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chapter 16. The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came and tempting desired him
that he would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them
when at his evening he say it will be fair weather for the sky is red and in
the morning it will be foul weather today for the sky is red and lowering. Oh ye
hypocrites you can't discern the face of the sky but can ye not discern the
A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be
given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas, and he left them and departed.
And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.
Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the
Sadducees, and they reason among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread."
Which when Jesus perceived he said unto them. Oh, you have little faith. Why reason ye among yourselves because you have brought
No bread
Do you not yet understand neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand
And how many baskets he took up
Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many baskets ye took up
How is it that ye do not understand that I spake?
it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees,
then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of the bread,
but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Then Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea and Philippi and asked his disciples saying,
And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist,
some Elias, and others Jeremiah's, or one of the prophets.
Then he saith unto them, by whom say ye that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him,
blessed art thou, Simon of Arjuna.
For flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father which is in heaven.
And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Then charge to his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ
From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer
Many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day
Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying be it far from the
This shall not be unto thee
But he turned and said unto Peter get thee behind me Satan
Thou art in a fence unto me
For thou savor is not the things that be of God, but those that be of men
Then said Jesus unto his disciples if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me
For whosoever shall save his life
shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it for what is a man
profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in
exchange for his soul for the son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels
There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
Let's pray.
Our gracious Lord, thank you so much for the institution of church.
Thank you Lord for those that are gathered here together.
I pray that you just help us to minimize distractions, to focus on the preaching of your word.
I pray that you go past your auspicious spirit Lord.
Hey man, all right, well we are in Matthew chapter 16.
Let's read verse 18.
Jesus said this, and I say also unto thee,
that thou art Peter, and upon this rock,
I will build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.
The title of my sermon this morning is this,
take church seriously.
Take church seriously, and why take it seriously?
Well, it seems like Jesus takes it very seriously.
If Jesus Christ is the one who is building this institution,
fighting for this institution.
There's a spiritual battle that's going on.
And he's saying, hey, the gates of hell
are not going to prevail against the church.
It sounds like Jesus takes it very, very seriously.
And today a lot of people are forsaking church altogether.
There is tons and tons of saved Christians
in Oklahoma City this morning that woke up
and will not be going to church.
And part of it is just from sheer laziness,
just being slothful.
Some of it is being deceived by the fact that there's all these false prophets that want to go around and say that church, you know, this isn't church right here.
You're just always in church and we hear this all the time when we go out soul winning and we invite people to church and they tell us we're in church right now.
No, me and my family are a church. No, that's called a family. This is called your house, but the church is a real institution.
Jesus is fighting for that Jesus shed his blood for there is rules in this
organization God has ordained elders for this organization you know this is an
important thing here that we have going on
And a lot of people, like I said,
they're forsaking it all together
or they're replacing it with a counterfeit.
There's a lot of churches today
that have just become fun centers.
And in fact, on the way to church this morning,
I drove past Life Church and they have all these
signs about how they're just watching movies.
The kids church there,
they're not really hearing preaching.
They're literally just watching
Hollywood films and they're calling that church today.
You know, that would be someone
that's not taking church seriously.
People not going to church at all.
People replacing it with something else or sometimes there's people that just show up to a real church, but they're not taking it seriously
They're kind of treating it without the respect and reverence that it deserves
And so you know for me and my family I've decided a long time ago that church is not a game for me
This is a real institution that I care about,
and I'm dedicating my life to the church.
And look, you don't have to be a pastor to do the same.
All of us should be dedicating our lives
to the house of God.
Why? Because church is important.
And by means of introduction,
that's actually my first point this morning,
is church is important.
Go to Hebrews chapter number 10.
Hebrews 10, we're going to have a couple of introductory points and then we'll make application of how you could show that church is actually important to you and that you actually take church seriously.
But look at this verse in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 23.
The Bible says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful
that promised.
So right off the bat, Paul's wanting us to be steadfast.
He doesn't want us to be wavering.
He wants us to be convinced in our mind that what he's about to talk about is important,
that we're not just wavering in this matter.
and to good works.
So what he's about to be speaking about,
he's saying, hey, we need to think about other people
and provoke them to love and to good works.
You know, life is not all about you.
Life is not all about me.
It's about other people.
It's about Jesus.
Verse 25, he gets real specific,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is,
but exhorting one another and so much the more.
as you see the day approaching.
Now, this is actually what church is.
It's the assembling of Christians together
under the leadership of a pastor,
under the leadership of the King James Bible
to do what?
To fulfill the Great Commission.
You know, you and your house,
you're assembled together with your family,
but the word church in the Bible
is synonymous with congregation.
You see that word in the Old Testament used the congregation in the wilderness and the New Testament quotes it as the church.
That's what church is. It's the congregation of believers and the Bible says not to forsake that.
Right, so don't give up on the institution of church.
Don't go to church less.
Don't view it as something that's not important.
He says, don't forsake it as the manner of some is.
So some people, they just have a habit or a manner about them
where they just don't view church as being that important.
They forsake it, but exhorting one another
and so much the more as you see the day.
approaching. What is that day? It's the day of Jesus Christ. As we see that day approaching,
we should be taking church more seriously this week than we did last week. More seriously this
year than we did last year. And notice what happens if you do forsake church. Verse 26.
willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.
You know, let me be very clear, contrary to what people online want to tell you, if you forsake church, that is a sin.
It is a sin not to be in God's house.
It is a sin to sit there and just willingly sit on your butt in your house and just livestream a sermon.
rather than going to church.
Now look, if you're sick, that's great
that we have that technology.
But people just deciding to forsake the assembling
of ourselves together and just watch some sermon online,
that is not church and that is a sin.
And let me tell you something.
There's tons of people in Oklahoma City
that have been to this church,
that live in this area,
that like us, that like our preaching.
They're probably watching right now
and they're not in church and that is a sin.
And let me just, you know, I don't usually preach to the internet, but if you're listening online and you're not in church, you are not right with God.
You need to get into the house of God. This is where the real work for God is being done.
And you know what? The kingdom of God would be strengthened by your presence today.
If we had more soul winners today to go out and do the work of God, more people here exhorting one another to love and to good works, you would see the house of God thrive so much the more.
And I don't know why in the crazy times that we're living in Christians can't just wake up to the fact that church is important
And you know, thankfully we are seeing in our country
some things start to trend the right direction.
And there is a little bit of a revival of people going
to church and people reading the Bible.
But it's like, hey, if you're watching from home,
that's not you though.
You know, you're part of the problem, not the solution.
Oh, I believe all the right doctrines,
but you're not in church, you're part of the problem.
You're causing damage to the kingdom of God.
You're not provoking others to love and to good work.
You're being selfish.
You're not taking church seriously.
And the Bible says if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remain if no more sacrifice for sins.
Now, false prophets will like to twist this verse and say that this is teaching you could lose your salvation.
But this is just coming from an idea of lacking context in the Bible.
Because if you read Leviticus, there was all these different processes that the congregation of Israel or the priests had to do when they sinned.
