you
just
Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus, just to trust his cleansing blood.
Just be simple, be true, be true, be the healing, cleansing blood.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I prove Him, Lord and Lord.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, long for praise to trust Him, Lord.
Yes, it's sweet to trust in Jesus, just from sin yourself to sin.
Just from Jesus, simply taken by their blessed and joy and peace.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I prove Him, Lord and Lord.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, long for praise to trust Him, Lord.
I'm so glad I learned to trust.
Precious Jesus, Savior, friend.
Here I know that Thou art with me, will be with me to the end.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I prove Him, Lord and Lord.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, long for praise to trust Him, Lord.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I prove Him, Lord.
Let's turn to our next song, song 197.
Song 197, Singing I Go.
Song 197.
Alright, let's sing this on the verse.
Singing I Go.
The passing case brings me to my place, where not I hear Him sing.
And when my fears are turned to waste, the burden sticks away.
Singing I Go.
I find that love is true.
The mighty arms are full of you.
But let it my worries true.
Singing I Go.
The whole life's true.
Praising the Lord.
Singing I Go.
The whole life's true.
For Jesus has been paid my load.
Amen.
All right.
Great singing this evening.
Good to have you all here with us, the Strong Old Baptist Church on this Wednesday night.
At this time, we're going to go through our announcements.
If you don't have a bulletin, you can just slip your hand up real high.
We'll make sure that we get one out to you.
And if you'll open up to the first page, you'll see our service time is listed there.
Sunday morning at 1030.
Sunday evening, again, at 5 p.m.
Wednesday night 7 is our Bible study.
We've got the soul-winning opportunities listed there, as well as the salvations and the baptisms
for the month of July as well as for the year.
Let's go ahead and count up if there's any salvations to report.
One on Monday.
Amen.
Anyone else?
Yes, sir.
Sunday night.
Oh, cool.
Awesome.
Anybody else?
All right.
Very good.
Obviously, keep up the good work.
I know it's hot out there, but it's a lot hotter in hell.
So I'm sure those that are getting saved appreciate you going out there and sweating
and putting forth that effort.
So very much so.
So keep up the work.
All right.
Down at the bottom of the page, we've got the offering totals received through the month of July.
Prayer requests on the next page.
Lots of people we're praying for.
Lots of need out there.
A lot of people have a lot of problems.
So please just be in prayer in general for everybody on the list.
Please, you know, take the list seriously.
Take it home with you.
Take a picture of it so that you can be praying for people on a regular basis.
Is there any updates that anyone has for people who are on the list currently?
Anything new to update with?
All right.
Well, yes, sir.
Yes.
Oh, good.
Yeah, that's awesome.
That's awesome.
Really happy to hear that.
Absolutely.
Has she been able to pinpoint her kind of turning around to anything in particular or no?
Like anything that's helped her out?
Yeah.
Good.
That's awesome.
Well, diet is the number one thing in our health is how we eat and what we eat and, you know, keeping track of the things that you do.
That is primary for your health, that you get that down right.
A lot of people, you know, and unfortunately, here's my little mini sermonette about that.
You know, unfortunately, too many people are so focused on like, oh, I've got a problem with a doctor.
Get some drugs to take to just deal with whatever is happening when oftentimes, very oftentimes, it could be dealt with by managing what you eat.
Because, I mean, there's, you know, chemical reactions happening in your body and your body needs different things and vitamins and minerals and all that to function properly.
So, so many times if we just get our diet under control and get maybe a little bit more exercise, it does a world of difference on how we feel.
So, I'm glad to hear that.
That's good news.
Because the unfortunate part of that is that oftentimes it's sometimes some of the hardest things to change is how much we exercise and how much we eat.
It could be very difficult.
So I'm glad to hear that's good news.
But yes, please, please pray for everyone on the list.
And then also, I just I heard the pastor, he is not doing really well.
I don't think he's going to be at the Red Hot.
So just pray that he gets well.
I don't think it's anything necessarily very serious, but it's enough to cause him to not be able to preach.
So pray for him as well, if you would.
On the next page, we've got the a bunch of activities that are that are, you know, some are sponsored by our church, some are not.
That Toronto soul winning event is being put on by Pastor Aaron Thompson and Deacon Russell in conjunction with Brother Rob, who's been visiting our church quite a bit lately.
And I know it's gonna be a lot of fun.
I've heard a lot of different activities.
They've got scheduled between August 2nd and the 6th, as well as lots of soul winning and also just other fun things that's going on.
So if you've got the time, you're able to make it up there.
I don't know what all the requirements are for crossing the border anymore.
I heard that you need like an enhanced I.D. or something.
If you're if you're driving across the border, if you're flying, you need a passport.
So just keep that in mind if you're making and playing on any trips.
I haven't been to Canada ever.
So and the last time I've been out of countries in Mexico before they required passports.
So that was easy.
You just go across with the driver's license.
But times have changed.
So anyhow, if you're interested in that, I could give you I could get you the contact information for those listed here.
