First he set me free, sing, O sing, the time we savor.
With his blood he purchased me.
On the crosses to my cross, and in the dead he gave me free.
I will tell the world his story, how my law has this day to stay.
In his loudness, love, and mercy be the ransom freely gave.
Sing, O sing, the time we savor.
With his blood he purchased me.
On the crosses to my cross, and in the dead he gave me free.
I will praise thy dear Redeemer, Israel, with power of death.
How the victory he giveth over sin and death in hell.
Sing, O sing, the time we savor.
With his blood he purchased me.
On the crosses to my cross, and in the dead he gave me free.
I will sing of thy Redeemer, and his heavenly love to me.
He put death to life, and brought me son of God within to thee.
Sing, O sing, the time we savor.
With his blood he purchased me.
On the crosses to my cross, and in the dead he gave me free.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
My love was lost, but now I'm well, was blind, but now I see.
What grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace of thee be of thy mercy be.
The Lord has promised good to me, his word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be as long as life includes.
Through many dangers, spools, and scares, I have already come.
His grace and love may save us all, and grace will lead me home.
When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,
we know there's things to see God's grace.
And when we first see God.
For a thousand tongues to sing, blessed be the name of the Lord.
And the peace of my God and King, blessed be the name of the Lord.
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord.
Jesus, the Name that charms our fears, blessed be the name of the Lord.
Bless it be the name, bless it be the name, bless it be the name, bless it be the name
of the Lord.
The name of the Lord.
All my comrades, he is the one with the most pride.
With forces now appearing, victory is nigh.
All the poor and the poor have died.
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
It's great to see everybody here this morning.
If we can go ahead and find our seats, we will get started.
Great to see everybody here.
If we can go ahead and find a hymnal, we will start this morning in song number 426.
Song 426.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day, song 426, sing it out with me on the first.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols play.
And wild and sweet the words repeat of peace on earth, good will to men.
I thought how as the day had come, the bell rang of old Christendom had rolled along the
hill.
And in despair I bowed my head, there is no peace on earth, I said, for aid is strong
and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.
And when the bells are loud and deep, God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.
The wrong shall fail, the right will fail, with peace on earth, good will to men.
Everybody sing it out on the last.
Great singing everybody, let's open up the service now with a word of prayer.
Lord we love you, we just thank you again for this church, thank you for allowing us
to gather here and sing unto you Lord and just be a part of your people.
We love you and we just ask you to bless this church and bless this service and it's in
Jesus' name, amen.
All right for our next song, let's go to our handouts.
Go Tell It on the Mountain.
If you do not have a handout or a copy, raise your hand and we'll get one to you.
Keep it up nice and high for the ushers.
Go Tell It on the Mountain.
If you do not have a handout or a copy, raise your hand and we'll get one to you.
Good morning, thank you for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you did not already get a bulletin and you would like one, just lift up your hand
real quick.
Our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin.
We're working on Matthew 28 verse 4 as a Bible memory passage and then on the inside we have
our service times.
Also down below we have church stats.
Please make sure you're submitting that to your soul winning group chat as well as turning
in your maps.
On the right we have a list of our expecting ladies and then we have our prayer list, so
please be in prayer for our church family on the back.
There is a note about next Sunday, there's going to be a cleaning volunteer luncheon
and so if you've already been participating and volunteering and doing some of the cleaning,
you're invited as well as if you are interested in just learning more, then you're welcome
to stay and have lunch.
Also down below we have a couple other events.
December 25th is the Christmas Cookie Bake Off and so this is kind of an annual event
that we have and really there's not a lot of rules.
In fact, I don't know if I have any, but just to give you an idea, anybody can participate
in the competition and we are going to award three different prizes.
There's best tasting, best decorated, and then most creative.
In fact, there's no cap on winning.
You could actually win all three with the same cookie.
Also you can enter as many types of cookies as you want.
My only tips and suggestions is that if you would like to do well, often you have to bring
a kind of a large sampling just because there's so many people and a lot of people like to
try them and so if you only bring a few, you just may not get a lot of people to vote just
because there's only a few, right?
My only tip or suggestion is you might want to bring kind of a larger batch of whatever
you make and so we're really looking forward to the competition.
Of course, this is the one time our church votes so we'll let everybody vote on what
their favorite was and we'll declare some winners and so that's going to be a candlelight
service in the evening and we'll follow it with our Christmas cookie bake-off fellowship
and so looking forward to that.
January 1st is a men's preaching night and pizza and so if you'd like to, just prepare
like about a five-minute sermon and we'll probably just have popcorn preaching and let
different guys come up and preach sermons on January 1st.
That will be kind of a special service.
That's all I really have as far as announcements.
We're going to go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 67, in our special Psalm
booklet so if you can turn there Psalm 67.
All right, that was Psalm chapter 67.
Psalm 67.
Sing it out real loud on the verse.
God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us that thy way may
be known upon earth.
Thy saving help among all nations.
Let the people praise thee, O God.
Let all the people praise thee.
O let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for thou shalt judge the people, righteously
and governed the nations upon earth.
The nations upon earth see love.
Let the people praise thee, O God.
Let all the people praise thee.
O let the nations be glad and sing for joy.
Then shall the earth yield her in praise.
Let God, even our own God, shall bless us.
God shall bless us in all the ends.
The earth shall fear him.
Let the people praise thee, O God.
Let all the people praise thee.
O let the nations be glad and sing for joy.
Great singing.
Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to
1 Corinthians chapter number 6.
1 Corinthians chapter 6.
We read the entire chapter as is our custom beginning at verse number 1.
1 Corinthians 6 and the Bible reads,
Dear any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints.
Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?
And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Know ye not that we shall judge angels?
How much more things that pertain to this life?
If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
I speak to your shame.
Is it so that there is not a wise man among you?
No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?
But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another.
Why do ye not rather take wrong?
Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
Nay, ye do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren.
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified,
but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient.
All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them.
Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?
Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot?
God forbid. What?
Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body?
For to sayeth he shall be one flesh.
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body,
but he that comitteth fornication sinneth against his own body.
What?
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body,
and in your spirit which are God's.
Let's fire our heads for a word of prayer.
Father in heaven, we thank you for this day and for our church.
I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit now.
Give him the boldness and clarity of mind necessary to preach an excellent sermon for us.
And also, Lord, I pray that you help us to apply the message to our lives
and glorify you better every day. We love you.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Amen. I want to look at the end of this chapter again.
It says in verse 19, what?
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's.
And the Bible tells us that our body and our spirit is not our own.
God has purchased us. God is our creator and our redeemer.
And so in that context the Bible is saying that we need to do something.
What is the commandment?
Glorify God in your body.
We are here to glorify God.
And the Bible teaches and emphasizes that all glory should be given to God in every aspect of our lives.
And I think it's very easy for us to often take credit for the things that we do or the things that are going on in the world.
But the Bible tells us that we're supposed to be giving glory to God.
And so the title of my sermon this morning is this, All Glory to God.
And the Bible tells us that we are bought with a price, therefore we are to glorify God.
We are the ones to do it.
You need to glorify God.
We need to glorify God.
That is our purpose.
That is why we are here.
That is why we're having church this morning is to glorify God.
The glory goes to Him.
My favorite hymn has always been, To God Be the Glory.
Because I just, number one, love the tune.
But ultimately the message is just so important for us to recognize that everything we do should be to glorify God.
It is not about us.
It is not about man.
It is about God.
And we have been bought by Him.
We've been created by Him.
Therefore we ought to glorify Him.
Now go to Isaiah chapter 38.
Go to Isaiah chapter number 38.
What does glory mean?
In the dictionary it will tell us high renowned or honor won by notable achievements.
