you
find a seat and grab a hymnal.
This is our men's preaching night.
So if you're unfamiliar, how we're gonna do music
is I'm gonna call on people to raise their hand
and we'll sing one verse of a song that you pick.
So I don't have picks, so I need a one verse
to start the evening.
Yes, ma'am, what do you got?
176, 176, 176, Jesus loves the little children.
176 on the 1st.
Jesus!
at this time, if you would bow your heads with me.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day,
for the opportunity that we get to gather together
to hear preaching, and Lord, I just thank you
for the opportunity that pastors putting on
for us to get experience preaching from your word.
I pray that you'd be with all the sermons,
all the preachers this evening, and all the listeners
that you would help us apply the messages that we hear.
These things we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
All right, Zach, what you got?
194.
Since Jesus came into my heart. It's that first verse there
194194 since Jesus came into my heart
194 there on the first what a wonderful change in my life has been brought
Since Jesus!
323 more about Jesus.
323 more about Jesus. On the first.
All about Jesus. That's good.
448, 448 is...
Brethren, we have met to worship.
448, 448, Brethren, we have met to worship.
448, they're on the birds.
Verse 15. Keep working hard on this chapter. On the inside you'll see our service times are listed.
Sunday morning at 10.30. Sunday evening at 4.30. Of course on Wednesday evening 5.30 at 7 o'clock.
So many times are all listed there below, as well as the nursing home ministry of the Spanish
Code Nursing Home. Also we have our year-to-date so many statistics. I believe we have four
upcoming events this evening of course is our men's preaching night so we do have
a cup here with the names of those who signed up and brother Cameron as he's
leading he's gonna pick a song for the first or a picking name of the first
preacher and the limit this evening is going to be 15 minutes I'll keep time and
if you reach your 15 minutes I'll just say out time and please do be respectful
of your fellow preachers and that time limit
We've got some food there that people are going to want to eat for sure.
And we don't need any 40 minute long men's preaching night sermons.
So 15 minutes is where we're at.
Make sure you make good use of that time.
And then immediately after the service,
if some of the men will help with moving these chairs
and getting tables set up for the potluck, I greatly appreciate that.
Next weekend is the Easter soul winning marathon
at Frederick Douglas Park at 9am.
Looking forward to that.
We've got plenty of Easter invites for that day.
Also April 20th is the Lord's Supper for the Evening Service.
May 16th through the 18th is the King James Conference Sure Foundation Baptist Church.
Looking forward to hearing those sermons from my former church there.
May 31st is Durant, Oklahoma, the Durant, Oklahoma soul-winning marathon with Steadfast Baptist Church.
June 28th, the Tinker Air Show Fellowship Day.
June 29th, guest preacher, Brother Ben Nyeem
from Steadfast Baptist Church
will be preaching for us both services that day.
So looking forward to great weekend in June.
August 27th through the 31st
is the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship
at Steadfast Baptist Church.
I cannot wait for that.
It's going to be a great time.
And October 6th through the 11th is the Bahamas mission trip.
It's not too late to sign up for that.
It's not too late, even if you haven't gotten your passports yet
or haven't even started planning, you can still go.
And I do encourage you, if at all possible, to make it out.
You will not regret it.
It's going to be an awesome time of soul winning.
And on top of that, it's just a fun place to visit too.
So it's going to be a lot of work,
but it's also going to be some fun play as well.
So you will have a great time.
I can guarantee you that.
We do have on the back our updated prayer list for the week as always if you have any requests
Please do email the church and we'd be happy to add that for you
If it's a private request that you just want me praying for let me know in the email
And I will do that for you and also some information about giving below
That's gonna be it for announcements have some song picks in your head for the camera is gonna call on you guys
Let's go to our next song
All right four more picks before the offer Tory miss ma'am. What you got?
227 227
Saved by the blood 227 227 saved by the blood
227 they're on the first
of the story, 228.
In our white handouts, 1-39, just that first verse, Psalm 139, they're on the first.
Here it leads me, him, 110.
110.
for your sermon.
chapter 30 the title of my sermon this evening is the word is nigh thee that
thou mayest do it
And so we'll read in verse 11 Deuteronomy 30 verse 11 it says for this commandment which I command thee this day
It is not hidden from thee neither is it far off
It is not in heaven that thou shouldest say who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it unto us that we may hear it and
Do it neither is it beyond the sea that thou shouldest say who shall go over the sea for us and bring it unto us that
We may hear it and do it, but the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart
that thou mayest do it." And so the Bible says the Word of God is not hidden from us,
but it's in our mouth and in our heart that we may do it. It's not hidden from us,
so that way we can do it. God gave us His Word and He expects us to do it. That's why He gave
It says the word is very nigh unto thee, and we have access to the word of God.
We have the King James Bible, and we have, at this church, we have access to great preaching,
because we listen to preaching based on the Bible.
So we have the word very nigh unto us.
We read the Bible, and we listen to preaching from the Bible.
But in verse 15 it says,
But, if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shall be drawn away and
worship other gods and serve them, I denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish,
and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan
to go possess it.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life
and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life that thou and thy seed may live."
And so God has said, he says before us, life and death,
the option to do what his word says
and the option to disobey what his word says.
We can either be blessed by obeying God
or cursed for disobeying God.
And we'll look at Psalm 32, open your Bibles to Psalm 32.
What's what God and what God's instruction is like?
It says the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it
And so in Psalm 32, in verse 8, it says,
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright
in heart."
So in verse 8, it says, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt
go.
I will guide thee with mine eye.
So this is where God gives us his commandments.
This is where the word is nigh unto us.