If you don't already have it.
Next month's preaching class schedule for August 12th, 10 30 a.m.
All men are welcome to attend.
We had a great time last time.
A lot of people showed up.
Really encouraging to see so many men that are that are interested in the preaching class.
Hebrews Chapter eight.
It says week seven of seven.
But because we're going to be doing the Bible memory challenge in August, I'm going to grant an extra review week for Hebrews Chapter eight.
Give you a little bit more time to get that completed.
I have not decided on what the passage will be for August for the challenge.
So don't assume it's going to be Hebrews Chapter nine.
It may be something entirely different.
It actually probably will be something different.
But anyhow, that's what's what's going on with that.
And then the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries are listed there for the month of July.
And is there anything?
Sixteen.
Today's the 19th.
Noah.
No, I was not here.
At least not yet.
So if Noah shows up, Noah shows up, we'll sing happy birthday to him later.
And for the mat, had a birthday yesterday.
Happy birthday, brother Matt.
Delayed it.
And then the only one left here is Emerson for the month of July.
Got the upcoming events on their bottom of the page.
Right now, preaching is this week.
So if you're interested in that, you could tune in.
It'll be late for us because it's West Coast time.
So if you want to tune in on there, I don't know what channel is being streamed to.
But there's a lot of great preachers should be.
It's always a really cool event.
If you can't make it out there, obviously, you do have to have your plans already, probably by now.
But there's a lot of cool things going on there.
Tune in.
Check out the videos of the preaching that's going on at that conference.
And then our our next sowing marathon for our church is scheduled September 2nd.
It's Labor Day weekend.
It's a Saturday.
So try to get the time off for that if you like to join us.
I should decide really, really soon on where we're going for that.
If we're going to be we're probably going to be driving a little bit since we've been doing the past two we've done have been in town.
So I'm going to choose a destination that is not right by this church.
So we'll be meeting somewhere else.
But I don't have I don't have that finalized yet.
I'll let you know as soon as I can about that.
September 17th through 23rd is the St. Lucia missions trip that's being hosted by the Baptist Church.
October 12th through the 15th.
Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship.
That conference is a preaching event and that is hosted by steadfast Baptist Church.
And then November 8th through the 12th is Faith Awards missions conference in Tempe, Arizona.
So that is about it for all of our announcements this evening.
And with that, I'll turn the service back over to Brother Peter, who can lead us in our next song.
One hundred twenty one.
Like a river glorious.
So let's wait.
Sing this out in the first.
That's it.
Oh.
Offering.
Is being passed around.
Bibles.
Chapter.
Psalms chapter 63.
We do.
Mary Harris from Baptist Church.
Read the entire chapter.
Michael Ricardo.
Amen.
Church.
Once again, that is the book of Psalms Chapter 63.
Psalms Chapter 63.
The Bible reads.
Oh God, thou art my God.
Early will I seek.
My soul thirsted for thee.
My flesh longest for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is to see that power.
Glory.
So as I have seen in the sanctuary.
Because thy loving kindness is better than life.
My lips shall praise thee.
Thus will I bless thee while I live.
I will lift up my hands in thy name.
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness.
And my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.
When I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches because thou has been my help.
Therefore, in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
My soul followed hard after thee.
Thy right hand upholdeth me.
But those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
They shall fall by the sword.
They shall be a portion for foxes.
But the king shall rejoice in God.
Every one that swears by him shall glory.
But the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.
Let's pray.
Father God, we just praise you and thank you for all that you do.
Allow for Pastor Burzis to speak with roses.
Allow for us to take your word in.
Allow for us to be attentive to your word.
To be able to receive and apply whatever it is that you have for us to do.
We praise you and thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right.
In Psalm 63, this psalm is very centrally focused on what I think we see here in verse number 1.
The Bible says,
And what we're going to see is this whole theme of this dedication to God.
And not just a dedication, but I mean this, you know, sincere desire and longing and yearning for the Lord.
Wanting to serve him, to be with him.
And like he says here, it's this analogy used of describing someone who's, you know, in a dry and a thirsty land.
And this was also, if you notice,
wondering in the wilderness, right, if you're out.
And you think about wilderness, too, like our concept of wilderness isn't necessarily the same as the wilderness that was in Israel.
Because there's a desert over there.
Like here we might think of wilderness of being like a lot of woods and a real wooded and maybe even almost tropical environment.
But you're just kind of like out there.
It is way out there.
But the wilderness for them is going to be a lot more dry and desert.
And and not that it matters that much, but it's still it's going to it's going to put the right imagery in your mind of someone who's wandering around.
You could think about, hey, man, you know, you're wandering around a desert for a while.
You're gonna get pretty thirsty.
You know, even if you have resources, you're still going to end up getting thirsty.
You start to feel that that thirst from wandering around out there.
And this is this might be part of what was triggering in his mind as God delivered the word of God unto him.
