you
One, welcome to Anchor Baptist Church. It is time to go ahead and get started. If you would find a seat,
grab a hymnal and turn to hymn number 17
one day.
Hymn number 1717, one day.
Hymn 17 there on the first one day
at this time will open with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day,
for the opportunity to gather together and sing praises to your name. Lord, I just pray that
this service would be done decently in an order that you would open our ears to the message that
you'd fill Pastor Oz with your spirit. And Lord, I also just want to take a moment to say a special
prayer for the missions trip coming up starting
tomorrow, just shortly, really half a day, Lord, that you would be with us, that you would have your
hand of protection on us, and that you would lead us to those that are ready to receive
your word, to receive the gospel and that free salvation. These things we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen. Excuse me. Next, hymn is number 43 this morning.
We're marching to Zion.
Forty-three there on the first.
to have you this morning. This time we're going to go through our announcements so if you don't
have a bulletin please raise your hand and an usher will come and bring you one. We do have
on the front our Bible memory verse of the week Genesis chapter number one
Verse 15 and on the inside our service times are listed there Sunday morning at 10 30 Sunday evening at 4 30
And our Wednesday Bible study through Proverbs at 7 o'clock on Wednesdays
Even though a lot of our church is going to the Bahamas this next week
We still do have a preacher this Wednesday and we do have evening service
So if you are in town still come to church be faithful to the house of God and support brother Matt
He'll be preaching for us on Wednesday
Below that we have our year-to-date soul winning statistics and we have all of our soul winners back from the Philippines
So that's the locked-in number for the year for the work that was done over there
I just want to say thank you to the guys that went over there that really just worked super hard of their own volition to go
Over there and care about souls. It's a great testament to their character and it's great seeing such numbers like that
We could see our total for the year is 2108.
So praise the Lord for that.
upcoming events. Just tomorrow is the Bahamas mission trip. Really, really
excited for that. I know a lot of you are stressed, especially the ladies. I'm not.
I'm just excited. You just need, you know, what if a bomb falls on your head, right?
We're just going. It's gonna be a great trip. Whatever happens happens. We're gonna
go work hard. But of course we're also gonna pray. Pray that logistics go well.
Pray that everyone's healthy, that God leads us to receptive people, and I
But don't be stressed out. Get a good night's sleep tonight.
Try to go to bed as early as possible.
We're going to be waking up nice and early.
And for everyone who's not going, please keep us in prayer daily for this trip.
I anticipate that we're probably going to reach over a thousand souls for Christ.
And so I'm really looking forward to that.
October 12th next Sunday for the evening service is our men's preaching night.
We already have several men who have signed up, but it's not too late.
If you want to preach, please do sign up at the sheet back there.
Then October 18th
A few weeks is our Fall Family Fund Day at the Orr Family Farm there, and it's got all
the address details and time, and then please make sure you sign up.
How many people will be coming with you that are two years of age or older?
That's just how they determine the pricing.
But please, please, please sign up.
We want as many of you to come as possible.
Invite your friends, neighbors, coworkers, family members.
and Pastor Thompson and his wife will be with us the whole weekend.
He'll be at the farm with us and he'll be preaching both services the next day.
So the month of October is just going to be amazing and this time of year is just
really really fun. So it's a great time to be a part of
Anchor Baptist Church. We do have October 31st, our chili cook-off.
Then, November 22nd, we have our Solonning Marathon here locally, Oklahoma City Solonning
Marathon.
That's our one year anniversary as Anchor Baptist Church, which I cannot believe it's
been a year.
How time just flies is unbelievable to me, but we're coming up on a year.
And Pastor Jonathan Shelly from Set Fast Baptist Church is gracious enough to come out on a Sunday.
He's going to leave his church on a Sunday and preach both services for us.
So please be very appreciative of him doing that.
And we're looking forward to having him.
Then November 26th, we'll have a pie fellowship.
on the back there's information about tithing as well as our visitor card if you scan that QR code
if you're a first-time visitor this morning we would appreciate you doing that and then of
course we have our prayer list like I said please be in prayer for the Bahamas missions trip there
was an update from brother Theodore saying that his grandmother has a tumor that he's
almost certain is cancer. So be praying for her for her health. He also wants us to pray for his
grandmother and his sister's salvation. So those are the updates. Please be keeping those in prayer
and if you have any requests as always please email the church and I'll add that for you in the
bulletin. This time let's go ahead and go to our third song. Our third hymn this evening will be
He highteth my soul, him number 102102, he highteth my soul, 102 there, on the first.
Good singing this morning as the offering plates are being passed turn if you would to 2nd Peter chapter number three
2nd Peter chapter number three
This second epistle, beloved, I now ride unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance,
that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles, of the Lord and Savior,
knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lust and saying, where is the promise of his coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation
For this they willingly are ignorant that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth
Standing out of the water and in the water
whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water
perished
But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store
Reserved under fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men
But beloved be not ignorant of this one thing
That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness
but his longsuffering toward usward,
not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come, as a thief in the night,
in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
The earth also, and the works that are therein,
shall be burned up, burned up, seeing then
What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?
Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God
wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
Nevertheless, we, according to his promise,
Look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,
wherefore be loved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may
be found in him in peace, of him in peace, without spot and blameless.
An account that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation.
Even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written
unto you.
As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things
hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable rest, as they do also
ye therefore be loved, seeing ye know these things before, beware, lest ye also, being
led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.
But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to him
be glory both now and ever.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Lord, thankful for the beautiful weather we have today.
Thankful to be gathered here.
May the truth of us now be used to practice with minimum,
to pass draw, to be spirit Lord.
Help us to apply the message to our hearts.
Seize and pray. Amen.
Amen. We're in 2nd Peter chapter 3.
Let's start reading in verse 3.
The Bible says knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking
after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of His coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of
the creation.
For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.
So here we see these scoffers and they kind of have this attitude where they're saying well because we're living in a certain situation now therefore it'll always exist that way.
They're saying like hey where's the promise of the coming of Christ?
and their logic of why they're mocking the idea that Christ is going to come back to this earth
is basically, well, he hasn't come yet. So they're saying like, hey, because something hasn't happened
yet, therefore it'll never happen in the future. And this is what's known as normalcy bias,
where because we live in a certain situation in our life and things are going a certain way right
now, human tendency is to think, well, because something's the way it is now, it'll be that way
And so the title of my sermon this morning is beware of normalcy bias.
Let me just define what I mean by this. What is normalcy bias?
Let me read this for you.
Normalcy bias is a cognitive tendency where people assume that things will
continue as they always have.
right? So these scoffers, they're saying, hey, where's the promise of the coming of Christ?
For since the fathers have fallen on sleep, all things continue as they were. Hey, everything's
the same. Everything's going to be the same. But this is a mental fallacy that people have.
It says understanding the likelihood or impact of disruptive events like disasters or crises,
Ignoring warning signs or delaying action because individuals expect the status quo to persist.
So this is the kind of natural human tendency that we could all fall into of thinking like,
hey, everything will work out. It'll always work out. Even if you're ignoring certain warning signs
or ignoring Bible verses, warning you about certain sins in your life, and people just have
this normalcy bias of, hey, everything will work itself out. Everything will continue as they are.
Right now, for example, it says someone might stay in a dangerous situation like a fire or a natural disaster because they believe it won't happen to me or things will always work out.
This bias often stems from a desire for comfort and can hinder proactive decision-making in high-stakes scenarios.
So these people, in 2 Peter 3, they're scoffers, and so they're kind of scoffing at the idea of the Lord Jesus Christ being real.
They're kind of scoffing at the idea of the words of God being real because they don't want to face that uncomfortable reality.
You know, a lot of people, they don't want to face the uncomfortable reality
that there is a real wrathful God that created the world,
that created a place called hell that unsaved people will burn for all of eternity.
And they just think like, well hey, I'm fine right now, I'm living life right now,
everything's good right now, and so they think all things will continue as they are.
It's a normalcy bias. Let me give you some real world examples of when this happened
to people where they had normalcy bias.
9 11 after American Airlines flight 11 struck the North Tower at 846 a.m.
Many office workers above the impact zone initially downplayed the danger
Assuming it was an accident or it's contained. Okay, it's all good. Yeah, you know a plane just hit our building
But they've got it all under control. No big deal
Some continued routine tasks, like typing and sending emails.
