a dry, thirsty land.
He highteth my life in the depths of his love
and covers me there with his hand,
and covers me there with his hand.
is Jesus, my Lord. He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up, and I shall not be moved.
That shadows a dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of his love,
and covers me there with his hand,
and covers me there with his hand.
Each moment he crowned and filled with his goodness divine.
I sing in my rapture, O glory to God for such a reason.
a dry, thirsty land, he hideth my life in the depths of his love and covers me there
with his hand, and covers me there with his hand.
His perfect salvation, His wonderful love,
I'll shout it with a million on high.
My soul, in the cleft of the rock,
That shadows a dry thirst.
Alright, great singing. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Just a few announcements here before we're seeing our next song, which will be song number 116.
He leadeth me 116 if you want to get that ready in your song books. Just a few announcements.
Of course, you're welcome to come back to our Thursday night Bible study at seven o'clock. We are currently going through the book of John.
And so hope to see you then. You see the soul winning times and teams listed there in the middle.
and the list of expecting mothers. Of course, I forgot to reiterate this morning that we have
a goal as a church to hit 2,000 salvations by the end of the year. And...
Pretty much calculated and if every team gets at least seven salvations per week
We can hit that goal and I think we can at far exceed that
And so I want to encourage you to make that your personal goal
Whether it's maybe adding another soul winning time to your schedule or if you don't have time to go out soul winning
You know you could always do Omi TV and that is a great avenue by which you can get two three
Salvation's in about an hour and a half. It's real easy
You can do it from the comfort of your home.
And if you say, well, I don't want to do that,
but I can't go to the soul winning times,
then you tell us what time you can go soul winning
and we can send Brother Ulysses Hernandez to go with you
at midnight if that's the case, all right?
I'm just kidding.
But just to kind of help you out with that.
And so pray that we hit 2,000 salvations
by the end of the year.
and pray that every team would hit seven salvations per team per week and so we are praying to that
end. You see the stats there for salvations and baptisms of course congratulations once again to
Zach and Jessa on their announcement that they're expecting keep them in prayer. On the right hand
side the TJ Missions trip is coming up on Saturday August 30th leaving the building at 9 15 a.m. you
can coordinate with brother Hernandez. Men's Prayer Night is on Friday September 5th
Meeting at 7 p.m. Dinner is provided men encourage you to bring your sons with you to pray with you
And then we have the church anniversary coming up on Sunday September 14th
And that is it. Please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so it's to not be a distraction during the service
Let's go ahead and sing our next song
116 he leadeth me
Song number 116 he leadeth me
It's on number 116, sing it on that first verse.
He leadeth me, O blessed thought, O words with heavenly comfort fraught.
What ere I do, where ere I be, still tis God's hand that leadeth me.
He leadeth me, He leadeth me, By His own hand, He leadeth me.
His faithful follower I would be, For by His hand, He leadeth me.
flowers bloom by water still or troubled sea, still tears his hand that leadeth me.
He leadeth me, he leadeth me, by his own hand he leadeth me.
and he leadeth me. Lord, I would last I and in mine,
no reverberation, no repine, content whatever blood I see,
By his own hand he leadeth me.
His faithful follower I would be,
For by his hand he leadeth me.
And when my task on earth is done,
When by thy grace the victories won,
I will not flee, since God through Jordan leadeth me.
He leadeth me, he leadeth me, by his own hand, he leadeth me.
wonderful seeing at this time our ushers will be receiving the offering and please turn your
Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 10.
Good evening tonight. We're in Ecclesiastes chapter 10
Ecclesiastes 10 the Bible reads
Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking saver
So does a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor
Wise man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's heart at his left
They also when he that is a fool walketh by the way his wisdom faileth them and he saith to everyone that he is a fool
if the spirit of the ruler
Rise up against thee leave not thy place for yielding pacified great offenses
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun as an air which proceeded from the ruler
Folly a set in great dignity and the rich sit in a low place
I have seen servants upon horses and princes walking as servants upon the earth
He that dig at the pitch shall fall into it and who so breaketh and hedge a serpent shall bite him
Whoso are moveth stone shall be hurt therewith, and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.
If the iron be blunt, and ye do not wet the edge, then must he put to more strength, but wisdom is profitable to direct.
Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment, and a babbler is no better.
The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.
The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.
A fool also is full of words. A man cannot tell what shall be, what shall be after him, who can tell him.
The laborer of the foolish, wearyeth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.
Woe to thee, Oland, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning.
Blessed art thou, Oland, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness.
By much slothfulness the building decayeth, and through idleness of the hands the house
dropeth through.
A feces made for laughter and wine maketh merry, but money answereth all things.
Curse not the king, know not in thy thought, and curse not the rich in thy bend chamber,
for a bird of the air shall carry with the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell
the matter.
Let's pray to your Lord God. Just thank you for this time. We have Lord to hear the preaching of your word Lord
Just thank you for your word Lord and we pray that you bless pastor right now
I'm filming with your Holy Spirit Lord as he preaches unto us your word Lord
Just give us in the congregation ears to hear the message that's prepared tonight Lord. We pray this all in Jesus name. Amen
Amen. Okay, we're going to Ecclesiastes chapter 10. Look down at verse 16. It says,
Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning.
Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles,
and thy princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness.
By much slothfulness the building decayeth, and through idleness of the hands the house
through. And the title of my sermon this evening is Through Idleness, The House Dropeth Through.
Through Idleness, The House Dropeth Through. Now, what is Idleness? Well, Idleness can be defined as inactivity
or as we're going to see tonight, laziness, right?
It's lack of motion or energy, the state of not working.
This is what it means when you are idle.
This is what idleness is referring to.
In Ecclesiastes 10, the Bible's coupling idleness with slothfulness,
which is simply another way of describing laziness, okay?
And the Bible's telling us here that when a person is slothful,
The building will essentially begin to decay.
It'll come to ruin.
If there's no maintenance being provided for a house,
a building, eventually it'll become decrepit.
It'll atrophy.
It'll completely fall apart.
And it says that through idleness of the hands,
meaning if the hands aren't busy maintaining the building,
maintaining the house,
eventually what's gonna happen is the roof is gonna collapse.
It's gonna fall apart.
Why?
Because everything requires maintenance.
Not only improvement, but maintenance as well.
Okay, so what's the Bible doing here?
Well, the Bible's warning us.
of the dangers of being inactive,
being lazy, being slothful,
as the book of Proverbs puts it,
being a sluggered, being idle, okay?
Now, this is definitely true in a spiritual way,
but just think about physically.
If you are idle as a person,
and you're not active physically,
your body's gonna completely fall apart.
Now, I'm gonna be 40 this year, please no gasps, all right?
I appreciate it.
Leave that for later.
You know, I'm gonna be 40 this year
and I love to work out.
I like doing deadlifts.
I like heavy squats.
I like to just pump iron every single week.
But I'm gonna tell you something right now.
You know, there's a point where I'll do
like maybe six days a week at the gym.
And then I cut it down to about three days.
And from those three days,
if I cut it down to like two days
and I do that for a couple of weeks.
I feel it in two weeks when I pick it back up again.
My shoulder starts hurting.
My knees start, I'm like, man, what's going on?
I'll tell you why.
It's because of the fact that the body begins to atrophy.
It begins to fall apart if you're not being active,
you understand?
And you think to yourself, well, I'm 20 years old,
you know, and I'm still young.
Yeah, but hold on a second.
If you're not building muscle tissue,
if you're not consuming protein,
if you're not being active,
you're gonna have a weak body when you turn
40, 45, 50 years old.
You gotta be active.
You can't be an idle person in a physical sense.
And I'm not saying you have to pump iron,
but I am saying you have to pump iron, okay?
You know, you can run and do all that, whatever thing you do
when you run and bicycle and all that.
That's fine, I guess.
But you know, put a barbell on your back,
do some heavy squats, pick heavy things up,
bench press, do some dumbbell workouts.
Why?
Because your body needs that activity.
It needs to grow strong.
Because quite frankly, after 40 years of age,
you know what?
You start losing, I don't know if it's 1% or 2%
of your muscle mass every single year, okay?
And you don't want that to happen.
