church because it was the passage that we memorized just several weeks back when we
went through the weekly, week-by-week learning, Psalm 15.
And it's one of my favorite chapters.
I mean, that's part of the reason why we chose to memorize it.
But I love the first verse of the question that he asked, Lord, who shall abide in thy
tabernacle?
Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
Now what's he saying?
Who shall abide in thy tabernacle?
Well, the word abide means to stay somewhere.
So really, when I read that, the way that I read that is, who is going to stay in church?
Who is going to stay in God's house?
Who is going to stay in the tabernacle?
Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?
Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
Have you ever noticed people coming and going in churches?
You may not have been in church that long.
Maybe you're kind of new to church, which is great, you know, glad that you're getting
in church.
But I grew up in church.
Because one thing you notice if you're in church for a long time, you'll notice that
people come and people go.
And they usually go somewhere that's liberal, or they usually just don't go anywhere at
all when they leave this kind of a church.
I mean, I'm not saying that everybody does, you know, God willing, they would go to some
other independent, fundamental Baptist church that's King James only, that preaches hard,
that wins souls.
Hey, that'd be great.
But let's face it, a lot of people just fall out.
And I want to tell you something before I get into the message.
And the whole message is found in the book of Psalms.
We're going to look at a lot of different Psalms.
I'm going to tell you something, the only way to lose, the only way to be a loser in
the Christian life is to quit.
It's the only way to lose.
I mean, I've been at this thing for a long time from a child.
I've been soul-winning now, knocking doors soul-winning for about eight years now.
I've been winning people to Christ and really serious about my walk with God.
The only real way to lose is to quit.
The people who stay in church for years and years and years, the people who stay with
soul-winning for years and years and years, they go through ups and downs.
They go through times when they're more productive than others.
They go through times when more people are getting saved than others.
They go through some times when they're learning a lot more from the Bible.
Other times when it seems like they're not getting as much from the Bible.
But I'm going to tell you something, the people who stay with it will succeed in the Christian
life.
They will succeed.
He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
And the only way to lose is to quit.
If you quit church, if you quit soul-winning, if you quit reading the Bible, hey, then you're
a loser.
But if you stay with it, you say, well, I'm weak, I'm a weak Christian, I do the things
that I would not and there's things that I want to do for God and I just can't really
bring myself to do it and I keep failing and falling and making mistakes.
But God is saying, hey, if you stay with it, if you abide in God's tabernacle, I'm going
to tell you something, you will succeed because a good man falls seven times and rises up
again.
See, God says you're going to fail in life.
The question is are you going to get back up and stay with it?
But the question that I want to know is tonight is the same question that David asked in Psalm
15, who is it that's going to stay?
Who is it tonight that's in this room that's going to stay with the things of God?
Who's going to stay in God's tabernacle?
Who's going to dwell in God's holy hill?
I mean, live there where God's power is, where God's blessing is.
Well, as I studied this, I read a great deal in the book of Psalms just saying I spent
a few hours just reading nothing but Psalms.
Usually I'm memorizing in the New Testament is what I focus on, but I was just reading
Psalms for hours just going through these Psalms and I saw a pattern.
I saw some different things that just kept popping up in relationship with this thing
of staying with it, of not being moved, of not changing, staying with the things of God
over the long haul.
Well, you think about it, Amanda's been here since our second Sunday in existence.
You know, and this church is kind of a different kind of church than most churches that people
have been to.
She's been here since day one practically.
Why is it that she's here and yet there are several other people that she has seen come
and go?
Everybody that I've seen come and go, she's pretty much seen come and go.
Virginia's been here since very early on.
Her first day was April 5th, 2006, so a little over a year now.
She's seen people come and go.
She's seen people come and get involved and they're gone.
Why are they still here?
Why are you still here?
Hey, who's still going to be here another year from now?
Who's still going to be here 10 years from now?
Who's still going to be reading the Bible and soul when he is serving God 10 years from
now?
Who is going to abide in God's tabernacle is the question.
Do you want to be one of the people that stays or do you want to be one of the failures,
the washers, the losers, the quitters who don't stay with it?
Well, let's see what God's formula is.
The Bible says here, we're going to see several different Psalms.
There's eight different Psalms that we're going to look at, not the entire Psalm, but
scriptures from eight different Psalms starting of course in Psalm 15.
The Bible says, Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?
Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart.
Now we could dwell on each of these things for so long, but God says, the thing that's
going to keep you in church, the thing that's going to keep you straight is number one,
you're going to be working.
Are you working?
See, the people who fall out of church are not the workers.
They're not the producers.
They're not the people who win people to Christ.
They're not the people who bring people to church that they want to Christ to get baptized.
Hey, those aren't the ones who fall out of church because the people who work righteousness,
they don't just believe righteousness.
They don't just come to a church that preaches righteousness, but they work righteousness.
It says, he that worketh righteous, that's who's going to abide in the tabernacle.
He that rolls up his sleeves and says, I'm going to go knock some doors and get some
people safe.
