him this evening number 146 a shelter in the time of storm 146 146 a shelter in the time of storm
we'll sing there right on the first with the word with me heavenly father we thank you for
this day for just another opportunity to gather freely to sing praises and to learn from your
word i just pray that you would be with the service this evening that everything would
be done decently and in order that you would fill us with our with your spirit as we sing
out praises unto you from our heart these things we pray in jesus name amen all right for our next
hymn number 138 the haven of rest 138 138 138 we'll sing there right on the first by
the inside our service times are listed times listed related to you so far very exciting just
great numbers upcoming events next sunday evening june 15th we're going to have a pizza and floats
after the evening service for father's day then june 22nd that's the next sunday evening is going
to be the next men's preaching night there is a sign-up sheet in the back for that and then of
course we'll have a potluck right after that june 28th is a fellowship day at the tinker air show
and we did purchase some hearing protection for young children so if you have young kids
that you would like to share those with for the air show you're more than welcome to take those
home and you know i definitely would recommend getting some lawn chairs for this event it's
definitely going to be hot and you're going to want a place to sit down i saw that at academy
sports they're selling chairs for seven bucks a pop so if you want a cheap lawn chair pretty
good deal just letting you know um and also just as fyi i think the gates open for this at eight
o'clock am and i'm going to try to be there as close to that as possible just because these
things are usually packed obviously you're welcome to come and go as you please but just
letting you know that's my plan june 29th the next day brother ben naeem will be preaching both
services for us here august 27th through the 31st is the fire breathing baptist fellowship
october 6th through the 11th is the bohama's mission trip on the right we do have our prayer
list as well as some information about a visitor card there and giving online if you'd like to do
that but before we go to our last song we'll go ahead and go to the lord in prayer as a church
family lord we thank you for anchor baptist church we thank you for the opportunity to study the word
of god tonight i pray that you'd bless this service to your honor and glory and that you would just
answer these requests according to your will we pray for our brother travis that you just bless him
in his career endeavors with a test that he has upcoming pretty soon lord pray that you would
help him to pass it we also thank you for eric and theodore and the great success that they're
having over there in the philippines i pray that they would continue to work really hard that you
would keep the door open for them to be able to do great works pray that of course you just lead
them to receptive people and also that you keep them safe while they're over there thank you for
their work lord we also want to pray for the hall family for their home buying process that things
would go smoothly that you bless them with the remainder of things they have to do for this lord
and we also pray for for the miles for his health that you just put your hand on him and bless him
and his wife and their family god we also want to pray for brother alex that his job interview
tomorrow would go really well that he would just find favor in the eyes of the interviewers that
you just give him the wisdom he needs to answer questions well and that you just bless him with
the job that he wants lord we also pray for miss remmy for her healing for her tumor and also for
her search for a vehicle lord pray that you bless her in her endeavors and we also pray for our
church members who have family members that are unsaved i pray that that door would stay open
for them that their hearts would be softened to the gospel and lord we thank you for the results
that we're having so far this year as a church i pray that we would not get complacent that we
would continue to work hard that we would stay humble lord and that you just bless us with more
laborers we thank you for all that you do for us in jesus name we pray amen all right that's
going to be it for announcements we'll go ahead and go to our third psalm psalm 126 in your white
handout psalm 126 psalm 126 right there on that first verse when the lord turned again
plates are being passed turn if you would to proverbs chapter 11 number 11 good evening proverbs
11 the bible reads a false balance is abomination to the lord but a just wait is his delight when
pride cometh then cometh shame but with the lowliest wisdom the integrity of the upright shall guide
them but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them riches profit not in the day of wrath
but righteousness delivereth from death the righteousness of the perfect shall direct his
way but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness the righteousness of the upright shall deliver them
but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness when a wicked man dyeth his
expectation shall perish and the hope of unjust men perisheth the righteous is delivered out of
trouble and the wicked cometh in his stead and hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor
but through knowledge shall they just be delivered when it goes well with the righteous the city
rejoiceth and when the wicked perish there is shouting by the blessing of the upright the city
is exalted but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked he that is void of wisdom despiseth
his neighbor but a man of understanding holdeth his peace a tell bearer revealeth secrets but he
that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter where no council is the people fall but in the
multitude of counselors there is safety he that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it and he
that hateth suretieship is sure a gracious woman retaineth honor and strong men retain riches the
merciful man doeth good to his own soul but he that is cruel troubleeth his own flesh the wicked
worketh a deceitful work but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward as righteousness
tendeth to life so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death they that are of a froward
heart are abomination to the lord but such as are upright in their way are his delight though hand
joined in hand the wicked shall not be unpunished but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered
as a jewel of gold in a swine snout so is a fair woman which is without discretion the desire of
the righteous is only good but the expectation of the wicked is wrath there is that scattereth
and yet increaseth and there is that withholdeth more than his meat but it tendeth to poverty
the liberal soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself
he that withholdeth corn the people shall curse him but blessing shall be upon the head of him
that selleth it he that he that diligently seeketh good procureth favor but he that seeketh
mischief it shall come unto him he that trusted in his riches shall fall but the righteous
shall flourish as the as a branch he that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind
and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and
he that winneth souls is why behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth much more the
wicked and the sinner that's by our heads for a prayer father in heaven thank you for the day in
our church also balance is abomination to the lord but a just weight is his delight you know in time
past when you purchase things there was a literal scale and they would have some sort of rock or a
piece of metal that weighed a certain amount that they knew that they could weigh against
whatever type of product you were going to buy so that they knew how much to charge you basically
so if i wanted to buy you know five pounds of potatoes they would have that scale with five
pounds on one side and then if it evened out you know that you're getting the right amount
you know i remember when i was a kid going to grocery stores where you had to literally put
the food in the little device that weighs it and you had to write down kind of on the honor system
how much how many pounds of product that you're getting and the bible's saying here that a false
balance is abomination to the lord but a just weight is his delight and i think the spirit or
the idea here is that god just wants people to deal truly god gets angry in fact it's an abomination
to him when you would rip someone off when you'd be dishonest with people and so you know primarily
people who are sellers or people who are in business providing a product you know you got
to realize that god is watching at all times and if he looks down and he sees a false balance if
he sees you cutting corners lying to the customer ripping people off you know that's going to make
him very very angry and i don't know about you i don't enjoy being ripped off you know i've been
ripped off before and it makes me mad makes me angry you know god it makes god angry too
says but a just wait is his delight then bible says when pride cometh then cometh shame but with
the lowly is wisdom now this seems contrary on the surface to human nature because what is pride
pride is thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to or thinking more often about yourself
than you ought to or just wanting to be seen as great in the eyes of people but what what's funny
is in the pursuit of wanting to be seen as great and respectable because you're prideful the bible
says when pride cometh then cometh shame and this is just one of those paradoxes in the bible
specifically in the book of proverbs where it seems counterintuitive but the way up in the
christian life is actually down you know if you actually humble yourself and think you know not
think uh less of yourself from like a self-esteem standpoint but not just thinking you're all that
and a bag of chips not thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to think you know then
god can actually use you and exalt you but you know pride is a very very quick way to destroy