But he's likening that physical feeling of of just being extremely thirsty and just kind of wandering around and like, man, I wish I could just get some water.
I wish I could quench this thirst.
He's he's using that spiritually to describe the thirst for God, that that desire to just be filled with the things of God, with the spirit of God.
And just that longing and yearning just to have that that, you know, the quench of being able to receive the things of God and really just seeking wholeheartedly the Lord with that with that earnest desire to to to be close to God, to know the things of God, to serve God closely.
And this this whole psalm is marked with this this one primary thought.
And the first thing that came to my mind as I was preparing and studying for this sermon is just a similar phrase in Matthew, chapter five in the Beatitudes in verse number six.
The Bible, I don't want to misquote it.
The Bible says this.
It says, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
And you think about someone who's who's hungering and thirsting for righteous, not just like, well, I know I need to do what's right.
You know, like, well, I'm going to try to do good, I guess.
That's a way different attitude than someone who's hungering and thirsting for righteousness, like, no, I really want to do right.
And it's the same having that level of yearning for doing right is also going to help you to have the proper hatred for sin in the flesh.
And just, oh, how long, Lord?
There's like the apostle Paul.
How long must I be in this, you know, this body of death?
I just can't wait to be with you and to shed this sinful flesh and just be done with it because, you know, I hate this flesh.
It's always a constant battle and a war.
And the more you love the things of God, the more you're going to hate the things that are against God and the sinful nature.
And the problem that a lot of people have is not having this extreme thirsting and yearning for the things of God, which puts you a lot more in the middle.
Right?
Where you're kind of just like, well, I don't I don't feel that battle so much between the flesh and the spirit.
If you don't really have that battle, if you don't see that that battle going on, it's either because you have so well put down that flesh and subdued it so well that like, man, that's not I really have dominance over that flesh.
Or you might be more in your flesh than you think and less in your spirit.
And it's probably more likely the latter than the former.
It's much more likely if you're not if you're not experiencing that that battle of the of the carnal versus the spiritual because we all have to deal with it.
I mean, we have this flesh and it is a real struggle and a real battle that you have to deal with every day.
But you may not have the proper yearning and thirsting after the righteousness and the things of God, like a man in the wilderness, like a man walking around in the desert that's just seeking that water.
Like, man, how great is that water going to taste when you finally get a drink?
You know, the hungry to the hungry soul.
Every bitter thing is sweet.
The Bible says the Book of Proverbs, this true statement, you know, you start going without food for a while.
It gets to the point where it's like whatever you end up eating is just going to be phenomenal.
I mean, seriously, like if you've never done that before, I recommend just trying it just for the experience of something else.
I mean, there's spiritual applications, a lot of good reasons to fast and to fast for the Lord and to fast for good things.
But the experience of going without for a long time, food, water, whatever it is.
And then you finally get to have something.
I mean, you fast for a day or two or you kind of go without for a long time and then you get to like, oh, man, that's just so like.
That's one of the best I remember when I went hiking one time.
Again, this wasn't anything spiritual, but we were out in the wilderness, went backpacking and didn't have a lot of food to bring with.
So, you know, we're packing in, packing out, didn't bring any fishing rod or anything.
It's not like we were getting game out in the wilderness.
It was just whatever you brought with you.
So, yeah, I mean, we're doing these long hikes extended for hours and hours and hours, going down a mountain, up a mountain, you know, all kinds of stuff.
This was back when I was able to do things like this a little bit easier.
I was a little bit more fit.
But the memory is strong when we came out from having that hike and like so just completely exhausted by the end of it.
It was only a few days, but it was long enough that like, man, when we got done, it was like we went to In-N-Out like right away.
That was the first stop getting out.
And that was the best cheeseburger I've ever had in my life.
But it's because we'd gone without for a few days and, you know, and gotten worn down physically and just was just, man, I just I need some food because the cans of what I don't even remember what I had on that trip or whatever I had.
It wasn't a lot.
Now, I had the biggest pack out of everyone on the trip.
My bag was like 50 pounds.
But that's beside the point.
I just had to carry that much more.
I still wasn't like eating really well or anything like that.
And then when you get out and you eat that, it was something else.
It's so good.
It's like when, you know, if you're going for a while and you just don't have a drink and your mouth gets all dried and as soon as you get that, oh, man, it's the best cup of water, glass of water, whatever.
That's what's being described here is that level of thirst.
But it's for the Lord.
It's for the things of God.
It's it's it's a spiritual mindset.
And look, obviously.
Just in our world, we could be considered in a wilderness, in a desert that is very dry of spiritual things where there's not that much going on to satisfy the spirit or the things of God other than like coming to church or being around God's people.
So we are, in a sense, in this wilderness.
In turn, if you would, to to Amos Chapter eight, there's actually, you know, a lack of the word of God being described in Amos Chapter eight.
Which I believe this passage, Amos Chapter eight has been fulfilled, but it's one of those passages that could be fulfilled, I think, more than once.
And the truth.
