Many members in one body, and all members have not the same office,
so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one member is one of another.
Having been gifts, differing according to the grace that is given to us,
whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith,
or ministry, let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on
teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation,
or he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleth with
diligence, he that showeth mercy with
cheerfulness, the love be without dissimulation,
abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good,
be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love, in honor preferring one
another, not slothful in business, fervent in
spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation,
continuing instant in prayer, distributing to the necessity of saints,
given to hospitality, bless them which persecute you, bless and curse not,
rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep,
be of the same mind one toward another, mind not high things, but
condescend to men of low estate, be not wise in your own conceits,
recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of
all men, if it be possible, as much as lieth in
you, live peaceably with all men, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves,
but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I
will repay, saith the Lord, therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him,
if you thirst, give him drink, for in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire
on his head, be not overcome of evil, but
overcome evil with good. Let's pray, Lord God, thank you for
this church, thank you for our pastor, just ask that you would
bless him with your Holy Spirit now as he preaches your word, in Jesus name we
pray, amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Romans chapter 12
this morning, and today the title of my sermon
this morning is Good, Acceptable, and Perfect. Good, Acceptable,
and Perfect. And of course what I'm referring to is the will of God. It
says in verse number two, be not conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God. Now what is this referring to? Well
I'm going to give you two interpretations of this particular passage
and the end of the sermon or the majority of the sermon I'm going to
spend on what I believe the proper interpretation is, but the first
by way of introduction I'm going to explain to you
what in general people say this is referring to,
and in fact I probably preach this, and I wouldn't even say this is a bad
interpretation, in fact I believe it's scriptural, there's principles
behind this, and that is that it's referring to God's plan
A, B, and C. When the Bible says that we need to prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God, it's referring
to God's plan A, B, and C. Now you say what is that
referring to? What do you mean by that? Well you think about the fact that when
you assess the will of God, we know
that God has a perfect will for your life, and in
some instances Christians can make really bad decisions, right?
When they make bad decisions, they get out of God's will, they get involved in
some sin that takes them out of the way, they
live in rebellion against God, they essentially forfeit God's plan A,
right? And then they got to settle for God's
plan B, and so when you think about it you know God's will is always perfect,
however there are instances where people can backslide,
they get away from the Lord, and they don't really serve God, you know,
they're just out of church kind of doing their own thing, well in
that case obviously they forfeit God's will or certain blessings that they
could have gotten in God's perfect will,
and now they have to essentially, you know,
be a part of God's acceptable will. And one
way that we can illustrate this in the Bible, if you think about it, the
children of Israel, God's perfect will for the
children of Israel was to leave the land of Egypt and go
straight into Canaan land, right? Go straight into the promised land, start
serving God right away, doing that which is pleasing unto the
Lord, and just kind of fulfill the promises that were given to their
forefathers. But that didn't happen, you know, because
of their rebellion, their disobedience, their lack of faith,
they ended up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.
It wasn't until 40 years thereafter that they were able to go into the
promised land and fulfill God's plan for their lives,
and we would say that that was acceptable. Why? Because even through the
wilderness, God blessed them. Even when they're in the wilderness of
sin, God used them, He showed Himself strong on their behalf,
He provided manna, and wonderful biblical pictures of the Lord Jesus
Christ were illustrated while the children of
Israel were in the wilderness. So we're not saying that the acceptable will of
God is somewhat inferior, you know, God's
blessing is always good, God's will is always good. However, if
someone forfeits the perfect will of God for their lives,
there's always the acceptable will. In other words, it wasn't God's original
plan, but it is God's plan now, right? And God can still bless a
person when they backslide, they get out of
church, maybe they do that which is displeasing unto the
Lord, then in fact as a pastor, I've seen this multiple times throughout the
years, where I see people get out of church,
they stop serving God, and then they come back, they get right with the Lord,
they start loving God again, they start reading the Bible, they start
soul-winning, and God begins to bless them because of it.
And we would say God's blessing, that maybe they missed out on God's perfect
will, but there's still the acceptable will.
Now you say, what is the goodwill? Well think about this, you know,
sometimes you lead someone to Christ at the door, and they never come to
church, you know, they don't come to church,
they don't serve God, and think about this, maybe later on in
their life, in their 50s, 60s, 70s, maybe,
they start deciding, you know why I'm gonna start going to church,
and I want to get right with God, I want to start seeking after the Lord,
you know, that is still God's goodwill, because of the fact that God, no matter
what stage of life you're in, no matter what age you're at, you
should, and you should serve God, and God will
bless you for it, His hand can be upon, He can bless your
family, He can bless your marriage, He can bless your finances, He can bless
your job, He can use you in a great way. And
I've heard it this way by many preachers of times past,
is that they'll say, you know, if you think about the perfect will of God being
plan A, the acceptable will of God being plan B,
and the goodwill of God being plan C, just know this,
God's plan C is still better than the devil's plan A.
So even though you have to settle for
plan C, which is the goodwill of God, it's still far superior than what the
devil has planned for you. So even if you've backslidden for 10
years, 20 years, whatever it may be, you know, you come back, you're like, look at
everything that I missed out on. Well, here's the thing, though, is that
Satan just wants to destroy you. Satan wants to just rob you of every
blessing, and if it wasn't for God providing a
plan C, His goodwill of God, you would have just came out losing
on everything. And so the point of that particular interpretation is that
often people have a tendency to think, well,
you know, just throwing out the baby with the bathwater, I've already
backslidden, and therefore what's the point of even coming back to church?
And I think a lot of preachers will preach that interpretation,
rightfully so, because they want to deter Christians from getting out of
church. And that's a good motivation, amen? It's
like, hey, stick with God's perfect will. Stick with
God's perfect will, don't lose out on God's blessing.
