You
And if you would at this time find a hymnal and turn to hymn number 119.
Hymn number 119 till the storm passes by.
Hymn number 119 we'll go ahead and start there right on the first.
Good singing this afternoon will open with a word of prayer. Dear father, thank you for these hymns
that we have to sing. Thank you for this church. I pray that you bless the remainder of this service
at this time and give us ears to hear the message you've laid on Pastor's heart as well, Lord.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen. For our next hymn, if you would turn in your hymnals to hymn number 127.
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, hymn number one hundred twenty-seven.
Hymn number one twenty-seven. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first.
quickly go through some announcements. If you need a bulletin, please raise your hand and Usher will
bring you one.
On the front is our Bible memory passage of the week. We're in verse number seven this week
of Galatians chapter one. Keep working hard on the Bible memorization passage there.
Service times are on the left on the inside there. Sunday mornings at 10 30. Sunday evenings at 4 30
p.m. And our Wednesday evening Bible study through 1st Samuel and we're getting towards the end of
that book there. Soul winning times are listed. All those meet here at the church building.
and our nursing home ministry schedules below that next week is brother Cameron Hall preaching
we do have our year-to-date statistics for soul winning just make sure if you have any
salvations to report those numbers there please be in prayer from Ms. Whitney Reed for her pregnancy
Also March 9th coming up in a couple weeks. We're gonna have another men's preaching night
And there will be a sign-up sheet for that soon and just like last time we're gonna have a potluck afterwards
So please bring a dish or dessert or both to share for that
March 15th is the baby shower for Mrs. Whitney Reed and there's some information on the back of the bulletin
If you want to know more about that
April 19th is a soul winning marathon on Easter weekend. It's going to be on a Saturday.
May 16th through the 18th is the King James Conference in Vancouver, Washington.
May 31st, Durant, Oklahoma, soul winning marathon with Steadfast Baptist Church.
June 28th, Tinker Air Force Base air show.
August 27th through 31st Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship and October 6th through the 11th is our Bahamas
mission's trip. So just some reminders about those events coming up. Also on the bottom there is a
QR code if you'd like to give online or you could always do so by check as well. And on the back
very importantly please do not forget to pray for the members here that have prayer requests.
It's one of the great things about actually coming to church is knowing people that could be there
on you, so make sure you pray for each other there, and if you have any new requests, do
email that to the church. Be happy to add that for you. That's going to be it for announcements
this evening. We'll go ahead and go to our third song.
All right, for our third song, if you would, turn in your hymnals to hymn number 139.
I know whom I have believed in, came number 139.
We'll go ahead and start there right on the first.
Singing as the offering plates are being passed around, turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter
number 22, Proverbs chapter number 22.
Good evening, Proverbs 22, the Bible Reads.
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold.
The rich and poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all.
A prudent man foreseeeth the evil and highteth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.
By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.
He that doth keep his soul shall be far from them trying up a child in the way
He should go and when he is old he will not depart from it
The rich ruleeth over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender
He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity and the rod of his anger shall fail
He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed
For he giveth of his bread to the poor cast out the scorner and
Contention shall go out. Yay. Strife and reproach shall cease
He that loveth pureness of heart
For the grace of his lips, the king shall be his friend.
The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge,
and he overthroweth the words of the transgressors.
The slothful man saith, there is a lion without,
I shall be slain in the streets.
The mouth of strange women is a deep pit.
He that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child,
but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches,
and he that giveth to the rich shall surely come to want."
Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge.
For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee, they shall with all be fitted
in thy lips.
That thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee,
That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth that thou mightest answer the words of truth
To them that sinned unto thee rob not the poor because he is poor neither oppress the afflicted in the gate
For the Lord will plead their cause and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them
Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go.
Lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul, be not thou one of them that strike hands,
or of them that are sureties for debts. If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away
thy bed from under thee?
Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set
Seeest thou a man diligent in his business. He shall stand before kings
He shall not stand before mean men. Let's bow our heads for word of prayer
Father in heaven, we thank you for keeping us all safe out soul winning. We love you
Verse one, the Bible says a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor
rather than silver and gold. So the Bible here is saying that to have a good name,
which is talking about your reputation, have a good reputation, is more valuable and more
important even than having a lot of money, right? And even if you
have money problems but you're a good person and you've taken care of other people and you've invested
in other people. If you have a good name then people could have your back when you have needs
and they could help you in that area. But also it's just very important to have a good name
more importantly than just the benefits you could reap from that is the fact that all of us
who are here who are saved are ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
And so that's why it's very important to have a good name,
have a good reputation because we are representing Jesus.
And so the title of my sermon this evening
is How to Have a Good Name.
How to have a good name.
Now turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 10.
Ecclesiastes chapter 10 and while you're turning there I'm going to read for you Deuteronomy 2837 the Bible says and now shall become an
astonishment, a proverb and a byword among all nations whether the Lord shall lead thee.
See the opposite of having a good name or the opposite of having a good reputation is someone who becomes a byword.
right? Where your name is associated with some sort of negative character trait. Or, you know,
sometimes we could think of this in other ways too, but think of some names or some titles that
are kind of have become a byword. How about you?
Right. Hey, don't be a Jew man tip the waitress
Don't be a Jew because that kind of has become a byword for someone who's stingy or cheap or think about this Judas
Don't be a Judas right saying be faithful be loyal. Don't be someone that stabs someone in the back
What about Napoleon if I say that someone has a Napoleon complex? What do I mean by that? Someone shout it out?
Come on, man. What?
Yeah, you're it's like you're being arrogant. You're you're what's that? God complex. Yeah, that could kind of fit for Napoleon
Pharaoh right that's someone that's really prideful or a Scrooge
Someone doesn't like Christmas right a Scrooge. What about Romeo? He's a romantic someone is someone is a Romeo
Okay, Saul we've been studying first Samuel if someone's a Saul right someone who's very arrogant someone who's super backslidden, right?
But look at Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse 1.
The Bible says dead flies cause the ointment
of the apothecary to send forth a stinking saver.
So doth a little folly him that is in reputation
for wisdom and honor.