God instructs us through the Bible and through his word.
And there's many commandments in the Bible for us to go soul-warning.
For example, I'll quote to you Mark 16, 15, it says,
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
So here we have the commandment that God has instructed us to do to go and preach the gospel.
But in verse 9 it says,
The Bible says, for us to not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding,
it says that their mouth must be held in with bit and bridle,
and I believe what this is speaking about is that a horse, it doesn't have an understanding.
If you tell a horse to do a certain thing like go left or go right or go forward
or whatever you would want to do with the horse, it probably won't understand you.
And so you have to use a bit and a bridle to guide it in the way it should go.
But we are people, we have understanding, we're able to understand God's words, so we shouldn't be as the horse or as the mule.
We shouldn't need God to hold us with a bit and bridle to guide us.
And the bit and bridle would be like having to get chastised by God in order to do His commandments.
Rather, we should just have understanding and do them without needing the chastisement of God.
And so it says in verse 10, many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.
So if you decide not to obey God's commandments, if you decide to be wicked, you will have sorrow, many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.
And so, if you trust in the Lord, if you keep His commandments, you will have joy, you will have mercy from God.
And in verse 11, it says be glad in the Lord, and rejoice ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
And so there's actually a separation. If you're wicked, you'll have sorrow. If you're upright, if you follow God's commandments, you'll have joy.
secret, not really a secret, but that's the way to have joy in your life is to follow
God's commandments. And let's look at someone who, an example in the Bible of someone who
disobeyed the commandment to go soul-warning. And let's look at whether he had joy or whether
We can see, where does God instruct Jonah?
It says in verse one, it says, Jonah one, one,
it says, now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah,
the son of Amitya, saying, arise, go to Nineveh,
that great city and cry against it
for their wickedness is come up before me.
But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa
And he found a ship going to Tarshish
So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord
So here Jonah receives the instruction from God. He receives a commandment from God, but he does not do it
God gave him didn't give him this commandment in vain. God told him to go because
He gave him that word so that he could do it.
The word was given to Jonah so that he could do it,
but he decided not to.
He decided to disobey God.
And so as in Psalm 32 it says,
whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridal.
In the same way Jonah had to be chastised by God
in order to have him do his commandment.
And in chapter two,
In chapter 2, in verse 2, it says, this is Jonah.
It says, and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me.
Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
And so Jonah, he's in the belly of the fish, and he is in sorrow.
And he's in sorrow in the belly of the fish.
Why? Because he's wicked because he's disobeying God. He's not keeping the commandment as it says in Psalm 32
Many sorrows shall be to the wicked and when Jonah
disobeyed God when Jonah didn't
Go soulning when God told him to Jonah had many sorrows if he had trusted in the Lord in
Psalm 32 says but he that trusted in the Lord
Mercy shall compass him about if he had trusted in the Lord
he would not have to go through this affliction and so
We shouldn't be as Jonah. We shouldn't be as a horse that has no understanding.
We shouldn't have to have God chastise us in order to follow His commandments.
But we should have understanding by, first of all, by reading the Bible.
Because how would you know the Word if you don't put it into your mind and into your heart?
You would have to read the Bible.
But read the Bible so that you can have understanding and do His commandments.
that you can be glad in the Lord and rejoice and shout for joy because you're upright in heart.
And if you're backslidden on soul winning, you'll have sorrow, not only maybe you could get chastised in your life,
but also there's the sorrow of just knowing that you're disobeying God's commandments, knowing that you're not upright.
And here's some verses open to Ezekiel.
Here's some verses that will really provoke you to go soulening if you're not.
In Ezekiel chapter 3 verse 18 it says, when I say unto the wicked thou shalt surely die
and thou givest him not warning nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to
save his life, that's the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity but his blood will
Here God says, if you don't warn the wicked, and we could, this isn't directly speaking of
soul-inning, but we could apply this to soul-inning. If you don't warn the wicked, if you don't warn
the unsaved people that they should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then if you don't refuse
to do that, then you're responsible that you didn't preach to them. And
That's not a position you should be in.
You should strive to warn people.
In Ezekiel 33, it's a similar thing, Ezekiel 33.6.
Says but if the watchman see the sword come and blow not the trumpet and the people be not warned
If the sword come and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity
But his blood will I require at the watchman's hand?
so we have we have the role we could apply this again to soul inning we have the role of a
Watchman we know that
Everyone because everyone sin we all deserve to go to hell and that that
sword, in that sense, the danger of hell is present for every person that's not saved.
So we need to blow the trumpet.
We need to let people know the gospel so that they can be saved and so that their blood
is not on our hands.
So those are two verses that are really scary to think about if you're not soulening, if
in order to get them saved,
that if you're not soulening, you're responsible.
Their blood is on your hands.
And in 1 Corinthians 9-16,
here's another scary verse,
if you're not soulening.
It says in 1 Corinthians 9-16,
it says,
For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of.
For necessity is laid upon me.
Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.
That's another verse. That's scary. If you don't preach the gospel well unto you
God the as it said many sorrows shall be to the wicked and if you if you don't
Preach the gospel if you decide to ignore doing that you'll have sorrow in your life
but if you decide to obey God's commandment
soul ending is a great source of joy and
You can rejoice and shout for joy
by going soulening and being upright.
And in Psalm 126, I'll end with this.
In Psalm 126, it says that they which sow and tear
shall reap in joy.
Psalm 126.
Verse five, it says day that so in tears shall reap and joy he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him and so
if you are
Not so winning if you are avoiding doing that
Commandment if you're like Jonah where God told you to go and preach, but you're not going and preaching
Many sorrows will be to you. You'll
God could punish you carnally, you could have problems in your life carnally,
but also you could have the problem of your just, your conscience is just hurting,
you're feel guilty.