If there was a priest that sinned,
he had to give a certain sacrifice.
If the congregation sinned,
they had to perform this certain sacrifice,
not to have their sins forgiven
from a salvation standpoint,
but just to renew that fellowship with God.
And here's the thing, in the New Testament,
those sacrifice systems are gone.
So when we sin willfully,
After we have received the knowledge of the truth,
there's no lamb that you could offer.
There's no chicken that you can offer.
There's nothing that you could just do real quick
that gets you, you know, clean slate with the Lord.
What the Bible's saying that you have to look forward to is this,
verse 27,
but a certain fearful looking for of judgment.
and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
What is the Bible saying?
What you have to look forward to
when you sin willfully as a Christian in the New Testament
is chastisement and punishment from God,
and specifically judgment.
And I just love how the liberal Christians would love to say only God can judge me.
Let me tell you something.
That should scare you.
The fact that God is judging you, because what the Bible is saying here is, hey, if you're
forsaking church, you know what you have to look forward to?
God judging you.
If you have forsaken church today, you have the judgment of God on your life.
And you know what you have to look forward to, not just some sacrifice to get you right
with the Lord.
No, you have judgment to look forward to.
Verse 28 says he that despised Moses his law died without mercy under two or three witnesses, right?
So for example in Numbers 15, there was a story of a man that went and picked up sticks on the Sabbath day
and you would think, you know, what's the big deal about picking up sticks on the Sabbath day?
Well, here's one reason is that anytime God tells us to do something
or tells us not to do something and we just disregard what he says it's like a spit in the face to God.
So any sin regardless of how you think whether oh I don't think that's that severe of a sin
well apparently God does because he told it to us for a reason.
And the Bible's saying here, hey, in Moses' law, when there was two or three witnesses,
this person died without mercy.
And you're thinking, oh, well, that's okay, because in the New Testament, God's a lot
more gracious, right?
And we have, you know, God has changed his mind about things, and everything's totally
different in the New Testament.
No, actually, it's worse, because look at verse 29.
of how much soarer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God
and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified and unholy thing
and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace.
So he uses this Old Testament example saying like,
hey, people died without mercy in the Old Testament for breaking God's commandments.
Numbers 15 is one example of that.
And in the New Testament, he's saying how much soarer punishment
saying, how much more punished do you think you're going to be
who has trodden underfoot the Son of God?
Think about that imagery for a second,
stepping on and treading underfoot the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, if Jesus Christ was physically here,
I'm pretty sure no Christian would do that,
but yet the Bible says that if you are forsaking church,
it's like you're walking all over Jesus Christ.
That's not my example.
That's the example that the Bible is giving.
If you forsake church, if you view church as something that's not important and you don't take it seriously,
it's like you're walking all over Jesus Christ.
It's like you're counting the blood of the covenant as an unholy thing.
Something that's unholy and unclean.
The Bible is saying Christians that forsake church, it's like you're treating the blood of Christ as something that's gross,
as something that's dirty.
I mean, this is some insanely graphic imagery that the Bible is giving us here.
and have done despite unto the Spirit of grace
to sit there and despise the Holy Spirit of God.
That's what the Bible is saying,
you are doing when you forsake church.
So it doesn't sound to me like God just doesn't care if you forsake church.
God doesn't care the attitude that you have toward the house of God.
No, he's saying if you forsake it, it's like you're stepping on Christ.
It's like you're counting the blood of the covenant as something gross and unholy.
It's like you're despising the Holy Spirit of God.
That's the examples that God actually gives.
Go to 1st Timothy chapter number three.
First Timothy chapter number three.
So what are we talking about?
Hey, why take church seriously?
Number one, because church is important.
It's an important institution.
I think the Bible is making that very clear.
First Timothy three, verse 15.
But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know
how thou oddest to behave thyself in the house of God.
So notice there is a certain way that God expects you to behave yourself in the house of God
Why because church is important?
This is not your living room. This is not Chuck E cheese. This is not some fun center
This is the house of God specifically it says which is the church of the living God the pillar and
Ground of the truth. This is the church of the living God
You know, the Bible says in Proverbs 15,
the eyes of the Lord are in every place,
beholding the evil and the good.
You know, our God today is alive.
He can see us today.
He is here with us today.
This is the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth.
What is this pillar and ground of the truth?
It's supposed to support and lift up the truth.
And that's why the institution of the church
is so important because, you know,
Not every institution is out there preaching God's commandments and doctrine and fighting
for salvation and going out and getting people saved and fighting for the King James Bible.
That is the role of the local New Testament church and let me tell you something.
This institution is the most important institution on earth.
So much so that when our country was founded the original 13 colonies when they made their state charters their state
Constitutions they were saying like hey you have to be a Christian to serve in the legislature
To be in any elected form of government, but not pastors though
They're saying pastors cannot serve in government and some people think well that sounds pretty anti-Christian
No, no, they were saying like the role of a pastor is too important to distract them from the house of God to go to the lawmaker's house
Now look, the lawmaker house is pretty important.
The court is pretty important.
The White House is pretty important,
but it pales in comparison
to the importance of the house of God.
And when our country was founded, we noticed that.
We recognized that.
We said, hey, passers-jobs, it's too important
to feed the flock of God,
to go out and get people saved,
because righteousness exalted the nation.
I mean, we're not gonna have a good country
if we don't have good churches.
So this is the priority.
It's the pillar and ground of the truth.
Go to Acts chapter 20.
Acts chapter number 20.
Acts 20 verse 28.
This is Paul kind of giving his farewell address, if you will, to the elders at Ephesus.
And he says this in verse 28,
take heed therefore unto yourselves,
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers to feed the church of God,
which he hath purchased with his own blood.
I mean, isn't the blood of Christ very precious to us as Christians?
And you know, when we do the Lord's Supper and we pour the juice and it symbolizes the
blood of Christ that was shed for us to pay for our sins.
I don't know about you, but I have an emotional response to the Lord's Supper because we're
thinking about the breaking of the body of Jesus Christ, the shedding of our Savior's
blood for our sins.
I mean, there's no more precious commodity in this world than the blood of Christ which
was shed for anchor Baptist church, for steadfast Baptist church, for every church that's ever
existed that is saved Jesus died for that church.
And so I don't know about you, I just have to view church as important.
Why?
Well, here's number two, because God is important.
Go to Isaiah chapter six.
We take church seriously why number one because church is important number two because God is
Important and need I remind you this is the house of God. It's not the house of us here
It's not the house of Pastor Oz. It is the house of God and look it doesn't matter the physical location
Where we meet we could meet in a house in a park in this building in a super nice building
It doesn't matter. It's where God's people are gathered together in his name. That is the house of God
Notice Isaiah chapter six verse one in the year that King Uzziah died.
I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his
train filled the temple.
Notice Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on his throne.
And how does he describe him? Just high and lifted up.
I mean, he's just exalting God's magnificence and God's glory.
When he sees him, he's on his throne and he's just high and lifted up.