yourself and you know leaders obviously leaders want to have influence on people and that's really
what leadership is is influence but you know if you become prideful you could lose that really
quickly and so it's so important if you're at any type of leadership role whether that is a pastor
a husband a mother of children you know whatever you have as a leadership capacity it's so important
to stay humble because when pride cometh then cometh shame then the bible says this but with
the lowly is wisdom you know when i think of a group of people that is lowly but who truly has
wisdom is i think of christians of this world because you know this world looks at christianity
as being something that's foolish and they look at christians as oh you know you guys believe in
a god how crazy you know but really with the lowly is wisdom and in life what you'll find is that the
blowhards the people that love to run their mouth and tell you how smart they are and tell you how
wonderful they are they're usually the biggest idiots that exist but people who are truly humble
people who are lowly people that you know lower their themselves they are actually the wise ones
why well because where does wisdom come from the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom what
does it take to get wisdom it takes lowering my ideas lowering my opinions and just submitting
ourselves to whatever the bible says that's why you'll find that the most knowledgeable people
and the most wise people in the scriptures are the people who read the bible the most you know
it's funny we're going to talk about this on sunday but in the old testament the kings of israel
were supposed to hand copy a copy of the law of god and they were supposed to read therein
all the days of their life and one of the reasons for that the bible says is that their heart will
not be lifted up above their brethren you know reading the bible one of the results of that is
going to be humility and when you see a leader a preacher you know a ceo or whatever who's really
prideful i could tell you something about that person they're not reading the scripture look at
verse number three the bible says the integrity of the upright shall guide them but the perverseness
of transgressors shall destroy them what is integrity the best way that i think of integrity
is basically what you do and who you are when no one's around you know that is someone that has
integrity is when you're doing the right thing even when you think you don't have to even when
you think no one is watching that is a person that has integrity and you can kind of see the
connection here with verse one where it's talking about a false balance you know a businessman a
provider of a service that has integrity they're going to do the right thing for the customer
regardless and just in life those who have integrity the bible says the integrity of the
upright shall guide them now this is reassuring because in life we have a lot of decisions to
make in life and a lot of people just struggle knowing what's god's perfect will for my life
who should i marry where should i live what kind of job should i do what's going to happen as a
result of all these decisions that i'm making and look i'm not downplaying those decisions
but really if you just focus singularly on being a person of integrity the bible says that that
person is going to be guided the integrity of the upright shall guide them so instead of focusing on
all of those items in your life what you should focus on is being godly and that really is what
this chapter is going to talk a lot about is that those that are righteous are going to be delivered
those that are righteous are going to be blessed those that have integrity are going to be led by
god it's not always people that are just the smartest and just have the most foresight and
make the best decisions no we're all kind of foolish really i mean we're all sinners we all
have foolish thoughts we're not really wise we're not really smart but the bible has wisdom the
bible can give us smarts and if we just have integrity and just follow christ and just do what
god says then we're going to be guided it says here in verse four riches profit not in the day
of wrath but righteousness delivereth from death so this kind of connects perfectly because when
people are thinking about the future and making plans and trying to get everything lined up what's
usually a huge portion of that riches money and especially in america so many people today in our
country are trusting in riches and so many people today think that if they just become rich if they
just make a ton of money then their life's just going to be good that they're going to be safe
but i'm telling you what you need god's blessing more than you need money and money is a tool but
let me tell you it's only an effective tool when god's not working against you you know when at
least he's just with you know withholding his hand of judgment on you preferably we want him guiding
us right so that's why you need integrity but some people will just throw integrity out the window
to make money you know they're called only fans girls you know these these girls that go online
and sell their bodies as whores what are they doing they just want money they just want to
become rich and so they throw integrity out the window of doing what the bible says and being
modest or getting married and just being with your husband and they want to sell their bodies
online for riches but you know what that's not going to help them when god's hand is against them
because we're all going to go through things in our life that is the day of wrath if you will
you know problems in our lives it says this but the i'm sorry richest profit not in the day of wrath
righteousness delivereth from death and you know people today obviously human beings today and
always throughout history have been afraid of what death i mean we talk about the what ifs of
life right people are afraid of dying they're afraid to fly on an airplane because they're
afraid of dying they're afraid to go to a big sporting event because they're afraid of like a
terrorist attack or something like that like people are just constantly afraid of dying today
but here's the thing what the bible says is that righteousness delivereth from death the best
protection the best insurance policy that you could possibly have is having god on your side
and you could you know it makes me think of these preppers right because these preppers will put so
much money into materials and into the water filtration systems and into the underground
nuclear bunker and into the guns and ammunition and all those things right and they're kind of
trusting in riches in a sense right they're trusting in the things that they're able to
purchase to keep them safe in some apocalyptic event but you know what's going to keep you safe
god being on your side because you know i just believe that since there's already so few
righteous christians in this world since there's already so few sold out preachers of the gospel
of jesus christ and there's so few pastors preaching the whole council of god you know i
just believe that when i and you are on an airplane i just feel like that airplane is
less likely to go down because we're on it i just feel like it's less likely to have an engine
failure or to run out of fuel or to have something crazy happen because righteousness delivereth
from death and so you know i'm really not terrified of death obviously you know the the
horse is prepared onto the day of battle but safety is of the lord hey i'm all for you know
having money obviously we need money i'm all for having guns i'm all for training these things but
really safety is of god and how do you procure that safety it's by being righteous now there's
this idea out there that the only righteousness we have basically is from a salvific standpoint
as far as the imputed righteousness of christ on us when we believe of course that's true
of course when we believe in christ we get his righteousness that's how we enter into heaven but
you know what righteousness can mean more than that in the bible too there is righteousness as
far as just how you live your life and look you could be saved and be wicked you can be saved
and be the enemy of god according to james chapter 4 so there's a righteousness that comes from
following god's commandments and obviously we don't get our righteousness to go to heaven
from our works but when it comes to god's protection when it comes to god's blessing
in our lives it does come from your works and so that's why fearing god and keeping his
commandments is super important and will actually benefit you in this life and the life to come
notice what it says in verse five the righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way so again just
saying like in general in life if you want to be directed and guided by the lord and reach
blessings and fulfillment and happiness in your life it's not going to be from your own wisdom
or your own human intellect it's going to become from being righteous how are you righteous by
following what the bible says when it says perfect there just means complete it says but the wicked
shall fall by his own wickedness you know this is why hard preaching is a loving thing to do
because when we sin we are of course offending god making god angry and thereby causing god's
blessings to be removed from us but we are also just harming ourselves when we sin that's why
it says but they the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness you know sometimes and we talked
about this before sometimes god supernaturally judges people right you think of kora in numbers
chapter 16 where god just opens up the earth and those suckers fall into hell i mean that's god's
active judgment right but sometimes the wicked just falls by his own wickedness you know i saw
a video with these riots in los angeles let me tell you the people that are rioting in los angeles
are a bunch of wicked evil people a bunch of people wrapping themselves in communist flags
a bunch of people that despise dominion which the bible says is a trait of a reprobate and you know
what a lot of these people are getting harmed and killed and it wasn't even that god had to strike