Just rings true, probably through many through many time frames.
Look at verse number 11 in Amos Chapter eight.
The Bible says, Behold, the days come, said the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
And they shall wander from sea to sea and from the north even to the east.
They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it.
In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
They that swear by the sin of Samaria and say, Thy God, O Dan, liveth and the manner of Beersheba liveth.
Even they shall fall and never rise up again.
So, again, it gives more references to things are going on with Dan.
And of course, in Dan is where they reared up one of the false those idols.
So those false gods back from Jeroboam and some knee bat when he put that up there.
And it's referencing these other things.
But this this sense of, you know, where is the word of the Lord?
It's just not being preached.
And we could we could appreciate that if you've ever gone and tried to visit just churches, just looking to hear the word of God preach.
And sometimes it could just feel like, man, is anybody going to open up their Bible and just preach the word of God?
And there's many places around the world where, like you go, you could go from church to church, a church, a church, a church, and you have you know, you have a church.
You could go from church to church, a church, a church, a church, and you have you may have many churches.
But it's it just seems like there's just this void of the word of God being preached.
And I'm not even talking about having to be in agreement with with all of our doctrines.
I just mean like how many churches are even opening up the Bible and preaching the Bible?
Even if it's a different Bible.
I mean, seriously, like like like it.
You know how I feel about different versions of Bible.
It's this mindset of like.
Pastors just just are motivational speakers these days of all of these, quote unquote, Christian churches.
I mean, you might get half a verse.
And then the rest of the time is just a bunch of talking just out of the heart of the pastor or whoever.
And that is a true dearth or famine of the word of God.
It's just like, where is it? Can we just get back to the word of God?
And for those that love the word of God and are thirsting and longing for the word of God, you want to hear it preached.
And what a relief it is when you can finally find like, thank you.
Thank you, Lord, for leading me to a place where I could hear your word because I love your word.
I want more of your word to feel the spirit, the born and spirited child of God inside of you wants to hear the word of God and wants to know the truth and hear that and receive that and learn and grow thereby.
We have that desire and it's so wonderfully expressed in this psalm.
Turn, if you would, to First Peter chapter two.
We're going to see again, this is like a commandment to have this desire for the word of God.
And the only way we're going to fulfill that is by dealing with our flesh.
Because the flesh is what prevents us.
The spirit, the spirit inside of you, the new man is going to love the things of God.
That that desire for the things of God is there.
If you're born again, you have the new man that does desire these things.
But if you're not feeling it, if you're not noticing that desire, you're you're you're old man.
I mean, it's one of two things.
Your old man may just be smothering that new man.
Pretty good.
Or maybe you don't have the new man.
I mean, those are the only two options.
But I don't say that to make you doubt your salvation.
I say that because a lot of people, you can let the spirit get quenched by fulfilling the lusts of your flesh
and just allowing that to continue to happen.
Because if you weren't able to quench the spirit, then the Bible wouldn't say quench not the spirit.
Right?
And unfortunately, I know this all too well by experience.
Having been saved and then partaking in sins and doing things that were wicked
and wrong and things I should have been doing that I was able to kind of.
Not try as much as possible not to think about the things of God and just sort of put it aside.
And as a born again believer, you know, the Holy Ghost is still there.
And I still had trouble and I still had that that, you know.
Urging within me that says, hey, you shouldn't be doing this.
But the longer you go, you could try to numb that quench that and not deal with that.
It's still there, but, you know, you could quench that spirit to not to not have to deal with it.
It is possible for believers to do that.
And like I said, unfortunately, I have firsthand experience with that.
But look at first Peter Chapter two, verse number one.
The Bible says, Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speaking.
So these are all sinful things.
These are all things of the flesh.
It says, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word.
So again, it's it's it's making another comparison, just like walking in a desert and wanting to have be satisfied with water.
This is likening a newborn baby.
That cries and screams when it's hungry and then when it gets fed with it,
with that milk from mom is completely satisfied and everything's good and the baby is contented.
Right. Well, in the same way that that baby screams and cries and just desires to be fed.
We ought to desire that sincere milk of the word, right?
The word of God is something that we should be striving for and yearning for and seeking.
That's why it says as newborn babes, you should be as newborn babes desire,
sincere milk of the word that you may grow there by babies grow through mom's milk.
We grow spiritually through the word of God.
Let's go back to Psalm 63.
So these are the few places that that are also expressing similar thoughts on this idea of your soul thirsting for God and wanting to have to be filled with the things of God.
Verse one again in Psalm 63.
Oh God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee.
My soul thirsteth for thee.
My flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory.
So as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
So he's saying I've I'm longing for you and thirsting for you in order to see your power and your glory.
And seeing the power and glory of God is obviously extremely wonderful.
He's saying, I want to see your power and glory like I did as I so as I have seen me in the sanctuary.
Remember, he's out in the wilderness again.
He's kind of away from God.
He said, I'm longing to have that again of being able to see you.