There was like, you know, an IT forensic investigation
of just how many people just kept sending mundane emails
after the planes hit the towers,
because they just thought, hey, everything's gonna work out.
Let's just keep working. No big deal.
You know, they didn't want to actually evacuate.
For instance, Adam Mayblum on the 87th floor sent a detailed email to family and friends
describing the smoke and chaos while still in the building.
Frank Alderman sent emails to his office and sister shortly after the impact.
In the South Tower, when the plane hit at 9.03 a.m., announcements initially urged people
to return to their desks.
and 9-1-1 operators advise callers to stay put reinforcing normalcy bias.
70% of survivors of 9-11 delayed evacuation by consulting others first.
So because we have this normalcy bias,
even when an extreme situation happens,
like planes are hitting your building,
you have to like ask permission from other people,
like, hey, you know, you think we should evacuate?
And until someone like reinforces your worries or fears,
you won't do it,
because you have this normalcy bias.
This is just human nature.
Hurricane Katrina.
You know the government literally sent out a mandatory evacuation saying like hey this thing's coming this thing is no joke.
That's something the government has never done before in history. They're ordering a mandatory evacuation.
Many people did not heed the warning and died. Lots and lots of people died during this time. It was 1,300 people who died.
the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.
Oh, you know, she's never boned before.
I'm just gonna stay in my cabin.
Oh, you know, I know there's, you know,
the mountains like bulging and there's all these reports
coming out that it's gonna blow,
but because it's never happened before,
all things are gonna continue as they will.
And many people died during the eruption
of Mount St. Helens.
Let me tell you a personal story
where I have experienced this.
The first time I ever went hunting in my life,
I was charged by a black bear.
And you know what I did?
I froze.
You know why? Because my brain, under its normalcy bias, literally had this thought,
like, oh, is this a dog? This has to be a dog. I can't be being charged by a black bear right
now. This can't be real, right? Because we just have this normalcy bias. Like, I've never been
charged by a black bear. Therefore, I never will be charged by a black bear. This is just a normal
human tendency that all of us can have.
Now, here, the scoffers, they have it a lot worse, but we can all have this.
It's very important.
You know, there's many survivors of the Las Vegas shooting who said that they thought
that the sound system was just malfunctioning.
So you know, people are dying, people are getting shot, and they're just like, oh, you
know, it's got to be the sound system.
Or there's other shooting survivors where they say they see people getting shot and
they just freeze and they do nothing because their brain just cannot comprehend.
So, how do you combat this?
We have to know this exists.
We have to make plans beforehand.
We have to realize this is a human deficiency that we all have and we have to recognize
that it exists and we have to make plans for the future based on that.
So, this morning I want to talk about many different ways that people have normalcy bias.
Go to Luke chapter number 16.
Luke chapter number 16.
Number one this morning, get saved now before it is eternally too late.
A lot of people today, when you ask them, hey, if you were to die today, are you 100% sure
that you go to heaven?
They'll say, oh, I'm good, man, oh, I'm good.
No worries.
I've got it figured out.
I think I'll be fine.
No big deal.
But guess what?
A lot of people have this false sense of security that because we're living here on this earth
and things might be going well in your life and you might live in a nice neighborhood,
you might have a nice job, and you might have nice food to eat and a nice family
that does not necessarily mean that you're saved.
Okay, look at Luke chapter 16 verse 19.
There was a rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen
and fared sumptuously every day.
I mean, this guy has the life that many people dream of.
This guy is rich.
He's got all the material goods he could possibly want.
And, you know, he doesn't just have, like, a party every once in a while
or a feast every once in a while.
He's faring sumptuously every day.
This guy thinks he's got the world, you know, by the tail.
He's got everything figured out.
Verse 20, and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus,
which was laid at his gate full of sores.
and desiring to be fed with the crumbs, which fell from the rich man's table, moreover,
the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by
the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried, notice, and in hell
he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeeth Abraham afar off in Lazarus in his bosom. And
And said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame."
Notice how quickly the circumstances of this man's life changed.
He went from being rich, from being high class, from faring sumptuously every single day, having everything he wanted to the next moment he closes his eyes and he's burning in hell.
And he's in torments.
And he goes from having anything he wants at any time
to screaming and begging for just a drop of water on his tongue.
To cool the torment.
And guess what?
The Bible says the smoke of their torment ascended up forever and ever
and they have no rest day nor night.
People in hell, once you're there, it's too late you can never escape.
If you mess up in this area of your life and you don't get saved,
if you don't trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,
when you breathe your last, you'll be burning in hell for all of eternity.
And there's nothing that you could ever do to change that.
But today, people have a normalcy bias.
where they think, hey, life is good right now,
you know, or they think, hey, I go to church,
or they think I'm a pretty good person,
I follow the commandments, I repent of my sins,
and they have this false sense of security
that they're going to heaven,
but in reality, if they're not saved,
they're gonna spend eternity in hell.
What does it take to get to heaven?
Well Ephesians 2,8 says,
Are you saved through faith?
And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,
not of works,
lest any man should boast.
So getting to heaven is not by doing good works.
It's not by showing up in this building this morning.
It's not by reading your Bible.
It's not by praying
or repenting of your sins.
It's by trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Then you could have security.
Why? Because Jesus said that whosoever believeth in me shall never perish.
That's not a false sense of security. That's real security. That's eternal security.
He says, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Right? So if you're actually standing on what the Bible says, that's real security.
But today people have a normalcy bias where they think, oh, I'm a good person. I go to church. I live a good life.
And they have a normalcy bias.
And if those people die, unfortunately, they will wake up in hell.
Go to, if you would, 2 Corinthians, chapter number 6, 2 Corinthians, chapter number 6.
So, when it comes to getting saved, look, the stakes are too high to put it off.
The stakes are way too high.
Do not have this idiotic mentality of, you know, I'll worry about God when I get old.
I'll figure out if I'm going to heaven when I get old.
You may not get old.
You can die at any time and here's the thing why this doesn't register in your brain is because of your normalcy bias
And when I say you could die at any time you're thinking right now
Well, that could happen to other people, but surely it couldn't happen to me. No, no, no, you could die at any time
You could get hit by a car tonight. You could be the victim of a random act of violence
God could strike you down at any time, you know, it's time and chance happening to them all you could die at any time
Look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 2
For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I suckered thee.
Behold, now is the accepted time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation.
Look, if you are not 100% sure that if you die today, that you are going to heaven, you need to get saved now.
And look, our church is full of soul winners.
If you're here this morning and you don't know,
you could talk to anyone and they could show you
in 10 or 15 minutes from the Bible what it takes to be saved.
It's a free gift.
It's not by works.
It's not by living a good life.
The gospel is called Good News.
You want to know why the gospel is good news is because Jesus paid it all.
You know what would be really bad news is if I told you, hey, here's how to get to heaven.
Be a good person.
Fall all the commandments.
Repent of your sins.
Go to church.
Tithe.
You know, help people.
You would fail all the time.
You would constantly be failing.
That wouldn't be good news.
And by the way, if you could lose your salvation, you would.
And if I could lose my salvation, I would.
The good news is that Jesus paid it all.
It's eternal.
It's a free gift.
It lasts for forever.
But those of us who are saved, how do we apply this to ourselves?
Go to Colossians chapter number four.
Colossians chapter number four.
Look at verses number three.
With all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ
For which I am also in bonds that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak
Notice verse 5 walk in wisdom toward them that are without
redeeming the time
When it's saying those that are without saying those that are outside of the church or those that are outside of the faith,
we have to walk in wisdom towards those people, redeeming the time.
What would be the wise thing to do if you know that someone is not saved?
If someone is not on their way to heaven, what's the wise thing to do?
Is to be a soul winner.
That's why in Proverbs it says that the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that win of souls is wise.
So we need to walk in wisdom toward those that are without because there's someone today in Oklahoma City where today is their last day on Earth.
There is someone today in the town that we are in right now where today will be their last.
And guess what? In the Bahamas when we go preaching the gospel there next week, there's lots of people where next week will be their last.
And so we need to think about people's souls, we need to care about people's souls,
and yes, we are eternally secure.
Yes, we are saved, but guess what? Not everyone has that knowledge of God.
It's our job to go out and preach the gospel to every creature.
And if our gospel is hid, it's hid to those that are lost.