And his train followed him, right?
Meaning that there's just like multiple people following him in a train, in a line.
Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings.
With twain, he covered his face and with twain, he covered his feet.
And with twain, he did fly.
one cried unto another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole
earth is full of his glory so notice these angels are just calling out holy
holy holy and we sing that great song holy holy holy why because God is holy
because God is high God is lifted up by the way just a side note this is why you
should not take the Lord's name in vain
You shouldn't stub your toe and say Jesus as an expletive.
You shouldn't cry out, oh God, or Jesus Christ in a way if you're not talking to Him or about Him.
Why? Because He is holy, holy, holy.
He is high and lifted up. He is not common.
He's not something you should say out of anger or out of pain or something like that.
And the Bible says that God will not hold Him guiltless that takeeth His name in vain.
Why? Because God is important.
Go to Jeremiah chapter 10.
Jeremiah chapter 10.
You know, it's good to be reminded of this, because I think sometimes people just take
the Lord for granted, the Bible for granted.
The things of God for granted, the house of God for granted, and it could almost just become familiar
to you and it could just become common to you to where you open up your Bible and you're kind of
just looking at words on the page, but you're not really letting it change you. You're not really
letting it speak to you. You're kind of just showing up in church and you're listening to the
preacher, but you're not actually taking anything to heart. You're not actually trying to change
anything in your life. And let me just remind you, God is important. We need to be reminded of that.
Notice what Jeremiah said for as much as there is none like unto thee. Oh Lord
Thou art great, and thy name is great in might."
Notice Jeremiah's view of God.
He's saying, hey, there's no one like you.
There's no one that even comes close.
And you know, us as Christians that have the truth,
we know that God is so far and above better
than the false gods of this world.
Then Allah, the God of the Muslims,
or the millions of gods of the Hindus,
of course they don't exist,
but they exist in people's minds.
And look, God is just far and above superior
than all of them.
He is great, the Bible says.
His name is great.
Verse 7,
Who would not fear thee,
O king of nations?
For to thee doth it appertain,
for as much as among all the wise men of the nations
and in all their kingdoms,
there is none like unto thee.
So notice, there's no king that's like God.
There's no prince.
There's no governor.
There's no man that is alive
that is even close in greatness to the Lord.
And Jeremiah is kind of baffled.
He's like,
Who would not fear thee?
And I have this same, you know, just confusion in my life sometimes.
So I'm like, how do people not fear God?
How do people just hear the word of God preached, they see what the Bible says, and they just
completely disregard it, it's mind-blowing to me.
And what does it mean to fear God?
Well, of course, the Bible talks about fear and trembling.
Right, what is that?
That's an emotion in your heart of deep respect
and of literal fear, of being afraid of God.
Now, it's not just an emotion though,
because when you feel a strong emotion,
that usually drives your actions to do something, right?
So like, here's an example of this.
Abraham was told to sacrifice his son, Isaac.
Now, that is a pretty tall task.
That is asking a lot of someone to go and sacrifice your son, your only son.
But what did Abraham do?
He took Isaac, he made the altar, he strapped him on the altar,
he took out the knife and he was about to sacrifice and kill his only son, Isaac.
Until the angel cried out from heaven and it's like,
hey Abraham, Abraham put not forethine hand to the lad,
for now I know that thou fearst God.
So, how does this angel define fearing God?
That you're willing to do the things that God says to do.
That you're willing to refrain from things that God tells you not to do.
This is what fearing God actually is.
It's an emotion that drives you to keep His commandments.
And it's also connected with loving God too.
It's very similar because Jesus said, what?
If you love me, keep my commandments.
And look, we should have all of these emotions toward God.
We should have deep respect for him.
We should have literal fear for him.
We should have deep love for him.
But all of these emotions
should cause us to see God as high,
holy, lifted up above all the other men of the world,
above all the gods of the nations,
above all the powers of the governments that exist.
God is high, God is lifted up.
That is the attitude we should have toward him.
Go to Colossians 3.
Colossians chapter number three.
You know, when you're reading your Bible,
yacht to every once in a while, remind yourself,
this is the words of the living God I'm reading.
This is the God that has existed for eternity past
that created the universe, that created you,
that gave you breath in your lungs,
that made this beautiful world.
I mean, every once in a while,
we should just humble ourselves and realize
what a great gift God has given us,
that we even have His word.
Colossians 3 verse 1, notice this, if you then be risen with Christ, talking to those who are saved, seek those things which are above.
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
So us as Christians, even though we live in this world,
we have this flesh, we should not be seeking and living
and existing for the things of the flesh.
We should not be living just to exist in this world
and give ourselves pleasure in this world.
We should be living for that which is above,
for Jesus Christ.
How do you do that?
Verse two, set your affection on things above,
not on things.
the earth. So how you revere Christ is by setting your love and affection on the
things above. And let me tell you something, church, though we're here on
this earth, we're located in Oklahoma City today, this is a heaven-ordained
institution. And so I believe if you are seeking church in the house of God, that
is you seeking things above.
For you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God when Christ notice this phrase who is our life
Shall appear then shall he also appear with him in glory? I mean Jesus Christ is our life at least it should be
There is nothing else to live for in this world, you know, Ecclesiastes said vanity of vanity say at the preacher all is vanity and
Solomon just gave his heart over to seek pleasure and women and money and
Gardens and trees and all the things he could give himself over to and at the end of it
He said hey fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man
And it's the same thing today in the New Testament, Christ is our life and you know how you should be spending your life Monday through Monday is seeking that which is above, not seeking that which is below.
Go to Psalm 138.
Matthew 1820 says, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
You know, I need to remind you guys that Jesus Christ, our Savior,
God the Son is gathered with us today in this room.
And so that should make you take church seriously.
Because I guarantee you, if you could actually see the Lord Jesus Christ here,
you'd probably change your behavior and your attitude a lot.
We probably all would.
If we realized, like, wow, our Savior is here with us this morning.
Wow, this really is the house of God.
Wow, Christ is here with us together.
Number three.
How to show that you take church seriously now for the rest of this sermon
I just want to give you specific examples of how you could actually show that you do take church seriously
That you do revere God that you do take this house
Seriously, and you're not just taking it for granted or acting like it's something light number one
Do the Bible memory verses.
This is the house of God.
I mean, I just showed you how important God is,
how important his word is,
how he's high and he's lifted up,
how no one is like him.
I want you guys to do the Bible memory verse.
I really don't think it's that much to ask to learn
one verse a week.
And look, maybe it's just a habit
that you've never started.
And so maybe it's just kind of hard to get started,
but you need to get started.
And I'm telling you, you can memorize the Bible.
No one has an excuse.
Don't tell me I'm a mom of so many kids.
Don't tell me I work too hard.
Okay, I work two jobs and I'm memorizing a proverb a week.
And I'm speaking a little bit as a fool for a moment,
just so I could get you to memorize one verse a week.
Okay, you've got till February of 2026 to memorize Genesis.
And here's the good news.