And he's not talking about physically seeing him.
It's you know, it's kind of spiritual, especially just seeing God, seeing the power of God, seeing the glory of God, seeing the mighty works of God.
He's like, you know, I've seen that.
I've witnessed that.
I've seen the power of God.
I've seen your glory in the things around in your sanctuary, you know, especially when you're congregated with the people of God and the mighty works of God being being done and brought forward.
But he's out in a way.
Right.
And he's saying, man, I long for that.
I want to see that.
I want to get close to you.
I just I just I love that.
And, you know, it's like being part of this great assembly, this great church, and then going off away from it.
It's like, man, I remember being there and seeing all the great works of God and all the souls that were saved and all the great mighty things that were done and the people's lives that were changed.
And God was really working there.
And then you move away and you're going somewhere else.
It's kind of like, man, I can't find anything like that.
And I want to see that again.
I want to be part of that again.
This is that desire.
This is that longing.
Similarly, I won't have you turn it.
We already looked at it in Matthew, Chapter five, the Beatitudes.
The Bible says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
They shall see God.
You see the glory of God.
But again, was that tied to the pure in heart?
Putting away the flesh, walking in the spirit.
Psalm 63.
Let's keep reading here.
Verse number three, because thy loving kindness is better than life.
My lips shall praise thee.
Thus will I bless thee while I live.
I will lift up my hands in thy name.
And as we've seen in many of the other psalms, this is a song.
This is a song.
This is a song of praise to the Lord.
This is exalting the name of God.
And we see here, look, because I love that first part of verse number three, because I love and kindness is better than life.
The loving kindness of God is better than life.
Now, unfortunately, there are a lot of people who've had maybe some rough lives and they don't know this.
But man, we need to bring that loving kindness of the Lord, because this is a true statement as true as a day is long.
Now, you might not have felt God's loving kindness.
Right.
There's many people out there who haven't yet, and maybe they've only experienced some bad things.
But but that gift of salvation.
That the Lord has bought and paid for us is so beyond anything that anyone can ever do for you.
And when you actually start to realize and understand how great that is and how great the Lord is, you realize, man, that's better than anything in this life.
That is better than this life itself, no matter how great this life could even be for you.
The loving kindness of the Lord is far surpasses that God's love and knowing that love that God has for you is immense.
And he says, because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
I'm going to praise you.
I'm going to glorify you because your loving kindness is way better than this life.
I am going to praise you.
Thus will I bless thee while I live.
Bless the Lord.
Bless God.
Right.
I will lift up my hands in thy name.
And I'll say this, OK?
And let's look at verse number five real quick before I say what I'm about to say.
My soul shall be satisfied, as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.
I'm going to speak a minute to the people who don't like to sing in church.
I'm going to sing to you.
I'm not going to sing to you.
I'm going to preach to you.
And I want you to seriously think about this, OK?
Because everyone has a reason why they don't like to sing out in church, the ones that don't.
Those that don't like to sing out in church, you have a reason for that.
And I understand what it's like to be in those shoes because I used to be one of those people.
For a long time, I was the person who I'd open up to the song and I would look at the words.
And sometimes I would move my mouth to the words, but there's nothing coming out.
Now, I can tell you how I felt.
It was I don't really like singing.
At least if someone were to ask me, here's what I'd probably say.
I don't really like singing that much, but that would have been a lie because I liked singing worldly songs.
Not in front of people, so there's that.
I definitely didn't like singing in front of people.
I was always real shy and maybe thought, which probably for a good reason, that my voice isn't that good.
I don't sound that great.
I can't carry a tune very well.
I'm not very skilled at singing.
Some people have beautiful voices.
I am far from a beautiful voice.
I don't want to hurt other people's ears.
There's many reasons why you may think you don't want to sing.
And I challenge you with this, though, when we look at the scripture, there's so many scriptures like this, you know, what is the Bible saying?
Like, do you not have this love for the Lord that's going to drive you to sing praises to God?
Because I'll also tell you this much.
When I wasn't singing in church, I definitely wasn't singing, like, at home in my closet to the Lord either.
Like, that was never happening.
It's not like, well, it's only in this setting, but I will belt out all the praises to God all day long at home.
I mean, for me, that definitely wasn't the case.
And it's probably not the case for the vast majority of people either.
If you're not singing in church, you're probably not singing all these praises at home either.
But church, I mean, if not in church, where are you going to sing?
You know, we've got the music, the instruments to all go along in concert.
You've got other people around you, the people of God all singing, praising the Lord.
Man, you know, it's not about you when you sing in church.
It's not about you.
It is about the Lord.
It's not about you.
It is about the Lord.
And honestly, on a side note, I'm not condemning churches that do this, okay?
I'm not, like, saying they're sinful or anything like that.
But this is why I don't choose to have solos or special singing in church, because I don't want it being about the person.
Now, I know there's other ways of looking at that.
But I'm just explaining why we don't have that here, okay?