Here's the truth about your reputation
and about building a good name for yourself
is that it's very hard to do, takes a lot of time
and it takes a lot of diligence and faithfulness,
but it's very easy to destroy.
You can destroy your reputation very quickly.
You know, businesses can do this.
You know, businesses could have a reputation
and you know, at risk of being unalived,
I'm gonna say a company name here, Boeing.
Boeing in times past has had a great reputation
for just being a great airplane company.
And it's like, you can't beat a Boeing.
Now, Boeing is starting to ruin their reputation
through the whistleblowers that have been exposing
their safety standards being compromised
and all sorts of different safety issues
that Boeing's have been having.
Boeing has kind of ruined their reputation a little bit.
And it's very easy to do.
It doesn't take much.
I mean, when you start having airplanes falling out of the sky,
you're going to start losing your reputation.
And it's the same thing for anyone.
You could be someone who has spent your life
being diligent, doing what's right,
building a name for yourself, having a good reputation.
But you could ruin that in an instant.
It's just like how to make this sort of ointment of the apothecary.
I'm sure that took a lot of time and effort and energy and skill.
I don't know how to make that, but you know, all it takes is just a couple dead flies in
that thing to ruin it.
And it's like you, you had this great ointment that was going to be used for something and
now it's ruined because of those flies and that is what could happen.
to us. That's what could happen to any of us. And again, it's not just that I want you to build a
good name just for your own pride or for your own self. It's the fact that we are representatives
of Christ. And for that reason, we should care about our reputation. So how to build a good name,
how to have a good name, go to Titus chapter two, Titus chapter two,
We're going to look at what the Bible teaches on this, and number one, to have a good name,
you must be a serious person.
You must be a serious person.
When I think of people who have good reputations, men that I respect, men that I look up to,
it's men that are serious, serious about life, serious about serving God, serious about their
job and their family, just serious in general.
And look at Titus 2, it says this, but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine.
Young men likewise exhort to be noticed sober-minded.
In all things, showing thyself a pattern of good works,
in doctrine, showing uncrepness, gravity, sincerity.
So twice in this list, the idea of being serious comes up.
Being sober-minded and being grave,
both have to do with someone being very serious.
And I think it's interesting that this list here
is directed towards young men.
Because the truth is, you know,
you start building your reputation in your youth.
That goes for men and women.
The Bible talks about how even a child is known by his doings,
whether his work be right and whether it be pure.
So even in your youth, you know,
rather than just wasting your youth
and just playing games and being silly,
you should learn to become a person that is serious,
where life is not some big joke,
where everything's not some sort of game.
Yes, there's fun and games in life.
We want to enjoy life,
but you know what?
Life should be taken seriously.
And one way you could do this is by learning to fear the Lord.
Go to Proverbs chapter number nine, fearing the Lord.
And you know, this kind of ties in with this morning sermon that, you know,
if you want your kids to grow up and be serious and be sober and be grave,
you've got to teach them to fear God.
And, you know, discipline is a big aspect of that.
We talked about that this morning.
But notice what it says in Proverbs 9 verse 10,
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
And the knowledge of the Holy is understanding,
for by me thy days shall be multiplied,
and the years of thy life shall be increased.
You know, many people today are not sober about life.
Many people today are not even sober or grave
or serious minded about their own salvation.
And at the end of the day, why is it that someone's not serious about these things?
What's the root cause? The root cause is that they don't fear God.
You know, someone who gets saved is someone who fears God, right?
They find out about the terror of the Lord.
They find out about the terror of hell and they say, hey, I want to get saved.
What must I do to get saved?
That's someone that at least has some part of them in life that wants to be serious.
There's some serious things in this life and even beyond salvation.
Why is it that some people are just living carelessly?
not taking life seriously, not thinking about the future,
not thinking about things that are spiritual,
it comes down to not fearing the Lord.
Proverbs 8, flip the page there.
Proverbs 8, you say, how do I fear the Lord?
Well, here's one way.
Verse 13, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil.
pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate?
If you want to be someone that has a reputation of being a serious person, you need to fear
God and you know how you do that?
You do that by hating evil.
You want to know why so many churches today and why Christianity just in general, to the
world's perspective or to some false religion's perspective, they view Christianity as a religion
that has ruined its reputation.
They view Christianity as a weak religion and it's because many churches just don't
hate evil.
Many preachers don't call out the evil of our world and people are going to church and
You know, church, in these new evangelical style churches, it's not very serious, it's
all just, you know, appealing to your flesh, appealing to, you know, the big donors of
the city or whatever.
You know, you wouldn't really hear a lot of sermons where they're hating evil.
But that is what the Bible says, actually, fearing God is.
Fearing God is hating evil.
So if you want to be a serious person, you need to hate evil.
We need to learn to be serious people.
Psalm 3411 says,
Come ye children, harken unto me,
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
You know what a serious person does?
Someone who's sober, someone who's grave
is they open up the Bible and read it every day.
Because the Bible here is saying,
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
How is it that someone gets the fear of God?
It's from reading the Bible.
You know, that's what the king was instructed to do, is to read therein all the days of
his life so that he would fear God and so that his heart would not be lifted up above
his brethren.
And I'm here to tell you that reading the Bible has a big effect on who you are.
And don't ever take this for granted.
Don't ever look over this.
Don't ever think like you could arrive
to a certain point of your life
where you could just throttle back on reading the Bible.
You could just stop reading the Bible cover
to cover every year.
No, you need to be someone who's serious and sober
about the Word of God and read therein every single day.
And you know, there's tons of reasons for this,
but even like we talked about this morning,
we don't realize how susceptible we are
to false doctrine.
to worldly ideology, to people's opinions when we're not reading the scripture, you know?
Because everyone likes to think that they're such a free thinker, and they're such a leader,
they're such a visionary.
But it's just, it's not true because people who don't read the Bible all think the same
way.
They all think the same worldly way, and you know what, your mind is not special.
We need our minds to be renewed with the Word of God.
First Corinthians chapter 13, you know, I think about someone being sober. I think about them fearing God
I think about them reading the Word of God. I think about them putting away childish things
putting away childish things in life
First Corinthians 13 verse 11 says when I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child
I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away
You know what children care about?
