- Good morning, everyone.
Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you could please find your seats
and grab your song books.
We're gonna sing Song 408, "Loyalty to Christ."
408, "Loyalty to Christ."
Song 408, "Loyalty to Christ."
Let's sing it out.
♪ Over hill there comes a signal ♪
♪ Strange is loyalty ♪
- Heavenly Father, thank you for this day.
Thank you for the gift of being able to come together
to worship you as a body of Christ
and just to hear your word preached.
Pray that you would fill our pastor
with the Holy Spirit this morning
and bless those that couldn't make it.
Love you in Jesus name we pray, amen.
All right, for our second song, let's go to 238.
"Christ liveth in me."
This is one of those songs you gotta sing out
nice and loud with passion.
238, "Christ liveth in me."
Then you can lift up your hand nice and high.
See, that's something that we don't see very often
in our community or church or in marriage
or anywhere anymore, and it's a shame.
We need people to be more loyal to Christ
and loyal to their wife and their husband
and their children.
To church, how about that one?
Yeah, loyalty to church, right?
Also, if you look at the first memory verse here,
this is a challenge for all the kiddos.
If you can memorize the verse
and then quote it at the midweek service,
you can get a special ice cream or treat
at the evening service.
Those who complete the entire passage,
Proverbs 31, and can quote that to a non-family member
can receive a special prize.
Obviously, if it's a shorter chapter,
it's usually a smaller prize.
With the bigger chapter, it's usually a nicer prize.
And so I really encourage you,
especially you ladies, to work on this one.
And it's a great chapter of the Bible.
A lot of good verses in there.
On the inside, we have our service times,
our soul winning times, and then church stats down below.
Then we have on the right the list of our expecting ladies,
several who are expecting.
Please be in prayer for them, as well as our prayer list.
And if you'd like any updates or to be added,
please make sure to email us or contact us.
Make sure we are keeping this fresh.
And so we want to make sure that we have everything
in there accurate.
Also upcoming events.
February 24th is our next preaching class.
And then April 9th to the 10th is a event
that Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, California
is putting on for teenagers.
It's a youth rally.
There is a poster that we've hung up in our hallway
that has the details and information about that event.
And we'll try to get a signup sheet going as well.
Just for those who may be interested
or are planning on possibly traveling,
just so away if people want to carpool
or just have that information, they can.
On the back we have, we just can't stop with the baby train.
Congratulations to the Chamley family
on the birth of Phoebe Henrietta.
She was born on the 17th at 5.29 a.m.
10 pounds, 12 ounces, 21 and 3/4 inches long.
Congratulations to them.
At this point they should have just known
it was gonna be a girl, so that's what I'm saying.
And then also congratulations to the Warner family
on the birth of Titus Judah.
He was born on the 17th at 11.17 p.m.
Eight pounds, nine ounces, and 21 inches long.
Congratulations on that as well.
Dylan said, "At this rate we have a baby a week."
Now it's two, so I don't know what to tell you.
No, I'm just kidding.
Praise God for that and the blessings.
Let's go ahead and sing our third song for this morning,
Psalm 147.
It's our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 147.
We have a special handout with that.
All right, Psalm 147.
This time as the offering plates are being passed around,
please turn to 1 Timothy chapter two.
First Timothy chapter number two.
- 1 Timothy chapter two is our custom
prior to the preaching of God's word.
Bible reads, "I exhort therefore that first of all,
supplications, prayers, intercessions,
and giving of thanks be made for all men,
for kings and for all that are in authority,
that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life
in all godliness and honesty.
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God,
our Savior, who will have all men to be saved
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all
to be testified in due time.
Whereunto I am ordained a preacher and an apostle,
I speak the truth in Christ and lie not,
teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.
I will therefore that men pray everywhere,
lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
And like man are also that women adorn themselves
in modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety,
not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array,
but which becometh women professing godliness
with good works.
Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
But I suffer not a woman to teach,
nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived
was in the transgression.
Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing
if they continue in faith and charity and holiness
with sobriety.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father in heaven, we thank you for today, Lord,
and just for the preaching of your word.
I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with the fullness
and power of the Holy Spirit as he expounds on the message
you've laid on his heart.
And I also pray, Lord, that you would soften hearts
in the room so that we can receive this message,
apply it to our lives, and make a change in our lives as well.
We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
- Amen.
You know, I love singing the Psalms
because just with that one psalm,
we sang more doctrine than the non-Dom Churches do
in a whole year, so there you go.
First Timothy chapter two, look at verse 11.
The Bible says, "Let the woman learn in silence
with all subjection, but I suffer not a woman
to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man,
but to be in silence for Adam was first formed, then Eve."
Now this is a really interesting passage of scripture
because it's alluding to the creation account.
And it's, you know, in an epistle written to a pastor,
and really the pastoral epistles,
which are first and second Timothy and Titus.
Some people include Philemon, but essentially this section
of scripture is considered the pastoral epistles,
are filled with doctrine,
filled with the principles that Christ teaches us,
and some of the most important things that we can learn.
But what I find interesting is how the Bible
is using as its proof text,
or using as its source of authority,
is the creation account itself,
and using Genesis as its place in scripture to say,
the reason why this doctrine is true
is because of the creation account,
is because of the creation story,
is because of what Genesis actually teaches.
And so what I find interesting about this passage
is the idea that the beginning or the creation itself
has significance to doctrine,
to how we understand the world that we live in.
And this kind of gave me an idea
to think about our priorities as people
based on the creation account itself.
And so the title of my sermon this morning is this,
creation priorities, creation priorities.
And really when it comes to priorities,
everyone has priorities.
It's more about what is your most important priority
or what is priority in your life.
Whether you've even thought actively
about what your priorities are,
your priorities will be manifest through your actions.
Through your actions we see demonstrated
what priorities you have.
What are you doing first?
What's the most important thing to you?
What is something that you're not willing to sacrifice?
What are the things that you like the most?
This comes out as what your true priorities are.
And most people just live by just kind of on a whim.
They just kind of let their emotions run their daily life
and run their lifestyle.
And they just kind of do as they please, do as they want.
And that's essentially shapes the priorities that they have.
But sometimes we have to force ourselves
to go back to what we should be doing
and the priorities that God would have us have in our lives
and kind of force ourselves
to have the right kind of priorities.
Now, as we keep reading those, it says in verse 14,
"And Adam was not deceived,
but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing
if they continue in faith and charity
and holiness with sobriety."
So according to the text, it's important that men lead
because men are different than women.
That's what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches that men and women are different,
that men are to lead.
And specifically, it's saying that Adam was not deceived
when the woman was deceived,
showing that there's even a level of deception
that men are less likely to be taken advantage of than women.
And it used to be a pretty well-known fact
that salesmen would take advantage of women,
just simply from the fact that they're women,
not because they're less educated,
not because they didn't get a college degree,
not because of there wasn't enough feminism in the world.
No, it's just simply because women
are more manipulated by emotions than men are.
And so it's easier to take advantage of women.
It's easier for women to be manipulated.
It's easier for women to be taken advantage of.
And so it's important that women embrace that.
You know, you should embrace the idea that that's true,
because you know what the solution is,
is that you lean into your husband
and that you allow a man to guide you and to lead you.
You recognize the fact that I may not be the best
at making decisions, therefore I need to lean into
and trust the decisions that my husband makes for me.
And specifically, along the lines
of what scripture teaches for me
and leaning into God's instruction for me.
Now, it's not entirely different
that men have kind of a similar situation
where we ourselves also are not very good
at always making decisions and we need to lean into Christ
and lean into the Bible and the word of God
to know how we should act and how we should behave.
But ultimately, God did create man first and then a woman
and notice what helps the woman, childbearing
and then continuing in faith and charity
and holiness and sobriety.
The Bible teaches that we're not good when we're idle.
Like mankind is just bad when we're idle.
It's just generally speaking.
It's not just women, it's not just men.
It's both of us are really bad when we're idle.
And so it's important for man to work.
It's important for a woman to work.
And we have different roles, different responsibilities,
different jobs that God has gifted us
with different talents.
And one of those things that really helps women
is having lots of children.
If you have lots of children, you're
going to be very busy whether you want to or not.