Stick it out when it's hard, make sure you're serving God,
don't get out of church, don't get out of the Bible, don't get out of
soul winning because you need to fulfill God's perfect will. But let's say a
person gets out of church, let's say they
backslide, well then preachers come back and say, hey,
but you know what, there's still the acceptable will of God. You can still be
restored, God can still bless your life, and God
can still use you in a great way. He can bless you, you know, totally in
your family, with your marriage, no matter what it is, because God's will
is still good, and He can still enrich your life, even
though you might have missed out on some things in those years that
you were backslidden. And so I think that is a legitimate
biblical principle. It may not be the primary interpretation of this verse,
but it's a good scriptural principle nonetheless, because of the
fact that, you know what, God does have a will for our lives,
and in fact, the Bible says that we are His workmanship created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we
should walk in them. What does that mean? God has a plan
for your life, and you know, you got a lot of,
you know, liberals and non-denom type churches that will abuse
that phrase. God has a plan for your life, but you
know what, there is truth to it though. You know, God does have a plan for
your life, He does have a will for your life, He
does want to bless you, and you know what, if you forfeit some of
those blessings, it doesn't mean you can't keep serving God
in the long term. God can still use you in a great way, even when we make
mistakes, because we're all going to sin, we're all going to make mistakes,
and so there's always God's plan A, B, and C.
Now I think that's a great interpretation, but I don't think it's the primary
interpretation of this particular passage, because I
don't really think this is referring to God's plan A, B, and C,
describing God's will as God's plan A, B, and C, but rather it's just a way of,
it's just three different ways of describing God's will,
that it's good, it's acceptable, and it's perfect.
The first interpretation is legitimate in a sense of
we can find scriptural basis behind it throughout the Bible,
however the primary one is the most important one, and that is that it's a
description of what God's will is, and that is
that it's good, acceptable, and yes it is perfect.
Now before I get into that, let's talk about a couple things here that we see
in these two verses, and that is before you could even
discern, before you could even choose or know what is God's good,
acceptable, and perfect will, you have to be able to discern these things and
have the capability of viewing life through the lens of
the Bible, and in fact look at Romans chapter 12 verse 1, it says,
I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God,
listen to this, the present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
So the first thing we see there is that in order for you to even know
what is the good acceptable perfect will of God, you know you have to have
the right living, so this means not just anybody knows
to discern these things right, not just any Christian, you
actually have to be a Christian who I don't know you know lives like a
Christian, you know like you actually have to
present your body a living sacrifice, what does that mean?
Well a living sacrifice simply means that you are
dying daily to self right, you know Jesus said if any man come after me
let him take up his cross daily and follow me,
what does that mean? You have to crucify the flesh
on a daily basis, essentially use the members of your body to serve the
Lord Jesus Christ okay, that's what a living sacrifice
is, and you know here's the problem with the living sacrifice is it's always
coming off the altar, so you can put yourself on the
altar and say I'm going to serve the Lord today
and today I'm going to obey the commands of God, I'm going to read the
Bible, I'm going to go to church, but you know what you might get off
the altar tomorrow though, so obviously this has to be a daily
choice that we make to serve God, and this is why you know sometimes
churches will promote this thing of hey surrender your life to
God or whatever, you know and obviously there's a lot of
problems with that, number one being that they often mix
that with salvation okay, and let me just say this is that
you don't get saved by surrendering your life to God
okay, you get saved because of the fact that you believe on the Christ who
literally laid down his life for you okay, that's what it is.
Parents if your children are getting fussy like I mentioned
in the announcements please make sure you utilize the mother baby room so
that you're not being a distraction to the service okay, so present your
bodies of living sacrifice means that you have to die to self,
crucify the flesh on a daily basis, and it says
holy, so you have to live a separated life right,
and here's the thing here's the third one listen to this acceptable
unto God, this means that you have to serve
God on his terms not yours, so the life that you live has to be
acceptable to God, it's not like well you know I
just serve God the way I think it's you know,
I worship, we worship God in our own ways
you know, I have a relationship with God, yeah but is it acceptable unto God
though, and you say well you know yeah I think
it's acceptable you know I think I can, I think I believe in my heart that I'm
doing right, I don't care what your heart says though,
the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who could
know it okay, and so thankfully God gave us an
entire Bible that you can see what is acceptable
unto God and what isn't, so if you think to yourself well I
think what I'm doing is acceptable okay prove all things hold fast that
which is good, let's see if the Bible actually
approves of your behavior, your thought process, your character, your
practices, your form of worship, and if it doesn't
then it needs to go out the window because that's not acceptable unto God,
and so in order for us to even discern what is
the good acceptable perfect will of God, we have to have the right living,
you have to live a life that is pleasing unto the Lord,
serving the Lord Jesus Christ, using your members as unto righteousness and
not unto sin as the Bible says, likewise reckon yourselves also to be
dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord, let not sin therefore reign in your
mortal bodies that ye should obey in the lustre of,
neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,
but yield yourselves unto God and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God,
essentially saying that you know use your body to serve the Lord
okay use your body to get in your car on Sunday morning and drive yourself
to church use those feet to go preach the
gospel of Jesus Christ use your mouth to open your mouth
boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel
so on and so forth right and of course holy and you got to make sure it's
acceptable unto God and we have an entire Bible that God
gave to us to help us with that okay let me read to
you a verse here Psalm 11 verse 10 says the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom listen to this a good understanding have
all they that do his commandments his praise
endureth forever what is that saying you know if you want proper
understanding of the will of God you got to be able to make sure you're
serving God doing his commandments okay but it's not
enough that we have the right living according to the Bible we have to also
have the right thinking too because look at Romans chapter 12 and
verse 2 it says and be not conformed to this
world but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind and so what is it telling us here it's
saying that you know you can't have a worldly mindset
in other words you can't allow the philosophies
the political ideologies the interpretations
of other Christians so called to influence you in your way of thinking
this has to be the thing that renews your mind
because it says be not conformed to this world but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind in other words let me put it to
you in in the simplest terms you need to get brainwashed
and people have to say oh you've been brainwashed and i always say
yes i have my brain has been washed by the blood of the lamb by the washing
of the water of the word and so and the Bible tells me in
