I shall know him, I shall know him, By the prince of the nails in his hands.
O, the soul-grilling rapture, When I feel his blessed face,
And the buster on his kindly naming eye, Now my foe are the basin for the merciful.
love and praise that prepare for the invention in the sky. I shall love him, I shall love him, and
redeem him by his side. I shall live, I shall love him, and redeem him by his side. I shall live, I shall love him, and redeem him by his side.
to come and are partying at the river I recall. To the state fails a leading thing, will sing
my welcome home, but I long to meet my savior first of all. I shall know him, I shall know him,
spotless white. He will lead me where no tears will ever fall. In the glad song of ages I shall
mingle with delight, but I long to meet my Savior first of all. I shall know him, I shall know him,
and redeem by his side I shall stay.
Why, weeping eyes, and why, my weeping eyes,
I'll bid farewell to every fear, and why, my weeping eyes,
Should earth, I guess, my soul engage, and fiery darts be heard.
and face the frowning world, and face the frowning world,
and face the frowning world.
Then I can smile at Satan's rage and face the frowning world.
And storms a sorrowful may I but safely reach my home, my God.
Child
and there's some more details on the back of the bulletin about that.
April 19th is the Easter soul-winning marathon here in Oklahoma City.
May 16th through the 18th is the King James Conference at Sher Foundation Baptist Church in Vancouver, Washington.
And even if you can't make it out to that, I definitely recommend everyone watch those sermons.
There's going to be a lot of great educational material during that time.
May 31st is the Durant Oklahoma soul-winning marathon.
June 28th is going to be the Tinker air show and then that's on a Saturday also the next day
We're gonna be having a guest preacher preaching for us from steadfast brother Ben Naim is gonna be preaching for us that day
So we're looking forward to that
August 27th through the 31st is the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship at steadfast
Last event listed there is October 6th through the 11th of the Bahamas mission trip
There's still plenty of time if you'd like to go to that
Just make sure you get in contact with steadfast and give them your itinerary so that you can get your
logistics planned there. Online giving information for that is listed below as
well as our prayer list. Please do send any updates you have to the email address
there. I'd be happy to update that for you. And real quick, before we go to our
third song, we had a church member of ours go on a mission trip a few weeks ago
and Brother Theodore is going to come talk about that for a little bit.
Good morning, everyone.
This February, I went on a trip to the Philippines.
Two-week trip, a bit less than two weeks.
It was about 10 days.
And I went with Brother James.
And he's in the Philippines a lot.
So he's been there.
He knows he's used to it.
He knows how to go about preaching in the Philippines.
And I'm really glad I went.
It was very good.
So first of all, I traveled by plane and arrived there,
met up with James.
And we started going.
On the next day, we started going.
And every day, we would go and go soul-inning,
mostly in parks, but also in schools.
Something that immediately I noticed which is new to me is that James whenever he he's
using a cab driver and
That's how he he goes around in the Philippines. He uses a cab driver
But every every time that there's an opportunity he
Preaches to them and a lot of the time they get saved and that's actually something really
interesting about the Philippines is that everyone's so receptive even the cab
drivers are receptive and he's got he got at least like five salvation just from
cab drivers in the Philippines and and I was able to see him do that and he's
Had to have some work done and I was doing ubers here. I tried that as well
I didn't get any salvation because it's the US not a resurrective, but
He's provoked me with that and
So anyway in the Philippines the soul winning is mostly in parks
But there is also schools as well, school preaching.
I did a little bit of school preaching
and on a previous mission trip that I've been.
And but in the Philippines, on this trip specifically,
I got a lot of opportunities to preach at school
and to preach to groups.
Because in the Philippines, most of the preaching
is preaching to groups and preaching to classrooms.
and I got used to it more, got experience.
It is just, I've learned a lot about soul-inning
and talking to groups and approaching people
from going on mission trips,
because you just see other people being zealous,
other people just being really good soul-inners,
and it provokes you to learn more
and to become a better soul-inner.
And you also see different, like different environments.
Like in the U.S., we knock doors.
In other countries, you would just go to a public place.
Like, for example, in the Philippines, we go to parks.
And we just talk to people there.
We just approach people.
And if you're not used to that, that's scary,
but you get used to it.
And it's funny, because like us Americans,
If we're not experienced, we would get scared at approaching someone in a public space as opposed to just knocking doors
But in the Philippines one of the brothers there, he was telling me
Are you afraid to knock doors?
What if they get angry and slam the door?
But we might be apprehensive toward public spaces. They might be apprehensive toward doors, but it's just
It's not something to worry about, it's just you're not used to it, and you can get used to it, you can learn.
The Philippines is really receptive. It's super receptive. The people there are very humble.
When you ask them, are you going to heaven? Most people say they know or they say they're not sure.
They're really trusting. I would use this illustration sometimes to illustrate the difference between
believing that Jesus is real and actually putting your trust in Jesus because for
example you believe I'm real you believe I'm here you believe I'm American but
do you but do you trust me do you trust me enough to give me your cell phone
that's a difference and what I noticed I started doing it that in the Philippines
and they're like a lot of people when asked do you trust me enough to give me
Here you go.
But in the US, I carried that over to Solanian in the US,
but people are like, nah, they're not as trusting.
But I really enjoy the people in the Philippines.
They're really humble.
They're really nice.
They're really receptive.
They love listening about the Bible.
It's really a lot of groups.
It's mostly individuals, but in the Philippines,
you target mostly groups because you have that advantage.
And so you're therefore able to get a lot of salvagents
because there's groups that you can target.
The way we went about it is preaching in parks.
Parks aren't full of people at all times,
but just at certain times during the day.
there's people other times there's no people at the parks so you go whenever
there's time there's people at the parks because that's the most optimal time to
go and so we go to the parks and then preach there for probably a couple
hours and it's very easy to get like 10 salvations at a park in just a couple
The other type of soul inning we did was preaching in classrooms, and that's organized by some people from
the churches there
They have it set up so that we can go and preach to classrooms and
It's really receptive because then you get access to students in
On my trip, it was students from about seventh or eighth grade to eleventh grade, and they're really receptive and we were able to get a lot of salvations through the classrooms.
And for example, one day, me and James, we were partnered on some classrooms, some classrooms we had separate.
maybe less, but we ended up getting 103, I think,
just between me and him for that day.
And that's just from the classrooms.
And the way we do the classrooms is we had little papers
that had the questionnaire that they can,
at the end we hand them out and asked them to write
what they believe, questions that would indicate
are they saved or are they not saved.
And then if we have the opportunity, we also go around and talk individually to each student
to see
did they understand and
It's pretty accurate
We find and
So we it's not just like you you ask for okay
Who here believes in Jesus and then everyone raises their hand even if they don't believe in Jesus
it's actually an accurate count and
And so we did that.
Schools were really receptive.
I'm really glad I had the opportunity to do that.
It gives you a lot of experience.
And it gives you more boldness to preach to groups,
even in the US.
Because when you do something over and over and over,
you get a lot more experience.
You're not afraid to do it anymore.
And you're better at doing it.
Also, in the Philippines, people like white people.
Apparently, I'm white enough for them to like me.
The Philippines is very cheap in terms of food compared
to other locations.
It's very cheap.
And the food there is good.
I when it an impression I had about people speaking about the Philippines is that there wouldn't be as
like
It wouldn't be
very
Like you wouldn't have the necessary some necessary things or it
like
The impression I had is that it would be
Like missing some things that
Americans are used to like luxuries but not not really it has everything that
most of the rest of the back don't have toilet paper they have up a day like
that that's missing but other than that there's running water there's
electricity there's internet there's phone cellular signal I don't I'm don't
really feel like you're missing it out on anything in the Philippines and so
It my my review of the Philippines is it was a very good trip. I'm really glad I went
And I
Totally recommend it I
Learned a lot and I got a lot of salvations over that time
I was there for about 10 days and over that 10 days. I got
128 salvations and
And so the Philippines is just a really great place to get a lot of salvations.