But if you decide to follow God's commandments, then you can rejoice.
If you sow in tears, you can reap in joy.
He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed.
Shout out, let's come again with rejoicing.
If you decide, I'm going to go soulening because I want to please God,
because I want to keep his commandments, then you can have joy.
Then you can be upright, then you can have peace with God.
Know that I'm doing what God told me to.
And that's the way to be happy is by obeying God's commandments.
Let's end in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your word.
I pray that we would learn from your word
and apply this to our lives
and that we would remember to go soulening
and to obey your commandments
and not have to be chastised
in order to obey your commandments,
but rather that we would follow them right away.
Amen.
I'll draw the next preacher.
The next preacher is Brother John.
All right, relations chapter four, if you're following along.
My message this evening is be real.
Be real.
And this is just really relevant.
It's possible for anybody to get into certain situations
where you act differently around certain people.
Maybe you're not your genuine self.
So it's simple, be real.
Galatians chapter four, the gun of verse 15,
Bible says, where is then the blessedness you spake of?
For I bear you record that if it had been possible,
you would have plucked out your own eyes
and have given them to me.
And look, I don't think there comes anything more zealous
than being willing to pluck out your own eyes.
I don't even know that I want to be that good of a preacher
to where somebody's willing to pluck out their own eyes.
I hope there's some exaggeration here,
but the Apostle Paul is here is just kind of lending to
the fact that they are very zealous people.
here at this church of Galatia.
And verse 16, he says,
I am therefore, am I therefore become your enemy?
Because I tell you the truth,
they zealously affect you, but not well.
Yay, they would exclude you that you might affect them.
But it is a good thing to be zealously affected
always in a good thing,
and not only when I am present with you.
And that kind of stands out to me,
not only when I'm present with you,
because there is a possibility he's kind of alluding to
that these people are only this zealous
when he's present with them.
that when he's not present,
they have a different level of zeal
than when he's present with them.
And it's possible for that to happen to anybody.
And I think often about Pastor Oz
who brought up somebody that kind of had a habit
of talking about their bowels
and some kind of introduction,
being refreshed in their bowels.
That's really weird.
And if you just get into social situations
and your default is to start going on about your bowels,
you need to start thinking about a different default.
Like, hi, how are you?
You know, that's a good place to start socially.
But I think especially with like first time church visitors,
this is kind of an issue where they might get around new people
and want to really impress you about how spiritual they are.
You know, you go up to somebody and you're like,
hey, I know you might be new to the area.
Here's my phone number.
Call me if you ever need anything.
If you want to hang out and they're like, well,
I don't know if we're spiritually compatible.
I've heard that before that's kind of weird but you know we ought to have some
bit of grace to extend with that with newcomers and it's really important
though to be genuine not to be fake and no more important than having teenagers
because teenagers are like heat-seeking missiles for insincerity
If you're not sincere, if you have a feigned faith,
teenagers are gonna pick up on this very quickly,
and what you do in moderation, they'll do in excess.
And children will pick up on it, they'll replicate it,
and you'll have on your hands some insincere children.
And this over-the-top KJV kind of jargon,
over-the-top spirituality, I see it a lot, it happens a lot,
and you say, well, if I'm real,
you're gonna see the real me, and it's gonna be ugly.
Look if you have if you want to be different in front of me
You need to fix who you are in secret not who you are in front of me if
We hop in your car and we're listening at AC DC going out soul winning
Stop listening to that in secret. Okay, and don't don't have a you know this this if you're not listening to hymns all
At time don't feel like you have to listen to hymns all the time in front of me to impress me. I don't care, right?
but
You know this is this is
It's okay if you listen to hymns all the time.
If that's genuinely who you are,
if that's your spirituality, God bless you.
And that's great.
It's good to be zealously affected in a good thing.
Romans chapter 12, I'm just gonna read,
says, recompense to no man evil for evil
provide things honest in the sight of all men.
We want to be honest in the sight of all men.
Jesus often talked about the Pharisees that they would appear righteous before men.
That they would do things to be seen of men.
And if that's the reason you're doing things, it's being done for the wrong reasons, and
you need to do them for the right reasons.
And why it's definitely possible for saved people to act differently.
in front of different crowds.
It's a very big trait of reprobates to deceive,
to be able to be very good at portraying themselves
in a different way, especially spiritually.
Second Peter, chapter two, if you're following along,
and they can do this very well
because they don't have a conscience.
They don't have a conscience that might make them
I don't know, we have remorse for the fakeness
that they're portraying.
Second Peter chapter two, look at verse one.
Bible says, but there were false prophets among the, also among the people, even as
there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring indamnable heresies, even
denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction, and many
shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken
Make merchandise of you, whose judgment now
of a long time lingered not,
and their damnation slumbered not.
Look, these false prophets are able to infiltrate
because they're using feigned words,
and their objective is to make merchandise of you.
And I have an example of this today.
I went to one of the first IFB churches
that my family went to.
There was a man named Joe Koss.
And he was over the children's ministry of this church,
led the Vacation Bible School,
and after I had left the church in 2019,
he was arrested on charges of possession
of child pornography.
And he was obviously kicked out of that church.
His mother, Janice Koss,
which is a big time realtor in Sopopa,
helped him immediately sell his house and relocate.
and he relocated and started going to a Baptist church
in Collinsville named Fireside Baptist Church.
And he eventually pled guilty to these possession charges.