You probably have most of Genesis one memorized already.
because we've heard Genesis 1 so many times and so this should be low-hanging fruit for everyone.
Psalm 138 verse 2, the Bible says this, I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name
for thy loving kindness and for thy truth, for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
I mean we just talked about how important
the name of God is, how we shouldn't blaspheme it or take it in vain.
Well, as important as the name of God is, the Word of God is magnified even above that.
So don't you think us as Christians, if we're supposed to seek those things which are above,
if Christ is our life, if Jesus Christ, according to the Bible, is the Word of God,
that we can memorize one verse a week? I do not think that is too much to ask.
Four people in our church memorize Galatians chapter one,
and I think that that is a shame.
And honestly, Anchor Baptist Church,
we don't wanna have the reputation
that we don't memorize the Bible.
That is something that needs to change in our church.
We need to be excellent in this area
of memorizing the scripture.
Why?
Because God's magnified his word above all thy name.
Go to Psalm 119.
Psalm 100 and 19.
This passage we're about to read in Psalm 119 is one of the most famous passages in Psalm 119
And if you haven't heard brother rich caputo at said fast he put this to music and it's beautiful. It's a great song
But look at verse number 97
Notice what it says. Oh, how love I thy law it is my meditation all the day
So, the psalmist here, he loves God's Word, and as a result of God's Word, what does that
cause him to do?
It causes him to meditate on God's Word all day.
How do you meditate on the Word of God?
Well, it has to be in your heart.
It has to be memorized.
That's how you just sit and ruminate and think about the Word of God, meditate on the Word
of God, is by it being in your heart.
And notice, he does this all the day.
This is one of the blessings of
Memorizing the scripture is that you could just have the Bible with you all the day at all times
You know you come across a situation in life and a scripture is just popping into your head
Because you have it memorized and it could be a great blessing to you
Though thou through thy commandments has made me wiser than mine enemies for they are ever with me
Here's another reason you should memorize it will make you wise
You know, how is it that someone is wise today?
It's by taking heed and giving heed to the commandments of God.
And how are you going to do that by memorizing scripture?
Verse 99, I have more understanding than all my teachers for thy testimonies are my meditation.
Now look, this is inspired by God here.
And so the author, he's not just being a prideful jerk saying like, Oh yeah, I know more than
all my teachers because you could kind of see how that might sound prideful.
But it's the truth.
It's reality.
This man has more understanding than all his teachers.
Why?
The Bible will make you smart.
Keeping God's commandments in your heart will make you wise.
It also helps you depart from evil.
I have refrained my feet from every evil way.
that I might keep thy word.
You know, you're just gonna be living a more clean
and separated life when you're memorizing scripture,
when it's on your heart more.
It's gonna be harder for you to go the way of the flesh
and sin against God
when you're constantly thinking about the word of God.
And look, I know we're all busy.
We all have busy lives,
but you can learn one verse a week at minimum.
You really can.
I mean, I highly doubt
that the psalmist just has nothing going on in his life.
He's got no work. He's got no family. He's got no issues. He's got no problems.
And so that's why he's able to just, you know, have his testimony be his meditation all the day.
I'm sure the Psalmist is like a monk just sitting down and just, you know, memorizing scripture.
No, no, no, it's just you can memorize scripture while being a working man.
You can memorize scripture while being a mom. You could memorize scripture
while being in your thirties and forties and fifties because people will use this excuse like,
It's just not my gift.
It's just not something that I'm really good at.
Yeah, because you never do it.
You've never done it before,
so that's why you're not good at it.
But if you put in the time and the effort
and you work at it, you will get better at it.
And that's why it is only one verse a week
because no matter what your skill level is
or what type of aptitude you have for it,
you absolutely can learn a verse a week.
And it's like, you wanna know why I'm not good at the cello?
And if I just have a cello, and I just stare at it, and it just sits in my room, and I never work on it,
it's like, oh, it's just not my gift, it was not good at it.
Yeah, because you don't ever play it.
I'm just not good at baseball.
Yeah, because you play pickleball.
That's why.
You know, if you're playing baseball, you might get better at baseball.
Same thing with memorizing the scripture.
Notice verse 102, I have not departed from thy judgments, for thou hast taught me.
How sweet are thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth.
Through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."
Hey, maybe Christians would start hating the things that God hates if they were memorizing
the Bible every week.
Maybe if they went to a church that had a Bible memory verse every week and they were
actually doing it, then they might hate the things that God hates.
But see, don't deceive yourself and think like, oh, I go to Anchor Baptist Church, I know
I don't do the memory verse, I know I don't go soul winning, I know I don't take things
seriously, but man, I'm in the new IFV, I'm Special Forces.
You're a hearer of the word that the person who just hears the word is like the one who looks at himself in the mirror sees that he's all jacked up and just walks away.
What would you call that type of person? I'll call him a fool is what I'll say.
That is a foolish person that sees they've got all these issues. They know about it. It's been made clear to them, but they don't change.
Well, that's the hearer of the word.
And let me tell you something, that's what you're doing
when you're not respecting God's house,
when you're not getting involved with the programs here,
when you're not doing something as simple
as the Bible memory verse.
Go to Psalm 119, verse nine.
Psalm 119, verse nine.
The Bible says, where with all shall a young man
cleanse his way?
by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
So this verse is geared towards the young men
and you know, children and teenagers,
you too should be memorizing the word of God.
And obviously there's a certain age
where this is gonna be incredibly difficult
for a young child.
You know, I've got young kids
and but surprisingly Genesis one one,
all three of my eldest children have done it.
So the six year old, the five year old
and the three year old have done Genesis one one.
I'm pretty sure you, O thou 30 something year old, can do the same.
Now Heidi, it's a lost cause right now, we're going to work on that when she gets older.
But hey, Genesis 1-1, a child can memorize that.
And hey, a young man, the Bible says, how's he going to cleanse his way by taking heed
there too according to thy word?
Wouldn't it be great?
if during the time that God has given us to be good stewards of our children
from the time of whatever three years old to 18
or whenever they leave our house that we've been making them memorize
a verse a week. That's a lot of Bible.
I mean if you're a child and you memorize scripture one verse a week
from age three four five till you get married out of your parents house
you're probably going to have more Bible memorized than 99 percent of pastors on
earth.
See, that should be what we're striving for for Anchor Baptist Church.
Not four individuals doing the Bible memory verse, but our children growing up and leaving
the home and being experts in the Word of God.
Being 10 times better than anyone else.
That's what we should strive for.
Verse 10, with my whole heart have I sought thee.
Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments."
You know, that is a tall order.
It's easier said than done.
But seeking God and doing the things of God, it should be that you're seeking Him with
your whole heart.
And let's just be honest with ourselves this morning.
Ask yourself, am I seeking God with my whole heart?
Are you really giving it everything you've got to the Lord if you're not memorizing a
single verse a week?
Can you honestly say that?
No, you cannot.
And so change, and don't tell me you like hard preaching
if you're offended right now, because you don't.
Say, you know what, this is right.