Here's another aspect of glory.
Magnificence or great beauty.
When you look at the word honor, which is used very closely with glory, to honor is to hold in high esteem.
And so when we're thinking about God, the Bible tells us to glorify God.
To honor God.
To bless God.
To praise God.
I mean there's just so many verses that are saying these things.
What does that mean?
What does that look like?
Well it's to hold God in high esteem.
It's to have Him be looked at with respect and with renown.
To be in awe of His greatness.
To be in awe of His majesty.
To behold His great beauty and the wonderful attributes that are about God.
And we are here to glorify and lift up and praise God.
What is man doing today in other parts of the world?
They are going to a football stadium to glorify man.
To glorify a person.
What do they do?
They hold certain people in high esteem.
They recognize their notable achievements.
They're going to have a stat sheet read out about the notable achievements of the quarterbacks and the wide receivers and the linebackers and the specific team and the coaches and all the different players.
Even the punter is going to get glory.
Even the kicker is going to somehow get some glory.
And they're going to talk about him and worship him.
And there's going to be thousands of people screaming and cheering and yelling and getting excited.
And look, I'm not against playing sports.
I'm not even against attending events.
But isn't it a shame that many people will do that to man but they won't do that to God?
Isn't that a shame that so many people get so excited about man.
They get so excited about the achievements of man but they don't get excited about the achievements of God.
They don't get excited about the stats of God.
They don't look through the history of the Bible.
They don't look at the King James Bible and glorify and honor it.
They're not singing praises and hymns and spiritual songs unto God to glorify him.
And you know our world by and large does not glorify God.
The unsaved are not going to glorify God.
And the Bible brings up this other important point.
The dead are not glorifying God.
Who's going to glorify God?
It's us or no one.
It's Christians or it's no one.
If Christians do not glorify God then no one's going to glorify God.
And what a shame considering the fact that we're all to glorify God.
Everyone is supposed to glorify God and if Christians don't glorify God then no one's glorifying God.
And this is an important point that's brought up.
Look at Isaiah chapter 38 verse 18.
The Bible says this.
For the grave cannot praise thee.
Death cannot celebrate thee.
You cannot glorify God in your body after you die.
This is your opportunity to glorify God.
This is your time to sing praises unto God.
This is your time to go to church.
This is your time to read your Bible.
This is your time to go out and preach the gospel.
This is your time to wake up in the morning and to pray and to thank God and to bless the Lord
and to praise his name and to give all the glory unto God.
This is the one time to do it because when you're in the grave your body will be doing nothing.
When you die you'll be doing nothing.
And this is our opportunity to glorify the God of gods, the King of kings,
the wonderful counselor mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace.
This is our time to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, to glorify God the Father,
to lift up the notable achievements of the Holy Spirit which is the inspiration of this entire book.
This is the time for us as Christians during Christmas to talk about the hope that was given us through the birth of Jesus Christ.
And if we don't glorify him, if we don't keep Christmas going, the true meaning of Christmas,
well then the glory of God diminishes.
The glory of God diminishes because in the grave no one can praise him.
It says in verse 18, also they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
Those that go to hell, it's over.
Those that die that didn't get saved, it's over.
Verse 19, the living, the living, he shall praise thee as I do this day.
The Father to the children shall make known thy truth.
The Lord was ready to save me.
Therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.
Notice Hezekiah's attitude.
He's saying because of what God's done for us, because the dead can't praise him, we will praise him.
The living, the living shall praise him all the days of my life with the stringed instruments in the house of God.
And so therefore we ought to go to church.
Why? To glorify God.
If you're going to church for any reason other than to glorify God, you have the wrong reason of going to church.
We go to church to sing praises unto God and to glorify God and to glorify His Son
and to glorify the majesty and the beauty of God.
That's what the Bible tells us to do.
And we should hold Him in high esteem.
I'm not dragging myself out here for man or for what we do or for our achievements.
We should be here for God's achievements, God's Word, God's holiness, God's salvation, God's mercy.
And ultimately just everything that's beautiful and wonderful in this world should be all glory to God.
To God be the glory.
That's what we should be singing in our hearts, in our minds, in our churches.
That is what church is for.
All of our glory to God.
Now, the most important one is, of course, salvation.
I want to go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
When we talk about giving glory to God, all the glory goes to God for salvation.
All of it.
There's not a little bit that's like, well, but I was willing to repent of my sins.
No, no one was willing to repent of their sins.
No one was willing to give up their life.
No one was willing to surrender.
No one was willing to do some great achievement to get saved.
It's all glory to God.
He gets all of the glory for our salvation.
Salvation was only accomplished through him.
We simply accepted and received his three gift.
He did all the work.
He paid it all.
And what does the Bible say in verse number 55?
O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice the attitude is thanks be to God.
Thanks be to God that we have the victory.
Thanks be to God that I'm going to be delivered from this mortal body of death.
Thanks be to God that I won't go to hell for my sins.
Thanks be to God that I'm not only saved, but I'm saved for all of eternity.
My sins are cast behind his back.
They're separated as far as the east is from the west.
They'll never be mentioned to me in the day of judgment.
Thanks be to God.
Not for anything that I did.
Not for anything I will do.
It's all glory to God for my salvation.
Go to 2 Corinthians 9.
The Bible tells us that when we are to come to church, we are to glorify God for salvation.
We are here by his grace.
We are here by his mercy.
The Bible emphasizes God's grace.
The Bible emphasizes his mercy consistently throughout the Bible.
And it makes mention of something he did for us that we can't even express adequately with words.
2 Corinthians 9, the Bible says in the last verse, verse 15,
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
What does it mean by unspeakable?
No way in my own words could I adequately describe everything about what God really did for us.
It's too wonderful. It's too magnificent.
Now that doesn't mean that we shouldn't talk about it.
It means that it's not adequate.
It means it's not sufficient.
I don't have enough capability to explain how wonderful the Gospel is.
I can only say what the Bible says and then I still fall short in describing how great it truly is.
I can't do a good enough job.
I can't explain it well enough because it's literally unspeakable.
It's so amazing.
In fact, in some cases when the Bible talks about something being so beautiful, so magnificent, so great,
people just stand in awe.
They're speechless because it's almost as if they have no idea how to even communicate
how magnificent, wonderful and great it is.
And that's what it is when we think about the glory of God's salvation he's given us.
Go to Ephesians chapter 2. Go to Ephesians chapter number 2.
The Bible is clear in this point.
The Bible says in Psalm 18,
The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
So according to the Psalms, when we're singing them, it is the God of my salvation that's to be exalted.
Salvation is to exalt.
When we talk about salvation, we are to exalt God.
Not ourselves, not what we've done, not our testimony.
It's simply what he did for us, and we're glorifying him.
When we go out and preach the gospel, it's all glory to God for our salvation.
Let me tell you what God did for you.
Let me tell you how God will save you.
Let me tell you what it means to believe in Jesus.
Not me, not yourself, not your works, not the Catholic Church, not some other religion.
It's all glory to God.
And that's why we show often when we go Soul Winning Ephesians 2, 8, 9,
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
God is not going to allow man to boast in salvation, because salvation, it's all glory to God.
Only Jesus gets the glory for our salvation.
Only Jesus rescued us.
We were dead in trespasses and sins, and he delivered us from so great a death.
We had no capability to save ourselves.
We simply accepted his free gift by faith, and to God be the glory for our salvation.
Now, I want to go and look at more passages on other subjects.
I could spend the whole sermon on salvation.
But we need to recognize that salvation is not the only place we need to give a glory for God.
I think that we as a Soul Winning Church, we do a good job of glorifying God for salvation and recognizing that.
