Welcome to steadfast baptist church coming this morning. We're glad you're here. Let's open up our hymn books turn to page
224 shall be showers of blessing page
224 this morning shall be showers of blessing
Baptist Church and all those who came here to gather in your name this morning that we can worship you view
We pray Lord that you would just fill the services preaching your word and your Holy Spirit
Christmas and your son Jesus Christ or save we have eternal life through your son Jesus name
I turn in our blinders now seek ye first one of you in the chair in front of you seek ye first
That's Baptist Church if you did not get a bullet sin already and you need one just lift up your hand nice and high on
The front we have our Bible memory passage Romans chapter 10
If you can quote the entire chapter out or making mistakes
Then you can receive a special prize at the end our completion
So anybody that can memorize all of Romans chapter 10 you just have to quote it to a non-family member on the inside
We have our service and soul winning times down below is our church stats for the year
That's the evangelist or bannock where he was at already. I think he's around 500 so far already
So just keep that in mind, but we're doing really great on our soul winning numbers planning on maybe January 1st
Putting out just an information of like what we did as a church and some of our stats and stuff like that
But it's been a definitely a record year
some of our stats down here don't even necessarily include all of evangelists or bannocks numbers because he also has
15 to 18 baptisms as well some other stats
So we'll try to get these all updated and we'll put them in our bulletin for the end of the year
But a lot a lot of work has gone into these numbers, you know, I really am
Grateful the pastor of church is very zealous for soul winning
preaching the gospel and a lot of missions trips and a lot of hard work has gone into our soul winning this year and
honestly, it's it's been such a better year than we've ever had before but I think that we can still do it again next year and so
We're still planning to do all kinds of different events. It's not in your bulletin
I made a video about this just last night that I put up on the internet
But one of the initiatives we were going to try and do is we're trying to do a
collaboration of doing college soul winning marathons next year
And so I added a web page to our website already spckjv.com/college
And if you go there it has a list of the like top
100
state colleges in the continental US
Now again, it's not perfect list. I just kind of got it from the internet
But basically just targeting the largest universities across the US that are public state universities
Because when they're public and state universities, they usually are free to access you can usually just go on there
As a citizen even if you're not necessarily enrolled in the school
Whereas a lot of private schools will sometimes with their security
Take visitors off of the campus or not allow
Evangelism and I'm not saying that you shouldn't do evangelism there
I'm just saying that to organize an event. We just wanted to try and have the least resistance possible
So we're just targeting like public universities and state colleges across America to try and host
soul-winning events
next year
Our church is gonna probably try to pick up several that are in the Texas area and just surrounding area
As well as a lot of our friends pastor Stephen Anderson pastor Bruce Mejia pastor Aaron Thompson
I've already communicated with them and then a lot of other friends of ours like pastor
and Oz and others they want to also collaborate and work on this as well and so they're gonna be trying to take a lot
Of these schools and their areas and sign up for days
But also just any person that wants to do that or if you have if we have listeners or people online or live in
Other areas or you're traveling and someone wants to host a soul winning day at one of the colleges
we want to make it happen and so
Whatever you need, you know any of our soul winning leaders or captains in our church or anybody that wants to try and host an event
On a specific day next year at one of these colleges. Just definitely see us and we'll try to get you
All the stuff that you need for that particular event, but we're looking forward just having some extra soul winning push
Of course next year. We still have a lot of small town soul winning events that we're gonna be doing
We have a Barbados trip that we're planning in the fall of next year, and so we have a lot of different soul winning opportunities
I just wanted to at least have another one
I didn't even necessarily come up with the idea someone else had the idea
Pastor Anderson gave me the idea, but I was just like hey
I think I could make that happen, so I'm just trying to help organize and execute that plan
But it's really gonna just be a team effort
And I think that college campuses are a great place to go soul winning
Young people are more receptive to the gospel in a typical sense
Also, if you go during the right times of the year
there can be a lot of students there and you just have that opportunity to preach to a lot of students and
Also, the goal is you know trying to do it in different parts of the
US is maybe some people live in an area where they don't have a new IP church or they don't have a zealous soul winning
Church or they just want to learn soul winning and so hopefully through these meetups
people in those areas can come and travel and just have a day to meet up with other soul winners and just kind of get connected and
Do some more soul winning so I think there's just a lot of positives from this kind of initiative
But I just wanted to put it out there cast some vision. I'm sure I'm going to talk about it regularly
Also, whenever we have results and stuff. We'll try to update it put on the website
Maybe pictures newer things like that and we'll promote it throughout the year, but we'll be doing ones
You know I think you and tease on our list so the University of North, Texas one will probably pick a day for that
And then there's a lot of different ones throughout just Texas in general
There's a and M. There's University of Texas. I think University of Texas also has some satellite campuses
I think they have one in Tyler, Texas. I didn't know this. I think there's a University of Texas
Campus at Tyler, Texas, and it looked like it was a decent sized campus
Tyler, Texas isn't even that far from us, you know geographically. So we'll try to figure out how to plan the days
Probably targeting the spring and the fall is usually the best maybe a day during the week
And so we'll try to figure out what's going to be best there
I already got a lot of people emailing me wanted to sign up for and schedule different days and different events
So we'll put it out there is just another option for people to do a lot of soul-winning
so just putting it out there and
Think with all the efforts that we're working on and all the plans that we have for next year if we put in the
Same kind of effort. I think that we could see the same kind of results so
On the right is a list of our expecting ladies several ladies to be in prayer for upcoming events this Wednesday
we're having a men's preaching and pizza any men of the church that want to preach a five-minute sermon can put their name in a
Hat and we'll just do like a pop popcorn style preaching
Or we just pick names out of a hat and let people let some of the men preach sermons
You do have to wear a button-up shirt and tie and obviously preach under the King James Bible, or we'll throw you out
So that's you know
That's how it is, but no we're we're excited about that
And then we'll just have pizza for everyone immediately following the service so even if you heard a weird sermon you get some pizza afterwards
All right
And then we have the till death marriage workshop. This is a free event our church is hosting
It's not gonna be here at the church. It's at another venue. It's a very nice
Venue if you would like to participate we'd love for you to do it
It's a free thing you just go to steadfast vows calm you can sign up and register
But we do need you to do that. I think before like January 10th or 11th. So we want to make sure we get
Everything planned and prepared for but we are having that event
Also, there's a do-it-yourself missions trip to the Philippines January 26th through the February 4th
evangelist fur is kind of leading a charge and a group from our church
I think there's around a dozen is that accurate like about a dozen people maybe
That are planning on going and so you can if you'd like to flights are actually pretty reasonable to the Philippines
During this time. I think some people were able to get flights around 700 $800 could be more or less
Just depends on exactly what your schedule is
But pretty reasonable for going out there because sometimes in the year it can be thousands of dollars to fly
To the Philippines, so that's a great opportunity
Evangelists are banning is doing a great work out there. We're also been sponsoring a brother Kenton Knowles
He's been doing a lot of work at that church as well
And so also we have our friend brother James Perry
He does a lot of work out in the Philippines, and he kind of bounces around
So there's a lot of people of zealous over there
In the Philippines continue to pray for them and their church and the works that they're doing on the back is our prayer list
If you have any additional prayer requests, please just email us steadfast baptist kjv@gmail.com
And we'd love to update our prayer list. That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements
we're gonna go ahead and sing our
Psalm of the Week Psalm
150 so Psalm 150 it's in our hem binders
You can turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter Hebrews chapter 12 Hebrews 12 the Bible reads wherefore seeing we
Also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with
Patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith
Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross
Despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God for consider him that endured such
Contradiction of sinners against himself lest you be wearied and faint in your minds
You have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin and he had forgotten the
Exertation which speaketh unto you as unto children my son
Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth
He chasten it and scourge it every son whom he receive it if he endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sons
For what son is he whom the father chasten if not, but if he be without
Chastisement were of all our partakers then are he bastards and not sons
Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence
Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits and live for they verily for a few days
Chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness
Under them which are exercised thereby
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet
Lest that which is lame be turned out of the way and let it rather be healed
Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord
looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness
Springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled
Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau who for one morsel of meat
Sold his birthright for he know how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing
He was rejected for he found no place of repentance though. He sought it carefully with tears
Fear not come into the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness
And tempest and the sound of the trumpet and the voice of words
Which voice they that heard and treated that the word should not be spoken to them anymore
For they could not endure that which was commanded and if so much as a beast touched the mountain
It shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart and so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly
Fear and quake but ye are come unto Mount Zion and under the city of the living God of the heavenly Jerusalem and to an
innumerable company of angels to the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven and to God the judge of
all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of
sprinkling that speaketh after
Excuse me that speaketh better things than that of Abel see that you refuse not him that speaketh
For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him
That speaketh from heaven whose voice then shook the earth
But now he had promised saying yet once more I shake not the earth only but also heaven and this word yet once more
Signify it the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made that those things which cannot be shaken may
Remain wherefore we receiving a kingdom, which cannot be moved
Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire
Let's pray father in heaven. We pray Lord God that you would just bless this sermon this morning
Phil pastor Shelley with the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit and give him clarity of mind as he preaches your word
unto us and give us ears to hear and soften hearts in the room and help us to apply this sermon to our lives to be
Doers of the word not hearers only we thank you for our church and pray that you keep us safe as we go soul-winning later
We love you and in Jesus name. I pray amen. Amen. I want to look back at verse 11
The Bible says now no chastening for the present seem it to be joyous, but grievous
Nevertheless afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness under them which are exercised
thereby wherefore
Lift up the hands which hang down in the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet
Let's that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed
Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord looking diligently
lest any man fail the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be
Defiled so the Bible is telling us that we need to receive
Correction and to not get bitter to receive correction and to not get bitter
And so the title of my sermon this morning is this don't get bitter get better don't get bitter get better now
I have three simple points when it comes to this idea
But number one is and in order to not get bitter you have to receive correction
You have to receive correction here in the passage
It's telling us that you know chastening in this passage is the idea of correction and it's saying it's not necessarily
Joyous, it's grievous in the sense that no one likes to receive punishment. No one likes to be told that they're wrong
No one likes to be embarrassed. No one likes to do something that is is
proven false later or
Corrected, you know, but at the end of the day we should embrace correction and the Bible says we should allow ourselves to be healed
You know just allow yourself to get over whatever in
uncomfortable situation or whatever
Inconvenience or whatever punishment or what a setback you experience and just get better
But many times what people do is when they get corrected instead of choosing to get a little bit better as a person
They just simply dig in and they get bitter about whoever corrected them instead of actually getting better
They get mad at the person that was trying to help them get better because often
Correction is gonna even come from someone that you may not even like that much
Or you might not even want to hear the message from them and then at the end of the day
We shouldn't really care who's correcting us
We should just care if the correction is right if the correction is right
we should receive it and we should implement it in our lives and
Unfortunately, most people don't want to go to a church where they're constantly being corrected
You know when we talk about hard preaching, it's not so much about just yelling and screaming. It's about the correction aspect
That's the most important point and most people don't actually like
Corrective preaching people like you getting up and screaming and yelling about all the things that they're excited about and all the all the
frustrations that they have in their lives
But when you get up and you scream and yell about things that someone's guilty of some kind of a pain point they have in
their life
Often it causes people to rub the wrong way and they'll sometimes get bitter and you sometimes even wonder like how do people leave a church?
Like ours and they're so bitter
It's because they don't like being corrected and they didn't want to be corrected and so they just stay bitter instead of getting better
But we need to get better and not bitter
I want to go to Ecclesiastes chapter 7 think about this in the context of the Jews, you know the Jews
They had to be corrected by the Lord Jesus Christ
The Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven and had to correct them as a group of people for the most part
They weren't saved. They needed to get saved. Not only that they were just wrong about their interpretation of the Bible
They were following the fact the fact I'm sorry the Pharisees and the Sadducees trying to mix those two words together
And they were not willing to receive, you know correction
but also they weren't really to they weren't ready to receive the the New Testament and the Bible says clearly
about the New Testament that it was the better Testament and the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 7
it says but so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament
Hebrews chapter 8 says he's the mediator of a better covenant which is established upon better promises
Hebrews 9 says that the heavenly things themselves were sanctified with better sacrifices
Hebrews chapter 10 tells us that in heaven we have a better and enduring substance
Hebrews chapter 11 talks about the fathers of our faith that they were desiring a better country
and Hebrews chapter 11 the bible also tells us that he's provided us something in heaven
it says a better thing for us
so the new testament was a better testament with better promises with better sacrifices everything
but many jews did not want to receive that they wanted to stick with the old system
and they did not want to receive the new testament and they did not want to get saved
and as a result they got bitter and they wanted to kill the lord jesus christ
they wanted to kill christians they wanted to just dig in
and so god had to destroy them in 70 AD through the hands of the romans
obviously they got scattered throughout the entire world as some kind of a cancer and plague on mankind
the bible says that they're contrary to all men because they're bitter because they didn't receive the better testament
and look if the jews of that day had received the new testament they were going to be great
i mean many jews in the new testament era were some of the greatest people to ever live
i mean the apostle paul did not get bitter he got better
and yea he became one of the greatest christians to ever live being a jew
we have peter and john jews but because they received the gospel
because they received the new testament they became better
and they ended up becoming some of the best christians to ever live
martyrs for the faith and so we want to make sure that we don't follow the same example of the unsaved
the unbelieving jews and get bitter we want to be people that get better
and what is that we have to receive correction
bible says in ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 2
it is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting
for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart
so the bible is telling us that it's not always a good idea to just enjoy every moment of your life
sometimes you need to go to the house of mourning
sometimes you need to go to church and sometimes the service isn't going to be enjoyable
it's going to be corrective to the point where you feel bad
like if you don't feel bad after any sermon you probably aren't listening or the bible is not being preached
because if the bible is being preached sometimes you're going to feel convicted
sometimes you're going to feel like hey I need to improve, I need to get better, I need to make changes in my life
and the bible is saying this is better than just going and just hey I'm going to go watch a football game
oh I'm just going to watch a basketball game, oh I'm just going to watch a movie that makes me feel good
sometimes you need a message that's going to challenge you and cause you to actually feel regret, sorrow
that you're doing something wrong, we need that correction in our lives
but when you hear that message what are you going to do, how are you going to respond to correction
are you going to get bitter or are you going to choose to get better as a result and we need to get better
if I just go and have fun, if I just go and eat a big meal
if I go and just laugh, that's not going to make me a better person
now again I think that we all need recreation in our life
I'm not someone that believes in asceticism
I don't believe that you should just live this life where you have no joy
you don't even like food, you don't have any pleasure in your life
hey, we all need, you know, good things in our life
you know, God gave us a lot of pleasure in this life
He gave us a husband and a wife so that we could have pleasure from our spouse
God gave us marriage so that we could have a lot of joy from that
God gave us children so you can have joy at different times
God gave us good food to enjoy
I don't think that you have to not like the meal that you're eating or something like this
That's called dieting, okay?