you with a thunderbolt it's just you're an idiot and you're wicked you know i saw a video pretty
horrific video of people trying to block a car and trying to like push against the car and trying to
stop this family that was hauling a trailer and you know what happened they got ran over they
literally got ran over and it's like why did that happen that's the wicked falling by their own
wickedness and so what you got to realize is that you know preachers baptist preachers have this
reputation of like oh man they're mean they get up and scream and yell about sin it's like we're
trying to help you because it doesn't matter what the sin is it will bring harm to your life and it
could literally cause death at times look what the bible says in verse number six the righteousness
of the upright shall deliver them again so let's say you do go through that day of wrath you do go
through a really bad situation let's say that you are on an airplane that has to crash land let's
say that you are involved in a situation where a terrorist attack is happening you know who i think
is most likely to survive those that are righteous now of course there is exceptions to this no doubt
about that there's martyrs time and chance happeneth to them all of course but we can't
discount what the bible is saying here where it says the righteousness of the upright shall
deliver them that's not talking about spiritual salvation that's talking about physical salvation
there then it says this but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness now we kind of
use that word naughty as meaning wickedness that's not that bad but in the bible naughtiness actually
means like extreme wickedness very very evil behavior is this transgressors shall be taken in
their own naughtiness so what does that mean like hey wicked people are out doing wicked things
committing crimes you know doing just dumb stuff in these riots and in doing so you know what they
often suffer the exact thing that they're doing to other people you know oh let's go light a car on
fire yep and then you ended up being lit on fire too you know you're being taken in your own
naughtiness it does not pay to be wicked you know it will always catch up with people when you do
this stuff verse 7 says when a wicked man dieth his expectation shall perish and the hope of
unjust men perish it so wicked people they have this expectation in their mind and it varies
between different types of unsafe people some people believe in reincarnation right and they
have this expectation when i die you know i'm going to come back as a butterfly i'm going to
come back as a butterfly in a field in switzerland it's going to be so wonderful it's going to be so
beautiful and then they die there's like they're burning for all of eternity and it's like oops
oh your expectation failed there you're what you were expecting that was going to happen to you
didn't really happen you're thinking you're getting reincarnated no actually you're just
going to be burning alive for all of eternity you have no rest day nor night this is the hope of
unjust men perisheth right so they have this hope they have something they're looking forward to
oh maybe i'll just stop existing yeah you hope you wish you expect i mean stopping existing would be
wonderful compared to what they actually have coming for them in hell and you know this is why
it's so important that we as christians are not just some sort of social club here where we just
get together and we talk about the bible but that we actually go out into the world and warn people
about hell because the people that are unsaved they have this expectation and i don't know what
it is for all of them reincarnation annihilation you know purgatory there's billions of catholics
that have the expectation of purgatory that they're going to go to this holding cell in the colder
part of hell and they're going to kind of be reformed and then they're going to get led up
to heaven let me tell you what that expectation shall perish the hope of those unsaved catholics
will perish someday and so it's our job to warn them in love and say hey you know some save with
fear pulling them out of the fire we got to warn people about hell and of course i believe everyone
has this down but make sure hell is a part of your gospel presentation it must be and you must ask
people hey do you believe hell is real and then always ask this question how would you describe
hell because literally just this sunday i was preaching the gospel to someone who praised lord
ended up getting saved but i said do you believe that hell is real yes how would you describe hell
well it's my life right now no no look i understand people go through hard things and some people have
way harder lives than others and i'm not downplaying people's real pain and issues like that but it
pales in comparison to the literal hell that exists and i opened up the bible and i showed
him in revelation 14 i said your life isn't this bad i could promise you that i said do you believe
the bible yes okay well then there you go and then that person repented believed that hell's real of
course believed the whole gospel but you know we don't want people to have this expectation when
they die and then go to hell want to make sure we're getting people saved verse eight the bible
says the righteous is delivered out of trouble and the wicked cometh in his stead so if you're
being delivered out of trouble you know what that means that you are in trouble and of course christ
told us that in the world we will have tribulation but be of good cheer because he has overcome
the world so just because we're saved does not mean that all of a sudden you're going to be
healthy and wealthy and just everything in your life is going to go great no in fact the bible
says many are the afflictions of the righteous now the difference between us and the unsaved
is that our afflictions are temporary number one and number two when we go through afflictions
and we remain steadfast when we keep serving god through the afflictions it always works out for
good in the end anyways and so we're really blessed as christians to have those benefits
but notice we're being delivered out of trouble and it says this in the wicked cometh in his stead
i don't think it's saying that it's like coming in the righteous person's stead i think it's
saying that he's now coming in trouble's stead so you know the righteous we're in trouble but
we're delivered from that trouble whether it's the ultimate delivery of going to heaven where
we'll never have trouble ever again or it's god delivering us from our temporary trials in this
earth but then what happens is that the wicked who are prideful who mock god who think that
they're above christianity they find themselves replaced where we were and their troubles a lot
worse because you know our trouble could be persecution well guess what persecution is a
blessing our trouble could be maybe god's chastisement on our life but guess what god
loves those that he rebukes god loves those who he chastens but when the wicked come in trouble
there's no silver lining to it oftentimes oftentimes it's just horror and pain and
misery and death and then you go to hell for all of eternity the end and you know when i read this
verse it just made me immediately think of a very very specific example in my life that i've seen
and that was this piece of garbage ryan gallagher who was a evangelist for sure foundation baptist
church and ended up colluding with two other individuals to file fraudulent documents with
the texas secretary of state to declare that they were the directors of steadfast baptist church
and they took these documents and they went to the bank and they stole all of our money and you
know what steadfast was going through some trouble steadfast was going through some pain
some persecution it's like we got the protest we got the evictions now we lose the money now
we got you know fighting this directorship you know lawsuit and there's all this trouble that's
going on but look at us in 2025 look at christians who are involved in that in 2025 look at steadfast
baptist church you know what they've been they've been delivered out of that trouble and you know
who's been replaced and instead ryan gallagher who's dying of a painful flesh eating one in a
trillion disease and so you know us as christians we got to realize that hey when we go through
troubles when we see the wicked prospering we should not let that cause us to get discouraged
or disheartened or or want to you know retreat in serving god because the truth is hey if we
stick with it in the long run we will be delivered and the wicked will be replaced in our stead and
when the wicked are replaced in trouble it's going to be way worse and even if the wicked makes it to
old age and lives a long life of wicked sin like joe biden still they're going to experience way
more trouble because the moment they breathe their last they spend eternity in hell and so truly the
wicked are the ones that are going to be in trouble in the long run verse 9 the bible says
in hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor but through knowledge shall the just be
delivered so a hypocrite we often think of the very basic definition of just simply saying and
doing not and that is a valid definition of a hypocrite you do see that in the scripture
but majorly what you see in the scripture of someone who's a hypocrite are people that say things
and teach things that they don't actually believe right so you see you know the Pharisees
they're pretending to believe the law they're pretending to believe the bible and Jesus is
saying of the Pharisees hey all that they bid you observe that do he's saying all that they're
teaching is good all the things that they're saying is good but guess what they don't actually
believe the things that they're saying because Jesus said to them hey if you would have believed
Moses you would have believed me so the Jews rejecting Christ is proof that they didn't
believe the Bible and so you see this all the time with false prophets and what do false prophets do
they heavily discourage people especially people who are spiritually immature when someone comes