And then those ladies who maybe don't have a lot of children
or maybe that don't have a lot of responsibility just
laid on top of them, it's good for them to still be busy.
It's good for them to do certain things
and have certain activities that they're not just sitting
around the house with nothing to do.
If my wife was sitting around the house with nothing to do,
I would find things for her to do, right?
I would help her and guide her in a direction
where she can have some activities that she's doing
that's taking up time.
Now, of course, I don't think that I have to force her
or I wouldn't have to choose that,
but I would want her to have something specific.
I wouldn't want her to just scroll on Facebook all day
or scroll on TikTok all day
or scroll shopping all day or something like that.
There's just a lot of evil that's out there
for the idle mind.
Just like it wouldn't be good for me if I had no job
and all I do is just scroll through YouTube
and play video games or do whatever.
I mean, that would just be a waste of my efforts and energy
and it would cause sin on both sides of the equation.
What helps prevent sin in many cases is just working.
It's just having working.
And you know what keeps you out of the bar?
Being pregnant.
You know, I mean, like that'll just keep you out of the bar.
It'll keep you out of the club, right?
You know, it'll keep men in their household.
It'll keep women in the household.
You know, having lots of kids to raise
and to teach and to guide.
Like these are just easy ways
to escape horrible life decisions.
And for those who maybe don't have that,
maybe you don't have children yet.
Maybe you're struggling to have children.
Maybe you're past having children.
You know, make sure you are keeping yourself busy
with things that are wholesome activities, working hard.
Go to Mark chap number 10 for a moment.
Go to Mark chap number 10.
I want to show you another passage here
before I get into the meat of my sermon.
But when we talk about priorities,
you know, priorities dictate our life.
They dictate the decisions that we make.
They dictate where we're at.
You know, if you're not at church on Sunday morning,
what's your priority on church, right?
And of course there's legitimate reasons.
If you're sick, stay home, right?
We're not mad at someone for staying home, for being sick.
We're mad at you for showing up when you're sick, okay?
But then when you're not sick and you don't show up,
then we're mad at you.
We're like, what are you doing?
You know, like just come to church, right?
And we want to have that blend.
But of course it kind of shows where your priorities are
by what you're doing, where you're at, what's going on.
Look at Mark chapter 10 verse four.
The Bible says this.
And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill
of divorcement and to put her away.
And Jesus answered and said to them,
for the hardness of your heart, he wrote you this precept.
But from the beginning of the creation,
God made the male and female.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother
and cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh
so that they are no more twain but one flesh.
What therefore God have joined together,
let not man put asunder.
So I use this passage and I don't wanna talk
about marriage yet, but what I wanna talk about
is the idea that when Jesus Christ is on this earth,
notice that he was using the creation account
to establish doctrine again, wasn't he?
He was using Genesis and he was using the creation account
to establish the principles of marriage themselves.
And you say like, well, the law said divorce,
but he's saying, you know, way before that,
we already established marriage, that it's one man,
it's one woman, they're married together forever
till death do them part,
and that they're supposed to leave father and mother.
Those are the essential elements of marriage
that are being taught here in scripture,
and Jesus Christ is pointing to the creation account.
And the divorce aspect was something that Jesus brings up
as being a hardness of their heart,
that this precept has not always been the case.
And of course, it's never the best situation.
Of course, divorce in the Bible
is different than divorce today.
Divorce today, if you just don't like each other,
you divorce.
In the Bible, there was one specific provision
that's similar to an annulment today.
So it is not what people think of
as the divorce that's happening rampantly in our country.
Divorce should almost not exist.
It should be such an extreme rarity of society
that you virtually don't even know about it.
You've never even heard of it in real life,
if it was followed by a biblical principle.
Not saying it wouldn't happen occasionally,
but that it should be so rare
that we wouldn't even know about it.
Today, it's like 50% of marriages.
And in some cases, it seems even higher than that.
And it's really a shame and it's embarrassment
that we call ourselves a Christian nation,
and 50% of our marriages are ending in divorce.
I mean, that's embarrassing.
How about loyalty?
I mean, why don't we get up and sing a song about loyalty,
and loyalty to Christ,
and then people are divorcing their spouses?
I mean, they don't care about the words of Christ here,
which he really emphasized divorce.
And what's a shame is how many preachers today
are using these passages to teach divorce,
not to teach to not divorce.
They're like trying to teach about this passage
about all the reasons why you can divorce,
as opposed to the concept that Jesus is basically saying,
let not man put asunder, never, just don't do it.
Now go back to Genesis chapter number two,
Genesis chapter number two.
What is the most important priority that we have?
Well, I believe it follows the same pattern
of the creation account.
And if we look at Genesis chapter two,
look at verse number seven, the Bible says this,
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life
and man became a living soul."
So the first thing that happens is God creates man.
He breathes into him life and he becomes a soul.
And now he has a relationship with God
because he is the son of God.
Now, I'm not gonna take you to this passage,
but you go to Luke chapter number three,
the Bible tells us that Adam is the son of God
because he was created of God.
Now, he's not the same as Jesus.
It's the same wording,
but it has a slightly different meaning.
But in essence, Adam's the son of God
because God is his father.
God is the one that literally created Adam.
And so from a human perspective,
his father is God.
And that now makes him have a relationship with God.
And our most important priority
that every person has in this world
is their relationship with God.
That is the most important aspect you can ever have.
And the most important task we have
is having a relationship with God, okay?
Now, I want to just flip the page
or look at chapter three for a moment.
And I want to show you a few other verses on this.
And I want to explain this.
Now, the word relationship
is not really a word you see in your Bible,
but the Bible brings up this concept
of having fellowship with God.
Obviously, relationships implied
when we talk about son and father.
That's just how we describe that phenomenon
of that relationship.
And God wants to have a relationship with us.
And beyond just the fact that we're related,
He wants to actually commune with us.
He wants to talk with us, okay?
He wants to, quote, hang out with us in a sense, okay?
Now, in the garden, it was no different.
And you kind of get this implied from the text.
This isn't necessarily directly spoken,
but notice what it says in Genesis chapter three,
verse number eight.
And they, this is talking about Adam and Eve,
heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden
in the cool of the day,
and Adam and his wife hid themselves
from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden.
Now in Genesis chapter three,
it opens up with the devil tempting them with sin.
They both sin.
Then what happens is God comes in the evening
in the cool of the day and is approaching them
and they withdraw themselves.
What I think could be implied from the text
and seems pretty obvious
is that they probably experienced this in the past.
God probably communed with them in the past.
But even if that never happened,
it's evident that God wants to,
that God is coming and approaching them in the evening,
wanting to have what?
A relationship with them.
God is not some distant God that wants to stay up in heaven
and just look down upon his creation.
No, he wants to walk in the garden where Adam and Eve are,
and he wants to have a relationship with them.
And it's not just a relationship with Adam,
it's also with Eve, it's with both of them.
Because God wants to have a relationship
with both his sons and daughters.
He wants us all to have a relationship with him.
What causes us often to have a problem
or a difficulty in our relationship with God?
It's sin.
Sin is what causes issues in our relationship with God.
It causes us to want to what?
Withdraw ourselves from having a relationship with God.
And what's the main emotion?
It's shame.
Because we've sinned, we feel shame, embarrass,
and we naturally withdraw ourselves from wanting
to have a relationship with God.
And this is where it becomes really important
that you become saved, OK?
Now, being saved is a concept that
is taught everywhere in scripture,
including in this passage.
And this is what's really interesting,
if you think about this passage.
And this is kind of cool.
But Adam and Eve sin, and then they're
approached by the voice of the Lord, OK?
That's what it says in verse number eight.
And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking, OK?
Which is kind of interesting wording.
But a person that is the voice of the Lord God
is the word of God, which would be the Lord Jesus Christ, OK?
And think about this.
The Lord Jesus Christ approached them
when, in the cool part of the day.
We would categorize this in another word in the Bible,
even, at the even.
The even is kind of a time when the sun is setting.
It also would be considered the cool of the day.
So at the even, we have Jesus Christ approaching them
and their sinners, okay?
Now, I'm not gonna read the whole passage,
but if we look a little bit further in the text,
he ends up talking with Adam, he talks with Eve,
he talks about how they're cursed and everything like this.
But look at verse 21, "Under Adam also and to his wife
did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them."
