All right, so if you open up to Genesis chapter 20, verse number six, the Bible says,
And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart.
The title for the sermon is The Integrity of Thy Heart.
As I was going through this chapter and preparing for the sermon,
I was brought to remembrance the last sermon that I preached in 2018.
The last sermon, if you guys remember what it was called, it was, what did I call it?
Hold fast your integrity was the title for the sermon, the last sermon that I preached in 2018.
And so this came back to my memory again, as we see that Abimelek here is asking the Lord
to check his integrity, to check his heart as to what he did here.
And I believe now, look, we're now in August, right?
We're halfway through August.
We've just gone through six months and a bit with our church since the end of 2018.
And so I think it's a good time to check our integrity.
You know, how well are we doing?
You know, back then when I was preaching on things, I was saying, hey, look,
I don't want to be a church that grows too quickly.
You know, I don't want to go too hard and too fast and then for things to fail.
I want to make sure that everything that we do is sound, that every step that we take as a church is solid.
You know, I don't want this church to fail.
I don't want us to fail in our Christian life.
You know, what's the point of having a big name?
What's the point of being famous?
What's the point of all these things if we're not doing things with a clear conscience,
if we're not doing things with the integrity of our heart?
And here we have an interesting story of Abimelech.
You know, he's kind of like an enemy to Abraham at the beginning because he takes his wife.
And he's even asking the Lord, look, check my integrity, Lord.
You know, I did this without any malice.
And we'll pick it up there in Genesis chapter 20 verse 1, please.
Genesis chapter 20 verse 1, let me just turn there myself.
Genesis chapter 20 verse 1, and it says here,
And Abraham journeyed from thence toward a south country, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Jirah.
And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister, and Abimelech king of Jirah sent and took Sarah.
We have basically the same story.
If this sounds familiar, we saw a very similar story in Genesis chapter 12.
Remember, when there's a family in the land of Canaan and Abraham took his whole family into Egypt,
and the Pharaoh, you know, found Sarah, you know, very attractive.
She found her beautiful.
And, you know, he took her to be his wife and they did the same thing.
You know, Abraham was concerned that the Pharaoh would put him to death to take his wife from him.
And so they told the Pharaoh back there in Genesis 12, that Sarah is my sister.
And again, we see this thing playing out again here in Genesis chapter 20.
Now, the first thought that might come to your mind is, well, hold on, isn't Sarah like 90 years old now?
You know, is she, you know, how is this going to happen?
I think it was Brother Jason who was sharing with us on Messenger that, you know, Abraham would have been old enough to know Noah.
Okay, would have been old enough to know Noah.
And if you remember back in those days, in Noah's days, and even before that, people were living for hundreds of years.
And even though, you know, Abraham and Sarah did not live as long as those people, they still lived very long ages.
Okay.
So again, you know, it's my best understanding of this is I suppose at the age of 90, you know, they still had pretty good genes.
You know, I think their biology was still a little bit different.
They could still live longer than the average person.
And so I'm assuming Sarah still looks very beautiful on the outside, even at that older age, you know.
And here's the thing, you can, you know, at the age of 90, hey, you can still be beautiful.
All right.
Because beauty should be coming from the new man there, the spiritual man.
You know, that meek and quiet spirit that is within you.
You know, don't let it be your outward appearance that, you know, you're all about.
So, you know, I'm sure Sarah had both those qualities in her.
You know, she's numbered there in Hebrews chapter 11 as a faithful woman.
Hey, yeah, she was beautiful on the outside, but she was also a beautiful woman on the inside.
And so let's look at verse number three there.
And by the way, that was a mistake that Abraham made.
All right.
He's doing that again, is what I'm trying to say.
He's making a mistake again.
All right.
And, you know, Abraham, how many mistakes have you made that you've made again that you've done in the past?
It happens to the best of us.
It happens to all of us.
You know, we need to learn from the mistakes.
And here again, we see that Abraham has a fear.
God already told him.
Look, I'm going to bless them that bless you, that bless thee, curse them, that curse of thee.
Well, God's already put his umbrella of protection over Abraham.
And here we have again Abraham at a period of weakness, a fear of having his life taken.
And so he tells this King Abimelech that, no, she's just my sister in order for him not to be put to death.
But verse number three.
But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him,
Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken, for she is a man's wife.
Well, God just tells Abimelech, look, you're dead.
You know, you're as good as dead right now, Abimelech, because you've taken another man's wife.
And Abimelech, I love how he responds here in verse number four.
But Abimelech had not come near her.
And he said, Lord, would thou slay also a righteous nation?
Now, I don't believe that his nation was righteous, you know, of any kind of sort.
But look, he says, look, it's basically saying, look, we're innocent, Lord, you're going to kill me.
You're going to hurt our nation.
Look, we're innocent of what's happened.
Look at verse number five.
Said he not unto me, she is my sister.
And she, even she herself said, he is my brother.
In the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.
Okay, and I feel sorry for him.
The Lord says, look, you're going to die, Abimelech.
He says, look, Lord, I didn't know.
She told me, they lied to me.
They deceived me.
In fact, they didn't lie, actually.
They were, remember, half brother and half sister, but they didn't give the full truth.
Okay, and here's what's interesting about this.
We have the man of God, Abraham, okay, a man of faith, but he's lacking integrity.
He hasn't been completely honest with the truth about his situation with Sarah.
But we have an ungodly man, you know, a man that the Lord is going to be trying to, you know,
decided to put to death, and he says, look, I've got integrity, Lord.
You know, I've done this from the innocency of my heart, the integrity of my heart.
And verse number six, and God said unto him in a dream, that's what I love about God.
You know, you can actually, you can, in a sense, like negotiate with the Lord.
The Lord is open to hearing the prayers of men, you know.