But the Bible teaches that we're supposed to glorify God in all of the areas of our life.
I want you to go to Deuteronomy, chapter number 8.
The Bible says in Psalm 32,
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man in whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
This is quoted in Romans, chapter number 4,
and the Bible is making it abundantly clear that we are blessed because of what God did,
and that he will not impute iniquity, and that he is the one that gave us all of our salvation.
He's the one that's not going to impute iniquity.
He's the one that's covered our sin.
He's the one who has given us a new spirit, and made us a new creation, and given us the Holy Ghost,
and he'll never leave us, and he'll never forsake us, and nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And behold, now are we the sons of God, as the Bible says.
I mean, so many amazing things happen at salvation, and we could talk about this for days.
The Bible just has so much information about salvation.
But not only are we saved and going to go to heaven,
the Bible says just our daily lives.
God is giving us the power to live our daily lives,
and I think that sometimes we think in our own might, and in our own strength, and in our own wisdom,
that we should be glorifying ourselves.
But the Bible tells us that we should be glorifying God,
and specifically in our ability to get wealth,
our ability to make money, our ability to have possessions, our ability to have anything.
It's all coming from God.
Deuteronomy chapter 8, look at verse number 10.
When thou hast eaten an artful, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.
You did not do anything to be born into a country that has capitalism.
Now again, maybe there's exceptions here for some of these foreign born. I don't know.
I'm talking about people that are born in America virtually, or people that were born in a capitalistic society.
You did nothing to be born into a capitalistic society.
Throughout history, people have been born into communism.
Throughout history, people have been born into just extreme poverty, extreme adversity.
People have been born a slave.
People have been born as a reject, as an orphan,
as just with no options.
And the reality is, the only reason you can even get wealth,
the only reason you can even get a job,
you can even get wages, is because you happen to be in a country that already had that set up for you.
Not only that, if you're in America, and especially if you've been born in America,
you were born in a land flowing with milk and honey.
You could have been born in a desert land.
You could have been born in a forsaken area.
You could have been born in an arctic area.
You could have been born in a desert area.
You could have been born somewhere where there wasn't much opportunity,
where there wasn't the opportunity to have all kinds of food, money, wealth, jobs, education, everything.
And you did nothing to be born in that situation.
But then some people, they're born into a privileged situation,
and they don't think of it as anything other than they're special.
They think that they're actually special based on their birth or their abilities or what they've been given,
not recognizing, hey, you didn't choose to be born in this good area.
Hey, God's the one that brought you into a land flowing with milk and honey.
We can't even control the earth.
We can obviously plant, but we have to just hope that God makes sure that all of the things necessary for plants to grow
and for animals to stay healthy and for the storms to not cause problems.
You don't realize how much we depend on God in order to just have food
and just to have all of the different things in our environment, in our society.
He could bring famine. He could bring plague.
He could bring all kinds of things to us at a moment's notice.
We live in a land of prosperity because God wants us to be here right now,
because God is giving us blessings, because God is giving us these things.
He's saying, hey, when you're in a good land, what do you do?
I'm better than other people because I'm in a good land.
I'm so amazing because I'm in this land.
No, bless the Lord. That's what he said.
He said, hey, when thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.
Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I command thee this day,
lest when thou hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein,
and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied and all that thou hast is multiplied,
then thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt
from the house of bondage who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and drought
where there was no water who brought thee forth water out of the rock of the flint,
who fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not,
that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter end,
and thou shalt say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.
But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth,
that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers as it is this day.
You know what? This same attitude that he's warning against I think exists today in America
for Americans that don't recognize that God delivered them,
delivered many people out of the clutches and the hands of the Catholic Church in Europe.
They were delivered and they were brought out of Catholicism and Anglicism
and they were brought into a land here flowing with milk and honey
and you know why God blessed them is because they literally established the law after the Bible,
after God's word and became Christians and now 400 years later we sit here and act like,
We're America. You did nothing to build America.
You selfish little brat that you're going around on TikTok acting like you're better than people today
when you did nothing to build America and you've turned from God's commandments
and you know what? You're not giving any glory to God.
If you want to stay in this land and you want this land to be prosperous,
we need to get back to the God that built this land and built this nation and built this country
and gave us our freedom and gave us our power and gave us our might.
That's the only thing that we have is from him.
You want to know why America is successful? It's because of this book that I have in my hand.
It's called the Bible and just like he gave them manna in the wilderness,
God blessed America with the King James Bible, a manna in the wilderness, a manna in a new land
and look at the great nation that it built.
Look at the nation that was built on the word of God and people today,
they think, well, we're so amazing because there's no America.
We're better than the British.
What makes you better than the British?
You know what makes you better than the British?
Because your fathers actually cared what the Bible said and they didn't.
Not because you are red, white and blue.
Not because you have straighter teeth.
It's because of the fact that you actually worship the God of the Bible.
That's why you had prosperity and success.
It's just insane how people today don't recognize where success and prosperity is coming from.
It is not coming from being born here.
It's not because of your skin color.
It's not because of your parents.
It's not because of your heritage.
It's not because of anything physical about you.
You know what it's from?
It's from the word of God and he's the one that gives us our power
and we should glorify God for our ability to have a job today.
Whatever job you have, you should glorify God for.
Whatever wealth you have, you should glorify God for.
Whatever house you have, glorify God.
Land, cars, houses, clothes, everything you should just recognize.
Wow, praise God I have these things.
Praise God I have this wealth.
Go to 1 Corinthians 4.
We all live like kings compared to the vast majority of humans in history.
The vast majority of humans in history did not have as many luxuries and delicacies as your average American today.
So much opportunity.
I mean we could eat almost any food we want.
We can wear virtually any clothes that we want.
We can drive all kinds of cool cars and use our phone to access all kinds of information whenever we want.
We can get on a plane and travel to whatever cool destination you want.
I mean we just have so much blessing and we just don't recognize that it's all coming from God.
And he could take that away at any moment.
We need to be giving glory to God for what we have.
1 Corinthians 4 verse 6 the Bible says,
And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes.
So the apostle Paul often would use himself as an example in the Bible to explain things.
He's saying, hey, let's talk about me and what I'm like so that you can understand the Bible.
That's what he says.
Hey, I've made a figure of me and Apollos so you can figure this out.
That you might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written,
that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.
Now, this is an important verse to understand in the Bible apart from this sermon.
Why in the world would the apostle Paul pick himself and pick Apollos to be figures in this verse?
What was the point of this verse?
The point of this verse is saying we should not glorify man.
Now, just think with me for a second.
If you were going to try and pick somebody as an example of someone you shouldn't worship,
that you shouldn't glorify, do you think you'd pick somebody that's not very awesome?
Or would you pick someone that's awesome?
Because would it really make sense if you said we shouldn't be glorifying this derelict bum that's missing teeth?
You'd be like, no one's doing that, bro.
Why would he pick himself?
You want to know why?
Because he's the greatest Christian walking on the earth.
I mean, the apostle Paul is starting church after church after church.
He's going out and preaching the gospel.
He's an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's like writing the entire New Testament.
He's awesome.
Hey, I'm going to pick somebody.
The apostle Paul, I'm going to pick somebody to let you know not to glorify people.
You know why I picked?
Me.
Because I'm awesome.
That's what the apostle Paul is saying.
And Apollos.
Now, here's the thing.
Paul's not like a brag person.
He's not someone that's like boasting in himself.
He is a very humble person in the Bible.
But you know what?
It's just an objective fact.
He's awesome.
That's why he picked himself.
And then he's saying, hey, I transfer this into myself, saying,
don't glorify man, including me, including Apollos, including anybody,
because you know what?