out to be a fraud or a fake and they're following this pastor and they're hearing the good words
that he's saying they're hearing the bible verses that he's teaching but it comes out you know that
he's some false prophet that didn't even believe the message that he was saying you know what that
does it destroys his neighbor oftentimes people are kind of just destroyed by the words of a
hypocrite you know i think about uh i'm losing the pastor's name right now but there was a
church in ohio that one of my friends went to for most of his life who the pastor was recently
arrested and charged with pedophilia and you know if you're not already very mature in the lord and
have your own spiritual walk with god i could see how that could shake people's faith a little bit
when they're going to a church where they're hearing the word of god and all of a sudden
it comes out that the pastor is some evil hypocrite some wicked person by the way this is
also why it is so important for good pastors to preach against wicked preachers and false prophets
and even just bad philosophies coming from anyone because with the words of an hypocrite
it destroys his neighbor that's why in titus he's telling you know uh paul's telling titus to preach
against wicked people because they're subverting whole houses you know church is not a game
preaching the bible is not something to be taken lightly or a game you know preaching will affect
people's lives for better for worse and so that's why preaching the right doctrine is so important
and why we have to call out false doctrine in this world because bad teaching bad preachers they
destroy their neighbor and you know as a pastor what are we supposed to do we're supposed to
protect the sheep and protect the flock from being destroyed so we have to preach against
people like that and it says this but through knowledge shall the just be delivered so notice
it's not like the words of an hypocrite have some sort of magical power over you where if you hear
it you're just going to be destroyed right because if you are filled with knowledge if you're rooted
and grounded grounded and anchored in the faith if you have lots of knowledge well then it's not
going to affect you but through knowledge shall the just be delivered delivered from what delivered
from the words of that hypocrite right you know talks about in uh hosea i believe my people are
destroyed for lack of knowledge you know this idea of ignorance being bliss is false we need to have
bible knowledge for ourselves and you know what you shouldn't rely only on your spouse reading
the bible or only on your parents reading the bible you need knowledge for yourself you need
to be able to be just and delivered from the hypocrite then it says in verse 10 when it
goeth well with the righteous the city rejoiceth and when the wicked perish there is shouting so
when things are going well with christians that's who the righteous is when christianity is thriving
you know what you're going to see a blessed and prosperous and happy city and when christianity
is being stifled by wicked people or it's just not really there very strongly and it's just an area
that's super sinful you're going to see what you see right now in los angeles and look it's it's
really sad to see i'm not like rejoicing over this because you know i was born in california i like
california and california is honestly just a really beautiful place just naturally speaking
and it's like you have to try to destroy such an awesome place like it's just naturally beautiful
and paradise it's like you have to work at destroying california but you know what they're
doing it you want to know why because of wicked communist you know non-believers like mayor trisha
bass and governor gavin newsom and these just wicked people in california hollywood for crying
out loud you know all these just wicked people in southern california and that's why their city
is not being blessed right now why it's not being uh why it's not rejoicing but notice and when the
wicked parish there is shouting you know what i'm noticing right now is that you know president
trump he already sent in the national guard and he even deployed u.s marines over there
and you know what i'm seeing from just normal regular good people in america is that they're
rejoicing when the government's coming in there and kicking some butt and taking out the trash
and you know that's the normal reaction to seeing wicked evil people get destroyed is to rejoice
you know it's not a sin to rejoice at the wicked people of this earth getting wiped out says when
the wicked perish there is shouting right so people are excited people are happy you know
that's exactly what should be happening in southern california right now you know a wise
king the bible says bring it the wheel over them and today we live in such a soft society
where people are just they are so uh entitled and think that they could just walk all over authority
and you know it starts with mom and dad and it's in the public schools not respecting teachers
and it's in churches of people not respecting preachers why are we surprised when we see it on
the street when these people don't respect cops or military or you know the national guard or
anything like that you know what needs to happen is we kind of need a reset in our country of a
respect for authority and you know that's going to happen how that's going to happen the wicked
perishing that'll change things real fast these people literally throwing giant rocks at the
windows of police officers they should be shot and killed immediately and there should be no
outrage over that like all of us as Americans should be like yeah duh you're throwing big
stones at people that's a deadly weapon you should just be killed you know the moment you pick up a
bottle of gasoline and start pouring it on people's vehicles you should just be put down like a dog
because people could die from that kind of stuff it should just be obvious but again we live in
just such a soft entitled world that it feels like even the police even the military are kind of
afraid to enforce you know the rule of law because of all these brainwashed people into thinking oh
you should never use force you should never come down hard on the wicked no i say you know mr
president bring those people down like i'd be for that 100 i'd be shouting i'd be rejoicing
the bible says in verse 11 by the blessing of the upright the city is exalted but it is overthrown
by the mouth of the wicked so how is it that a city is blessed and exalted it's by the blessing
of the upright you know what that means it means that christians are a blessing to their
communities we are the light of the world we are the salt of the earth and we are the upright by
the blessing of the upright the city is exalted you know it's so funny recently our church being
in the news and me just you know having fun reading all the comments of the haters and people
just talking about like you know we're a scourge on oklahoma and baptist or why oklahoma is so
terrible and i just think no we're the reason oklahoma is great you want to know why oklahoma
is still a pretty godly place you know want to know why there's still a christian culture here
i mean hello we have the king james bible in public schools here i mean that is awesome you
want to know why christians godly christians and you want to know why oklahoma is doing well
and if we if we do have any good leaders in our state you want to know why god has allowed us to
have them it's because of righteous christians and so as christians you know in time past especially
with the old ifb their focus is more on the state house their focus is more on get this person
elected vote for this person for congress let's get this governor but really what you got to
understand is that the city is exalted when the righteous are here and so what does that mean we
need to be righteous our city needs to have a bunch of righteous churches in it we need a bunch
of soul winners going out in this community preaching the gospel and as a result god may
bless us with godly leadership god may bless us with more freedom and more prosperity and less
crime and so look i'm not against those things like we need christians in office we need christians
running things but you know our primary focus should be like how do we be as righteous as
possible how do we get as many people saved as possible and you know what oklahoma city
is a special place because i go out soul winning every single week and i'm telling you almost
every saturday of my life i run into other baptists out of department complexes that is
not normal i went for almost a decade soul winning in you know washington and oregon and idaho and
texas and i only had that happen to me one time and that was when i lived in texas here it happens
almost every single weekend and so hey praise god for that we're seeing some prosperity we're
seeing things going well in our city but let me tell you that's because of us not because of the
pride parades that are scheduled this month not because of the wicked faggots that exist in our
city no it's actually because of christians why because it says but it is overthrown by the mouth
of the wicked hey if we just allow the wicked to prosper and we just you know start becoming wicked
ourselves you'll see the city overthrown you will see the city changed and destroyed so we
bless oklahoma city by being righteous christians verse 12 the bible says he that is void of wisdom
despiseth his neighbor but a man of understanding holdeth his peace so the bible is basically
saying like hey someone that is foolish someone that is an idiot just despises his neighbor and
you know there's some people that are just on a hair trigger to always be contrary and always be
at odds with every person but you know the bible says that we should be peacemakers as much as
lieth in us let us live peaceably with all men and you know it's a foolish person that just wants
to fight with every single neighbor you know your literal neighbors that live next to you
you should do everything you possibly can do to have a good relationship with them because if you
have a bad neighbor your life's just going to suck every single day because they're going to be there