That is the reason, right or wrong, that's the reason why I choose not to do that,
because I don't want all the focus and attention just being on one person as opposed to just being on the Lord.
And I get beautiful voices and beautiful singing to exalt the name of God, right?
That's what it is all about, and that's what it should be all about.
All of that said, you know, it's not about you, but I'll tell you what, God does want to hear your praises.
That will bring joy to God to hear you sing.
And as I've mentioned this in the past, I'll mention it again today, because it's true.
You know, you may not like the sound of someone else's kid trying to sing songs,
but parents, like when I hear my kids singing hymns to God, I love that sound.
And there's not many of my children that are able to carry a tune, but I love that sound.
None of them sing to me, so I don't know what that's like, but I could guarantee you,
if I like, as a father, hearing my children in imperfect voices sing praises,
how much more is God going to love hearing his children sing praises unto him, right?
And from the heart, in sincerity, and just in singing.
Now, you don't have to be like the loudest person in the room to just show everyone how spiritual you are,
but you know what? Just sing.
And I'll tell you what, too, as someone who's using, you guys probably,
if you've been to a church where everyone's singing really well,
it's a much stronger event.
It's powerful, as opposed to churches where almost nobody is singing.
I know the difference, because I have a loud voice in general.
I have a loud voice. Thank God for that.
That's probably why I'm here standing behind a pulpit today,
because I just have this naturally loud, booming voice.
I don't even have to try hard to do it.
But when I sing, I also have a loud voice.
I love being in a church where I could barely even hear my own voice singing.
And you know what? There's times here where that's true,
and there's times here when that's not true.
There's times here where I'm thinking everybody's probably hearing me over Brother Peter.
And that's not because I'm trying to out-sing Brother Peter.
I just have a loud voice.
But the whole point of bringing this up is when you're in a service
and everybody's singing out, it's a beautiful thing.
There's a reason why we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
and it really is spirit-filled.
That's why we have soul-stirring songs and hymns.
It's supposed to help us even just being in the spirit as we praise the Lord.
Again, there's a reason why the book of Psalms is the biggest book in the Bible,
and it's a song book, and it's right at the heart of the Bible.
I mean, there's so many things about that.
I'll leave it at this. Take it seriously.
And if it's something you need to work on, then work on it.
If it's something that you're embarrassed or shy and you don't like singing very much,
try singing a little louder next time we sing.
Just get a little uncomfortable about it.
Just like you might have had to going out soul-winding and knocking on doors.
It's a little uncomfortable, I know.
But you'll grow, and it gets better.
And look, like I said, I went from someone who would just barely mouth words
to someone I need to keep my mouth down now
so I'm not trying to overpower the song leader when I'm singing.
It's not because I'm trying to make everyone hear my voice.
It's just because now I love singing.
And I can say that with a sincere heart. I love singing these songs to the Lord.
It is joyful.
It is something that I look forward to.
I mean, not that I like Brother Peter not being here,
but the rare times he doesn't come, I enjoy leading the singing.
It's fun to me. I love the songs.
But that's not the way I always have been.
And you, if you are in the category that I was in before,
just, you know, there's so many reasons to praise the Lord,
and just understand that the number one thing,
understand you're praising God.
You're praising your Savior.
You're giving honor and glory to God with your voice.
You're giving the sacrifice of your lips unto God.
I mean, if you can't do that, you know, check your heart.
He says, my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.
You should be happy about it.
Praising God.
Verse six, when I remember thee upon my bed
and meditate on me in the night watches.
Now, this is going to shift a little bit,
because more of this type of thing,
it's very similar to the hungry and thirsting after Lord,
but making reference here to remembering God upon my bed
and meditate on me in the night watches.
This speaks to God being in your heart and in your mind
pretty much all the time, right?
I mean, in this situation,
you're talking about being at night on my bed.
What is he doing?
I'm remembering God.
I'm thinking on the things of God
and meditating on thee in the night watches.
And we need to have that time spent alone with God
where we are just thinking on the things of God.
We're giving God attention in our heart, in our mind,
and just, you know, whether it's meditating on his word
or just thinking, you know, the goodness of God,
just keeping God in your heart and in your thoughts
so important to walking in the spirit
and just keeping us on the right path.
I'll return, if you would, back to Psalm 1.
We're in Psalm 63.
Just keep your place there.
Flip back to Psalm 1.
I'll read for you from Joshua 1.
Joshua 1, 5, the Bible reads,
There shall not any man be able to stand before thee
all the days of thy life.
And this is the Lord basically speaking to Joshua.
As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.
I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.
Be thou strong and of a good courage,
for unto this people shalt thou divide
for an inheritance to the land,
which I swear unto their fathers to give them.
Only be thou strong and very courageous
that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law
which Moses my servant commanded thee.
Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left
that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth,
but thou shalt meditate therein day and night
that thou mayest observe to do
according to all that is written therein.
So, I mean, aren't we supposed to do and walk
according to the word of God,
according to what's in the Bible?