And he hears this prayer of Abimelech, and God said unto him in a dream, yea,
I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart.
For I also withheld thee from sinning against me, therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.
So the Lord says, look, I know, I know you were innocent.
I know you did this for the integrity of your heart.
This is why I've come to warn you.
This is why I've come to warn you, you know, don't sin against me.
Abimelech's been given a great privilege of hearing from the Lord God, you know, and being saved,
if you will, saved from committing a grievous sin, and of course, saving his physical life
from doing this wicked act with a married woman.
And, you know, again, as I told you, this reminds me of the sermon that I preached
at the end of 2019, you know, which was hold fast your integrity.
And let's just keep our finger there.
Let's go to Job 31 for a moment, please.
Job 31, because I don't want to rehash that whole sermon.
But if you remember, when I defined what integrity is, I said that it is someone who is genuine,
someone that is honest, okay, someone that is, in a sense, the Bible uses the word perfect.
And the Bible speaks about being perfect.
It's been about well rounded, making sure you're balanced in your life, having integrity,
that clear conscience there with God.
And this is important as a church, that we would be a church of integrity, as we seek
to build this church from year after year.
You know, I'm not just focused on the numbers, I'm not just focused on getting new people.
I'm also focused on the quality of work, the quality of our faith, the quality of our brotherly
love toward one another, the quality of our service to the body of Christ, the quality
of our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and walking after his ways, walking in spirit,
all these things, I want to make sure we're solid in these things.
I want to make sure that, you know, we understand the path which God, you know, is seeking for
us to walk in, making sure we're doing the works, you know, going out door to door solely
and not neglecting those things.
Because I know if we have integrity, if we seek integrity in our church, we seek to have
great quality in our church, I'm sure the Lord will add in quantity in his time.
You know, it's the Lord that builds the church.
We just need to make sure we're obedient to him.
And if you're in Job 31, Job 31 verse 1, if you remember the sermon last year, we spoke
about how Job was a man of integrity.
He goes, man, look, I'm going to, if when I die, I'm still going to hold on to my integrity,
even though I lost all these things, all these possessions, my children, I'm going to go
to death, I'm going to go to the grave with integrity.
And it's a great way, you know, Job's a great man of integrity for looking at that topic.
And there in Job 31 verse 1, Job says these words, I made a covenant with mine eyes.
Why then should I think upon a maid?
And so we're starting to see how Job is striving to live a righteous and clean life.
He doesn't want to look upon a woman which is not his wife.
He says, look, my eyes are for my wife.
I'm making a promise, I'm making a covenant with my eyes, we're not going to look upon
another woman.
That's a great covenant to make with your eyes, men.
And then verse number two, for what portion of God is there from above?
And what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?
So basically, what Job is acknowledging here is that all the portions, all the things that
we receive in life, come from the Lord, come from the Lord says, look, I'm doing what I
can, I'm trying to walk in his ways.
And I know what comes to me will come from the Lord.
And verse number three is not destruction to the wicked, and a strange punishment to
the workers of iniquity.
So here we have Job, yep, you know, those that are workers of iniquity, those that are
wicked, these people will be punished by God, you know, and he recognizes the wicked will
be punished.
Now, you know, he's suffering, he's suffering, but he's holding, you know, he's, he's been
faithful to the promise that God will one day, you know, pour out his wrath on the wicked.
And sometimes we don't see this in our life.
And we think, well, why?
Why am I walking in the ways of the Lord, when I look at the world, they're walking
in wickedness, they seem to be prospering, they seem to be doing well in life.
Why is it that I'm striving?
Well, here's the thing, remind yourself like Job, yeah, they might be, you know, prospering
right now, but the Lord's going to punish them.
In fact, they're going to be cast in hellfire, should they not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so, you know, he's got a fear of God, doesn't he?
He wants to do what's right.
He wants to walk in accordance to the ways of God.
And there in verse number four, he says, doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps.
That's a, you know, that's a sobering thought, that Jesus sees all our ways, every step,
and count all my steps, every step, you know, people have those things now where they measure
how many steps they've done, you know, throughout the day, God already knew.
God knows every step you possibly take, you know, in life, everything you do, every walk
you take, everything you do, even the wicked sins you do, you know, the Lord sees them.
And Job's recognising that.
And then verse number five, if now he, you know, he, this is where he does a sort of
a self examination.
If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot have hastened to deceit, let me be weighed
in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.
Can you guys honestly say that?
Is that your prayer?
Do you want God to weigh you in an even balance?
I mean, I don't know.
I mean, look, I've got sins, you know, I'm not perfect, you know, I've got failures in life.
You know, I'd be a little bit scared to ask, Lord, Lord, check my integrity, you know,
because we all fail, right?
We all have weaknesses.
And we see how Job's striving to live a very righteous life and he's willing for the Lord
to examine him.
Lord, just check if there's any wicked way in me, you know, I want to be someone of integrity.
And he's got the right place on the right heart.
That's where we need to be.
You know, it's not just the integrity of New Life Baptist Church, but the integrity of
New Life Baptist Church is dependent on the integrity of each person that's part of this
church of every family that's part of this church.
And so you know what, I just want you guys to grow in the Lord.
That's what I want.
You know, I don't, I don't care about a reputation for myself.
I don't really.
That's not my, you know, I'd expect.
I'd rather exchange all of that, you know, just to know that, you know, families are
closer together, just to know that marriages are closer, that there's a better relationship
between husbands and wives, just to know that kids are being disciplined and being raised
in the nurturing and admission of the Lord, just to know you're reading your Bibles.
You know, those things give me the most joy as your pastor.
You know, if I can see you guys growing and developing, I can see the integrity, the quality
of our church is improving.
And I mentioned also last year, just a reminder, the only way you can have integrity in your
life is once again, walking in that new man.