So you know what? Don't have a normalcy bias as just assuming everyone's saved.
Don't have a normalcy bias and just think all your friends and family members are saved.
Don't have a normalcy bias thinking,
yeah, you know, I know my grandpa's not saved,
but you know, I have plenty of time
to preach from the gospel.
Oh, I've got plenty of time.
That's not the case, folks.
I got a call one day and my grandfather was dead
and he was completely unexpected.
I had no idea and he was unsaved
and you know, it just, it sucks.
But here's the thing, I don't want that to happen to you.
You don't know when your family member's last day is.
Let me say this, don't just assume
that you're gonna have forever to get your kid saved too.
You know, we like to think, hey, you know, our kids are young and they've got plenty of time to figure these things out and
and hey, Lord willing that that's true and in general, that's going to be true.
But here's the thing, you should try to get your children saved as young as possible
because do you really know how long they have? No, you don't.
And so we need to, as soon as they get to the point where they can understand the gospel, preach them the gospel,
don't have a normalcy bias. Take your children out soul-winning with you so they hear it over and over and over again and it'll help.
Go to if you will
Ephesians chapter number five
Number two this morning
Earn rewards in heaven before it's too late.
Look, if you're saved this morning, if you've put your trust in Jesus Christ, there's nothing you could do to go to hell.
You will always be saved.
But here's the thing, now that we're saved, what God expects from us is to do good works for Him,
to serve the Lord, to serve each other, to serve the lost out there,
and by doing that we earn rewards in heaven, and guess what?
I would like to think that I've got 60, 70 more years on this earth to serve God,
but do I really know that? Or could today be my last two?
Guess what? The unsaved have a normalcy bias. They don't realize they could die at any time.
Well, guess what? I could die at any time. You saved person could die at any time.
And sometimes we think like, well, surely the godly Christians at least
are going to be taken from us very soon. Surely the godly soul winners,
they're going to live to their old age, but then you see examples like Kevin Rowe.
And it's like, okay, I really can go at any time and you really could go at any time look at Ephesians 5 verse 14
Wherefore he saith awake
Thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give the light
See then that you walk
Circumstantly not as fools, but as wise
Redeeming the time because the days are evil
Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is."
The Bible is saying, hey, wake up.
You don't know when your last is.
You need to walk in life with wisdom, not foolishly.
You need to be redeeming the time.
And I think about this all the time.
Like, hey, I need to go hard this week, I need to go hard this Sunday, I need to go hard
You know, what if next week was our last week?
You know, I'd like to go out getting tons of people saved in the Bahamas.
What are a lot of Christians going to do next week?
Absolutely nothing.
What are a lot of Christians going to do next week?
Not even read their Bible.
Not even go to church.
Not even pray to God.
They're going to sit and play video games all week.
Oh man, you play Madden all week.
Oh, you went to a college football game.
Oh man, you went to a restaurant.
Oh, you watched a bunch of Netflix shows.
You're doing nothing with your life for God.
You need to wake up.
realize that the things of this world are temporal and they mean nothing and
even things like your job which it has its place and you should work hard at it
and you should care about it but your job is not everything in life.
And your job is going to burn up some day.
And all your hobbies are going to burn up some day.
And your vacations are worthless in eternity.
But you know what matters is the things you did serving Christ.
What matters is showing up to church.
What matters is being an encouragement to your brethren.
What matters is going out and preaching the gospel.
What matters is praying for people.
What matters is reading your Bible.
Wake up today. Go to Romans 13.
Romans chapter number 13.
Romans 13, look at verse 11, it says,
And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.
For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
Right? Talking about the fact that Jesus is going to redeem our body some day,
and you can even look at it in the fact that the day of your death is nearer today than it was yesterday.
The day that you're going to be in heaven is nearer today than it was yesterday.
and tomorrow it'll be nearer, and the day after it'll be nearer,
and your days are constantly just ticking down and just counting off the days,
and we have to redeem the days because the days are evil. We have to redeem the time
because the days are evil. And you actually have to think about,
man, if I were to die, would I be happy
with what I've done for Christ in my life?
And I don't think any person can honestly say 100% yes.
I've redeemed every time.
I have just given 100% all of the time.
You know, I don't think that we could really say that.
You know who could say that was the Lord Jesus Christ.
He died on the cross and he said, it is finished.
Hey, he gave it all, 100%.
And that's the example that we should look to.
That Jesus Christ, you know, he wasn't wasting his life playing video games.
He wasn't wasting his life just obsessed with vanity, obsessed with vacations, obsessed with pleasure,
obsessed with making money. It was obsessed with serving God and loving other people.
That's what it was.
Verse 12, the night is far spent. The day is at hand.
Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.
Don't have this this normalcy bias where you think you have all this time in your life to do great works for God
And you know what? I'll just I'll care about God when I leave my 20s
Isn't that what a lot of people do they waste their teens and they waste their 20s
Getting drunk committing fornication doing drugs partying not working hard
doing nothing with their life, then they wake up in their 30s and they're like,
oh, you know, maybe I should get a job, maybe I should care about my family,
maybe I should start going to church, maybe I should start caring about the things of God.
You know, why don't you just get rid of this normalcy bias at a young age?
You know, the Bible says childhood and youth are vanity.
You know what you young children should do right now is start serving God today.
You say, oh, you all serve God when I'm in my 20s and my 30s?
No, serve Him now, because you may not even live that long.
And you know what, for whatever vapor of life that I have on this earth, whether God gives me 28 years or whether He gives me 98 years,
I want to be faithful to the Lord through the entire thing.
I want to serve Him with all my might throughout the entire thing.
We need to shake off this normalcy bias and wake up today.
And think about this, some people, they have this normalcy bias and they tend to not appreciate the things that they have in life.
because they're used to it.
They've gotten desensitized to even good things.
And I think about the fact that we have a church like this.
You know, we've got a church here
that stands on the King James Bible.
We've got a church here that is not gonna sit here
and have an altar call every service asking for your money.
We're not gonna sit here every service and say,
all right, let's pray for Israel.
Let's worship the Jews today.
You know, we're not gonna be a church here telling you,
oh, you know, you need to love faggots and transvestites.
We're not going to be a church here today preaching lies, preaching my own opinion.
We've got a church here today that stands on the Bible.
We've got a church here today that cares about the lost.
And there's people today don't appreciate it.
There's people today just whatever happens, you know, as soon as something happens in their life,
they just skip church whenever, right?
They'll just get out of church.
You need to shake this normalcy bias and realize that we have something special here.
There's people that message me all the time asking,
please start a church in this place.
You know, all the time.
Pakistan. I get all these messages.
I'm Pakistan. Please come to Pakistan.
Please come to the Congo.
I'm a pastor in Kenya. Please come help us.
There's all these people that are hungry for the Word of God
and we've got a bunch of entitled, spoiled, brat Americans today
that are a little too full for the things of God.
And they've got a little too much normalcy bias where they're just used to their nice, cushy life and they don't appreciate a good church.
It's crazy today.
We need to appreciate the things that we have.
Stop taking it for granted.
Stop taking your family for granted.
You know, we just tend to just think like, oh yeah, you know, I've got my wife and I'll always see her tomorrow.
Oh yeah, I'll always see my kids tomorrow.
We've if anything has shown you anything lately with things in the news and things with our friends, please don't take your family for granted
Please love your family with everything you have
Please when you when you leave say goodbye say I love you
You know don't don't sit here just leaving things unsaid because man you could die at any time
Go to first Peter chapter number five first Peter chapter number five
1 Peter chapter number 5 verse 8 the Bible says be sober be vigilant because your adversary
the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
We don't want to have this normalcy bias where we forget that there is a raging spiritual
battle going on in our country every single day.
And we don't want to get into this normalcy bias that we're just only living in the flesh
and we're only paying attention to the things we can see with our eyes
and we're saying, hey, things are going good in our life, that we forget that there's a raging battle that's always being fought.
That there's always going to be people attacking the King James Bible,
trying to get you to put doubt on the King James Bible.
There's always going to be people attacking the institution of the local New Testament church.
There's always going to be those idiots that tell you you don't need to go to church.
Church is corrupt, church is bad, church is full of hypocrites.
You know, that's the devil talking to you right there, trying to get you out of the house of God.
There's always going to be people attacking biblical doctrine.