The glory should go to God.
Why?
Because some people will be puffed up one against another
and think that they're better than other people
or I'm a better Christian or I'm a better whatever.
You know, we shouldn't be doing that.
Verse 7.
For who maketh thee to differ from another?
Or what hast thou that thou didst not receive?
This is the importance of this chapter.
Hey, you know why Paul is awesome?
Want to know why?
Because God allowed him to be born in a specific place
where he could get a citizenship to be a Roman,
where he was born at the feet of Gamaliel,
where he was born where he was taught the Bible his entire life,
where God showed him more mercy than tons of people
and appeared to him on the road to Damascus
and then appointed him an apostleship.
You know none of those things Paul had any control over?
Paul's born in that place.
Paul was born with that education.
Paul just, he's doing everything he can to kick against the pricks.
And then Jesus just shows up and just gives him a heavenly vision,
makes him an apostle.
The Bible tells us that he had an abundance of revelations,
that the Lord Jesus Christ just basically just gave unto him.
So the apostle Paul can recognize he's only awesome
because God gave him that awesomeness.
He gave him everything that he had.
And he's like, what do you have that you have not received?
Did you do your own work to get your salvation?
Oh, no, no, you received that.
Someone at some point preached the gospel to you,
preached verses in the Bible, and you recognized it,
and you received free salvation.
At some point, someone just taught you how to read.
No one in here was just like three years old
and just started reading the Bible.
Someone taught you how to read.
And then someone handed you a King James Bible
and said, this is the word of God.
And then they proved to you that it was the word of God.
And someone probably put clothes on you.
People gave you education.
People gave you all kinds of things.
And it's like Paul's saying, like, what have you not received?
Not only that, some of you got saved, you got baptized,
you got the Bible put in your hand,
and then you were still like, I don't know much of this.
And so you got spoon-fed doctrine after doctrine after doctrine,
Bible study after Bible study after Bible study.
You got spoon-fed documentary after documentary.
You got spoon-fed sermon after sermon after sermon.
And now you have all this wisdom that you received, that you received.
And he's saying, now, if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?
Why are you not bragging about something
that was literally just handed to you?
And you know what?
There are people today that will get something for free,
and then they will brag about it.
They will brag about it and glory in it.
And you know what? We should not glory.
I mean, people that are rich today will glory in their richness,
and they're a trust fund baby.
You did nothing to earn that trust money.
Your parents just handed you this money.
Yet rich people are snobs.
Rich people often are very snobbish
and are very prideful and very haughty and very lifted up
based on no accomplishments of their own.
And even if they did go from poverty to riches,
it was God that gave you the power to make that wealth.
And even if you have great riches spiritually,
it was God that gave you the power to get that spiritual wealth.
And so all glory goes to God.
All of our soul-winning numbers,
all of our baptism numbers, our church attendance numbers,
all the things that we have, all the riches that our church have,
all glory to God.
You know what? This church doesn't even make sense on paper.
Nothing about this church makes sense.
It's like, you know, started by someone
that was doing all kinds of weird stuff,
then when I came to take over,
it's like usually when a church has that bad of a history
and that bad of a situation, it goes down.
Somehow we were growing.
Like, can you imagine you're telling somebody like,
hey, I'm moving to a church. What church?
Oh, the pastor just got caught, busted with prostitutes and gambling.
Why are you going to that church again?
Oh, no, no, it's okay.
Like, wouldn't you think that's weird?
Wouldn't you think like, oh, I'm going to the church that just got evicted.
Oh, I'm going to the church that just, you know,
is basically slandered at every online outlet.
Everybody hates them.
They're constantly being attacked.
They're constantly being harassed.
Evil just keeps happening.
But, you know, throughout all that, we just kept having new people show up,
new people coming, new people joining.
Like, that doesn't even make sense.
And you would say like, Pastor Shelley,
what have you done to help this church grow and be successful?
And I would say, I don't think I did anything.
It was by God's grace.
It's God that's built this church.
It's God that's brought people in here.
All glory to God.
It doesn't even make sense.
You know, it's like, what special program do you have to help add people to the church?
And I'm thinking like, well, I throw people out.
I preach, you know, really radical things.
Like, I don't know.
I mean, I'm just, it's like, hey, any successes that we have,
just all glory to God.
Hey, this building, you better recognize this building,
all glory to God.
I could not do it.
It was not possible by man's means.
God performed miracle after miracle
and just kept opening doors
and did all kinds of miraculous things to get us to be here today.
I'm telling you, if it wasn't for God, we couldn't be here.
I cannot take credit.
Don't think like, oh, Pastor Shelley's smart or Pastor Shelley's wise
or Pastor Shelley makes good decisions.
It's just by God's grace and it's by his blessing
and it's by his might that he gave us the things that we have.
It's all glory to God.
Go over to Proverbs chapter 18.
It's so easy for us to sit here and look at the good things that we have
and think we somehow did it.
No, no, no, it's God.
You know, I've put a lot of psalms to music,
and I'll just be honest with you,
people ask me like, how did you write that?
And I'll just be like, I have no idea.
I mean, there's been plenty of psalms that I've tried to write
and I just couldn't do it,
and then there's ones that I just did almost nothing and it just happened.
It's just God.
I just think God sometimes just gives you things,
and I don't even know how to do it.
I don't know how to do all kinds of things.
I don't even know how to explain it.
In fact, when I play the piano, this is a weird thing.
Maybe someone could explain this humanly, but I can't explain it humanly.
When I'm thinking about playing the piano, I can play it really well,
and I'm playing this song.
As soon as I start thinking about what keys my fingers need to be hitting,
I start getting paralyzed and not being able to play.
It's almost like when I'm not thinking about it actively, I can do it,
but then when I'm trying to think about how to do it, I fail.
I wonder if that's almost like how it works with God.
As soon as we start trying to figure out how everything works
and how we're accomplishing it, it's just like...
But when we're just saying, I don't know how it's going to work out,
but God's going to make it happen, it just works.
God just figures out how to make things work, and it doesn't make sense.
It's not always intuitive.
It's not always what we think is right.
That's the whole Bible. That's Matthew 5.
The Bible talks about it in Matthew 6, too.
It's like you give money to people, and then you're going to get blessed.
That doesn't make sense carnally.
It doesn't make sense to lose money, to gain money.
That doesn't work, but somehow God makes that work.
Why? Because it's just all glory to God.
Because if there was just this system that didn't take faith,
and it just worked, everybody would do it.
You know what? It takes faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and then He does it by a miracle, and then you're just like, wow.
Glory to God.
Here's another miracle for me and for lots of people,
is just simply having a wife.
I think it's like a miracle. I'm just saying.
Proverbs 18, look at verse 22.
Whoso findeth the wife, findeth the good thing,
and obtaineth favor of the Lord.
Hey, this is like saying, having a wife,
it's like God just had to do something special.
It's like a favor to you.
Like, hey, you kind of need a favor, buddy.
That's how I feel.
Look at Proverbs 19. Look at verse 14.
House and riches are the inheritance of fathers.
So a lot of people are just rich because their dad was rich.
They just gave it to them, right?
But then notice what it says in this next part of this verse,
and a prudent wife is from the Lord.
Some people, and this is weird,
some people, they almost like brag about having an awesome wife
in the context that it's like they're awesome.
And it's like, but wait a minute.
An awesome wife is from God.
An awesome wife isn't because of you.
A prudent wife is from the Lord.
So you know what?
My wife was a special blessing to me from God.
And especially when I look out in the world today,
I'm thinking, like, praise God for my wife.
Praise God that I have such a beautiful,
wonderful woman that loves me more than I can even understand.