You're thinking to yourself,
is it really that important?
Well, let me ask you,
is it really important for you to get off the toilet
when you're 60 years old?
Yeah, it is.
So I could see why you laugh because it is funny, but I'm going to tell you right now people who don't
Actively work their bodies and are exercising, you know, their legs become very weak
Their back becomes very weak. Let me tell you something. They don't get off the toilet
They don't get off the couch. They can't get out of bed because they're weak. They've atrophied
They essentially allow themselves to become idle, right?
Physically speaking, but you know more important than physical activity though. That is important. Okay?
You know, this is why we have a gym at the church.
So to remove all excuses,
you can go do some barbell squats after service tonight
with some of the guys, you can do some deadlifts.
It's all provided for you there.
We can make a program for you.
We can tell you how much protein you have to eat.
We can help you hit the, you know,
you wanna lose weight, we'll help you to lose weight too.
We'll help you to cut the calories.
That way, you know, you don't come up with any excuses
as to why you're not lifting.
You're like, oh, you know, just, I don't really have time.
Well, if you're gonna hang out
for 30 minutes after church.
You can invest like 15, 20 minutes at that time doing some deadlifts, some squats, you know?
And you're like, well, I don't know, can I really get it done in 30 minutes?
Well, as long as you're not yapping the whole time, yeah, you can get it done.
It's possible, okay?
And I know people don't like it when I talk about this, but, you know, you got put up with it.
And so, but you know, so it's important to be physically active.
But let me just say this, you know, the Christian life is also characterized by motion, right?
Meaning physical motion, physical activity, or spiritual activity, should I say?
You know, not being idle in the Christian life.
And in fact, you know, the Bible tells us that we are His workmanship.
created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which got it before then that we should walk in them, right?
Essentially telling us that as Christians,
we should be moving forward,
press forward, working for God,
making sure that we're occupying till he comes.
And in fact, that's literally what Jesus told the servants
when he left, occupy till I come,
put in work until I return.
Don't be idle as a Christian.
Okay, and in fact, go with me if you went to Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5.
Ephesians chapter 5, as you're turning there, I'm going to read you from James chapter 4 and verse 13.
It says here, go to now ye that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain, whereas you know not which shall be on the morrow, for what is your life, it is even a vapor that appeared for a little time and then vanished at the way, for they ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that, but now you rejoice in your boastings all such rejoicing as evil, therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and do with the not to him it is sin.
What is the Bible saying?
It's not enough that we stay away from the bad things, stay away from sin.
The Bible says that we have to be proactive in doing that which is good.
And if you know that you're supposed to be doing good and you don't do it, the Bible
says it's sin.
Look at Ephesians chapter 5 verse 15.
It says here, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise.
And I want you to notice this in verse 16, redeeming the time because the days are evil.
So the Bible is telling us here that we're being commanded to redeem or buy back the
time implying that we need to make up for lost time.
Now, this is definitely true for those of us who got saved later on in life, right?
If we got saved later on in life, we need to start working now.
It's not like, well, I'm going to start serving God a year from now.
I'll start serving God.
I'll start really getting serious about the things of God and a few years when things
begin to settle down a little bit in my life, things never settle down.
Let me just tell you that right now.
You know, this is actually the delusion of parents,
myself included, where it's just like,
all right, you know, after this week,
after things just start really settling down,
then we'll do this, it never happens.
Life just gets busier and busier.
You have to fit in serving God into your schedule, okay?
And not say, well, after I'm doing everything
that I have on my task list, you know, for my life,
then I'll fit God in later on.
No, fit God in now and fit everything else in,
try to figure out how everything else
can fit in with that schedule.
okay redeem the time buy back the time recognize that you need to make up for
lost time by being busy for the Lord okay serving God having motion being
active don't be an idle Christian the Bible tells us in Psalm 90 and of course
I just read in James chapter 4 that life is as a vapor right meaning that you're
here one moment you're gone the next
Okay, so therefore we should redeem the time don't think that you have until tomorrow to serve God or until next week
Do it today do it tomorrow do it the following day determine each and every day that you're gonna be active for the Lord
Psalm 90 verse 9 says for all our days are passed away in thy wrath
We spend our years as a tale that is told
The days of our years are three score years and 10 and if I reason of strength they before score years
Yet is there strength and labor and sorrow for it to soon cut off and we fly away and it goes on the same verse 12
So teach us listen to this to number our days
That we may apply our hearts into wisdom. What is the same? You know, you should intentionally live the Christian life
Don't just flippantly live your Christian life.
Ah, I guess I'll do this tomorrow, we'll figure it out.
You know, the Bible's telling us here that we should
schedule serving God.
Teach us to number our days, because at the end of the day,
you don't know how long you have to serve God
this side of eternity.
And this message is obviously for everyone,
but it's especially for the young people,
because young people have a tendency to think
that they're gonna be on this earth for like a long time.
Oh, you know, I got like 20, 30 years.
How do you know you only got one year?
You know you don't know if you're gonna die this year. This may be the year that we perform our first funeral. It might be you
You know if you knew you were gonna die this year
This would hit home to you because this would teach you that you need to number your days
Recognize that whatever you do this year, right?
We'll determine what you receive in the afterlife
Okay, and obviously we're not talking about salvation. We're talking about the rewards you receive for salvation
So we need to number our days. We need to redeem the time. We need to not be idle, okay?
We need to make sure that we're not lazy, slothful, being a slugger.
Everything tends to ruin and decay unless we intentionally prevent it from doing so, right?
The Bible even tells us in Revelation 3 verse 2,
Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, and I want you to notice this, that are ready to die.
For I have not found that works perfect before God. Everything's dying
Everything's decaying. Everything is falling apart
Therefore, we don't have the luxury to just be idle,
to sit around and just watch it decay.
We need to make sure we put in the work necessary
to strengthen the things which remain.
I mean, think about Sodom and Gomorrah.
I'm not trying to put that thought into your mind,
but the Bible says that Sodom and Gomorrah became that way.
Why?
Because of pride, fullness of bread,
and the abundance of idleness, the Bible says.
There are idle people, and when you are idle,
it's likely that you'll get involved in sin.
See, idleness not only tends to decay and ruin,
but it also tends to sin.
It tends to wickedness.
When you have time in your hands,
you're not using it for productivity.
You're not using it for your family.
You're not using it for spiritual matters.
You're going to end up using it for something
that is a transgression,
iniquity, something that this pleases God, right?
And, you know, people often say that an idle mind
or idle hands is the devil's workshop.
And that is definitely true.
Maintenance and improvements never happen by osmosis or by chance.
You cannot idly stand by and expect for things to get better.
Action has to take place.
And in fact, think about this, you know, when the Bible talks about waiting upon the Lord, right?
That's a great, you know, command in the Bible, it's a great promise.
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
What does it mean to wait upon the Lord?
It means that you're serving God as you're waiting for the prayers to be answered, right?
You're serving God, you're being active, you're not being idle,
as you are awaiting for God to come through and show himself strong on your behalf.
And so it's important for us to do so.
Tonight, I have four points for you.
Point number one is that through idleness,
the house dropeth through.
Point number two is that through idleness,
the house dropeth through.
Point number three is that through idleness,
the house dropeth through.
And yes, you guessed right.
Point number four is that through idleness,
the house dropeth through.
Let's get into it.
Go to Jude, if you would, the book of Jude.
Point number one and of course each of these I'm addressing different people. Okay, they're not all the same point
They're being addressed to different individuals number one. Of course, let me start off by saying that as a Christian
Through idleness the house will drop through. What do I mean by that? Meaning that you know as Christians
We need to build our lives on the Bible
And as Christians, we need to make sure that we're being proactive in our spiritual growth.
Recognizing that spiritual growth does not happen by osmosis, it does not happen by accident,
people can't make you grow in a Christian life, people can't make you read your Bible,
knowledge of the Word of God doesn't just come naturally,
you gotta put in the work in order to do so, right?
You need to make sure that you recognize that the Christian life is the life of building.
us building little by little in the Christian life.
Look at Jude, verse 20.
It says, but ye beloved, building up yourselves
on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
keep yourselves in the love of God,
looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number three.