every single day and you know you need to just endeavor to do everything you can to keep peace
with your neighbors people in this community people that you work with and what's a way that
you could do that it says but a man of understanding holdeth his peace you want to know how you could
keep peace with people even if you don't see the eye eye to eye even if you're not both saved is by
shutting your mouth is by not talking and you know if you're holding your peace you know what
that kind of implies it implies that you're kind of upset about something that there's some sort
of issue there but you're choosing to hold your peace and you know most of the time in our little
annoyances and little conflicts that we have with people the right option is just to hold your peace
just deal with it no big deal now of course we do have like Matthew 18 where you have processes of
dealing with conflict with people going to them alone bringing a witness with you taking things
before the church but just in general most of the petty grievances that we have in life you know
that how you could solve them just by being quiet and just dealing with it you know i remember one
time we lived in an apartment and we lived on the bottom floor above us was this russian family
and they did a few things that just really annoyed us one of the things they did is that
they came home really late with their beam bright beams on in our window and they would leave their
car running forever and then when they were done they would slam the doors and they'd go
like how many times you're gonna lock your stupid car you know and we've got babies sleeping and
stuff just driving us nuts and you know they slammed the doors really loud and i'm just like
man i don't want to fight with my neighbors it's so important to have peace with our neighbors
and like we were super long suffering probably too long we just didn't say didn't say anything
and then we like very nicely wrote them a hand letter and i think you like bake them some like
baked goods too like because you want to have peace with your neighbors and even if there's
an issue that you want to address man you want to do everything you can to have peace with your
neighbors because the last thing you need is for them to be like oh yeah well here's 15 more dinks
you know it's like no have peace with your neighbors at all costs look at what uh the bible says here's
a good way to have peace with people verse 13 it says a tale bearer revealeth secrets but he that
is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter you know here's how you'll end up having a lot of
conflict with people and having a lot of enemies is if you become a tale bearer and you know this
verse defines what a tale bearer is it's someone that reveals secrets not everything that you know
about someone needs to be shared or would be appropriate to share whatsoever you know it's
like we we don't have any single moms that come to our church but like if we did you know you
want to be like oh yeah you know her husband isn't here because he's like a drug addict or
something and it's like even if that was true like why would you repeat that about someone
why would you say something like you know here's a good tip if it's embarrassing information even
if it's true you shouldn't repeat it about people even if it's true that doesn't you know if you're
repeating that stuff it doesn't make you a railer because if you're your railer when you're repeating
stuff that's not true when you're falsely accusing but it does make you a tail bearer and look you
know us guys we like to mess around with each other we like to razz each other but you know we
do that kind of stuff in front of each other's faces but like if something was truly embarrassing
about one of my brothers in christ i would never share that with another person you know if you
come to me with counsel you have an issue that you need help with you need prayer about something
sensitive please know that i will never share that with people and please know that there's been
times in the ministry because i know i'm a new pastor but i've been in full-time ministry since
2020 there's been times i've known things that i didn't even tell my own wife and sometimes she
doesn't even like that but you know what sometimes you're just the only person that needs to know
and i'm not going to go share around people's secrets and you know what if you are going around
as a tale bearer that is a wicked attribute that you need to stop i thank god that our church has
unity and our church doesn't have this cancer of gossip but i'm telling you i've been to churches
where you're talking to someone and as soon as you walk away you find out they're talking all
sorts of crap about you they're telling all sorts of things about you also this is a good reason why
you shouldn't just go telling everyone your secrets anyways you know you got some sort
of wicked past something you'd be embarrassed if people found out hey keep that between you and
jesus i'm not saying you can't tell people but i'm telling you you better be careful you better use
discretion because there's people out there that will just repeat all sorts of wicked things about
you and look even if you don't like someone even if you have a falling out with someone even if you
know a boyfriend and girlfriend break up with each other or something like that you still shouldn't
go around as a tail bearer that is a wicked thing to do but it says but he that is of a faithful
spirit concealeth the matter so you know some things should be concealed people are like oh
you know it's a cover-up some things should be covered up isn't that what the bible says that
he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter don't you want me to cover up if i knew
something embarrassing about you i'm not talking about crimes here okay we're not talking about
pedophiles you're going to jail buddy we're calling the police on you if we find that out
but it's like oh you know brother so-and-so when he was 15 smoked a joint why are you repeating
that why are you sharing that information oh brother so-and-so and sister so-and-so are
having issues in their marriage why would you say something like that you know and and by the way
don't repeat stuff about your spouse to your parents either don't be a tail bearer to mom
and dad you keep that between your wife and you and jesus and godly counsel from your pastor if
you need it but don't go talking crap on your spouse especially he that is of a faithful spirit
concealeth the matter you know i think this is one of the most important attributes of someone who
does desire to go into the ministry is faithfulness it's a pastoral qualification it's a qualification
for the bishop you know even um even paul himself in first timothy 1 says i thank christ jesus my
lord who hath enabled me in that he counted me faithful putting me into the ministry right so
faithfulness is something that god is looking for in a minister and you know what if you're
one of these people that just spills all the beans and goes and tells secrets about people
man i will never ordain someone like that and i've even been around pastors and pastor's wives
who are now haters but i would go to their church and it was just embarrassing how they would just
talk crap about their church members the whole time you know that is not an attribute that you
want from a man of god you want a faithful spirit verse 14 says where no council is
the people fall but in the multitude of counselors there is safety and when i think about this verse
i think about how important it is for us as christians to have real flesh and blood people
around us in our lives and this is especially so important in 2025 where it's easy for people to
just seclude themselves so many people just work from home today i mean you can just work from home
you could have your groceries delivered by a drone i mean you could just be this recluse that
never leaves and you could live stream all the sermons and you can just argue with people on x
all day but you know what you're missing you're often missing normal people that could give you
godly counsel that you could bounce ideas off of that you know you something stupid comes out of
your mouth and then someone says whoa actually the bible says this let me have you seen this in the
bible before because you know what all of us will do that at time uh from time to time we need godly
people around us that can give us counsel it's safe verse 15 he that is surety for a stranger
shall smart for it and he that hated sure to ship is sure so this is again kind of talking about
being collateral for a loan that's what sure to ship is and specifically it's talking about a
stranger and it's like why would anyone want to be surety for a stranger i mean it seems like a
crazy thing to do says that he shall smart for it smart as a verb means to like inflict pain
inflict a wound it's basically saying like if you're going to be surety for a stranger here's
what's going to happen you're going to get hurt you're going to get burned you're going to get
ripped off and be you know left with the bill to pay and so it's a bad idea to do this now i think
this is the principle that this is saying is that you ought to be careful who you trust and you ought
to be careful with what you trust people with you know i've heard this advice before don't let
anyone borrow something you're not willing to kiss goodbye you know brother so-and-so asks to
borrow your truck only say yes if you are willing for that thing to go up in a ball of flames
in an accident and if you're not don't do it because then what's going to happen you're going
to smart for it you're going to have pain it's going to cause financial loss or or your relationship
is going to be strained with your brother in christ so don't do that and i'm saying don't even
do that for people you know how much more strangers right you don't want to and here's but here's the
thing you know what people do all the time people trust their children with strangers it is nuts
today i mean what could be more precious and valuable than your kids and people will go have
mom and dad work work jobs and be like let's drop the kids off with random babysitter the random
child watching agency in your neighborhood or public school how's that been working out for ucon