And, you know, dieting can be rough
But at the end of the day, I think we should also have some good times, too
But, you know, where there's no pain, there's no gain, right?
If you never go and work out, you're never going to get strong
But let me tell you something, working out doesn't feel good
Dieting doesn't feel good
You know what feels good?
Looking in the mirror after you've been on a diet and been working out, right?
And so at the end of the day, you can't just have your cake and eat it too
In the sense that you can't just only feast and only have joy and then become better
You often come better through suffering
You often get better by doing things that are difficult, working hard, going through mourning processes
And honestly, the type of person that you are, your character, is often a reflection of how much mourning and suffering you've been through
Even Jesus Christ himself, the Bible says, was tempted in all points like as we are
And the Bible's talking about the captain of our salvation is going through different sufferings
And he was touched with the feeling of our infirmities
And the Bible's like basically painting this picture that Jesus Christ really knows what it's like to go through the human experience
To suffer loss and to hunger and to thirst and to experience physical pain and have all kinds of rejection and shame and embarrassment
And to have family members turning on you and not believing in you and being hunted down and lied about and railed on and falsely accused and maligned
He really knows what that's like and so he can empathize with us
And in the same way someone that's just lived a life of only pleasure, of only joy, no suffering, Mr. Popular
Often those type of people struggle to have good character
They struggle to empathize with other people
They struggle to have patience with other individuals
The more you get ripped off and lied about and stolen and falsely accused and taken advantage of
And you have great losses in your life, loved ones die, you suffer setbacks
You often are a better person to just basically empathize with other people
God can use those negative experiences in your life to help other people when they go through suffering
When they go through problems, when they go through negative experiences
And so we might think of like how could God use this negative thing that's happened in my life
Well it helps you to empathize with other people, it helps build your character
It helps build your patience, it helps you to not be prideful
You know me personally, you know when it comes to like finances
Most of my life, pretty much everything that I ever did
You know growing up in my early 20s, financially speaking just always went well
Just like almost every decision I made, every real estate decision
Just jobs, everything was just going well and I just made money
And I just kept making more money and I was just doing well
And then just like I had this giant fiasco when I hired a contractor from hell
Literally, not literally but almost it felt like it
And this guy just ripped me off for just pretty much all the money I'd ever saved my entire life
And it kind of just, it really helped humble me
Because I recognized like hey you could work super hard and do all the right things
And just have everything taken away from you at almost no fault of your own in some ways
You know you could just have these come through, break, steal
I've had different times where I was working on a side project
Where I was working for a company and building them all this stuff
And I had this partner I didn't know
And this guy ripped us off or was trying to rip us off for tens of thousands of dollars
And you know just shady people doing shady things
Like it is, it is a evil world out there
And people will rip you off and take advantage of you
Even when you're smart, even when you're wise, even when you make good decisions
Bad things can still happen to you
And recognize hey, God's the one in control of these situations
God's the one that gives us the power to make wealth
God's the one that gives us the ability to keep our wealth
And so we shouldn't get lifted up and think like
Oh I'm just so much smarter than other people
Or I'm so much wiser than other people
I mean the guy that invented the pet rock
That was like a dumb idea but then he made a bunch of money
So sometimes the race isn't even to the swift
Or you know it's like this guy comes up with this idea
And you're thinking like well that's dumb
And then he just makes a million bucks or makes several
You know a million dollars on this weird idea
I mean there's tons of businesses out there in the world
That I'm looking at this business and I'm thinking like
How do they even make money? Who's even buying this junk?