They only care about having fun.
They only care about enjoyment.
They only care about pleasing themselves and pleasing their flesh.
But someone who is sober is not just thinking about the here and now.
You know, because if you just wanted to live your life, max pleasure, just maximum pleasure
of what you want to do, you probably would not get a lot done for God.
You probably would not get a lot done in your job because whatever your favorite hobby is,
that's what you would just be sticking to.
But you know, when you become a man, when you become someone who's sober and who's
serious, and by the way, this is not related to age.
Someone could be very young and very mature.
Someone could be a 60-year-old playing video games every night.
It's not about age, it's about maturity, it's about putting away childish things.
Go to Proverbs chapter 29, Proverbs chapter number 29.
And look, people, when they bring up this verse,
they almost always bring up video games,
and I don't believe that video games are inherently sinful.
But you know what, I do believe
that you should not live to play video games.
Like, that should not be your thing in life.
What you care about, what you wake up to do,
what really gets you going in life,
is that you could just play video games.
That's not a sober person.
That's not a serious person, right?
A serious person is thinking about the spiritual
as their primary mission in life.
Proverbs 29 verse 18 says where there is no vision the people perish but he that keepeth the law happy is he.
You know a serious person has a vision for their life.
You know, we talked about on Wednesday, how is it that someone becomes wise?
How is it that someone finds themselves serving God for decades, doing great works for God?
It's never by accident.
It's through desire, a man having separated himself, right?
And so, how does someone get a big vision accomplished?
How does someone do a great work for God?
hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of people to Christ.
Let me tell you where that came from.
It came from a vision when they were young.
It came from someone who decided,
I'm not just gonna wake up every day and play video games
and just kind of coast through life
and see what happens in life.
It came from a person who said, I have a plan.
I have a goal.
I have a vision.
You know, the most important vision
you should have is a spiritual one.
You should have a big vision in your life to get lots of people saved, to be a blessing
to your church, to reach people for the Kingdom of God and not just think small, but think
big.
You know I had someone telling me recently that they wanted to in several years be an evangelist and maybe go to another country
Hey, praise God have a big vision have a big dream
I think that's great when people are thinking way out into the future like that
I can honestly say that when I got saved in
2013 I was already thinking about wanting to be a pastor and that vision happened over a decade ago
And, you know, you've got to be thinking big into the future, not just kind of coasting
through your life.
Go to Ephesians chapter number five, Ephesians chapter number five.
Also when I think about just being serious, being sober, the obvious that comes to mind
is don't be a person that's just joking around all the time.
Someone that just can't take anything seriously.
Someone who just always has to have a sarcastic comment that gets old really fast.
That's not someone who is sober.
Look at Ephesians chapter 5 verse 3.
But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness let it not be once named among you has become a saints
neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor
Jesting that's talking about joking around which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks
You know, there's like a disease in our culture now where everything is a joke
Everything is funny everything has to be made into a meme or some sort of video and look I love memes
I love laughs. There's a time and a place to laugh. I'm not saying, you know
Never have fun or anything like that, but you ought to be able to switch that off and on
You ought to be able to turn on work mode.
You ought to be able to turn on church mode.
You ought to be able to sit through a church service without scrolling memes on Instagram
or something.
If you're doing that, you have a serious addiction.
You have a problem.
You need help.
Call some sort of 1-800 phone number.
You need to get help, okay?
Not everything.
You don't need to be addicted to this kind of stuff.
Go to Genesis chapter 19.
And I remember when I first started going to a new IFB church back when it was Verity Baptist Church Vancouver in
2017 I remember going through Pastor Jimenez's spiritual leadership program
I remember he said like hey if you want to be a pastor someday
Why don't you start dressing like a pastor and acting like a pastor right now?
And I was like wow, that's that's a pretty interesting thought
You know because you always think about oh, I want to do these things someday someday way down the road
But he was saying like wherever you are right now
Start acting like that now and you know, that's that's a good idea
That's a good idea in your workplace if you want to progress, you know
If you want to be the boss someday, how does the boss dress right now?
How does he talk to people? How does he address people? How does he carry himself?
You know, is he always joking around is he always being you know a dork?
Maybe he is maybe you work in that field and he is like that
But a lot of times your boss is serious a lot of times your boss means business
Here's a saved person who was not taken seriously lot. Let's read verse 14
It says and lot went out and spake unto his sons-in-law which married his daughters and said
Up get you out of this place for the Lord will destroy this city
Notice this but he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law
You know, here's the problem, if you're a person that just everything is a joke, everything's funny,
is that one time that you want to be serious, that one time you want to be taken seriously,
everyone thinks you're a big joke. Everyone can't take you seriously. And here's Lot,
he's been living a really wicked life, and is a time where he's like trying to be serious,
hey, God's going to destroy this city, you guys need to listen to me, and they're like,
oh, Lot's just joking around again. Oh, Lot's just, you know, he's this one that mocked,
but he wasn't taken seriously because he wasn't living his life in a sober way.
Go to Job 29.
Job is kind of the opposite of Lot where he was a man that was taken seriously.
He was a man that demanded respect.
And you know, I just don't imagine Job being the type of guy
that's just constantly being sarcastic and constantly joking around.
He was a serious person.
Verse 8 Job said this and he's talking about the things that he misses before he experienced, you know the horrible tragedies in his life verse 8 says the young men saw me and hid themselves.
The aged arose and stood up.
The princes refrained talking and laid their hand on their mouth.
So everyone that Job encountered respected him very highly.
Whether it was the young people, they're running away.
They're just scared of him, right?
The aged, even the old people, they stand up.
You know, standing up before someone is a sign of respect.
And usually that's what you would do to the aged.
But Job was such a respected person.
He was such a righteous person that the aged stood up before him.
You know, I think that's kind of an interesting picture of Jesus Christ, how he died as a
very young man, but yet, young old doesn't matter, we're all going to give Jesus Christ
the respect and honor that he deserves because of his righteousness.
And even princes, government officials, they would frame talking, you know, they wouldn't
interrupt Job if Job spoke, they were going to listen.