Like, it blows my mind sometimes when I think about how much my wife loves me
because I'm thinking, like, I don't get it.
Like, I'm just saying, like, my whole dating time with her,
I just kept thinking, like, why do you like me so much?
Because it really doesn't make sense.
I'm annoying. I'm weird.
I wasn't that popular in school.
Like, I have issues.
You know, I'm just thinking, like, why in the world do you just like me so much?
Why are you obsessed with me so much, you know?
But it's like, it's great.
You know, I want a wife that's obsessed with me.
I want a wife that likes me a lot.
I want a wife that loves me no matter what.
And you know what? Praise God I have that.
I have a wife that not only loves me, she cherishes me.
And that she's my friend.
And you know what? She sticks with me no matter what.
And let me tell you something.
Praise God for my wife.
All glory to my wife.
Or, I'm sorry, to God for my wife.
She's given me six beautiful children.
And, you know, there's so many women out here in this world that would not give me six children.
There's so many women in this world that won't even give people one child.
That are just so, you know, contrary to the things of God.
Like, praise God that I have a wife that wants to give me children.
That loves me.
That wants to be my wife.
And I can sit here and think, like, yeah, but, I mean, I'm a pastor.
I am a Christian.
Look, I, you know, I scored a touchdown yesterday. Did you see?
You know.
Yeah, my back hurts also because I'm an old man.
And I was playing against a bunch of other out of shape old men.
It's like, yeah, woo!
I could sit here and try to, like, build myself up, but then it would look pathetic.
It would look pathetic.
You know what? Glory to God for my wife.
Me having an awesome wife is not because of me.
It's because of God.
And, you know, when you want an awesome wife, think about this.
Maybe you need to ask God for a favor.
Hey, seek God. Try to be right with God. Try to please God.
Because the Bible says a prudent wife is from the Lord.
Go to Psalm 127. Go to Psalm 127. Go backwards.
I cannot take credit for the wife that I have because it's not about me.
And here's the thing. Like, so many people, they think that the wives that they have are, like, something to do with them.
But, you know, in a lot of ways, having a great wife is because of everybody else in their life.
Like, if you have a great wife, often you know why. Because she probably had great parents.
Like, her parents probably, and I'm not saying it's always the case, but at least maybe one,
they probably had at least one good parent, if not two great parents, that taught them, trained them, gave them a lot of wisdom,
gave them a lot of love, nurtured them, did good under them.
And especially if you were raised to have, like, or you have a wife that's a Christian, like, raised as a Christian, wow.
A lot of people probably ministered in their lives and gave them all these things.
And then all of a sudden, you just, like, come along and sweep her up, and then you take credit for it.
It's like, she's awesome not because of you. She's awesome because of other people.
She's awesome because of her parents and because of where God put her in her life
and because of the blessings God gave her and the Christian ministers that ministered under her.
And it's like, you want to sit here and then mop all that up and act like you're going to take credit for that.
You know what? No. Glory to God that God is raising beautiful women for someone to marry.
I mean, think about that. You know, and we as God-fearing people, we should recognize, hey,
we're raising up our children to be a blessing unto someone else.
You know, if some young man wants to marry my daughter, I'm not going to be like, she's awesome because of you.
No, you don't deserve her. She's awesome because of her mom raising her.
She's awesome for coming to this church. She's awesome because of the King James Bible.
She's awesome because of what God's done for her and you're lucky.
You must have a lot of favor with God. You must be on his good side to get a blessing,
to have a Christian young lady want to marry you.
And yet some people want to think like they're somehow special or something.
No, you need to just recognize God's the one that gives us our spouse.
God's the one that gives us. I mean, look, Adam was sitting there doing nothing and all of a sudden he just gave him Eve.
He's like, whoa, man, this is way better than the dog and the kangaroo and the whatever.
The porcupine doesn't snuggle well, you know, like, I mean, just think about how excited Adam had to have been
after he went through the whole animal kingdom and he's just like, eh, to then have a woman.
He's like, wow, I could not have ever imagined something this great.
I mean, the Bible says that the woman is the glory of the man.
It's something that we can't sit here and take credit for.
God made women. Praise God.
That's my favorite person in the world is my wife.
I mean, God didn't have to make male and female. He decided to make male and female.
Praise God you made females.
Praise God he made my wife. That's my favorite person.
I don't like any of you all the same.
You know, David, he was closer to his friends than his wife, but you know what?
I'm way closer to my wife than any guy, than any friend.
And you know what? Praise God that he made wives.
What a blessing. What a blessing to go through this life not alone and to have a wife.
You know, if you desire marriage, I believe you should seek for marriage.
Psalm 127, and she gave me those six beautiful children, and what does the Bible say in verse 1?
Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
It is in vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Notice the Bible is telling us our children are from God.
Our children are God-given. All glory to God for my children.
My second child, by accident, I don't recommend this, was born unassisted at home, and I was there.
And people often will be like, wow, you're so brave. Wow, you did such a good job.
Wow, that's amazing that you could do that. And I'm like, you weren't there.
I don't even know that I helped. I might have been a net negative.
I survived. It should be like a funeral reading or something like, survivors, the husband.
I didn't do anything. That was all God. God is the one that created the female body.
God is the one that created the pregnancy. God is the one that created all of these things,
and allowed this baby to survive through those type of circumstances and those events.
I was just there to observe the miracle of childbirth. The miracle that God gave us.
I mean, children are amazing. And I did virtually almost nothing for that life to exist.
And I certainly didn't do anything by my own wit, wisdom, power, might.
You can be the dumbest person on the earth and make babies.
Because, you know what? It's not about our intellect. It's not about our skill.
It is all glory to God for our children. God is the one that gives us.
And notice the Bible is saying, kind of in the same vein in the beginning of this verse,
that if God's not the one building the house, you're laboring in vain.
Did you notice that? Did you notice how it says, except the Lord keep the city?
The watchman waiting in vain. Hey, I have all these alarm systems and guns and power.
That's why my house doesn't have problems.
No, the only reason your house doesn't have problems is because God didn't allow it to have problems.
Or your city. Or your nation. Oh, America, we're so strong, that's why nobody hurts or harms us.
Yeah, it's only if God wants to keep America safe is America going to be safe.
All glory to God for our wealth, for our spouse, for our children. All glory to God for our salvation.
Go to Acts chapter 20. All glory to God for our church.
Not only our physical brothers and sisters, but our spiritual brothers and sisters.
Praise God for them too.
You know what? Praise God that I have other people in this room that are in my life.
Because there's so many people in this room that have just blessed me and helped me and ministered to me and showed me great friendship and fellowship and all kinds of different things.
And I didn't deserve it. I didn't do anything to earn it.
It's all glory to God that He's given me.
Friends, it's all glory to God that this church exists. It's all glory to God that I get to be a part of this church.
What a blessing it is to be a part of a church.
And it's a blessing to even have church, for church to even exist.
Look at Acts chapter 20 verse 28.
Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which He hath purchased with His own blood.
Now that's a tie back to the very beginning of our entire sermon because we were bought with a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit which are God's.
Well you know what? The church is also God's.
The church was purchased with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This institution is not mine.
This institution is not yours. It is God's.
And we get to share with Him in His possession.
This church is God's church.
This house is the house of God.
And we don't get to come here and treat it however we want.
We are supposed to do what He wants in His house.
And that is to glorify God.
That's why He is the Chief Shepherd.
That's why the King James Bible is the final authority of this church.
It is the final authority in all doctrine and all practices and all beliefs and everything that we do.
This is the final say so.
And when we're wrong, we should allow this to correct us.
This is our guiding rod.
This is where we derive our power, our authority, our success as a church.
And you know what?
Glory to God that a church can exist.