It's the only way.
You know, you can't reform the flesh.
You can't change that old man.
There's no integrity in that old man, that, you know, flesh and blood will not inherit
the kingdom of God.
You know, don't even try.
What you should be striving to do is putting on that new man and walking after the ways
of the Lord.
That's how you have integrity in the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And what I also covered last year at the end of last year is I went through a few points
and I want to go over them with you again.
You know, let's see how we're doing.
I think it's wise to do this, you know.
How well are we doing as a church?
Have we done better?
Are we getting worse?
It's possible, right?
It's always possible and we can't be so prideful not to examine ourselves.
The reason why I went through the, you know, the fruits of the Spirit is so we can examine
our own walk, our own personal walk with the Lord.
How well do I line up with these spirits that we see, you know, sorry, these fruits that
we see, these fruits of the Spirit?
How well?
How well does this reflect my life?
And for you to examine yourself and say, well, you know what?
I'm lacking.
And if I'm lacking, I need the Lord to help me, to guide me, to help this fruit develop
in my life in order for me to overcome the flesh and walk in His ways even more.
And then when we cover the fruits of the Spirit, we've gone into the seven churches in Book
of Revelation.
Why?
So then we can examine the church, not just personally, we can examine ourselves.
How well are we doing compared to some other churches?
You know, what could the Lord, what could the Spirit be saying to this church with the
lessons that we see there?
So always, you know, be somebody, you know, quite often, we love to hear hard preaching.
We love to hear false prophets being preached against.
And I love it as well.
But always, we need to bring it back home.
You know, we need to bring it back home.
We need to examine ourselves, okay?
I don't want to become the Pharisee, where we're being critical of everybody else.
But man, there's major problems in our church, major problems in our spiritual life.
I want you guys to get better.
I want the integrity in your life to increase.
And so some of the things that I decided that I said, hey, I want to improve and I
want to be better at, I want to make sure the integrity in these areas of our church
is strong.
The first one was integrity without preaching.
You know, my desire at the end of last year was to make sure that every sermon that gets
preached behind the pulpit is based solely on the Word of God.
And hey, if you got your opinions, you got those things, that's great.
But make sure it's clear.
You know, you differentiate your opinions, your thoughts, your ideas versus what's clearly
laid out in the Bible.
You know, make sure that, you know, we strive to show clear passages of what we believe.
That's the goal.
That's the goal that we should be striving to do.
That's going to make sure that our preaching has integrity, you know.
And you know, it's been a delight having other people, you know, I guess when I think about
who's kind of new, Brother Sam, this year, and I don't know if you preached for last
year, I can't remember Brother Sam, but we had Nicholas now preach for us, you know,
for the men's leadership class.
It's great.
And I want to see other people have the opportunity to open the Word of God and with integrity
preach from the Bible.
And you know, the other desire that I went back and listen to my sermon last night to
see how well we're doing.
The other thing that I mentioned was I wanted to tighten up our soul-winning techniques.
You know, I wanted to make sure that our soul-winning had integrity, that our soul-winning techniques
will sound.
And I had mentioned that, you know, we had the new DVD from the soul-winning conference
and I wanted to play some of that in the church.
Well, I've realized I've not done that yet.
So that's an area that we need to work on.
That's an area that, you know, I want to try to find a time where maybe just a few minutes,
maybe a few minutes in every service, we can go and listen to some of those videos and
see, hey, how can we improve in our soul-winning?
Okay.
This is why we need to go back.
We need to check ourselves.
Right.
I'm willing to say, hey, I can do better.
I'm willing to say, you know, there's an area lacking.
We need to fix this.
That's awesome.
You know, be happy you've got a pastor that's willing to do that.
Because most pastors are full of pride and that they don't want to look at the faults.
They don't want to look at the issues that come up, you know.
And then I spoke about the integrity with our Bible reading.
You know, I had challenged you guys to try to get through the Bible, the entire Bible
in the whole year that you had in 2019.
We're just over a year now.
How's your Bible reading going?
I hope you're saying, yep, I'm, you know, I'm going.
I'm going to finish in the year.
I hope you can say that.
But I think if we're honest, there's probably some of you that would say, well, no, actually,
I'm still in Genesis.
You know, I haven't gotten through, hey, we're halfway through the year.
We should be roughly halfway through the Bible by now.
There's plenty of time to catch up.
Hey, let's have some integrity in our Bible reading.
You know, blow that dust off your Bible, get back into it.
Let's have the integrity.
Let's be able to go to the Lord and say, look at the integrity in our heart.
Because if we made that commitment to ourselves at the start of the new year, we're going
to get through the Bible and you don't get through it.
Hey, there was a lack of integrity there, wasn't there?
There was a lack of faith there.
There was a lack of that commitment that you made for yourself at the start of the year.
You know, pick up your Bible reader.
And look, you say, I just don't have the time for it.
Well, what do you look, I'm sure there's a lot of things in our life that is just vain.
A lot of things that we're just wasting time on.
Okay, how about we just set all that crap aside and get back to the Bible?
How about we just do that?
How about we just open up the Bible?
Listen, all it is is seven, eight minutes in the morning, seven or eight minutes at
night, and you'll get through the whole Bible in a year.
Man, that sounds easy.
It is easy.
But it requires integrity.
It requires your commitment in order to do that.
You say, well, you know, I'm not getting through the Bible, but I'm getting through a lot of
online preaching.
Listen, forget the online preaching.
Get to the Word of God.
All right?
I mean, even, you know, the Israelites, the Lord God wanted to talk to the Israelites
from the Mounts, and the Israelites were too scared to talk to God.
They would rather God go to Moses, hey, Moses, tell God to speak to you, and then you speak
to us.
Hey, that's what preaching is like, right?
You know, the Lord has shown me something, I come here, and then I tell you guys what
the Lord says, right?