Hey, who says, I'm going to do some work for God.
I'm going to produce something for God.
I'm going to build something for God.
Hey, that's the person who's going to stay in this tabernacle right here.
That's the person who's going to stay in church and speak the truth in his heart.
What's the person who had God's word in their heart?
The person who studies and memorizes the Bible with us.
Of course, every single week in the bulletin, we have memory verses every week.
Hey, who's going to be in church?
Probably the people who are memorizing those verses are probably the people that are going
to stick with it.
Probably the people who speak the truth in their heart, not just a bunch of lip service
that comes out of their mouth.
Not just a mouth that, you know, some people walk into church and, man, they know what
to do.
They know what to say.
They dress right.
They smell right.
They talk right.
They act right.
God bless you.
Praise the Lord.
But do they speak the truth in their heart?
What's going through their head?
Because you have to understand, when the Bible talks about the word heart, maybe in our modern
day mind, we would think about somebody's mind, okay, when we think about heart.
You know, the Bible talks about the heart, but it's really what you're thinking about,
what's going through your head.
What's going through your heart?
What's in your heart on Monday is part of what's going to determine whether you stay
with it.
What's going through your mind all day Tuesday when you're at work?
What do you spend your time thinking about?
What do you dwell on?
Is it who's going to be kicked out of American Idol?
Is that what you dwell on?
Is that what you think about?
I don't even know if that's how it works.
I just hear this.
You know, I just hear terminology.
I'm sitting in the airport, working on my laptop, and there's another businessman sitting
next to me.
He's working on his laptop.
Some lady walks up to us.
Hey, do you guys know who is it that got kicked off Idol?
And we both just look at her like, what?
I don't care.
I don't know what you're talking about.
And she's like, oh, I just saw the laptop, and I thought you might know.
Yeah, that's what I'm doing, honey.
I'm on my Yahoo, trying to get the update of who's been kicked off Idol.
And you know, why would you watch, why would you, a born-again Christian watch a show that's
called Idol?
It's idolatry.
Okay?
Yeah, you're worshipping a human being.
You know, why don't you bow down to them and worship them?
And so I don't like American Idol.
And by the way, wasn't it great that we sung all four verses of the Star-Spangled Banner
without perverting it and singing it like an idiot, like they sing it at these ball
games where they're, oh, so you know, they get all, I can't even do it.
I wish I could impersonate it for you, where it's like, it's just, it's all over, whoo,
whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo.
It sounds like they're tuning in a radio or something.
They can't just sing the song.
Hey, I like to sing that song the way it was meant to be sung.
It's a great song.
Quit messing with it.
Quit messing it up.
They want you to sing all four verses, the ones that are about God and Jesus Christ while
you're at it.
But I, you know, nothing to do with the sermon again.
It says, he that speaketh the truth in his heart, he that backbiteth not with his tongue,
nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up her approach against his neighbor, in whose
eyes a vile person is contempt.
Now, you might not like this part of the sermon.
I'm going to warn you right now, okay?
Plug your ears if you don't like hard preaching.
But you know what the word contempt means?
The word contempt comes with the word contempt.
Contempt means hatred.
That's what it means.
See, a vile, disgusting person, God says, in your eyes, if you're going to sing with
it, you better hate the vile perverts of this world.
And you say, well, I just don't feel, I just feel like I just need to love everybody.
Hey, shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord?
Therefore is wrath upon thee from God.
Second Chronicles chapter 19, 2 says that it's a sin, a sin to love those that hate
God.
That's what the Bible says.
Second Chronicles 19, 2.
What happens when you turn on the television and idolize somebody who hates God?
You watch these filthy sodomites on the television, these filthy homosexuals, and that's who you
love, that's who you adore.
Oh, I just love Keanu Reeves.
Did you know that Keanu Reeves is a sodomite?
Did you know that?
Did you know that Leonardo DiCaprio is a sodomite?
Did you know that both of those men acted in movies before they were famous, where,
I don't even want to mention what they did, but they did sodomite acts on the screen,
pornographic films.
They're both about sodomites.
Did you know that Ricky Martin is a sodomite?
Did you know that Elton John is a sodomite?
Hey, do I, how far down the road do I need to go?
How long down the list do I need to go for you to understand that Hollywood is filled
with vile perverts?
Hey, where's your love tonight?
Where's your love?
Do you love the brotherhood, like the Bible says?
Love the brotherhood?
Love his brethren?
Hey, love the church that Jesus Christ died for?
Will you love the people in this room, or do you have more love for the vile people
in this world who are destroying America with their garbage?
Hey, you should have contempt for that.
Yes, well, Leonardo DiCaprio is on some side, that's why I say, I hate that sinking pervert.
It's perverting America.
Man, I hate Keanu Reeves, see, I can't believe he talked like that.
Well, read the Bible.
I have contempt for the vile, filthy perverts of this world who prey on children, who abuse
young people.
Hey, I'm sick of it.