1 Corinthians chapter number three.
Now what am I referring to when it comes to the Christian
and the house?
That is dropping through because of the idleness of the hat. So how about this, you know
The the temple of the Holy Ghost is this body it can be referred to as the house, right?
That houses the Holy Spirit and in a spiritual matter, you know, this requires maintenance
You know serving God being in the will of God requires maintenance now. What kind of maintenance does it require?
We're just being in church
You know what obviously throughout the summer people are gonna take vacations. They're gonna visit other churches and that's great
But never take a vacation from serving God, though.
What do I mean by that?
Meaning that, you know, there's never a time when it should be like,
well, you know what, I think I'm going to take about three months off of just going to church,
three months off of just reading the Bible.
I'm just going to go do something else.
And once I've done that, then I'm going to come back to the Lord.
That doesn't work.
Okay.
And here is my recommendation to people when they feel like they're being overloaded.
Maybe they feel like they're burning out because let's just be honest
We all burn out from time to time, okay?
And if you've never had then you know, you're probably not working enough, okay?
Because anybody who's putting a good amount of effort into serving God eventually, you know, they start burning out they get tired
You know, they just they just get a little you know
Frustrated maybe maybe they get a little emotional. That's completely normal
This is my recommendation to anyone who goes through something like that is take it from fourth gear and put it in second gear
Don't turn off the car
Don't just like well, I'm just gonna park it. You know take the key out. I'm gonna get out. I'm gonna go take a walk
No, stay in the vehicle
Keep it in second gear. Just don't go as fast and don't gun it so much
Right. Maybe you need to tone it down a little bit
Maybe and by the way not I'm not referring to Tony down like going from three surfaces to one
Okay, but I am saying you know as you're going through the three surfaces
Maybe you just need to go home afterwards and go get some sleep
Okay, or maybe you just need to you know instead of doing x y and z maybe you're maybe there's too many
Solving times that you're doing at once, and maybe that's causing you to burn out
I'm not saying that anybody in here is doing too much soul winning, but this is just an example
Maybe you're just like oh man. I need to hit that seven
You know salvation goal, and I want you to hit it too, but if it's gonna cause you to burn out
and get disgruntled and it's taking the place
of your Bible reading, if it's taking place
of your prayer life, if it's making you a grump,
if it's making you an angry individual,
just put it in second gear instead of in fourth gear
all the time, okay?
And look, you know, dads, we can burn out our families too.
You need to make sure we don't do that, right?
And it's important for us to realize the importance,
listen to me, of
Having our children serve God with us, but not burning them out either, right?
Because we don't want them to become bitter towards the ministry,
bitter towards serving God.
We want to make serving God fulfilling, but also enjoyable, okay?
And so it's important for us to do so.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
So it requires maintenance, making additions and renovations, right?
Removing and replacing old and broken fixtures.
You know, think of your spiritual life as a house
that needs to be maintained.
You can't just live in the house
and not fix anything, right?
You know, the house is gonna drop through,
the paint's gonna chip off, you know, the plumbing issues,
there's the tree that needs to get cut down,
the grass needs to be mowed.
There's all types of things that need to happen
in order to keep the house running properly.
But if you don't do those things,
guess what's gonna happen?
The house is gonna drop through.
Your spiritual life is going to fall apart if you're not maintaining and let me just tell you this
I'm glad you're in church, but if all you're doing is church and you're not reading the Bible the house will drop through
That's a fact, okay?
Don't think that coming to church
takes the place of everything else.
This is a supplement.
This is something that's in addition
to your already spiritual walk.
So tomorrow when you wake up,
you better make sure you're reading the Bible.
You better make sure you're walking with God,
you're praying unto the Lord,
you're spending time at the feet of Christ,
hearing his word, learning from God,
and not just saying, well, you know,
the only time I read my Bible is when I come to church.
You dust it off and then you come to church on Thursday
and that's the only time you're reading it.
Better make sure you're walking without even
in between those times, okay?
And so, and by the way, you also need to make sure
that you're examining your life.
What's part of maintenance?
Well, let's see if there's anything wrong in here.
Right you're going in your house. You're just like alright. I've been ignoring this plumbing problem for too long
I've been ignoring this this issue that's in the house for far too long
We need to fix this and needs to get taken care of you know
It's time to paint this wall. It's time to fix this. It's time to throw this out
Well, you know what you also need to examine your personal life as well because let's just be honest
You know, it's easy for us as Christians, especially if we're here three times a week for us to be like I'm good
You know I'm doing better than most Christians right, but then you know covetous this is creeping into your heart
Greed could be creeping into your heart, right?
Sinicism could be creeping into your heart.
Pride could be creeping into your heart.
And you know what, sin, just little by little, can creep in.
We need to make sure that we're examining our hearts,
staying right before the Lord and say,
God, you know, help me if there's something,
search me, oh God, if there be any wicked way in me,
you know, and confess that sin and get it right.
Remove and replace old and broken fixtures,
because if not,
Little by little through idleness of the hands the house will drop through and make no mistake about it folks
If you think about the life of our church since it started there's people that have coming on
right and
Let me just tell you this up if you see a person ever leave our church, right?
They backslide to go into the world they get involved in sin
They didn't decide to backslide the day that they left
That decision was done long ago
Okay, that was in their hearts long ago you see you said what happened to that person?
I'll tell you what happened their idleness of the hands refused to fix the broken fixture in the spiritual house and
They let it get out of hand it flooded the house and what happened the house dropped through mold began to grow into the house
Right they never fixed it and eventually what we see is the collapse of the house
But let's just be honest. It was a process
Okay, and so we need to recognize that if you're not maintaining
You're not adding to making renovations
Removing old broken fixtures the house will fall apart. What am I saying?
You have to intentionally live out the Christian life
Intentionally build yourself up on your most holy faith. Look at 1st Corinthians chapter 3
In verse number 9 it says for we are labors together with God year of God's husbandry. You're God's building
According to the grace of God, which has given it to me as a wise master builder
I have laid the foundation and another build that they're on but let every man take heed how he build that they're on
Other foundation can no man laid that then is laid which is Jesus Christ in other words that for the Christian
The foundation is the Lord, right?
Salvation, the Bible, but then we also need to make sure we pay attention how we're building on that foundation.
He says, now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
every man's work shall be made manifest for the day he shall declare, because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
So what it's saying here is that, you know, in a very spiritual manner, when we build upon this particular spiritual house,
Known as our Christian lives, there's people that use these kind of materials such as gold, silver, and precious stones.
But then there are others who use bad materials such as wood, hay, and stubble.
And the wood, hay, and stubble doesn't last.
Termites get involved, it begins to decay,
it begins to fall apart.
We need to make sure that we build upon our foundation
with the proper tools, the proper structure
so that it doesn't fall apart.
But even then, it requires a level of maintenance.
And look, I would encourage you just to kind of take breaks
throughout the year and just kind of look at your life
and say, all right, how have I done this year?
You know and my when's the last time I want to soul to Christ? I think that's a big one
Right. First of all, how about this? When's the last time I when's the last time you've gone soul winning?
Okay, that's important
But then if you're going so many ask yourself when's the last time I actually got someone saved because look
You know the house of soul winning can can fall through as well
And anybody can tell you that if they've taken a break from soul winning long enough, you know, they get really bad at it later on
to the point when they try to hop back on
and it's just like, they don't even know what to say.
They're kind of rusty.
They don't remember the verses.
They're not quoting it properly.
Why?
Because it tends to decay
if you're not maintaining your soul.
And look, it doesn't matter what area of life you're in,
stage of life you're in, whether you're a husband,
a wife, you know, maybe you're single.
All of us have the responsibility to preach the gospel.
And you know what, it doesn't matter if you have, you know, eight kids or you've got no kids,
we still all have the responsibility to maintain the house of God by preaching the Gospel.
Okay?
And we need to make sure we build upon it that gold, silver and precious stones.
Why do we come to church every single week?
Well, to kind of help maintain that house, right?
Go to Matthew chapter seven.
Matthew chapter number seven.
Matthew chapter 7.
Now I'm going to continue reading in 1 Corinthians 3.
It tells us in verse 16,
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,
you know, the house of God,
and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you.