When the ear heard me then it blessed me and when the eye saw me it gave witness to me
You know
Have you ever been around someone in your life whether a church or just your personal life where if they're a part of a
Conversation if they say something everyone's wanting to listen to this guy right because they're just a person that has a reputation of
Wisdom and honor and they've built that reputation by being a serious person
Notice what it says in verse 12 because I delivered the poor that cried
and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him, the blessing of him that was ready to
perish came upon me. And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness,
and it clothed me. My judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was
eye to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not I searched out,
and I break the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth."
It sounds like Job was a serious person, Job was a person that feared God, Job was a person
that hated evil, he esteemed the Word of God and because of that he had this great reputation
about him.
And here's why we should desire this as Christians is because of this thing called soul winning.
It's because of this thing that we have called the gospel of Jesus Christ that we want people to listen to, right?
We want to make sure that people are hearing the gospel and getting a chance to get saved.
And when you have a good reputation, when you're someone who's wise and honorable and someone that's sober,
not just joking around all the time, you know, it makes someone want to listen to you.
It makes someone realize you're serious.
You know, this is why I think it's good to dress professionally when you go out soul winning because we're there with a serious message.
We're there with a joyous message, but it's a serious one, right, because if you miss this
free gift, if you don't take this free gift, you're going to spend eternity in hell, you know?
So I would recommend being someone who's sober, out soul-winning, not joking around too much,
dressing nice, being an ambassador of Christ because we want people to listen to the gospel.
Go back to Titus chapter 2, Titus chapter number 2, and you can keep your place there throughout
Because this list that it gives us it's kind of explaining how these this young man here could have a good reputation
Number two, have a pattern of good works.
Let's read again, verse one, it says,
but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine.
Young men likewise, exhort to be sober-minded.
Notice this, in all things,
showing thyself a pattern of good works, right?
So the Bible's saying, young man,
you wanna grow up and be someone that's respected,
have a good reputation.
You need to have a pattern, a consistency about you.
in all things, right? You don't want to be one person at work where maybe, you know, at work you
don't really give it all you got, you're not really working hard, you're not doing your job as a
Christian, you're not being a good testimony, but then at church you put on a show, right? At church,
you're on time, you're working, you're helping, you're volunteering, you want to have a pattern
of good works in all things, in your home life, in your work life, in your church life, all
things. Go to Proverbs 22, Proverbs chapter number 22.
Proverbs 22 verse 29.
The Bible says, seeest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings,
he shall not stand before mean men.
And this word, diligent, I think is kind of picking up this idea of having a pattern
of good works.
The word diligent means constant in effort to accomplish something, attentive and persistent
anything, right? So you don't want to just, well, sometimes he works really hard. You know, on some
projects, he's reliable and he works really hard, but then other times he doesn't, other times he
doesn't care, other times he's unreliable. No, you want to be a person who's constantly putting
in as much effort as you can, right? You know, don't be one of these people. This drives me nuts.
One of these people that just calls in sick all the time, even when you're not sick. You know,
that's not being a person who's diligent. That's not being someone who's just have a reputation of
Always having a pattern of good works look call sick when you're sick call sick when you really you know
You got doctors appointments. You got stuff going on like that
But you don't want to be this person that's perceived by your boss is unreliable
You know because that's not going to lead to promotion, but a man who's diligent in his business
He shall stand before kings when you have a good reputation
You have a higher chance of being promoted in the workplace, but you get to decide how to build that reputation
Go to Proverbs 20, Proverbs 20.
I mentioned this verse earlier,
but it's worth looking at.
Proverbs 20, verse 11 says,
even a child is known by his doings,
whether his work be pure and whether it be right.
Do not wait until later in life
to start learning how to work hard.
You know, us as parents,
we need to help our children with this
that even kids can develop a reputation for themselves.
And you know I'll call out my friend brother Jason West instead fast his his young boy.
I think about how he's he's got to be like 10 or 11 years old.
But like that kid has a reputation even though he's a child.
Some of you even in this room know who I'm talking about right now because he's just
such a respectful young man and he holds the door open for everyone and anytime he sees
anyone have a need he's ready to carry something.
He's ready to assist.
He's ready to be a blessing.
He's a young child.
That kid is not going to stand before mean men because he's diligent in his business even as a child.
So, we don't want to just write off children and be like,
oh, they'll figure that out when they're 18.
They'll figure out how to work hard once they have to provide for wife and kids.
No, let's not wait then.
Let's teach them now at whatever age they're at to learn to work hard,
to put their nose down and get a task done
without whining or dragging their feet or making excuses,
but actually being diligent.
A child that learns that, I mean, they have the golden ticket in life.
They are going to be successful, doesn't matter what career they pick, doesn't matter what
skill they get, because it's the character that they have that's going to cause them
to be successful.
Go to Genesis chapter 30, Genesis chapter number 30.
You know, when I think of a man who was like this, who was diligent in his business, who
was someone who had a pattern of good works, I think of Jacob.
Because when Jacob quit his job, something really interesting happened.
And it came to pass when Rachel had born Joseph that Jacob said on the label and send me away that I may go into my own place and to my own country.
Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go, for thou
knowest my service, which I have done thee."
So we know that, of course, Jacob was working for Laban, and he had worked for him for years
and years, and he wants to do his own thing now, verse 27 says, and Laban said unto him,
I pray thee, if I have found favor in thy eyes, tarry.
So he tries to quit, and he's saying, stay.
This is what I want you to do.
Don't quit your job.
Stay.
that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake."
What a great testimony that when you try to quit your job,
your boss is like, please don't quit.
Please stay.
There's plenty of people who quit their job
and their boss is thinking, thank God,
because I couldn't go through all the HR hoops
and I didn't have enough evidence
and I couldn't get everything done, right?
But sometimes people quit and they're just like,
oh, thank you, Lord.
Other times someone quits, he's like, Terry, stay.
And notice what he says in verse 28,
and he said,
Appoint me thy wages and I will give it.
How would you like your boss to say,
hey, name your price?
You wanna raise, just name your price,
tell me your wages, I'm gonna give it to you,
I want you to stay.
And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me.