So they were naked and they were ashamed of that.
Picturing how our sin separates us
and there's a shame associated with that.
They tried to sow fig leaves,
meaning that they tried to repent of their sins.
They tried to cover up their own sins.
That was rejected by God.
That is not sufficient of a covering.
And so he has to make them a different kind of covering.
What is that particular covering?
Well, according to this, it's coats of skins.
Now that would be coming from an animal.
And of course, we don't know exactly what happened,
but it seems like the illusion here
is that an animal was killed or was slaughtered
and we took the coat from the particular animal
and we applied it to them.
Why it has to be implied that way
is certain animals you can shear,
like you could take a lamb or certain animals
and you can shear, and then you can take that
and you can make it into a garment.
But to have a coat, you have to have the skin.
And here's the thing,
you can't take the skin off an animal and it survives, okay?
So in order to have a coat of skins,
you know what you have to do?
You have to slaughter the animal, okay?
So it's kind of showing like there's no remission
without the what?
The shedding of blood.
Okay, there's a lot of doctrines
that are taught in the book of Genesis.
And when you have that shedding of blood,
then they apply that upon Adam and Eve,
and that covers their sin.
It covers their nakedness.
And you know what an interesting thing about the Bible
is Adam and Eve were naked in the garden,
nowhere else in the Bible does it ever talk about us
being naked again.
In heaven, we're even clothed.
And I think that's probably just to always symbolize
the fact that we were clothed with Christ's righteousness,
that we were imputed his righteousness upon us,
and that we're not gonna be naked, okay?
We don't hear about the people in hell getting a garment.
We don't know if they have any kind of garment,
if they have any kind of covering.
And spiritually speaking, they have no covering.
They have no garment.
They have no imputed righteousness upon them, okay?
So we have this happen.
What's cool, I think, about this,
and it's something that I recently thought of,
is just how Jesus approaches them at even
and then covers their sin.
Well, guess what?
Jesus Christ died at even on the cross,
and that's what covered our sin, okay?
So there's a lot of amazing truths here
that we can find in the book of Genesis
and at the beginning,
but that restores the relationship between God
and man is salvation,
is the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
And that's really important to God
because he wants to have a relationship with man.
You know, he could have just thrown us all into hell.
He could have just thrown Adam and Eve into hell
and just started over with some new creation
or some new creature.
But instead of just trashing Adam and Eve,
he redeemed them.
He restored them.
He covered their sin and he showed grace upon them.
He showed mercy upon them.
And we get to see all the different aspects
of who God really is.
We get to see that he really is merciful.
You know, God could be merciful,
but choose not to show mercy
and then we would never see it.
But God shows mercy
and then we get to see who God really is.
God could have chose to only save everyone
and then we would have never seen God's wrath
or we would have never seen God's jealousy
or we wouldn't have seen all of God's emotions.
But because of free will
and because of the creation that God has given us,
we can see all of the vast complexities of God,
how he can have so many ranges of emotion
and all the different intricacies of how he's truth
and how he's righteous and how he has judgment.
I mean, the Bible says the Lord loves judgment.
The Bible says the Lord is jealous.
The Bible talks about God as being truth.
The Bible talks about God being love.
Not one of those is true, all of them are true.
And I always hear about this doctrine of divine simplicity
and it just sounds wrong because my God doesn't sound very simple.
He's very complex, OK?
He's much more complex than anything in this world
or any of the creation that we have.
He would be the most complex creature that exists
if creatures even the right word, probably not.
The most, you know, complex being that is and ever will be.
He's God. There's something unique about God.
There's the mysteries of God. There's certain things about God.
They're too high for me, that are too wonderful for me.
You know, I believe that God is way bigger and more complex
and there's nothing that I can really even understand
in the grand scope of who God truly is.
And it's silly to me that philosophers want to then boil God down to divine simplicity.
We've figured out God. We've mastered Him.
You know, it's like, no, that's a foolish attitude, OK?
But again, relationship with God's really the number one priority.
It's what God really wants.
And the only way to have a relationship with God is to be saved,
is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
to accept His free gift and to be covered in His blood.
Spiritually speaking, that is what saves you.
And now you have a potential to have a really great relationship with God.
But it doesn't end with salvation.
That's the beginning.
That's just the very basic of having that relationship.
But when we sin, we now have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous.
And instead of trying to feel ashamed and withdrawing and hiding from God,
we need to still approach God.
And we, you know, of course, ask for mercy and we pray and things like that.
But we can still have a relationship with God, even though we've sinned.
We have grace that covers our sin.
And we have Jesus Christ, who is that propitiation.
We have an intercessor.
We have an ambassador on our behalf that's helping us to continue to have this relationship.
Go view it to Luke chapter number 10.
Go view it to Luke chapter 10.
Keep your finger in Genesis if you want because we're going to keep coming back.
I want to go to Luke chapter number 10 for a moment and emphasize again the idea of relationship.
Now when we talk about a relationship with God, we're not in the garden and God's not
walking in the garden with us physically so that we can have this particular relationship.
So how is it that we do have a relationship?
Of course the disciples when they were here, they got to literally have a physical relationship
with Jesus where they handled him.
I mean they say that in 1st John.
They've handled the word of life.
You know it's really special to them.
That would be really special to be able to have a physical relationship with Jesus Christ.
But we can still have a relationship with Jesus Christ and that is through reading
our Bible.
That is through reading the scripture and there is no substitute for reading the Bible.
There's zero.
There's none.
And I think in this particular passage it brings this up.
Look at what it says in Luke chapter 10 verse 38.
"Now it came to pass as they went they entered into a certain village and a certain woman
named Martha received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.
But Martha was cumbered about much serving and came to him and said,
'Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?
Bid her therefore that she help me.'
And Jesus answered and said to her,
'Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things.
But one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part,
which shall not be taken away from her.'"
Now, this is important from the context
because consistently in the Gospels,
the women are often ministering to Jesus Christ.
They're serving the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's very important.
It's very needful.
But Jesus elevates one thing above this.
It's having this time with Jesus to hear the words of His mouth.
And, you know, how do you hear the words of the mouth of Jesus Christ?
It's the King James Bible.
We open up our Bible and we read it.
And, you know, I love that this passage is centered around two ladies
showing that it's not like, oh, men need to read the Bible.
No, women need to read the Bible.
Oh, men need to have a relationship with Jesus.
No, women need to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
And you know what?
God wants us all to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
And it's a personal relationship.
You know, I don't...
My wife doesn't have a relationship with Jesus because she's married to me.
Or like, I'm the go-to.
Like, I kind of know Jesus and I'm introducing him to my wife.
No, no, no.
My wife has a direct personal relationship with Jesus.
And she is supposed to commune with Jesus on her own and reading her Bible.
And you know what?
That's every person in this room that you need to talk with Jesus yourself.
You need to get alone with the Bible and read the Bible and talk with God.
It is the number one priority of your life.
And of course, it's coming from Genesis.
You're created.
You have this relationship.
We see the voice of God coming to approach them.
And why is it often that we struggle with this is because of sin.
Because of sin, it causes us to either get distracted,
feel ashamed, embarrassed, and perhaps not want to read.
You know, why is it that evil people don't want to read the Bible?
Because they don't want to hear about how bad they are.
Why is it that sometimes we don't read the Bible?
It's just sometimes literally coming from a place of shame.
Maybe we just feel embarrassed.
Maybe we feel like we haven't been reading a while.
Or maybe we feel like we're not living very holy.
Or maybe we feel like we're struggling with bad thoughts that day.
And that bad thought could just simply be,
I don't really want to do spiritual things today.
I kind of want to be selfish.
And you don't want to read the Bible because you want to be selfish.
And you know, if you read the Bible,
you're going to have to wrestle with the idea of being selfish that day
or doing what the Bible says.
And so it's important that on a daily basis
that we're trying to open the Bible and read some.
And you know, this is often paralleled in the Bible.
You know, I'm not going to go all the places, but with manna.
Jesus Christ says in Luke chapter four, four,
that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
I mean, what could be more important than eating food physically?
Almost nothing, because if you don't eat, you'll perish.
In the same way, God is likening that unto the word of God that we're supposed to read.
Now, of course, when it came to the manna, some gathered a lot, some gathered little,
but at least they were gathering something.