If any man defile the temple,
him shall God destroy.
For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
And what is it saying?
You know, if a person
who the Bible refers to as being the temple of God
allows sin in their life,
And that sin goes unchecked.
You know what can happen? God can destroy you.
It says it right there.
Him shall God destroy.
Just as in the Old Testament,
when leprosy got in the house that was in the walls,
there could come a point where it permeated so much of the house
that the house just had to be destroyed.
Why because then it can spread and you know what a person a Christian that is not maintaining their house
They're being idle in their Christian life. They're just kind of well, you know coming to church once a week is enough
It's not enough. Let me just tell you, you know, it's great to hear preaching
I hope my preaching helps you, but I'm just gonna tell you right now. My preaching is not enough for you
You need to make sure that you're making the Word of God a daily discipline in your personal life
And even on top of that, I would recommend you just listen to preaching on top of that, right?
Just to kind of just to just to make sure
You got your your your tees cross and you dot your eyes and you're just keeping yourself in
A spiritual state of mind because let's just be honest, you know as we live our lives throughout the week
ungodly, unbiblical thoughts enter in all the time.
And I'm not talking about like lustful thinking,
though that couldn't be the thing.
Just, how about just ideologies
that are contrary to the Bible?
Can just infiltrate your mind,
that can plant a seed, play strongholds,
and you know what, God wants us to guard our mind.
But if you're just careless
about what you're putting into your mind,
You're not fortifying your mind,
you're not keeping your heart with all diligence.
You know what's gonna happen?
Through idleness of the hands,
the house will drop through.
Through idleness of the mind,
your mind will drop through.
It'll become decrepit, it'll atrophy.
And look folks, there's Christians out there,
listen to me, who were once on fire for the Lord,
they were coming to church,
they were preaching the gospel,
they're serving God, and now they have weird thoughts.
Things that you know years ago they would realize I never would have believed something like that and this is not just one person
It's not just two people this happens all the time
It's a thing and I've said this before look if I allow if I don't maintain up here just as a pastor
If I don't maintain up here, if I allow my mind to become idle,
I'm not feeding at the Word of God, I'm not reading the Bible,
I'm not praying on a daily basis, I'm not learning things from the Word of God.
You know what? My mind can become a cesspool of sin and false ideologies.
That's a fact.
So never think to yourself, well, not me, you know, I've been in church for so long.
You know, yeah, you, it'll happen to you too.
Take heed, let's see fall.
What am I saying you know don't allow your mind to be idle
Listen to preaching listen to godly music read the word of God. Hey memorize scripture. Why not?
You don't have to memorize a chapter. You can memorize just a couple verses
Right memorize a couple verses
Learn how learn the discipline of meditation. I don't know I'm talking about like hum or whatever, you know
The demonic whatever that is I'm talking about just thinking upon the word of God
Why because the new man needs that it craves that and it prevents us from going off the rails in our mind
because you could
You have the potential to embrace
Godless ideologies
It is a thing
You know and I'll get more into that later on
But the point that I'm making here is that as Christians through idleness the house will drop through
You can't go, oh, I'm a new IFP though.
I believe in replacement theology.
I believe in the post-trip pre-reath rapture.
I got the reprimand doctrine, I'm King James only.
You'll fall like everyone else.
You know why?
Because that's not enough.
You need to maintain yourself in the love of God
and it takes work.
You know obviously people abuse this phrase having a relationship with God, but there is some truth to it, right?
We are supposed to have a relationship with the Lord now the people who abuse it actually don't have a relationship with God
You know and those of us who don't use that we actually do have a relationship with God
Right because we are reading the Word of God, but would you agree that you know it takes work to have this relationship with the Lord?
Alright, if you love me keep my commandments
We have to constantly be on the up and up and work on our Christian lives and repent of our sin and
Keep our minds sharp in the things of God and make sure that we are keeping our hearts with all diligence for out of it
Are the issues of life and making sure that we are just not only maintaining but even renovating
We're renewing our minds
We're adding things to our minds that are biblical we're removing things that are not biblical on a weekly basis
I mean, let me just, let's just be honest.
There's gonna be times when you come to church
and I rip face and you're like,
you know I've heard this before
but I completely forgot about it
and I'm guilty of it actually.
That's just what happens.
So it requires a level of maintenance and order to do so.
Look at Matthew chapter seven, verse 24.
Don't let your house fall through.
Don't let it drop through because of idleness.
Look at verse 24.
Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine,
and do with them, I will liken him unto a wise man
which built his house upon a rock."
So he's like, look, if you're listening to what I'm saying
and you decide to actually do what I'm commanding you to do,
you're like a person who's building this great house
upon a strong foundation known as the rock
and I'm not talking about Dwayne Johnson,
I'm talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, right?
And this is important, why?
Well, look what it says in verse 25,
And the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for astounded upon the rock.
So obviously the rain floods winds can be compared to trials tribulations
But it can also be compared to false doctrines, right?
Be not carried away with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning creftaceous
Whereby we lie and wait to deceive they lie and wait to deceive. What is it telling us here?
It's saying that when these things come and they beat upon your house
It's gonna stay standing because you built your life upon the Bible upon the rock, which is Jesus Christ
But it requires maintenance it requires and look this this is not saying that the house doesn't get damaged
Trials damaged right they can damage you. I'm sure some windows got broken out
You know parts of the roof maybe went flying a little bit some shingles came off
Right a little bit of flooding here and there but in general the house stood
And you know all of us are gonna go through trials tribulations
All of us are gonna have some level of temptation in our life, and we're gonna lose a window or two
And so what do we need to do?
We need to make sure we have a backup window.
We need to make sure that we have some backup shingles.
Are they called shingles?
Are they shingles?
Backup shingles.
We need to make sure we have some backup materials
to rebuild when things fall apart.
But let me tell you something.
The person who has the backup, the person
who has the mentality of maintenance and renovation
will more readily survive the storm
than the person who does not maintain,
does not have backup materials.
The rain's coming.
It's just completely destroyed as a house.
And look, what am I talking about?
I'm talking about that they get destroyed.
God ends up allowing them to succumb to their own devices
to the consequences of their actions.
And I've seen this.
I've seen Christian lives completely fall apart.
And I'm not saying that I see it in real time.
I'm saying I see people get out of church
and I'm like, oh man, this house fell apart.
The house dropped through.
The floods came, the winds blew.
And you know what?
The fact that they fell apart was an indication
that they didn't build their life upon the Bible itself.
Right, man.
Okay.
And so ask Christians, don't be idle.
Make sure you're actively building yourself up
in your Christian life.
So how is your Scripture memory doing?
You know, how's your Bible really doing?
How much time do you spend?
And look, I'm not here to tell you,
you have to read a certain amount of chapters.
Eat so much as it's sufficient for you.
You know, how is your prayer life, you know, what was the last time you got a prayer answered?
Right once the last time you actually prayed into the Lord and you got the prayer answered, you know
Here's here's here's the the checklist, you know your Bible reading your prayer life coming to church
Maybe you're not coming to church as often as you used to
That requires some maintenance. Maybe you need to add another service again
You know, and you're like, oh man, it's just so hard though. You know, it's just what's scheduling. I get it
But let me just tell you this, you know, change comes slowly, and you know, when we begin
to subtract spiritual disciplines from our life, it begins to multiply, the consequences
begin to multiply over a period of time.
You know, you begin to change the trajectory just a couple degrees, eventually you'll land
somewhere else than where you originally wanted to go.
So we need to make sure that as Christians we are not idle. We are actively living the Christian life
We are taking
Inventory of our spiritual disciplines. We're memorizing scripture. We're reading the Word of God. We're listening to preaching
We are examining our hearts like that's so much work. Yeah, it takes work
It doesn't take work to be idle
But the consequences of being idle are far more severe, right, and far more arduous than
the pain that it takes to actually maintain the Christian life.
And so very important, go to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3, 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3.
So point number one, ask Christians, idleness through much idleness that house falleth through.
Don't let your spiritual life fall apart.
your Christian life, but you're also renovating your Christian life and you're also removing
broken fixtures from your Christian life as well. Be active. Don't be idle.
Number two, as husbands and fathers through idleness, the house follows through. Okay.