There's always going to be people attacking, you know, the foundation of the biblical home.
There's always going to be Satan and his workers and backslidden Christians that are carnal
that attack the authority of the husband in the home when the Bible says,
There's always going to be people attacking the foundations of Christianity.
Stop being in a normalcy bias where you think,
oh, everything's going to go good, everything's going to go well,
we're not going to have any battles, we're not going to have any stripes.
There's always going to be a battle.
The Bible says, fight the good, fight the faith.
What I think keeps the church healthy is always being in a fight.
I really do think that that keeps the church healthy because I think when any organization
kind of just starts to be settled on its lease and gets comfortable and just has this normalcy
bias creep in is you start to see apathy creep in.
You start to see people not have as much zeal as they used to and I'm not saying that we
need to go out and pick fights but I'm saying that the devil walketh about as a roaring
lion seeking whom he may devour and the fight's always going to come to us and we should always
And I don't want to be this church that just becomes super lame and watered down,
and we're never any battles, we're never stirring the pot, we're never getting any fights.
No, you know what? We're going to fight the good fight of faith.
And this is a church where we're going to fight.
That's right.
And there is plenty of other churches where you can go and phone it in.
and not have to work hard, and not to have any drama,
and it's just gonna be sweetness and light,
and the choir's gonna be so good,
and the pastor's never gonna say the word faggot,
and the pastor's never gonna be in the Oklahoma newspaper,
but you know what, this is a church that's gonna fight.
This is a church that's gonna fight against the devil.
We need some Christians today
that are actually willing to endure the fight.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number three.
1 Corinthians chapter number three.
Don't have a normalcy bias Christian where you think you'll have your whole life to fight the good fight of faith
No, this week could be your last fight the good fight of faith this week
Serve God this week win someone to Christ this week. Love your family this week
Look at 1st Corinthians chapter 3 verse 9 for we are laborers together with God your God's husbandry your God's building
According to the grace of God, which is given unto me,
as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation
and another man buildeth thereon,
but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
For other foundation can no man lay,
than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now, if any man build upon this foundation,
gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
every man's work shall be made manifest,
for the day shall declare it.
Because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
The Bible talks about how we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
The Bible talks about how Jesus Christ is going to reward us according to our works,
according to our labors.
We don't get into heaven by our works, but we do get rewarded in heaven by our works.
And there's a day that's coming where God's going to try all of our works in the fire,
and all of the hay and the wood and the stubble is just going to burn up, and all of that
And here's the thing, I think every single person is going to have some wood, hay, and stubble in our lives.
But what do we want to do? We want to work hard for God so that we can minimize that.
So that most of it is just gold.
rubies, precious stones, that this could be presented to God, and there's a lot of actual assets to show for our life's work, right?
Where we get judged for our works, and there's like, hey, look how many people you got saved.
Look at how many people you encouraged in the faith.
Hey, look how many times you prayed to God.
Look how many times you read your Bible.
Look at how many times you gave to the work of God.
There's all these different things that could be those precious stones, that gold, that work that's actually going to abide the fire.
But here's the thing, we even as Christians sometimes have a normalcy bias where we sometimes
lose sight of the fact that you will stand before Jesus Christ.
That you will see our Savior and that Jesus Christ will judge your life, your works, not
your husbands, not your wives, not your soul winning partners, not your pastors, your works.
And people today, they just think like,
oh, I've got plenty of time to serve God.
I've got plenty of time to get things right in my life.
I've got plenty of time to start serving Him.
You don't necessarily know that.
But here's what I know,
is that there is coming a real day in your life
where you will see the eyes of our Savior,
where He will look at you, where He will judge you,
according to your works.
And do you really want to be before Him?
And it's just, everything's just burned up.
And you just realize, how stupid was I?
Living my life for flesh, for myself.
for vanity. You need to live your life with this in focus that the things that we see are temporal,
but there's a real day of judgment coming where the Lord Jesus Christ will judge us.
That is something we should keep in mind. I'll read for you Psalm 90 verse 9 says,
For all our days are passed away in thy wrath, we spend our years as a tale that is told.
Right, so our life is so quick.
We spend our years and it's like a story that was told.
We think about people from history, even really significant people from history, and what
are they now?
They're just a quick story that's told.
You know, hey, George Washington was the first president of the United States.
All right, flip the page.
Next person in history, right?
Our years are just a story, a tale that is told.
And if, by reason of strength, they before score years,
yet is their strength, labor and sorrow,
for it is soon cut off and we fly away.
Hey, most people, they're gonna live,
you know, if God blesses you to 70 years old,
if you've got a lot of strength and God really blesses you,
maybe you'll get to 80,
but guess what, that'll soon be cut off.
And it's like 80 years.
You know, you kids hear 80 years and you're just like,
that sounds like forever.
But as you get older, time flies, time speeds up.
And I'm just like, every birthday that my child has,
I'm just like, how is this even possible?
How are they growing up so fast?
But it's just true, it just goes by.
It's a vapor, it's like a tale that's told.
It says, who knoweth the power of thine anger?
Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
So teach us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
So this is a biblical concept that you're supposed to sit here and actually number your days and think about hey
If God blesses me, you know, if I live an average human life, I can make it like 70 years old
Think about, are you halfway there already?
Are you more than halfway there already?
That could be a scary thought to think about.
But number your days so that you could walk in wisdom.
So that you could use those days for something profitable,
not having this baby boomer mentality of, man,
I can't wait to cash out that 401k
and live the rest of my days just vacationing,
doing nothing, retiring at age 65 or whatever.
No, why don't you just work until Jesus comes?
I like that song. We'll work till Jesus comes. That's what I want to do.
I don't want to ever stop soul winning. I don't want to ever stop preaching the word of God.
I don't want to ever stop doing the ministry. Go to Genesis chapter 6, number three this morning.
Heed God's warnings before it's too late.
Some people have another normalcy bias,
where they read God's commandments in the Bible.
They read God's warnings of His chastisement,
of His punishment, of His wrath,
and we think, oh, that's for other people.
Oh, that won't happen to me.
Yeah, when people do X, Y, Z,
they'll suffer punishment, but I won't.
I'll get away with it.
Look at Genesis 6, verse 5.
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,
and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth,
and it grieved him at his heart,
and the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth,
both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air,
for it repenteth me that I have made them.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Of course, the Lord goes on to tell Noah,
hey, I'm going to flood the earth.
You need to go ahead and build an ark.
And you need to get the animals in.
You need to get your family in.
And think about the faith that that takes for Noah.
When has the earth ever been flooded before this event?
It hasn't.
When has the earth ever been flooded since this event?
It hasn't.
But you know what?
Noah did not have this normalcy bias saying,
well, because I've never seen a worldwide flood before,
Therefore, it'll never happen.
He's saying, okay, God, you're telling me it's gonna happen,
then it's gonna happen.
And you just have to trust in the Lord with all thine heart
and lean not onto thine own understanding.
And when you see something in the word of God,
don't think, well, I've never experienced that.
Well, that's not what I've seen in my life.
That's not what I've gone through in my life.
Realize that God's word is always true.
It's always true and you know what? Sometimes God's very long-suffering God's very merciful and you read about all the
Consequences of sin and maybe you don't experience it for a while. That's not because God's not going to come down on you
That's because he's merciful and long-suffering
You know, I gotta be honest, when I first understood what the Bible taught about alcohol, how we should abstain from alcohol as Christians,
and I read about all these terrible things that's gonna happen to you in your life if you drink alcohol from the Bible,
when I first read that, it was hard for me a little bit at first to accept because I saw a bunch of people in my life
that I felt like were the exception to the rule.
Where you know I didn't have it's not like you know your family members drink and you're getting beat up and you're getting like
That's not how my life was and so when I'm reading all this stuff in the Bible
I'm just thinking like man, it doesn't seem like that's reality
But here's the thing things catch up with people where eventually something catastrophic happens
Eventually something horrible happens and you have to realize that if you're sinning and if you're breaking God's commandments
And the Bible tells you what the punishment is going to be and you haven't seen that punishment yet
Don't get a normalcy bias thinking, oh, it'll always be that way.
No, repent now, turn now, change your ways now
before God's long suffering and mercy runs out.
Oh, you know, it's totally fine if I drink alcohol, no big deal.
I've never been hurt before.