And that's good.
There's a place for that.
But there's also a place for you to hear directly from the Spirit of God.
You know, and that's when you go personally, you open up the Word of God, you pray, Lord,
please give me wisdom to understand what I'm reading.
Please show me, please guide me.
The Lord's going to show you so many things.
Things that I'll never preach on, things that, you know, the Lord will show you, and
maybe one day you can bless other people with the knowledge that you've attained from
the Word of God.
Now, how's your Bible reading?
Do you have integrity with your Bible reading?
And look, I've fallen behind.
It happens.
All right?
Let's just try to get back on where we need to be.
And if you say, you know what, it's just, it's not realistic now to get through the
entire Bible.
Well, okay, fine.
Try to get through half the Bible, you know, and then next year, you know, finish off the
Bible or something like that, you know, start setting, you know, don't give up.
Just set yourself a new plan, if it's impossible right now, set a new plan, say, Lord, I'm
going to try again.
I'm up to here.
This is what I think I'm going to be able to achieve.
All right, put yourself to that task then, whatever it is, even if it's just all of the
Old Testament, even if it's just all of the New Testament.
Start somewhere, okay?
Don't stop.
Don't give up.
Don't be discouraged.
You know, seek to have integrity in your Bible reading.
The next thing that I mentioned was that I wanted to have integrity with our church finances.
I wanted to make sure that, you know, it was open, transparent.
I wanted you guys aware of where the money's been spent.
And I mean, at the start of the new year, I gave you guys a financial update.
And because we've gone through the end of the financial year, I plan to give you guys
an update very soon.
I've just sort of fallen behind because of the conference, but I'm trying to catch up
now and I should be able to give you guys a financial update next week.
But that's important.
It's important for you guys to see where the money's been spent.
And let me just say thank you because the finances, the offering has gone up, you know,
it's been nice to not have the, you know, be a little bit stressed, are we going to
pay the lease for next month?
You know, we kind of get into, like we were at a point where we were basically on the
last week of the month, we just had enough to pay the lease for the next month.
We were there.
And now we've gotten to a point where at the beginning of every month, we can pay next
month's lease.
That's really exciting.
I want to make sure we have a bit of a buffer.
We have a bit of a space there.
So if we have a, you know, it's a bad month or something, we still know next month's,
you know, lease is still paid and things are being covered.
So all those, you know, fixed expenses, I want to make sure, you know, they're kind
of well paid off in advance.
So I want to thank you for that, for the finances, and I'll give you guys an update probably
next week with the finances.
And because again, I think I mentioned that a lot of churches fight over money.
I think it's stupid.
I think it's totally stupid, but it happens.
And so I want to try to minimise that as much as possible.
I want to make sure, I mentioned that we have integrity with what God has given us.
And at that time, we were talking about this building, you know, it's a wonderful building
that God has given us.
You know, how's our integrity with this building?
Are we looking after?
Are we being good stewards of this building?
You know, are we cleaning up after ourselves?
And let me just say church, we can do better.
Okay, we can do a lot better with this building.
It gets pretty messy at times.
All right, it gets pretty messy.
I mean, I just looked out, as we came back from the soul winning, there were pieces of
oranges on the floor outside the front there.
Not only is that a bad look for us, it's a bad look for everybody else in our area.
So look at this church, look at these kids, you know, throwing, you know, orange skins
on the floor.
Hey, that's not being, that's not integrity.
Okay, that's being very, you know, not caring about, you know, the church, not caring for
the brethren, not caring for the things of God, not caring for your neighbours.
You know, it looks awful to have a messy church.
And look, here's the thing, is our church going to get a bit messy?
Absolutely.
We've got a bunch of kids, we've got more kids than adults, all right.
But kids, it's your job, if you make a mess to clean up.
Parents, it's your job to make sure your kids are cleaning up.
And let me say, you know, when it comes to the mother's room back there, you know, praise
God, we've got a room there, but it gets pretty messy.
You know, if your kids are in there and they're messing up, hey, have some integrity.
Go in and clean that up, all right.
If you put in a dirty nap in there, you know, full of poop, you know, make sure at the end
of the service you get that poop, and you throw it in the bin at the front there.
You know, don't let another lady have to, you know, breathe in the stench of your kid's
poop in order to throw it out.
Hey, have some integrity about how you look after your children.
Children, have integrity for yourselves.
This is the house of God, you know.
Make sure you look after this place.
And it's important.
It's important for us to have integrity with God has given, look, if we don't look after
what God has given us, you know, if we don't look after it, then I can understand if God
takes it away from us.
Because look, I've given that to you.
I mean, look, he gave us this building.
He gave it to us.
Honestly, these chairs were given to us by God.
I mean, what I paid for this stuff is insignificant compared to the cost of what it would have
been had we had to start from scratch to take care of this.
Make sure you take care of your things.
You know, if you bring food to the church building, please don't leave it hanging around.
I mean, after a few days, it stinks, you know, you start to attract the insects, you know,
if you bring food, if you bring drinks, at the end of the service, throw it in the bin
if you're done with it, or take it home, whatever it is that you need to do, you know, throw
it in the bin.
You know, I think it's a blessing that our fridge is broken down.
Okay, because what was happening at the end of services, we're having all the leftover
food being thrown into the fridge, you know, but it's not good for next week.
It's not good.
It's better.
Hey, whatever's leftover, if you can't take it home with you, or someone can't take it
home, just throw it in the bin.
You know, make sure things are taken care of, things that's been clean and tidy.
And that way, it's less work for other people that are hanging around and clean up.
Let's have integrity with how we look after this place with what God has given us.
Okay, if you see rubbish, pick it up, put it in the bin.
And the last thing that I mentioned was, let's have some integrity in our families, our families.