But in 2019, when this happened,
I called the pastor of that church, Pastor Claude,
and I warned him just in case he wasn't aware
of what this man was capable of,
what kind of filth this man was involved in,
And the pastor really didn't seem that concerned at the time
that he was going to allow him to be a member of the church
and that he was going to keep tabs on it.
But fast forward to December 2024 he played guilty to one count of possession the federal charges were tossed on a technicality and
It's really a technicality that has to do with Indian lands
And it's not that he did not that he didn't have possession of hundreds of documents of child pornography
Some of this young is seven years old and the amount of disgusting filth this man was involved in is sickening
I'm just gonna read an excerpt from the news article
that I found on him.
A former DHS investigator waiting to be sentenced
for child pornography in federal court
is now charged in Tulsa County with a salting,
a hospital worker and officer.
So he was sentenced on this one charge of possession
that was local prosecution, Tulsa prosecution,
federal charges dismissed.
He then was in jail and
It says in February of February 17th, a deputy and a detention officer were in the room when a nurse tried to help cost go to the restroom and cost grabbed her around the neck in a choke hold pulling a plastic pulling out a plastic knife threatening to kill her and threw her to the floor.
The deputy and detention officers jumped in to rescue her cost began punching them as he was tased.
The nurse had bruises on her face and on her forehead new felony charges now brought against cost.
And I bring this up because this man was very involved in the children's ministry.
He played the trumpet for our songs.
He was in no way, I mean, I went to security seminars with this man.
I asked him personally in his car, in his truck, what he believed on salvation and it
was not a wrong gospel.
I mean, this man could have feigned himself to be a good man.
disgusting, filthy, and what this shows is that yes he had the desire to harm
children, no doubt. He also had the capability, I mean if he's gonna assault
nurses and all these things, and not only that, being a DHS worker, he had
access to tons of children.
He then was allowed into a Baptist church
where who knows what he had access to
as far as children go.
And you're talking about somebody with feigned words
making merchandise of you.
God forbid somebody would ever make merchandise
of your children via a Baptist church, right?
I mean, we talk about Epstein's List and we want accountability for all the pedophiles
and the filth going on in our nation.
How is that, we can even expect that when we can't even get that judgment from a Baptist
church?
I mean, that's disgusting.
Judgment must begin at the house of God, right?
And we need to hold that accountable.
We need to have accountability in the house of God.
The Bible says, let him that steals steal no more.
And if you've stolen something, if you've done some of these natural crimes, you cannot
But someone guilty of this type of filth is a reprobate.
And a reprobate doctrine is not just some arbitrary doctrine.
While you don't have to believe it to be saved,
it is a doctrine that helps you understand the world around us,
helps you understand that some people cannot be reformed.
And it's important to have that doctrine.
Second Timothy chapter one, if you're following.
It was just last week, we're in five guys.
My wife and I, we were getting a burger
and I think this, this just guy came
with these two homeless people into the, into five guys.
We don't got to get out a whole lot.
And this lady just comes up to us around our kids
and she's just like, oh, let me pray over you.
Praise God, hallelujah.
And she just like, she's just like, God,
would you just bless these guys?
And she just running off and it really seemed like
she was just trying to pander to the guy
that bought her a burger to see
if she could get a little bit more out of them.
right and these traits they follow some of the most horrible people but they
could also be traits that that Christians could pick up on and it's
important that we are real be real that's the message right let's not ever
try and make make ourselves feel like we have to be somebody else around people
thank God I've never felt like I have to be somebody else in this church and you
shouldn't either you know nobody should feel like they have to be someone else
Second Timothy chapter one, starting in verse three,
I thank God, whom I serve with my forefathers
with pure conscience that without ceasing,
I have remembrance of thee in my prayers day and night
and day, greatly desiring to see thee,
being mindful of thy tears that I may be filled with joy
when I call to remembrance the unfamed faith that is in me,
which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois,
I am persuaded that indeed also, wherefore?
So again, we're talking about he's remembering the unfaithful faith,
wherefore I put the in-remembrance, again,
that you stir up the gift of God, which is indeed by the putting out of my hands.
So twice he brings up the fact that this unfaithful faith
is something that he's remembering.
And if somebody is fake, that's really kind of,
and I can kind of tell that they're being fake,
it sticks with me.
It's something I kind of remember.
Not that they can never come back from that.
You know, you live it down,
but it's something that sticks out
and people kind of don't tend to forget that.
But if it's a genuine faith as well,
if that's somebody who you are,
whether you're at home, whether you're out and about,
wherever you are, you're the same person,
you have integrity as a Christian,
people will remember that genuine,
unfaithful faith as well.
And I'll just leave with this,
the integrity, Proverbs 11-3,
the integrity of the upright shall guide them.
But the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them if you can if you can consistently be caught being genuine being real
Not having a feigned faith. It's going to guide you
It's going to help you in your interactions with people
You won't have to keep track of who you are in front of who else whoever else and that's what we should strive to be be real
So, with that, I'll end the word prayer. Lord, thank you so much for the opportunity to preach.
I pray, Lord, that you'd fill the next preacher with your spirit. Help us, Lord, to be real.
You're just going to pray, amen. Eric.
All right, turn in your Bibles, the second Peter, chapter number one.
I'm going to read for you Proverbs chapter number three, verse five and six.
The Bible reads, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine
own understanding in all thy ways.
Acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.
The title of my sermon this evening is lean on God's word, lean on God's word.
And in the proverb here, it's telling us to not lean on our own understanding and
things that we feel are right.
We should be leaning on God's.