Yeah, until that one day you get in the car and drive
and you kill someone's mom and you kill someone's friend
or you kill yourself or you kill your children.
That one, it only takes one time.
Go to Proverbs chapter 29 Hebrews 11 7 says by faith Noah being warned of God of things as
Seen as not seen yet moved with fear
Prepared an ark to the saving of his house by the which he condemned the world and become heirs of the righteousness
Which is by faith so notice how Noah is listed in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11
Because it took a lot of faith to build this boat for this flood that he's never seen
and that no one has ever seen since.
But you know what he just saw? God's warning.
God said something and he said, you know what? I'm going to believe God.
And you know what a wise person does?
They see something in the Bible and they believe it.
And if they've got a preconceived notion,
they've got a preconceived idea.
When the Bible contradicts us,
we submit to what the Bible says.
That's what faith is.
Proverbs 29 verse 1.
Very scary verse here.
and that without remedy.
So look, God's long suffering and sometimes God through the Bible
or God through the preaching of God's word is just constantly reproving you
saying, hey, get this issue right in your life.
Listen to me, son. Listen to me, daughter.
Get this right.
Obey my commandments.
Obey my voice.
And some people, what do they do? They harden their neck.
And even though they know it's right, and even though they see it in the Bible, they don't even try to fix it.
They're just hardening their neck.
You know what happens that person?
That person often is just suddenly destroyed and that without remedy.
Meaning, you could mess up your life so badly that there's nothing you could do to fix it.
Now, that doesn't mean that God can't forgive you of your sins,
but some of the consequences of our sins are permanent.
You know you go out and commit adultery and knock up some whore some some sleazy woman. Guess what you can't undo that
It's done. You have consequences for that. Oh, you're gonna go to the abortion clinic and murder the child
Well, then God will deal with you for that too
You know, you go out and take drugs, and you're warned from your parents not to take drugs,
and you're warned from your pastor not to take drugs, and you're warned from society not to take drugs,
and you're warned from the public school not to take drugs.
And you just take drugs anyways, well be careful, you don't get that bad fentanyl that just knocks you out and kills you.
You know, that stuff is so dangerous and so poisonous, there's police officers who often are doing like a vehicle search
and touch some residue and they're out cold.
some of them die. And you really want to play around with doing drugs? You really
think that as a Christian, that as God's child, that God's not gonna come down on
you and punish you for your stupidity, for your idiocy of doing drugs? No, he
will. The Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chaseneth.
and scourgeeth every son whom he receiveth.
You know, you love your children,
and you know what you do to your children?
When they're doing something dangerous,
something that could hurt them,
they're disobeying your commandments.
You know what you do? Because you love them,
you spank them.
Because he that spareth his rod,
hated his son, the Bible says.
He that chastens him,
early loves him.
Same thing with God, right?
So God loves us when he sees us going down a bad path.
He's going to chastise us.
and depending on the severity of your sin
and depending on how long God has been long suffering with you
and how much instruction you've had
and how much warning you've had,
you know, your chastisement can be pretty dang severe.
And you know what, there's saved people in the Word of God
that God literally killed and took home early.
They didn't lose their salvation, they didn't go to hell,
but they died.
God killed them.
You know, Ananias and Sapphira.
lying unto the Holy Ghost, God just calls their ticket and takes them home.
We got to get rid of this normalcy bias of thinking,
well, other people get punished for their sins, but I'll get away with it.
Other people could lie, they get caught, I could lie, no big deal.
Other people could just lack integrity and character and be, you know, duplicitous and liars and scheming,
and they'll get punished, but I won't.
That's not reality.
Go to, if you will.
Go to Hebrews chapter number 12 Hebrews 12 numbers 32 23 says but if you will not do so behold
You have sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out
And we always think well, it'll find out other people
Other people will get caught your sin will find you out
You know what? If God has been long-suffering to you, if there's something in your life that you know you need to change,
that you know God's been working with you on, you've read it in the Bible, you've heard preaching about it, you know it's wrong,
change now! Change today! Because be sure your sin will find you out.
And isn't it nice that God gives us long-suffering? Isn't it nice that God's very merciful to us?
Isn't it nice that sometimes we can be complete idiots?
deserving of punishment from Him and He still spares and gives us, you know, space to repent.
I thank God for that. But you know what? We should not despise the riches of His goodness.
We should not despise the long suffering that He has, but we should realize that His goodness
should lead us to repentance. You know, kids, when your parents are being long suffering with you,
when they give you a pass, when they don't give you a spanking, when you deserve it,
Don't use that to manipulate them and to continue doing evil.
Be appreciative that they gave you a pass.
If your boss gives you a pass when you mess up, be appreciative of that and learn from
it and change.
Hebrews 12 verse 16 says,
lest there be any fornicator
or profane person as Esau,
who for one morsel of meat
sold his birthright,
for you know how that afterward
when he would have inherited the blessing
he was rejected,
for he found no place of repentance
though he sought it carefully with tears.
What did Esau do?
He sold away his birthright to his brother.
for one little bowl of soup, basically, right?
He just sold that birthright in his, you know,
impulsive needs of needing food.
He just had this quick knee-jerk reaction,
this impulsive decision, where he's like,
I'm just gonna sell my birthright
for this little bowl of food.
And then afterwards, what did he do?
He regretted it.
And afterwards, he's seeking for repentance.
He's seeking it with tears.
But the Bible says that he found no place for it,
even though he was seeking it with tears.
Here's the thing, we could really screw up our lives.
We could do something in our life where even after the act is done, you could cry all you
want, you could be sorry all you want, but that doesn't necessarily take away the consequences
that you have to deal with.
It's funny how he compares Esau with a fornicator because fornication is a perfect example of
You just have this impulsive desire to have the physical relationship with someone and
instead of doing what the Bible says, which is to get married and then once you're married
you get to enjoy that any time you want and it's a blessing from God.
We got a bunch of kids today and young adults that are fools that just trade away their future
for one night of fornication.
They destroy their lives and when they're done they feel guilty and they cry and they
And you're still sorry, and yeah, you're sorry and God can forgive you, but guess what, sometimes you still have that STD for the rest of your life.
Oh, you know, you could be sorry, you could cry out to God, but you know that bastard children, that bastard child that you fathered with some random woman is still yours now.
And you still have to deal with that for the rest of your life.
You know, you ought to not be so short-sighted and not have this normalcy bias and think,
will other people commit fornication?
They get STDs.
They father, bastard, children, but it will never happen to me.
All be fine.
No, if you're a child of God, the Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chaseneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth.
You are probably not going to be the exception.
You will probably suffer immensely.
Think about this.
People make this impulsive decision thinking man, the grass is always going to be greener on the other side
You know man, I'm gonna I'm gonna trade out my wife and find some young hot babe and everything's gonna go great for me
No, you know what you're gonna do. You're gonna regret it because most people who get divorced regret it
And, you know, people glorify divorce, and there's all these stupid billboards.
You know, double your closet space, honey.
You know, drop that zero, get you a hero.
But let me tell you what, you know what some of the most miserable people in this world are?
Middle-aged divorced women.
Yeah.
How about old people in the nursing home that they divorced their spouse,
they didn't have kids, or they didn't care about their kids,
and they're just alone?
And people are just making this short-sighted decision thinking,
well, other people's life is destroyed by divorce, but mine will be fine.
Others people's life, you know, the divorce rates on the second marriage are even higher than the first.
50% of Americans get divorced.
When you get a second marriage, you are pretty much guaranteed to get divorced again.
But people think, oh, not me.
No, no, no.
Other people's life gets destroyed when they get divorced.
But me, I'm going to marry just a smoking hot babe who's
a 10 out of 10 and fisher of men.
And she's got a Proverbs 31 heart,
but a Hollywood actress's body.
Yeah, that's not how it works.
Sorry, you're not the exception.
Sorry, you're in a normalcy bias.
But you know what?
Your second wife will probably be worse than your first.
And you know what? Why don't you just rejoice with the wife of thy youth, like the Bible says?
Why don't you just actually be a person of character when you said, till death do us part?
For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, and sickness, and in health.
Just kidding, because I don't like you anymore.
That's bull crap, folks. Divorce is wicked.
The Bible says that God hates putting away.
There is no exception in the Bible for divorce. The Bible says never divorce.
So just get over it, you know what, and your life is not going to be better when you divorce your spouse, it's going to be worse.