I'm going to preach against it.
You don't like it?
Then go to 99 other churches in this town that won't preach against it.
You can pick whichever one you want, close your eyes, open the phone book, and put your
finger down and go there, and you won't hear that.
But you'll hear it here, because it's in Psalm 15, and that's what we're preaching tonight.
Look up the word contempt in your dictionary.
But he honoreth them that fear the Lord.
And watch this, this is an important part, and we're going to see this in several other
chapters.
He that squareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.
What does that mean?
That means that when you make a vow, when you make a commitment to something, when you
decide to lock yourself into something, it doesn't matter how much it hurts you, you
will not change.
What's a perfect example?
How about marriage?
Perfect example.
He that swearth to his own hurt, and changeth not.
The person who says, I take thee to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold
in sickness and in hell, for better, for worse, for richer, and for poorer, from this day
forward, for better, for worse, so long as we both shall live, do you so promise I do?
Hey, that's, you just swore an oath before God.
You just swore to God something, hey, maybe that might, that, that oath might hurt you
at some point.
Hey, don't change.
Don't change spouses.
Don't change husbands.
Don't change wives.
Hey, you swear of your own hurt and change not.
You have an attitude that says, I've opened my mouth unto the Lord, as Jephthah said,
and I cannot go back.
He said, I must perform the oath that's gone out of my lips.
Hey, if you swear to your own hurt and don't change, that's where you're going to abide
in God's tabernacle.
That's the people that are still in church right now.
The people who stand by their word, they say I'm going to do something, they do it.
You can apply it to any area of life, you know, marriage is a great example in the day
that we're living.
But you can really apply it to any area of life.
Hey, when you swear that you're going to do something, you better do it.
You better perform the oath that goes out of your mouth.
You better do what you said you're going to do.
He that puteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent, he
that doeth these things shall never be moved.
What a promise.
I mean, that's as much of a promise in the Bible as John 3.16.
If you could just learn the formula here in Psalm 15 and do these things, you will stay
in church.
You will dwell in the holy hill.
Hey, you will never be moved according to God.
Look at the next words of Psalm 16 verse 1.
Preserve me, O God.
What does preserve mean?
Well, think about it.
If you preserve, think about preservatives, right?
Okay.
You don't want to eat food with preservatives in it.
What's a preservative?
It's something that makes something stay in the same state that it's in right now.
Right?
I mean, if I were to preserve, if I were to do some kind of canning or jarring of fruits,
you know, that's what I do in my spare time, as I understand, is really into canning and
things like that.
Yeah, right.
Okay.
I don't spend very much time in the kitchen.
Okay.
But anyway, you know, you preserve something.
You want it to be the same like 10 years from now when you open that can.
I mean, as long as you can can things, am I being ridiculous?
How long does it last?
I don't know what I'm talking about.
One year.
Okay.
One year.
Hey, a year later, do you want it to be different?
No.
Different is probably going to be bad.
Okay.
Different is probably going to be rotten, moldy.
No.
You want it to be the same.
You want something to be preserved.
You think of things that are preserved, think of Lake Tahoe, where things fall down to the
bottom of Lake Tahoe, where it's really, really cold.
And they pull up.
Oh, this is too gruesome.
I'm sorry.
I shouldn't have even gotten there.
It just popped into my mind.
But they have, they find people that are perfectly preserved.
They look like they just fell in yesterday, down to the bottom of Lake Tahoe.
Hey, they're preserved.
They're in the same state now as they were back then.
That's what preservation means.
When we believe in the preservation of God's Word, that God's Word today in 2007 is exactly
like He said it, exactly like Moses said it, exactly like John said it.
We believe that it's been preserved to us.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away, is what Jesus said three
different times.
So what David is praying here is I don't want to change.
I don't want to be moved.
Same thing we saw in Psalm 15.
If you say, preserve me, God, will you keep me the same now, and will you keep me this
way forever, God?
Will you keep me in church?
I'm on fire for God.
I'm winning souls.
I'm reading the Bible.
I'm excited about church.
Will you preserve me in the state that I'm in?
Now you may not be in a state right now where you walk out to preserve you the way you are.
Well get to the point where you want to be and say, preserve me, keep me this way.
I don't want to be moved.
I want to stay with it.
Look down, if you would, to verse 8.
The Bible says, I've set the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices.
My flesh also shall rest in hope.
See, part of the way that you abide in God's cabinet, part of the way you stay with it
for the long haul is by staying close with Jesus Christ.
David said the way that I know I'm not going to move is that I've set the Lord always before
me.
Because he's always at my right hand, I know I'm not going to be moved.
Because Jesus does not move.
Jesus does not change.
I believe the same things right now that I believed as a child about salvation, about
the Bible, about the doctrines of the faith.
Why should I change with everybody else who's changing?
Why?
Jesus Christ did not change.
The Bible did not change.
I'm not going to change.
I want to be preserved the way that I've always believed.
I'm going to stick with it.
Why?