Ephesians chapter 2 that you know i walked according to the
course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience
and the fact that our minds were subject to the lust of this world
we have to have our minds washed by the Bible
and make sure that we are thinking biblically right
you say well how do you know if i'm thinking how do i know if i'm thinking
biblically well if biblical preaching bothers you
you have a worldly mind if you read the Bible and it's just
like well i don't know about that then you're you're worldly people
only think of a worldly person is someone
who dresses like the world and obviously there's some truth to that
but really at the end of the day it's someone who just thinks worldly
someone who has a worldly mindset that is not subject to the law of God
it's someone who's not conforming their ideologies
to what the Bible says they're judging their Christian life based upon
what everyone else outside of the Bible says
okay and so we need to have renewed thinking so in order for us to discern
these things you have to be a person who has the
right living and renewed thinking the right type of
thinking so it's then and only then that you can prove what does that mean
to prove means you can test you can discern
what is that good acceptable and perfect
will of God let me read to you from Isaiah 55 verse number eight
God speaking here says for my thoughts are not your thoughts
neither your ways my ways say it the Lord now i know
a lot of churches and you know uh stores that sell signs you know
Hobby Lobby or whatever they'll have that verse
and they'll often think like you know my thoughts are not your thoughts and
you know they try to romanticize this verse
but what this is referring to is that God's saying you know you don't
think like me that's what he's saying and
obviously what he's implying is that our way of
thinking is inferior and what he's saying is that you have a
problem and your problem is that you don't
think like God you don't think like the Lord Jesus Christ
and in fact he says for as the heavens are higher than the earth
so are my ways higher than your way say the Lord
is that we're so far apart removed that you could basically measure it the
way heaven the distance from heaven to the
earth itself and you know it would be a sad thing
to say that about a Christian though because according to the bible we're
supposed to be heavenly minded to set our affections on things above not
on the things of this earth so it's not impossible to think like the Lord
and in fact the bible says what we have the mind of Christ
we possess the mind of the Lord and so it would be a shame for Christians not
to know what the Lord thinks about a particular subject
because they don't read the bible you understand have a renewed mind
having the capability of understanding what the bible says and
judge all things according to the bible
don't compartmentalize christianity and say well religious things that's you
know that's we got to judge the bible
but everything else is just everything else no the bible says that god has
everything that pertains to life and godliness
the precious promises that are left in the bible are given to us
so we can discern and prove and test things
and live in accordance to god and his word okay the bible tells us he have
not so learned christ if so be they have heard and
heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in jesus
that he put off the former conversation the old man
and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind the bible tells us he put
on the new man which after god is created in righteousness and true
holiness so it's all contingent upon right
living and right thinking making sure that
you're conforming your mind to the bible
and today this morning i'm trying to conform your mind to the bible
i'm trying to change your mind to think biblically
but you know what monday through saturday you're on your own buddy
you know i can try to saturate your mind with bible for an entire hour
two hours if you come back sunday night three hours if you come back
thursday but other than that you're on your own
which means that you have to be able to read the bible on your own
and you know just you know just you guys ever seen that video of that
chinese kid he's like trying to study for a test and he grabs the book and
he's just like you know it's not gonna it doesn't
work that way you got to actually open up the bible
and read it and conform your mind to the word of
god making sure that you're saturating your mind with the mind of christ
because folks we have a lot of decisions to make
every single day you got a lot of and there's a lot of
there's there there are many voices in the world
and none of them are without signification there's constantly people
trying to grab your attention trying to distract you trying to
change your mind about certain things and folks i'm just telling you
the bible says keep thine heart with all diligence for out of it are the
issues of life and so it's important that we
constantly have the word of god right here
constantly filtering through what we're listening to hearing
seeing what people are telling us this is what it means
to not be conformed to this world but be to be transformed
by the renewing of our minds go to isaiah chapter 5
isaiah chapter 5 if you would hold your place there in romans chapter 12
so let me give you the three ways that the bible describes the will of god
let's talk about these three descriptions here
of course by way of introduction i gave you what a lot of people say
that verse is referring to but again what i believe this is talking about
is just three ways of describing god's will
number one three ways to describe the will of god number one is that the
will of god is good it's good god's will is always
good you said what do you mean by that well it means that the will of the
lord no matter how evil the world tries to portray it to be
is always right
the will of god is always correct it's always right
and it should never be evil spoken of
and you know that's important because you have a lot of people in the world
today that will look at the beliefs of the
bible and speak evil of them or you have christians that will try to make
excuses for what the bible says if you've ever read the bible cover
to cover you see how controversial it can be
unless you've only stuck to like the book of john or proverbs or whatever
but folks if you read it from genesis to revelation
there's some crazy stuff in there and if you if you're not
if you haven't been brainwashed by the bible it could rub you the wrong
way you know it could it could bother you
it could rub you the wrong way to the poor you're just like i can't take
this preaching you know i can't handle what the
bible says about this i'm going to a different church that's
what that's what it does in real time amen
folks this is this is how it happens
folks the reason people can't handle biblical preaching is because their
brain is not washed you know but folks let me just say
this if you can't handle what i'm saying right now
and i'm not even getting crazy then go to the liberal fund center
go to the liberal fund center will help you with your
you know problems and your depression and your effeminacy and you know
whatever we help people with that here too but
folks we need to preach the whole council of god
and i'd even say fag in the sermon good night in the morning oh wait
there it goes
but folks that's proof right there that some people can't even handle the
basics they can't handle the basics of
just oh he's just raised his voice a little
too high or something like that i mean good night in the morning
talk about the filth of the mind can't handle the word of god
you know his ways are higher than their ways apparently i mean
not even as high as the heavens are from the earth it's like from the
heavens to pluto or something and it's sad when christians can't
handle that and i looked folks when i prepared the sermon i thought to myself
this is a nice sermon you know it's just
i just want to teach people just the basic truth here
of the bible but it kind of goes to show you
it goes to show you that you know some people it doesn't matter what the
truth is they just can't handle it okay but
hold on a second the will of god is always good though
and this preaching is always good there's nothing perverse or angry
or well i guess it is angry you know there's nothing perverse or evil about