And then God can allow that to minister unto you.
And even those who are gathering very little, the Bible says that they had no lack.
And those that gathered much, they didn't spoil any.
So, you know, I'm not really mad at people depending on how much they read.
Like, to me, it's less important how much you're reading as opposed to the fact that you're reading on a daily basis.
So, like, even if you're struggling with Bible reading, just do a chapter a day.
And I'm not saying, like, that's my recommendation.
I'm not recommending read only a chapter a day because you'll read the Bible in, like, four years or something, okay?
I think you should try to read it at least once a year as a minimum.
But what I am trying to say is on days that you struggle,
maybe a day that you miss your Bible reading opportunity or maybe life happens, life happens,
okay? Especially when you're having kids and you're trying to raise them, we have work,
we have all these activities. Crazy things are happening constantly in the world.
It's easy to miss your Bible reading. Just say, oh, you know what? I'll at least pause
to just read one chapter, right? Maybe you're using the bathroom. I'll read one chapter.
It's lunch. I can read one chapter on my lunch break, right? I mean,
maybe the whole day was a train wreck, but before you go to bed, you just say,
I'll read one chapter. That might even help you go to sleep anyways, okay?
You know, just pick like Leviticus or something, right? Or Deuteronomy or Numbers.
I mean, but I'm just telling you that this is our, this is why we're here.
You know, the reason why you're created is to have some kind of a relationship with God.
That's the whole reason you even exist. That's the whole reason you have a unique soul.
That's why you have a unique consciousness. That's why you have a unique spirit.
Because God didn't want to create robots. He wanted people to actually
choose to accept His free gift of salvation and to be saved and then to have a response to Him.
You know, God loves freewill offerings. He loves it when someone just chooses
to actually worship God. And of course, He puts no obligation on it
because then it really wouldn't be worship, would it? It'd be obligation.
You know, coming to church this morning, no one in this room that's saved
thought, "I have to come to church today or I'm going to go to hell."
You know, they decided to come to church just simply out of their own freewill,
their own desire. People that read the Bible, that are saved,
didn't read the Bible today to escape hell. They did it because they want to
actually hear from God. They want God to talk to them.
People that prayed this morning, that are saved,
they didn't pray to, you know, escape hell because they've already done that.
They were praying because they just want to talk to God. They want to have a
relationship. They're asking for his needs. And you
know what? This is an important aspect of who we are.
God created us to read the Bible and to pray
and to have a relationship with him. And when we stop
making that a priority in our lives, we stop being who God created us to be.
And this is what's really great about this is no matter where you find
yourself and no matter what circumstance, you
can always fulfill priority number one. You know, there's
been times where it's been dark and it's been hard to access a Bible.
And even in today's world, it's difficult for some people to have access to the
Bible. But for us today, we have we have literally
no option. I mean, even if you were thrown in jail, they'll probably give you
a King James Bible. I mean, there's almost no circumstance
upon which any of us in this room could find ourselves
not capable of meeting priority number one. And I believe this,
as long as you're seeking to fulfill priority one,
God will make a way for you to fulfill priority number one. If you really want
to read the Bible, I guarantee God's going to find a way
for you to get a Bible so you can read it.
I guarantee those who want to, I mean, you can, unless you're just
out cold, unconscious, you should be able to pray.
And even then maybe you can. I don't know. But like, there's really no excuse to
not pray. And I think we always get so fixated
on the things that are going on in our lives that we worry
about other issues that we have. When this is the only issue we should be
really worrying about. You should be focused in on, am I able to
read the Bible? And am I able to pray? And am I doing
those things? Every other thing in your life that is
stopping you from reading the Bible and praying
is a problem. It's an issue. And we need to constantly recalibrate ourselves and
say, "Am I even doing what I'm supposed to be?"
Like, am I really doing what God created me to do?
God created me to have a relationship with men. He created...
I mean, what if Adam was reading to Eve whatever scripture they had at that point,
which at least he knew at least one thing. Hey, we're not supposed to be eating from
the tree in the midst of the garden, right? What if they're reading that and memorizing
that all day? It'd have been harder for them to what? Sin. Not saying they wouldn't have,
but I am saying this, that it makes it harder to sin when you're having a relationship with God,
when you're reading the Bible, when you're praying. It's easier to sin when you're not.
And of course, the more you get away, the easier it is to get away, and just keep getting away,
and then you just feel embarrassed, you don't want to read anything, you feel ashamed,
and it just makes it worse and worse. And I find this, if you haven't read your Bible in a while,
it gets harder every single day you don't. And if you just like say, "I don't even like reading the
Bible." Well, I've also noticed this, every day you force yourself to, it gets easier. It's like,
you say, "Man, it's going to be really hard to read my Bible tomorrow." Okay, but if you do it,
it'll be a little bit easier the next day, and then it'll be a little bit easier the next day,
and then just a little bit easier. And then there'll even be some times when you just
want to read the Bible, like you just literally just like, "Hey, I really want to read it today."
Sometimes as a human, you're just not going to want to read it as much. Okay, but you know what?
You're never going to want to read the Bible by not reading it. You will destroy your appetite
for the Bible by stop reading it. That's why we have to force ourselves, because your flesh hates
reading the Bible. Your flesh does not want to read the Bible. Your flesh wants to have fun
and party. Your flesh wants to eat sugar. Why do you think it is? I mean, think about it this way.
When is the most sugary foods offered? What meal? It's always breakfast. Okay. I mean,
you go to dinner, it's savory. Lunch is just kind of typically light. What is breakfast? It's like
pancakes and waffles and muffins and cinnamon rolls. I mean, it's basically every form of bread
and sugar you could possibly think of. Okay. I mean, just sugar. I mean, look, I'm not against
breakfast. I'm not against you eating these things, but there's a reason why. It's because
when your flesh wakes up, you know what it wants? Just to enjoy itself. It's just like, "Feed me!
Yeah! Woo!" You know what God said? He said, "Hey, you're supposed to be feeding yourself the Bible.
It's more important." And Job said that he esteemed the words of his mouth more than his
necessary food. And you know what? Bible reading is the most important thing that we can ever do.
If there's one thing that you do to change your life, it will be reading the Bible.
Reading the Bible... There's a reason why people come to our church. It's because they've read
the Bible some. You know, if someone's never read the Bible and they come to our church,
they won't like our church very much. And it won't take long for them to get really offended
and really upset. Because, you know, I don't necessarily like every single word of my mouth
show you what verses I'm talking about. And so they haven't read that portion and they're just
thinking like, how did he say that? Like, why did he say that? Whereas people that have read the
Bible a lot, they're thinking like, I'm glad someone finally said that because the Bible says
that. And so it's important that people read the Bible. There's a reason why people go to
the non-denom churches is because they haven't read the Bible. And in fact, they don't want to
go to a church where they'll hear the Bible. So they're going to Fig Leaf Baptist Church.
Okay. They're going to some hiding non-denom church experience. They're going to a church
where they're going to literally have the Super Bowl. Okay. I looked it up. There was a church
that had, you know, like a Super Bowl preaching event. It's called Crossroads. And I was just,
I was thinking like, who's the pastor of this joke of a church? Okay. And it's some guy like
Brian Tomei. Who's ever heard of this guy, Brian Tomei? Anybody? Okay. Apparently he's really popular,
like really well known. His church is giant. I mean, I think it's in the Cincinnati area,
but of course it's hard to pinpoint because these churches are everywhere. It's like cancer. It
spreads. And so it's all over the place. But apparently he like, he had made some controversy
and I didn't understand the controversy entirely, but I was just watching a little video just to
find out a little bit about him. And I think it was a guest preacher. It was either him or a guest
preacher basically insinuated that trans surgeries were bad. Okay. And what that means is that
basically specifically they were saying something like, they don't think it's good for children,
like eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 year olds, to get life altering surgeries where they're removing
parts of their body because they think they're a different gender. And based on the video I was
watching, he was responding to how they had insinuated this in the past and now he had to
apologize about comments he had made. So basically he was getting up to make an apology about what
had happened at their church. And again, I don't understand those contrasts. I don't really want
to know because I really don't care. But at the end of the day, he was apologizing about how
insensitive they were to people who are getting these trans surgeries for children. Not just
trans surgeries. He wasn't saying like I spoke negatively about just trans surgeries in general.