Because it's what the Bible says.
And I'm going to tell you something, the best way to make sure that you're not moved and
you're floating around and you're in some liberal church next week and this week you're
reading the King James, next week you're reading the NIV, hey, how are you going to stay the
same?
You've got to keep Jesus Christ at your right hand all the time.
You've got to stay close with Jesus Christ all the time.
You've got to draw an eye to God and he'll draw an eye to you and keep him right there
where you can always get your bearings.
It doesn't matter whether you see what's going on around you.
It doesn't matter whether you get confused about things.
Hey, Jesus is always right there with you.
I mean, if you're having close fellowship and walk with God all the time, you can't
change like that, my friend, because Jesus doesn't move.
If he's at your right hand, you didn't move.
If he reached out there and he's not there, you changed.
You moved.
If you're distant from God tonight, thou will show me, verse number 11, great verse, thou
will show me the path of life and thy presence is fullness of joy.
At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
Look at Psalm 24.
The reason we're talking about this is because nothing in the Christian life is fast, nothing.
If you say, well, I'm just going to sell out for God and I'm going to serve God with everything
I've got for two months, big deal.
You've done almost nothing.
Hey, look, if I said, man, I'm going to just start Faithful Word Baptist Church and we're
just going to attack the city of Tempe two months and see what we can do for God, you've
done almost nothing.
Hey, there's seven billion people in this world.
It is 175,000 people in Tempe.
It is almost three million people in Maricopa County.
In two months you've done nothing.
It's like a drop of water on a hot stove.
The only way you're going to accomplish anything worthwhile for God is in a lifetime, a lifetime.
This church is not going to be built overnight.
It's going to be a lifetime.
It's going to be the children that are listening to me right now.
It's going to be when they grow up and they have their family in this church.
It's going to be when the people that we won the Christ today, also winning the three
people that got saved.
It's when they finally get in church and start coming to church that might be years from
now when they realize how important it is to be in the house of God.
And they say, I wonder what church I should go to.
Maybe now that I have kids or maybe now that I've had some things happen in my life that
shook me up.
Maybe after God disciplined them a little bit for the way that they're living and they
come to themselves like the potable son came to himself when he was in the pit with the
swine.
And they say, I wonder where I should go to church.
And they pull out a coupled old invitation to Faithful Word Baptist Church and say, you
know what?
I wonder if Faithful Word Baptist Church is still around.
I wonder if it's still the same kind of church it was when they knocked on my door and won
me the Lord ten years ago.
I wonder if it's still there.
I wonder if Pastor Anderson is still the pastor.
I wonder if Brother Dave that was with him out soul winning that day, I wonder if he's
still there.
See that's why you can't move.
That's why you can't change.
That's why you've got to stay in it for the long haul.
If you're going to accomplish something for God, it's going to take a lifetime of you
living for God every day, every week for years and years and years.
It's not measured in years, your success, it's going to be measured in decades.
You're going to look at a decade of success.
See with God, time means nothing.
With God, a day is like a thousand years.
You serving God for two months is like nothing to him.
I mean he dwells in eternity.
And that's why I say we sell out for God and live for God for two months and say God's
not blessing me.
It's been two whole months and I haven't missed a service.
What's the, it could take years for God to bless you.
You must be in it for the long haul.
That's why if you don't get this message, you missed everything, you blew it.
God can't use you because you didn't understand that you're in it for the long haul.
My philosophy of starting this church would be totally different if I were not in it for
the long haul.
If I was looking for some kind of an immediate success or immediate results, I'd be doing
things completely different.
I'm doing things looking way off into the future, keeping this church preserved, keeping
it right, letting it grow at its own pace as God builds it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the doors.
Don't get me wrong.
I'm not doing everything I can.
But I want to tell you something.
I'm in it for the long haul.
Hey, you're going to hang out a while and see what happens.
Stay with it for a while and fall out and you'll miss the whole thing.
You'll hear about it somewhere.
Psalm 24 verse 3, same thing.
Look at the same wording.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?
I mean who's really going to the higher places, right, with God?
I mean the top levels.
Who's going to ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who shall stand in His holy place?
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
That's one of your memory verses this week.
A pure heart, clean hands, who have not lifted up his soul unto vanity, watch this, nor sworn
deceitfully.
Didn't we see that in Psalm 15?
People who swear to their own hurt and change not, they don't swear deceitfully and lie
and go back on their word what they promised.
He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of His salvation.
You see, in order for you to stay in church, in order for you to abide in God's tabernacle,
in order to live and dwell in His holy hill, you've got to walk uprightly.
You've got to work righteousness.
Hey, you've got to have clean hands and you've got to have a pure heart.
How do you get a pure heart?
Well, maybe it would help if back in Psalm 15 you spoke the truth in your heart.
Maybe if you have God's word in your heart instead of all the world's garbage in your
heart, that's going to help you to have a pure heart.
It's going to help you to have a clean heart.
And when your heart's pure, your hands are going to be clean.