Okay, the married couple, husbands and wives, husbands, love your wives, wives, be submissive
to your husband.
How's that going?
How's it going?
I hope it's going well.
I hope you guys are improving.
I hope you guys are making some changes.
Men, I hope you're starting to put your foot down a little bit.
I hope I'm trying to, you know, I'm trying to put my foot down a little bit more.
All right.
I'm trying to love my wife.
I'm trying to give myself to my wife, as Christ gave to the church.
Am I perfect?
No.
Is my wife perfect?
No.
You guys aren't perfect.
Hey, but we should be striving to improve in our families.
Our kids need us.
Our kids need to see mom and dad love each other.
Our kids need to see, you know, what it's like to have loving parents.
So then they can imitate that in their life.
If they see mom and dad at odds, they never see mom and dad talking, they never see mom
and dad interacting, they never see dad spending time with the kids, mom caring about the kids,
they're going to grow up like that.
They're going to follow your steps.
And they're going to be in the same, they're going to have the same problems.
They're going to be like, well, I guess I'm not going to spend time with my kids.
You know, they're not going to think of that as an important thing.
Okay.
Your parents, you set an example for your children.
All right.
Maybe you've made some mistakes in your life, start fixing that up.
At least for your children's sake.
At least for your children's sake, so they can have a good example.
And again, a saying from my old pastors that churches are only as strong as the families
that are in them.
100%.
You know, this church is not Pastor Kevin Sapulgela.
This church is every one of you, you know, from the oldest to the youngest, we're all
part of the body of Christ.
Okay.
The success of this church is dependent on each one of us, you know.
So you know, how are we doing?
I'm sure there are things that in that list that you can all say, hey, we can do better.
I'm sure.
You know, and if you say, nah, I'm doing well, it's probably pride, probably a bit of pride
there.
Look, we can all improve.
We can all do better.
And but here's the thing, guys, I look at the last six months, I see great improvements.
I see I see amazing things.
Hey, at the end of last year, we weren't having three services a week.
Every week, we were having, remember we started at the end of every month, or at the start
of every month, you know, we're having the third service.
Hey, now we're consistently having three services a week.
Praise God.
I don't know if you guys remember that.
But yeah, that's a that's a change to our church.
We're doing better there, right?
This year also, we've been having the men's leadership class at the end of every month.
That's something else.
Something else that's extra.
Something else that has been a blessing to me, and I think it's been blessing to some
of the men.
Again, you're all welcome to be part of that.
So we've been doing that.
Hey, down in Sydney, guess what?
Since the start of July, they're now having Sunday services.
You know, let's not forget about them.
That's our that's our satellite church.
You know, you guys have helped me have, you know, given me the ability to and allowed
me to go down to Sydney and be a service to another church down there.
You know, your brethren, I hope one day you guys can meet them.
Hey, but they're improving.
They've got now Sunday service, they got the midweek service, hopefully one day we get
to free services with them as well.
I have two other men now that are that are willing to preach.
So that's that's a great thing.
Hey, we're growing.
We are improving as a church and, you know, we've got the YouTube cards now when we go
out door to door sewing, hey, not just the tracks, we've got those YouTube cards, getting
people onto YouTube.
A lot of people do that.
Now we have the being Baptist DVDs, we'll start using them, we'll start giving them
to people that are saved.
I mean, these are all little things.
Hey, but hey, this this adds to the integrity of our church.
You know, that's what it is, guys.
I'm not looking for massive steps.
I'm just looking for the little things a little bit at a time.
Sound steps.
Every step we take has to be strong, you know, I don't want to jump, you know, take this
massive step and then just collapse.
Now we need to make sure every step we take as a church is sound.
I see the children, I see children during the service and well done kids.
I see you guys are much more settled.
You know, at last year, you guys were getting up very often, getting up, going to the toilet,
getting up, getting a drink.
No, right now you guys are a lot more settled, you know, you're going to the toilet before
the services, you're getting a drink after the service, all those kinds of things.
Hey, that's helpful.
That helps making the church a more orderly experience.
It's less distracting.
And you guys can sit in and listen to the preaching.
Hey, that's integrity.
That's integrity.
It's good.
I can see improvements.
You know, our kids are starting to get a bit more involved.
Like I mentioned, Nicholas preaching, right?
Brody, you started reading the Bible for us.
I mean, these are kinds of things, you know, is excellent.
We need to train the next generation.
We need to get them involved doing the works for the Lord.
Otherwise, church is just something I go to.
Oh, you need to be part of it, you need to serve in the church.
You know, that's what's going to get you to love the church is when you start to serve.
And then, you know, when you're not appreciated for your service, well, hey, your heart's
now doing it for the Lord.
All right, you know, you need to learn to not be a pleaser of men, but someone that
is seeking to please the Lord God, you know, you start learning those kinds of things.
You know, I'm looking at this last six months, we've been building connections with other
like minded believers.
You know, we had the blessing of having the freemans come and visit us.
Hey, what a blessing to have an overseas visitor, you know, come and stay with us for a solid
month.
You know, and they were a blessing to our church.
And I believe we're a blessing to them.
Hey, we have other visitors coming to visit us now, right?
We have other people since the conference and make new connections.
Yeah, you know, we have we have a few people coming up for the anniversary service.
Hey, these are good things.
We're building connections.
Well, you know, we have the opportunity to be a blessing to other Christians.
That's great.
You know, not only they can be a blessing to one another, but a blessing to other believers.
Hey, we've got a guest preacher lined up for our church anniversary.
Praise God.
Evangelist Richard Saenz will be coming out here.
Hey, let's be a blessing to him.
Let's refresh him.
Let's encourage him.
I'm sure he's going to come and encourage us.
And look, recently been invited.
I've been invited to preach at a conference.
I wasn't expecting that at the end of last year.