And so I definitely recommend it and I hope that you'll have this in mind
and maybe in the future you'll consider going to the Philippines,
shaking it out and getting some souls saved.
Thank you for your time.
Yeah, so I've never been to the Philippines, but it sounds pretty similar to how things will work in the Bahamas
And I know many of you are planning on going to the Bahamas
So what are you saying about just approaching groups people out in public going and preaching in the schools?
You know, that's how it's going to be there as well. We're not there's not a ton of door to door
So that's something to get prepared for but make sure you're praying for evangelist Duncan or bannock and for pastor Matthew Stuckey
They're definitely doing a great work over there and they are getting
untold thousands and thousands of people saved I know that missionaries often
have a reputation of being lazy and there's a lot of missionaries that are
like that but thankfully those two guys definitely that's not the case they're
doing a great work so keep them in prayer you know they've left a lot behind
in the US family members friends and they're sacrificing for the cause of the
gospel so make sure to lift them up in prayer and I think Duncan evangelist
does anyone know I know he's preaching next week what is it okay okay yeah so
he's preaching it said fast pretty soon so he'll be back so I'm excited for him
to get a little bit of a rest and yeah keep him in prayer and that's gonna be
it for announcements this morning we'll go ahead and go to our third song all
right for a third song if you would take your hymnals and turn to song number
Hymn number 64 in your hymnals shall we gather at the river
Hymn number 64
Go ahead and start there right on the first shall we gather at the ring
Where bright angel feet have trod
Thank you very much.
Good singing this morning as the offering plates are being passed around.
Turn in your bibles of Psalm chapter number 118, Psalm 118.
Psalm 118.
O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good, because his mercy endureth forever.
Let Israel now say that his mercy endureth forever.
Let the house of Aaron now say that his mercy endureth forever.
Let them now that fear the Lord say that his mercy endureth forever.
I called upon the Lord in distress. The Lord answered me
The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do unto me?
The Lord taketh my part with them that helped me
Therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me
It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man
It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes all nations can pass me about
But in the name of the Lord will I destroy them
They can pass me about yay. They can pass me about but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them
They can pass me about like bees
They are quenched as the fire of thorns
For in the name of the Lord while I destroy I will destroy them
thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall but the Lord helped me
The Lord is my strength and song, and has become my salvation.
The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous.
The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.
The right hand of the Lord is exalted.
The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.
I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.
But hath not given me over done to death
Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will go in I will go into them and I will praise the Lord
The gates of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter I
Will praise thee for thou has heard me and are become my salvation the stone
Which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner
This is the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes
That is
This is the day which the Lord have made we will rejoice and be glad in it
Save now. I beseech thee. Oh Lord. Oh Lord. I beseech thee send now positive prosperity
Bit bless be he that cometh in the name of the Lord
We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord
God is the Lord
Which have showed us light
Bind the sacrifice with cords even under the horns of the altar thou art my God
I will praise thee and I will praise thee thou art my God. I will exalt thee
O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endure forever. Let's pray
Gracious Lord, thankfulful to be in your house today thankful for such beautiful weather pray Lord
They should help us to focus on the preaching of your word Lord and just apply it to our lives
Dispound our understanding of you and the scripture
Pray that you build pastoral with your spirit. Jesus, then we pray
Amen. Alright, well Psalm 118, let's look at verse number 24, the Bible says this is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.
And the title of my sermon is live in the present. Live in the present.
See, one of the things we have to realize is that every single day is a gift from God.
And even just something simple like Brother Reed was just praying like thank you for this great weather.
You know, that's something to rejoice in.
That's something to enjoy and kind of soak in when those good moments happen,
those good days and just live in the present.
But yet a lot of people, a lot of Christians miss out on this idea
because their heads either stuck in the past,
beating themselves up for things that they missed out on or regrets that they have in life.
Or people are just so worried about the what ifs of life,
life going to look like in 20 years, 30 years, 40 years.
But you know, the Bible, the Psalmist here is saying like, hey, today is the day that
the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it.
And it's one of the most famous Psalms for a reason, you know, it's a beautiful concept.
But number one, be thankful for what you have today.
Be thankful for what you have today.
Not sitting here wishing and thinking about things you used to have.
Not sitting here wishing and longing for things that you're going to have in the future.
But just rejoice and be thankful for the things that you have today.
Go to 2nd Corinthians chapter number nine.
Now obviously there's just so many things that we can be thankful for.
But it's kind of a characteristic of people living in the last days where people are kind
of just unthankful.
And they don't really have perspective of how great our lives really are.
And many Americans are just complete spoiled brats.
You know, we need more sermons like you poor little house slave of all these terrible, terrible
lives that people are living with their Amazon deliveries and their modern appliances and
all the luxuries that we have of life.
Well here, let's just talk about things that we should be thankful for.
How about salvation?
Look at 2 Corinthians 9 verse 15.
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
I mean, I think that a lot of people just take salvation for granted.
The fact that you think about the true horror of hell, how it's eternal, how people that
They're still in just as much pain as they were thousands of years ago and they will still be in that pain and agony and
suffering in outer darkness for all of eternity a billion years from now a trillion years from now
They'll still be suffering. They'll still be burning. They'll still be without love without comfort without joy without sunshine
Without comforts without food without water without anything for all of eternity and praise God
Praise God I don't have to spend one single moment in hell and you know what whatever is happening in life
I don't care if you've lost all your limbs
I don't care if you're dying of cancer when it comes to you could still be thankful for the fact that you are saved
Because you know the worst suffering that we endure in this life our life is a vapor
It vanishes away and all of our sorrows our pains our struggles
Everything in life. You're just gonna forget about that and you're gonna be in heaven
You know, but the people that die,
you know, they often suffer in this life and then.
go to hell for all of eternity if they're unsaved.
Go to Hebrews chapter number 12, Hebrews chapter number 12,
but you know the Bible says that it's an unspeakable gift.
You know, it's impossible for me to express into words
what a great thing that Lord Jesus Christ did for us.
And how it's impossible for me to fully wrap my mind around
what He actually spared us from.
I mean, I cannot conceptualize with my human brain eternity.
Can you?
Can you think in infinity?
I can't do it.
but yet that's what Christ saved us from.
Hebrews 12 verse three,
for consider him that endured such contradiction
of sinners against himself.
lest ye be weary and faint in your minds.
One of the things you could rejoice in is the fact that Jesus loved you and me even
though we did not deserve it.
And that he endured such contradiction of sinners.
I mean, what a contradiction that God in the flesh comes down, lives a perfect life,
never sins, yet takes all of the sins of the entire world in his own body.
That's a contradiction right there and yet Christ did that for you and for me and so hey today
Rejoice in the fact that you're saved
Rejoice in the fact that Jesus died for your sins. That's something to be so thankful for go to Romans 4 and
Not only just rejoice that you're saved, but I just rejoice in how easy salvation is
the fact that it's a free gift and the fact that I don't have to work for it
you know repent of all my sins for all the commandments because then no one
would be saved no one would be able to attain that look at Romans chapter 4
verse 4 now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of
debt if you are working for something then what you earn is a reward not a
and your labor for money that money is not a gift from your benevolent employer, right?
You were doing work, you were getting gain for that company.
They give you money back, but it says, but to him that work is not.
But, believeeth, on him that justified the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
So even if you don't do any works, but you have faith, you trust in the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ, then your faith is counted for righteousness.
God looks down at you and it's as if you're perfectly righteous, as if you never had sinned,
as if you've never transgressed the law.
unto whom God imputed righteousness without works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven and whose sins are covered, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
sin.