Trans surgeries for children specifically. He feels the need to get up and read a prepared
statement that he made to tell everybody how sorry he is and how they don't want to be so
exclusive and you know they want to be inclusive and they don't want anybody to be feeling hurt
you know by this. So then of course he kind of has to address some elephants in the room
on his doctrine on these issues and this Brian Tomei got up and literally says he's like well
some people you know have left our church because we're going to adhere to what the Bible says.
He's like you know we're not going to do what the world says and we're not going to do
you know what uh what some like restrict you know literal interpreters of the Bible are going to do
you know we're going to try and do what's right you know and if if some people get mad at me
for not being fully Republican or not being fully Democrat or whatever then you know that's just
the price we're going to pay and I don't care if our church grows or shrinks we're going to do
what's right okay we're going to let the Bible dictate what's right. So we've decided that we're
not going to allow homosexual marriage in our church okay. We're not going to let and we've
lost people over this but I do want to make myself clear that we will dedicate babies to married
homosexual relationships and not only that they can serve in any capacity in the church
and I know that some people are mad that we have homosexuals serving in our children's ministry
but I want to reassure you that there is zero link between homosexuality and pedophilia zero
and if you interpret his doctrine correctly they could even be a pastor as long as you know they're
in a monogamous relationship where they're married even though we won't marry them but as long as
they're married you know then we'll treat them with respect weak weak not and we want everybody
to feel welcome in our church what bible verse is that how can literally thousands and thousands
tens of thousands of people go to a church like that where the guy is literally saying you're
going to take two pedophiles bring them on stage with a child and dedicate that to the lord what
in the world i mean this is insane the world that we're living in number one that grown men would
allow two fags to be holding a baby for any reason i mean real grown men should be taking them out
and stoning them to death but you know why people don't like that because they haven't been reading
the bible because man has forgot his number one priority and that's having a relationship with
god and that's reading leviticus 20 13 that's reading roman's chapter number one and the reason
why we have so much issue is because people are afraid of what the bible says about them so then
we just let sin run rampant and you know because they want to be so inclusive to sinners now we're
bringing in pedophiles that church is literally allowing pedophiles to work in the nursery
i mean i can't really think of a of a worse scenario like you're supposed to be a church
of god and you're going to literally let open homosexuals take care of your babies you don't
even you don't even like that's insane i mean you're literally just feeding your children to wolves
you might be better off just like trying to domesticate wolves and letting your children
play with wolves in the backyard like that might be safer you know it's just that is so crazy to me
that that's happening and and it's not like this is a small tiny guy this is a giant church with
multiple locations running thousands if not tens of thousands on their weekend services and he's
you know we're going to do what the bible says show me a bible verse on that hey hey brian tell
me read one verse that the bible brings up about homosexuality out loud just read one and just see
if it even matches anything that you're saying oh we can't read that we're going to be we're
going to be inclusive you know look the guy and the guy sounds like a faggot too which look if
you sound like a fag and you're letting children go to predators and the baby you're you're a fag
i mean there's no way there's no way a straight guy is going to sound so queer and effeminate
and then loving and liking pedophiles to raise children i mean to be so i mean you're supposed
to be the shepherd the shepherd thinks there's zero link between pedophiles and fagots i mean
you're willingly ignorant on that point i can see how maybe a child or a teenager that's going to
Sodom high school and being brainwashed 24/7 could think that there's some there's not a link perhaps
but a grown man that used to be raised in a time when sodomy was illegal in this country
remind you i mean this guy is is older than me i lived in texas when it was illegal to be a faggot
it was illegal folks based on what all the facts and research and science showing the link to
pedophilia okay and the bible of course that's where it really gets its roots if you understood
american history at all which is not taught in the school you know it's taught we were racist
that's the only thing that was taught basically you know you're a horrible person because your
grandfather grandfather was racist okay and you know that was just that was a horrible trust
we don't even really know what he believed we just know he was racist because slavery right even
though there was white slaves there was native american slaves but we only hear about one color
of slave and everybody was a racist and everybody's bad and look you know racism is a sin but is it
really the worst sin you know how about letting pedophiles raise your children how about that
is that better like if i was to go back through history and say well one side of the family
they were racist the other side of the family was letting pedophiles raise children and mutilate
them with surgeries which side of the family history tree would you be more ashamed of i'd
be like i love my racist ancestors like that's the only side of my family you know like i'm not
going to embrace the pedophile for any surgeries that's insane that's our world today it's more
okay to literally mutilate children with transgender surgeries than it is to have grandpa have been
racist or something right i mean good night talk about mixed up priorities again isn't it why
because people aren't reading the bible and look i'm against racism racism is dumb it's stupid i
personally don't even think very many people are right racist honestly by true definition i think
everybody is prejudice i think everybody believes in stereotypes but i don't think there's a lot of
people out there that just genuinely think like all white people are genetically superior to all
black people i don't think anybody really believes that hardly anywhere obviously hitler was pretty
racist but you know at the end of the day that was like the least of his problems okay he had a lot
worse problems than just being racist go through it to first john chapter number two but the reason
why people don't like this church or what i'm saying is because they don't read the bible and
if there's anything you get out of the sermon if you leave and you say what was the point of the
sermon just read your bible okay i'm going to bring up other things but like if you can only
think of one thought at a time that's the kind of brain that you have just remember read read the
bible okay and then maybe after reading the bible a couple times it'll be a little bit more
intelligent you get two points next week next week you can go away with the two points of the
sermon right point one read the bible if that's all you can think of just write it down maybe
write on your hand whatever you need to do okay i want to make one other verse application here
first john chapter number two verse 28 and now little children abide in him that when he shall
appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming notice that abiding in
christ is important because when you're not christ is embarrassed of you whosoever shall be ashamed
of me and of my words of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he cometh and his and it you know
with with the power of the angels so according to the bible you know we're supposed to be reading
the bible we're not supposed to be ashamed of his words it's impossible to even be ashamed of
something you've never read okay you don't even know read the bible abide in christ and then when
you abide in christ notice this we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his
coming you can actually be confident and excited that christ is returning not be embarrassed or
ashamed or trying to hide yourself okay and look what verse 29 says if you know that he is righteous
you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him so point one is this that we need to
have a relationship but then that relationship will inevitably alter your personal life it'll
alter your actions it'll alter your behavior and god created us to have a relationship and then
also from that relationship to have service for him do service do works for him notice that the
people that are doing the works for him verse 29 if you know that he is righteous you know that
everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him the only people doing righteousness on this earth
are the people who are saved are the people who are born again and the bible is basically alluding
to the fact that if someone is doing righteousness then they are saved that they are righteous
okay go if you would back to genesis chapter number two go to genesis chapter number two
now some people will wrongly understand this and i think i think there's guilt on on both sides of
the equation number one you don't have to do anything to be saved salvation is a complete
free gift it's just by faith and once you're saved you're saved forever and because we do
have free will and because we do have the flesh it is completely possible for someone to then
just live in the flesh for the rest of their days end up actually accomplishing nothing for god and
still making it to heaven and the best way to judge if someone is saved or not is not based on
their lifestyle but rather is based on what they believe by asking them hey what do you believe it
takes to go to heaven or what do you think it takes to be saved that is the best way to figure
out if someone's saved but here's here's the other thing that's true though it is true though that
that someone serving God and doing righteous acts is saved.
Like there's not a question
of whether or not that person's saved.
It's not even a question if that's an evidence.
It is an evidence of someone's salvation.
Jesus Christ, you should know a tree by its fruit.
So it's like, can something be an apple tree
if it doesn't have apples on it?
Yes.
But is it an apple tree if it has apples on it?
Yes.
Every single tree producing apples is an apple tree.
Is that an evidence that it's an apple tree?
Yes, it is.
Now, what some people do is they take fake apples
and they glue them to a tree.
And then they try to tell you that they're an apple tree.
And you're like, there's something
wrong with these apples, OK?
These apples look a little funny.
Or maybe they even took real apples
and then glued them to the tree, right?
I mean, isn't there some-- like going to church.
People could go to church.
That's just gluing a real apple to a tree, right?
They got baptized.
Gluing a real apple to a real tree?
They got a King James Bible.
They're gluing a real apple to that tree.