What am I referring to? Well, you know, I'm addressed the husbands right now and the fathers,
the men of the household. Okay. So in case, you know, you don't have children as of yet.
Let's let's address the husbands and fathers maintenance of our children
You know if you don't maintain your children that house can fall through
Winning their hearts right and look we need to make sure we work on even when they're little winning over the hearts of our children
This is something I learned from my father-in-law and he was really big on this and I didn't realize how important it was until obviously
I started having kids myself
But we need to work on making sure that we win the heart and I believe that is a biblical concept
to win over the hearts of our children.
Why? Because, folks, maybe you have the determination
to stick it out in the Christian life,
and Satan knows he can't get you out,
but he knows that he can get you through your kids.
And he can try to come after your kids, right?
And you know what?
Our kids will face temptations.
They will face trials.
They will face the attacks of Satan.
And so we need to make sure that when those temptations come,
aside from the fact that we've instilled in them
the faith necessary to withstand in the evil day,
We also want to be the person that they come to
in case they need that spiritual recharge,
the spiritual counsel that Satan will never
drive a wedge between us and our children
and this happens as we win the hearts of our kids
on a daily basis, right?
And look, you're like, oh, you have small kids.
Yeah, but eventually they're gonna get big.
And you know what, what I do now determines
what's gonna happen in a couple years.
And you know, as busy as I am, I am a very busy man,
I need to make sure I make time for my kids.
Meaning that I'm making time winning their hearts,
reading the Bible to them,
having conversations with them, right?
Sharing my heart with them.
Transparency with our kids is important.
Now this is not a family servant.
Oh wait, but this point is though, okay?
You know, being transparent with our daughters,
being transparent with our sons,
and maybe you have very little children
and this doesn't necessarily apply to you,
but it will apply one day.
You need to make sure that you maintain,
because if not years from now,
that house can fall through my friends.
It's very much possible.
It can happen.
And obviously, at the most important aspect
is making sure they get saved, right?
But let's go on to perfection though,
when it comes to our kids.
Not only getting them saved,
but making sure that they live the Christian life
and making sure that we maintain a good relationship
with them when they're adults.
I'll be honest with you one of the greatest fears that I have would be that like mean my my kids would just not get along when
We're older
That's a definite fear of mine. Can I just be transparent with you? I would not want that to happen to me
Okay, you know and and I look to the example of my father-in-law
who you know to this day him and his wife have great relationships with their kids
But you talk to any one of their kids and say you know
they just really tried hard and developing a
relationship with us and winning our hearts over and loving us and not just like being parents obviously that's important
But just like casting vision and winning their hearts so that when they're adults
They still sought out the console and friendship of their parents
I want that with my kids and I'm sure you would want that too
And so, but may I say that that doesn't happen on accident.
Happens on purpose.
You have to intentionally do those things.
If not, the house can fall through.
Not just maintaining our children by winning their hearts,
but spanking them as well, okay?
And you know, we live in a time where it's just like,
we live in a society of timeouts.
I'll take your Xbox away.
No iPad for you.
No, I hate you, dad.
You know?
You know, and we need to bring back that phrase whooping.
I use that phrase all the time.
You're gonna get a whooping.
That's what it is.
Oh, I'm just scared, scared of what?
There's your kids.
And you know what?
Society is just filled with a bunch of brats,
a bunch of selfish brats, disrespectful,
Gen Z brats criticizing and hating their parents
and being disgusting and rebellious
and God will judge them.
And look, folks, you know, and I grew up knowing some of these kids
who were not spanked.
And you may sit there and be like, why wasn't spanked?
Well, by the grace of God, you survived.
You know, but I'm sure you have, you know, from time to time
that the little braddiness can come out of you.
And if you're not a brat, it's because you're just a really good Christian.
Okay, you know, you're just like I wasn't spanked as a kid and I feel like I'm a good
I'm pretty decent. It's because your spirit filled right and you know what the spirit can transcend
The the works of the flesh, right?
But you know, but you're the exception and not the rule
Parents we got to make sure that we spank our children
and you need to make sure you correct your children and you need to make sure that you're watching after your children
Correcting your children spanking your children. There is no such thing as a timeout in the Bible
There's no go to the corner or whatever and you know take the iPad away
I'm not I'm not against punishments like that, but the punishment that the Bible describes is
Chastisement physical chastisement
And obviously, I know there's people here probably, you know,
that were chastised in the wrong way growing up.
Well, so what, you're in church now.
Obviously, it did you some good, okay?
You know, all of us were not chastised
in the most proper way.
But, you know, we survived.
You know, there's nothing wrong with this, you know?
We're fine.
This generation is weak.
They're so sensitive and weak, they can't handle any type of pressure, they can't handle
any type of correction, any type of punishment, but the Bible prescribes spanking and we need
to continue to do that.
Because if not, guess what?
That house is going to fall through.
Okay.
I'm thankful my mom just ties me and in regards if she said I never spent no no
I got spanked okay I got good memory of those spankings I'm thankful for it you
know what I mean I'm grateful for it and I'm thankful that she did it obviously I
wasn't grateful when it was happening because no one is right but looking back
I'm like man that saved me a lot of heartache that saved me a lot of bad
decision-making she instilled the fear of God in me without even knowing it
Because I knew that actions had consequences, okay?
Don't allow your kids to throw fits
and to just wreak havoc at church or in public.
Make sure that you are disciplining your children.
And let me also say this, you know, while I'm on the subject,
you know, correct your children
while you're in church before someone else does, okay?
Obviously, I'm not for parents correcting other parents' kids, but I am for people correcting
your kids if you're not doing it, because if you're not doing it, you're responsible
for your kids, right?
If you see your kids running amok, being chaotic, being loud, running into people, just kids,
which obviously kids are kids, and you're not correcting them, then don't be surprised
Okay, don't look at me like that. This is fact right here, okay?
You know if you don't like it then make sure you keep an eye on your kids
And look come tell me by the way if my kids are acting up and I'm not around and you correct my kid
Then you have every right to do so
You know if my kid comes and he's like oh man, you know
Brother Hyde told me to stop doing this that and the other and I'm like well. Did you stop?
Well, no, okay, then you're getting the whooping because you disobeyed you know
He's an authority figure and you know what maybe he didn't see mama drag around and you needed that immediate correction
Don't get any ideas by the way, you know you needed that immediate correction
That's what you needed and I'm not saying other parents have the right to spank other kids other kids or anything like that
So don't misinterpret this but a verbal correction sometimes is necessary, right?
And and so you know if you don't like that then make sure you're overseeing supervising your children now, you know
Eventually, maybe even tonight, one of my kids
are going to act up and you're going
to have to correct one of my kids, and so be it.
Obviously, if the parents are around,
you need to go address the parents and say, hey,
your kid just bit my kid in the face.
And that's a thing, by the way.
So just get ready for stuff like that.
It's a thing sometimes.
And I've had parents in this church come to me and say,
hey, just want to let you know so-and-so was doing this.
And I'm like, who do you think you are?
Don't you know they're the pastor's kids, you know, that's a stupid idea. That's a stupid, you know, I
Welcome the criticisms of others and I want to know when my kids do wrong
I want to know if my kids are being rebellious,
if they're being disrespectful,
I never want my kids to be a reproach in this church.
And so, you know, and by the way,
you should have that same attitude as well.
You should say, I want to know,
no, I don't like people criticizing my little peabody
or whatever, you know, my little point extra is perfect.
I don't like when they criticize it.
Then you know what, that house is gonna fall through.
Because we need correction and so maintenance of our children winning their hearts spanking them and teaching them
The word of God, but also maintenance and caring for our wives husbands and fathers
We need to make sure we care for our wives. Amen. Now. I had you started a second Thessalonians 3, but go to 1st Corinthians 7
1st Corinthians chapter 7
We need to make sure we care for our wives, okay?
Emotionally, physically, mentally.
We're responsible for these things
because if not, the house of our marriage can fall through.
You know, now I love posting things
that make feminists mad, it's just great.
I like saying, you know, my wife made me a sandwich,
you know, and she cooks and she needs to clean the floor.
I love saying stuff like that
because I love pissing off these feminists, right?