I need to seek God with my whole heart,
and you know what, catch up on Genesis 1-1.
You only got one verse to catch up on,
and you're on track with Genesis 1-2 this week.
Seek the Lord with your whole heart.
Verse 11, thy word, have I hid in my heart.
That's talking about memorization
that I might not sin against thee.
Go to Hebrews 12.
Deuteronomy 11-18, therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul and
Bind them for a sign upon your hand that they may be as frontlets between your eyes
Realize that hiding God's word in your heart is not my preference. It is a command of God
God commands us to hide the word of God in your heart and look if you struggle with this
I'll just tell you what works for me personally. I have an app. It's called. It's very easy to remember
It's called the Bible memory app and it is an excellent app. I paid for the pro version. It's totally worth it
It was like 10 bucks and how it works is you import a chapter of the Bible
and it just gives you a verse, right?
And you only have to type the first letter of each word.
So at first it shows you all the words.
So like in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
Then when you click next, it shows every other word.
So there's kind of gaps and you type that in, you memorize it.
Then when you click next, it shows no words
and you have to type it in from memory.
Also, you could record your voice,
which this is my favorite way to do it.
I record my voice.
and you could hit it on repeat 10 times and so as I'm driving or just going about doing
things in my day.
I'm just 10 times Genesis 1 1 10 times 10 times then it goes to Genesis 1 2 and then
as you get better you could like lower it to 5 times.
We're lower it to two times, we're lower it to one time, and then you're just literally quoting the chapter along with your own verse, or with your own voice.
Excuse me.
That works for me.
People have different Bible memory methods.
Whatever works for you, praise God.
But just endeavor to try.
Seek God with all your heart.
Hebrews 12 28 here's another thing that you could do rather what you should not do to show that you actually think church is important
Do not show up late to church
Do not show up late to church Hebrews 12 verse 28 the Bible says this where for we receiving a kingdom
Which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God
acceptably notice with reverence and
godly
fear. What is reverence? Well, it's like extreme respect, high exalted respect and fear. And
you know, we all have respect for certain things in our life. When I go to work, I show
up on time, right? Because we all view our job as important and you should and you want
to have respect for your company and respect for your boss. If your boss tells you, hey,
And if you did, you'd be extremely embarrassed because what are you doing?
You're disrespecting your boss.
You're disrespecting your company.
But look, the house of God is so much more important than your job.
What did we talk about?
Hey, Christ is with us today.
He's in the midst of us today.
This is the house that he shed his blood for, that he died for, that he's fighting to protect.
That the gates of hell are not going to rise against and it's just so disrespectful to just waltz in 20 minutes after and look,
I'm not talking about you had a tire blowout. You had a crazy moment. Those things happen.
But if you've just consistently, if you just consistently show up late to church, that is a choice that you have made.
And don't come at me saying, well, I have kids. So do I.
And you know what?
When I worked at Sedfast Baptist Church, I was often the first person there for a lot
of different events.
Even events, you know, soul winning marathons hours and hours away.
I was there way before anyone else with kids.
It is not an excuse to say like, well, I have kids, therefore I'm late to church every single
time.
No, you've made a choice.
You've, and maybe it's unconscious decision you've made, but you have viewed church as
something that's not that important, that doesn't need that much respect.
And so you kind of just show it up wherever you want.
You need to respect the house of God because here's the thing.
It's not just the preaching that is important.
Now, of course, the preaching is probably the most important thing that happens in our church.
But look, fellowship with believers is important too.
Are we supposed to exhort one another and provoke unto love and to good works?
Well, look, that happens.
Yes, it happens right now in church with the preaching, but it also happens when you say
hi to your brothers and sisters before, when you catch up with each other's lives, when
you make friendships, when you stay a little bit after and hang out.
That's provoking to love and to good works as well.
Notice what the Bible says in James chapter four, James chapter number four.
So I showed you a verse that says we should fear God with reverence.
And you say, well, that doesn't say we have to show up to church on time.
And here's the thing.
I'll grant you that the Bible does not say thou shalt show up to church on time.
But you know, a mature Christian does not necessarily need the Bible to say that.
Because look at this verse, James four, verse 17.
to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
So if you want to play this game, let me ask you something.
Is it good to show respect to the house of God?
Is it good to show up to church on time?
Well, if you know that and you don't do it, you are in sin.
You are being disrespectful to God because here's the thing.
I know to do good at my job, to show up on time.
You know, if you had a meeting with the governor or the mayor or with the president,
you know, some sort of political thing,
you would show up on time to show respect to that person.
And if you didn't, you're like knowing to do good but not doing it.
It's even more so with the house of God.
If you know to do good and do it not, to him it is sin.
Ecclesiastes chapter, or I'm sorry, go to Psalm 122.
I'll just read for you Ecclesiastes 9-10.
The Bible says, whatsoever thy hand, find it to do,
do it with thy might.
This kind of goes in hand again with seeking God with your whole heart.
Hey, if your hand is finding something to do, do it with your might.
If you're going to go to church, then show up on time and participate and read the Bible
and listen to the preaching.
And if you're going to go out soul winning, do it with your might.
Preach the gospel with your might.
You'll just be like...
Well, if we make it back to church, you want to get saved?
No, okay, bye.
Like there's soul winners.
I'm kind of exaggerating a little bit,
but I've seen soul winners
that they're literally just knocking on the door,
like, hey, we're checking salvations.
You want to hear the gospel?
It's like, that's not necessarily doing things
with your might, trying to be convincing,
trying to be persuasive,
trying to be a good ambassador of Christ.
Look, showing up late to church
is not serving God with your might.
It's you being lazy, sleeping in,
mosing around, doing nothing,
and kind of just being on your own program.
You're not doing it with your might.
Psalm 122, verse one, notice the attitude we should have.
I was glad when they said unto me,
let us go into the house of the Lord.
I mean, think about this, many of you aren't baseball fans, but it's a lot of my examples
because I like baseball, right?
You know, if I spend money and I buy a bunch of tickets for my family to go to a Texas
Rangers game, I'm going to be there on time.
In fact, my wife knows I'm there like two hours early because I want to watch the practice.
I want to go out in the outfield and try to catch a ball for my kids.
You know, I show up early.
I want to stay through the whole thing.
Even if they're getting crushed, I'm like, hey, I paid for this.
I'm going to stay all nine innings.
Oh, it went into extra innings?
I love it. It's like, hey, long sermon, great.
So look, if you, in whatever your sport you like or thing you like to do,
you go pay money for something, you're going to be there on time.
Why? Because you care about it.
You actually care about it.
But if it's something you don't care about, that's not a big deal to you.
Then you could show up late, no big deal,
not really have your heart into it while you're there.
Leave early. I mean, if you're not a baseball fan, you're like out by the fourth inning.
You don't want to sit there and watch baseball.
But hey, the diehards, the real ones.
They're going to want to stay for the whole game.
Same thing with church.
If you actually love church, hey, I want to be here early.
I want to see the brethren.