The problem is they didn't produce that particular apple.
You know, they could even bring a convert.
You know, hey, I brought this person to church.
But then you look at the convert.
You're testing the apple, and you're looking at the apple.
And they say that salvation's by works.
They say salvation is by being baptized.
Then you're like, hey, this is a fake apple.
This isn't a real apple on the tree.
But it's like, if I bring you a real convert--
say, I talked to this guy.
He was a Mormon before.
Now he believes in Christ.
Hey, this guy believed in works.
Now he believes in salvation.
I mean, if you're bringing in apple after apple after apple,
you know what?
I know you're an apple tree.
It's that clear.
So that's where we want to make sure
that we have the right balance.
And then, of course, I believe there's a lot of teachers
and a lot of preachers out there that
are getting a little mixed up on this particular issue.
And then they try to say, well, if you're not producing apples,
you're not really a tree, you're not really an apple tree.
They're wrong on that point.
And they're twisting things.
I don't think that necessarily means they're unsaved
or they're teaching a wrong gospel,
but they're just definitely wrong on that issue.
And we just wanna make sure
that we are championing what's right.
And we're championing the truth on these issues
and not confusing people.
There's always gonna be confusion around the gospel
and salvation and it's frustrating.
But at the end of the day,
we have to realize that we are here to serve God.
And so we don't want to undermine works.
We don't wanna say that works aren't important.
We don't wanna say that works
aren't a main point of our lives.
We just always wanna make a clear distinction on salvation.
And we try to do that.
We do, I think, a really good job of this
when we got soul winning.
But you know, when I go soul winning,
I don't just like hammer the fact
that you don't have to do works.
I typically explain why works are important
and how they're different.
So I typically explain how,
look, you know, when you became a child of your parents,
you can't change that.
But it was still important to obey mom and dad.
You know, I say,
if I follow all of your dad's rules,
am I now his son?
They're like, no.
If I follow all my boss's rules at work,
am I his son?
No.
If I follow the rules at church,
am I now a son of God?
And I'm helping to realize, no.
But it's important for me to follow my dad's rules.
It's important for me to follow anybody's rules.
My boss's rules.
It's important for me to follow the rules at church.
But that has nothing to do with who my parents are.
That has nothing to do with me being born again
or being God's child.
So I have to believe in Jesus Christ to become his child.
Now I follow those rules.
You know, I'm not necessarily trying to get up here
and be like, well, what if you murder a hundred babies
and you pour gasoline on people's heads
and you burn them and it's like, whoa, buddy.
Like, you know, people sometimes are like emphasizing sin.
Like they're just saying like, yeah,
but what if you just murder and pillage and kill
and just destroying people?
Like, is that person really safe?
And the person's like, I don't think so.
Like, why do I have to think of this murderous
reprobate pedophile sin?
And then it's like, well, you're not saved
if you don't think he's saved.
You know, it's like, think about it.
Isn't the Bible talk about false professors?
Doesn't the Bible say that they went out from us
but they were not of us, right?
So like, if someone came to our church,
you be honest with yourself.
All you saw was just be honest for a second.
If someone came to our church one time and they said,
yeah, I believe Jesus is my faith.
And then we read in the paper
how he's an ax murdering psychopath.
How many of you be like, I think he was probably
a reprobate infiltrator?
Almost all of you.
But then when you go soul winning,
people are like, you're not even saved
'cause you don't think this guy is saved.
It's like, quit using weird hypotheticals, okay?
Look, I'm all for explaining the distinction
between works and faith,
but let us not dream up the worst scenarios imaginable
to present to them as the clearest way to get someone saved.
'Cause then people get really confused.
They're thinking like, what are you saying?
You know, again, I'm not against it.
Sometimes people bring up, even if I committed, you know,
murder or suicide or something, I'd still be saved.
And they just genuinely care about getting the person saved.
And I'm totally fine with that.
I'm not saying you can't say that.
But I try to emphasize the importance of good works
while making a clear distinction.
Just like, hey, I really try to obey my boss at work,
but I'll never be his son.
And I try really hard to follow God's commandments,
but that was never gonna get me into heaven.
And in fact, even if I didn't,
I was still gonna be saved if I believed in Jesus.
And I think by putting it in the right context
or in the right frame of mind,
it can help people understand that distinction.
Because a lot of people, they genuinely think like,
why would I not wanna do good works?
Or why would I not wanna serve God?
Or why would that not be important?
Because it is important.
Because it is emphasized in the Bible.
I mean, the Bible emphasizes works.
The Bible emphasizes serving God.
The Bible emphasizes not sinning.
So I think for a lot of people,
they're gonna think like you're a psychopath
trying to tell people that they can go around
being a psychopath and be saved.
You know, I'm not saying that.
I'm not suggesting that.
I'm not trying to insinuate that.
I'm trying to teach salvation's a free gift.
And there's ways to teach the salvation's a free gift
without giving them a hypothetical psychopath
getting saved, okay?
And they probably aren't that person.
So you don't really need to, you know,
boil it down for them like that, right?
But look at verse 15 here.
The Bible says this,
"And the Lord God took the man
and put him into the garden of Eden
to dress it and to keep it."
You know, God created man to work
and to do service for God.
God wants us to work for him,
not just to read the Bible,
not just to pray,
but also to do work.
You know, there's a lot of Christians a day,
they'll read their Bible,
they'll pray,
but you know what?
They won't go out and preach the gospel.
They're not going out to the garden
and they're not tending the garden.
They're not trying to bring forth fruit.
They're not trying to cultivate that fruit either.
You know, it's partly our job,
not just to get people saved,
but then to try to bring them in
and to get them baptized,
get them plugged into church.
And, you know, some people are better at that than others.
But, you know, I really appreciate people.
You know, both the Lugos are great at this.
I don't know how, but they're constantly,
like, bringing people into church.
And, you know, it's really impressive.
It's really impressive to see someone's zeal
to not just get someone saved,
but actually try to drag them into church
or to try to help change their lives.
Because, you know, our world needs a lot.
It needs salvation back.
But we don't need just salvation.
We need a lot of people to actually get plugged into church.
We need a lot of people to actually have stable marriages
and raise godly children and build the house of God
and become new soul winners
and encourage more people to get baptized.
And, you know, we need to go out there and tend that garden.
God wants us to do the works.
Now, we want to be careful and not be a Martha
where we're elevating the works over reading the Bible.
You know, don't be a soul winner and not read your Bible.
You know, it's more important to read your Bible.
It just really is.
Like, the most important priority you have,
reading your Bible and praying.
You cannot get more important than that.
But then secondly is doing the service of God.
Going to church, soul winning, encouraging people to get baptized,
teaching people doctrine, teaching your children doctrine,
teaching the world doctrine.
You know what I love about this is we've done two priorities,
the two most important priorities.
Anybody and everybody can do it.
Everybody in here can read your Bible.
Everybody in here can pray.
And everybody in here can serve God.
You can, you can minister to the Lord.
You can go to church.
You can go soul winning.
You can talk to your friends and family about the Bible.
You know, no matter where you find yourself in your life,
you can do number one and two.
And here's the thing.
People are always mad at every other issue in their life,
not realizing you can still do number one and two.
It's like the most important thing you have going for you,
you can still do.
And then the second most important thing
you can possibly do, you can still do.
You know, we should be content with just one and two.
But of course, there's more.
Look what it says in Genesis chapter number two, verse 20.
"And Adam gave names to all cattle
and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field.
But for Adam there was not found and help meet for him.
And the Lord God caused deep sleep to fall upon Adam,
and he slept, and he took one of his ribs
and closed up the flesh instead thereof.
And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man,
made he a woman and brought her unto the man.
And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh.
She should be called woman, because she
was taken out of man.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother
and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh.
And they were both naked, the man and his wife,
and were not ashamed.
So if we think about what God has created, number one,
He created us to have a relationship with Him.
Number two, He created us to serve Him.
And then number three, then created marriage.
This is important.
And if you want to fix your life,
get your priorities straight.
Number one, read your Bible.
Number two, church.
Number three, marriage.
Now here's the problem.
Almost everybody in this world,
these top three don't even exist in their top 10.
It's like, works,
cowboys,
NBA,
fishing,
their guns,
video games,
and then they don't even have anything else.