And I'm not lying either, she does make me a sandwich
by the way, and she does clean the floors.
And she's pregnant.
And in fact tonight, you know, she's due tomorrow
and she's still gonna make me dinner tonight.
And guess what, tomorrow she's gonna make me breakfast.
Yeah, I'm just trying to piss off the feminist right now.
You know, this week I posted something like,
it was some post that said, I think I got it
from Brother Lucas versus like five rules for wives,
for wives like in the 1940s.
It's not that it was biblical or not,
it's just principles of how people used to behave.
And I loved it.
It's just like, you know, don't criticize him openly
in front of others, don't contradict him
in front of others, you know,
stand when he comes into the room
and I'm just like, yes, this is good.
I even added one of my own.
I was like, don't embarrass him publicly or online
by being a loudmouth.
Yeah.
I was like, that should be the next one, you know?
Don't be a loudmouth woman, embarrassing him online
or in public or whatever.
And all these little feminists got mad.
Oh, what do you mean, you know?
Oh, so she's supposed to stand up.
I take you, you also shake her glass at her
when your cup is empty.
And I said, no, cause she makes sure
it doesn't get empty.
Amen.
I don't have to go like this
cause she keeps it full already.
You know, and I despise feminism.
I think it is a cancer in churches.
I despise when Christian women have
feminist tendencies, when they have
feminist ideologies, which is why I make
these crazy statements to piss you off.
Cause I hate it.
But also let me say this is that, you know,
this doesn't mean we shouldn't care for our wives.
You know what I mean and and you know I was having a conversation with someone in our church because they're they're
They're gonna have a baby and they want to do the home birth and I think that's great
And you're like oh, yes, it tells why do you want to do home birth and I like we give them a bunch of reasons
But one of the main reasons is just like I hate when the nurses try to tell me what to do at the hospitals
Ticks me off because they're they're very like anti like husband and father at these hospitals
I remember when we had Bruce and Kyla,
I can't remember which one it was,
but we had them in the hospital.
And the nurse was like,
can you step out for a second?
We need to talk to your wife.
And I'm just like, what?
And they're like asking her, does he beat you?
You know, does he abuse you?
And I joked around, I was just like,
hey, if I do that, it's my business, right?
You know, I don't abuse my wife.
But you know, hey, that's my business.
But I felt offended.
That they like that they asked me to step outside or whatever and it is true
And I don't abuse my wife, but just let's just say we fight that would be my business though
Okay, what does that have to do with her giving birth?
Absolutely nothing and obviously I don't be my wife or anything like that
I think that's stupid and then cowardly or whatever
I don't have to, what my wife, she just listens to me, okay?
But even if she didn't listen to me,
I would have what my wife,
because again, she's a weaker vessel,
and so there's no need for that type of stuff.
But that's one of the reasons I hate going
to the hospital though,
because of the fact that they always undermine
the authority of the father.
Okay, and so you know I tell them is like this is one of the reasons I like doing the home births or whatever
And it's great because midwives don't undermine your whatever there might be someone who tries to do that
But you know, I don't like that. You know, I don't like that attitude. I don't teach my daughters to be that way
I don't teach my daughters to be the boss lady. You know to rule over their husbands or whatever. I'm I'm training them
Yes, you heard right. I'm training them to be godly wives and mothers
You know, I like when my daughters walk around with their little dollies acting like their mommies and everything
I mean, I got charity over here, you know sticking a doll under her shirt because she's she's breastfeeding the baby
You know and she didn't get it from my wife
She actually got it from the ladies at the church because she's ladies doing at the church. She's just like I'm feeding the baby
I like that. I think that's great
You know why?
Because Charity's not gonna be some CEO.
She's gonna be a godly mother and a godly wife one day.
She's gonna fulfill the greatest role a woman
could ever fulfill this side of eternity.
There, I said it.
All right, now with that being said though,
we do gotta care for our wives, okay?
And I don't mean that in a bad way.
You know, obviously my wife knows her role in our marriage,
but I know my role too.
And I need to make sure I take care of my wife.
And she knows we joke around, and she obviously knows
that when I say stuff like that, I'm not reproaching her.
She agrees with me.
She hates feminism as much as I do.
I'm just more louder about it.
But at the same time, I need to make sure I take care of my wife.
So when she has the baby, I'm not
going to be preaching for a week or maybe two or something
like that, because they're tending to my wife.
We got to take care of her emotionally, physically, because, you know, sometimes God is like,
yeah, I am the man here, I'm the boss, but are you taking care of your wife though?
Got to make sure you're being sensitive towards your wife.
You're taking care of her emotionally, physically, and when I say emotionally, I mean, don't
be a jerk to your wife.
Right make sure you're being sensitive to her needs and realize they cry and that's what they do
And you just got to let them cry, and you don't have to say here's your three-point outline
And how to fix this situation you just got to tell you just got to hug them say if it's gonna be okay
And be sensitive to that us men we want the three-point outline
What do I got to make sure you illiterate it give me some scripture verses give me what the Bible says women don't want that
when they're going through a hard time, okay?
And you know, we gotta be sensitive to that.
Come on, who?
Who'd you call out?
I didn't hear who you called out.
But we also gotta take care of them physically, right?
And physically, as in making sure
that we provide for their physical needs,
whether it's food, rainments,
but also physical needs within marriage.
And I'm not gonna go delve in too much into this,
but this is an important point, though.
And in fact, the Bible addresses this.
Look at 1 Corinthians 7 verse 1.
Now, concerning the things wherever you wrote into me,
it is good for a man not to touch a woman.
Nevertheless, to avoid fornication,
let every man have his own wife
and let every woman have her own husband.
Now, this is still in context of that, right?
Because it's saying, like,
so you don't commit fornication, get married.
So that when you get married,
you can do the things that married people do,
and it's completely sanctioned by God
and it's okay with the Lord, right?
It's a godly thing to do.
He goes on to say in verse 3,
let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence.
And likewise also the wife unto the husband,
the wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband.
Now let me explain to you what that means.
It means my wife's body is mine.
Right?
So it's not my body, my choice.
No, that's my body, my choice.
Her body is my body, belongs to me according to the Bible.
Yeah, it belongs to me absolutely cut that into a clip share it make it go viral. I'm good with that
That's what the Bible says
And of course my body is her bodies as well because that's what the Bible says likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body
But the wife it says the fraud you not want another except to be with consent for a time
Then you may give yourselves to fasting in prayer and come together again that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency
What is this teaching? It's saying that
God commands you to be physical with each other.
I don't mean like physical, you know?
I mean like the physical thing that you do in marriage.
And it says like you should not abstain
from that relationship unless you're giving yourself over
to fasting and prayer and make sure it's not
some elongated fasting or prayer either.
He said you got to make sure you guys eventually come together soon because if not Satan will tempt you for your incontinency
The point that I'm making here is that according to the Bible husbands
We have a responsibility to please our wives physically as well
And I'm not going to get into all the details you married men know exactly what I'm talking about
Okay, because sometimes there could be this attitude is just like well
I just want to derive pleasure from my wife and who cares how she feels no not according to the Bible
The Bible specifically says that we also have the responsibility to please our wives as well.
Because if not, the house can drop through in that area, you understand?
And so we got to make sure we keep the physical relationship alive in our marriages.
That is an important factor, an important element in marriage according to the Bible.
The Bible discusses it. This is not a taboo topic.
It's literally laid out in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Be mature about it, all right?
Go to 1 Timothy chapter five, 1 Timothy chapter five.
You know, and sometimes people have problems in marriage
and sometimes it's just fixed by just doing this right here.
That's a fact.
It's just like, oh, we have all these issues.
It's just like, well, how's this?
It's like, well, we don't really, you know,
well, then, you know, take two of these
and call me in the morning, you know, like just fulfill this.
And then afterwards it's like, oh, we're good, you know?
That's often literally what it takes.
And the Bible is actually telling us that it's ungodly to abstain from that relationship.
Let me also say this, it's also ungodly to weaponize it, ladies.
Okay?
Never weaponize the physical relationship in your marriage.
The house will fall through if you do so.
Men, fathers, husbands, through idle hands,
the house drop it through.