Now you're there in 2 Peter chapter number one. Let's look down there verse number 16 the Bible reads
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were I witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father,
honor and glory. When there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard
when we were with him in the Holy Mount." Now I believe this is referring to the Mount
of Transfiguration, where Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and I believe John.
And Jesus is shining and there also was Moses and Elijah.
It's a great event.
It's a really cool event that happened.
And there's clouds that come over
and then there's voices that are coming from heaven.
Specifically, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
You know, this is a really cool sight to see
for Peter, for James and John.
But let's look down there at verse number 19,
the Bible reads,
We have also a more sure word of prophecy where into you do well that you take heed as into a
light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts.
Peter's saying that, hey, we have a more sure word of prophecy. Hey, that was a cool sign.
Hey, that was a cool picture there. But what's even
More sure than that is the word of prophecy the word of God that we have
You know people want to see a sign and they want to ask hey God if you're real
Hey send this sign to me and then I'll believe it. Hey, let's not trust in that
And let's just lean on God's word. Let's have faith in God's word
The Bible says it's a more sure word of prophecy
We can have a hundred percent confidence in the word that God has given us
And we as a church, we believe in King James only.
We believe in the preservation of God's word
that God has preserved his word for us.
And we believe that is in the King James Bible.
So we can trust the King James Bible
and we can lean on it and let's lean on it
instead of our own understanding
and our own experience and our own feelings.
Let's lean on God's word.
Let's keep reading the Bible says in verse 20 knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
So the cool thing about the Bible is it's not like I get some interpretation out of passage where the camera gets something different, theodore gets something different.
No, the Bible just says something and you can either believe it or not.
The Bible says something, you can either lean on it or you can lean on your own understanding.
And we as Christians, we should lean on what the Bible says.
It's not something of private interpretation.
The Bible reads in verse 21,
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man,
but holy men of God spake as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost. We have the Word of God in our hands. It's God's Word, the God that created
the heavens and the earth that saved us from hell. We have His Word in our hands and we should
trust in that Word and have faith in God's Word and lean unto God's Word instead of our own feelings,
our own understandings of things. We should lean on God. Turn if you would to Hebrews
chapter number 11. Hebrews chapter number 11.
We're going to look at some examples of people that leaned on God's word over kind of a
carnal understanding, our own understanding.
Hebrews chapter number 11, look down there at verse number 7.
The Bible reads by faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with
fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house by the which he condemned the world
and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
Noah, if you're familiar with the Bible, in Genesis chapter number six, God tells Noah
that he's going to flood the whole earth and he's going to destroy the earth of the
of gopher would and Noah.
He just believes God's word.
You know, it seems weird.
You know, if someone told you, hey, you know.
There's going to be a worldwide flood.
Our understanding is, no, that's not going to happen.
You know, someone tells you that something really bad like that is going to happen.
Our own understanding would be, hey, that's probably not going to happen.
That doesn't make any sense.
That's not logical.
But hey, if God said it, we need to trust in God's word.
Even if it doesn't make sense, we should trust in God's word.
And you know what?
Know what he did that, and he was saved from the worldwide flood.
It's such a cool story a lot of people know about it even people that are unsaved. It's very common story
Let's keep reading out another example look down at verse number 17
The Bible reads
by faith Abraham when he was tried
Offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son
of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called,
accounting that God was able to raise him up,
even from the dead.
From whence also he received him in a figure."
So here we have Abraham in Genesis chapter number 22.
He goes out and he's about to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, or the son that was to be the heir of the promises.
But Abraham, God told him to do that, well in verse 18, God also told him, it says that in Isaac, shall thy seed be called.
So Abraham had faith.
in what God told him, that in Isaac, shall thy seed be called?
He says, okay, this doesn't make sense.
You know, if I kill Isaac, how is he going to have children after him?
How am I going to have a seed as the stars of heaven if Isaac's dead?
And from a human perspective, from our own logical reasoning,
yeah, that doesn't make sense.
You know, if I kill Isaac, how is he going to have children?
That just doesn't make any sense.
But Abraham, he thought that, hey, God could raise him from the dead.
You know, even if I killed him, he could come back and he could still have children.
Abraham had great faith in God and we should have faith in the promises of God, in the
word of God, in the commands of God.
Let's lean onto God's word and God's understanding instead of our own understanding and our own
feelings.
Because, honestly, again, things might seem wrong.
You know, again, it doesn't make sense to Abraham.
It might not make sense at all to him,
but he's like, hey, well, God could just raise him up.
A miracle could happen.
Something could happen to where it's gonna turn out.
And the Bible says all things work together for good,
to them that love God.
You know, God might take you around a different path
than you wanna go, but at the end of the day,
if you're serving God, God's gonna bring you
to where you need to be.
Let's look at one more example here in Hebrews 11.
Look down there, verse number 30.
By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were
compassed about seven days.
Now, Jericho was a city that was surrounded with walls.
And the children of Israel were commanded to walk around six
times over six days once a day.
And then on the seventh day, they were to walk around seven
times, I believe.
Again, that doesn't make sense from a human reasoning, understanding that, hey, if I just
walk around these walls, they're going to fall down, but hey, if we just follow God's
word, those walls are going to fall down.
We should just have confidence in God's word.
We should trust God's word.
Proverbs chapter number 14. Look down there at verse number 12. This is a verse that's actually quoted twice
in the book of Proverbs word for word, the Bible reads,
there is a way which Seameth writes unto a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death.
There are things that seem to be right,
that feel right, that maybe we hadn't experienced
and it just seemed right,
but the ends thereof are the ways of death.
You know, we should trust in God's word,
again, over our own understanding
and our own feelings, our own beliefs,
we should trust in the Word of God Almighty.