lately it's just like pedophile after pedophile being ousted in ucon public schools in ucon
christian schools you know so if you're just trusting your children with a stranger man you
could smart for that you could have a little and and what could be more painful what could be more
of just like an everlasting wound in your soul than something happening to your child because
you just trusted a stranger trusted your child with a stranger you know i would avoid that at
all costs the bible says in verse 16 a gracious woman retaineth honor and strong men retaineth
or retain riches so a gracious woman retains honor this is the exact opposite of the only
fan girls that we're talking about right they have no respect for themselves a woman that is a whore
that'll just sleep with anyone you know they're not retaining honor and you know the bible says
to honor our wives as the weaker vessel you know i believe that women have a lot of honor just because
women are great god just made women and us as men love women can i get an amen on that one come on
right they're worthy of that honor but you know what women that are foolish just they just cast
that honor aside they don't care about it it's no big deal to them just like it says how a strong
man retain riches so strong men are going to have some control over their will they're not going to
just be spending money on everything that suits their fancy they're going to retain riches verse
17 the merciful man doeth good to his own soul but he that is cruel troubleeth his own flesh so
notice how we live how we behave how we follow the commandments of god it has a direct effect on our
life here in the here and now not just eternally but if you're the merciful man you do good to
yourself why because you reap what you sow and if you're merciful to other people if you're gracious
to other people then god's going to be gracious to you if you're cruel with other people and you come
down super hard and you have no mercy and you have no grace god's going to be that way with you and
you're going to reap it now verse 18 the wicked worketh a deceitful work but to him that soweth
righteousness shall be a sure reward so again this idea of you know once sanctified always sanctified
your works don't really matter in god accepting you or blessing you on this earth the bible is
saying right here that those that sow righteousness meaning doing good works there shall be a sure
reward and so know that yes you're saved you're always saved you can never lose that salvation
but just like first corinthians 15 58 says you know our work is not in vain in the lord it has
profit in the life to come but it also has profit now and you will be rewarded for being a righteous
person verse 19 as righteousness tendeth to life so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own
death people who disobey the commandments refuse to hearken to the word of god and just pursue evil
they're just pursuing their own death they're just pursuing their own demise and harm it says
in verse 20 they that are of a forward heart are abomination to the lord but such as are
upright in their way are his delight now this is such a cool verse because like i said you know
us doing good works we know that like if we get someone saved that's promising in someone's
eternity that's profiting in their eternity and we also know from what we just read that
living a good life living a righteous life we're going to get rewards in the here and now as well
here's another important to be upright another reason to be upright another reason to serve god
is that people who are upright the bible says are his delight and isn't it cool that you little
pea on you and little pea on me could do anything that could bring delight to the almighty creator
of the universe like that is a crazy thought like we are just dust you know we are just meaningless
we are just tiny little specks in this universe but if you walk up rightly you bring delight
to jesus christ you know you make god happy when you show up to church you make god happy
when you wake up in the morning and read your bible hey you know you make god happy when you
were struggling with a sin and you you stopped doing whatever that was right or you know you
were lazy before and now you go out and preach the gospel you're bringing delight to jesus christ
and i don't know about i don't know about you some people may not care about that i think that is
very profound i think that's a beautiful thought to think that you know my savior jesus christ who
i've never seen but who i know is real that he's looking at my life he's watching me he's thinking
about the decisions i'm making he's judging me he's giving me protection if i'm righteous
you know he's going to chastise me if i'm not and if i'm walking up rightly he is pleased with me
that is an awesome thought you know us as a church in the month of june we got a lot of people that
are not pleased with us we got a lot of people that hate us that despise us that cast out our
name as evil and if you are a babe in christ and you don't know what i'm talking about right now
that could be very moving that could be very jarring the first time that happens to you
you know it could be kind of jarring for my wife when she's checking out of the grocery store and
her husband is on the front page of the okloman but here's the thing when you think about hey
question are we do are we upright are we doing this right are we preaching what the bible says
then you know what jesus is pleased with anchor baptist church we put a smile on our savior's face
man that is a cool thought and so that motivates me to try to be more righteous to try to be more
upright and not just think like hey serving god is vain doesn't really matter if i come on
wednesday it doesn't really matter if i come sunday night doesn't really matter if i go soul
winning this weekend no it does because you can literally make god smile this week or you can
make him angry or you could be like verse one and have you know a false balance and it's an
abomination to him you could be like these fag loving idiot fake christians that support pride
month and god's just disgusted with him he's angry with him or you could be upright and he's pleased
and he's happy that is super super important and of course the first part of that verse what does
it say they that are of a froward heart are abomination to the lord those that resist the
truth and scoff at what the bible says and think they're smarter than god and think that their
ideas and their white ways are better than the law of god god looks down at them and they're
an abomination to him they're disgusting to him you know these churches that don't preach the full
counsel of god these churches that are just like well you know homosexuality is a sin and then
they just leave it at that they never actually read what the bible says they never show us hey
where are you basing that on what verse are you basing that on you know these type of places are
an abomination and churches that full-blown support this it's an abomination then it says in verse
number 21 though hand join in hand the wicked shall not be unpunished but the seed of the righteous
shall be delivered so you know our focus our singular focus should be on hey are we pleasing
jesus are we doing what's right in the sight of god because though hand join in hand the wicked
shall not be unpunished there's going to be times where it seems like hey we're outnumbered people
are disagreeing with us people are joining hand in hand to fight against us hey all men forsook
paul but the lord stood with him and so though though hand join in hand the wicked shall not
be unpunished but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered verse 22 this is a really funny verse
as as a jewel of gold in a swine's snout so is a fair woman which is without discretion so what
is discretion it's the knowledge of what is and is not appropriate to say to share to be you know
doing or to be saying and the bible saying like hey you take a really really just gorgeous beautiful
woman without discretion it's like a pig that has this little nice gold you know piece of gold in
its nose kind of defeats the purpose right i mean it's like wow this is such a beautiful piece of
gold how wonderful yeah but it's in a slobbery snotty ugly fat pig's nose and it just kind of
ruins the whole thing right well it's like women have been blessed by god with beauty women are
just naturally beautiful but you know how you could ruin that in the eyes of people is if you're a
woman without discretion there used to be this concept of being ladylike where there are some
things that are just inappropriate to talk about and some things are just inappropriate to share
now we got the pick me girls that want to be loud and boisterous and be seen of everyone
and you know what that is you know what a pick me girl is a woman without discretion
oh but she's beautiful but she's gorgeous look if you haven't gotten married yet watch out for the
woman that does not have discretion because she's the type of woman that's going to be talking crap
about you to mom and dad and to her girlfriends and is going to be the one sharing all the gossip
and that is not the woman you want to be yoked up with now hey you're already married sucks to
suck nothing you could do about that hopefully the the wife changes in there but hey you know
you got to be careful of this character trait verse number 23 the bible says the desire of
the righteous is only good but the expectation of the wicked is wrath so those who are righteous
those who are right with god at the end of the day you know the bible says that the end of the
commandment is charity out of a pure heart those who are mature in the faith what is it that we
want for everyone really for this world for our community what do we want good right very simply
put what do we want for people when we go out and preach the gospel we want what's good for them we
want them to get saved what do i want when i preach a sermon even if i'm correcting something
even if i'm preaching against sin i want what's good for you and that's what the righteous do the
righteous desire good but it says that the expectation of the wicked is wrath expectation