So we get that righteousness by faith, and once we have faith in him, the Bible talks
about how our iniquities are forgiven.
You know, that is something to be thankful for, but it takes someone with a little bit
of humility to realize that they have iniquity to be forgiven of.
But people who believe in works, they're generally very prideful, because they think,
oh, my life isn't that bad.
I haven't sinned that much.
Oh, I've atoned for that.
I've turned over a new leaf.
I've repented of my sins.
And so they look at their iniquities as not being that big of a deal, whereas I look at
me and I'm like, I'm a sinner.
And I didn't earn any righteousness through my own works,
through my own doings.
It was through faith in him.
And once I've done that, he's forgiven all of my equities.
Not only is he forgiven them,
it says, and whose sins are covered.
You know, it's like they don't even exist.
He's covered them up.
And blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
He's not gonna hold our sins against us
because he's already forgiven us of all of them.
Go to Lamentations chapter three.
So, you know, I'm thankful for salvation and whatever it is we're going through you could wake up every day and say
This is the day that the Lord have made we will rejoice and be glad in it because I'm saved
Because I'm delivered from hell. I'm a child of God. I'm going to heaven for all of eternity praise God for that
But even just something else we should be thankful for is not just the fact that we're saved
But just God's mercy in general on our lives
because when you realize how serious sin is, when you read the Bible,
when you actually truly realize how sinful man is, it's just not even just merciful that God
delivered us from hell, but the fact that he's merciful to us for our daily sins and the daily
things that we commit. Lamentations chapter 3 verse 21, this I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His
compassion's fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness.
You know, I like how it talks about how God's mercies and His compassion's are new every single morning.
Hey, and you know what you should do is you should live in the present, say,
hey, this is the day that the Lord has made, and you know what? God has given me mercy today.
God has given me compassion today and those things are renewed every single day and you
could live in the present and not sit here and beat yourself up too much about yesterday,
your shortcomings yesterday, your failures yesterday, your sins yesterday and realize
that hey, today's a new day and God has renewed that mercy for you.
God has renewed that compassion and if you are honest with yourself, you know that God
God gave you mercy and compassion today go to Romans chapter 16 Romans chapter 16
You know another thing that I'm thankful for on a daily basis is for good friends
Friends that I have in this room friends. I have in my life
You know, I'm thankful for those things and I'm not thinking like well, man
I really just wish I had my high school buddies. Oh man. I really miss my baseball team. No, I'm not thinking about that
I'm thinking about today, and I'm thankful for the friends that I have today
You know, the Apostle Paul had this attitude.
Romans 16, he gives a whole bunch of names
of people he cares about.
And in verse six, it says,
Great Mary who bestowed much labor on us.
Hey, you know, that's a blessing when your friends
are willing to do some work to help you out.
When you have a need, when you have a struggle
and they're willing to bestow labor upon you,
that's a great blessing.
And you should be thankful for that.
Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen,
and my fellow prisoners.
who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
You know, that has to build a very strong bond to be persecuted for Jesus Christ and
actually go to prison together.
I mean, I've been persecuted with some brothers in Christ and we've gone through some crazy
stuff, but never to the point where I was thrown in jail or my brothers were thrown
in jail.
But I would imagine that if that happened, you'd probably grow a really strong bond.
You're suffering, they're suffering, you're thrown in jail for the cause of Christ.
I'm thankful for these people, my fellow prisoners.
Greet Amplius, my beloved in the Lord.
Salute Urbane, our Helper in Christ, and Stackey's my beloved.
Urbane was someone that was a helper to the Apostle Paul, and Christianity is a team sport.
It's not a one-man show.
We need a lot of helpers to get the work of Christ accomplished.
I rejoice and I'm thankful for all the helpers at this church.
The people that help fold the bulletins, make the live streams,
you know, get here early and unlock the building, set things up.
You know, this is a lot of labor that's being put into the work of God
and it takes a lot of people and I'm thankful for all of you that help in that.
That is a great blessing.
Salute appellies approved in Christ, salute them which are of Aristotle as his household, salute Hadronian Mike Kinsman, greet them that be of the household of Narcissus which are in the Lord, salute Triphina and Trifosa who labor in the Lord, salute the beloved purses which labored much in the Lord, salute Rufus chosen in the Lord and his mother and mine.
So notice the Apostle Paul, he just had a lot of friends.
You know what's funny is he had these really good friends,
people that he's labored with, suffered with, served the Lord with.
They're really close friends of his.
But here's the thing about the Apostle Paul that's funny,
is he also pissed off a lot of people too.
Like he had a lot of enemies.
He had a lot of people that wanted to kill him.
He had a lot of people that hated him, despised him,
wanted to tear down his leadership.
Really great friends, really close friends that were loyal to him and you know that's
a great blessing and you know you should have some people in your life that are good friends.
You should have some people in your life that you're thinking of right now saying yeah I'm
thankful for that person.
Yeah, this person helps me.
This person's a blessing to me and if you don't you need to make some friends.
Okay, I'm going to read a verse for you.
Proverbs 18-24, a man that hath friends must show himself friendly.
And there was a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
You know, if you have no friends, you know, that is a problem there.
There's an issue there.
There's something not working right.
Because if you show yourself friendly, you're going to have friends.
If you show up to this church, if you sincerely love God, you want the work of Christ to
go forth and you love God's people, you're just going to be friendly to God's people.
You know, it shouldn't feel like you're not around good company when you're around safe
people.
It should feel like, hey, we're brothers in Christ.
We're brothers and sisters in Christ.
We have the same spirit.
You know, when I meet a Christian, I just immediately like them.
And if you have no friends, there's probably something wrong with you.
Okay?
I'm just here to help you.
If you have no friends in your life, maybe it's just that you're not friendly to people.
Maybe it's that you're not the one that goes and initiates the friendship that asks questions about other people that is generally
Curious about their lives, you know, you have to be friendly to have friends, of course
And you have to not be weird. Okay, if no one wants to be your friend
You're probably just weird. Okay, and you need to fix that you need to become normal and how do you do that?
You read the Bible you go to church you live for God, you know serving God will make you normal go to Deuteronomy chapter number eight
Deuteronomy chapter number eight
You know just there's so many great blessings in our life every single day that you could just wake up and be thankful for
You know, how about working a job? You know a lot of people they just hate their job. They curse their job
They're so mad at the fact that they have to go to work and they'll say oh, you know Adam and Eve sin and we're cursed now
Men have to go to work. No, no, no God actually told Adam to keep the garden before sin entered into the world
That's why I preach the whole sermon called work is a blessing, because the fact that
men have to go to work has nothing to do with the fact that man has sinned.
Now it's harder, you know, the earth brought forth, you know, thorns and thistles at that
time and Adam had to work harder, but God always had the plan for us to work and working
is a blessing.
Deuteronomy 8 verse 18.
But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth the power to get wealth.
That he may establish his covenant which he swear unto thy fathers as it is this day.
You know it is God that gives us the power or the ability or the means to acquire wealth.
And of course we need money as a tool in this world.
Men have been charged with the responsibility of taking care of their families, supporting
That is a gift from God.
That is a blessing that God gave you
and you should be thankful for that.
You should not wake up every day
and just hate the fact that you have to go to work.
Now, why don't you just thank God that you can even work?
Because I guarantee you that people in this world
that have no hands would love to sit in your office
and type on a keyboard.
I guarantee you that people that have no feet
would love to go door to door and sell something to someone.
I guarantee you the people that have no ears would love to go do whatever job you do.
You know, people in this world, there's tons of people that are, you know, mute that would
love to give a work presentation.
There's all these people suffering that aren't able to go to work literally.
You know, you have hands and feet and a mouth and ears and eyes and God's giving you those
things to do work.