And then you look at somebody that has a good idea
And they fail or they struggle
Or they don't do well
You know there's some businesses I look at and I'm thinking like
It makes sense why they failed
And then other ones I'm thinking like I don't know why
It's just you know time and chance happen to every single person
And at the end of the day
You know negative experiences will help you in life
Negative experiences make you a better person
If you only, if everything you ever do just
You touch turns to gold
You often will not be
As high of a character individual
As someone that goes through a lot of suffering, a lot of pain
A lot of difficulty, a lot of problems
They typically are going to have more character
Or more integrity in general
So that's what the Bible is saying
It's better to go to the house of mourning
Than to go to the house of feasting
You hang out with people that are just rich
And have always been rich
And everything's going well with them
Usually they're very low character individuals
Whereas you go around people that have suffered setbacks
And losses and problems
And had heartaches and woes
Often they'll be the more compassionate, kind type of people
They're usually going to have more integrity, generally speaking
Obviously there can be exceptions on both of these equations
I'm not saying that
But what I am saying is the Bible is ringing true
That, boy, you're around people that have gone through a lot of heartache
Usually they're a better character, a better individual
Than the person that just lived a life of just fancy and fortune and fun
And just had no problems
That's why a lot of these children of celebrities
Children of rich people
End up just being some of the worst people imaginable
Like Hunter Biden
Talk about just a total train wreck of a person
Well, number one is Dad's wicked
But then again you just live a life where
Everything's just kind of handed to you
You're just given all this stuff
Often you just kind of
It's very easy to go down a really bad road
And become just a rotten person as a result
Whereas other individuals that have grown up in poverty
Maybe their parents didn't have much money
Often they're going to have a lot more character
Than someone that grew up, you know, in this rich environment
Or just having everything they could ever want
So again, we should not be upset about negative circumstances
Don't get bitter about the suffering that God puts you through
But rather say, "Hey, this is an opportunity
That God's given me to become a better person"
A lot of people have to fail over and over and over
Before they get things right
And you know, maybe God wants you to do that
So that when you actually get on top of the mountain
You actually know what it took to get there
You have the character to handle that situation
Now that you've arrived
You know, I always look back and I think
Man, I think God taught me a lot of important lessons
That you can't put a price tag on
You know, money can come and go
But having character, having integrity, having wisdom
Is way more important than having money
And maybe God sometimes wants to put you through setbacks
So that when He does give you money, wealth, time, wisdom, people
Whatever it is, you're able to handle that better
Because you've gone through these difficult situations
These difficult circumstances
Look at verse 3, sorrow is better than laughter
For by the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better
Again, I'm not just giving my personal opinion here
This is what the Bible says
The Bible is saying that the sorrows in your life
Will help you have a better heart than just only ever having fun
Only ever having joy, only ever having pleasure
And look, this is also tied in with Christianity in general
If you serve God, you're gonna have all kinds of persecutions, afflictions
People are gonna attack, you're gonna have low points in Christianity
But just take that as an opportunity to get better
You know, you've had a lot of difficulty, you've had a lot of problems
You have a lot of sorrow in your life
Okay, well don't get better, get better
Look at verse 5, "It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise
Than for a man to hear the song of fools"
You know, you could go anywhere in DFW this morning
To almost any other establishment
And they'll have all kinds of music on
You can hear the song of fools
Right? Even if you just go to Walmart
They're probably gonna play the song of some weirdo
Some crazy lunatic in Hollywood
That's singing you some kind of a song
I mean, now it's not Christmas anymore
So you don't have to hear that anymore
You don't have to hear Mariah Carey singing
"All I Want for Christmas" anymore
But you're gonna probably hear some other rapper
That no one's ever heard of, that nobody really cares
Just the song of celebrities, weirdos
You say, why do you call them weirdos?
Have you ever seen a CD album?
Sorry you Gen Z, you don't even know what a CD is
But they used to have these things called albums
It was a physical thing
Where they'd have a CD, even before that records
And on the cover, they'd have a picture of the band
And you'd think like, look at these weird goth freaks
That are worshipping Satan
On the cover of literally almost every album
Almost every rock album, every rap album
They just look like the most ungodly, weird, satanic people
They always have snakes on the cover, alcohol on the cover
People that are dressed inappropriately on the cover
Some kind of a 666 symbol on the cover
Just something worshipping Satan right on the cover
And yeah, oh I can't wait to go to AT&T Stadium
And hear some satanic band playing some music for me
Rather than hearing the rebuke of a wise man
Oh this guy doesn't understand that band
They're a Christian, no, no
Limp Bizkit, they're Christian, false
And again, I'm not saying that anything outside these walls is just satanic
Circles and squares are bad and you can't have any fun in your life
But let's just be honest for a moment
Most of the music that's being produced by Hollywood
And by the Jewish record labels are just filth
They're satanic nonsense, it's feminism
It's criminality that they're promoting
It's fornication and adultery that they're promoting
It's alcohol and drugs that they're promoting
It's violence that they're promoting today
And you know what?
You need to hear someone rebuke you about those sins
As opposed to just going and singing the songs of fools
I like this, I have all these albums
Okay, well, throw them away, don't get bitter and get better
Sing some song that's going to challenge your soul
That's going to maybe put you in a mood to say
Hey, I need to get better
And at the end of the day, music is kind of taken over our culture
In a lot of ways that probably did not exist in times past
I mean, in times past, people weren't walking around
With just an ability to listen to music on demand
At all times, anywhere and everywhere
And today's culture, it's like people can't even drive
For five minutes without music on in the car
You think when they were riding on their horse
They were sitting there changing the radio station?
You think every horse had XM radio or something like that?
Or they all had a Walkman or a cassette player
Or they had an iPod? Who used to have an iPod?
I used to have an iPod, yeah
Now it's just the iPhone, right?
The iPhone basically just has everything for you
You can just listen to the iPhone all day
Spotify all day, you can just listen
And half of the time you're listening to ads anyways
Which is like, who wants to listen to ads?
I hate ads, it's like the worst
Go to Daniel's Chapter 1 if you would, go to Daniel's Chapter 1
And you know, I'm not saying that all these devices are bad
Some people listen to the Bible on their devices
Some people listen to godly preaching
Sometimes people listen to audio books
And they're able to consume a lot of information quickly
I'm not against technology, I'm pro technology
But at the end of the day, we need to be careful
That what we're not doing is we're just constantly digesting fools
And their knowledge and their wisdom
We want to hear the rebuke of wise men as well
We want to make sure that we're getting a good balance
And that we're not just consuming just all of the junk of this world
And we're not listening to the rebuke of wise men
You need some sorrow in your life
You need some rebuke in your life
You need some of the word of God in your life to help you to become better
But often what sometimes you'll hear is you'll hear something like
"Oh, he made fun of my country music"
Well, yeah, because it's like lame
I mean, country music, these guys are so lame
They're like, "Oh, my wife left me and my dog left me and I'm just gonna drink a beer"
And it's like, this is lame
Like, why don't you just man up?
Why don't you just go get your wife back?
I don't really care about the dog
I mean, shoot the dog in the head if it's a bad dog, you know, get a new one, right?
Get a cat, if you need a cat, I don't care
You know, or just, hey, just get a real hobby or something like that
Look, I'm not against pets, but at the end of the day it's like
Are you gonna really cry as a grown man because you lost a dog?
It's a dog!
It was gonna die, eventually
I mean, they only live like 13, 14 years if you're lucky
I mean, you know, why am I gonna sit here and sing a song about how
No one likes me and all those, you know, poor me
You know, why don't you just change your situation?
You're the man!
If anybody's supposed to change their situation, it's supposed to be the man
And they just sit here and just, they want to feel sorry for themselves
So they just listen to the song of fools today
And chasing women and alcohol and drugs and you're honky tonk or whatever it is
And you know what, that's just a life, a debauchery that will destroy you
You know, they make the country music stars look all glamorous
But then you go into the bar where everybody's listening to country music
And it's not glamorous anymore
It looks white trash, I'll just be honest with you, okay?
You go into these bars that are playing country music, it looks white trash, it's gross
I don't want to be in there, I don't want to be around that kind of element
You know, I'm not into that
Oh, well they're white people, I don't care if they're white people
I don't like white trash either
You know, and at the end of the day, hey, ah, I can't believe you call people trash
Well you know what, when you just go into a room
Everything's bolted down to the ground
And you're drinking alcohol
And then vomiting all over yourself
And singing karaoke that sounds like trash
Why in the world would I sit here and praise you for that?