And notice the result of Jacob's work, for it was little which thou hathst before I came,
and it is now increased unto a multitude.
And the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming, and now when shall I provide for my own house
also?
Jacob produced results for his boss.
And when you actually produce results, when you actually get things done,
you are going to build a good
reputation at work because your boss
does not necessarily maybe sometimes,
but your boss does not necessarily care
about what church you go to.
and all your views and whether or not your pastor has ever been on the news, most of the time your boss cares about, are you making the company money?
Are you harming the company's reputation? Are you helping it? Are you giving good customer service?
Or are you hurting people? Are you not giving good customer service?
Those are the bottom lines that your boss cares about.
And Jacob's saying, look, I had little before I came, now you have much.
And, you know, this is also how you become very valuable in the Kingdom of God.
And how if you want God to promote you, you want God to bless you, well, hey, how much
profit are you bringing to the Kingdom of God?
Is there little people that you're getting saved in your life or are you getting lots of people saved?
And look, a position or a title has nothing to do with how effective you could be as a soul winner.
You could be a grandma and have tons and tons of people saved every year.
You could be a child and get tons and tons of people saved.
And you could be like Jacob where it's like, hey, we started with little,
but at the end of the year, there was much people saved.
And you could be an effective worker for God.
Go to Titus 2, Titus chapter 2.
You know, it's fine if people think like yeah, you know this guy has some extreme views, but man is he a great worker?
You know that that's fine if people have that reputation of you, but you don't want to have a reputation of being lazy
You don't want to have a reputation of being someone who's stealing time from the company
or just stealing money or products from the company or lying to your customers or being
someone that just doesn't show up when they said that they're going to be there.
You know, 1 Peter 4 14, you could say there, I'll read for you.
It says, if you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you?
Hey, rejoice if you're persecuted for the name of Christ.
I know people who have lost their jobs because of sermons that they preached.
You know what?
It's not because they're a bad worker.
It's because they're a great Christian.
Hey, happy are those people.
Blessed are those people.
For the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.
On their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
But let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evildoer or as a busy
in other men's matters.
So it's like, hey, it's okay if you're suffering
as long as you're suffering for being righteous.
Not suffering for being a jerk, for being a bad worker.
You know, I saw this post one time on Facebook
where this guy got up and he said,
hey, please pray for me.
Please pray that I get a better job.
You know, my boss gave me a work review today,
a negative work review,
and I ripped it up in his face
and threw it all over his office and quit.
Can you please pray that God will bless me with another job?
And it's like, no, you idiot.
What's wrong with you?
You're supposed to submit yourselves to your boss.
You're supposed to be respectful to your authority, not sit there and rip up some paper in his face and throw it over his office.
You really think God wants to bless you with a better job when you're a terrible employee at the company that you're at?
I'm not going to pray that prayer for you.
I'm going to tell you to learn how to work hard.
That's what you need.
You need someone to tell you to respect your boss
and obey your boss and do your job well.
That's what you need.
You don't need God to give you another job
because you're just going to do the same thing there.
Being a terrible worker.
Okay?
That's a bad testimony for Jesus Christ.
How to build a good name number three have good doctrine have good doctrine Titus 2 verse 1 says
But speak thou the things which become sound
Doctrine young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works notice in
Doctrine showing
Uncorruptness gravity sin serity, you know, we live in a time
where especially just the mainstream style of church is really de-emphasizing doctrine.
And, you know, I think it's causing the reputation of Christianity to be a little tainted,
where it's like, we as Christians, we should be constantly fighting for doctrine, for beliefs of the Bible.
But sometimes people have this weird mentality about Christianity, where it's like, well, I love Jesus.
I love God, but I'm just not that into doctrine.
You know, I don't want to sit here and argue about doctrine.
Let me tell you something.
Doctrine is how you know God.
Doctrine is how you have a relationship with God,
is knowing what the Bible says,
knowing the Word of God is how you know Jesus,
because Jesus is the Word of God.
You know, so we don't want to have this idea of like,
de-emphasizing doctrine, de-emphasizing the scripture.
If anything, the Bible teaches the opposite.
Go to Matthew chapter 7.
Matthew 7, and you know, even in other churches, like we're talking about, there's this idea
of preachers not preaching doctrine but getting up and just preaching their opinion.
That is going to hurt someone's reputation as a man of God who's been instructed specifically
to preach the word and you're getting up and you're just constantly preaching your opinion
over and over and over again.
That rubs me the wrong way.
I'm sure it rubs people in the
pews the wrong way when passers
just get up and preach their
opinion constantly,
especially when they don't
tell you it's their opinion,
especially when they sit there
and act like their opinion is doctrine.
where they're just dogmatic about it.
No, let's actually fight for doctrine
and leave our opinions at the door.
You know, out soul winning today,
there was this woman who was like a holiness,
Pentecostal, holy ruler,
and she was just, she would not let me get a word in
about the gospel.
She's just telling me, you got her a pen of your sins,
you can't just live however you want.
And I finally, she slowed down.
I finally said, well, here's the truth, ma'am,
is that your opinion and my opinion
does not matter at all.
But can I just show you from the Bible?
what Jesus Christ said about eternal security.
And she just freaked out, it yelled at me,
and then she went inside and slammed the door,
and me and brother Alex heard her go,
RAAAAAAAH!
It's just like some demon-possessed woman.
Am I telling the truth?
Yeah.
It's just some demon-possessed woman, but it's like, look, I care about doctrine.
Why?
I love Jesus.
I want to know what he said.
I don't care what my opinion is.
I don't care what your opinion is.
What matters is the truth, is what Jesus said.
And guess what?
That's what Jesus also said about himself.
Look at Matthew 7, verse 24.
do it them. I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock.
And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house
and it fell not for as founded upon a rock.
Who are you going to listen today to?
Who are you going to build your life upon today?
Is it going to be your own ideas, your own worldly philosophy, the psychology books,
educators, you know, whatever, all the different sources that are out there, or is it going
to be the sayings of Jesus Christ?
That's a decision you have to make and I know what I'm going to choose.
Why?
Because when the rain comes, when the storm comes, your worldly philosophy is not going
to stand against the storms of this life.