it okay and you know what the world's
constantly saying well this kind of preaching is bad
this kind of preaching doesn't help people you're going to scare people away
yeah i'll scare people away who don't want to hear the bible
if you don't hear the bible then why do you go to church
i mean the reason you go to church is to hear me yell at you about the
bible
i mean does this say ted talk baptist church outside or something
the last time i checked it says first works baptist church and we live in 2024
where you can literally look me up before you come to the church
you can do your research beforehand and see if this is the kind of church
you would want to attend so that you know you're not offended
when you do come they weren't even here in june
but let me just say this is that the will of the bible says that the
will of god is just always good and you know what it is
unsavory to the world sometimes sometimes the world just doesn't like
the truth it doesn't like biblical preaching it doesn't like what
the bible says about a role of a man and the role of a woman
it doesn't like you know when you tear down its golden calves
of false teachings and false ideologies
it doesn't like when it uses certain terms and teaches certain doctrines it
doesn't like it but at the end of the day don't
capitulate to the pressures of this world
that tries to demonize the bible the will of god is
always good and when you come across verses in the bible
that seem a little crass little coarse you know just and it bothers you what
you need to do is just ask the lord help me
to have a greater appetite for righteousness
because at the end of the day that's what it is help me to love the bible
more because it is offending me well you
know the bible says great peace have they which love thy law
and nothing shall offend them and so in order to not be offended by the bible
you actually have to love the law of god
and i'm not saying anything unbiblical here i mean we've
literally i've literally got past my introduction
and i've read a ton of verses that's it
the world will always view the ways of the lord as being perverse
but let me read you from psalm 19 verse 9 it says the fear the lord is
clean enduring forever the judgments of the lord are true
listen to this and righteous all together
we're not the kind of churches like well this you know the book of john is
really nice but you know you kind of want to stay away from
the other parts again they're not you know it's it's it's wrong to like
use a wrong cultural context you know we got to be able to explain no
it's all good the book of leviticus is great the
laws are great the imprecatory psalms are
wonderful they should be sung in church all of
the bible's good all of god's judgments are great and in
fact it says that they're righteous all together and the point that i'm
making is you should never be ashamed of the bible
okay look at isaiah chapter 5 verse 20 look what the world does here
isaiah 5 20 says woe to them to call evil good
and good evil they put darkness for light
and light for darkness they put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter
woe to them that are wise in their own eyes
and prudent in their own sight the bible says
so the bible prophesies of this and tells us that there's going to be
people who look at good people good churches good doctrine
a good god and say that's evil right they'll look at you you know
they'll look at you with your with your wife with your husband and your
kids and your modest dress and you know
you're righteous living and say that's evil
you're trying to impose that upon me and you're trying to change the way we
live here that's evil that's wicked that's old
fashion but you know what the bible tells us that
that's what the world's going to do and you can't allow yourself
to try to make excuses for that either like well i can see why they say
that you know i'm you know i get it though i
don't get it i don't get it at all you know
sometimes my my family and i will go out to a
restaurant or something like that and or go you know to the grocery
store or something and i have five kids
i know that's not a lot compared to some of you guys in here you know
but you know it's it's five kids and it's a sight to behold
you know and it's it's five kids seven and under
so it's just like all these little people you know
and so often what people do is we'll walk to certain places
and they'll look at my kids and they'll kind of count and literally they will
count someone some people have even counted
out loud they'll go one two one then they'll look at my wife
and then they'll look at me
you know obviously if looks can kill it's just like these people are like
this poor woman
typical mexican doing this to this woman that's what they're thinking
yeah you it's like it's like yeah you would be a mexican wouldn't you
i mean for sure that's what they're thinking you know what i mean because
they look at my wife with such like compassion
because they're thinking like this poor woman bore like five children
and then they look at me and they're just like
and you know you know they're probably thinking he probably makes her stay at
home yeah i do
he probably doesn't even let her work well no no she works at home
yeah but she's just saying she's a keeper of the house
she teaches my kids she's a keeper at home
you know well what does she do at home well aside from
everything then she's got my operation going she's cleaning
she's cooking she's keeping my operation going she's keeping me happy
because she's my help me and the world was looking at said that's evil
no the bible says that that's good this is good and acceptable in the
sight of god for that to take place he said well you know i really think you
should give her a choice yeah i give her a choice laundry or
dishes first which one you want
and sometimes when we have kids i give her a choice what do you want to
name them
but sometimes i don't i'm like i'm i'm naming your child you know
i give her choices amen you know you you pick what chores you want to do
first i mean come on i'm a very gracious boss amen
you say oh you're just a male chauvinist oh you sound like someone
who's in the world who's speaking evil of the ways of
god because you know from what the bible says is a man is
supposed to provide for his household and the woman's supposed to be a keeper
at home to raise the children guide the house
and not be given over to just feminism
and the evils of this world that tries to pervert and break up the biblical
home amen
that's god's will and you know what you say well you know i just think
sarah should just really be out there you know doing her thing or whatever
she is doing her thing it's just inside the house
she's doing her thing and you know what you have a conversation with my
wife she's happy with what she's doing it's
these liberal feminist blue-haired freaks out there
they try to make themselves portray as though they're happy but they're
actually miserable you know i don't buy into these
videos this is supposed to be a nice sermon but hey we're talking about god's
will is being good amen i don't buy into these videos of
these women you know they're in like their 40s or whatever
and they're like no children no husband
and i'm super happy then why are you making a video about it
why are you making a video you know most people do videos like that because
they're overcompensating because they're trying to convince
themselves but really they're weird cat ladies is what they are
i know we got cat lovers in here but hey the truth hurts sometimes
god's will you know obviously it's not god's will for everyone to get married
and some people are content being at home or excuse me being
alone and not marrying and just serving god
and they're content with that and amen to that okay
but the majority of people are meant to get married okay
and you know what when you get married this is the biblical model
is the man goes to work he puts bread on the table he pays the bills
he guides his wife and the wife guides the home
that's just how it works that is the biblical model and you say well how
are we supposed to live in california that way
well how about you just don't buy a bunch of toys
that's a good way to do it you know how about the man puts away the
xbox and the video games that's a couple hundred bucks right there
and i don't know what women buy you know whatever you know stop making so
many amazon prime purchases and you'll be good to go amen