You say, well, the outside doesn't matter.
I think it's just what's going on in the heart that matters.
I don't think the way I dress matters.
I don't think the way I look.
I don't think it matters if I take a bath or a shower.
I mean, I think it doesn't matter if I smell bad.
It doesn't matter the way I dress.
It's just the inside that counts.
Stop judging me.
This is what Jesus said.
He said, thou Pharisee, he said, you're a hypocrite in Matthew 23, he said, cleanse
first.
So we're talking about two things here.
Cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter.
Why?
That the outside may be clean also.
See, people who clean up the inside, it's amazing the outside gets clean.
People who cleanse within the cup and platter, eventually you'll find that person having
clean hands.
You'll find that person clean on the outside.
Why?
Because the inside being clean will make the outside clean.
What's the point of cleaning the inside so that the outside will be clean?
Cleanse first within the cup and platter, he said, that the outside may be clean also.
That's the purpose.
And so he did have clean hands and a pure heart who did not lift up his soul into vanity
nor swarm deceitfully.
Look at Psalm 46.
Flip over in your Bible to Psalm 46.
We're going through the book of Psalms tonight.
Psalm 46, look at verse number one.
And boy, I love the Bible.
That's why my sermons are a lot of Bible.
I love the Bible.
The Bible is more eloquent than anything I could tell you.
This is what will help you more.
I could get up and yell and start crying and tell tear-jerking stories and illustrations.
And we could have a big altar call and people come down and cry, oh, I just want to live
for God.
I love God.
Hey, you know what it means?
Now, this is what matters.
Why don't you get these words in your heart?
Change your life.
It won't just be some emotional decision that you make.
Psalm 46, verse one, the Bible reads, God is our refuge and strength, a very present
help in trouble.
Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried
into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof, sea-loft, there is a river, the streams whereof shall
make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most high.
Remember, that's what we've been reading about.
So many, so many things are repeated in the book of Psalms about this subject.
God is in the midst of her.
She shall not be moved.
God shall help her in that right earth.
Notice the relationship between the proximity that God is to you and the fact that you're
not going to be moved.
And notice the relationship between being in the tabernacle of the most high and dwelling
in the holy place of the most high and not being moved.
See, church is part of what keeps you from not being moved.
The horrible, sad thing is when churches are moved, if the foundations be destroyed, what
can the righteous do?
Hey, if the pillar and ground of the truth moves, can you imagine the house of God, which
is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, it's moving?
We're all doomed.
That's why we've got to keep the church straight.
But you know what?
This church isn't moving.
I promise you that.
You know what?
I've asked God to kill me if this church changes.
I say, God, would you please kill me if I stop, if I start preaching liberal?
I prayed that in the service here.
I said, God, please kill me if I start preaching out of the NIV.
Hey, please, God, would you kill me if I stop soul winning and stop preaching right from
the Bible and stop preaching on sin?
Hey, I'd rather die than to lose the power of God in this church.
I'd rather die than this church be moved.
And I mean that.
I'm like Eli said.
Remember when Eli sat back in his chair?
He heard that the ark of the covenant was taken.
He heard that the glory had departed from the children of Israel.
He heard that God's power was removed, and it killed him to know that.
Why?
Because he said, I'd rather die than to lose God's power.
Hey, I would rather die than for this church to change and become a liberal church, at
least not while I'm here.
As long as I'm alive, it's not going to change, or I hope God does kill me before this church
changes.
I mean that with all my heart.
And so part of not moving is why don't you get yoked up with a church that doesn't change
all the time?
A church where it's the same thing week after week.
Hey, it's the same kind of preaching, not totally different sermon, but it's the same
kind of preaching, straight out of the Bible, in your face kind of preaching is what you
need to wake you up in the slumber that we're in in this country.
You need this kind of a church to slap you around a little.
And so the Bible says in verse number five, God is in the midst of her.
She shall not be moved.
God shall help her.
And that right early.
The heat enraged, the kingdoms were moved.
Hey, America's changing.
He uttered his voice.
The earth melted.
The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge, Selah.
Come behold the works of the Lord.
What desolations he has made in the earth.
He maketh wars to cease under the ends of the earth.
He breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear and sunder.
He burneth the chariot in the fire.
Be still.
I mean, don't move, that's what it means.
Be still and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the heat.
And I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge, Selah.
Hey, God's with us.
That's why we're not gonna be moved.
Look at chapter 55.
Psalm 55.
Boy, isn't the book of Psalms a great book?
Boy, just sit down and read the book of Psalms.
Fantastic book in the Bible.
It's not just a bunch of songs.
I mean, it's great doctrine, great truth.
Psalm 55, let's start reading in verse 15.
Let death cease upon them
and let them go down quick into hell.
Can you believe that somebody would pray like that?
Isn't that horrible?
Isn't that terrible that that's what David is praying
and that God is condoning it and putting it in the Bible
and saying that it's God's word?
Wow.