they're basically just saying what they have coming for them what they have to look forward to is
wrath of course we know those who don't believe in jesus christ what does john chapter three say
that the wrath of god abides on them and you know we need to renew our minds as a society today
that god is not only loving and kind and gentle of course he has attributes like that but my bible
says that those don't believe in him the wrath of god abides on them and that the expectation
of the wicked is wrath what they have to look forward to is the wrath of god and so you know
if if i was someone that was unsaved i would hear that and be like hey what do i have to do
to be on god's team what do i have to do to escape the wrath of god hey what do i have to do to be
saved believe on the lord jesus christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house that's how you escape
the wrath of god verse 24 kind of shifts talking about finances here says there is that scattereth
and yet increaseth and there is that withholdeth more than his meat but it tendeth to poverty so
some people are extremely generous or even a little bit maybe careless with how they spend
but yet they're increasing and you know why would that be for a lot of people that would be because
the blessing of god is on that person right if they're being a blessing to others if they're
sharing with others you know god might be inclined to keep blessing that person if they're tithing to
the new testament church and blessing the work of god you know using their money to go on missions
trips stuff like that hey that's a good way for god to keep blessing you then there are people
that withhold more than his meat they're kind of stingy they're kind of tight but it says but it
tendeth to poverty so you would think like oh if you're super conservative with your money if you're
super tight with all your finances that's going to be the key to success from a mathematical standpoint
not necessarily because us as christians we got to realize that we don't live just in a carnal world
we live in a spiritual battle here like god is real folks i don't know if you realize that
god's hand is actually moving in our lives it's not like this calvinist god where everything's
predetermined and we're robots no god is moving based on what we do god is moving based on our
hearts and who we are and if we're generous god's more likely to bless if we're withholding god's
more likely to withhold from us and you know obviously i'm a pastor so i think of applications
a lot of time with church but i also think about this in a church application you know there are
those that scatter there are pastors who who exercise church discipline there are pastors
who are going to preach people out the door sometimes and yet increase it you know there's
churches out there that are actually going to lose people temporarily and you might think this
doesn't make sense we're losing people and but here's the thing in the long run you're going
to increase in the long run the blessing of god on your church is more important than the numerical
count of heads that are sitting in the pew at one given moment because boy that could change fast
that can change super fast and so i'm more worried about being faithful to what god says
i'm more worried about doing our programs here according to the bible and let the chips fall
where they may god bless us with more people god take out the chaff whatever you want to do lord
you know my job is just to preach the truth and then there are those that withhold more than is
meat boy is there some churches out there where the pastors are just afraid to exercise church
discipline where it's just clear as day that it needs to be done i mean there's old ifb churches
who bring in convicted pedophiles into their church who bring in trannies into their church
there's pastors who have just open defiant railers in their church and it's just like
they withhold more than is meat they won't take care of the problem they won't take care of the
cancer and you know my worry for churches like that is that it tendeth to poverty and here's
the thing like it does not matter if you are a church running 25 or if you are a church that's
running 25 000 god can change that situation very quickly and so hey at 15 at 25 at a smaller
church's size hey let's just be faithful to the word of god let's be faithful to the preaching
that god bids and pray that the lord grows the church but we don't want to compromise to grow
the church we don't want to keep wicked people here to grow the church that's going to make
church a lot less enjoyable when we're surrounded by pedophiles and railers and drunkards and all
these wicked people i'm not going to have as much fun and again it's just like human wisdom thinks
man just hang on to the money hang on to the tithers hang on to as much people as possible
but you do that sometimes and you could see a church that maybe was successful was thriving
but the pastor's not kicking out the wrong people or the right people and then you could see things
change and i don't want that but we need to take this verse to heart verse 25 the liberal soul
shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself and so liberal here just
meaning generous being willing to give a lot of the person who is very very generous that person's
going to be made fat meaning god's going to provide lots for that person and he that watereth
shall be watered also himself you know god does not like selfish people right we're supposed to be
like christ christ was not selfish he gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this
present evil world right and so us as christians we should be constantly living a life that's that of
giving to other people investing in other people and sometimes that may even be financially but
you know what i believe is that when we use our finances liberally for the things of god for god's
house i think god will bless that greatly you know you got the old ifb where they're going to
charge you for all the events they're going to charge you for the tracts they're going to charge
you for the the actual deep sermons because it's called bible college where they'll actually you
know teach the bible there and even then it's probably pretty rough but they'll charge you for
all these things and it's like in the new ifb we're trying to be really liberal with it hey take all
the materials hand them all out for free you know church often paying for things events all that
stuff but i believe that we should do that because i believe that's what god blesses then it says in
verse number 26 he that withholdeth corn the people shall curse him but blessing shall be upon the
head of him that selleth it now i don't know why maybe it's just i've read too many history books
but when i read this verse i immediately think of communism and i immediately think of like the
debate between like a free market economy and communism and communism basically they kind of
want to hoard all of the food and all of the natural resources like in the soviet union you
had the kulaks where basically the government would reap all of the the product of your field
and take it for themselves and then they were in charge of responsibly redistributing it to their
citizens they did such a great job that tens of millions of people started to starve to death in
the soviet union not even including the deaths from the warfare that was going on so communism
is a major fail but think about the idea of communism when we read this verse again he that
withholdeth corn the people shall curse him why well if you're starving if you need food and
someone has a product that they're able to sell and they're not selling it well curse that guy
you're gonna be angry right you're gonna be mad but blessing shall be upon the head of him that
what selleth it it doesn't say blessing shall be upon the person who steals from another person
and gives it to for free to another no no there's nothing wrong with selling things there's nothing
wrong with making a profit these are like bad words today with many of the retarded commies in
our nation but hey selling something that people need that people desire the bible says that
blessing shall be on that person's head right so you want blessings a good way to do that is offer
a product you want to know how businesses succeed they offer a product they sell something they sell
a product or a service and that returns them blessings and guess what that is wonderful we
don't want to be like these weird leftists that just hate corporations hate men that make money
hate people that are successful no they're providing a service it's great it's a blessing
to our world what do you want to do you want to go live in 20th century soviet union no you don't
folks read the gulag archipelago you'll be cured of that real fast when people are in the gulags
literally eating the leather of their shoes to survive and it can get worse than that read
jeremiah as women are boiling their children as women are eating their fruit of a span long the
bible says oh it could get bad it can get real bad so i don't think people selling things and making
a prophet are the worst evil in our world, no, actually it's a blessing. Verse 27, the Bible says,
"He that diligently seeketh good procureth favor, but he that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto
him." So again, this is like the main theme of the chapter, that those who are doing good, those who
are righteous, those who are upright, are those who are going to be blessed in this life. The Bible
says, "He that trusteth in his riches shall fall, but the righteous shall flourish as a branch." And
I like that terminology, "as a branch," because in John 15, we learn that Jesus is the vine,
we are the branches. The Bible says that we are going to flourish. Well, how does a branch
flourish? Jesus tells us that it flourishes by him pruning that vine, pruning that branch. And so,
hey, we're going to flourish, but sometimes that comes from God pruning us, God chastising us,
which is why the Bible says not to despise the chastening of the Lord. Verse 29, "He that
troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind, and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart."