Be thankful for it.
Rejoice in the fact that you get to do some labor because not everyone can.
Go to James chapter number one James chapter number one.
You know, even, even ladies to your work,
you have a serious job to do.
You have a lot of labor to do,
keeping the house, taking care of children, cooking meals.
Hey, there's a lot of people without arms
that would love to cook a meal.
And instead of just dreading it and complaining about it and hating it, why don't you just
say, hey, this is the day that the Lord hath made, I'm going to rejoice and be glad in
it.
Hey, God's given me some work to do today, praise the Lord.
James chapter 1 verse 17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh
down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Here's the truth is that every single good thing that you have in your life is from God.
is a gift from God.
The Bible talks about how God sends rain
on the just and on the unjust.
God is even constantly blessing the unsaved.
God is even constantly blessing the wicked,
but here should be the colossal difference,
is that we should at least recognize that it's from God
and thank Him for it.
And say, hey, thank God that I have a job, thank God that I'm able to have a vehicle,
thank God that I'm able to have a house, knowing that all these things are from the Lord.
The unsafe and the wicked, they constantly take all the blessings from God without even
realizing it.
Every time they draw a breath into their lungs, it's a gift from God.
The fact that they could see their children, the fact that they could hear their laughs,
the fact that they could embrace their spouse, the fact that they could make money and go
And so let us as Christians rejoice in it and thank the Lord for it and recognize that it comes from Him.
Don't complain about your work. Don't complain about anything. Go to Numbers chapter 11.
You know, don't be like these spoiled, communist, little brat, federal employees.
where the leadership of the federal government says,
hey, send us an email that tells us five things you did in the last week.
And it's like, ah, this is crazy fascism!
What world do you live in?
Like, what planet do you live on where you don't realize that your authority at work,
your boss, your leadership, can demand of you and cause you to justify your existence?
Hello. Employees are not here to boss their bosses around and to boss other people around.
They are there to do the will of their employers.
And even it's the same thing in government.
Yes, the government should be serving the people,
but in government jobs, there's still an authority structure.
You still have a boss.
You still have a boss above him.
And it's like, you know who the boss of everything is?
It's the president.
He's the chief executive officer of the executive branch, right?
So if the president says, hey, all federal employees,
tell me what you're doing in your job.
Don't be this spoiled brat that wants to refuse to do so.
No, just be thankful you have a job.
Oh, yes sir.
My boss wants me to tell him everything that I've done.
No problem.
And it's like people that actually live in the real world and that do real work would
have no problem with this whatsoever.
You know, I literally have at my job and I've done this since like 2021.
I have at my job now and in previous jobs a spreadsheet of daily of every single thing
I do at work daily.
Every single thing, it's all tracked, it's all documented.
You can go audit it at any time.
My boss knows it exists.
He trusts me, he doesn't look at it,
but I've told him, hey, if you ever want to, here it is.
You ever wondering what I'm doing,
you wanna check out what's going on?
Cause I'm kind of a one man department
where I work right now.
Here it is, read the file, have fun.
I have no problem with that, why?
Because I'm actually working.
Want to know why these people have a big problem with it is because they're lazy. They're stealing from the American taxpayers
They're doing nothing. They're a bunch of lazy communists is what they are
They're not thankful for the fact that they even have a job. They're not thankful for the fact that they have employers
They want to you know talk crap about them
Numbers 11 verse 1 notice what it says and when the people complained it displeased the Lord
And the Lord heard it and his anger was kindled in the fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.
So notice God hates it.
He gets angry.
He gets displeased when people complain.
Especially, when people complain about the things that God gave to them.
I mean, do you like that as a parent when you give your child something?
You know, ladies, you worked really hard in the kitchen, you made this good, nutritious
meal and everyone with brain cells knows that this is a great meal, but children, they just
want like chicken nuggets and drenching it and all sorts of weird concoctions and they
think that's good food.
And then they want to complain and murmur, doesn't it?
You're just like, what's wrong with you?
Like, you need to grow up.
You need to get some wisdom.
You're being foolish right now.
And that's how it is many times for us,
where God gives us something.
God gives us a job.
And we're like, oh, this job.
Oh, this job is so terrible.
Oh, man.
My employer said I actually have to physically go to work.
to do work.
I didn't know you had to do work at work, at work.
This is crazy.
We need to have a revolution.
Look, hey, if you work from home, praise the Lord.
You know what that is?
A gift from God.
And if God gives you that gift, thank him for it.
And if that gift doesn't exist, who cares?
Go to work with a good attitude.
Hey, you know, I've worked from home a lot
and I really enjoyed it.
But guess what?
If my boss ever said, no, you're coming in the office today,
it's yes, sir.
No problem. Not gonna sit here and and you know boycott the city because of that
You know I saw these federal employees again the president said hey you off to come into work
We're ending remote work, and they're like all right
I know how we're gonna hurt President Trump is we're going to boycott all of the businesses around our offices
All the coffee shops all the grocery stores all the fast food restaurants all the city. It's like you idiots
Like what did they do?
Are you punishing the president by hurting small businesses in America?
That's these people's idea, but again, they're just entitled spoiled brats.
Be thankful for the fact that you live in America, that you work in America, that you
weren't born in North Korea, that you weren't born in India, that you weren't born in China,
working in some sweatshop.
Whatever job you have, I guarantee you your working conditions are better than people
in those countries.
And you're like, oh, I don't like my job.
Okay, well, work towards something new.
Learn something new.
Have goals, have a vision, have a plan.
But while you're today, while you're in today,
the day that the Lord has made,
be thankful for the work that you have.
Be thankful for the money that you have.
Be thankful for the things that He provides for you.
Go to Philippians chapter number four.
And it's like, what were the children of Israel here?
What were they complaining about?
They were complaining about the manna that God gave them.
And they wanted the garlic and the melons and the leeks from the land of Egypt,
yet they had the best food made by God.
And, you know, oftentimes we just, we get stuck in monotony,
we do the same things over and over,
and it can cause us to lose perspective of how great our life is.
You know, if you want to, you know, give yourself some perspective on how great your life is,
why don't you go to a mission strip?
Why don't you go to Mexico?
Why don't you even go to the Bahamas, which everyone thinks like, wow, the Bahamas is paradise
on earth.
Yeah, when you're staying with the rich millionaire white Americans on Paradise Island, but when
you actually go into the island in the inner part of it, every door and business is locked
and guarded with an armed guard.
You can't just walk into a grocery store.
You can't just walk into a fast food restaurant.
Someone has to buzz you in.
There's military out and about in the country.
And it's like, that gives me perspective like, wow, Oklahoma's nice.
Wow, we live in peace and prosperity.
You know, just go to Houston.
Why don't you just go to Houston or Seattle or San Francisco and see how terrible these places are
and how dirty and gross and rotten those places are and full of crime and debauchery and filth
and you're going to be like, wow, Yukon, Oklahoma, baby. So nice. You know, Oklahoma City. It's a
beautiful area. It's safe. It's receptive to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The economy is good here.
The cost of living is good here. You know, if you've only ever lived here, you might lack that
But when you change things up sometimes, you realize how good you have it.
How about your house?
You know, this is something people are constantly discontented with.
It's the house that they have. Look at Philippians chapter 4 verse 11.
For I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
I know both how to be a base and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things I am
instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer needs.
So the Apostle Paul, he's kind of experienced.
You know, he's experienced having a feast and tons of great food and all this luxury
and being in nice places with nice people.
He's also experienced hardship, persecution, being hungry, being in a low estate.
He's experienced both of these things, but what's interesting is that he said in whatsoever
state I am, I'm content.
I'm satisfied.
I'm happy.
I'm thankful.