Now, what's some application that we can take from this?
How can we not trust in our own selves
but trust in God's Word?
Well, I'm just going to kind of run through a few things.
Pastor actually just preached on this chapter
or Proverbs chapter number three recently
and he brought up tithing.
That's a great thing that we can do to trust in God.
Doesn't make sense to have 90% of our money.
as opposed to 100% of our money.
You know, it makes sense that hey,
if we have 100% of our money,
you know, we can do more with that.
We're going to be blessed,
but actually 90% of our money is going to be
blessed if we give that 10% to God.
So we're so tithing is biblical and we should.
Follow tithing and trust God in our tithing even if it doesn't make sense
Even if it doesn't make sense to give up 10% of our income
We should just trust God anyways and give that 10% of our money
Another one that we have is soul winning as opposed to tracks or shipping out Bibles.
You know the Bible said that Theodore quoted this in Mark chapter number 16 where it says go you therefore into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. God told us to preach the gospel.
He didn't tell us to give someone a tract or to ship Bibles around or ship Bible verses, post verses online,
have some kind of online ministry. No, God said that we're supposed to preach.
the gospel. We're supposed to teach all nations. We're supposed to open our mouth boldly and make
known the mystery of the gospel, not just pass around a tract. You know, if tracks were effective,
hey, let's screw the soul winning times. Let's just go out and try to mail out as many tracks as
possible. If tracks work, you know, James, I don't know why you're going to the Philippines. We could
just mail them a bunch of tracks. We could just ship them a bunch of Bibles if that worked, but
And to our understanding, hey, we could reach more people by giving out tracks.
We could physically talk to more people and you're like, well,
if we could physically talk to more people, maybe we could reach more people.
That could be our own understanding, but we should lean on God's word and do what God says.
Now, what we think is best, not some lifestyle evangelism, what seems right.
No, we should do what God says and we should trust it and have faith in God's word.
Let's lean on God's word.
not unto our own understanding. It's another way we can apply this. How about the judgments of
God? Go to Exodus chapter number 21. Exodus chapter number 21. The Bible reads there in verse
And he that smited his father or his mother shall be surely put to death and he that stealeth a man and selleth him or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
And he that cursed his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
The Bible is putting the death penalty on these sins that may not seem to be a big deal.
You know someone just smiting their parents or cursing their parents?
It may not seem to be a big deal in our in our understanding,
but according to the Bible, someone that commits a sin like that
is worthy of death in God's eyes, telling us that people that would
curse their parents or smite their parents,
that God actually views that person as worthy of death.
And we should not see that, see them as victims
or anything like that. We should see them as wicked people.
And that's for the death penalty in general.
The Bible prescribes the death penalty on murderers, adultery, and a few other sins.
We should trust in the judgments of God.
And you know the Bible says that we should have the death penalty.
The Bible never prescribes putting someone in a prison or anything like that.
The Bible prescribes the death penalty and we should trust in God's word and God's understanding
of that.
Another way we can lean on God's word is identifying bad people turn if you would to Proverbs chapter number 26
Proverbs chapter number 26
The Bible reads in verse number 24 he that hadeth
Dissembleth with his lips and layeth up deceit with him
within him. When he speaketh fair, believe him not, for there are seven abominations
in his heart, whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be shown before the whole
congregation. Whoso dig of the pit shall fall therein, and he that rolleth a stone, it will
return upon him. A lying tongue hated those that are afflicted by it, and a flattering
mouth worketh ruin." The Bible says that we can identify wicked people.
There's people that are flattering you
or saying fair words to you.
You know, we should understand that
that person is a wicked person.
You say, well, you know, they're so nice.
They're always smiling. They always got the
their social media profile so cool.
Their families always look great.
But even if they're speaking fair to you.
You know, it's fake and just because someone seems nice or they're always talking about you. Hey, what's up?
How's it going? You know, I love to see you. You know great sermon
They're just giving you all these compliments. You know, it seems nice from our perspective
But at the end of the day we can identify from God's word that hey, this is not a good person
So we as Christians we should lean on God's word and not our own understanding
Trust God and his judgments in tithing and soul-winning and identifying who is good and wrong with that. Let's pray
Do your father? Thank you for your word that we do have that we cannot lean on you Lord
Help us to lean on you and everything in our life Lord in Jesus name. I pray amen
This is only one left
Third, if you would, while I get miked up to 1 Corinthians chapter number four.
First Corinthians chapter number four.
We're going to start reading there in verse number one.
First Corinthians four, verse number one, the Bible reads.
Let a man sow a count of us as the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
In 1 Corinthians 4, where Paul's writing here, he's kind of introducing, at least in this chapter, he's saying,
hey, look, we're going to be accountable to other people.
Let men account of us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
And he's drawing this likeness between the word minister and steward saying that they're kind of the same definition.
That we should be stewards and my message this evening is this. Be a good steward. Be a good steward.
Now what is a steward? I think the easiest way that we would think of it in our modern vernacular is when you get on a plane.
They have the stewardess or the steward that comes down. They make sure...
You know, as everything to your liking, you know, as long as the plane's not crashing in 2025, I guess it's probably to your liking, but they would give you food, they give you like a pillow or whatever they would hand out on a flight.