And in a literal sense, it's like,
don't be idle with your hands when it comes to your marriage,
get your hands busy, in other words, okay?
But also, by providing for our families
financially and emotionally.
More specifically, I've already addressed
the emotional aspect, financially,
meaning that husbands get to work!
Man, yeah.
Go to work!
Man.
Go do something now. You might be a person who doesn't need to work
Right meaning that maybe you are you got a lot of money
You don't really have a need to get a job and therefore you don't have a job you should still work
Because if not the alternative is idleness the alternative is slothfulness the alternative is laziness
Which eventually evolves into sinfulness?
You start getting involved in sinful things and let me just say this, work helps us as men to do hard things and we need to do hard things.
If you don't do hard things physically, mentally, emotionally, you're just going to be a feminine, weak man.
And you know what? We've got enough of those already in this society. Stop adding to it.
We don't need more effeminate men in society.
We need more emotionally strong, physically strong men.
And the Bible commands us to work, obviously.
You know, you're like, well, I don't really need to work.
You know, I got a lot of money saved up,
and I got this, that, and the other.
Go deliver pizzas or something.
You know, go do lawnmowing business or something.
Even if you charge really cheap, just go get to work.
And all labor, there is profit.
You see the fact that you might have a lot of money saved is not a good reason not to work
We're the Bible commands us to work for our sake
You know keeps us out of trouble
But you know if you're not working
Number one, you're just being lazy. You're being idle, but number two
You're gonna end up getting involved in things that are not productive
Because you have too much time on your hands. I eat video games
You know, and you know 30 year olds playing video games
You know if you play video games for like 30 minutes or whatever, you know to kind of get your mind off of things
I'm not against that as long as it's not something sinful, but let's just be honest
Let's just be who really plays video games for 30 minutes though. It doesn't really exist now. Does it right?
And so, you know, make sure that you're being active,
you're working, you're getting a job,
you're starting a home business.
Even if you're already financially well off,
you need to make sure that you're doing
some sort of physical labor.
You're doing strenuous activity mentally and physically
for your own sake.
Because I'm just telling you right now,
pressure is good for men.
We need pressure, okay?
We need mental pressure, we need stress.
We need mental stress, we need physical stress,
we need that.
If you have it too easy, you become like a Solomon.
Solomon was cool and everything, you know what I mean?
The guy was wise and all that,
but he's so weak-minded that he couldn't even take
his own advice, right?
I mean, think about that.
Solomon, because he never did anything hard in his life,
he didn't have the strength to resist sin.
Think about that, you know when you work and you work your body you work your mind you work your emotions
You know what happens is you build up a lot of will and resistance, which is necessary in order to combat sin
Look at 1st Timothy chapter 5 verse 8 it says but if any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house
He had denied the faith and is worse than an infidel go to
Now we'll skip second Thessalonians
I want to go through 2nd Thessalonians,
but turn with me if you would to go to 1 Timothy chapter 5.
In Second Thessalonians, I kind of went over this already,
but I think it's important just talking about busybodies, right?
Someone who just doesn't work, they're just disorderly,
they're not working, we need to make sure that as men we emphasize this.
And I think it's important for even the young men to work.
And you know, I'm encouraged to see young guys having great jobs,
working long hours, making money and still being in church, right?
I think that's awesome.
I'm proud of these young men when they do stuff like that.
When they're just like, they got a business here,
they're working, they're nine to five,
or nine to 12, or whatever it is that they're doing,
but they're still soul winning,
they're still in church,
and they come with a smile on their face.
They're just like happy to be serving the Lord.
This is God's will for your life.
It's a great thing.
And so,
The point that I'm making here is that as husbands and as fathers, through idleness, the house drop it through.
Your house will fall through if you're idle.
Here's my second to last point.
As wives, through idleness, the house drop it through.
Okay?
What do I mean by that?
The Bible says in Proverbs 31 verse 27,
she looked at the wall to the ways of her household
and eateth not the bread of idleness.
Did I have you turn to 1 Timothy chapter five?
Good, all right.
You know, we get on the man
and then they need to be gotten on, right?
You know, if you're not working,
you're being lazy, you know, shame on you.
You're an embarrassment to society.
And if you are a man who refuses to work in our church,
shame on you, we are embarrassed of you.
We are ashamed of you, because it's not comely
for a man not to work, to just waste their day away.
I don't care how much money you got in the bank,
you better be physically, hey, let me just say this,
if you don't have a job, you could come volunteer
at the church, we got work for you.
We got a lot of, so that this building does not decay.
You know, I'm sure Brother Ulysses could come up with all types of things to do here, okay?
And so, shame on you if you do not work.
But let me also say this is that women are supposed to work as well.
Now, the difference is, according to the Bible, they should work at home.
Why? To escape idleness.
Because when a woman does not fulfill her God-given role, she becomes an idle woman being given after Satan.
Look at verse 11 of 1st Timothy chapter 5 it says but the younger widows refuse for when they have begun to wax wanting against Christ they will marry
having damnation because they have cast off their first faith and with all they learn to be idle.
Wondering about from house to house and not only idol but tattlers also in busy
bodies. Speaking things which they are not. Now there's a lot of women today that
think that this does not exist. It's just not a thing. Oh it exists and within the
last year I've seen more tattlers and busy bodies than I've ever seen. Okay now
listen to me you know
When a woman is married, there's a lot to do.
But there's far more to do when that woman bears children.
And obviously, if you can't have kids,
if God hasn't given you children,
get busy doing something else
that doesn't result in you being a tattler
and a busybody.
What is a tattler and a busybody?
A gossip.
Yeah, yeah.
Now here it talks about that they wander from house to house,
but we don't really have that today in 2025
because we have technology in 2025.
You know house to house means that they're going from house to house gossiping talking crap
But nowadays you know how people do it through social media
They go from
Instagram posts to Instagram posts Facebook page to Facebook page
Talking smack all the day long their tattlers and busy bodies. You know why because they're not at home folding their laundry
That's why
And look, you know, of course we're not against social media.
Are you saying we shouldn't be posting stuff?
No, of course you should, it's all good to post stuff.
Just stop being a gossiper.
You know, my wife posts stuff sometimes, you know?
But if she's on there scarcely,
it's because she's got so much laundry to do.
She's got to fold my laundry.
I got five kids who have laundry.
You know, we got another one on the way and then aside for folding my laundry. She has to iron my clothes and
Then she has to cook meals too and she has to do my calories
And she has to clean the house and she's about to have the baby. There's no time to be a tattler or a busy body
That's a fact
But you know what, when you're not busy doing,
guiding the house as the Bible commands you to,
you end up being a little tabbler, a little busybody,
rebuking pastors,
criticizing people online,
getting involved in doctrinal arguments.
It's not your place.
A woman's place is in her house, in the kitchen,
folding laundry, making meals,
and you know, making her husband successful.
Yeah, I said it.
Why because the Bible literally says that they are the help meet
And look if you don't like that it's because you've been you've been inoculated with feminism
Okay, and hopefully I'm talking to I'm not talking to the men here. Okay
Little feminist
It says that they learn to be idle and again, you know, there's instances where women maybe God doesn't bless them with children immediately
And that can happen.
It doesn't mean you're godless,
it doesn't mean there's something wrong with you,
it's just God's will.
But if that's the case,
then you need to get busy doing other things
that are productive in your household.
And I recommend for women who maybe can't bear children
at this particular time to start a home business, right?
With the approval of your husband, your boss, your Lord.
You know to start a home business, you know, there's nothing wrong with adding to the income of the household if there's no children
You're just busy, you know doing some sort of home business making soap and I don't know whatever he did is the ladies do or whatever
You know until children come
The point is get busy doing things so that you're not idle and you don't fall into this particular trap where you're casting
You're casting off your faith by being a little busy body gossiper. Okay, and look folks. This needs to be rebuked harsh
Harshly. You know why? Because when we don't, women become emboldened to do this nonsense.
It needs to be rebuked, it needs to be shamed, and all those women on Facebook who talk crap on pastors
and open their stinking mouths, being loudmouthed, ought to be ashamed of themselves.
Yeah, I said it, and if you don't like it, then I'll say it again.