So there's actually somebody here
that David wants to go to hell.
Isn't that amazing?
That sounds kind of like Psalm 15
in whose eyes a vile person is condemned,
but he honored them to fear the world.
I don't know, maybe it's just me,
but it seems like David is praying
for some wicked evil doer,
somebody who's hurting other people,
somebody who's ungodly and filthy.
He's praying for them to go to hell.
Am I reading that wrong?
Come on up here and tell me what that means.
I'm sorry I'm preaching wrong.
Would you come up and tell me what that means?
I think that's what it means.
Let's just move on then.
Let death cease upon them
and let them go down quick into hell.
For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.
As for me, I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me.
Evening and morning and at noon will I pray.
That's a great prayer schedule, huh?
Evening and morning and at noon
will I pray and cry aloud and He shall hear my voice.
You know, when David prayed,
and I'm getting off on so many things
that the Bible is so great, there's so much to see here.
You know, when David prayed, he cried out loud.
I mean, he's yelling when he prayed.
I mean, he prayed with passion, conviction.
He didn't just say, now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.
All that kind of stuff.
Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
My kingdom come, I will be done.
I will be done, I will be done, I will be done.
It's kind of chanting.
No, see, when David prayed, he was crying out to God.
You know, there are times when I pray
and I pray like I preach.
I mean, there are times when I'm driving down the road.
I don't pray like that in the house.
I pray I got in my backyard and I get arrested.
But I'll be driving down the road
or I'll be off somewhere by myself in the woods somewhere
or on a beach somewhere or just out by myself
driving down the road.
And hey, I cry out to God.
See, I pray to God.
I speak to God what's in my heart.
And sometimes I want something so bad from God.
Hey, did I cry out to God?
You see, I don't get my prayers answered.
Pray like God wants you to pray.
Pray with some power.
Pray with some conviction.
Be like Jacob who wrestled with God all night long
to get what he wanted from God.
Hey, pray to God, not some kind of a mindless chant,
but communicate with God.
You're speaking to God.
God hears you when you pray.
Hey, cry aloud to God like David did.
And he shall hear my voice.
He had delivered my soul in peace from the battle,
verse 18, that was against me.
For there were many with me.
God shall hear and afflict them.
Even he that abideth of old Shelah.
Because they have no changes, listen to this.
Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.
He had put forth his hands against such
as be at peace with him.
He had broken his covenant.
The words of his mouth were smoother than butter,
but war was in his heart.
His words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.
Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.
He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
You see that?
He'll never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Be who you need to be and you won't be moved.
You'll stick with it.
But what does it say about the wicked?
It said they don't change.
Because they have no changes, therefore they,
hey, they don't change.
They stay wicked.
Can we stay godly is what it's saying.
That's why they succeed in this world.
That's why the wicked and ungodly prosper in this world.
Why?
Because they stick with it.
They stay committed to evil.
Hey, can you stay committed to what's right?
Can you sink down your teeth into something
and not let go like a dog with a chew toy
and you won't let go of that toy?
And, hey, will you have it?
Hang on tight.
Will you stay with it?
Will you not suffer your foot to be moved?
Look at Psalm 62.
It's what David said.
Psalm 62, just a few chapters forward.
Psalm 62, the Bible reads,
truly my soul waiteth upon God.
From him cometh my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation.
He is my defense.
I shall not be greatly moved.
Now, when I first read that,
I said to myself,
you're not gonna be greatly moved?
You know, are you planning on moving a little bit?
That's what I thought when I read this.
I was thinking, come on, David.
You thinking about moving?
Oh, well, we're not gonna change that much.
We're just changing a little bit.
That doesn't sound like you, David,
from everything else you've been saying.
He says, that's not great to do,
but look at verse two and verse six, okay?
And notice that they're the exact same words.
He only is my rock and my salvation.
You see how you look in verse two and six?
He is my defense.
I shall not be greatly moved.
And then in verse number six, he says,
no, I changed my mind.
I shall not be proved, okay?
He says, I shall not be greatly moved.
Oh, wait, I don't want you to get the wrong idea.
I'm not gonna be moved at all.
He says in verse six, same exact wording.
Hey, God doesn't want you to move.
God doesn't want this church to move.
Hey, we need to stay with it
if we're gonna succeed in the Christian life.
Hey, you gotta decide you're gonna be unmovable.
Steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord.
For as much as you know that your labor's not in vain,
says in 1 Corinthians 15.
Look at Psalm 66, verse eight.
Psalm 66, verse eight.
The Bible reads in Psalm 66, eight.
Oh, bless our God, ye people,
and make the voice of his praise to be heard,
which holdeth our soul in life,
and suffereth not our feet to be moved.
For thou, O God, has proved us.
Thou hast tried us, as silver has tried us.
This is probably my favorite part.
This is the key.
He says, thou hast proved us,
thou hast tried us, as silver has tried us.
Now, how has silver tried?
Well, the answer's in Psalm 12.