and you know i'm never going to be able to convince the world that this
is the right way to do things i'm just reinforcing to
myself and to our church what the bible says
and i don't want the world to ever convince my children
my wife and the members of my church that what we're doing is
evil it's so bitter it's wrong no it's good it's good inside of the lord the
will of god is good but you know what i don't expect you
to know that if you don't read the bible
i don't expect you to know that if your number one priority is not to
serve the lord jesus christ but if you're serving god you're
reading the bible you view what i have
you view what the men in our church have and say i want that
that's good
the bible says in ezekiel 18 25 you don't have to turn there
but go to proverbs 26 if you would proverbs 26 i'm going to read to you
from ezekiel 18 25 you can write that passage down
and read it later i'm going to quote it to you ezekiel 18 25 says
yet you say the way of the lord is not equal
here now oh house of israel is not my way
equal are not your ways unequal so he's basically saying you know the
children of israel are looking at the judgments of god and saying that's not
fair it's not fair it's unequal and god is
saying of course i'm fair you know look folks to a certain extent
to a certain degree god isn't fair actually
if you think about it because if he was fair we'd just all be in hell
fact if you want to say god's unfair i agree to a certain extent because
what we deserve is hell fire and no mercy
no grace that's what we deserve and so he's given us abundantly above
all that we can ask or think the bible tells us
and so when people look at guys oh that's that's unequal he's like
i'm equal you're unequal you're the one who
is involved in abominable things and idolatry
after all the goodness that god has poured upon the nation of israel they
turn their back on god they're serving false gods they're
supposed to be the nation from which salvation comes from
unto them were committed to the oracles of god and yet they're serving false gods
that's unequal but you know what you know people today will do the same
they'll look at churches like ours beliefs like ours what the bible says
and say well that's not fair it's not fair that you're making your wife
stay at home it's not fair they you know your
children should be in the public schools and you know if your kids are in
public schools god bless you but obviously the biblical stance is
homeschool well you should let them go to a public
school so they can why so they can what want to be
you know so the boys can want to be girls and the girls want to be boys
so they can you know become gay communists
is that what i want that's unequal well you should you know they're not
going to have a social life yeah i really want my son to go to a
public school so they he can dye his hair blue
you know and want to be castrated i mean it's nonsense my friends that's
unequal but the world's like no the way you're doing it is unequal no my
son is getting homeschooled in fact he has one teacher all to himself
all to himself teaching him and you know some moms they get kind of
overwhelmed with that and they think well you know that's just hard that's a
lot it's okay you just need a little more
than your p-body you know so just be a little bit ahead of them
okay but you know i don't expect a world who hates the lord jesus christ
or doesn't ascribe to biblical teachings
to understand how equal god is you say why well because look at proverbs
26 verse 7 the legs of the lame are not equal so
is a parable in the mouth of fools you put a verse in the mouth of these
god-hating reprobates they might as well just be spiritually
handicapped they're not equal they're disabled they can't tell you
what the bible says they can't interpret the word of god
for you and they will not appreciate the blessings and the unsearchable
riches of christ of the word of god because they're already unequal
themselves they're unrighteous what am i saying the point that i'm
making here is don't allow yourself to be pressured
or to capitulate to the criticisms of this world
or other christians who have already capitulated to this world
trying to get you to tone it down a little bit
trying to get you to not be as zealous trying to get you to change
your belief systems oh you're just a little too radical
you know you're just getting a little too overly zealous about your religion
you're overly zealous about your beliefs and you know what this comes
from not just the world but sometimes it could come from your own family
let's just be honest everyone in here could attest to family members that they
have and they might even be christians who
look at us and it's just like that's just too much you know
i i'm really happy that you're going down that you found the lord
you know it's great that you found the lord and i'm just so happy about
that but you know you worry me a little bit
you just concern me a little bit because of your you just have some weird
beliefs you know and it's just like you show
them in the bible and they're just like
i know it says that but
and so the the response should be you have weird beliefs
your beliefs are weird
because you say you're a christian you know it's more embarrassing than an
unsafe person some blue-haired liberal communist
hating or criticizing the bible is when a christian said
starts criticizing the bible yeah that's weird
why because god's will is always good you should be able to read the bible
and not flinch at anything and just rejoice in the testimonies
of the lord that is always good and you think to yourself well you
know i have read some passages that kind of bother me a little bit and
you know it just kind of leaves me unsettled because it's just requiring
like a certain standard that i should live by
okay then ask god to to renew your mind and say lord i know this is right but i
don't think it's right but it's because i've had bad
philosophies vain deceits false doctrine and i need to change
the way i think then you say well how do i know that i'm interpreting it
right well if it says it plainly in the
text you don't have to do a whole lot of interpretation
the bible is not like an obscure just an entire book of obscurity
some things are just clearly plainly stated in the bible
and if someone just says well you're just taking that out of context
you ask them well give me the context then first of all tell me where
that verse is located in the bible if you're talking because if someone
says you know you're taking out of context they must know
what's the book chapter and verse that it's founded if it's in the old
or new testament but if they can't even tell you that
then they don't know what they're talking about folks the natural man
receiveth not the things of the spirit of god
neither can he know them for their spiritual discern but unfortunately you
know some christians can act like natural people too
and not know what the bible says
the will of god is always good never be ashamed of the bible
okay and obviously you know there could be instances where christians can
get overly zealous and they just for the sake of
controversy just want to tell like their family members like every
controversial belief that they have you know obviously you got you should
have some wisdom about yourself and not be obnoxious there's a lot of
obnoxious christians out there you're just you're just looking for a
fight let me just say this all that will live godly in christ jesus
shall suffer persecution if you believe right you do right you
don't have to say anything the trouble just comes to you
okay but never be ashamed of the bible when people speak evil of
that way don't capitulate to the pressures of this world
to make you think well you guys are just like a minority group
the majority of christians believe this well that makes me think that i'm in
the right group then because don't follow a multitude to do
evil and the bible tells us that there are
few that find the right way you understand and so you know if the
majority of christians out there and let me just say this
when people say the majority of christians just know this they're
adding catholics to that
so i you know case closed
when they say the majority of christians are referring to the
majority of unsaved people who claim or ascribe to christianity so i don't
ascribe to that because you know i got people telling me all the time
well you know you have all these people out here