Instead of doing that, why don't you listen to a sermon, why don't you read your Bible?
Why don't you actually go home to your wife?
Maybe your wife left you because you're at the bar all day
wasting time, wasting money, wasting energy.
I mean, grown men today don't even act like men anymore.
They just want to go and watch games and play games all day.
You know who plays games? Children.
You know who wastes all their time drinking alcohol and playing games? Children.
You know, you need to grow up and become a man.
Put away the bottle.
I thought you put away the bottle when you turned two years old,
when you got weaned from your mom, but now we just have grown men.
They have to be sipping from their little bottle, Jack Daniels, all day,
acting like a toddler.
And you know what?
That's why everything's bolted down at the bar anyways,
because they all act like toddlers at the bar,
and they don't know how to function,
and they shouldn't be driving cars after they do that kind of stuff.
You know, at the end of the day, you need to hear some rebuke,
not go out and just hear garbage music and garbage ideology.
That's not making you better.
You know what country music does?
It makes you bitter.
Country music makes you bitter towards your wife.
It makes you bitter towards your dog.
It makes you bitter towards life circumstances.
It makes you bitter towards your job.
It makes you bitter towards everything.
And instead of just being so bitter about life,
why don't you just become better?
Here's a great way to become better.
Throw the country music into the trash
and get you some old-fashioned hymns.
Hey, if you want old music, get some hymns.
But you know what?
We don't need just debauchery and filth and being lame.
And look, I'm just picking on country music
because it's arguably the music that
caused me to be the most bitter.
It's like rap music is telling you to rob people
and kill people and just commit violence.
Rock music, it's kind of like white people's version of that,
right, committing violence.
It's like the black rap music,
it's like committing violence against the man
and the store and whatever.
The rock music is committing violence against your parents
and against the bully at school
and against society as a whole
and becoming postal or whatever.
But again, that's kind of what these genres
are leading towards. It's like country music,
just be bitter because you're a loser.
That's basically country music in
just a nutshell for you.
And so you know what, don't listen to this kind of stuff
on just, oh I just listened to this
like three hours a day, four hours a day,
five hours a day, and then you wonder why you're bitter.
You know, listen to the Bible. Listen to the word of God.
Don't just sit here and consume
nonsense. And those
that actually consume the Bible and read the
Bible, they're going to be way better than everybody else.
Look at Daniel chapter one, verse twenty. And in all
matters of wisdom and understanding that
the king inquired of them, he found them
ten times
better than all the magicians
and astrologers that were in all his realm. Look,
if you actually make the word of God
your habit, and you read the Bible,
and you study what it says,
and you learn, you become ten times
better than the world. The world
cannot compete with the wisdom
of God's word. And you'll just be,
you know what, you'll have a ten times better
family, you have a ten times better
just personal life, ten
times more, just everything in every
category. God's just going to add to you
and people are going to say like, "Wow, I
want what that guy has." And
you're going to be singing their country music song while they look
at you, and they're all mad, and they're all bitter.
But I'm telling you, the word of God
is going to give you success in your life. Go to Proverbs chapter
8. Ecclesiastes 9 says this,
"Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
but one sinner destroyeth much good."
Here's another problem,
is you could spend decades,
you could spend two decades
of your life dedicated to the things of God,
working on improving your life,
and then just a few
moments of your life destroy all of it.
I mean, you could just, you could just invest
hours and years
into your marriage. You could just marry
the right person, and you take her on
all the anniversaries and all the
dates, and you just, you'll hang out
all the time, and you have kid
after kid, and you're paying just thousands
and thousands and hundreds of thousands
of dollars to raise these kids
and to buy a house and to create a family.
And then just one day,
you decide to be an idiot, and you listen
to country music, and you go to the bar,
and you commit adultery, and you
ruin all of it in just one moment.
For being an idiot, you
at work decide to form a
relationship with someone that you shouldn't
at work, and you go down the wrong path,
and you just destroy all of it, and throw all
of it away. You know, and it's so
easy to build, I'm sorry,
it's so easy to destroy things, it's not
easy to build. You could build a great city.
You know, Detroit was not built overnight,
but boy, it's been decimated
very easily, very quickly.
You know, you can ruin things very
fast. You know, I was, I saw a video
this morning, it was the Mall of America,
and it was just like hundreds
of Somali immigrants just
running all over the place,
just throwing stuff and committing
violence and just, and I'm just thinking
like, wow, how much time and
effort and energy took to construct the Mall of
America? And then in about five minutes,
no one wants to go there. And just like five
minutes, you can just pretty much destroy
the environment, destroy the culture, people
don't want to walk in there, nobody wants to be around
that kind of nonsense. And look,
the mall security is not
going to be able to handle a hordes
of just random,
just barbaric immigrants,
Muslim immigrants just running amok,
just doing their weird
chipping out all over the place.
No one wants to be in the zoo.
There's a glass wall for a reason.
And at the end of the day,
it's so easy to destroy things,
it's hard to build things.
Easy to criticize, it's easy to
just, you know, knock something down.
And you know, in your life, let me tell you something,
that's why it's so important to stay away from sin,
because you could be building towards something
for so long, and then just one sin
will destroy you, like drugs.
Let me tell you something, kids, don't even do drugs
one time, because you could be in a
church like ours for years,
reading so much Bible, studying so much
Bible, being around the right people,
and then just one day, just one
time, you get around the wrong people and you decide, I'm just gonna
try meth one time. I'm just gonna try
crack cocaine one time. I'm just gonna
try marijuana one time. And then you're
gonna get hooked for life.
And let me tell you something, now drugs work.
Drugs work to where every
single thought every day
is about that drug. Where food
doesn't taste good anymore.
Where there's no pleasure in life.
Where there's no reason to live until you get that drug.
And that's what a drug addict is like.
You think why in the world would someone be standing
on the street corner just
tattered and just wearing like no good clothes
and just, just, just
You want to go to the liberal cities with me? We'll go
downtown. We'll just see people just doing
this. And you're thinking like who would want to do that
for their life? It's because they got that little
bit of drug and now it's destroyed
their brain for life.
And they are hooked on that stuff for
life. You know how many times you should try drugs?
Never. Oh, I just
want to try it and see what it's like. Never
do it. There's so many things you should never
try. Like murder. That's not
something you should just try. Okay?
Don't try alcohol. Don't try
drugs. Don't try any of it.
You should just never even go down that road.
It just takes one moment to destroy
everything. Just stay away from it.
You know, wisdom is the thing that you need to
get. You need to hear the rebuke. Oh, I heard
this rap song and it sounded cool. It looked fun.