And then they wonder why their life's screwed up.
Or maybe their first priority is Jack Daniels,
and then it's the club,
and then it's smoking cigars,
and then it's doing LSD,
and then it's stealing.
I mean, you wonder why people's lives are screwed up.
It's their priorities.
Where are they at?
Sunday morning, or maybe it's just sleeping.
I mean, think about a homeless person.
What's their number one priority?
Sleeping, being lazy, being drunk.
I mean, basically doing nothing with their life.
And let me tell you something.
You wanna fix your life,
you have to change your priorities.
And you say, "Well, what does that look like?"
Your literal hours of your day.
If you're not spending time reading the Bible at all,
you're wrong, you're screwed up.
If you're not going to church at all,
you're not soul-witting, you're not doing anything,
you're wrong.
If you're not putting your marriage
above every other aspect of your carnal life,
then there's something wrong.
There's some kind of issue.
Now this is why I also say this,
that marriage is often the number one reason
why I see people getting out of church or stop serving God.
Because notice, it's the highest priority,
and it should be, in our lives after serving God.
It's like the most important thing.
And for most people, it is kind of the most important thing.
And when I say marriage,
it's mostly just relationship with another person.
Because even today, unfortunately,
a lot of people aren't getting married,
but they're still seeking what?
A relationship to be with someone
and to have that kind of a commitment.
You know, almost every song, every movie,
everything's about that relationship,
or finding somebody, or being with somebody,
or having that particular area of their life met.
And the reason is, is because it's important to us.
But it's partly a spiritual thing,
it's partly a carnal thing.
You know, marriage is a good thing.
Notice there's part of carnal in it
because it literally came out of his flesh.
I mean, there's a closeness that comes with marriage.
There's a special intimacy that comes with marriage.
There's a special relationship with marriage.
But you know what I like about this
is that even if you weren't married,
you can still do number one and two.
Go view the 1 Corinthians chapter number seven.
Also, notice your priorities change with marriage
because it says you're supposed to leave father and mother.
One reason why a lot of people have screwed up marriages
is because they haven't left father and mother.
Leave father and mother.
Physically and emotionally, okay?
Both are just as important.
Physically meaning, you know,
you should try your hardest to not live under the roof, okay?
Now again, I'm not saying you're wicked or evil
for doing this.
And of course, maybe you're moving,
you're in between housing or whatever,
and sometimes you just stay there.
Sometimes you just visit for the holidays.
That's enough of a sample to tell you
you should never do it again, okay?
Just the holidays.
But I'm telling you, you know,
it's dysfunctional to be living with mom and dad.
Now, I'm gonna make a clear exception to this.
Obviously when our parents get really elderly
and we need to take care of them,
you know, there could be exceptions with that.
Obviously, we need to take care of our parents, okay?
But I'm just generally speaking.
You know, we need to get away from their authority,
get away from their money,
like all the aspects that mom and dad kind of provide.
Their authority, leadership, money.
You know, once they become elderly and dependent,
that completely changes the dynamic.
You're taking care of them.
But you know what?
You need to leave father and mother as a man,
and you need to become the man of the house,
and you need to become the problem solver,
and your wife needs to lean on you,
and you're the only man in her life.
That is a healthy marriage.
If you have your family deeply entrenched
into your relationship,
it can cause a lot, a lot of problems, okay?
But you know, even if you were never married,
or maybe your marriage is screwed up,
or you failed at marriage,
or all the other possibilities,
maybe you're even just widowed,
maybe you did nothing wrong,
but you unfortunately just lost your spouse.
The Bible gives you some comfort here,
because look what it says in verse 27,
"Art thou bound unto a wife?
Seek not to be loose."
Meaning if you're married,
never seek to be loose from her.
Art thou loose from a wife?
Seek not a wife.
Now this is Paul's opinion,
but in his opinion he's saying like,
if you're not married and you don't have to be,
I think it's better not to be.
Now again, this is in context of someone
that is capable of not being lustful and not being married,
which is not 99% of people, okay?
Verse 28, "But, and if thou marry, thou'st not sinned;
and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned.
Nevertheless, such shall have trouble in the flesh,
but I spare you."
So the apostle Paul's a little jaded,
no, I'm just kidding.
He's like, marriage is trouble.
But you know, let's just be honest,
it is because you're marrying another sinner, okay?
So if you marry a sinner, guess what?
They're gonna sin.
And when they sin, there's problem.
You know, no one has a perfect marriage.
No one has a perfect marriage,
because you married a sinner.
According to Paul, you're gonna have trouble in the flesh.
You will have marriage problems.
Everybody has marriage problems.
Everybody has issues.
Now, here's the thing,
we should all be working on that though.
That's not an excuse to just say like,
well, you know, pastor said we're gonna have problems,
so I don't have to work on it.
No, no, no, you're the problem, work on it, okay?
But at the end of the day,
don't get an idea of like Hollywood,
where this couple is fading away on the honeymoon.
You know, they never show after the honeymoon, okay?
And I'm pretty sure all the Hollywood celebrities
already showed you what's after the honeymoon,
it's divorce for all of them.
And then they just keep going, keep going,
and eventually they just stop marrying,
because they realize they're just a whore or a whoremonger,
and they can't even maintain a relationship whatsoever.
I guarantee Johnny Depp, I mean,
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard,
that's not the love story you want, folks, okay?
Oh, it's so amazing, I wanna be like them.
You wanna be at drug and court
and have all of your marital spats
that were recorded aired out for the whole world?
I mean, how many of you in here would like to say,
I would love for the last argument me and my spouse had
to just be blasted on the internet for everyone to hear.
Not only that, from a psycho chick
who also is gonna lie and slander
and misrepresent everything you said.
So it's not only the things you said,
it's a bunch of stuff you didn't even say too on top of it,
which is every argument you've ever had, I'm just kidding.
You only laughed because it was true.
No, I'm just kidding.
But if we keep reading, notice what it says.
This is where the comfort's coming in, all right?
I didn't comfort you yet.
Verse 29, "But this I say, brethren, the time is short.
It remaineth that both they that have wives
be as though they had none,
and they that weep as though they weep not,
and they that rejoice as though they rejoice not,
and they that buy as though they possess not."
Saying when we get to heaven,
it'll be as if you were never even married anyways.
In some way, it's like it didn't even matter.
There's like no extra special status in heaven
like I was married, I wasn't, it doesn't even matter.
Well, I had a big house, doesn't matter.
Well, I cried my whole life, doesn't matter.
I mean, it's just saying, it's like,
it doesn't even matter what happened.
Why?
Because, you know, that's just a carnal thing.
It's just part of this life.
You don't have to, you know,
if that's a train wreck in your life,
we'll be comforted by the fact
that it won't even matter pretty soon.
Like pretty soon, it doesn't even matter at all.
Not even in the scope of eternity, it won't matter.
Who you were married to, how good your marriage was,
or any of those things.
I'm not saying that because I don't think marriage is important.
I think you should put a lot of effort and energy
into your marriage.
You should work really hard to having a great marriage.
But I'm telling you this,
even if you put a lot of effort into it
and it's not that great,
be comforted by the fact
that it won't matter pretty soon anyways.
It's kind of like your job.
You know, it's like a job that you're leaving.
Whenever I'm leaving a job,
especially even after I've put in my notice,
I still work just as hard as I would if I wasn't quitting.
But I'm really comforted by the fact that pretty soon,
I don't have to deal with any of y'all's problems anymore.
It's like, you know what?
I mean, it's such a nice feeling,
especially when you work for a company
that's kind of a train wreck and has a lot of problems.
I mean, I worked at a software company
that was very dysfunctional,
and my boss was very dysfunctional and bipolar.
And what was amazing to me is usually in the tech industry,
when you tell them you're quitting,
they strip you of all your privileges and rights,
and you basically just don't do anything for a few weeks.
They kept my privileges to the last second,
and I was still just doing work and coding,
all these problems.
And I just kept thinking like,
I'm so glad that I don't have to do another ticket
as soon as I'm gone.
Like, all of this code that sucks and y'all can't,
you know, function as a proper unit,
I don't have to worry about as soon as I leave.
But you know what?
I'm gonna do this.
I'm gonna work as hard as I can.