that believe in it and i'm just like so what they're all wrong
next question so what you know jesus had 12 disciples
who followed him and he's god he didn't have like
he didn't have multitudes and multitudes following him for the for
the entire length of his ministry and in fact a lot of his disciples
forsook him because he couldn't handle the truth so
numbers doesn't necessarily equal what is right
you understand and you never want to fall into this trap that just because
all christians are doing it all christians believe it
all christians ascribe to it that somehow that makes it permissible or
right because people tell me oh you're going
to tell me that you know you're right and 1.5 billion
catholics are wrong yes correct
i know more than those 1.5 billion catholics
correct why because the will of god is good and if they don't believe
what the bible says then you have no credibility with me
i don't care how many disciplines you have how much
of the eucharist you take how many masses you go to
i don't care the length of the dress on your priest
how many followers they got or whatever it is
it means nothing to me it means dung is what it means
go back to roman chapter 12 so when you're living a life of sacrifice unto
the lord you are reading the bible you begin to
see the world through a different lens you start realizing man god is good
the will of god is good being in church on sunday
is good reading my bible is good hard preaching is good abstaining from
fornication is good faithfulness in marriage
is good serving god is good you know being a blessing to others is
good loving the things that god loves and
hating the things that god hates is good
that's the conclusion you come to
but it's not only good the bible also says that it's acceptable
the bible tells us in roman chapter 12
in verse number two again it says be not conformed to this world but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of god now what is that referring to when it says that it's
acceptable well look at romans 11 if you would
romans 11 we're going to work our way backwards
a little bit here romans 11 go to verse 33
verse 33 says oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge
of god how unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out for who hath known the mind of the lord who
hath been his counselor who hath first given to him and it
shall be recompense to him again for of him and through him and to him are
all things to whom be glory forever amen now verse number one
of romans 12 i beseech you therefore brethren listen to this
by the mercies of god so everything that he's saying
up until this point or after this he's saying do it because god has been
merciful to you right and of course in romans 11
he says you know that his wisdom the depth of his wisdom and
knowledge their past finding out who hath first given to him and it
should be recommended to him again verse 1 of romans 12 says that when we
do these things that at the latter and it says it's
our reasonable service so what does it mean when the when
the will of god is acceptable means it's reasonable
you know when god asks us to serve him commands us to serve him
he's not given us some crazy task to do
and in fact to you it should be reasonable why
because he's been merciful to you it's not like oh man so i gotta serve
you now does this mean i gotta go to church
every sunday it's reasonable
folks the things that god asks of us to do
it's acceptable it's not like oh man he's
he says that we all gotta climb mount everest
that's unreasonable that's unacceptable so you know what you said what does he
have what does he require of me well you know let's just be practical
and coming to church is one of them and i'm obviously looking at a group of
people that realize that coming to church is reasonable
it's not a chore and in fact it's not even that hard
you say well you know it's hard for me and you know i have to drive
no the car drove
you rode in the car you told the car where to go
you exercise your achilles to press down on the gas
to come and i get it you know some people drive i mean i think the
furthest is like three hours are you guys three hours or two and a half
four oh three okay three hours but you know what even then you
know the car the car is the one who's getting them here
but you know you say and let me just say this they go to they come to all
three services
so obviously it's acceptable to them it's like well that's just reasonable
but folks sometimes you have christians who live like right around
the corner
they live like right around the corner and it just seems unreasonable
to come back on a sunday night or something like that
but you know what that's a person who obviously is not reading the bible
they're not living the life and i'm not saying that you can't serve god
if you only go to one service okay so don't misunderstand what i'm
saying what i'm telling you right now obviously you could serve god if you
come to one service obviously but hold on a second i thought we're
supposed to like you know go the second mile
isn't that a principle in the bible and why would we want to go to church
less isn't that what the liberals do
aren't liberal church is all about going to church less just have one service
you know and you know don't don't pressure people
and you know just one big service or whatever a 15-20 minute sermon
sermonette or whatever and that's it folks it's reasonable
and you know what fundamental baptists in general have just had three
services and we don't even have sunday school
classes
so it's reasonable amen hey when god says
to read the bible that's reasonable that's not hard
he's like well you know i just never read like a book before
and i'm not accustomed to reading you've read enough facebook and twitter
and instagram posts to make up an entire bible
what are you talking about you've watched enough reels
to make up both old and new testament and commentaries on top of that let's
just be honest it's reasonable for god to command you
to read the bible and thankfully he doesn't say read the bible by tomorrow
he just says read all the days of your life
you know god commands us to love him with all our heart soul mind and
strength that's reasonable and he said well why you say it's
accepted why are you saying it's reasonable
by the mercies of god you know the apostle paul is essentially saying you
know god's been so good to you he's been so gracious to you
he's been merciful to you he gave you salvation
and thankfully you know god doesn't promote a workspace salvation
and so if you choose not to serve god if you choose not to go to church if
you choose not to read the bible if you choose not to go so and if you
choose not to do anything with your christian life you are still
saved and you know what that tells me serving
god is acceptable for sure then it's reasonable because he doesn't even he
doesn't even do anything to my salvation if i don't do those things
he just commanded me to do it because guess what he wants to reward you
he's telling you though if you do these things uh
i'll bless you in your current state your current condition i will improve
your quality of life now and i got a fat paycheck waiting for
you when you get to heaven
but some Christians are like well that's just unreasonable though
no it's not that's like more than what we deserve
and so don't allow people christians other people tell you oh you're just
doing too much no i'm doing what is reasonable
you go sowing on sundays you go sowing throughout the week
you go to church on bios yeah because it's reasonable
i'm getting paid for this i mean not like at the moment
but you know in in the millennial reign you do get paid for this
god blesses a family now god blesses a man now he blesses a woman now
for the labors that they put in this side of eternity the bible tells
us be not deceived god is not mocked for
whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap
the bible tells us that let us not be weary in well doing for in due
season we shall reap if we faint not what is it telling us it's reasonable
you know it's reasonable to give the gospel to other people to get them saved
it's reasonable to raise your family for christ oh man but you know to raise
my kids and lead my wife and nurture in the
admonition of the lord and that just sounds like a whole
you're just asking a whole lot oh i'm sorry that god wants to bless your
marriage
i'm not sorry but you know it's just like oh you