How are we going to do that
if we don't know what's in there, right?
So he's saying meditate, and God is telling Joshua,
look, meditate the things of the law.
Meditate my word day and night.
Think about these things.
Have them on your mind so that you can then do them.
He says, for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous,
and then shalt thou have good success.
You want to have a successful life?
Do you want to be prosperous?
Meditate on the word of God.
Have God's word in your heart.
Now, the prosperity and success,
he's not talking about tons of silver and gold in this world.
That is not the prosperity or success he's talking about.
A successful life has nothing to do with how many riches
you have in silver and gold on this earth when you die.
That is not the mark of good success in God's eyes.
That's the mark of good success in man's eyes.
Wow, you made all these riches and everything else.
Who cares?
In God's eyes, a successful man, a prosperous man,
is one who is taking serious heed to the word of God
to walk the right way that God has outlined for him.
He says, hey, if you can do the things that I've already told you to do
and not do the things I told you not to do,
you're going to have a great life.
You're going to have a very prosperous life.
You're going to have a very blessed life.
Amen.
He's given us the instructions.
He showed us the right way.
I mean, are we going to trust God more
or are you going to trust man more?
And what's the right way and what's the way to be successful
and what's the way to prosperity?
I'm going to trust God.
I'm going to trust that his eternal riches far outweigh
any temporal carnal riches that we can receive in this world,
that God's promise and God's blessing is way better
than whatever you could possibly get here.
Way better.
Psalm 1, look at verse number 1, the Bible says,
blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful,
but his delight is in the law of the Lord.
His delight, not his drudgery, not the, oh, man,
the Old Testament, God's law, come on.
No, it delight in the things of God.
And you know what?
This does require some growth and newborn babes in Christ
aren't always that excited about, you know, the Old Testament
or any part of the Bible for that matter.
But you need to grow.
And if you want to have the blessed life,
that's what like Psalm 1 says, blessed is the man
and then describes the ways that you, you know,
what you need to do to be blessed.
You want blessings in your life?
Listen to God.
You don't?
Well, then don't listen to God.
But don't say we didn't warn you.
His delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law
doth he meditate day and night.
You say, passive versions, I'm thinking about my life right now
and I'm thinking about the things I do from day to day
and I don't really think there's a time where I'm meditating
in the word of God.
Well, then you need to fix that.
There's a lot of things we're supposed to be doing.
It's not always easy.
I didn't say, though, that there's going to be a cakewalk
being a Christian, being a believer in the Lord,
not just being a believer, but a disciple, disciple in the Lord.
It's not easy.
But it but it will be a blessing and it will be advantageous
to you to make the time to meditate.
And you know, we think about that word meditate.
What does that mean?
I mean, you're probably going to need a little bit of quiet time.
Any time to just to just stay and set aside to be focused.
And let God speak to your heart and teach you through his word.
Meditating can be you know, you could be memorizing the scripture
while you meditate or not.
You could also just meditate on God's word by just keeping it
in your thoughts.
And, you know, maybe you read your Bible in the morning
like I do is my time, one of my times.
No one almost no one's awake or no one's awake.
And it's real quiet.
And you got some time to just read.
And just kind of focus and think on the things of God.
It's also a good time for me to pray because it's you know,
there's not much going on.
So you leave that time for some meditation or when you're
driving or whatever.
I mean, you find out for yourself when's going to be a
good time to be able to just meditate and focus on the
things of God because they are important.
Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of God
and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Turn to Psalm 77.
Psalm 77, verse number 10, the Bible reads and I said,
this is my infirmity, but I will remember the years of
the right hand of the most high.
I will remember the works of the Lord.
Surely I will remember thy wonders of old.
I will meditate also of all thy work and talk of thy
doings.
When God is in your heart out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speaketh.
So you're gonna be thinking, you know,
talking about the things of God to when you're thinking
about the things of God.
You want to turn to Psalm 119, longest chapter,
Psalm 119.
Psalm 119, by the way, is all about God's laws,
commandments, precepts, judgments,
all these different synonyms basically used in a full
exaltation in this really long song praising God's law
in Psalm 119.
Sometimes it's easy because Psalm 119 is so long to
forget that it's a song, to forget that it's put to
music, to forget that it's sung.
But, man, there's so much great truth and how deep it
is for such a simple topic and just having some
synonyms used.
I counted it once and I forget the exact number now.
I think there's only like literally like four verses
that don't have a reference to law,
judgment, commandment, precept,
statute, you know, a synonym of God's law.
Like I literally think it's only four in all of Psalm
119.
I actually took the time to check it out just because I
was fascinated with how much that Psalm is about God's
law.
And it's not like it's repetitive in the sense that
those words exist, but it's not that repetitive in the
context.
It's amazing how awesome God's law is and what the
Bible says about it.
Look at Psalm 119 verse 15.
The Bible says, I will meditate in thy precepts and
have respect unto thy ways.