I saw this movie where they did it. It's a
movie. They're not really doing the drugs
in the movie. Well, they might actually. I don't know, but
I mean, at the end of the day, it's still a movie. It's
still fake. Many celebrities are killing
themselves through drugs and overdosing
and they hate their lives and
you know, Kurt Cobain
kills himself through
drug usage and whatever. Self
harm. I mean, there's so many celebrities
and musicians constantly killing
themselves through drugs and
alcohol. That is not the life that you want
to live. People are just like, "Yeah, I got addicted
to fentanyl and then I invented
SpaceX." It's like, no.
No, people aren't just getting addicted
to drugs and then just becoming these
brilliant inventors or these
hardworking businessmen. No,
people that are hardworking businessmen
later get into drugs and then it destroys
their business. That's what actually happens.
Or the children of these people
get into drugs and they destroy their lives
or drag everybody down with them.
You need wisdom. Proverbs 8, look at
verse 11. "For wisdom is better than
rubies and all the things
that may be desired are not to be compared to
it." People this morning say, "I just need
money." No, no, no, you need wisdom. You don't
need money. Money will destroy you. Many people
that win the lottery destroy themselves
because they don't have the wisdom to handle
that kind of money. Look, and I'm not saying
that anybody really does. We probably
all in our carnal nature
would struggle if any of us
were given a lot of money. I saw someone
this week or recently
won $1.8 billion
in the lottery. That's insane.
That's insane kind of money.
But, I mean, look, if you won
that kind of money, your life would be so
different and probably not in many good ways.
Number one, the stress of figuring out
how to even manage that kind of money
would consume almost all of your thoughts.
And look, who wants to spend
all their day just worrying about money?
Worrying about where you're going to spend it
and how you're going to deal with it.
Almost everybody in your life from now on
will not be a very sincere person
and they will not treat you well.
You know what they'll treat you? They'll flatter you.
People correcting you will immediately stop.
Think about it, if you won 1.8 billion dollars,
if all of a sudden Brother Sam
has 1.8 billion dollars,
no one's going to come up to him and say anything negative.
In fact, many people in this church
that don't even know Sam are going to be like,
"Hey buddy, oh hey oh pal, what's going on?"
Right?
His whole family, they'll change on a dime.
Any kind of problems he had,
it's immediately forgiven, it's immediately fixed.
But here's the thing, it wasn't immediately fixed,
it wasn't immediately forgiven. It's fake.
People think like, "Oh, I just need money."
Money can destroy your life.
You know, some people, and I'm not
suggesting this, some people could win
that kind of money and their spouse will divorce them immediately.
Just because they want the paycheck and they want to leave.
The only thing keeping your wife with you
is because you're poor. Like the blessing
of being poor. She's like
there's no reason for me to leave. I'm not going to get any money
out of this. Or vice
versa. You might be
stuck with your spouse because you're poor.
And look, I'm not saying that
if you get money you should leave. You should never leave.
I am saying this though. Adding
money to your life may not help you.
You know what will add value to your life? Wisdom.
Going to church, reading the Bible.
Your life will get better through church, not through money.
You can't compare the two.
They're not comparable. Look at Proverbs
chapter 12. Look at Proverbs chapter 12.
You know, it's just better in general
to be of a low status,
to have humility,
to gain wisdom, to hear rebuke,
receive correction in your life.
You need to be a person that's constantly
receiving correction. You say, "How do I receive correction?"
Well, if you read your Bible, it'll correct you.
If you go to church, it'll correct you. If you're around
real friends, real
friends will correct you. Real
friends. Hey, children, you know who you need to listen
to? Your parents. Because your parents
will correct you. Your parents will tell you that you're
doing things that are wrong. And you know what? You need
it. You need lots of correction in your life.
Hey, at work, you should receive
correction from your boss and welcome
correction from your boss and hope that
they'll constantly give you correction. It's a bad
day when they stop correcting you.
Because you know why a boss stops correcting you?
Because he wants to fire you. Because he's
done investing in you.
It's so much effort and energy
to correct people and tell them that they're wrong
that when a boss stops doing
that for you, it's almost a warning sign
like he's just done investing in you.
He's done dealing with you. You're more of a liability
than someone he wants to put effort
and energy into. You know when a pastor
stops correcting the congregation,
he doesn't want to invest in the congregation.
He's just there for money
and for flattery or for other
reasons. Because you know he's afraid of
pushing people away. You know, I just want you
to be better. Whether you stay or leave,
I just want you to be a better version of yourself.
So I might as well just preach whatever the Bible says.
And you know what? When people stop
correcting you, it's a dangerous path
to be on. You want correction.
The Bible says in Proverbs 12, 9,
"He that is despised and hath a servant
is better than he that honors
himself and lacketh bread."
You know, some people just want to be loved
in this world. But you know what the Bible says?
It's better to just have everybody hate
you and have a servant than to be
someone that's constantly praising
themselves but doesn't have anybody
to follow. So it's like, it's better to have
you know, a 200 person church
with an employee and everybody hates
me than to be Mr. Awesome
and have this tiny church that nobody
cares about and you have nothing.
And at the end of the day, you know, you can't
win everybody over. And business
and your family and life.
You know, you just need
to be sincere and genuine and
just, hey, correct people.
And at the end of the day, that's better
than just constantly praising yourself,
honoring himself. What is that?
He didn't receive correction. He's prideful.
He's lifting himself up.
We need the humility. We need the correction.
We need to become better.
And even if that correction comes at your own expense,
like, oh, people aren't going to like me because of the correction,
okay, well, it doesn't matter.
It's better to be despised and have
sincere, genuine people in your life
than to constantly praise yourself because
nobody wants to be around a braggart.
Nobody wants to be around someone that's constantly honoring themselves.
Only fake people
that are there to take advantage of you
will surround you when you honor
yourself. Why do people put up
with prideful people? Because they're popular
or have money. If someone is prideful and
they're not popular and they don't have money,
no one is their friend. It's called homeless people.
You go around and look, I'm telling you
homeless people are some of those prideful people
I've ever met in my entire life. And look
I went to a homeless
addiction and recovery center for years
and preached to them regularly
and I'm telling you they are some of the most stiff
neck individuals I've ever met.
They cannot receive correction
they're smarter than everybody in the room
they're better than everybody in the room
no one can, like they're not humble
they don't want help, they don't
want instruction. And it's like
why does nobody want to be their friend? Cause they're poor
and not popular. But it's like why do people
put up with celebrities? It's not
cause they're cool to hang out with. It's cause they
have money or popularity and they're just trying to take
advantage of them. And those people are too
stupid to realize that nobody actually
likes them. Nobody's actually
necessarily their friend because they're a prideful
person. People don't like to be around
prideful people. And look,
if you're a prideful person and people
are around you, it's because they're trying to take
advantage of you or rip you off or
try to get something from you. Because nobody
wants to be around prideful people.
We all can't stand prideful people.
Prideful people irritate the fire
out of us. We want to be around people that are humble
and willing to receive correction.
I want you to go to Proverbs 16.