you say we should have like a biblical home that's just a lot of work
yeah but it's reasonable though god's not trying to impose something upon you
that is to your detriment he's not trying to make your life a living hell
he's not trying to make you a miserable christian he's actually trying
to like make you happy because when you
serve god you actually the result of that is happiness
and i'm not saying that's the end all for man i'm just saying
the natural byproduct of serving god is happiness
i'm happy i know i look mad when i'm up here sometimes but
believe it or not i'm still happy even when i'm mad
go to first john chapter five if you would first john chapter five
now why why is that point important about the will of god being acceptable
you know because there's a lot of christians out there that want to do
the least amount as possible and they look at us and they look at us
as like being like oh you guys are just legalists
you know you guys are just legalists look at your services with your ties and your suits
well look at you with your skinny jeans your your caesar borgia haircut
look at first john chapter five verse three for this is the love of god
that we keep his commandments listen to this and his commandments are not grievous
you know what that means when we keep god's commandments it's acceptable
it's joyous it rejoices our heart don't we gotta sing the hymns
i mean seriously can we you know now we're like in 2024 we should you know
bring some other type of music oh you mean you mean the faculty ccm is what you're talking
about that's is that just that's what you're talking about that's unreasonable you say
why because it's unreasonable to sing the same chorus seven times
we sing choruses like three times with verses in between in order to provide structure to a song
but to sing one verse seven to nine times is unreasonable we heard it the first time
and it's even more unreasonable when you realize how shallow those verses are
or choruses are here i am to worship here i am to worship here i am to work no you're not
you're being a hypocrite when are you going to bring him the smoke and purple lights that
would be unreasonable why are we going to bring purple lights if that's like a rock concert
this is god's house and why are we going to bring smoke if you won't be able to see me
this is like it's unreasonable you know it's reasonable tearing down that wall is reasonable
so why because we got to make more space amen because the house of god is growing
oh man he's here we're just we're gonna we're gonna invest all that money into that wall
yeah i'm sorry take a little bit of money from your uh xbox account your video games just take
you know take a couple hundred bucks you spend on a sword that's not even real
take a couple like i don't know the least amount you spend on your video games i don't
know like 500 bucks or something like that and invest it into actually something that's
worthwhile something that's reasonable something that is acceptable you know and that's an
important point because i'm sure people are like oh man an offering we gotta take don't we take
enough offering no we don't we just literally take one offering every service and it's not like
hey i need an offering because i'm going on vacation i'm looking to buy a jet soon for the
glory of god of course for missions of course you know it's a reasonable request because the
church is growing but people will think that that's unreasonable because of the fact that
they're not conformed to the the mind of christ that realizes that teaches us that ministries
grow ministries grow we need more space and i know you don't like sitting next to that
person you're sitting next next to right now yes even some of you couples uh no i'm just kidding
you know we need space and so we need to grow what i'm saying is this is that the will of
god is acceptable don't see it as grievous don't see it as a chore don't see coming to church and
singing the hymns and going to prayer meeting and you know going soul winning and being a part
of the activities of the church and being blessed in others as a grief it's not a grief
it's reasonable it's acceptable and you know what if all those things were taken away from you
if your health was completely destroyed and you couldn't even get out of your house
you would miss you wouldn't you would beg god that you can make it to at least one prayer meeting
you would beg god that you can make it to at least one service if your voice box was
destroyed today you would beg god in a year span that you wish you can sing a hymn
you don't know what you got until it's gone amen if you were just left as like a
as a vegetable you couldn't move you couldn't speak you couldn't even preach the gospel
you would beg god to at least be able to preach the gospel to one person
why because at the end of the day you would realize that it was just a reasonable thing
it's acceptable in the sight of god and it is and so you know as you live your christian
life realize you know if you ever get this attitude like oh man you're you know you need
to kind of step back a little bit and say you know what what i'm doing is acceptable you know
if you're complaining about your husband and oh man i gotta do all these things for my husband
you know it's reasonable what you have to do for your husband it's acceptable actually
you got a husband how about that got yourself a husband that provides for you that loves you
he's not perfect you know and he's doing everything he can you know it's reasonable for
you to do those things it's acceptable in the sight of god oh man my wife she's just not on
board all the time and she just struggles or whatever just kind of annoyed i wish i would have
just you know been in a different relationship i wish i would have made better choices before
no what you have is acceptable it's reasonable to love your wife as christ also love the church
that's reasonable that's acceptable in the sight of god it's the acceptable will of god
and in fact it's far beyond what we deserve first sam you don't have to turn to 1224 says
only fear the lord serve him in truth with all your heart for consider how great things
he had done for you consider that every once in a while we all just need to step
back a little bit and just think just think about what you got oh man the wall's coming
down we gotta pay all this money at least you got a church at least you got a growing church
from what i remember everyone was praying for a new ip church in this area
not only do you have a fundamental baptist church to go to you got a new ip church to go to
praise god oh man we gotta go like go solely and preach the gospel
yeah and you know you get to be rewarded for it and you know at least you know how to go so
at least you're in a church where they teach you how to go so
oh man i gotta go fellowship after church and talk to people and be a blessing to people
yeah hey hey at least you have people here that like you
there's people here that want to talk to you and like they think you're okay you know
at least you have a church family you know there's a lot of people out there that don't
have church families there's people in other countries they don't have fundamental baptist
churches they don't have new ip churches they don't have anything they got like a lutheran
church with a woman pastor or something i mean that sucks they got like a roman it's like
where do i go the roman catholic church where the dude dresses like a like a woman
or go to a lutheran church where a woman dresses like a woman but thinks she's a man
it's like they have zero options at least you got a church
at least you got somewhere people to talk to you at least you have people to fellowship with
at least you have people that love you take advantage of it it's reasonable it's acceptable
inside of god
and then lastly the will of god is perfect now what does it mean by perfect when it says
that you may prove what is that good acceptable and perfect will of god it means it's complete
it's not just one-sided and people need to understand that when it comes to serving god
or fulfilling the will of god it's not just sowing it's serving your husband it's serving your
wife it's serving your children serving your church it's well it's a well-rounded will of god
and it's important for us to master certain things to a certain degree you know preaching
the gospel reading our bibles but at the end of the day we need to view the will of