The grass is not greener on the other side.
What about committing adultery? Go to Proverbs chapter number five.
Proverbs chapter number five.
You know, people have a normalcy bias where they think, you know, I can go cheat on my wife, I can go cheat on my husband, and you know what, I won't get caught.
Nothing bad will happen to me.
I'll be the exception.
Other people get blasted.
Other people get caught.
The CEO at the Coldplay concert, he'll get caught, right?
But surely I'll go to the Coldplay concert and the camera won't show me.
What's that?
That's your normalcy bias.
What does the Bible say in Proverbs 5 verse 3?
For the lips of a strange woman, drop is a honeycomb.
And her mouth is smoother than oil.
So the strange woman is going to seem desirable.
She's going to seem like something
that would be good for you.
But notice verse four, but her end is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death.
Her steps take hold on hell.
lest thou shouldst ponder the path of life, her ways are movable, that thou canst not know them.
Hear me now, therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house."
Remember, Proverbs is Solomon, and he's often addressing his son.
And he's explaining, son, she's gonna look beautiful.
Son, she's gonna look attractive.
Of course, son, you're gonna think this is something
that'll be good for you.
But let me tell you reality, son,
stay the hell away from this woman.
Don't go by the door of her house.
Don't go across her path.
Her end is bitter as wormwood.
Her steps go down to hell, right?
He's trying to shake his son out of his normalcy bias.
Then it says in verse number.
9.
Look at the consequences here.
It says, Lest thou give thine honor unto others, and thy years unto the cruel.
Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth.
and thy labors be in the house of a stranger."
He's saying, look, there's going to be consequences
when you go and commit adultery.
And even today, there's consequences.
People go out and commit adultery.
They blow up their marriage.
Their spouse divorces them.
And then what happens?
They have to pay child support for the rest of their life.
They have to pay alimony.
And now, their wealth is going to the house of a stranger.
Now, you're having to pay for this kid
for another man to be with your wife.
Now another man's going to be with your wife, another man's going to be living in the wife,
but you still got to give that money, you still got to pay, and your wealth is going to his house.
That's why we should listen to the warnings. Verse 11,
Notice the reaction he has, and thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed.
When people commit adultery or their marriage gets destroyed,
not only is there the worry of STDs from being with other partners,
but you know just the stress of divorce
and the emotional turmoil of one person cheating on another,
like it could literally just consume your body.
You literally could just die from a heart attack
and from heartache and pain and stress
and all these issues going on, like it will destroy your life.
And notice, he's saying, at the end, you're just going to be crying.
You're going to cry out.
You're going to wish you had listened.
So why don't you listen now?
Notice verse 12, and say, how have I hated instruction, and my heart despised for proof?
And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to them that instructed
me?
You know what foolish people do in their life?
They know the truth.
They know what's right, they read the Bible, they heard the warnings from their parents,
from their pastor, from their teachers, from their friends, and they just say, oh, but
it won't happen to me.
Now that happens to other people, it won't happen to me, but then the end, this is where
they get.
They're just like, oh man, how stupid was I?
Why did I not hearken to the voice of my teachers?
Why did I not listen to my dad?
Why did I not listen to the pastor?
Why did I not listen to the Word of God?
Here's my question.
Why don't you just realize you're not the exception and that if you go out and commit adultery you will destroy your life?
And guess what? Here's the situation. If you commit adultery, you know what?
Your wife should do or your husband should do is that they should forgive you because that's what the Bible says. Is that easy?
No.
Do I feel horrible for people that are victims of adultery?
Yes. If we lived in a righteous government where God's law was executed, the Bible teaches that adultery is a death penalty sin.
And if we lived in a righteous government,
adulterers would be put to death.
But here's the thing, we don't live in that society.
So if you commit adultery, you know what your spouse should do
is they should forgive you.
And by the way, what your friends should be advising you to do
is to stay married.
And what your pastor should be doing
is telling you to stay married.
And what your pastor, your friends, your parents,
everyone should be telling you that.
But here is the reality is that sometimes people do this
and their spouse will not forgive them.
And look, that's wrong.
That's wicked, that's terrible, but you know what, that could have been prevented if you weren't such an idiot and committed adultery.
And you're going to be crying, oh man, I'm so sorry, I'm repentant, I want to change.
And you may be sorry, and God can forgive you.
But sometimes, he that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.
You can destroy your life and it doesn't matter if you're saved or unsaved, you can permanently destroy your life.
And so you need to just shake off this normalcy bias of thinking,
man, you know, I'm standing right now and I've gotten away with it.
Let me tell you, if you've ever committed adultery and you somehow were not destroyed by God,
you better thank Him for that mercy and never do it again.
Never do it again, because if you hear preaching like this, and you do it again, God's going to come down on you.
If you messed up and you committed a fornication, hey, confess and forsake it, ask God for forgiveness, move on with your life.
But if you know that the Bible says, flee fornication, and if you know that it's not something God wants you to do,
and you've heard this preaching and you do it anyways, well then just go ahead and expect the wrath of God on your life.
I'm telling you folks, we need to fear God.
Go to Proverbs 23, Proverbs chapter number 23.
You know, I mentioned this a little bit.
How about drinking alcohol?
Hey, man, maybe you've gotten away with it.
Maybe you've drunk alcohol
and nothing really bad has happened in your life yet.
Maybe you've not gotten a DUI yet.
Maybe you've not beaten your wife yet.
Maybe you've not punched your kids yet.
Maybe you've not gotten in a car accident yet.
But notice what the Bible says in Proverbs 23 verse 29.
It says, whoeth woe?
Who hath sorrow? Who hath contention? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?
They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine.
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveeth itself aright.
At the last it biteeth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women.
And my heart shall utter perverse things.
What's he saying?
You go and drink alcohol.
You lose your judgment.
You lose your discernment.
You start to lose your faculties.
And you start doing things you wouldn't normally have done
when you're in your sober mind.
And in your sobriety, you would never cheat on your spouse.
And in your sobriety, you would never, you know,
cheat on your husband or your wife.
But when you're drunk, it says,
We ask normally you're sober you're walking in the spirit and you see some flusy and you turn your eyes
And you say I'm not going down that road because I know that adultery is going to destroy my life
And I know that God hates it and I know I don't want to get divorced. I want to have a happy marriage
I want to be with my wife till the day one of us dies
But you know what happens when you drink alcohol your eyes start to behold strange women and you start to think oh
Maybe maybe one time wouldn't be a big deal
Maybe one time wouldn't hurt.
Maybe I could get away with it one time
and you know what you end up doing?
Destroying your life.
It says,
thine heart shall utter perverse things.
You start saying things when you're drunk
that you would have never said when you're sober.
Sometimes, even perverse things, saying gross, just twisted, abominable things that you wouldn't have said if you were sober,
or how about things that you say when you're drunk, like, challenging people to a fight that you wouldn't normally have challenged?
You get that liquid courage, and your heart starts uttering random stuff, and you want to fight that guy, and you get your teeth knocked out,
and you get concussed, or you get stabbed, or you get killed.
Because you know how many murders have alcohol involved?
in the situation all the time.
You know, we do that swat soul winning
where we go out whenever there's a homicide in our city
and we go to the scene and we preach the gospel to people.
And we went to that lady who she was the girlfriend
of the man that was murdered.
And she told us that basically her boyfriend
and the murderer, they got into some fist fight
while they were drunk.
while they were under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
And I guess her boyfriend beat the crap out of this guy,
and what did he do? He got his pride hurt because he beat, got the crap beat out of him,
went to his house, he got a gun, he kicked in the guy's door,
and shot him in the head and killed him. Why? Because they're drunk.
That's why the Bible says don't drink. It says don't even look at the wine when it's red explain to me this idea
Let's drink in moderation when the Bible says look not thou upon the wine
When it is red when it giveth his color in the cup. What is that talking about alcoholic wine?
Because let me let you in on a little just
Scientific secret here. It's so deep science. It's a real deep history and science here. You know what non-alcoholic wine is
It's called juice
When Jesus turned water to wine, guess what he did?
He turned it into delicious fruit juice.
Jesus Christ was not a drunk.
Jesus Christ did not go to a wedding
where the Bible says they had already well drunk
and he's like, oh, I know what this place needs,
more alcohol.
Let me tell you something.