I'm just going to read a few verses. I'm going to rattle off a few verses.
The Bible says it's better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in man. It's better to trust
in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.
The Bible says the law of thy mouth is better unto me
than thousands of gold and silver. The Bible says
for a day in thy courts is better
than a thousand. I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell
in the tents of wickedness. The Bible
says a little that a righteous man
hath is better than the riches of
many wicked. So point one is this, that we need
correction. But point two is this,
we need contentment in our lives.
And we need to be content with such things as we have.
Contentment, I looked it up in the dictionary,
it's a state of peaceful happiness
or being
satisfied. Just being satisfied.
And I kind of think of it this
way, is that being content
is being thankful for what
you have, who you are, whatever
is in your possession, as opposed
to being un-thankful
for what you have. Or wanting
something else and it causes
you to be mad at the people
that have it, or envious of the people
that have it. There's some different ways that we can
look at this, but in general,
when you don't appreciate what you do have,
and you feel like I'm only going to be
satisfied, I'm only going to be happy
when I get this other thing
or I'm different
or I have some circumstance
different in my life,
that is basically not being content.
Being content is saying, hey,
it doesn't matter if I get this or not, I'm
still going to just be happy anyways.
And some people just live their lives not
happy. They're thinking like, well, as soon as I get
this house, I'll be happy. As soon as I
get this spouse, I'll be happy.
As soon as I lose this weight, I'll be happy.
As soon as I get this money, I'll be happy.
As soon as I get this job, I'll be happy.
As soon as I turn this age,
I'll be happy. Look, there are children out there today
that are thinking like, I'm not going to be happy
until I turn 16 so I can drive.
Some kids are thinking I'm not going to be
happy until I turn 18 and I don't
have to listen to my parents. You know what? That's
a rotten attitude. You know you should just be
content with whoever you are.
You should be content with whoever your parents are.
You should be content with the body that God gave you.
You should be content with the wife God gave you.
You should be content with the money God gave you.
You should be content with the job that God gave you. You need to be
content. And you know what? It's better to have just
a little bit and have some integrity than to have
great riches in this world anyways.
Having possessions is not what this life is about.
Having contentment is way
more important. And having integrity
is really, really important. What does the Bible say in
chapter 16 verse 19?
"Better it is to be of a humble spirit
with the lowly than to
divide the spoil
with the proud." What is it saying?
It's saying, hey, it's better to be in a small
church around godly people
than to be in the suite
in the box suite at the Cowboys
game hanging out with a bunch of thugs and
rappers. Hanging out with celebrities.
Hanging out with the rich.
You know what? Many people think like, oh man,
I wouldn't miss that for the world. If someone said
you want to go to church this morning or do you want to go to
the box suite and watch the Cowboys play a
game that doesn't matter because they always got eliminated from
the, from the playoffs anyways.
I can't wait to go watch them.
I can't wait to watch play a game. I can't
wait to go drink some poison. I can't wait to just go
hang out with people that don't care about me at all whatsoever.
As opposed to being around people that actually care
about me. But what does the Bible say? It's better to be
of a humble spirit with the lowly than
to divide the spoil with
the proud. Proverbs 19.
Proverbs 19. Some people think
that their life would be better if they had more money.
That is not necessarily true. Look
obviously being in abject poverty is
not a blessing. Obviously
just being completely without
is not necessarily that great. Obviously
money answers all things. So I'm
not saying that hey, let's all become
homeless and live under
some bridge somewhere
in downtown Dallas. But at the end of the
day, you know what? Being rich isn't going to
make your life better. Having all this spoil
isn't going to make your life better necessarily.
And the Bible saying that's not our goal
in life anyways. Our goal in life
should be to have integrity, to be content
with what God's given us, to fear God
and to keep His commandments. The Bible says in Proverbs
19 verse 22, "The desire of a man
is his kindness, and
a poor man is better than a liar."
You know, in order to make a lot
of money or to be very rich, sometimes you have to
just be a liar. Sometimes you just have to lie.
I mean, some of the best salesmen are just liars.
You know, you could go to work, and you
could be around people that are making more
money than you, because they lie to the
customer. What does the Bible say? A poor man
is better than him. Hey, you could just start
some business, and you could
have chicken nuggets on the
menu, and it's like, what's in them? Chicken.
It's 100% chicken.
Or you could actually
serve good food. And it's like, hey,
it's better to be that man than the liar.
It's just better in general to just be
an honest person than to just be
a liar. You know what?
I would way rather have my children
be poor and honest than be
some rich liar. When they come
home and they got the slick
car, they're in their nice little cyber
truck, and they got the fancy phone and the
fancy suit, but they're a liar.
As opposed to the guy coming in blue collar
clothes, he's just an honest plumber,
just living an honest life. Hey, I would
way rather my kids be honest and
love God than be some lying
rich piece of dung. You know what?
Money is not what this life is about.
It's having some integrity and having some
character. Proverbs chapter 28, go to
Proverbs chapter 28. But you know,
many people, they don't even get the
money and they're still like the rich person.
They're just a jerk. They get bitter. Instead
of just realizing, hey, I should be content with the job
that I have, they become a prideful
blue collar worker. They just
become bitter in life. They're like, oh man,
I wish I had all this money. Well, if you had all
that money, you'd just be even more prideful than you already are.
You know, why don't you just work on just being a better
person? Because at the end of the day, we're all
here. Nobody really cares. Nobody's sitting here with like
a net worth number above their head or something.
We're not like, "Man, I can't wait to see this person
because of the net worth over their head." Who cares?
You know what we want? We want to talk about someone that's
honest, humble, that's not a liar, that's genuine,
that's sincere, that wants to correct us.
You know, who cares about money?
You can't take it with you. Hey, your bank account in heaven
from a carnal perspective is zero, just like all of us.
It's all about what you did spiritually.
You can't take any of the possessions with you.
You can't take any of your stuff with you.
In the Bible, it says in Proverbs 28 verse 6,
"Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness
than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich."
Go through to 1 Timothy 6, 1 Timothy 6.
Look, most people, their goal in life is just to get more money.
And at the end of the day, we have to make money.
I work very hard at my job. I try to provide as much as I possibly can.
But you know what? We need to have boundaries where we say,
"I'm not going to sacrifice my spiritual condition for money.
I'm going to seek God first.
Number two, I'm not willing to sacrifice His righteousness
because the Bible says to seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
So I also don't want to make money by being a liar.
I also don't want to make money by taking advantage of people,
ripping people off, or doing something that doesn't go along with God's Word.
We need to make sure that we're staying within His boundaries.
And we need to have contentment no matter where we're at.