Were any of you guys expecting that last year?
Hey, that's awesome.
Awesome for me, right?
Awesome for me.
So, you know, bit by bit, little by little, let's keep adding to the integrity.
Let's start building, making sure everything's solid as we continue building this church
and allow Jesus Christ to be the one that leads us in that area.
You know, and just the last thing that I've got here is, you know, I think about Pastor
Paul Stevenson here on the Sunshine Coast, Heritage Baptist Church.
Hey, he's not completely like-minded as us.
Hey, but he's a saved man.
He's my brother in the Lord.
Hey, he's a Baptist.
Hey, he's been an encouragement to me.
Okay, we're not on the same page doctrinally on everything.
Hey, but it's a beautiful thing when you can not only be a blessing to like-minded
believers, but you can be a blessing to believers that are a little bit different to you.
Hey, then I know you're growing when you can do that, when you can be a blessing to
other people.
Okay, when you realize, hey, I don't have to just get along with people that believe
just like me.
Hey, man, look, your brother's in the Lord.
You ought to love them.
You ought to bless them, encourage them.
I hope Pastor Paul Stevenson does a great job at Heritage Baptist Church.
I hope his church grows.
I hope he gets many people saved.
You know, I hope, you know, his church grows faster than ours.
I hope he gets more people saved.
I'd love, I'd rejoice if they were able to accomplish those kind of works.
Hey, let's try to be a blessing to other believers.
And I want to continue developing those relationships.
I don't think old IFB, new IFB.
I think my brother in the Lord, my sister in the Lord, I'm commanded to love you.
I'm encouraged to, I'm commanded to, you know, bless you and lift you up.
Okay.
So let's go back to Genesis chapter 20, please.
Genesis chapter 20, verse seven, Genesis chapter 20, verse seven.
I think we're doing good, guys.
I think we're doing good.
All right.
We're improving.
But let's not forget little things that we can change as well, the little things that
we can fix as well.
Let's allow the Lord to check the integrity of our hearts, of our spiritual walk and the
integrity of our church.
Verse number seven, verse number seven, Genesis 20, verse seven.
Now therefore, restore the man his wife.
This is Jesus, this is our God speaking to King Abimelech.
Restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt
live.
And if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou and all that are
thine.
So the Lord says, look, yep, it's all good.
Just restore her back.
Abraham will pray for you and you will not die.
All right.
What I want you to do is go to Psalm 105, please, Psalm 105.
And Psalm 105 kind of captures this event here a little bit.
And we get to see how the Lord feels about this situation here in Psalm 105, verse eight,
Psalm 105, verse eight, Psalm 105, verse eight.
The Bible reads, He hath remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a
thousand generations, which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac.
So we know we're dealing with Abraham here, drop down to verse number 13.
When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people, he suffered
no man to do them wrong.
Yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets
no harm.
So you see here in Psalm 105, we have confirmation that the Lord was looking after Abraham, as
he would journey from one nation to another nation, he would reprove kings for Abraham.
Hey, we have the same promise as Abraham.
All right, remember, what was the promise?
It's the seed, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if you're in Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
And so this is wonderful, because, you know, the Lord promises, as we travel in life, as
we go through life, we go to different places, maybe different nations, the Lord's eye is
upon us.
I mean, we probably don't even realize how much we've been protected.
We probably don't realize, you know, that how, you know, certain people may have already
sought to harm us, to hurt us, and the Lord saw fit and stopped it.
You know, when I get to heaven, I'm going to be asking the Lord that question.
How many times, without me knowing, did you actually protect me?
You know, I mean, Abraham, remember, he was wrong.
He took it upon himself, trying to protect himself with a lie, with a deception, okay.
But no, the Lord promises that for his and those that are under his covenant, that he
would look after them, that he has his eye, and he's going to protect us, okay.
We have the same promise as Abraham.
So I want you to reflect on that.
I don't want you to be people of fear.
You know, brother Jason preached a great sermon recently on being afraid.
It's not a good thing.
You know, God does not want us to fear anything besides him.
You know, you fear God, you have the right measure of fear for God, and you can overcome
any fear in your life.
Genesis chapter 20, verse 8, Genesis chapter 20, verse 8.
It's a sad, sad thing, because I'm thinking about Abraham being a good man of God, a faithful
man of God, a man that we can look up to in the scriptures, and you see with his sin,
with his lies, with his deception, he's caused other people to be hurt by their mistakes,
by his words, and he's asking, why would you do this to me?
And you know, I hope you're careful with your words.
I hope you don't seek to deceive the brethren, that you seek to deceive non-believers.
You know, you can be a stumbling block to them.
You can cause people to be angry at God by your actions.
You need to be someone of integrity, as we saw, okay, someone of integrity, and at this
point in time, Abraham was lacking integrity, because he wasn't being completely honest.
And you know what, guys?
This is probably the hardest thing that I've experienced in my life, is when you know,
you better tell the truth, but you know the truth might cause you a problem.
You know, you might be in a workplace, and it'd be better to tell a lie, because I'd
get away with this.
It'd be better to tell a lie, you know, and deceive people, than telling the truth,
because it's going to make me look bad if I tell the truth, or you know, some harm might
fall upon me if I tell the truth, and that's a very challenging thing, you know, for the
average person.
It's almost easier sometimes just to tell that lie, you know, and we can't be people
with lying lips.
It's a wicked sin inside of God, and I'm going to rattle off some verses to you.
So if you guys maybe go to Proverbs, because I got a lot of passages from Proverbs, which
deals with the sin of lying, and it's probably one of the easiest sins to commit, you know.
It's probably one of the first sins that children commit as they grow up, you know, lying to
parents.
You know, if you think, man, my child never lies to me, no, they lie to you.
They know how to do it.