Because think about it.
Without this book, we just take this book and we just close it.
And we say, okay, let's form a club.
We've got to have rules.
We've got to decide who's going to be in charge.
We've got to decide what we're going to be doing.
We've got to decide where we're going to go.
What is that going to look like?
That's going to look like the Freemasons.
It's going to look like the Knights of Columbus.
That's going to look like the YMCA.
That's going to look like the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
That's going to look like all these different groups and organizations that they're not using this as what they're doing.
But you know what? Praise God that this exists so that this exists.
Because this doesn't exist without this.
It's called Gateway.
There's all kinds of institutions that are just meeting and they're not doing what this says.
They're doing whatever they dreamed up.
And this only exists because of this.
We should recognize it's not because of this, it's not because of that, it's because of this.
All glory to God for this church.
Because I don't know how to run a church.
I didn't come out of the womb knowing how to dress, how to behave, how to talk, what the goals, what the purposes, how to deal with difficult situations.
This book taught me.
This book showed me what we're supposed to be doing and that's what we're trying to do our best at doing.
And man, I really like the results of what this said to do.
I really like how this works.
I really like going to a church where there's the bishop of one wife and he's the leader and he has all authority.
The Bible says for him to rebuke with all authority.
I like that this says, hey, the main purpose here is to go and preach the gospel.
I like that that's our main emphasis.
Hey, I like that this is telling us to be fruitful and multiply and we constantly see baby after baby added to our group.
Hey, I like that this says that people that are drunk off of their mind and losing their mind can't show up.
I don't want to sit here and go to a bar.
I'm not interested in hanging out with a bunch of drunk, railing, idiot weirdos.
I don't want to sit here with a bunch of idolaters.
I don't want to sit here with people that are hanging all kinds of idols on their neck.
I don't want to sit here and hang out with people that are going to extort me.
I don't want to sit here and hang out with all kinds of people that are going to cause divisions and sow discord and believe doctrines contrary to the doctrines of the Bible.
I'm so glad that when I go to church, I'm sitting next to somebody that has a King James Bible in their hand.
I'm so glad that when I go to church, I'm sitting next to someone that believes salvation is by faith.
I'm so glad that when I go to church, I'm going to a church where people believe that men are in charge of their homes.
Man, I'm so glad that I get to go to a church where I know that no pedophile, no faggot would ever be caught dead in that church.
You know what? There's so many clubs, there's so many groups where, you know what, that's not necessarily true, is it?
And why is it that we have that today? It's not me. It's not you.
It's Leviticus 20-13. It's 1 Corinthians 5. It's Genesis to Revelation. It's this book.
It's all glory to God. All glory to God for this church.
That's where we get this beautiful church.
I want to go to some Psalms, if you would. Go to Psalm 22.
Don't think, hey, this church is awesome because of anything other than the King James Bible.
It's awesome, and it's glory comes upon us.
The only glory we have is because it's shining its glory upon us, and we're just reflecting some of its brilliance, some of its glory, some of its magnificence.
And the more that we can reflect the Word of God, the better it's going to be, and the more beauty it's going to be, and the more glory it's going to give to God.
And there's churches today that they're not shining very bright. They're a little dirty.
They need to be cleaned up a little bit because they're not reflecting the glory of God very well.
And look, there's plenty of churches that are not like us, and they're still saved, and they still do some things.
But you know what? We want to be a church that's the most honoring and glorifying to God.
You know, when I talk to people at Soul Wading after getting them saved, and I'm trying to encourage them to go to church, I say, hey, we sing the old-fashioned hymns.
We use the old-fashioned King James Bible.
And I said, you know, we do those things because we want to be the most honoring to God.
I want to glorify God the best. You know, there's good, better, best.
Maybe there's some contemporary songs, contemporary things out there that are good, but they're not the best.
And you know what? We should try to honor God the best.
We should try to honor God with the most honor and glory that we can possibly do.
I want to sing psalms and songs that honor Him the best, that have the best lyrics, that have more of the Word of God in them, that are more doctrinally sound, that are more deep in meaning.
That's why we even put psalms to music. Is it necessarily as catchy? Maybe not.
Is it as easy to sing? No, not at all.
Because when you can just pick whatever lyrics you want, and they don't even have to be actual words, they can just be like slang.
It's a lot easier to make a song than when you just have like just straight text that's coming from the psalm.
But you know what I love about the songs put to music is it's so biblical.
And it's so powerful because you're just getting the Word of God just like directly into your heart and your mind.
What does the Bible say in Psalm 22 verse 22?
I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
You know, a huge component of coming here is you singing out loud for all of us to hear.
He says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation.
So among, you're with us, you will what? Praise God.
Verse 23, ye that fear the Lord, praise Him.
All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him and fear Him.
All ye the seed of Israel, for He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted.
Neither have they hid His face from Him, but when He cried unto them, He heard.
My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them that fear Him.
Notice there's two aspects of this too. We're praising Him, but we're also fearing Him.
There should be a certain level of reverence, fear, and respect for the things of God, for the house of God.
We should be coming unto church. You know, it shouldn't be carefree.
There should be a little bit, at minimum, of respect and reverence. I think it should be in total regard.
But I'm just saying, like, you can't just come to church and think, like, oh, it's just willy-nilly I can act however I want, be however I want, do whatever I want.
We should come to church with trembling and fear. Rejoice with trembling and fear and saying, I need God's mercy today. I need God's grace today.
I hope that God will continue to give me the power to get wealth.
I hope that God continues to bless me with the wife that I have and having her having a great spirit and a great attitude.
I hope that God continues to bless me with more children and with the children that I already have.
I pray that God will continue to bless our church. Why? So that I can come into the great congregation and I can bless Him.
So many people would love to go to a good church today. There's people in this world that are dying to have like-minded brothers and sisters in Christ.
To go and hear a great sermon being preached from the Bible. To be encouraged to go out soul winning. To be encouraged to talk about the Bible.
To be encouraged to dress right and to be put into the fear of the Lord.
There are plenty of people that would love to join a congregation where they're going to be held accountable to 1 Corinthians, chapter number 5.
Where they're going to be held accountable for not being a railing, gossip, weirdo, bringing in weird false doctrines in every YouTube conspiracy.
You know, church makes you normal. Church makes you a better person.
And it's not just this church, it's just church. Just being around other believers iron sharpens iron.
And you know what? We should praise God for having church. Church is a blessing!
Church is not a burden. Church is a blessing. His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
Not having church is a burden. Not having friends, not being held accountable, not being encouraged to do anything good.
Not being encouraged to be a better husband, not being encouraged to be a better wife, not being encouraged to be a better child, not being encouraged to be a better employee, not being encouraged to be a better soul winner, not being encouraged to read your Bible.
You know what? That's the curse of the world today. The blessing is coming to church and being encouraged to do the right thing.
And we should praise God that we have this. We should praise God we have this.
There are places in the world that you want to go to Communist China, you want to go to North Korea, you don't have this.
I mean, it's hard to even have conversations with people in the world these days. They're weird. They're feminist. They're communist.
They're deluded. They're drunk. They're on drugs. I mean, how many people are on prescription drugs?
You know how many people are on medication for anxiety disorder, for depression, for personality issues, for bipolar, and then they've got another drug on top of that?
You know how many people are just high off their mind? How about someone in Oklahoma?
Boy, you get like a contact high from how much reefer they're smoking out there.
Praise God, I can be around a few sober, normal, serious, well-dressed people for a few minutes.
People are dressed weird today. And, you know, in their minds, people are thinking like, oh, yeah, scantily clad women might be nice to look at.
But these people are not even attractive. Like, you know, they make it seem like guys want to look at women, but there are certain women we don't want to look at anyways.