If you believe that, you are stupid.
You might be drinking right now.
You might be under the influence right now
if you think Jesus Christ made alcohol.
The Bible says,
look not thou upon the wine when it is red.
Notice what happens it says in verse number 34.
Ye thou shalt be as he that lieth down
in the midst of the sea,
or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast,
they have stricken me, shalt thou say,
and I was not sick.
They have beaten me, and I felt it not.
You just wake up from your drunken stupor
and you're like, how did I break my bones?
Why are my teeth missing?
Why am I bleeding?
Why is my car crashed?
Why is my friend dead in the passenger seat next to me?
Why did I kill someone? Because you were a drunk idiot, that's why.
Then it says, when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
I mean, talk about the powerful effect of normalcy bias on the human mind.
Where even if you've messed up in the past and even if you've seen your life destroying the past,
We're still so foolish sometimes to think, well, it won't happen again.
And so I'll just seek alcohol again. I'll just drink again.
I know it ruined my marriage. I know it ruined my children.
I know it sent me to prison. I know I killed someone.
But just when I wake up, I'll seek it yet again.
The stupidity, folks. We need to fear God.
We need to listen to His commandments.
Go to Hebrews 10, Hebrews chapter number 10.
You know, how about quitting church?
How about thinking like, you know, God's just as happy with me not going to church as He is with me in the house of God.
And you know what? I could just leave church. I could not go to church and nothing will ever happen to me.
My marriage will still be just as blessed. My child ring will be just as blessed.
My finances will be just as blessed. My life will be just as blessed.
Well, look what the Bible says. Hebrews 10 verse 24.
and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.
We're supposed to love one another. We're supposed to be considering of one another
and provoke each other to love and to do good works.
This is an example of that in verse 25.
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.
as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another
and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
So what's the example that the Bible gives of exhorting one another
and loving one another?
It's not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.
And look, I want to encourage you to think about this
and to not have a normalcy bias,
and to realize, hey, I need to get back in church.
I need to stay in church.
I need to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
And notice it says in so much the more as you see the day approaching.
Here's the thing, going to church today is more important
than it was going to church in 2024.
And going to church in 2025 is way more important
than it was in the year 2000 or 1990.
And guess what?
Next year it'll be more important.
And the year after that, it'll be more important.
So why don't you just be steadfast?
Because today's always the best day to be in church.
And next Sunday will be even better than today.
It says in verse 26,
For if we sin willfully, what does that tell you?
Forsaking the assembling of ourselves together is sinning willfully.
People say, oh, we don't have to be in church.
That's a sin.
It's a sin not to go to church.
For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth,
there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation
which shall devour the adversaries.
What is he saying?
He's saying, when you forsake the assembling
of yourselves together with God's people,
that God's gonna come down to your life.
Now here's the thing, the Bible does not say
thou shalt go to Anchor Baptist Church.
It doesn't say like thou shalt go to a new IV Baptist Church,
but you know what, you need to get in the good church.
And I believe you should be in the best church in your area.
And if another pastor is a better pastor,
then go follow him.
If another church is a better church,
then go follow that church,
but you need to be in the best church you possibly be in.
Go to Malachi chapter number two.
Malachi chapter number two. We talked about all these different areas that we need to not have a normalcy bias on.
Realize these can have big consequences in our life.
Things like doing drugs.
Things like drinking alcohol. Things like committing adultery.
Things like going to church. Hey Jeremiah, wake up.
Come on. Pay attention.
Malachi chapter number two.
Read Malachi chapter number two.
How about this?
Anything that God tells you to do.
Verse one, the Bible says, and now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.
And if you will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name, say it to the Lord of Hosts,
I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings.
I have cursed them already because you do not lay it to heart.
What's he saying? Just anything I'm telling you.
When I'm telling you something and you're not laying it to heart, he's saying,
I'm going to curse you. I'm going to curse your blessings.
He's saying, I've cursed it already. Can't you see?
And there's some people today where I just look at their life and I'm just like,
can't you see that God's hand is not with you?
Can't you see that God is destroying you?
And it's just like, just listen.
Just humble yourself.
Just pay attention to the word of God.
Just pay attention to what God is trying to get you to understand.
Notice verse number three.
Behold, I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces.
Even the dung of your solemn feasts.
And one shall take you away with it.
Boy, this is probably a verse you haven't heard read in other churches before.
This is a verse that you probably didn't see on your Christmas card,
where God's saying,
hey, listen to me, or I'm going to take crap and rub it in your face.
Did I just come up with that, or is that what the Bible says in Malachi chapter number two?
And it's like, what is God doing?
He's trying to get you to wake the hell up.
Here's some dung in your face, because you're not listening to me.
Don't want that to happen in my life. I don't want God to come down and spiritually just rub the dung in my face
You know, but hey, that's what the Bible says
Go to if you would Proverbs chapter number 22 Proverbs 22 all I'm saying is this
Don't wait in your life until you have crap all over your face to finally start giving a crap about what the Bible says
And about what the preaching of God's word has been and what you've been hearing from the Spirit of God
Don't wait until you get to that point.
Shake your normalcy bias now and just change.
And just say like, man, I think I'm the exception, but I'm not.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.
Lean not unto thine own understanding.
When God's commandments are there, it's there for our benefit.
It's there because He loves us.
And if I don't obey, I'm going to receive punishment for that.
Just listen.
Number four, last point, prepare for evil before it's too late.
Proverbs 22 verse 3 says, a prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideeth himself.
but the simple pass on and are punished.
We've talked a lot about spiritual,
having a normalcy bias spiritually.
But for the last point of this sermon,
I just want to remind you of some
carnal applications of this,
some physical ways that you need to
foresee the evil.
Evil in the Bible just means harm.
So the prudent man, he foresees
harm coming and he hides himself.
He prepares himself,
but the simple pass on and are punished.
Cardinal example, when I lived in Idaho, everyone prepared for winter because winter was a real beast there.
And I lived there, I remember in 2016 we had snow on the ground for over 100 consecutive days.
And so early fall, we're stocking up so much wood you wouldn't even believe it.
We've got the the stove with the propane. We've got a little bit of food
We got a little bit of water we got plenty of blankets in our vehicles
We have a literal survival box because if you break down in negative 20 degree weather you could die
Right, so it's like this wasn't like being a prepper or crazy. This is just called living in Idaho
This is just life. Okay, and so I've always done this my whole life. It was just a way of life to me
And when we moved to Texas in 2021,
there was that crazy out of nowhere storm.
And it affected here a lot too.
All the trees were like destroyed and broken down.
Just craziness.
But electricity was out.
The grocery store was out of food.
Target was closed down and the aisles were empty.
It was just crazy.
But here's the thing, I had done that my whole life, and so I just kind of kept on doing it.
And so we had wood, I had propane stoves, we were cooking some food, and my wife was
kind of freaking out, and I'm just like, honey, it's fine, I've got to take care of
no big deal.
I said, I promise you, in the future, we're going to look back at this as a good memory.
Was it a good memory?
It was.
We made some macaroni and cheese on the propane, I got a plastic bag, I put coffee grounds in it,
and I wrapped it with a towel, I got a hammer and I just made coffee grounds,
and I made coffee over the fire and I had a great time. It was kind of fun. Meanwhile, people in
Houston were dying. Meanwhile, people in Houston were like, let's go in our garage, close the garage
Because a prudent man foresees the evil and hides himself,
but the symbol pass on and are punished.
There's real evil in our lives that can come our way,
and we need to prepare for that.
It's not being crazy, it's not being a prepper,
it's just being someone who's prudent.
So what are some examples?
How about taking care of your health?
Do not have a normalcy bias where you think even though I've neglected my body my whole life
Even though though I'm not exercising even though I'm not eating right. I'm alive now. So I'll always be okay
Yeah, until that day of the heart attack comes
Until that diabetes diagnosis comes and look I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feeling
I'm just trying to help you in your life not to see you destroyed by neglecting your health
So you foresee the evil down the road and you say man, I need to make changes now
need to get healthy now. How about making wise investments financially? You know,
don't just stay at a dead-end job.
If you're at a dead end job, look, I'm not against you,
work hard, God could bless you, but you should want to move
to something that you could actually grow in
and get some more skills in and make more money
in the future in.