Because I'm not going to stop saying it.
Women need to serve their husbands
and stop manipulating their husbands
into letting them say stuff online.
I had one lady message me like,
you have a wonderful husband, it's okay with it.
I doubt your husband's okay with it.
Let me just be real honest with you.
Your husband doesn't want to fight you on it.
That's why he lets you do it.
That's what it is.
Your husband is just tired of arguing with you about it.
He's tired of constantly telling you not to do it
and you're so stubborn.
You just constantly telling your husband you're just constantly doing you know after a while your husband just goes his hands
I was all right. Just do whatever you want. Just keep me out of it
And look, I've literally talked to pastors. Okay. I've talked to pastors who have had wives like this
Listen to me listen closely
I've talked to pastors who had wives like this and I've told them like well
Yeah, your wife was saying this online. He's like well, whatever she does, you know, I don't really get involved in that
What do you mean, bro?
Get involved, what do you mean?
She's gonna let her just say all this stuff online
and not correct this?
Folks, if my wife was online talking trash
to other pastors and other,
just getting involved in just frivolous matters
that she has no business with,
I wanna know about it so I can go tell my wife,
delete Facebook, give me your phone.
What are you doing?
You got nothing else to do, I'll give you something to do.
I'll buy more clothes, get more clothes dirty.
Well, what do you need? I'll gain more weight make me more meal. What do you need to do? Oh
You're so controlling
Please get get get off that
I'm I don't keep tabs on my wife throughout the day. I don't have a camera looking in to see what my wife's doing
My wife has the liberty to do whatever she wants the only thing she doesn't have the liberty to do is what the Bible commands are not to do
Which would be a tattler and a busy body
You know and my wife's too shy to do those things anyways
You know she can't she can't really participate in things like that because she just doesn't like to but you know
There's women who just did their mouth is like this
Like like like that
Like this
All they want to do is just yap and just they think they're so doctrinally sound
Oh, are you saying that a woman can't have opinions? You know, yeah, I'm just saying that right now. Yeah
I mean, does the Bible say that in church, if a woman has a question, let her ask her
husband at home?
Amen.
Right?
Are you saying a woman can't have an opinion?
Well, apparently a woman can't teach in church.
There's a line that the Bible draws there.
But you know what this whole are you saying women can have an opinion is often given because the women who are asking that are
Women who are constantly giving the wrong opinion
Constantly criticizing other people and you know what who that statement actually belongs to the ones who should be
Opinionating who have the right opinion. They don't say anything
So the ones who have like good opinions they have good things to say they don't say because they're too busy folding laundry
They're too busy taking care of their husbands and their children they're too busy with other things
They don't know what's going on online, but if you're just constantly online just criticizing others. Yeah, you know what?
You should shut up. Oh
I'm sorry that I offend you there
Let me let me just say a little differently to shut your mouth
It's what you need to do because you're being an open reproach to your husband, you know, everyone's embarrassed for you
How about that?
You know some people online just don't even see it either like that sometimes husbands don't even notice it
It's like they're so delusional into thinking their wife's not like that. It's just like oh
Everyone knows
Everyone bro, you might want to you know
Look at verse 14. Oh man, you're such a sexist. I
Will therefore that the younger women marry their children guide the house
Give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully
man
He's like the younger woman should just get married have children and just take care of the household and that's it
Hey, if you think that sex is then just call me a sexist. I just call it being biblical
It's the Bible teaches
And look, I'm not at home saying you're a baby maker
and a meal maker.
I'm not yelling at my wife.
I'm not slapping her around.
This is what people try to portray us to be like, right?
I'm just like this towards them, you know what I mean?
And so I have no quarrels with them viewing me as such
because I don't care what a woman who's been given
after Satan thinks of me.
I'm preventing feminism within our church.
Oh, this sounds old fashioned.
It is old fashioned.
It's timeless.
It's what it is.
It's biblical.
And it says in verse 15,
for some are already turned aside after Satan.
So if you're not getting married,
bearing children, guiding the house,
and you're being a tatterlun, a busy body,
the Bible says that you're being turned after Satan.
Okay?
You've been deceived, Eve, into doing that.
And so, you know, hey ladies,
if you want to make sure your household doesn't fall through,
serve your husband.
And husbands, help your wives with that.
that is very opinionated, you know, just govern that thing.
Just make sure nothing crazy is being said online.
Because, you know, there's nothing wrong
with a strong-willed woman if you can handle it, right?
There's women who are just more, you know,
what's the word I'm looking for?
They're more, what?
Spicy, all right?
They're more spicy, you know?
a little more jalapeno-ish, you know?
They got a little more flair to them.
Some dudes like that, you know?
They like when their wives are a little more crazier,
a little more, a little tad bit more louder.
They kind of like that.
And you know, if that's your forte,
you know, then that's more power to you, okay?
What we're saying is make sure you govern that thing though.
Because, you know, if it's not governed then it can get out of hand and then you can find
yourself, you know, governing a feud between her and a pastor or something like that.
And let me just say right now, no woman in our church should ever, ever rebuke a pastor
online.
Let me just say that again, no woman in our church.
And look, you know, I'm not here trying to police her wife, but if she's online rebuke
and this hasn't happened in our church, but if I see her online rebuke and a pastor, I'm
So if you don't want that to happen, you better make sure you take that down first.
Because if she's saying this on an open forum, that means it's open for anybody to say anything
then.
Right?
Amen?
All right.
Let me move on here because I'm out of time.
It's one of those sermons where I wanted to say one particular thing and so I built
the sermon around that.
And so my last point is that as a church, idleness makes the house drop through.
You know, as a church, we've got to make sure we stay busy, right?
Keep winning souls to Christ occupied till he comes all that good stuff. You know, I mean stay busy
You know we're first works all that and so
What's the point that I'm saying here? Let's be anti-idleness
Okay, and look if you don't like what I said tonight if it offended you then just realize that you know
You just got a double dose of what the Bible says
Okay, that's that's what it is because I just showed you what the Bible says now
You might have not you might have not liked the way I said it, but what I said was still true though
Okay, I could have said it nicer, but doesn't it doesn't have that same spice to it
It's not as spicy if I don't say it this way. Okay. I like to be a little spicy when I preach
Okay
And so let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
Thank you for the principles thereof, Lord.
Help us as your people not to be idle.
There's so many dangers as Christians that we can face
if we allow ourselves to be slothful and idle.
We become to decay, begin to atrophy in our Christian lives.
Our churches begin to atrophy and decay our homes,
our children, our marriages.
Help us, Lord, to do the best that we can.
to not just maintain but also improve,
make the necessary renovations,
remove old wood,
remove things that no longer work in our households,
fix the plumbing, the light fixtures, Lord,
help us to be proactive in fixing
that which you've given us the responsibility to oversee.
And I pray to you, bless us as we go on our way, Lord,
we love you, we thank you,
pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
Song number 67 as our last song the pearly white city song number 67
Song number 67
Pearly white city on that first we'll sing it out
There's a pearly and hope city whose builder and ruler is God
John saw it descending from heaven, when Padmose in exile he trod.
Its high mass of all is of Jasper, the city itself is pure gold.
And when my frail heart is empty, mine I shall his glory behold.
I've mentioned the heart and the crown Now I am watching, waiting and longing
For the white city that's soon coming down There's no sound in that city
and no sickness can enter, no crepe or adornment is seen.
Earth's sorrows and cares are forgotten, no tempter is there to annoy,
no parting of words are spoken, there's nothing to hurt or destroy.
A mansion, a heart, and a crown.
Now I am watching,
Weeding and longing
For the white city
That's soon coming down.
No heartaches are known in that city,
No tears ever moisten the sky.
and stripe in the sky. The saints are all sanctified, holy.
By the teeth of the many there, my heart is now set on that city.
And sometime it's blessing I'll share.
Imagine a heart and a crown, now I am watching, waiting and longing for the white city that's soon coming down.
My loved ones are clinging yonder, my friends too are passing away.
Soon I shall join their bright number, and dwell in eternity's day.
They're saved now in glory with Jesus, their trials and battles are past.
They overcame sin and the tempter, they've reached their fair city at last.
Wonderful singing you are dismissed