They are someone who is responsible for supplies, responsible for.
food. A steward is someone that looks after or cares for other people under their purview,
or it's a person who's employed to manage another person's property. You might have like a rich
landowner or a ranch owner have some ranch hands and in that context they would be stewards,
meaning what? Somebody owns it all, but he's got to set up people between him and them to kind of
We are ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God and that can be applied in a few different ways
We all have some ministry here. Now look anchor Baptist church has one pastor
It's pastor Oz and he is the steward the shepherd of this flock
But you go soul-winning you're a steward of that mystery of God, right? The Bible says
that we might have boldness to open our mouth boldly
and make known the mysteries of the gospel.
That's one that way that we could be a steward,
but it's also just kind of being accountable,
wanting to do another, helping other people out,
being a good steward, not only in the gospel,
not only in preaching, but under everything
that God has put under our purview.
Everything that God has given to us
that we should take that very responsibly, very reverently
and be a good steward of the things
that God has blessed us with.
all encompassed.
Turn, if you would, to Genesis chapter number 44.
Genesis chapter 44.
And I thought of this because Christians...
In 1 Corinthians 4, it's Paul saying,
hey, we should be accountable as good stewards,
as stewards of the mysteries of God,
that when someone looks at us, they think,
hey, that person's been given responsibility
and they're performing well.
They are being a good steward.
And that's the message this evening, right?
Be a good steward.
And you know what made me think of this?
is I was going through the drive-thru with my wife
a couple weeks ago, maybe a week and a half,
and it's Brahms, and I'm sorry if you love Brahms, it's good.
But like, every time I go there, they mess something up.
And I'm like, how hard could it be?
to just do right.
How hard could it be to just do this properly?
All you're doing is putting food in a sack and giving it to me.
And you're like,
well, I don't know that you can make this link to being a steward.
Okay, Genesis 44 verse 1.
Let's just read the Bible today because the Bible's true.
Genesis 44 1.
This is, we're talking about, we're talking about Jacob, right?
He's got his family and he's like met his family unknowing.
What does it say?
of his house saying fill them in sacks with food
as much as they can carry and put every man's money
in his sacks mouth.
Now look, I'm not asking the guy at Brahms
to put my money back in the bag when I go through the line.
If they do, that's a great steward.
Not for the business, but for me.
But what I'm saying is that they're responsible,
even the Bible, from a carnal perspective,
when you have someone in charge of supplies or food
or just the task that they've been given.
However menial it may be, the steward here is,
what's his job?
Fill the sacks with food.
Put the money in the script or put the money in the sack and give it to them.
And what's the good steward do? In the story, he gives it to them.
Now, it's kind of to play this trick, okay?
Jacob's playing a trick on his family. I don't have time to develop that.
But look, drive-through workers,
their stewardship is to make sure that you get the right food in your sack and it's handed to you.
at the door. This is biblical. This is true.
And look, Jesus gave a lot of examples and parables. Why?
Because it makes sense and we can relate to it.
So I hope that you are like, ha, ha, this is funny.
But the reality is, what I'm saying to you is actually also just true from the Bible.
That when you have a task, no matter how menial you think it may be,
you should be a good steward. And boy is this world filled with bad stewards.
Oh my goodness, there are so many things that people just do poorly or they don't care.
And I believe that there are really two aspects of being a good steward.
And this is something you see come up over and over and over again in the Bible,
carnally, spiritually.
But what are two aspects where we can apply and become a good steward?
Where we can identify, hey, am I doing this properly?
And if not, what can I fix to be a good steward?
What is a good steward?
I believe there's two elements.
is a good steward is faithful.
A good steward is faithful.
Turn back if you would.
I should have had you hold your place to 1 Corinthians chapter 4.
1 Corinthians chapter number 4, where we started.
A good steward is a faithful person.
1 Corinthians 4 verse 2 says,
Moreover, it is required in stewards
that a man be found faithful.
Now, what does it mean to be faithful?
If we distill it down,
it's that you're gonna do the right thing
even when no one's looking.
Now, let me help you out.
God's always watching.
even though we very quickly forget.
But you're going to be doing the right thing
no matter who you think is watching.
At work, you're going to keep doing the right job
no matter if this ticket is going to be brought to the boss.
No matter if the boss is CC'd on this email chain.
No matter if the boss is going to come look at your finished product.
No matter if the boss is going to be in the room
when you're presenting this to the customer.
Whatever application.
A faithful steward is someone that can be given responsibility
and that person that gives the responsibility unto the steward
can know they're going to do what I want them to do whether I'm there or not.
That is a good steward and that is how we should be forgot.
Now we should not have the mentality of Jonah thinking I'm going to Tarshish.
Forget this. God won't find me there, because He's watching anyway.
But this is a good attribute to have regardless that whether or not you feel like God is watching you,
first of all, He is, but you should be willing to do the right thing,
even if He wasn't watching you at all times, which He is. Spoiler alert.
Turn if you into Luke, chapter number 12.
Luke chapter number 12, a good steward, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4 verse 2,
it is required in stewards to be faithful.
You say, hey, I want to be a good steward.
I want to do well for the Lord.
I want to take what I've been given and be a good steward.
I don't want to upset the Lord.
I want to make Him proud.
I want to hear well done.
Well, you've got to do the right thing always.
You've got to do the right thing whether you're being watched or not.
That is the faithful element.
Luke 12, verse 42, the Bible says,
And the Lord said,
Who then is that faithful and wise steward,
whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household,
to give them their portion of meat and due season?
Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh,
shall find so doing.
You know, it's not just that at one point,
you did what you were supposed to do while no one was watching,
but another point of being faithful is continuance.
is that when the Lord comes back
and he's looking for faithful stewards,
he's not gonna come up to me and I can say,
hey, for five years, for four years, for six years,
I was three to thrive, I went soul winning.
It's, are you still though?
Did you continue though?
Because the Lord's gonna find him so doing.