I want to enjoy, you know, be a part of the song service
and read the Bible and listen to the preaching
and hang out with God's people and go soul winning.
Why? Because you want to do it with your might.
Why? Because you were glad when they said unto me,
let us go into the house of God.
It was actually exciting to you,
not something you're just dragging your feet at.
And look, I want our church to be a church
that actually loves serving God.
So what I love about the new IFB is that we're not just filled with a bunch of old boomers
that really don't have any, you know, what's the word I'm looking for?
Passion!
That's what I'm looking for.
They have no passion for the things of God.
They're kind of just bodies in the pew, they're not really excited, they're falling asleep,
they're dead sure not going soul winning, you know the boomer passers are not really
preaching the word of God very hard, you know I want to be in a church that has passion
for the things of God, that loves church, that loves God's word, that loves memorizing
the Bible, that loves coming to church, that loves coming to church on time.
1 Corinthians 1440 says this let all things be done decently and in order now this verse
is in the direct context of how to run a church service.
So we're making good application here that all things should be done decently.
and in order.
So hey, we're supposed to serve God with reverence.
If you know to do good and do it not, it's a sin.
We're supposed to have all things done decently and in order.
You're supposed to do things with all your might.
You're supposed to be glad when you go into the house of God.
I think it's a pretty safe application to say
that you should show up to church on time.
I don't think I'm just preaching my opinion there.
That makes sense according to the Bible.
Number three, don't skip church for lame reasons.
Don't skip church for lame reasons.
Hebrews 10 verse 23, notice this again.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith
without wavering, for he is faithful that promised.
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love
and to good works, not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is,
but exhorting one another and so much the more
as you see the day approaching.
When we go to church you are considering others and you're thinking about others and you're provoking others to love and to good works
But when you forsake church, what are you doing? You're discouraging others
You're not provoking your brothers to love and to good works
You're being selfish and look skipping church for lame reasons can harm your brothers and sisters in Christ
And it can harm God and the kingdom of God and you know what don't skip church for lame reasons
What do I mean by that? Hey, I'm not talking about if you're sick
Okay, obviously we want you gone when you're sick and look
I've kind of experienced in different workplaces and just different groups
I've been a part of a culture where like even if you're like
Vomiting or sick or fever that you just go through it. Look, please if you are sick stay home
I will not be mad at you
I will not think less of you and look even myself
There's been times that I was sick
I had brother Cameron preach or someone else preach because I'm trying to love my brothers here and not give you an illness
So look, I'm not talking about if you're sick, please stay home if you're sick.
But it's just like, what other other reasons you come up with?
I'm tired.
You know, I'm just gonna go to the lake today
and just do nothing, I'm just gonna go fishing today.
Hey, be a fisher of men.
Why don't you take a day off work,
use some vacation time and go fishing or go to the lake?
Or why don't you go on Saturday?
But why are you just skipping church for lame reasons
when the Bible says Christ is our life
that we're supposed to seek those things which are above?
Look, whenever God's house is open, you should be there.
And look, I'm not just saying this like you, you, you,
I'm saying this is what I do.
This is my mentality for my family and always has been.
Way before I was a pastor that, hey,
if the doors are open, I'm gonna be there.
Why?
Because church is important, because God is important,
because we wanna provoke our brothers to love
and to good works.
Go to Romans 10.
But here's the thing, not only is it just harming your brothers when you're discouraging them,
not only should you just provoke them unto love and to good works,
but let me tell you something, you personally need church.
I'm talking about you, not someone else, you need church.
Don't think like, oh man, I'm pretty spiritual, I read the Bible, I go so many...
No, no, no, you need church. You know why?
Romans 10, 17. So then faith cometh by hearing...
and hearing by the Word of God.
You know what? I need this morning.
I need my faith to be increased.
You know what? All of you need this morning.
You need your faith to be increased.
And how does that happen?
It happens by hearing, hearing what?
The Word of God.
So here's the cool thing about the Christian life
is that you will never arrive
to a point where you don't need church.
And look, praise God.
We have the Holy Spirit.
He could lead us and guide us into all truth.
We could pray and get things out of the Scriptures,
but you still need church.
And I need church today.
Here's another reason you need church. Go to 2 Timothy 3, 2 Timothy chapter number 3.
Look at verse 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's profitable for doctrine.
Hey, you need to learn doctrine. And where is it that you learn doctrine? It should be in the house of God.
You know, a lot of the old IFB, their mentality is that Sunday sermons are for salvation
and then you have to sign up for a Bible college and pay money to learn doctrine.
You know, we reject that completely at Anchor Baptist Church.
We believe that sermons should be giving things to people who just got saved and to mature Christians.
It should be teaching doctrine to everyone.
Not only that, you also need this.
For reproof, for correction.
Hey, we need correction from time to time and every single person needs correction in
their life.
You're never going to arrive at a point in your life where you don't need correction.
Sometimes you just need someone that loves you to tell you, hey, you are not giving Christ
your all and you need to do the Bible memory verse.
Sometimes you just need someone that loves you to say that and where are you going to
get that correction?
You're going to get it at the house of God.
I charge thee therefore, verse one, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, notice this, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine.
Man, sometimes we just need to come to church and just get our faces ripped off.
We need that from time to time.
You want to know why?
Because we all have the flesh and we all can get lazy.
We all can get back slidden.
We all can get complacent.
We all could open our Bible from time to time
and not really mind ourselves.
What a holy and precious thing that we have here.
And sometimes you need to come to church and just get rebuked.
Not every sermon needs to be against the sodomites.
And you know, I just realized a long time ago
that people don't actually like hard preaching.
People love the sermons against the sodomites when they're not a sodomite.
People love the sermons against drunks when they're not a drunk.
They love preaching against fornication when they're not committing fornication,
but the moment it's something that they are guilty of, then it gets real quiet.
Then the faces start to change.
Then they treat you a little bit differently after the sermon.
Look, just love hard preaching, folks. Love hard preaching.
You will not make it in the Christian life.
to the end of your life, serving God, unless you could just love correction and love rebuke
and love reproof.
You know, that is a loving thing to do.
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number five, Ecclesiastes five.
Here's something you could do to show that you take God's house. Seriously. Number four, do pay attention
during the service.
Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 1 notice what the Bible says keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear
then to give the sacrifice of fools,
for they consider not that they do evil.
You know what the sacrifice of fools often is?
It's the sacrifice of their lips,
their foolish talking that they have.
And the Bible says, hey, when we come to church,
we should be ready to hear.
We should be wanting the Bible to correct us.
We should be wanting the preaching
to be applicable to us.
You know, why would we wanna go to church
where the sermon never is applicable to you?
Then that's just more work you gotta do at home.
even extra Bible reading to get something that's on you.
No, I want to come to church and have the sermon about me.
And if you ever have to ask, like, is the sermon about you, the answer is always yes.
You know, that's a great mentality that my sending pastor taught me.
And he said, if anyone ever asks him if the sermon was about them, the answer is always yes.
Because, hey, if you're perceiving that something in the Word of God is correcting you, then it was about you.
