth, for every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused, and
this is what I want to focus on, if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified
by the Word of God and prayer.
Point number 1 was that people who are unthankful are unholy.
Point number 2 is that people who are unthankful become unholy.
And point number 3 is that thankfulness leads to holiness.
Thankfulness leads, so unthankfulness leads you to unholiness, but being more thankful,
if you work on being more thankful, you'll become more holy.
Now how does thankfulness lead to holiness?
Well the Bible says right here that even if we took some animal that in the Old Testament
was considered an unclean beast, like let's say we took pork, right?
Because in the Old Testament, that was considered an unclean beast, pigs, right?
But the Bible says that if I take that ground pork, and I thank, and if I receive it with
thanksgiving, right?
So if I'm given a pulled pork sandwich with barbecue sauce, and I receive that with thanksgiving,
it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.
Now what does it mean to be sanctified?
To be made holy.
Sanctify is the verb to make something holy, to get it holy.
It's saint-ified, right, sanctified.
So basically that becomes a saint pulled pork sandwich.
So here's the thing, that pulled pork sandwich, I don't care if it came from an unclean beast,
the Bible says if I receive that with thanksgiving, any creature, if I receive that with thanksgiving,
that pork sandwich is sanctified, it's made holy by the Word of God and prayer.
Now listen, don't turn there, but listen to this, Romans 14, 6 says, he that regardeth
the day regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he
doth not regard it.
He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks, and he that eateth not
to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
So notice all throughout scripture we don't have time to look at all the verses where
Jesus is giving thanks for his food.
Jesus in the four Gospels is constantly giving thanks for his food.
At the Last Supper he gives thanks, he eats the food.
Feeds the five thousand, gives thanks, feeds the five thousand.
So this is a frequent thing, the Apostle Paul's doing it, Jesus is doing it, and that's why
we do this.
When we eat food, we pray and ask God to bless the food, and we thank God for the food.
And even if we don't do it verbally every single time, we ought to do it in our heart
at least every single time.
Every time we sit down to eat, we should say, God, thank you for this food.
Thank you for this food.
I mean, at least that's some prayer that you're getting in.
At least you're thanking God for the food.
And you know what the Bible says, that when you thank God for your food, now it becomes
a holy act at that point.
Now it's sanctified.
That food has been sanctified.
How did it get sanctified?
How did it get holy?
Because you were thankful for it.
So the principle that I want to draw from that is that thankfulness leads to holiness.
And this makes sense, because if unthankfulness, according to Romans 1, leads you to unholiness,
being thankful to God is going to lead you into holiness in your life.
Folks, if you're thankful to God, you're going to be more holy.
And children, if you're thankful to your parents, if you stop and think, wow, my parents
really work hard to give me the things that I have, or wow, that was really nice of my
parents to take me on this trip or to buy me this item or whatever I need, or wow, that's
really nice of my parents.
If you start being thankful to your parents, you know what, obeying your parents is going
to come a lot easier.
Respecting your parents is going to come a lot easier when you stop and think.
You know, I stop and think about the fact that my parents made a lot of sacrifices for
me growing up.
They made sacrifices to take me to church.
They made sacrifices to put me in Christian school.
And look, I'm not a fan of Christian school, but you know what, my parents did that because
they loved me though.
Even if I'm not a fan of Christian school, even if we believe that homeschooling is superior,
what was my parents' motive for putting me in Christian school?
You know what, they're paying hundreds of dollars a month to do that because they loved
me and cared about me and wanted me to turn out right.
That was a sacrifice that they were making.
And my parents would drive far to take us to the right church.
They'd drive us to the best church, and they were there, and they made all kinds of sacrifices
for us, and you know what, I'm thankful for that.
And my parents taught me a lot of great things, and so I'm thankful for that.
And you know what, that makes honoring your parents easy when you think that way.
That makes honoring God easy when you think that way.
You're not just like mad about everything God's not letting you do, because the list
of what he's telling you not to do is a lot shorter than the list of what you're allowed
to do.
I mean, I could give you, you want to challenge me?
I could give you a list of a thousand things right now.
Off the top of my head, a thousand good, fun, profitable things that you're allowed to do
that God is okay with you doing.
I mean, how long do you want to make a list?
I could list a thousand things that God is okay with you doing.
How many things is he not okay with you doing?
I mean, it's just a few things, right?
It's just don't drink, don't chew, don't go with girls who do, you know?
Don't lie, don't steal, don't fornicate, don't commit adultery, don't get drunk, don't take
drugs.
You know, I don't think I could come up with a thousand.
I think I'll probably run out of steam a lot sooner than that.
You know, the Jewish rabbis who are obsessed with rules.
They're obsessed with rules.
The Pharisees, they could only come up with 613 rules in the whole Bible.
That's all they could come up with and I think that they're double counting a lot of things,
okay?
Because they like to add rules, don't they?
And really, God only has two rules, if you think about it, because God's, really God's
two rules are just love God and love your neighbor and if you do that, you'll take,
everything else will be fine.
Because any time you're sinning, you're violating one of those two things.
So if we're thankful, that will lead us to holiness.
The purpose of the sermon tonight is just to emphasize to you how important it is to
be thankful and when you see the wickedness of this world, see if you can identify the
unthankfulness at the root of it and I bet you it's there.
And look at all the weirdness that's going on in our country right now and all the stupidity
and all of the rioting and let's get to the heart of what these people are saying and
look at what their demands are and what they want and what they expect and you know what
you're going to find?
A bunch of ungrateful spoiled brats who are unthankful to God.
And at the heart of the atheist scientist who just spends his whole life dedicated to
trying to prove that God doesn't exist, as if that were even possible to prove, that
guy, if you probe him, what you're going to find is unthankfulness.
And every bratty kid who won't obey mom and dad, I bet you that they're not thankful for
what mom and dad do for them every day.
So be thankful.
Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for everything you've given us, Lord.
You have blessed us above measure.
Thank you, Lord, that your yoke is so easy because, Lord, if you wanted to, you could
put a heavy yoke on us and you'd be justified to do that and we'd have to shut up and do
it.
So thank you so much for the fact that your yoke is easy and, Lord, help us not to be
enamored by what the world has to offer behind door number two, Lord.
Help us to just be thankful with what we have and not go chasing after something that's
off limits, Lord.
And help us not to get sucked into these popular movements just because they sound good on
the surface, Lord.
Help us to look at what's beneath the outer coating that looks good.
Help us to go and find the rottenness at the bottom that's unthankfulness and decide
that we're not going to be that guy, Lord.
Help us to be very thankful every day.
Thank you for every meal and thank you for every blessing that we have, Lord, and in
Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Go ahead and grab your song books.
We'll all sing together one last song before we go.
A Shelter in the Time of Storm, song number 146.
Song number 146, A Shelter in the Time of Storm.
The Lords are rocking him behind A shelter in the time of storm
To cure whatever ill he died A shelter in the time of storm
Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land A weary land, a weary land
Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land A shelter in the time of storm
Second verse, song number 146.
Ashamed by gay defense by night A shelter in the time of storm
No fears of our no foes of fright A shelter in the time of storm
Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land A weary land, a weary land
Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land A shelter in the time of storm
The raging storms may round us deep A shelter in the time of storm
We'll never leave our safe retreat A shelter in the time of storm
Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land A weary land, a weary land
Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land A shelter in the time of storm
Oh, our divine, oh refuge here A shelter in the time of storm
Be thou our helper ever here A shelter in the time of storm
Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land A weary land, a weary land
Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land A shelter in the time of storm
God bless you all. Have a wonderful night. See you next time.