It's not the Lord found that he had a really good record
of all the things that he had done at one point.
It's just that he sees that he's doing that.
And that's a real, that emboldens me being saved later in life.
Look, I didn't grow up saved or in a saved church.
I got saved in my late 20s.
But I know that I, in myself, can put in me
that when the Lord comes back that He can find me so doing
and I'm not gonna be looked at as,
well, all this time that you are unsaved.
I can just purpose in myself,
I'm gonna be a good steward since I got saved
and have Him find me so doing.
because that's what God is looking for.
He's not looking for a quantity of all the things you've done
and to measure that, just like the talent that was referenced in the sermon,
about five talents, two talents, one talent.
He's not happier at the guy that took five to ten
than he is at the guy that took, you know, two to five or two to four, rather.
He's just looking for someone to do.
He's looking for someone to steward.
He's looking for someone to be faithful to do.
and that he'll find so doing.
And the second element of being a good steward,
I believe, is this,
that a good steward, yeah, you must be faithful.
You must do.
You must perform,
whether you're being watched or not, and continue in that.
But a good steward must be wise.
And we saw that in Luke chapter 12.
Look at verse 42.
We'll read it again.
It says in the Lord said,
Turn if you would to Luke chapter number 16.
You're fairly close.
A couple pages to the right, Luke chapter 16.
The Bible says in Luke 16 verse 5,
And to give you some context, this guy who's a steward, he's been called by his boss and he's like,
hey, you've not been doing a good job, you're going to lose your job,
so you need to get your books in order because you're out, buddy.
And so this steward who has been unjust, he hasn't really been doing the right thing,
he then thinks, hey, how am I going to make this work out for me?
Okay, verse 5, so he called every one of his Lord's debtors unto him
and said unto the first, how much oweest thou unto my Lord?
And he said a hundred measures of oil, and he said unto him,
take thy bill and sit down quickly and write 50.
So what's this guy doing? He's cooking the books.
Okay, that's what we would call it.
He's like calling the guys that owe the boss, and he's like,
hey, I know it's 50. Just cross it out.
Or I know it's a hundred, write 50 though.
Now, why is he doing this? Let's keep reading.
Verse seven says, then he said to another.
And how much owes thou?
And he said, a hundred measures of wheat.
And he said unto him, take thy bill and write four score.
And the Lord commended the unjusteward.
Why? Because he had done wisely.
for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
And I don't want to go too far.
If you keep reading, this is verse 9, where we get the very famous verse,
and I say unto you, make friends of yourselves with the mammon of unrighteousness,
right, that when you fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
What does that verse mean?
I was actually talking about this with someone recently.
What is it saying?
It's like, look, even if you've screwed up, even this unjust doer has screwed up,
he can use his brain, I don't know, that's hard for people today,
and think about how am I going to make the best of this situation that I've gotten myself into?
Okay, I'm about to be fired from my job.
Let's make all those editors really happy
so that when I'm sacked, I can go to them and be like,
hey, remember when I told you you didn't know that much?
Can you help me out a little bit now?
Remember how I helped you when I cooked the books?
Now look, the Bible says this is unjust.
Please do not go to your job on Monday
and start cooking books, okay?
But what the Bible is saying is that there's a level
of thinking that should go into being a steward.
Now, why is that important?
Well, I believe a good steward must be faithful, doing with continuance, and they must be wise.
They must think.
What is this world full of?
Let me tell you this, people who do without thinking.
I cannot tell you how I use the mobile app because I have a crippling fear of social interaction.
The exception is I force myself to be extroverted soul-winning.
But in my daily life, on Tuesday night, when I'm in the drive-thru at Taco Bell,
I have submitted the mobile order.
I'm aiming for the minimum amount of words that I need to tell you.
Like, you have my order, I put it in, it has my name on it,
and I kid you not, multiple times over the last couple weeks.
My name is Cameron, C-A-M-E-R-O-N.
I've gone through the drive-thru.
And they're like, oh, mobile order Cameron?
Yes, OK.
Hands me a bag.
And I start to pull away.
And the sticker on it says TJ.
Now, I'm not sure how you spell Cameron.
But it's not that way.
Why?
It's not that he didn't show up for his job.
It's not that he wasn't doing something,
but they're not thinking.
That's not a good steward.
I'm just doing everything at work.
And then it all sucks.
That's not being a good steward, just running ragged.
Now, flip the script.
Dude, I could tell you every way how we'll never mess up an order again. Here's the system. Here's what we could do
We need to set this up this way and do this and get them all laid out and then order them alphabetically
It's like great. Did you do that? No
But that's what we could do
Now a good steward is not just wise because he's not faithful. He's not doing a good steward is not one that does without thinking in
The same way a good steward is not one that just thinks without doing. Well, I know you preach the gospel this way
But if it was my door, that's great. How many doors did you knock? Oh?
Zero okay, why don't you shut up then and be a good steward and combine your good ideas that may be good with doing
And if you're doing a lot, and someone says,
hey, I don't think you're really thinking this through all the way.
It's like, oh, I'm doing it.
Why don't we be a faithful steward?
Let's mix being a doer as well as wise.
Be faithful and wise.
That's how we can be a good steward and apply this in any area of the Christian life.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day.
Thank you for the message.
I just pray that you'd be with us all as we go our separate ways.
And the fellowship is evening.
These things I pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
To our last song what we'll do is I'm actually going to pick one
Person and we'll sing the whole song. You're already ready. So I'm calling on you what you got
449 let me grab that real quick
449
Dwelling in Beulah land, 449.
We'll sing the whole song, 449 there on the first.
VAR!