They're called the protesters, okay? They're scantily clad and you're just like, ah!
I mean, we have so many problems in this world that church is like a sanctuary.
A sanctuary from the filth of this world. All glory to God again.
What's going to make people act a little bit better and dress a little bit better? It's God. It's the fear of God. It's the Word of God.
It's not you. It's not me. It's all glory to God.
Look at Psalm 35 and look at verse 18. What caused so many of us to even become Christian or take Christianity seriously?
It was the King James Bible. You know, I heard good preaching and it motivated me, but I'll just tell you what, the thing that changed my life was the Bible.
And the thing that changed my life was reading the Bible. And the thing that changed my wife and I's life was us reading the Bible.
And the thing that will make my children good children is reading the Bible.
And if you don't read the Bible, well, you're just not going to be as great as you could be.
We have to read the Bible and that will make us better.
Psalm 35, look at verse number 18.
The Lord is nigh unto them... I'm sorry, I'm reading chapter 34.
I will give thee thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much people.
Go over to 2 Corinthians, chapter number 2. I'm just going to read for you a few other verses.
Bless ye God and the congregations, even the Lord, from the fountain of Israel.
Psalm 107, O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men,
let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
The Bible tells us that God wants for people to praise him.
But the way this is worded, it kind of makes me sad because it almost sounds like it's not happening.
Like, let them exalt him also in the congregation.
It's like, why would I be saying this if it just automatically happened? It's just not happening.
We need people to start glorifying God in the sanctuary of God.
We need to build up the sanctuary of God so that we can have more people glorifying God.
Church should not be built on ego.
Church should not be built for self-glorification.
Church should be built to glorify God.
We should get more people to go out and preach the gospel to glorify God.
We should get more people baptized because it signifies that they want to walk in newness of life to glorify God.
We should get more musicians to play on stringed instruments so that it can glorify God.
We need to get more King James Bibles put in the hands of people to glorify the God of the Bible.
Get rid of the NIV and get a King James Bible so that we can glorify God even better.
We need to give Him more glory, all glory to Him, none glory in ourselves.
2 Corinthians 2, verse 14,
Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the Savior of His knowledge by us in every place.
For we are unto God a sweet Savior of Christ, and them that are saved, and them that perish.
To the one we are the saver of death unto death, and to the other the saver of life unto life, and who is sufficient for these things.
Notice that the Bible tells us in verse 14 that all of our thanks should be to God who is always causing us to triumph.
Every victory that we have is because of God.
Every victory in the wilderness was because of God.
Every victory in the Promised Land with Joshua was because of God.
Every victory with David and his mighty men was because of God.
Every victory of Paul and in the New Testament was of God.
And it's if God be for us, who can be against us?
All glory to God for the victories that we have.
I'm not capable of getting victory.
We're not capable of getting victory.
God is capable of giving us victory.
And you know what?
Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.
Hey, even if it's Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they say,
Hey, we believe he's going to deliver us, and we know he can deliver us,
but even if he doesn't, we're not careful to answer thee in this matter.
Hey, we're not going to worship other gods.
Throw me in the fiery furnace.
But you know what? When we do get victory, when God is gracious unto us,
we need to give all glory to God for the glory of our victory.
Our victory is not us.
It is not who we are.
It is not about what we did.
It's about what he gave us.
We cannot win without him.
He is the MVP.
He is the guy that scores the touchdown.
He is the guy that gets the points on the board.
We're just there.
We're just lucky that we're on the team.
Hey, when he comes from heaven riding on that white horse,
it's the sword which recedes out of his mouth that slays all of his adversaries.
Hey, the Bible told us that we have some weapons,
that there's only one weapon, which is the word of God.
Why? Because it's what gives us the victory every single time.
When we get people saved, it's not because you're good at speaking.
Most of us aren't very good at speaking.
You know what it is? It's the power of the gospel that gets people saved.
1 Timothy 4. Go to 1 Timothy 4.
In fact, any of us that have been involved in sales,
maybe you should realize, like you think about it,
I've done sales and I wasn't very good at it.
But it's like, if you are not good at sales, but you're good at soul winning,
it's not because of you.
It was the product that you were bringing to the door.
You have to realize that.
You know, you can be a terrible salesman,
and you can still get people saved because the gospel is so awesome.
You know, and if you're great at soul winning,
don't think that that will automatically transfer into sales.
Because of the fact that the gospel is just so good,
it overcomes your deficiencies.
But when you have to actually bring a real product to the table,
wow, it's hard. It's difficult.
If you've actually done real sales or door-to-door sales,
the rejection rate is astronomical.
If you've done cold calling, it's astronomical.
And I've heard people like, they go on these apps
where they just call random people and they're giving them the gospel.
Look, if you had ever been in a call center, it would blow your mind.
You have to call, because my brother-in-law even did this,
he said you'd have to call almost like a thousand people
or maybe ten thousand people to get someone to talk to you or buy your product.
That is not the ratio of how many people you have to talk to
to try and give the gospel or get them saved.
Why? Because it's all glory to God for the gospel.
1 Timothy 4, this is one I personally just love.
This is close to my heart. Verse 3.
It says,
Forbidding to Mary and commanding her name from each
was God created to be received with thanksgiving,
of them which believe and know the truth.
For every creature of God is good,
and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving,
for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Hey, the food that God gave us, praise God.
Thank you God that you made cows.
But you know what?
Instead of being a Hindu and worshipping the cow,
we should cut the cow's head off and drain all of the blood
and take out the fillet and put it on a grill
and cook it barely to where it's medium rare,
season it with salt,
and then right before I'm about to eat it,
I'm going to thank God for that good creature that I get to eat.
Thanks be to God!
All glory to God for brisket.
All glory to God for steak.
All glory to God for baby back ribs.
Oh man, they're so good.
Praise God, I'm in the New Testament.
All glory to God.
I could have been born in the Old Testament.
I did nothing to be born in the New Testament.
All glory to God, you get to eat bacon.
Can you imagine having gone your whole life never having bacon?
I mean, we eat bacon a lot.
I mean, who eats bacon a lot?
Praise God, there's a lot of good people in here.
I'm telling you, bacon is good.
I love it. I love it.
I even like chicken.
Hey, I like all of it, right?
I've had rabbit, it was okay.
Quail is decent.
Hey, I had turkey this week.
Because, you know, here's a tip.
After Thanksgiving, you know what's really cheap?
Turkeys.
And you know what, it still tastes good.
At least I like it.
So I was like, hey honey, I'm going to have,
I had Thanksgiving this week.
Because it was like, you could buy,
I bought a turkey for five dollars.
Wow.
And it was great.
I told my wife, I joked, I said,
I think the seasonings were more expensive than the turkey.
Because you know what she put on it?
Bacon. Yeah.
If you don't know if you like turkey that much,
you should learn, my wife puts bacon on it.
It's amazing. She makes this like bacon rub
I don't know.
It's just like, it's fantastic.
All glory to God that those things even exist.
And you know, most of the food that we have,
someone taught you how to even make that meal.
Someone taught you a recipe.
Someone taught you, like we didn't just
come out of the womb and like think,
hey, I'm going to make croissants.
Hey, I'm going to make pizza.
Hey, I'm going to make a cheeseburger.
Like think about it.
Man's just walking around, there's like a cow.
There's, there's a cow.
There's grass and all this stuff.
There's wheat.
And then the potential was sitting there
for like a bacon cheeseburger.
But how did you even know that?
God told us that.
God instructed us.
God gave man wisdom and God gave him
the ability and the understanding
to just make amazing, awesome things.
And you know what?
We should glorify God with our food.