And look, your life will be so much better if you're just content with the things that
If you're not always dreaming, if you're not always longing, if you're not always wanting.
Because it just doesn't make sense.
Think about it.
Like you get a house, it's not like you could just buy a house every year, right?
You're usually, you buy a house, you're staying in that sucker for like at least five years,
usually 10 years.
Because if you just buy a house every year, you're flushing money down the drain with closing
costs and all this crazy stuff, right?
So people usually live in a house for quite a while.
What sense does it make if you buy a house and you're going to be there for 10 years, but those whole 10 years
You're just miserable
You're just y'all can't wait for the next one can't wait for the next one you spend all those 10 years being discontented
Unhappy unthankful you think that's going to change when you get to the next house
When you get more money and you get to the next house and you buy the next house and then immediately you're just thinking
Oh, man, I just can't wait till the equity goes up. We could just trade in for a better one
Trade in for a bigger one and your whole life. You're just not happy your whole life. You're just not content. Let me tell you
That's misery
But whereas what's so much better is even if you just have a starter home
Even if you just have an apartment, even if you have a trailer, whatever you have, if you are just content with that,
hey, the next time you actually get something, you're just going to be extra happy.
And then you're going to enjoy that for 10 years, and you're going to soak it up, and you're going to love it,
and you're going to wake up in your house. Today is the day that the Lord has made. Look, God gave me a house to live in.
Thank you, Jesus. I appreciate the blessing, and you just enjoy it today, and the next day, and the next day,
and then someday, if He blesses you with another one, how much the more you enjoy it.
But you know what, the eyes of man are never satisfied.
You know, he that loves silver is not satisfied with silver.
If you just have to have bigger, better, greater or you're not going to be happy, let me just
tell you something, you will never be happy.
And this goes for your house, your car, the lifestyle you live, the level of luxury you
want.
Look, you'll never be happy.
You know, Lord Jesus Christ, He didn't even have a place to lay His head.
I mean, we are blessed beyond measure and beyond what we deserve.
If the Savior Himself didn't have a permanent place to live, look, if we do, praise God.
Thank you, Lord.
You know, how about this?
Be happy with the church you have today.
Be happy with the church that you have today, Psalm 122 verse 1.
I was glad when they said unto me,
let us go into the house of the Lord.
You know, today, when you woke up,
Yes, I know the daylight savings time sucks.
It's terrible, right?
We feel a little tired, but even in the midst of being a little groggy and fatigued, were
you happy to be coming to the house of the Lord today, or you're dragging your feet
saying, I don't really want to go, but I'm going to do it anyways.
I mean, today's the day that the Lord has made.
Let's be glad when they say to me, let's go to the house of the Lord.
Let's go to church.
Let's be happy.
everything you don't like about the church.
You want to just criticize everything that we don't have yet.
And look, thank God I don't feel like this happens at all at our church.
I don't think that anyone's complaining about things or discontented.
But it's just we need to keep it that way.
We need to keep that attitude.
Because it's like, oh well you know,
how come we don't do all the great events and conferences
that other churches do because we're a small church?
And why don't you just be happy with our church?
Why don't you just enjoy these moments?
And someday, Lord willing, if we grow,
we can do big church stuff.
And then, but here's the thing,
the people that complain about,
oh, we're a small church,
we don't get to do all the great things,
then there's gonna be problems with big church
that you're gonna not like as well.
And instead of just being happy in the state that you're in and just saying like hey today in March 2025
Here's what our church can do. Here's what we look like. Here's the plan. Here's the services
Hey, I'm happy with how it is. You want to complain complain complain?
Well someday if the church is big you're gonna not be happy then too. There's some people where it's like, you know
Goldilocks Baptist where it can't be too small. It can't be too big. It has to be just right. No today is just right
Next week it's just right 20 years from now Lord willing. Hey, it's just right. Just be thankful for how it is now
because you know there's some there's some blessings with having a smaller
church and I've been in both a large church and a small church and there's
some blessings when it comes to having a smaller church that it's more intimate
you get to talk to everyone you know when you're going to a big church trust
me there's times where you can go weeks attending the same church of someone and
not talking to them at all and it's not like you were avoiding them or they
were avoiding you it's just like hey there's 250 people here if you spend a
You're not going to really be able to do that, right?
And so here, though, we get to know each other more.
We get to be on a more intimate level.
That's great.
You know, we get to have potlucks every five weeks.
We've got the men's preaching night and the potlucks.
Look, that becomes a nightmare in a bigger church.
That becomes an absolute nightmare.
And it's like, you don't want cleaning ladies.
You don't want us to have potlucks every five weeks
if it's a big church.
Let me just tell you that right now.
But look, there's just some things that we can do now.
as a smaller church that we won't be able to do in the future.
Let me tell you this right now,
happy birthday is not gonna stick around forever.
I'm just telling you this right now, okay?
Happy birthday is not sticking around for forever
and it's not to hurt your feelings
and it's not that I don't care about your birthday
or wanna wish you a happy birthday.
It's that I don't wanna come to church
and sing happy birthday every single service.
I don't.
And it will probably go away pretty soon to be honest with you because it's just because then the church grows and it's just every single
Service is happy birthday, and it's just like no, it's not very professional. It's just kind of weird
No, we want to be a church want to run things decently and in order and I've been a part of kind of medium-sized churches
Where that policy was still in effect, and it was like yeah every single week
Every single week is happy birthday, or you know some people they add happy anniversary to
So it's like, we're singing happy anniversary.
We're singing happy birthday.
We might as well put it in the songbook.
It's like turning your songbooks to song number one.
And we're just going to sing it every single time.
Look, hey, just enjoy happy birthday today.
Anyone got a birthday today?
Does anyone have a birthday?
OK, no one has a birthday.
So don't enjoy it today.
It's not going to happen.
But next time, enjoy it that day because it's not
going to stick around for forever.
And someday you're gonna be in the big church,
I wish my pastor cared about me.
I wish that he would sing happy birthday to me.
I miss it so much when brother Eric would announce my name
and sing happy birthday.
Look, just be happy then, be happy now.
Today's the day that the Lord has made.
I'm sure I've offended all of you already
with the happy birthday thing,
but hey, just be happy with church.
Hey, is the King James Bible being preached or what?
Then be happy.
Are we going soul winning?
Be happy.
You know, do we have good people here?
do we have activities? We're doing the best we can? Hey, rejoice. Be happy with the church
that God's given us. Go to Philippians chapter 3. You know, I just, we need to wake up every day
and just rejoice in that day. And the things that we have and the life circumstances that we have
and the places we find ourselves, thank God for that day. Look, thank God I live in the United
Yeah, it's got problems. Yeah, it's got sins, but I'll tell you what I would not want to live anywhere else and
You know some people act like oh, you know if you love America. It's because you've never traveled and every time I travel the world
I enjoy my time. I have fun. There's things that I enjoy
But I am always ready to come back crawling on my hands and knees to the United States of America
The first time I went to Mexico. I I was in Houston the next time and I was like this is the cleanest city
I've ever seen in my life
Like like if you go from Oklahoma City to Houston you're gonna be like this is crazy
But if you go from Mexico to Houston, you're gonna be like this is heaven. This is wonderful
Okay, and it's like I thank God that I live in the United States
I thank God I can carry a gun every day of my life, legally, no issues whatsoever, right?
I thank God that we have the First Amendment.
I thank God we have freedom of religion.
I thank God that we live in a wealthy and prosperous society.
I thank God that we live in a place with tons of fire-breathing, independent, fundamental
Baptist pastors.
You know, I thank God for the life that we have here.
And you know, I don't think it's cool to hate the country you live in.