You know, your marriage is not going to stand.
Your child rearing is not going to stand.
This church's vision is not going to stand if we're doing things based on our own wisdom
and own opinion.
We have to get anchored into the rock and make sure that we're fighting for doctrine
and that is how you're going to have a good name.
Not someone that's known as, oh, that guy preaches false doctrine.
Oh, that guy preached damnable heresy.
Talk about ruining your reputation really fast as a man of God is preaching heresy.
that we are anchored to the Rock, verse 26.
And everyone that hear these sayings of mine
and do it them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man
which built his house upon the sand.
You know, so when you hear the words of God
and you decide I'm not gonna listen to that,
I'm not gonna do what the Bible says,
I'm gonna trust in my own heart,
I'm gonna do what I think is right,
I'm gonna do what I heard from this woman pastor,
this book or whatever source it is
that doesn't match the Bible,
that's like building a house on sand.
You don't have to know much about construction to know that's a really bad idea.
That's going to be a really unsure foundation, you need the sure foundation.
Verse 27, the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house
and it fell and great was the fall of it.
That is the story of any institution, any person who's not based on good doctrine from the Word of God is failure.
Go to 1st Timothy chapter number four.
1st Timothy chapter number four.
Having good doctrine is so important.
1st Timothy 412 says,
Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
Right?
So,
The young pastor here is being told, look, don't let anyone despise your youth, but
you need to give attendance to, you need to pay attention to, and give yourself holy
to doctrine.
And you know how you get doctrine, you get it from reading the Word of God.
You know, it's great to listen to sermons.
I think if you listen to sermons, that's totally fine, that's great.
There's a lot of great pastors you can go listen to, and I'm 100% for that.
But I'm telling you, if you're doing that, but you're not reading the Bible, you are
going to understand doctrine on the level of someone who actually reads the Bible.
You can learn things, you can learn facts, but it's kind of a danger that is kind of new to our society with the internet and YouTube and stuff like this,
is that you could open up the Rumble app or the YouTube app and you could just start watching sermons and you could start downloading so much information into your brain really quickly.
And you could even fool yourself to think, like, wow, I really know a lot, wow, you know, I'm really growing super fast.
and cementing these doctrines into your heart
and making them your own beliefs,
not just something that you repeat.
Because I've noticed sometimes, you know, people.
When they actually have to explain a doctrine, it's just repeating exact quotes from someone
because they often don't actually understand it themselves.
You know, I'm sure it's like this, maybe in other professions, maybe like the legal profession too,
or maybe people don't actually understand the law, but they kind of just repeat things that
they've heard, separation of church and state, separation of church and state.
It's like they don't even know what they're talking about when they say things like that.
You know, it's the same thing spiritually oftentimes, where people think that they know the Bible.
But let me tell you something, if you've never read the Bible cover to cover, you don't know anything.
And if you've read it cover to cover once, you're just barely getting started.
And what's funny is I've read the Bible cover to cover over 20 times and I was like, when
I became a pastor, I was just like, man, I don't even know if 20 is enough.
Maybe I should do like 30.
Because the more and more times you read the Bible, the more you realize that there's
a ton left to learn.
There's a ton of doctrines that you don't fully have your mind wrapped around.
And that's still the case with me today and that's why I need to give attendance to doctrine,
Go to, if you would, Titus number two, Titus number two.
Number four, when it comes to building a good name, having a good reputation, this one's
very important.
Number four, be sincere.
Be a real person be sincere tight as to verse one notice what it says again
But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded in all things showing
Thyself a pattern of good works in doctrine showing uncruptness
gravity
Sincerity man, there's nothing that one of my biggest pet peeves
Wanted just something that hits the hot button for me is when I find out that someone is untrustworthy
You know, the same thing at work.
Like if I find out that someone at work made a mistake,
but they're honest with me, no problem.
We all make mistakes.
Or even in church life, stuff like that.
But the moment I find out that someone's lying to my face
or someone is acting like I'm so gray
and then I'm your friend and I like you
and you know, I'm so happy you moved here,
whatever the situation is.
And then I find out that behind my back,
they're talking crap, that just hits my hot button.
I just don't like people that are insincere.
And I'm and here's the thing if you don't like someone if you're not someone's biggest fan
You don't necessarily have to go to that person's face and tell them I hate you. You're terrible
Okay, but at the same time you also shouldn't flatter and lie
You know you could just say nothing
You know you don't have to go out of your way to be a jerk to someone and you also shouldn't go out of your way
To lie and just make all these things way over the top. I had someone tell me one time
In church, they said, like, that was the best sermon I've ever heard on this topic.
And then they were gone a week later, and it's just like, wow, you know, why would
you quit on someone that just preached the best sermon ever on that topic, right?
And of course, I did not preach the best sermon ever on that topic.
That's the point.
It's flattery.
It's insincere.
And you want to ruin your reputation very quickly is start lying.
Start being a flatterer, start being insincere.
Man, that is hard to come back from.
That is hard to rebuild your reputation for
because most people can tolerate mistakes,
you know, lapses of judgment, even just straight up sins.
But when it comes to just being completely dishonest
and completely duplicitous and being a fake
and being a phony, that's something that's hard to overlook.
You know, that you have no trust anymore.
Go to Romans chapter number 12, Romans chapter number 12.
And look, it's okay, be sincere.
I want people to be in the church that they like.
I want people to be under the pastor that they like.
That's not me, it's someone else.
Praise the Lord, there's no problem with that.
But the point is just be sincere.
Go to a church where you could sincerely back the pastor.
Go to a church where you can sincerely get on board
with the program of the church.
Romans 12, nine says,
let love be without dissimulation, right?
That's being fake.
Abhor that which is evil.
Cleave to that which is good. So there is a love out there that is feigned or faked or simulated
And the Bible is telling us don't be that way
Don't let your love be with this simulation and one of the ways that people do that it says hey
Make sure you abhor that which is evil kind of going back to the point about being serious and fearing God abhorring
That which is evil cleaving to that which is good, you know when people when you start seeing people love evil
love railers, love liars, hang out with super wicked people that are known slanderers and liars,
I can tell you that they don't love, that their love is simulated, right?