Now, what's funny is, like, I don't usually sit down and write a sermon thinking about certain people.
It's usually people that I weren't thinking about that ask that.
But look, just realize, hey, if it is affecting your heart right now, yes, it is about you.
and you should pay attention into the church, or in church.
What does that mean?
Obviously it means just minimize talking
as much as possible.
Now look, I understand sometimes you gotta be like,
hey, hand me that kid real quick,
or like, hey, I'll take this baby,
or hey, will you take to the mother baby room?
You know, stuff like that, I'm not saying
you could literally never speak in church.
There could be moments where that's necessary,
or usher safety team guys, the audiovisual guys,
sometimes they have to talk,
sometimes they have to even look at their phone
to have messages from each other, that's okay.
But what's not okay,
is scrolling Instagram at church.
What's not okay, what's not respectful
to the house of God is being on Facebook.
We're texting your buddies
or just taking a random phone call
that can wait for another time.
You know, that would be inappropriate.
You know security guys I had mentioned this a while ago that when you are doing security at the front door
That's not to hang out with your wife or with your child
That is for you to be there paying attention to your job listening to the preaching being vigilant
It's not time to hang out with your wife or kids
Okay, so I've said this before and I don't know why it just got ignored
But there's no wives and no kids allowed sitting at the security post. Okay, that is for men to do their job
Okay, men, when you're taking the offering, I understand there's some talking that has
to happen back there in the kitchen when you're doing your job.
But that's not the time to play around and have, you know, long conversations about things
that doesn't matter.
That's your time to count the tithe and get back into the house of God.
Why?
Because you need church.
And I need church.
We all need church.
1st, 74, verse 13, notice what the Bible says,
till I come, give attendance to reading,
to exhortation, to doctrine.
Give attendance means pay attention to.
The Bible is saying, hey.
Till I come, pay attention to reading.
We're not just doing a vain exercise
when we read the chapter before the service.
I mean, you're getting a free Bible chapter
into your Bible reading during the service.
You know, pay attention to it.
Don't just sit there, lollygaggin,
just paying attention somewhere else.
You know, focus on the word of God,
focus on the words on the page,
let the Bible speak to you,
and then also this goes for during the sermon as well.
When we turn to a verse, hey, read that verse.
Pay attention to that verse.
Here's another really important one to show that you take God's house seriously.
Psalm 81, number five, do sing loud.
Do sing loud.
Look at Psalm 81 verse one.
Sing aloud unto God our strength.
Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
The Bible literally commands you to sing aloud.
And I'm just going to be honest,
Anchor Baptist Church kind of sucks at this.
And I don't like it.
It is a little bit shameful and look I'm not saying it's always going to be like this because I'm hoping you're going to take this sermon and change.
But look, you're supposed to sing aloud unto God our strength.
Don't just sit there like a log, not singing at all, or just mumbling, sing aloud unto God.
Why? Because isn't God important?
Isn't he high and lifted up?
Isn't he unlike anyone else?
Isn't he above every king, every governor?
This is God Almighty that we're singing to.
It's not your show. It's not your American Idol show. It's not my American Idol show.
We're not singing for glorification of ourselves. You're singing to God.
God is inclining his ear to his praise. And isn't he worthy of that praise?
And sometimes, you know, I look up and I just see the same people every time just not singing or not singing loud.
You know, when I was a song leader for four years at Steadfast,
I remember there was just certain people where I would be song leading
and they would just sit there the whole time and just stare at me.
And one time, and one time only, I just walked up to this person.
I said, hey, is everything good between us?
Like, are you okay? Is there something wrong?
Like, did I make you mad?
Because why are you just staring at me,
looking angry every song service?
And it changed after that.
But you know, hey, I've told Cameron, like, hey,
if people aren't singing, you might just need to stop
and be like, all right, you guys are sounding like
Presbyterians, it's time to sing out loud.
Like, I'm okay with him doing that,
because honestly, it's kind of sad
when our church is not singing out to God.
Why is it that a Catholic church is gonna out sing us?
Right.
Why is it that a Methodist church is going to out-sing us?
Why would a Church of Christ, where they don't even believe in instruments, be louder than us?
I mean, we've got some instruments and they're louder.
That's a shame.
So look, sing aloud.
Oh, I don't want people to notice me.
We're just going to notice you when you're not singing.
Oh, everyone's going to look at me if I'm singing loud.
No, maybe I'm just going to look at you when you're not singing.
Maybe I'm just going to look right at you when you're not singing.
And maybe you'll feel uncomfortable when you're not singing.
Because guess what? When we're all singing out together, you're not singled out.
We can't pick you out. When our voices are lifted up together, it sounds good.
It sounds good. It's a joyful noise unto the Lord.
And look, you don't have to be an excellent singer to sing out loud.
I am not some great singer, okay? But I'm going to sing out loud. Why? Because I love God.
because he's high and lifted up,
because he's worthy of our praise,
because he died and suffered on the cross
and went to hell for three days and three nights
and rose again from the dead to purchase our salvation.
I think we could praise him a couple of times a week.
I think you could sing out loud to him a couple of times a week.
And you know what, again, it just shows someone's heart
that they're not taking church seriously,
that they do not view God as special and high and lifted up
when we're singing to God and you're just sitting there
being quiet or mumbling.
No, sing aloud.
Go to Colossians chapter number three Colossians chapter number three
Colossians 3 verse 16 the Bible says let the word of Christ
Dwell in you richly with all wisdom
Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. So notice we're singing to the Lord and by singing
We're also teaching and admonishing one another
Why because there's a lot of great doctrine in the hymns that we sing and we sing a lot of the Psalms directly from the King James
Bible, that's like getting a free chapter memorized
If you're singing the Psalms, man, we have those verses memorized because we're singing them all the time.
My children have them memorized as little kids, and that is a blessing to have the word of Christ dwelling in you richly.
Go to Ephesians 5. I'm just going to read a couple verses for you.
Psalm 33 verse 1.
Sing unto him with the sultry and an instrument of ten strings.
Sing unto him a new song, play skillfully with the loud noise.
So of course, we're wanting to sing out unto the Lord.
We want to play our instruments unto the Lord.
You know, I don't understand how the Church of Christ has this doctrine
that you can't have musical instruments in church.
Like, how can this be any more clear?
To praise the Lord with a harp.
Sing unto him with the sultry and an instrument of ten strings like they're supposed to just sit there
But not play because I don't see how you can get around what this verse is saying
You know, we want to have musical instruments in our church. We want to have more musical instruments in our church
Stay there. I'm just gonna read several verses for you Psalm 66 verse 1 make a joyful noise unto God
Oh, you lands well, I can't sing great
Can you make a joyful noise though because even kids can make a joyful noise sing forth the honor of his name?
Make his praise glorious say unto God how terrible art thou and thy works through the greatness of thy power
Shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee all the earth shall worship thee and shall sing unto thee
They shall sing to thy name seal off Psalm 95. Oh come let us sing unto the Lord
Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him with Psalms Psalm 100
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands, serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing.