god as being perfect entire meaning we serve god in at in all facets of life meaning that you
know what you're just not a christian when you come to church you're supposed to be a christian
when you go to work too like behave as a christian when you go to work too
have a good testimony when you go to work why because the will of god is perfect it's entire
you know when the bible says that the will of god is perfect you know serve the lord with
your spouse talk to your spouse about the word of god talk to your children about the bible
talk to strangers about the word of god realize that the presence of god is in all places
at all times and he's beholding the good and the bad the good and the evil the will of god is
perfect its entire we should not want to compartmentalize god and think well i'm gonna
put my best foot forward when i'm around other christians but when i'm outside of these walls
you know it's just you switch take off the hat or something like that put on the new hat you
know it reminds me of like um how many guys ever watch the andy griffith show okay we got
a couple christians in here all right good so you know there's this one you know it's a
he's a sheriff of a small town called mayberry okay and you know he gives this speeding ticket
to this woman and she's just like i'm not gonna pay it i want to see your judge and he's like
well you know you can go see the judge if you'd like she's like yeah go take me to the judge
so they go to the courthouse he sits down and you know she's like let me see the judge and he's
like all right he grabs his sign he turns it around he says justice of the peace
you know he just like switches it around or something like that but you know what in
a spiritual sense sometimes christians do that where it's just like christian at first works
baptist church worldly person at my job christian at first works baptist church you know just
carnal when i'm around my friends you just switch that over but folks that's not god's
perfect will for your life god's perfect will is that you're just a christian all the time
stop being ashamed of the bible when you're around your family you know you go to a party
let me just say this you go to a party of your family and they have beer you know you
should just leave why because you're a christian that's why well you know if i leave it's
gonna offend some people yeah christianity offends people sometimes what kind of example
are you setting forth for your family what kind of convictions do you have as a christian
when you just tolerate the presence of sin you wouldn't tolerate beer here so why should you
tolerate anywhere else right and obviously i'm referring to you're at some get together
and they start pulling out the beers they start pulling out the worldly music
and all the worldly activities folks are you a christian or you're not a christian
well i you know i i see it i just don't drink it so do you fellowship with other people who
are drinking though i mean folks we're supposed to be god's chosen people and i'm not saying to
be a holier than now i'm not saying you should be a person who just looks down on people but
there is there is this you know principle of separation the bible talks about and here's the
thing folks is that in my experience the way you can avoid being around people like that is
make friends with people who aren't like that like if your closest friends are just drunkards
and weed smokers and just worldly carnal people people who are not saved or just worldly people
worldly christians that don't go to church you know you probably should find yourself some
some better friends i know okay now it's getting quiet so now i gotta spend more time on this
if the only people you hang around with the most are people who are just godless don't
esteem the bible and obviously when we're at work we just have to be around certain people right
but the bible already tells us gives us that caveat by the way okay but if you willingly
though go to places where they're serving alcohol people are drinking before you
they are mocking the things of god or principles of god you know what you're being
a bad testimony especially if they know you're a christian you know worldly people are always
trying to get christians to just compromise on their convictions just little by little
and if you're the christian is just you have no problem sitting at a table with other people
that are knocking some beers or whatever they've already got you in that point i'm sure
a lot of them are just like see he's not really serious about the things of god
and you know what that leads to you picking up a beer yourself and eventually drinking yourself
that's how it always works
be a christian in all places why are you saying i gotta walk around with a shirt and a tie everywhere
i go no but you know what you do have to be an ambassador for christ everywhere you go though
you do realize you're a representative of the lord jesus christ everywhere you do realize you're
an ambassador for christ on the freeway right so no flipping people off when they cut you off
you know and you know no you know just reviling them out loud to them that they can hear you
okay if you feel like you got to kind of do it on your own roll up the windows at least
or something get it out of your system i'm just saying be conscious of the fact that
the will of god is perfect you serve god in all places do not compartmentalize god
and this is why it's important to have not just a prayer time but a prayer life
because we have a prayer life you pray all places at all times and i'm not saying you
get on your knees just anywhere you just pray into the lord in all places
you understand what i'm saying
the point that i'm making this morning is the fact that god's will is good
don't let people speak evil of it don't capitulate to the
narrative that people promote when it comes to god's will but it's not only good it's also
acceptable don't allow the commandments of god to be grievous unto you and look for the for
you new christians out there right now the will of god is just honey it's like t-bone steak
it is delicious it's gracious but let me just warn you okay let me just warn you about
something because it will happen it happens to all of us the newness does wear off it does
wear off you're gonna get bored with my sermons i'm glad no one said amen everyone's all
that was good that was good i i saw some of you kind of
you will get bored with the things of god sometimes it will become a chore sometimes
it can be grievous sometimes so don't have this unrealistic expectation that it's
just always going to be roses and daisies from here on out but let me just say this
if you do it right though if you do it right it's roses and daisies the majority of the time
well how so i've been here for going on 18 years i'm still excited about the things of god
i'm still on fire for god i still the love lord the lord jesus christ i'm still
zealous for the things of god and you know what i still rejoice in the word of god when
i read it it still burns in my heart i still love souls i love my church i'm still excited
about the things of god but that's because i'm constantly renewing my mind
making sure that i'm conforming it so that i always view the will of god as being good
acceptable and perfect let's pray father we thank you so much for your will
we're thankful for your word that displays your will for us lord help us as your people to
continuously renew our minds lord that we may not fall into the pitfalls of the
philosophies the vain deceits the rudiments of this world that seek to undermine the bible
water down the principles of the word of god and help us and they try to get us to become
lukewarm lord uh help us to keep our guard up lord and lord some of us in here just need
to pray for sometimes we just need to pray for zeal just pray lord make me a zealous christian
again help me to be zealous for the things of god not to be uh apathetic towards the service
to the lord towards the bible help me to love the lord jesus christ with all my heart
soul mind and strength and i pray lord that you'd help us to be a living sacrifice wholly
acceptable unto you and that we would not conform to this world but that we would
continuously renew our minds that we can prove these things throughout our christian
life we love you we thank you pray these things in jesus name amen
please turn your song books to song number 145
song number 145 it is well with my soul