Trust me, you know, and they see how they can get things over their parents by lying.
And you know, you're not always going to be able to determine when they have done that,
but when you do, make sure you discipline them.
Make sure you correct them.
Okay, make sure you teach them to tell the truth.
And let's go to Proverbs chapter 12, please.
Proverbs chapter 12 verse 22.
Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.
Look, last week I preached on the sodomites.
You know, sodomites are an abomination to the Lord.
They're so are lying lips.
Some of you guys have lying lips.
I know, I've had lying lips.
Okay, I mean, that's one of the things we do when we go door to door soul meeting, right?
Have you ever told a lie?
Yeah.
Okay, we've all done it.
Okay, but here's the thing.
Just because we've all done it doesn't mean we just, you know, shrug our shoulders.
It's a serious sin.
It's an abomination to the Lord.
But they that deal truly are his delight.
Wow.
Do you want to be a delight to God?
Man, you want God to say, I delight in brother Jason, you know, I delight in brother Sam,
I delight, you know, in brother Rob, I delight, you know, in Paris.
You want God to say those words about you?
Then be true.
Speak the truth.
And the Lord's going to find delight in you.
Man, that's awesome.
That's awesome to know that the Lord can delight in you simply by dealing truly just by being
honest, just by being true, just by being someone of integrity.
God of Proverbs 13 verse five, Proverbs 13 verse five, a righteous man hates off lying,
but a wicked man is loathsome and cometh to shame.
A righteous man hates off lying.
Can you tell me that you hate lying?
You probably say, I hate it when they lie to me.
Yeah, but I hate it when you lie.
When you sin, when you're deceptive, when you're not honest, learn to hate it when you
do it as well.
That's what God wants to see changing you, is having an honest mouth, saying truthful
things.
You know, don't be deceptive.
Proverbs 14 verse five, Proverbs 14 verse five, a faithful witness will not lie, but
a false witness will utter lies.
And that's really what it means.
When you tell a lie, the Lord calls you a false witness.
What do we call the Jehovah witnesses?
False Jehovah witnesses, because they are, they're given a false way to heaven, and we
kind of mock them that way, right?
These Jehovah non-witnesses or whatever names people come up with them.
But you know what?
If you lie, you're bearing false witness.
Man, that's pretty bad.
To think about yourself, God's thinking about me as a false witness, hey, that's something
we need to overcome, something we need to change in our lives.
If we're telling lies, Proverbs chapter 17 verse seven, Proverbs chapter 17 verse seven.
And kids, let me tell you, your parents want to hear the truth from you, all right?
You might think, man, but if I lie, I might get away with it.
But here's the thing, when your parents find out, they're going to discipline you even
harder, and they're going to be disappointed in you.
You want your parents to be disappointed in you?
Just own up.
Just say, look, this is what happened, I'm sorry.
Tell them the truth.
And I promise you, if you just be honest from the beginning, you tell your parents the truth,
they're going to be more merciful on you.
They're going to be appreciative of the fact that you didn't hide something from them.
And sometimes you guys are going to face situations that are very damaging to you, that can be
very harmful to you or to your friends.
You better go and tell your parents straight away.
Don't hide it.
Don't be someone that's a false witness.
Don't try to deceive your parents.
Trust your parents.
They're looking out for your good.
They love you.
You know, your parents come to this church, you know why?
Because they love God.
They come to this church because they want to know what the Bible says.
They come to this church because they want to be better parents.
Hey, go and tell them the truth so they can be better parents to you.
They can serve you, you know, through their desire to serve the Lord.
And Proverbs 17, Proverbs 17, verse seven.
Proverbs 17, verse seven, the Bible says, excellent speech, excellent speech become
of not a fool, but lest the lion lips are prince.
Excellent speech become of not a fool, but lest the lion lips are prince.
What it's saying is basically, you can be a prince, you know, you can be someone that's
well known, who's famous, but lion lips will make you look horrible.
Lion lips will bring you a bad reputation, okay?
I know when my kids lie to me, and they have lied to me, I know that I'm disappointed in
them.
They can do a lot of good.
They can be doing all their chores, doing all their schoolwork, you know, being a great
child, but when I find out that they've lied to us, it breaks my heart, you know, it breaks
my heart.
It hurts your reputation, you know.
We need to fix these as parents, you know, children.
We want to work with you.
We want to help you to be a true witness so you can have a good reputation with those
that you interact with, with people in the church.
When you grow up and you're in jobs, you've got to have a good reputation in your employment,
and that's going to get you through life, you know, having that clean testimony, the
integrity, being someone of honesty.
Employers love employees that are honest and true, you know.
You guys go to Proverbs chapter 6 now, Proverbs chapter 6, I'm going to rattle some other
things to you, Colossians 3, you guys go to Proverbs chapter 6, Colossians 3, 8.
But now ye also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication
out of your mouth.
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have
put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.
What do we learn?
When you lie, you're in the old man, okay?
Oh no, but I lied to, you know, complete some spiritual activity.
No, you're in the old man when you lie, okay?
You need to put on the new man that's going to help you, that's going to stop you from
telling lies.
And here's the scariest thing about lying in John chapter 8 verse 42.
This is when the Lord was, you know, going face to face with non-believing Jews in John
chapter 8 verse 42.
Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me.
For I proceeded forth and came from God, neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Why do ye not understand my speech?
Even because ye cannot hear my word, ye of your Father, the devil, and the lust of your
Father, ye will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth
in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.
And Jesus says in verse 45, And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
You see, guys, I'm not saying you're children of the devil, but what I'm trying to say to
you, that the devil is the father of lies.
He's the one that came up with the idea of lying.
It's his purpose.
You know, when he tricked Adam and Eve, he lied to them about, you know, if they ate
of that tree that they would not surely die.
He put doubts in the word of God.