You don't have to turn there,
but the Bible says the words of the Lord are pure words,
as silver tried in a furnace of earth,
purified seven times.
What's a furnace of earth?
Well, it's a furnace that's made out of earth.
It's made out of clay, okay?
It's a furnace that's hot.
It's fire.
See, God's saying that he's gonna put some heat on you.
He says he's gonna try you like silver's tried.
He's gonna turn up the heat in your life sometimes
to burn off some of the things
that don't belong in your life,
to purify you, to clean you up
so that you can have clean hands and a pure heart.
Thou hast brought us into the net,
speaking of God, verse 11.
Thou laidst affliction upon our loins.
Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads.
All right, these are negative things.
Did you catch that?
Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads.
We went through the fire and through water,
but thou brought us out into a wealthy place.
See, the people that are gonna stay in the tabernacle,
the people that are gonna abide in God's tabernacle
and dwell in God's holy hill
are the people who can handle the rough times
when the heat gets turned on.
Hey, if the heat hasn't been turned on in your life yet,
it's going to be.
If you say, well, I don't even know
what that's talking about.
You're gonna find out real soon, okay?
When you serve God, when you sell out for God,
hey, when you start to live for God,
when you start to win people to Christ,
when you start to really get a hold of this thing
of reading the Bible, preaching the gospel,
being faithful to church, coming to this kind of a church,
hey, you better be ready for the heat
to be turned up in your life.
You know what?
I'm thinking down the list right now
of the people who've come and gone in this church.
And almost every single one of them,
I remember when the heat was turned on in their life.
I mean, I'm thinking through the list.
I'm thinking about the heat being turned on in their life
and how they buckled under the pressure
and how they couldn't take the heat
so they got out of the kitchen, literally, okay?
Literally, when you're talking about this church, all right?
Hey, they couldn't take the heat.
They got out of the kitchen.
Because why?
The devil turned up the heat in their life
and that's all it took to get them out of church.
Hey, God turned up the heat in their life.
He was trying to purify them.
He was trying to get some of the sin out of their life.
He was trying to get them to the point
where they had to choose this day whom they'd served,
whether they were gonna get all the way in
or all the way out.
This isn't really the kind of church
where people who are half in, half out
really stayed for a long time.
It just isn't.
You either kind of get in
or for some reason, the heat gets turned up in your life
because the devil doesn't want you to go to this church.
I don't know if you know that.
And so if you resist the devil, he'll flee from you.
But if you're the type of person that's a weakling
where the devil can just push you around
and the smallest little thing will take you out of church
and the smallest lightest little affliction
will get you to quit on God and quit on church
and quit on faithful Word Baptist Church
and quit on the Bible and quit on solar.
Hey, if that's the way you are,
you're not gonna be able to take the heat in this church.
And so the Bible says here,
he gives the list of some of the things
that God's put him through and others that loved God.
And he says, but that brought us out into a wealthy place.
But when it was all over with though,
once they went through the fire and through the water
and through the pain and through the suffering,
hey, they ended up in a wealthy place.
Look at what it says in verse 13.
I will go into thy house.
See, there it is again, being in church.
I will go into thy house with burnt offerings.
I will pay thee my vows.
Again, the swearing to your own hurt and changing not.
Not swearing deceitfully.
Which my lips have uttered and my mouth had spoken
when I was in trouble.
Look at Psalm 12.
I'm sorry, Psalm 112.
We're not going backwards here.
Psalm 112, one, one, two.
Psalm 112 and look at verse number, let's see here.
Look at verse number four.
The Bible says in Psalm 112, verse number four,
unto the upright, there arise at the light in the darkness.
He is gracious and full of compassion and righteous.
A good man showeth favor and lendeth.
He will guide his affairs with discretion.
Surely he shall not be moved forever.
The righteous shall be an everlasting remembrance.
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings.
His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is established.
He shall not be afraid until he see his desire
upon his enemies.
It's time that you decide tonight
that you're gonna establish your heart.
It's time for you to decide to get fixed
on the things of God.
You say, well, I'm just not really too sure.
I'm just kind of trying things out.
Well, go ahead and try it out.
But before the heat gets turned up, you better get fixed.
You better get established.
You better get nailed down on what you believe
and what you wanna do with your life.
You wanna go the way of the world.
You wanna flush your life down the toilet
like everybody else does.
Huh?
Teenagers, you wanna end up like most of the teenagers
in your school are gonna end up,
I mean, they're going down a road
that's gonna lead them to destruction.
That's the truth.
Kids, you wanna go down the road that many kids go down?
You know where it starts?
It starts where you don't speak the truth in your heart.
It starts when you're a child and you don't do these things,
when you think that this isn't important.
It starts when you don't listen when you're at church.
That's where it's gonna start.
It's gonna start when you're not paying attention
to God's word.
It's gonna start when God's word is not in your heart.
And you're gonna start to move.
You're gonna start to drift.
My goal in life is to be preaching the same
as I am right now, 10 years from now.