To have real love, we have to abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good.
Go to Proverbs 27, Proverbs chapter number 27.
Proverbs 27.
The Bible says open rebuke is better than secret love.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Look, it's better to even rebuke your friend
or say something that could possibly hurt their feelings,
but you're being honest and upfront
and sincere with that person
than to be someone who has secret love
or even worse, going behind people's back
and slandering them and talking crap about them.
You know, we wanna be people that are open
and honest with each other,
where we have
the ability to communicate freely and not have like a fear culture where we can't talk to each
other. We can't ever correct each other or anything like that. Open rebuke is better
than secret love. Psalm 15, go to Psalm chapter number 15.
I love this Psalm and we sing it often here.
Psalm 15, notice what it says in verse one.
Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?
And I always kind of like to think of this Psalm as like,
who is it that's gonna stick with church?
Who is it that's gonna stick with serving God in their life?
Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness
and speaketh the truth in his heart.
He that backbiteeth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor in whose eyes a vile person is contempt, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord.
He that sweareth to his own herd, and changeeth not.
So notice it lists all these things that a type of person will need to do or not do to be one that abides in the house of God, that abides in the tabernacle of the Lord.
You know, that is a common sin that we just need to have the maturity to just grow out
of that childish pedantic activity of going behind people's back and talking crap about
them.
You know, the Bible says the words of a tail-bearer are as wounds, right?
You know, we hear that phrase, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.
And I understand the sentiment behind that of being tough and being thick skin,
but the Bible literally says that the words of a tail-bearer are as wounds.
How are they as wounds? How are they like wounds?
Well, because they hurt, that's why. Like a wound hurts you, the words of a tail-bearer hurt you.
And you know, it's annoying, it's frustrating.
when people just go behind your back,
and usually when they're going behind their back,
you know what they're doing?
They're lying about you,
they're railing about you,
they're making up stories about you.
You know, I've seen a lot of that in the last couple months,
and it's annoying.
It's frustrating.
It's not spiritual behavior.
It's not the way that Christians should be acting, and it's not the way that someone
should be acting if they want to have a good reputation, right?
It's going to ruin your reputation if someone knows, oh, this person will talk crap about
you.
You can't trust this person.
You can't have this person too close to your life because they will go talk crap about
you behind your back.
You know, you are hurting yourself when you're a tail bearer.
You're hurting other people, and you're hurting yourself.
Let's see, go to Titus chapter two, Titus chapter number two.
Last one we'll talk about this evening of how to have a good name is have sound speech.
Have sound speech.
Titus 2 verse 1, the Bible says, but speak thou, the things which become sound doctrine.
Young men likewise, exhort to be sober-minded in all things, showing thyself a pattern of
good works in doctrine, showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity.
Sound speech, here's why, that cannot be condemned.
that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you.
You know, men of God and Christians are going to have enemies, are going to have haters,
are going to have gainsayers that want to speak against and criticize you, and so that's
why it's so important to fear God, have good doctrine, have all these things that we're
talking about, and additionally, having sound speech so that he that is of the contrary
part has no evil thing to say of you.
You know, I want my, you know, hater YouTube comments to be full of people lying and railing
rather than leveling things that are actually true against me.
Like, hey, here's this minute marker where Pastor Oz preached false doctrine.
Like, I would be ashamed of that.
I would have to correct that issue and I'd have to change.
But, you know, if someone's just leaving stupid hater comments
where they're lying about me, I could say, well, hey, at least it's a lie.
Yeah, yeah, they're lying about me.
Yeah, that hurts. Yeah, that sucks.
But at least it's not true.
At least they don't have anything to say against the sermon.
Or if they do have something to say, it's like, yeah, I read the comment,
but you're still wrong.
And I'm right.
because I have the Bible on my side,
you know, that's why you need to have sound speech.
And this isn't just for the pastor,
this is for all of God's people.
You need to have sound speech that cannot be condemned.
How can, what are some ways we could have sound speech?
Go to Proverbs chapter 15,
Proverbs chapter number 15.
Proverbs 15 verse 4, notice what it says, it says,
a wholesome tongue is a tree of life,
but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
You know, it kind of reminds me of the verse
that talks about how the fruit of the righteous
is a tree of life, and he that went of souls is wise.
Someone that has sound speech,
or someone that has a wholesome tongue,
you know what they are?
They're a soul winner.
That is having sound speech, the most sound speech you could possibly ever have is when
you're speaking the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That is a way to have a good reputation as being someone that preaches the gospel.
You know I want to encourage everyone in this church and I will always encourage this and
if you're tired of hearing about soul winning you will never stop hearing about it.
I want to encourage everyone in this church to become a soul winner.
And look, even if you're just a silent partner, folks,
I'm not expecting everyone to just be a talker
right away without training or anything like that.
I don't even care if you remain a silent partner
for the rest of your life.
I just want you to go soul-winning.
I want you to help us in our efforts.
I want you to be a part of earning spiritual rewards
and doing something for God.
And the more silent partners we have,
I can't tell you how many Saturdays
when we're pairing up three soul winners together
because we don't have that extra fourth person,
whereas if we just had one more silent partner,
we would literally double our efforts.
And you know what doubling our efforts means?
It means doubling salvation.
It means doubling the amount of people going to heaven when they die.
by you showing up and just standing there at the door with someone.
I'm not asking a lot, I'm not asking everyone to know how to preach the gospel super effectively
without doing it, without getting training and learning, but everyone can be a silent partner.
Everyone can do that, and that is something that Jesus Christ expects of you.
I'm not saying this is my rule, this is me.
Jesus said, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
That was Jesus' commandment, that is why our church exists, is to fulfill the Great Commission,
to reach people, to bring them in, baptize them, and teach them all things that Christ commanded.
And you know what? We need to make sure that we as Christians have sound speech.
How do we do that? We do that by preaching the gospel primarily.
That's the most sound speech you could possibly have.
Here's some other verses on that, Ephesians chapter 4.
We're almost done this evening. Ephesians chapter number 4, if you'll turn in there.
Ephesians chapter number 4 says in verse 29,
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth,
but that which is good to the use of edifying,
that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
You know what's edifying is the word of God.