You're a single guy now and you want to raise a family
someday, realize that taking care of yourself right now
is a walk in the park for when you start having
all these kids and all the diapers
and all the medical bills and all this stuff.
You got to prepare for this kind of stuff.
How about this, wear your seat belt
when you're driving a car.
And if you ride a motorcycle, wear a helmet.
Because you have a normalcy bias that because you've never been ejected from your vehicle before
that you never will.
But guess what? People die every day from car deaths.
And a lot of them are just not wearing their seat belts.
And what a senseless way to die.
What a senseless way for you to leave your family and to leave your friends
by just not wearing a seat belt.
Wear the seat belt.
Yell at your kids if they don't wear the seat belt.
Spank your kids if they don't wear the seat belt.
How about this, don't drive distracted.
I think we all could be guilty of this at times.
We're living in 2025.
We've all got this stupid phone all the time.
We need to remember though, to not drive distracted
because here's the thing, because you never crashed before,
because you never had an issue before,
does not mean that you won't in the future.
You say, man, I've played around on my phone while I'm driving
and nothing's ever happened.
Well, why don't you thank God for His grace and His mercy
and stop and change.
How about this drive safely, right? Hey drive friendly the Texas way or whatever right when you're entering the state
You know because you got a bunch of idiots today that drive super aggressive
They're cutting everyone off their road raging
They're flipping everyone off and nothing's ever happened to you before that doesn't mean it's always gonna be that way
Drive safely, you know my friends. They'll make fun of me and say I drive like a grandma
I'm glad to have that reputation. I really am because I don't want to go out and just be reckless with my life
You know, my parents, for some reason, allowed me to buy a super bike when I was a teenager,
and I already did that.
I already did 169 miles an hour on my motorcycle on the back roads of Idaho.
I'm glad that God allowed me to live through it.
But now I've got kids, and I've got a family, and I'm not going to do that, all right?
Thank God for His grace.
How about this, lock your vehicles, lock your vehicles up, and lock your home.
Again, this was crazy when I lived in Idaho, it was such a safe place.
People just didn't do this.
And I was born in California, I was raised in California, and I'm just like, oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Like, we had our entire house robbed one time. We went on vacation and we came back to our house
and the only thing that was left were the heavy gun safes. They couldn't get into the gun safes,
but everything else was wiped out. We've had cars stolen, and so when people don't lock their houses
and don't lock their cars, I'm just like, you're crazy, man. Well, it's never happened to me before,
but it can.
it does. Oh, it'll never happen to me. Yes, it can happen to you. Lock your doors.
How about this? Be vigilant when you're in public. Don't just have this normalcy
bias that, well, we live in Oklahoma. We live in a safe area. Therefore, nothing
bad could ever happen to us. You know, you're at the grocery store. I mean, a
shooting could never happen here. Oh, you work downtown. Surely a building could
never blow up in Oklahoma City, right?
No, stuff happens folks. We live in a dangerous world. We live, you know, we live amongst violent people in our midst.
And, you know, women today often have a normalcy bias where they just forgot the fact that they're the weaker vessel
and that they could be taken advantage of by a stronger man any time a wicked person wanted to.
And instead of, you know, walking through the parking lot at the grocery store, looking at your phone,
you know, you should keep your eyes up and stay vigilant.
and and take care of your safety and not just assume that you're some you know
go girl power ranger and you're gonna be able to fight off the bad guys no let
me wake you up with reality men are stronger than you and a dangerous man
that wants to hurt you can do so and so don't have this normalcy bias thinking
you'll always be okay pay attention to your surroundings same thing with men
you as well pay attention to your surroundings how about this is very
specific buy a gun get professional training with that gun and carry it
There's people that are oh, I'm so pro second amendment. Yeah, I'll buy a gun. Do you carry it? No
What's the point?
What's the point of having a gun when you don't carry it carry it everywhere that you can now look?
I'm not telling you to go risk your job and go get fired by breaking their policies or something like that
I'm not saying to do that, but everywhere that you can care you should do so
Because you should be vigilant. You should not have a normalcy bias. You should realize that stuff actually happens.
You should realize there's actual violent people that are willing to kill you and your family if the opportunity arose.
Realize that there's random acts of violence that happen. There's trannies shooting up schools and shooting up stuff all the time.
Be ready for that kind of stuff.
Again, how about this? Learn first aid and trauma care.
I paid for it professionally.
I wanted to learn this stuff.
I think it's important.
If you are a father, I think you
should have some medical supplies in your kitchen.
Have something as simple as a tourniquet.
They sell these de-choker things for kids.
You know what I'm talking about?
The de-chokers, we've got that in the kitchen.
We have these things.
Because we're so panicked.
No, just because I don't want to have a normalcy bias saying
it could never happen to me.
Because it does happen to people.
You know, my dad was a first responder and he quit that because he said he was tired
of fishing dead kids out of pools.
You got a swimming pool?
Don't think like, oh, it'll never happen to my kids.
Lock that gate.
Pay attention to your kids.
Don't let your kids hang out by the front door.
Oh, surely they could never get taken by someone they could.
God forbid, but it could happen.
Buy medical supplies for your home, your vehicle, your travel bags.
Okay, how about this one in Oklahoma?
Pay attention to the tornado sirens.
What do people have?
A normal C-bias, because it's never been hit by a tornado before.
My house was built in 1979, it's still standing, nothing's ever happened before.
But guess what?
There's tons of people in Oklahoma who do have their homes destroyed by tornadoes every
year.
And there's people that die from tornadoes every year.
And unless it's Saturday at 12 o'clock,
when you hear the tornado siren, pay attention to it.
Actually give it some, some heat-ins in your life.
Actually give heat to it.
Go to James chapter four.
This will be the last place we go to this morning.
James chapter number four.
Saturdays at noon, they're testing it.
And it's usually right when I'm in the middle
of the gospel presentation.
I don't have to like yell over it or whatever.
But any other time you hear that tornado siren,
pay attention.
Get your kids down in the shelter, if you have one, do what you can.
James chapter number four, James chapter four, verse 13, the Bible says,
Go to now, ye that say today or tomorrow.
We will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain.
Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life?
For that, you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this and do that.
Right?
What do these people have?
Normalcy bias.
Ah, next year, we're going to go into this town, we're going to buy and sell and get
gain.
Isn't that what people like to do with their life?
They like to plan it out.
You know, in a year, I think in a year, I'm going to buy a house, I think in a year, I'm
going to switch careers.
I'm going to start a business, I'm going to go do this, I'm going to go do that.
But you know what?
You don't even know if you're going to live that long.
You know what the day that you should be living for, fully for God, is today.
And you know what, if we're going to talk about something in the future, we ought to say hey, if the Lord will,
hey you know what, Lord willing, I'll be in the Bahamas tomorrow preaching the gospel.
But you know what, I don't know if that's the case, so I'm going to go out soul-winning today.
I don't know when my last day is, I don't know when the people out there last day is, so I'm just going to go preach them the gospel today.
And I'm going to preach the gospel and do good works today, because if today is my last, well I want to go out serving God.
And you know what, when I read my Bible this evening and when I read my Bible tomorrow,
Lord willing, right?
If I'm Lord willing, read my Bible this evening and Lord willing, read my Bible tomorrow when
God's Word is presented to me and there's something in my life that I need to change.
And when God's warning me about the consequences of sin,
you know what I should do is not have this foolish thought of,
well, this is for other people.
Well, this isn't going to affect me.
I say, you know what? I need to change.
I need to humble myself to God's word.
I need to submit myself to God's word.
I need church.
I need heart preaching.
I need prayer.
I need fellowship with God's saints.
I need all these things and not have a normalcy bias
and just thinking things will always continue the way that they are.
You know, wake up today, Christians. Let's pray.
Lord, thank you so much for your word.
Thank you for all the wisdom that's found therein.
I pray that you'd please bless everyone in here.
Help us to live our lives to the fullest.
Help us not to take anything for granted,
whether that be family members
or just the many blessings that you give us in life.
I pray that we would not take salvation for granted.
I pray that we wouldn't take the unsaved time
that they have left for granted, Lord.
that we would shake off our normalcy bias and fear you.
We love you and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
We're going to sing one more song and then we're going to have a baptism immediately after this.
It's time if you would turn to 119 in your hymnals.
until the storm passes by.
119,
until the storm passes by.
119, they're on the verge.
In the dark.