My goal is that this church is exactly the same
as it is right now, only bigger, only greater,
only more people being saved.
You know, I take that back.
I want to be more righteous.
I wanna be more on fire for God.
I wanna be going higher into God's holy hill.
I wanna be dwelling in the heights of God's holy hill.
I don't wanna be moved like other people have moved.
Meddle not with them that are given to change,
the Bible says.
Meddle means don't mess with it.
Don't mess with some church that changes all the time.
They don't even mess with us.
We don't even waste your time.
Hey, meddle not with them that are given to change.
If it's not a church where you can be planted,
if it's not a Christianity
that's worth you giving your whole life to,
then it's not even worth messing with
because the temporary goals
that you're gonna accomplish for God are meaningless.
It's the long haul that you gotta be in for.
Decide right now that you're not gonna be moved.
Decide right now that you're gonna be one of the few,
one of the few who's still here,
one of the few who's still soul winning.
I talk to people all the time.
I run into people that I've known.
My sister sometimes will tell me,
hey, I ran into so-and-so.
Hey, I got back in touch with so-and-so
from when we were a kid.
You remember so-and-so?
They're never in some independent
fundamental Baptist church somewhere.
I mean, they're never soul winning.
Everybody that we hear about,
these are kids that grew up in church with us.
They're always, oh, they're going to this liberal church,
though they don't go to church at all.
Oh yeah, they're, you know, she messed up her life.
Oh, he's done this.
Rarely is it ever, I can't even think of one,
to be honest with you.
Why?
Because it's only very few people
who abide in the tabernacle.
It's only very few people who come through that door
who stay here, who are still here.
And obviously, this isn't the only great church.
That's not what I'm saying.
I'm talking about staying with Jesus Christ
is the main thing.
I'm talking about staying with the Bible,
staying with soul winning.
If you're not going to stay with it,
if you're not going to be planted,
you're not going to accomplish anything for God
that's worthwhile because everything in God's economy
takes a long time, takes a lifetime.
How are you going to stay in church?
Do the things that the Bible said here.
Give God's word in your heart.
Meditate on the word of God in your heart.
Speak the truth in your heart.
Give these verses and learn them.
Spend your time not loving the world,
not loving the things that God condemns,
but honoring them that fear the Lord.
Spend your time investing in God's house, the tabernacle,
the church, not a building,
but the people that are here right now,
this church, this assembly.
Hey, spend your time working righteousness.
Spend your time purifying your heart, cleaning your hands,
because just as the Bible promised
that if you do these things, you'll never be moved.
I guarantee you, you go through life
with a dirty heart and dirty hands,
eventually you will be moved.
I've seen people in this church
where I've looked at them and said,
and I've seen a major sin in their life.
And I told my wife, I said, you know what?
Either they're going to get that out of their life
or they're just going to be gone.
You know what I mean?
I just said, and sure enough, they were gone.
And that's just the way it is.
That's just the nature of the beast.
You've got to, and you know, God's patient,
God's long suffering.
God realizes that you're not going to just come to church
and all of a sudden you're going to be a brand new person,
totally different.
Hey, it takes time.
Took me years, took me years to give up rock music.
Took me years, years and years,
literally like three, four years, you know,
took me years of soul winning
before I got rid of a lot of the things
that were ungodly in my life.
But I want to tell you something,
you better be going in the right direction.
You better be cleaning your hands.
You better be purifying your heart
because it's one of those things
where if you're not moving forward,
it's kind of like an upstream battle that you're doing here.
And if you're not swimming up the stream,
you're going backwards.
If you're not constantly moving,
if you're not constantly learning,
if you're not constantly growing,
you will be moved backwards.
You will be moved from what you believe tonight.
You will be moved from the things of God
if you're not constantly working
to do the things that God has prescribed
in the Bible and the book of Psalms.
Study the book of Psalms, give these things in your heart,
and I'll see you several years from now.
I'll see you right here, same time, same place.
I'll see you here in 2010.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
God, I thank you for the promises of the Bible.
I thank you that I can know that if I do these things,
you promise I'll never be moved.
Oh God, I couldn't put into words everything
that I was trying to say tonight.
I couldn't give everything that you gave in the Bible,
but I just hope that somebody tonight,
that's listening to me right now,
will decide that they're gonna be one of the ones
that stays with it, even when it's not fun to go to church,
even when they're not getting anything from the message,
even when they're not getting anything
from reading the Bible, even when things are going bad,
even when the heat is on and the enemy travels
over their head and they go through the fire and the flood,
I just pray, God, that they would decide
that they will be one of the people
who stays with it no matter what,
that refuses to ever be moved and says,
I shall not be moved.
And God, please help those that are here
to search these scriptures and to learn
what it's gonna take for them to make good on that promise
when they utter that out of their mouth
and I hope they utter that out of their mouth
and say to you, I shall not be moved.
God, help them to read this book
and understand what it's gonna take,
what the formula is to not be moved when the hard time.