We should make awesome food.
And we should skillfully prepare it.
You know, some people eat to survive.
I eat to thrive.
All right?
You can continue to eat to survive,
but I want to eat to thrive in the sense
that, you know what, I want to actually
enjoy it when I eat it too.
Because you can eat and just be like,
eh, I got the nutrients I needed.
But then, you know, you can also eat
and you really, really like it.
And I'm thinking like why not the latter?
Why can't, like think about it.
What if you gave your child a bike for Christmas
and then all he ever does is just
ride it?
Wouldn't it be cooler if he learned how to ride it?
Wouldn't you think like, oh, I'm glad now.
Not only does he ride it, he can do tricks on it.
He can jump on it.
He can pop a wheelie.
You're thinking like, wow, I'm so glad
that he's taking this bike and using it
to its fullest.
In the same way, God gave us food,
let's use it to its fullest.
And then when we do, let's glorify God
that he even gave us the food to have.
I mean, couldn't God have given us
just really simple food?
I mean, he didn't have to give us watermelon.
I'm so glad he gave us watermelon.
He didn't have to give us grapes.
I'm so glad he gave us grapes.
He didn't have to give us milk.
I'm so glad he created milk.
I mean, think about all the things that exist,
just the fruits and the drinks.
I even just love water.
I'm just gonna be honest, like water's
my favorite drink probably.
I just, and it's like the cheapest thing.
But man, when you're thirsty and you get,
especially the ice too, okay,
praise God for the ice machine.
And really good water, it's great.
I love it.
Some people struggle to drink water.
I don't get it because I personally just love water.
Now, I love other things too.
I like soft drinks.
I like lemonade.
I love milk.
I love all kinds of stuff.
But you know what, all glory to God
that those things exist.
Go to Revelation 7, we'll finish.
But you know what, it's sanctified
by the word of God in prayer.
Hey, whatever you eat, whatever you like,
get excited about it.
If you're not excited about your meals,
you should probably make a change
and glorify God a little bit more.
And look, I get excited about cheap meals.
It doesn't even have to be expensive.
You know, I make this one thing super cheap,
super awesome meal you can make,
just homemade chicken noodle soup.
It's like the easiest thing to make.
It does take time though.
But like you just buy a whole chicken
and just put it in the oven,
put a ton of spices on it,
and just let it cook for like an hour and a half
or two hours or whatever.
And then basically take all that juice
and pour it into a pot
and take all the vegetables
and just the bones and everything
and put it in a pot.
And just boil it for like several hours
and you'll have chicken broth.
Then you just have to strain it.
You get the meat, the good meat of the chicken.
Throw it in there.
Throw it in with some egg noodles.
You only cook the egg noodles for eight minutes.
And put some of the vegetables
and you have chicken noodle soup.
And honestly, it's probably like,
I mean, it depends on what chicken you get specifically.
If you get an organic expensive one,
it could be like $20.
If you just get the normal one,
it's like $10, $15.
And I mean, I can eat that thing for a whole week.
And you know what?
I love chicken noodle soup.
I don't like struggle to eat it.
I enjoy eating it.
I get excited to eat it.
And it's a great meal when your throat hurts,
and it's really good in cold temperatures.
I love it.
I usually eat like five or six bowls of it
whenever I make it because I'm just so,
I just love it.
And you know, I put salt in there.
I mean, these things are like cheap, easy, wonderful.
I love them.
I think that they're great.
But you know what?
I didn't just slap some stuff together.
I took the time to skillfully prepare that
and you know what?
It's some good chicken noodle soup.
And hey, when you make brisket,
go to every other state and you'll learn
how to not make brisket.
And let me tell you the difference.
They don't slow cook it on a smoker.
They'll just slap it somewhere on high heat
for two or three hours
and then give you something that's kind of rubbery.
Who's ever had rubbery brisket?
Dude, it's the worst.
You're like, brisket, yes.
And then you're like, what is this?
I don't want jerky.
I want brisket.
You can even hardly pick it up with your fork
and it's just tender and it's juicy
and we should make it skillfully prepared.
Why? That gives glory to God.
Everything that we do gives glory to God
and we shouldn't just eat to survive.
We should eat to thrive.
You know what I mean?
And it doesn't mean that it has to be
some expensive, elaborate meal.
It doesn't mean that it has to be American cuisine.
It doesn't mean that it has to be my preferences.
I mean, I'm sure my dad glorifies God
for pineapple mayonnaise sandwiches
and, you know, I'm never going to do that
but not because it's not that God didn't bless us
with those things.
It's just some things shouldn't mix together, right?
Okay, like salvation's not by faith, it works, all right?
And I don't know how you can mix pineapple mayonnaise sandwiches
but, okay, it's weird.
But somehow, you know what?
What's funny about that?
My brother and I both made fun of him
and then my brother started eating them.
So I already know I'm just not going to try it, okay?
So I don't want to go down that road.
But no matter what we have in this world,
we should realize we should glorify God,
whether it be that our salvation, our wealth,
our spouse, our children, our church, our food,
everything that we have,
we should be giving glory to God.
All the victories that we have
and, you know, when we get to heaven,
it's going to be a glorification of God
and we're going to be in our spirit
but we're not in heaven.
This is our time and this is our opportunity to do it here, too.
But look what the attitude is in heaven.
Look at verse 9.
It says,
And kindreds and people in tongues
stood before the throne, before the Lamb,
clothed with white robes and palms on their hands
and cried with a loud voice, saying,
Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne
and unto the Lamb!
And all the angels stood round about the throne
and about the elders and the four beasts
and fell before the throne on their faces
and worshiped God, saying,
Amen!
Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving
and honor and power and might
be unto our God forever and ever.
Amen.
This is our attitude.
This is what our spiritual man wants to do
and we don't have to wait to go to heaven to do this.
We can do this now.
And we should be the people of the world
and we should be the people on this earth
that are giving the most glory
and the most honor to God.
Those of us that have the wisdom
and the understanding of what God has really given us,
we should be the ones thanking him for these things.
Let us not have a selfish attitude
this Christmas season.
Let us not be thinking about our presence
and our family and our traditions
and what we do and all about us.
Let us think about him and what he has given us.
Let us give the glory to God
for this Christmas.
Let us give the glory to God
for this church, for our victories,
for our spouse, for our children,
for our salvation,
for everything that we have
and especially the food.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much
for what you have given us.
Thank you so much for the unspeakable gift
of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ
and his ultimate sacrifice for us.
Thank you for giving us hope in this world
and as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ,
let us recognize that it is you
that gets the honor and the glory,
that all the glory for our salvation
comes to you and is from you.
I pray that we would not only limit ourselves
in recognizing your salvation,
but we would recognize all aspects of our life
and that we would use our bodies
and our spirits to glorify you
before we get to heaven.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right.
In closing, let's go to song number 430.
Sorry, 431.
Song number 431,
Silent Night, Holy Night.
Song 431,
everybody sing it out together on the verse.
Silent night, holy night.
All is calm, all is bright.
Round yon virgin, mother and child.
Holy infant so tender and mild.
Sleep in heavenly peace.
All is calm, all is bright.
Round yon virgin, mother and child.
Holy infant so tender and mild.
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Silent night, holy night.
Shepherds waiting at the sight.
Glory stream from head upon head.
Heavenly hosts sing hallelujah.
Christ the Savior is born.
Silent night, holy night.
Son of God, love's good light.
Pray and preach from my holy place.
When the dawn of my needy praise.
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.
Silent night, holy night.
Wondrous night, holy night.
Star, led by light.
When the angels let us sing.
Hallelujah to our King.
Christ the Savior is born.
Great singing, everybody.
You are all dismissed.