Don't think it's cool to sit here and be so ungrateful to God for the things that he's given us
I'm not sitting here clapping and I don't think anyone is clapping for like the person who hates the place that they live the most
That's just weird to me
Yeah, let's preach against the sins. Absolutely. Oh, you better believe I'll preach against you know
Sodomy and drunkenness and fornication and adultery and people for saking church and all the issues that we have here
You better believe that but today's the day that the Lord's made I find myself here in the United States of America
Hey, thank you Lord. I could be in China. I could be in India
I could be you know in all these terrible places of the world. No, thank you. Thank God that I'm here
Number two this morning
When it comes to living in the present,
don't worry about things outside of your control.
Don't sit here just spinning your wheels,
giving so much your mental energy and anxiety
and just mental power into thinking and worrying about things outside of your control.
You know, one of those things is the past.
The past is now outside of your control.
There's nothing you could do to change the past.
Look at Philippians 3 verse 12.
The apostle Paul said not as though I had already attained either we're already perfect, so what is he saying?
I'm not perfect. I haven't arrived. I'm not the epitome of spiritual growth. I can learn I can grow but I follow after
if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Christ Jesus saved the Apostle Paul and gave him a mission to preach the gospel
and he says, I want to apprehend that.
I want to reach that for which Christ has reached me and called me to do.
Verse 13, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do.
forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth under those things which are before.
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
See, in order for the Apostle Paul to press towards the mark,
to focus on his ministry and the goal that he has for his life, he has to do something.
He has to forget those things which are behind because living in the past stunts your growth.
sitting here and worrying about the past and all the regrets you have and all the missed opportunities that you didn't take
You know what that's causing you to do is it's causing you to keep your eye off of the opportunity that's ahead of you
It's causing you to get your mind off of all the opportunities that you have today
Today is the day that the Lord has made don't sit here beating yourself up for wasted years of the past
Wasted time of your youth. No, just realize I'm here today
Why don't I focus on today?
You know, the best athletes in the world,
it's said that they have a short memory.
And this is something that my coaches always
taught me growing up as a pitcher.
Hey, you make a bad pitch, you walk someone, you forget it.
Because if you're pitching and you're constantly just
beating yourself up, oh, man, that was such a bad pitch.
What did I do?
Why did I give up that home run?
Man, they really smoked that ball.
You're now not thinking about the hitter that you're facing.
And it's like the best players in sports are people that they make a mistake and they forget about it.
They don't care about it. They don't beat themselves up about it.
They're just now focused on what's in front of them.
And look, that's the same thing with anything in life.
It's the same thing with serving God.
Look, if you messed up, even if you did something very, very simple in your past, look, if you've
asked for forgiveness, God has forgiven you.
God has moved on.
God has it covered.
God's taken away all your iniquities.
So why are you going to beat yourself up about it?
Like if God forgives you, who do you think you are to not forgive yourself?
Honestly, it's pride is what it is.
It's thinking too highly of yourself and too much of yourself.
And really, the apostle Paul is the ultimate example of this, and he even says as much
in 1 Timothy 1.
Notice verse 12, he said, And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me.
For that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief."
You know, he lists, hey, God's put me into the ministry, he's counted me faithful, and here's who I was before, I was a blasphemer.
I was injurious, meaning causing injury to the kingdom of God.
causing harm to the kingdom of God and a persecutor,
going after, harassing God's people,
sending them to jail, consenting unto their death.
I mean, Stephen was stoned.
And the Bible says that the Apostle Paul,
who was at that time Saul, watched it
and was consenting unto his death.
You know, if there's anything that's going to cause you
to kind of beat yourself up a little bit,
maybe it was the fact that you were consenting of the death
of a great man of God.
And here's the thing.
I think God gives us this example of the Apostle Paul because what's in our past?
Did we really go around hailing Christians into jail, were we consenting under the death
of Christians?
Probably not.
And don't raise your hand if you were.
But the truth is though is that we all do have a list of something, right?
We all have a list of, yeah, I was filling the blank of whatever sins you've committed
in your life.
Is that the end for the Apostle Paul? Keep reading in verse number 14.
How be it for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ might show
forth all longsuffering, notice this, for a pattern to them which should hear after believe
on him to life everlasting.
What's he saying? He's saying, look, I'm chief of sinners, look at all the terrible things I did in my past, yet here I am today, God's counted me faithful, he's put me into the ministry, he's forgiven me of these things, why?
For an example, to those who hereafter can look at the story of the Apostle Paul and say, wow, if God used him, if God forgave him, if God even made him do some of the greatest works ever done,
He could forgive me too, he could use me too.
And it makes no sense to sit here today in the day that the Lord has made and make excuses
for why you're not serving God, make excuses for why you're not doing something with your
life.
Oh, because yesterday I was a bad person.
Or 10 years ago I did something bad.
Or 30, 40 years ago I did something terrible, it's like, hey, you don't compete with the
So, why don't you just accept the grace that God's given you, accept His mercy, and press
towards the mark, not live in the past, not beat yourself up over the past, and let me
tell you something, people that love to beat you up over your past are wicked people.
They're carnal.
They don't have the mind of God or the heart of God because the Lord Jesus Christ, He was
merciful to the apostle Paul, even though He did all these wicked things in the future.
Let's skip some of this for the sake of time.
Go to, if you would, Ecclesiastes chapter number seven, Ecclesiastes chapter number
seven.
You know, also when it comes to people just...
You know, worrying about things they can't control,
worrying about the things that they did in the past.
Sometimes people are just stuck in romanticizing the past.
You know, just stuck in, well, I wish I lived in the 1800s
or I wish I lived in the 1950s or something like that.
This is a common mentality.
Look at Ecclesiastes chapter seven, verse 10.
Say not thou what is the cause that the former days were better than these, for thou dost
not inquire wisely concerning this."
You know, just kind of how like Jesus talks about, can you really add a qubit to your
stature by thinking about it?
Can you really cause any of your hair to grow back on your head by giving it thought?
It's like sitting here and wishing and longing that you were in the 80s or the 50s or the
1800s or whatever.
Like, what is that going to accomplish?
It's not wise.
It makes no sense.
Why don't you just be thankful?
Oh man, the history was so great back then, well, why don't we just make some history
right now?
Why don't we do some great works for God right now?
Oh man, the churches, they used to preach so hard.
They used to be so fired up about soul winning.
They used to be conservative.
They used to dress nice and, you know, have all these great things.
Okay, just do what's right now.
Just be thankful we live in 2025, and here's the truth.
You know, I never was there, but I'm guessing that the past wasn't as great as people make
it out to be.
You know, things usually aren't as great or as bad as people make it seem.
You know, if you live back then, there would be things you didn't like about it.
There would be things that you would miss about the time that we're living in right
now.
Why don't you just embrace the time we're living in?
Be thankful.
You know, don't be like these old IFB, Boomer Baptist, that they just refuse to post their
sermons on the internet because when back in my day, you know, we didn't have the internet
so we're going to pretend we don't have the internet now.
and just adapt.
And whatever technology looks like in 60 years,
let's just use it for the cause of Christ, okay?
You know, chat GBT, believe it or not, is not the devil.
It's not a demon.
It's a language learning model
that was programmed by a software developer.
And let's just use whatever technology we can
to share the gospel and to spread the word of God
and we're not gonna sit here and live in the past.
Go to First Kings chapter 19.
First Kings chapter 19, but not only do some people you know, they're stuck thinking man
The past was so awesome. The past was so great. It was so much better than right now
I think oftentimes people think the people themselves were just so much different
People themselves are so much different
But the truth is that there's no new thing under the Sun and man's heart has been the same since the garden
Human nature has been the same since the garden.
But even men of God sometimes had this mentality.
Verse one says in Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done
and with all how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.
Then, Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying,
So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life
as the life of one of them by tomorrow
about this time. So Jezebel is threatening to kill
Elijah. You can see how that would cause some stress, cause some anxiety.