Psalm 149, praise ye the Lord, sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation of saints.
Psalm 150, praise ye the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in the firmament of his power.
Praise him for his mighty acts.
Praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him with the sound of the trumpet.
Praise him with the sultry and harp.
Praise him with the timbrel and dance.
Praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
Praise him upon loud cymbals.
Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord,
praise ye the Lord.
I mean, I think God wants us to praise him.
I mean, it sounds pretty repetitive here, but apparently, we need this ingrained into us
that God wants praise.
He wants us to sing unto him.
He wants us to make a joyful noise unto him.
He wants us to play our instruments unto him.
And look, after God can die on the cross for us.
Can we not sing a song to the Lord like can we not just praise the Lord with our voices?
You know, I love the hymn where it says
Let me sing always only for my king
You know, you've got no problem going to a concert and just belting do you?
You'd love to go to a concert and you just belt out and you sing along and you don't care who's watching.
You don't care if you sound silly or look silly. Man, you will belt out at a Taylor Swift concert.
You'll belt out at whatever concert you're into, but then you come to church and you're shy and timid.
And let me tell you what that is. It is a revelation of your heart not fearing the Lord and not exalting Him the way He should be exalted.
And if there's any place on earth that you should sing out loud, it should be in the house of God.
sing out loud. Go to first, or I'm sorry, we were there in Ephesians 5, verse 18,
and be not drunk with wine, wear in his excess, but be filled with the spirit,
speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody in your heart to the Lord. Look, take God's house seriously, sing
out loud. Last point, go to 1st Timothy 2, 1st Timothy chapter number two.
Number six, here's something you can do to show that you take God's house seriously.
Number six, do dress appropriately.
Do dress appropriately.
First Timothy 2.9, this first part is more geared towards the ladies.
It says in like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel
with shame-facedness and sobriety, not with broodered hair or gold or pearls or costly array,
but which become with women professing godliness with good work.
showing that you take God's house seriously is dressing modestly and I will say praise Lord our
church does not have an issue with this but it's a good bell to ring every once in a while
because you know I've been in churches before where a lady walks in dressed like a hoochie mama
and you know what that is that's disrespectful to the house of God.
You know, there's certain areas that you would not go dressed like that in and of all the places that you should be dressed to your best and dressed modestly and dressed appropriately when it be in the house of God.
It just makes sense, right?
So modesty is one aspect of that.
Go to Hebrews 12. I want to read this verse again. Hebrews chapter 12.
Another aspect of this, you know, we have modesty.
We want to dress modestly in God's house,
but I also believe that we should dress reverently.
And again, I get that from this verse in Hebrews 12 verse 28.
The Bible says, wherefore we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby
we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
And again, this is more just an application of this truth
that, hey, if we recognize this is the house of God,
that Christ died for, that He shed His blood for.
If we realize that the gates of hell are not going to prevail against this place,
that Christ is fighting for it,
if we realize that the house of God is important,
that God is important, that He is high and lifted up,
it just makes sense that we would dress reverently in His house.
And you know what? Baptists have done this for forever.
Why? Because it's a biblical principle here,
that we should be reverent.
Now look, I am never going to police.
You know what people wear whether or not men wear suits and ties.
The only people that I'll police that for is men who do something in the ministry read or song lead or something like that involved in the security team or audio team stuff like that.
Yes, you have to wear a shirt and tie.
You know, that's my rule.
But you know men are going to come in here and not do that and that's fine.
I'm never going to police that.
But you know what?
I don't necessarily care about the exterior as much as I care about what you're doing in your own heart because here's the thing.
If you show up to church and you're wearing, you know, nice clothes and in your heart you're
saying like, hey, I'm getting nice dressed up.
I'm presenting myself before God.
I'm dressed nice before the Lord and that's your heart.
That's your conscience.
Hey, praise God.
I'm for you.
I'm not going to sit here and police what men wear.
But I will say though, if in your heart you're just like, man, I just want to wear comfy
clothes.
I don't really care.
And that's what you're presenting yourself with.
It's not necessarily what you're wearing.
That's the issue, but it's that your heart is a problem.
Obviously Christ said, hey, you cleanse the inside of the cup first, so it needs to come
from the heart.
But I'm not wearing a suit and tie today because I feel like I just want to be respected
or want to be looked at a certain way.
It's because I have a fear of God.
I want to revere God's house and I want to dress in the best possible way that I can.
That's my heart where I'm coming from.
You need to figure that out for yourself, but here's all I'm saying is dress reverently
dressed modestly in the house of God and you know what I will say this
If you want to be a minister someday,
if you want to be in the ministry someday,
you know, I expect you to take things a little more seriously.
I expect you to be a cut above other people
showing that you do take the house of God very seriously
because the pastorate is a very serious position.
Being an evangelist is a very serious position.
You know, and it's funny because I've had people come to me
and look me in the face and tell me
that they want to be ordained someday.
Whether that's as a pastor evangelist saying like hey my go my long-term goal is to be ordained to something
And then they will show up to church in shorts and a flip-flop
Flip-flops or whatever and I'm just like you know
You're not really screaming to me that you want to be in the ministry someday
You're not really screaming to me that you're taking the house of God seriously
You know don't come in here dressing in costumes and wearing funny Burger King hats and crap like that
Okay, why don't you actually have some reverence to the house of God and again if you're all upset and offended
Well, then just stop telling people that you like hard preaching
But I'll tell you this if you want to be a pastor someday or an evangelist someday
You better be the person that could take some rebuke
You better be the person that could take some correction without getting offended without changing your attitude towards me
Or you're just showing you're definitely not cut out for the ministry
So, hey, you want to be the leader of the house of God someday?
Why don't you start by respecting the house of God you're in now?
Why don't you start being reverent towards it now?
Why don't you show up on time?
Why don't you do the memory verse?
Why don't you dress respectfully?
Why don't you pay attention in church?
Why don't you do the things that are leased and then maybe much can be given to you someday?
First Timothy chapter 3.
First Timothy chapter 3 verse 15 says, but if I Terry long.
that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God,
which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
You know, we need to, every once in a while, just look inward and remind ourselves,
hey, this is an important institution.
This is the church that Jesus Christ died for.
God is with us today.
And if church is important, God's important, we need to actually take it seriously.
Actually, revere and respect the house of God.
Just in review number one.
Do the memory verse. I believe that you guys can do it. Do the memory verse. Number two, don't show up late.
Number three, don't skip for lame reasons. Number four, do pay attention in church. Number five,
do sing loud. Number six, do dress appropriately. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the house of God.
Thank you for your word.
I pray that people would listen to this sermon
and not take it as a personal attack.
I just pray that they would know that I do love them, Lord,
and that we're all just trying to serve you
to become better Christians.
I pray that Anchor Baptist Church,
we would all strive to be an example of Christians
that serve you, that seek you with our whole heart,
that fear you, and that respect the house of God.
We love you and Jesus, and we pray.