Verse number 78 says, let the proud be ashamed for
they dealt perversely with me without a cause,
but I will meditate in thy precepts.
And then verse 148 says, mine eyes prevent the night
watches that I might meditate in thy word and tying
that in closely with Psalm 63 here about the night,
you know, at night when it's getting late,
he says, my eyes are going to prevent the night
watches.
So they're going to go before and he's going to stay
awake late, essentially in order to meditate in the
word of God.
The quiet time.
No one else is up.
And you're probably exhausted and tired,
but you know what?
I'm going to take more time to make sure I could spend
time alone with God.
I mean, we have very busy days,
very busy world, very busy life,
lots of things going on.
Make sure you make that time for the Lord to have that
one on one time to have that alone time to have that
meditation time on God's word.
It is important.
Let's go back to Psalm 63.
We'll finish up here.
Got a few verses left.
Verse seven, because thou has been my help.
Therefore, in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
And that's just showing that that overshadowing of
God's wings.
Hey, you trust in God.
He's there to protect you.
I'm going to rejoice and be happy because you've been
my hope and I'm going to I'm going to sing and praise
your name from your shadows because you've already gone
before me and now and are guarding me and protecting
me.
And I'm going to praise you.
Right.
Look at verse eight.
My soul followeth hard after thee.
Again, that that that wonderful language to describe
the yearning to serve God and to just know and follow
after the things of God.
My soul followeth hard after the right hand upholdeth
me.
And I mean, you see, if we sit here and just think about
it logically, doesn't it make sense if God sees someone
that's just yearning, desiring, craving to just serve
God, to be righteous, to do what's right, to follow the
way of God?
Doesn't it just make sense that God's going to help
you with that?
He's going to be there to keep you lifted up and to
keep you from falling.
Of course he is.
It wouldn't make sense not to.
What, do you think he's just going to kick you while
you're trying to seek him and serve him?
No way.
It's absurd.
Logically, we know this, but it's up to you to have
that desire in your heart, right?
And hey, look, his love and kindness is better than
life.
So introspection is our heart's right with God.
Do we seek the Lord as we ought to?
It's only goodness that's going to come from it.
We want God there to be there to uphold you with his
right hand.
Well, it's going to come from following hard after the
Lord.
Look at verse number nine, and this is the contrast
then with those that don't do it.
But those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go
into the lower parts of the earth.
They shall fall by the sword.
They shall be a portion for foxes.
And again, this also speaks to, you know, their
wickedness coming back on their own head, but also
the protection of God for someone who's diligently
seeking him and making sure that these people that are
trying to destroy David are trying to destroy you,
someone who's seeking God earnestly, fervently in
your spirit.
God will keep you safe from those people who are
trying to destroy you.
And he'll bring their way on their own head and make
sure that they get dealt with that way.
Verse 11, but the king shall rejoice in God.
Everyone that's worth by him shall glory.
But the mouth of them that speak lies shall be
stopped.
Let's pray.
Dear Lord, we love you.
We thank you so much for such an encouraging psalm.
Lord, we thank you for loving us.
We thank you for all that you do for us.
Lord, help us.
Help us today, dear Lord.
Help us to to adjust our schedules to ensure that
we're we're putting forth the time.
To meditate in your word, to make sure that we have
time to to just seek you and have you in our thoughts,
dear Lord.
I pray that you would please help us help our
church to to sing these praises to have our hearts
filled with with the desire to praise your name and
to bring glory on your name by by singing out with
with joyful lips, dear Lord and God.
We love you.
There's so many reasons to praise your name and we
just thank you so much.
I thank you for this church.
I thank you for all the people you brought together
here and added as members of our church.
Your Lord, help us to serve you better.
We love you.
In Jesus name, we pray.
Amen.
All right, we're going to sing one more song before
we're dismissed.
Brother Peter, will you please lead us?
All right, church, we've opened up your hymnals.
Psalm number 223.
Psalm 223, springs of living water.
Psalm 223.
All right, church, let's sing the sound of the
verse.
I've never sit in the barrel in a skin in shame
With nothing satisfying there I've found
But to the blessed cross of Christ the day I came
Where springs of living water did abound
Waking at the springs of living water Happy now
and I, I'm slowly satisfied Waking at the springs
of living water Oh, wonderful and bountiful
sublime I'll see the living lark from the hills
of God It makes me glad and happy all the way
Now, oh, may grace and blessing mark the path I
draw I'm shouting hallelujah every day Waking at
the springs of living water Happy now and I,
I'm slowly satisfied Waking at the springs of
living water Oh, wonderful and bountiful
sublime I'll see the living lark from the hills
of God It makes me glad and happy all the way
Now, oh, may grace and blessing mark the path I
draw I'm shouting hallelujah every day Waking at
the springs of living water Happy now and I,
I'm slowly satisfied Waking at the springs of
living water Oh, wonderful and bountiful
sublime Hey, man, Church, great singing.
Thank you so much for coming, you guys.