Verse 3 says,
Now, this I don't really get,
because it's like,
you are doing all these great works for God,
and then Jezebel threatens to kill you,
so you run away.
To ask that you die. It's like wait. I thought you're running away from death
I thought you're running away from getting killed you run away to this juniper tree
And then you just ask that you die but notice what he says and said it is enough now. Oh Lord
Take my life take away my life notice this for I am not better than my father's
You know what I think that he's saying I think what he's saying is like man
If I was just built different like the previous generations maybe I'd be able to like withstand
this persecution.
You know, it's like, man, if I was just built different like the World War II generation,
then my life would look different.
I would have a better career.
I would have a well-behaved family.
I would go to church.
I would dress professionally.
I would have all these attributes about me if I was built different like the previous
generations.
Oh, yeah, no problem. I'd be able to withstand this situation.
But let me tell you the truth is that no one is built different.
Human nature is the same.
And if someone is strong in their faith and courageous and bold and is willing to stand
up for what they believe and endure persecution, it's not because they're built different.
It's because they have faith in the Word of God, they follow what the Bible says, they're
disciplined to do what the Bible says even when they don't feel like doing it.
They're consistent in prayer, they're consistent in the things of God.
That's why they're built different.
So instead of just sitting here like man, I just wish I was like the old generations. I was wish I was built different like the World War
Too. Why don't you just build yourself different?
Well, I don't you just open the Bible and start building piece by piece and just make
yourself built different because there's no special 1940s dust that was picked, you know,
spread on America that made 17 year old men brave to go fight the Nazis and bombers and
freezing temperatures in World War Two.
You know, there was nothing that made them built different.
They were just strong, right?
And you can be too.
There's no difference between you and them.
There's no difference between people of the 1800s, 1700s.
Oh man, you read literature that was written in the 1800s.
I love reading literature from the 1800s.
But let me tell you, there's nothing different about their hand
that drew with the pen.
There's nothing different about their mind.
They just read more than you probably.
They just actually learned what words mean,
more than you do probably.
They actually probably studied a lot more in school than you.
You know, spread upon them, they just worked harder than us, apparently.
And it's like we could bring back great literature.
We could bring back strong men.
We could bring back godly Christianity at any time we want.
Here in 2025, there's nothing different about the past.
Just don't live in the past.
Focus on today.
Churches can do great works today.
Here's another thing people love to worry about,
that they can't control.
That's obviously the future, right?
Go to Matthew chapter six, Matthew chapter number six.
I kind of alluded to this passage earlier.
Matthew chapter six, verse 25.
Jesus said, therefore I say unto you,
take no thought for your life,
what ye shall eat, so that's future, right?
Or what ye shall drink,
nor yet for your body what ye shall put on
is not the life more than meat and the body,
than raiment.
He's like saying don't worry about what you're eating what you're drinking what you're gonna put on and for us in our modern culture
This would be like don't worry about your income
Don't worry about what your quality of life is gonna look like tomorrow or something like that
Because the life is more than meat and more than raiment verse 26 behold the fowls of the air
For they so not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly father feedeth them
Are you not much better than they, than they?
So he gives us this carnal example where he's like,
look at the birds.
They're not going in and punching in at seven,
or at seven a.m. and clocking out at five.
They're not, you know, storing all this stuff.
They're not sewing and reaping.
God takes care of them.
And obviously, God cares about you more than birds.
That's what he's saying.
Then in verse number 27 says,
which of you by taking thought,
Can add one qubit under a stature taking thought stressing thinking about it wishing longing
Like can you make yourself taller by just like I just gotta think of no it's not gonna happen, right?
Can you make yourself richer? Can you make yourself have a better?
Status in life by just thinking about it. No, you can't you can't change any of those things
So don't sit here and just worry about the future so much stay there. I want to read for you Psalm 37
Verse 25 says I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread?
And you know if you just think about your own life your own finances your own
Just a state in life that you've dealt with I'm sure that everyone in here has experienced times that were kind of frightening financially
where it's just like, the medical bills come in at the worst time imaginable,
the car breaks down at the worst time imaginable,
you know, the house needs all these repairs, whatever emergency pops up,
and at the time, you're looking at it saying like,
I don't know how this is going to get fixed.
I don't have the money.
I don't see how this is going to get fixed.
But hold on a second.
Here you are right now, and you didn't starve.
Isn't that interesting?
Here you are today in church.
And you never, you know, went without the meals.
You had the roof over your head.
You had the clothes on your back.
Here you are today.
So what good did all of that worrying and stress do you?
Nothing whatsoever.
So you just expended all this mental energy, all this frustration, all this stress that
you added to your life about what the future is going to look like.
But yet here you are today and it all worked out.
Why?
Because he's never seen the righteous forsaken.
Nor a seed begging bread and if you are a godly Christian seeking first the kingdom of God
You are not going to die of starvation saving like maybe the tribulation or something like that
And if that happens, well, what are you going to do? You're going to die is what you're going to do. Sorry, you know
That's what would happen. All right, look at verse number 28 and why take you thought for Raymond?
Consider the lilies of the field how they grow they toil not neither do they spin
And yet I say unto you that even Solomon and all his glory was not a raid like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith."
Like, does God care about us more than birds and flowers and grass? Of course he does.
So why are we going to sit here and worry like God's not going to take care of us?
Therefore, take no thought, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal
shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.
For your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.
Verse 33 is the key point to remember.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall
be added unto you.
Hey, live in today, be thankful for today, be thankful for what God has provided for
you today, the job you have today, and don't say you're freaking out and worrying, oh
man, what is my life going to look like in 20 years from now financially?
30 years from now financially.
Look, just seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Go to church.
Read the Bible.
Pray.
Go soul-winning.
Go to work, like God said to.
Work hard.
Get some skills.
Get some smarts.
Do those things.
And you know what's going to happen?
You're never going to starve.
God's never going to forsake you.
God is going to take care of you.
Go to, if you would, Philippians chapter number four,
Philippians chapter number four.
You know, I think that we are just a people in the United States that just add so much
unnecessary stress to our lives because it seems like we are just obsessed with the future.
We're obsessed about what is our life going to look like in 30 years from now.
What is my retirement home on the beach of Florida going to look like?
How am I going to reach that?
You could die tonight and here you are freaking out about what life is going to look like 30 years from now
Why don't you just rejoice in today and think about today and not stress yourself out?
Flipping's 4 verse 4 rejoice in the Lord always and again. I say rejoice let your moderation be known unto all men
the Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing. That's not saying like having caution or trepidation.
It's saying like, don't be stressed out. Don't be full of care and anxiety. Be careful for nothing.
But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made
known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and
You identify, hey, there's this problem, hey, it's stressing me out.
You pray, you let God know that it's stressing you out.
You ask Him to help you.
You do all the things that you're supposed to do that you know is right, that what God
wants you to do, and then you just say, okay, Lord, it's in your hands.
This is on you now.
This is your responsibility now.
I'm not going to let you take care of that.
to come over you and to help you through those hard times because you're not helping yourself
and your problems by sitting here just stressing and worrying and freaking out. You're just like
shaving yours off your life is all you're doing. You know what I mean? You need to sit there and
trust the Lord, pray, do what you need to do. Verse eight.
It says, finally, brethren, whatever things are true,
whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just,
whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report.
If there be any virtue, if there be any praise,
think on these things.
See, God wants our mindset to primarily be focused
on the positive, right?
Today is the day that the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it, not freaking out about tomorrow, not worrying about all the
what-ifs of life, not worrying about your stature or your money or the things that you don't have
or the things that you used to have that you wish you still have. No, just think about things
that are pure, good, lovely, of good report. Think about today. Be thankful for today.