You know what's edifying is truth.
You know what's not sound speech?
You know what can be condemned is preaching lives.
Preaching false doctrine.
See, a lot of times people look at this verse and they'll say,
oh, this means that you can't say hell or damn or piss or bastard,
even though those are all Bible words that I just said.
No, I didn't just cuss.
Those are Bible words.
Guess what?
Cussing doesn't exist in the Bible.
This is a man-made construct that does not exist.
And people will be like, oh yeah, you know,
corrupt communication, that's talking about cussing.
You know, I'm way more concerned about someone
preaching false doctrine than I am
if someone's ever said a bad word in their life.
And I would rather listen to a pastor that said a bad word
but is edifying as congregation by preaching the truth,
preaching hard against sin,
than the nicest, sweetest, most kind little liar
from behind the pulpit.
Little slanderer from behind the pulpit. The guy, I'm just so great. You know, let's go back to our pastor
If you could just be as wonderful and as holy as me and just never say a potty word. Yeah as you're preaching sucks
Yeah, as you're preaching false doctrine. Yeah, as you're saying oh slander can sometimes be true. You retard
I don't want to listen to that. That's not edifying. That's corrupt communication
Oh, you said damn, and piss, and bastard, and hell.
Those are Bible words.
Oh, you said the word faggot.
You know, I never want our church to be so nice,
and shiny, and wonderful,
that if I ever said the word faggot from behind the pulpit
that all of a sudden the whole church gets up and leaves.
You know, I want to keep a little bit
of a rugged spirit to our church.
I want to keep a little bit of hardness to our church.
And hey, I hope that God blesses our church,
and we grow, and I hope someday we have a nice building.
But you know what?
The preaching should never change.
The preaching should never be corrupt by getting soft or starting and teaching lies.
No, I want to keep the same culture where no matter how big we are or how small we are,
I can get up here and say all the words of God.
and edify the congregation with the truth, regardless if it's something that's popular or not in our society.
Corrupt communication is lying, railing, preaching false doctrine, blaspheming,
talking about things that are sinful, making a mock of sin.
This is corrupt communication, but you know what? Every word of God is pure.
And you're never going to convince me that a Bible word is a bad word.
And by the way, when Peter denied Christ and he was cursing and swearing, he wasn't saying
four letter words.
He wasn't saying like, I bleep and don't believe and bleep and jeez, that's not what he was
saying.
He was saying like, may God curse me, may God strike me dead if I know him, I swear that
I don't know him.
That's what cursing and swearing means, okay?
I've heard this priest and it's just, it drives me nuts.
James chapter number one James chapter number one
Have a good reputation and you know what? I way beyond just having a good reputation
Who am I primarily concerned with having a good reputation with is God, right?
So if I preach something that's true, that's biblical
That's edifying and the world gets upset and they say it's mean they say it's hateful
But God approves it then good reputation, right?
If spirit-filled Christians approve it good reputations if the world hates you for the words of Jesus Christ good reputation
But if the world hates you for being a liar bad reputation the world hates you for being a thief bad
Adulter bad
Railer bad, right?
But if the world hates you for preaching the words of Jesus Christ, I could live with that all day long
I'm fine with that
James 1 verse 19
Wherefore my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath
For the wrath of God or I'm sorry the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God if any man among you seem to be
religious and
Bridalith not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart this man's religion is
Vain when it comes to having sound speech
Sometimes we need to control that by just saying nothing at all
or be people who are slow to speak, slow to wrath.
Oftentimes in our life, when we say things
that are not sound speech,
the things in our life that we look back on
and we say I regret saying that,
it was often when we were quick to respond,
not really sitting and thinking things through,
just blowing off at the mouth.
You know, if you wanna have sound speech,
be someone that doesn't just blow off your mouth.
Be someone that you could sit and consider
and think and ponder before responding.
That'll help you have a better reputation
when it comes to the things that you say,
because we all think dumb things, right?
If we're honest with each other, you know,
we have foolish thoughts, that's a sin, but it's reality.
We have foolish thoughts.
We may think things sometimes that you're like,
I'm glad that my boss doesn't hear what I'm thinking right now
and Lord, forgive me, I gotta change my heart,
but don't be the person that actually says those things,
right?
Make sure that you're thinking and pondering things
and being filled with the spirit
so you don't say things that are not sound speech.
We'll close in Proverbs 22, if you'll turn there one more time, Proverbs chapter number 22.
Proverbs 22 verse 1, the Bible says, a good name.
rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver and
gold. We should value our testimony as Christians. We should value the reputation
that we hold as Christians not so that the world could think we're cool and so
that everyone can like us but so that we can be honoring to God.
That's why we should worry about our reputation, because oftentimes God's reputation is tied in with our reputation.
I mean, if you go to soul winning, how many times have you heard,
I don't go to church because this bad pastor, this bad church, had this bad experience.
And God's name sometimes is being dragged through the mud.
Through our actions and our reputation, we have to realize that we carry a very important title
as ambassadors of Jesus Christ and we need to safeguard and build our reputation as Christians.
How are we going to do that? Number one, be serious. Number two, have a pattern of good works. Number
Number five have sound speech. Let's have a word of prayer, Lord. We do thank you for the word of God and all the instruction
therein. I pray that all of us would take very seriously the fact that we are ambassadors of Jesus Christ,
that you've entrusted us with the Great Commission,
and I pray that we would work on building a good reputation by applying these things to our lives,
not for our own glory, Lord, but so that we can give you the honor and glory that you deserve. We love you and Jesus and we pray. Amen.
Sing one last song to conclude the service if you would take your hymnals at this time and turn to him number 140
We have an anchor
Sing it nice and loud him number 140 we'll go ahead and start there right on the first
Will your anchor
Hold in the storms of life when the clouds unfold their wings of stripe
When the strong tides live and the cable strain will your anchor drift or firm remain
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll
Fast into the rock which cannot move
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love
It is safely bored, will the storm withstand
Oh, the tempest range and the wild winds blow, Not an angry blade shall our mark or flow.
We have an anchor that keeps the soul, said fast and sure.
singing this evening with