So, you know, again, reaping and sowing, man, one of the worst things that you could do is trouble
your own house. You know, marriage can be a great, beautiful relationship in your life, and for some
people it's like the most miserable thing in their life, and so you don't want to trouble your own
house. You're going to inherit the wind. Real famous verse in verse 30, it says, "The fruit of
the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise." Hey, don't tell me that
soul winning is not biblical. Don't tell me that that's not even biblical terminology when here in
Proverbs, the Bible's saying that, "Hey, you want to know someone who's wise? It's someone that wins
souls." And so we as a church, we want to strive towards wisdom. And one of the ways we could do
that is by winning souls. Don't be afraid of that terminology. You got a bunch of holier than nows
today who, ironically, don't go soul winning. And they get so mad when we say, "Hey, by God's grace,
our church has had 631 salvations this year. You didn't get anyone saved." Well, then why is the
wise person winning souls? Why is Paul becoming all things to all men that he might by all means
save some? Excuse me. He's saving people. How? By preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, right? So,
obviously, no one is claiming that we died on the cross for people's sins. No one is claiming that
we purchased your salvation. But what we're claiming is biblical terminology that we're
getting people saved by preaching the gospel. And guess what? If you don't do that, what are you?
Well, you're not wise because the wise person wins souls. So, what are you? A fool. And just
let this sink in. Your life is a vapor. The things in this world that are carnal do not matter.
The wood, hay, and the stubble will all be burned up someday. You will stand before the Lord Jesus
Christ. You'll be judged according to your works. You'll be rewarded on the things that you did for
Christ. And let me just tell you, if you're not soul winning, you are going to be lacking on that
day. You are not going to be rewarded greatly on that day if you're not preaching the gospel. Why?
Because that's the first works. That's the first love. That is what we must be striving to do as
our number one focus in church. And look, if our music ministry is never as wonderful as the old
IFB and if our facilities are never never as beautiful as the old IFB and if I'm never as
polished as the speaker, as these old IFB pastors, but our church preaches the gospel and gets people
saved, then I will count Anchor Baptist Church a success. I mean if we could keep this going,
this is exciting to me. 631 salvations in June, that fires me up folks. If we can do that
and more and more and more year after year after year until the Lord calls us home, I will say
mission accomplished. That's a success. And so hey, look, if you're looking for the fancy frills
and the nice programs and the big beautiful building, you can go to any other old IFB church,
but if you're looking for a church that wants to accomplish something big, that wants to have a
big harvest, then Anchor Baptist Church, my commitment to you is that that's what we're
striving for. That's the number one priority. Last verse, "Behold, the righteous shall be
recompensed in the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner." You know, in closing, I want to
focus first on the last part of that verse. The wicked and the sinner, they're going to be
recompensed in the earth. And so sometimes Christians will be troubled, will be dismayed
at seeing the prosperity of the wicked. But you got to remember, not only is there end hell,
do we know that they're going to spend eternity in hell, oftentimes God's going to recompense
them in the earth. And you know, that's something you could even pray for. That's something that
the Psalms talks about praying for is that we would see God's vengeance on the wicked. And so,
hey, by all means, pray for that for these filthy sodomites that defile our city. Pray for that
for these wicked communists that are ruining places like California. I would love to see
God's vengeance come down on those people because the Bible says that the wicked and the sinner are
going to be recompensed in the earth. And you know what that should make you do is don't quit serving
God just because you see wicked people prospering. Don't think, "Wow, my friend from high school,
they're not living the straight-laced life that I'm living. They're not making all the sacrifices
that I'm making and look how much money they're making. Look how they're prospering." Yeah,
until one day that the hammer comes down and great is the fall of it, right? The house that's built
on the sand. When the storm comes, great is the fall of it. And you could be sitting there on the
sure foundation. You could be sitting there with the anchor and you're just taking beating after
beating from the storm and it looks ugly and it's hard. But at the end, you're still standing.
You're still thriving. You're still doing what's right. But the wicked that are not on that sure
foundation, man, great is the fall of it. And then of course, the first part of that verse,
this directly applies to us. We'll close on this. "Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the
earth." Realize that this idea of, you know, once sanctified, always sanctified is garbage. There is
a God that is going to recompense the righteous on this earth. And yes, we will go through trials.
Yes, we will go through tribulations. Yes, we will have hardships and persecutions and issues
and relationship problems and financial problems and health problems. Yes, that's true. But overall,
the general rule is that if you're righteous, God's going to bless you in this life. If you're
upright, God's going to deliver you from death in this life, right? God is going to give us the
best possible outcome in our lives when we are honoring and fearing and serving the Lord. Let's
pray. Lord, we thank you for this chapter. We thank you for the entire book of Proverbs. I pray that
we would really take these things to heart and that we would not take our lives for granted or
think that our works don't matter, but that we would strive as much as possible to walk in the
Spirit and for us to be upright that you'd bless us in the earth. We love you in Jesus name we pray. Amen.