Pray and leave it in the Lord's hands. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 9. Another thing people
When it comes to stressing about things that are outside of their control is just random life events
Just random life events, you know people freak out about the what if what if this happens what if that happens look at Ecclesiastes
911 I returned and saw under the Sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong
Neither yet bred to the wise nor yet riches to men of understanding nor yet favor to men of skill
But time and chance happeneth to them all
Sometimes in life
Stuff just happens and what just annoys me so much and what adds stress to my life is with I'm when I'm with someone
That's just what if this happens or what if that happens? Well, what if this other thing happens? It's like bro
It hasn't happened yet. So chill
And if it does, time and chance happens to them all.
Stuff just happens in life.
You know, one of the funniest things I saw was when President Trump was meeting with President Zelensky in the White House.
And some reporter asked this dumb question, and the way that President Trump responded was so funny.
The question was, what if President Putin breaks the ceasefire agreement?
And Trump goes, what if anything?
What if a bomb drops on your head right now?
And it's like, exactly, dude.
What if a bomb drops on your head?
It's like, hey, what if China attacks us
and blows up an EMP over the United States
and all the supply lines are down
and we have no food in the grocery stores
and there's chaos on the street
and looters on the street?
We'll die.
That's what will happen.
I mean, what if a bomb drops on your head right now?
Then a bomb's just gonna drop on your head
and you're gonna die.
But, you know what makes no sense is just spending your life freaking out about the what if.
What if?
Okay, what if then?
What if you walk across the street today and get shot in the chest by a random violent
thug?
That happens.
What if that happens?
Okay, I'm just gonna wear a bulletproof vest.
And I'm going to roll myself in bubble tape in a safe room in my basement and like plumb
some fresh water lines in there and just like have someone shove me some food under a door
just so that nothing could ever happen.
What if, what if you're driving down the road and your tire blows up, then your tire is
going to blow up?
What if my car breaks down?
What if I lose my job?
What if I get cancer?
What if I lose a child?
What if? What if? Okay, then what if?
Then it's just gonna happen.
What if a bomb drops on your head right now?
I mean, I'm just gonna start saying that all the time now.
Hey, what's going on? What's gonna happen this to me?
What if a bomb drops on our head right now?
I mean, it's a good point.
It really is a good point.
It's like, what if Putin breaks it?
Well then, what if a bomb drops on our head?
What if he breaks it? So what?
We're not gonna sit here and think about the what ifs of life
because you can't change it.
Live in the present.
What can you control today?
What can you put your energy into that's productive today?
And that leads me to my third point.
Focus on the work that you could do today.
Focus on what you can do today.
Go to James chapter number four.
country. We live in a very future-oriented country. In a lot of ways, that's a good thing.
You know, it leads to people working hard. But man, boy did I notice the difference when I went to
Germany of just the speed, the energy level, the quickness of life. It's just so different there.
Everything's quiet. Everything's slow. And like I said, there is some good to the energy and fast
pace, you know, way of life that we have in the United States. But where it gets kind of toxic is
How am I going to get that private jet?
How am I going to make sure that I have $3 million in savings
by the time I retire?
How do I make sure that each of my kids have $1 million
by the time they go to college, and that I have a nest egg,
and that I have all these things?
And it's like, that is ridiculous.
Because guess what?
Again, you could die tonight.
You could die tomorrow.
You could die next week.
And it doesn't make sense to put all this effort and energy
stressing into what life is going to look like in 40 years
And you can enjoy today.
And what you're sowing into today, you know what's going to happen?
If God gives you tomorrow, you're going to reap in that day.
And if God gives you 20 years from now, sow, sow, sow, sow, sow, reap at that time.
But don't take it for granted, hey, you only know that you have today, James 4 verse 13.
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.
So notice these guys, they have a business plan.
They're like, today or tomorrow, we're going into this city,
we're gonna buy and sell, we're gonna get gain,
we're gonna make all this money.
And the beginning of that verse says, go to now.
Go to now.
Why?
Well, look what it says, verse 14,
whereas you know not, what shall be on the morrow?
You know, you don't know if a bomb's gonna drop
on your head tomorrow, it could happen.
For what is your life?
It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
For that you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that.
But now you rejoice in your boastings.
All such rejoicing is evil.
Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Don't sit here and think about in 30 years how your life is going to look so perfect.
Don't think about how in 20 years how great your business is going to look and just stress
how am I going to make sure it gets that way.
You know what you should do?
You should go to now.
Oh, what's my marriage going to look like in 50 years?
Why don't you just be married and be a good husband today?
Why don't you just be a good wife today?
Why don't you invest love into your spouse today because guess what?
You don't know if a year from now is coming.
You know, why don't you enjoy church today?
Because you don't know if you're coming here next week.
Why don't you enjoy your country today?
You don't know if it's going to exist in five years from now.
Why don't you just enjoy and work and affect things
that you could actually do right now today?
Last place I'll have you go to,
last place I'll have you go to is, excuse me,
Psalm 118, we'll finish there, Psalm 118.
You know today is the day that the Lord has made we should not sit here and worry about the past things
We can't change and desire that we were in a different time period and desire
We were built different or desire to be 30 years from now
What's life gonna look like there or freak out about all the random life events that could possibly happen along the way
It's like hey, what are you doing for God today?
You know sometimes I hear young guys and it's a godly desire, but they're like yeah, I want to be a pastor and praise the Lord
That's that's a good desire to have I can honestly say that when I got saved from that very first year
I had that desire, but here's the thing you shouldn't just be like man
It's in five years. I gotta be a pastor. I gotta be a pastor in five years or I gotta get there in ten years
It's like why don't you just read your Bible?
today
Why don't you start memorizing scripture today?
Why don't you go soul-winning today?
Why don't you be a good church member today?
And then do that tomorrow.
And then do that next week.
And then do that next month.
And then do that next year.
And hey, Lord willing, someday, if the Lord will,
we'll do this or that.
Hey, if the Lord will, you could be a pastor someday.
But you know what?
You can't affect that right now.
You can't decide right now,
I'm going to be a pastor in 10 years.
But you know what you can do?
You can go soul-winning at 2 o'clock.
That you could do.
Lord willing, of course, we're not there yet.
What if a bomb drops on our head?
I don't know.
But Lord willing, at two o'clock,
we're gonna meet here and go soul winning.
You know what you could do?
You could go soul winning.
You know what you could do?
You can go home tonight and read your Bible.
You could follow God's commandments.
You could go to church.
You know, I'm not sitting here thinking about like,
man, how is Anchor Baptist Church gonna look in 30 years?
I'm gonna make sure that I got this all planned out.
I've already got the property, you know, eyed out.
I know where it's gonna be.
I'm not thinking that way.
You know what I'm thinking?
What can Anchor Baptist Church do today?
Who can we go preach the gospel to today?
What sermon can I preach today?
Who can I love today?
That's what I'm thinking about.
I'm not thinking about tomorrow.
I'm not thinking about next year.
I'm thinking about today.
Why?
Let's read this verse again.
Verse 24 of Psalm 118.
This is the day which the Lord hath made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Let's pray.
Lord, thank you for this wonderful day that we have.
Thank you for the blessings that we have today, for the friends that we have today.
Thank you for salvation, for the Word of God, for Anchor Baptist Church, for the opportunities
we have in America to preach the gospel freely. I pray that every day that you give us, we would
recognize it as a gift from you, that we would thank you for it, and that we would use it to its
fullest potential and always be thinking, what can I do for the Lord today? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, with that, we'll go ahead and sing one last song to conclude the service.
If you would, take your hymnals at this time and turn to hymn number 75
on Jordan Stormy Banks.
We'll go ahead and start there right on the first.
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful line
To Canaan's fair and happy land where my possessions lie
this morning.
With that, you are dismissed.