Lying comes directly from the devil, okay?
And when you lie, you've learnt it from the devil, okay?
You've learnt it from the devil.
So please be careful about your tongue.
Be careful.
Tell the truth.
And I'm saying to the kids, it's important for them to hear, but adults, you know, our
kids pick up when we lie, don't they?
They're pretty smart as well.
Hey, when mum lies to dad and dad lies to mum, they're going to pick up on those things,
you know?
And kids, remind your parents, hey, lying's of the devil, all right?
I mean, you're just showing the Bible, all right, showing the word of God.
You guys are in Proverbs chapter six, verse 16.
These six things doth the Lord hate.
Does the Lord hate?
Absolutely.
What does he hate?
We have a list here.
Yea, seven are an abomination unto him, a proud look.
So what are the six things?
Let's count them.
A proud look, that's one.
A lying tongue comes in in number two, right?
That's pretty high up the list.
And hands that shed innocent blood, murderers.
It's right next to murderers.
That's how God feels.
That's how much he hates the lying tongue as much as murder.
What else?
Number 18, and a heart that divides of wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running
to mischief.
What's number six?
A false witness that speak of lies.
Hey, lies gets a double portion in this list of things that God hates.
Man, how bad is that then?
God has double hatred for the lying lips, okay?
All right, let's go back to Genesis chapter 20, Genesis chapter 20, verse 11.
And we'll wrap it up now, verse 11, and Abraham said, because I thought surely the fear of
God is not in this place, and they will slay me for my wife's sake.
So you see his fear, his fear drove him to tell a lie, and that happens a lot, you know?
Your fears are going to drive you to tell a lie.
Look, even if you're afraid, what do you do?
You tell the truth, okay?
That's the lesson we see here.
Verse 12, and yet indeed she is my sister, she is the daughter of my father, but not
my sister.
She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became
my wife.
And it came to pass when God caused me to wander from my father's house that I said
unto her, this is thy kindness, which thou has shown unto me, that at every place whither
we shall come, say of me, he is my brother.
So he basically says, look, this was an agreement that I made with Sarah, that wherever we would
go, she would say that he's my brother, and I would say, she's my sister.
And so, again, these guys didn't tell a flat out lie, did they?
It was a deception.
They deceived.
And you know what?
Deception is almost worse.
It's kind of worse because you're telling the truth, but you tell it in a way for someone
to have a different impression of the truth.
You know, you feel good a little bit, like, oh, I told the truth.
No, no, but you've done the same thing as, you might as well just have lied, right?
Because the person's walked away with the wrong impression about what you said.
And man, you know, there are people that do this.
There are people that tell the truth, and you think, well, at least he's telling me
the truth.
Only to find out later, it was only half the truth.
Now, look, you can't tell your whole life story to people, right?
I mean, there are times that I've told the truth, and then people still walked away with
another impression.
It's just because, it's not that I was trying to deceive people, it was just, you know,
you can only tell so much things, right?
But there are times that you do.
You make the conscious decision, I'm only going to tell them so much, so they walk away
with another impression, another idea, okay?
And man, that's wicked.
That's as bad as lying, and again, an abomination unto the Lord.
And that's how the devil is, by the way.
He doesn't tell you full on lies, does he?
He does show you the Word of God.
We've seen the devil in the Bible use the Word of God, but he does it in a deceptive
way, you know, telling half-truths so you can have a different impression of what God
is saying.
And then verse number 14, and Abimelech took sheep and oxen and men servants and women
servants and gave them unto Abraham and restored him Sarah his wife.
Man, Abraham just gets richer for this experience, right?
He gets more blessed, he gets more possessions, more servants, more animals.
Verse number 15, and Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee, dwell where it pleaseth
thee.
And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver.
Behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee and with all other,
thus she was reproved.
So Abimelech has a bit of a go at Sarah as well.
It says here that Abimelech reproved her, corrected her.
And he says, look, you're meant to be a covering, behold, he, speaking of Abraham, is to thee
a covering of the eyes.
Look, Abraham should be the only one looking at you, Sarah.
I don't know, was Sarah maybe dressed a little bit immodest here, you know, that got Abimelech's
attention?
We don't really know, but it kind of sounds maybe something like that.
Hey, you know, you shouldn't have been showing yourself the way you were, you know, to other
men or just saying, hey, look, I'm not married, I'm just the sister of this man.
So we see that Abimelech, Abimelech sounds like a decent guy to me, you know, sometimes
I read these stories and I kind of hope these people get saved, you know, because, you know,
they show some integrity, even the Lord recognises here the integrity of Abimelech.
And then verse number 17.
So Abraham prayed unto God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants,
and they bear children.
For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah,
Abraham's wife.
Wow, you know, that God even stopped the women of this nation, you know, to give birth, to
fall pregnant, because they were in this wicked sin where they had taken another, the king
had taken another man's wife.
So we see definitely how the hand of the Lord, I've preached on this before, how it's the
law that opens and closes the womb.
This is a great passage that confirms that once again, there's lots of passage in the
Bible that speak of that truth.
But we see again how the Lord protects, you know, again, we see the value of children.
You know, this nation was getting cursed, how?
By closing up the wombs.
And here's the sad thing about Christians, Christians kind of want the same curse.
They close up their wombs, right?
Instead of allowing the Lord to do it as part of a curse, they do it to themselves.
They curse themselves.
Wow.
Look, having children, you know, being productive in that area is a riches.
It's a gift of God, you know, it's a beautiful thing that God wants you to have.
And I strongly encourage, you know, if you can bear children, do it.
You know, I want my wife to have more children, you know, it's work, I kind of don't want
to change my nappies.
Right?
You know, it requires work, but it's a great blessing.
Okay, we see again, how important children are in the eyes of the Lord, let's even pray.