And I literally coded till the last second,
and I was committing changes and putting in work,
and I was helping them.
And I wasn't even coding in a way
like, you're not gonna like this change.
I was doing it like, this is gonna be good.
I'll help you guys.
I'll work as hard as you can.
So you know, that's how you should be in marriage.
It's like, pretty soon, we're not gonna be together.
That's not a love song, sorry, you know.
All the love songs are like, I love you forever.
It's like, pretty soon, we're just gonna be
like bros and sisters, you know, whatever.
But you know what?
I'm gonna work really hard.
I'm gonna work as hard as I possibly can
until you die, or I die.
Like, I'll love you the best that I can.
Because it's important, it's important.
But you know what?
I don't have to worry about, you know,
this being a train wreck or not being perfect
because eventually it won't even matter anymore.
It's kind of like my house too.
You know, it's like, I'm going to take care of my house
and I want my house to be really nice,
but when I die, I don't really care anymore.
Like, it's like, oops.
You know, it's like a car.
It's like, hey, I'll take care of my car,
but as soon as I sell it and give it to someone else,
it's like, it's your problem now.
Like, I don't really care what happens to that car.
Like, it's done with, you know?
And so it's just trying to say,
like, from the scope of eternity,
you know what mattered?
Serving God.
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number 12.
You know, the Bible says in Proverbs 16, it says this,
"A whisperer separated chief friends."
Don't be telling your parents about your marriage
unless it's positive.
Don't be telling your friends about your marriage
unless it's positive.
Don't be telling your children about your marriage
unless it's positive.
Basically, you should not be telling other people
about marriage issues.
I mean, obviously, there's a case for some counseling
from, like, a godly pastor or something like that,
but even then, you want to be limited
in what you're talking about.
And the reality is, when it comes to relationships,
they often are destroyed because you're complaining
about your spouse to other people.
And the most common is, I think, parents.
You're telling your mom or dad, like, I don't like him,
or I don't like what he's doing, or this is happening.
You know, that's the worst thing you can do.
Do not do that.
Don't tell your gossipy friends.
You know, if you have a crappy marriage,
don't let everybody else know.
That's my, I'm strongly for this opinion,
because in some ways, it's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Because what happens is the word gets around,
and then that person's just like,
I mean, well, I'm such a terrible person to,
you keep telling everybody that,
and everybody thinks that way.
So then they just like have no motivation
to even keep being a good person.
And there's a truth to how you speak about yourself.
You know, the prosperity preachers
and the word of faith movement really emphasize this,
but there's some truth to the fact
that the way you speak, things come to pass.
If you're a really positive person,
if you have a lot of energy, if you're excited,
if you're kind of talking about the positives of your spouse,
often it tries to encourage them to do the positives.
When you bring up the negatives,
it usually kind of brings them down
and cause them to be less motivated to do right.
And so it's important to be careful how you speak.
Don't talk about these issues.
And a whisper separated the chief friends.
You and your spouse can be so tight,
but then you reveal secrets to mom and dad.
You reveal secrets to friends,
and it starts to pull that relationship apart.
It starts to dissolve the trust
that you have between each other.
You know, like, you should have a special bond
between you and your spouse,
and you and your spouse should have secrets
that no one else has.
You have your own language.
You have your own secrets.
You have your own intimacy.
It's a special union that's just between you.
You know, the bedroom's supposed to be that way too.
Unfortunately, the whole world
likes to share everything, right?
And it's gross.
Nobody wants to know.
You know, you should keep the bedroom.
You should keep marriage issues
between husband and wife.
Don't be telling other people.
Don't be broadcasting it to other people.
Don't be mentioning it to other people.
You know, I'm not getting up here on a soap box
telling you all the terrible things that my wife did.
Mostly 'cause she never does anything wrong, okay?
But secondly, even if she did,
hypothetically, I wouldn't tell you, okay?
And at the end of the day,
there's no point in me sitting up here
and ragging on my wife.
You know, I've been to churches
where the pastor rags on his wife.
Who's heard that before?
It's weird.
You know, they do it as like a sense of humor.
It's not funny.
Like it's just awkward.
I'm just thinking like,
I'm glad I'm not riding home with you.
You know, it's just like, that's weird.
You know, we should constantly compliment
and praise our spouse and talk positive.
You know, it should be a Song of Solomon
type situation.
Now, of course, there's times
in your marriage private between y'all
where y'all are discussing issues
and you need to.
But we shouldn't be telling other people these issues.
We shouldn't be bringing them up.
And this is usually the guys,
they're like, "Oh, I want help."
But then they're just gossip.
"Oh, I just need advice."
Gossip.
Look, you have enough advice from the Bible
and from sermons and you don't need that kind of advice.
You need to just keep your mouth shut.
That will help your marriage.
You're not blessing your marriage by speaking evil.
Plus it'll affect your heart and mind.
You're supposed to be thinking
on things that are pure and lovely.
You're not supposed to constantly be bitter against them
and harboring unforgiveness against them
and ought against them.
We need to be constantly letting these things go.
The last point, and I'm not going there every single time,
but it's supposed to be children.
Obviously he created a man.
He gave him work to do.
He gave him a wife and then he gave him children.
We wanna make sure that we have those priorities.
I don't need to emphasize that point
because I don't want to.
We're emphasizing reading our Bible.
We're emphasizing serving God.
And then of course marriage is important
and marriage typically gets you out of church
if you're screwed up on it.
But don't let it.
You know, I know people that have horrible marriages
and they're still serving God.
And there's people that have great marriages
that are not serving God.
But at the end of the day, you know,
that's usually a common factor
between people that struggle.
When it comes to the priorities of our lives,
Ecclesiastes sums it up.
And I want to just look at the last few verses here.
Look at verse 13.
"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
"Fear God and keep his commandments
"for this is the whole duty of man."
At any point in our lives, we can do this.
I don't care what you have.
If you're Job and you've lost everything,
you can still fear God and keep his commandments.
If you have everything, if you're King Solomon
and you have wives of plenty,
you can still fear God and keep his commandments.
It doesn't matter if you're Solomon, Job,
anything in between.
We're supposed to fear God and keep his commands.
Why?
Because the creation party,
we're supposed to have a relationship with him.
Reading our Bible.
We're supposed to serve and minister.
And I didn't bring this up,
but to give you a practical solution here, serving God,
the Bible brings up ministering to the saints,
ministering to the saints by preaching the gospel,
getting new saints, and by loving people in this room.
You can always love other people.
Stop being so fixated on yourself
and your problems and your issues.
You know, that's why our world's so screwed up
is everybody's so narcissistic and selfish.
We need to be worried about having a relationship with God
by ministering to other people,
going to church, preaching the gospel.
I mean, when you're preaching the gospel,
you're not being selfish.
Nothing selfish about preaching the gospel.
It's hard work, it's a thankless job.
A lot of people get mad at you.
You know, praying for other people,
there's not anything you're gonna get out of that carnally.
But you know what?
It'll change everything inside of you
when you're just blessing other people.
It'll make you happy.
Isn't that what everybody wants?
Happiness.
You know what?
You're happy when you're reading your Bible,
and you're happy when you're praying for other people,
and you're happy when you're going soul winning,
and you're happy when you're going to church,
and you're happy when you're right with God,
and you're happy when you're serving your spouse,
and you're happy when you're serving your children.
You're miserable when you're not reading the Bible.
You're miserable when you're not going to church.
You're miserable when you're not treating your spouse well,
and you're miserable when you're not doing anything
for your children.
That's why the celebrities are so miserable.
They're doing none of that.
And, you know, you want to find happiness?
Find it in the right places.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us
this creation account and these principles
and these doctrines.
I pray that we would take them seriously.
I pray that you would help every single person in this room
and me included to just read our Bible more,
to draw closer to you.
I pray that you would help motivate our hearts
and our minds to do ministry and to serve
and to work and to love other people.
And I pray that you would help us to love our spouses
and love our children and to make sure
that we're maintaining the right priorities.
And in Jesus' name, we pray, amen.
For our final song this morning,
let's turn to song number 18,
"Take the Name of Jesus With You."
Song number 18, "Take the Name of Jesus With You."
Song one eight, "Take the Name of Jesus With You."
♪ Take the name of Jesus with you ♪
God bless, you are dismissed.