Some of the happiest times in my marriage and in our family
family was when we made the least amount of money. I can look back through time
and I can think like hey what was like the lowest point in our you know
financial situation and that was some of the happiest times in our life and in
our marriage. I don't look back and think like oh man it was really rough back
then. Now admittedly we didn't have six kids either so maybe that's why I'm
painting it with such a beautiful picture but I'm just saying like man it
was fun it was nice you don't have to have money to have fun you don't have
to have money to enjoy your life and you know you don't have to have money to
serve God praise God you don't have to have anything to serve God and that's
the most important thing but some people they just spend their whole lives just
bitter because they don't have they don't have the money that they want they
don't have the job that they want they don't have the house that they want they
don't have the car that they want I mean think about Gen Z Gen Z sitting over
here being told to be bitter that it's not the 1950s and it's like the
propaganda I see online about this isn't is insane it's like they act like if
you had two nickels you could buy a mansion in the 1950s or something and
it's just like no it wasn't that great okay it wasn't like you know what they
try to paint this picture as at the end of the day I'm not saying that at
different times there hasn't been better economic situations but look the 70s
weren't that great either there's been ebbs and flows obviously we could always
just pick like let's just cherry pick a specific time in history where it seemed
to be the most prosperous financially well you don't live there you don't
live at that time why can't you be content living in 2025 America I mean you
have drones you have AI you have iPhones at your disposal you have airplanes we
could travel virtually anywhere I mean you have so many things that they didn't
have in the 1950s I mean especially you women back then they didn't have just
every device and every appliance they had to still wash many things by hand
they had to get down on their knees they usually had one car they didn't have all
the conveniences that they have today I mean you can sit here and just
fantasize about the 1950s but you know what they still had problems too they
still had difficulties too we have so many conveniences today we have so many
opportunities we live in such an awesome time I mean we're getting so many people
saved we have so many cool missions trips coming up I mean there's so much
to be excited about and so many people are just they're bitter but it's not the
1950s look if we transported you back in the 1950s it's not like women were
gonna jump in your lap and say marry me either and frankly speaking I'm almost
convinced some single guys even if they did that they would still be like oh
yucky you know it's like I don't know what it would take okay maybe you should
look inward and don't get better get better don't get better get better don't
think like oh it's not the 1950s oh we don't have this paradise where just
there's just all these women that just are so godly and want to get married I
mean ever heard of the 1960s they followed the 1950s it was not a bright
spot in humanity and the women were whores I mean you want to talk about a
whoreish time in America 1960s oh go back to the 1920s the Flapper Girls you
want to talk about all the the craziest nonsense happening 1920s I wish we could
go back to the roaring 20s yeah where you have gangs and mafias controlling
all the cities we have Jewish mafias in Chicago just killing whoever they will I
mean they came from the Bolshevik Revolution over in Chicago and still ran
all of the casinos and all the the drinking and the gambling Houston was a
huge place Galveston specifically was a huge place for gambling and
prostitution and just mafia and I mean you don't even worry about this you think
like oh man I don't want to go into a store where some some hoodlums might
come in okay well we could go back into Chicago and you'd have a bunch of
Italian mob boss guys walk in and just shoot the place up and they had
automatic weapons most people weren't even caring most people didn't have a
chance to defend themselves but you can just think and romanticize the past as
much as you want why don't you just be content with today why don't you just be
content with what things you have right now oh I just wish I had more money or a
different time or a different wife or look all of that is just lies from the
devil the grass is always greener on the other side and many times the things
that you're fantasizing about wanting if you had them you wouldn't want it
either 1st Timothy chapter 6 look at verse number 6 but godliness with
contentment is great gain we're brought nothing into this world and is certain
we can carry nothing out and having food and raiment let us be there with content
look you have so much more than you started when you came out of your mom's
womb all you were was a bill you were debt you were a doctor's bill you were a
diaper bill you were a whatever food bill clothing bill all you did was cost
your parents money and you were a little terrorist about it too anytime you
didn't get what you wanted you screamed and cried until you got it like you
have way more clothes money food all that kind of stuff than you did when you
started why can't you be content with what God has given you right now oh I
don't have as much as Elon Musk no one does he's the richest man in the world
look you don't want to trade places with him number one he's not saved okay let's
just think about Elon Musk's life for half a second and I don't know a lot I
just know a little bit on the stat sheet let's just think about it for a second
okay number one he's not saved he's autistic he's from South Africa he has
like ten kids with all kinds of different women some of the women are
these just like liberal disgusting Satanist freaks he had a he had a child
with some Jewish woman that's trying to rip him off and sue him for all kinds of
money he says he spends like 70 80 hours a week working he sleeps at his work
most of the time most leftists and all kinds of radical Democrats want to kill
him every second anywhere he goes in public he has to be surrounded by a
horde of security so that he's not just shot and killed by some crazy weirdo
freak there's all kinds of crazy weirdo freaks constantly just damaging Tesla
trucks and SpaceX and all kinds of different things he has all kinds of
government officials and politicians trying to use him take advantage of him
rip him off he has no real meaningful relationship he doesn't have an actual
wife with a real meaningful relationship one of his kids is a tranny that hates
his guts and wishes his own dad would die you want I mean oh I just can't wait
to switch lives with Elon Musk who wants that who wants to live that kind of a
life where he's just basically a cog in the machine just just the only thing he
really gets out of satisfaction of his life seems to be just working just
working and building and creating he has this stupid idea that he thinks we can
actually terraform Mars it's like how about terraform Africa first I mean have
you ever thought about that it's like if you think you could terraform Mars why
wouldn't you terraform Africa Africa is this giant continent that is resource
rich Mars doesn't even have resources it's like why would you want to go all
the way to Mars to terraform it when you could just terraform parts of the world
build a build a city on the water it'd be more realistic than building this you
know they talked about building one of the ideas he had I thought was actually
kind of a cool is it's like building underground tunnel systems in major
cities to reduce the traffic overhead because they're talking about congestion
or whatever and they're saying man we could build these giant tunnel systems
underneath so you can just drive across you know major metropolitan areas in
these big tunnels or whatever and it would just reduce the congestion of
traffic on the streets it would just create where you could travel fast
across different areas I'm thinking like that sounds kind of cool I mean think
about it if you guys have an opportunity on Wednesday night to drive from one
side of DFW to the other and just like 30 minutes because you go in the
underground tunnel highway you'd be like that's kind of a cool like that I would
like that I mean why don't why don't you those kind of ideas because he's not
saved and he has weird ideas so he's trapped in this mindset of like let's
terraform Mars it's like dude this is such a bad idea is this there's too much
Star Trek too much science fiction that you've been that you've been reading
that you've gotten taken off into a bad direction you know people that aren't
saved they get sucked into all kinds of dumb ideas go back to Proverbs I'm gonna
go to Proverbs chapter 15 like the love of money is the root of all evil and
let me tell you some all the richest people are evil I mean I don't know the
exception they all have a lot of evil in their life Oh Leon Musk is such a great
guy oh the guy that dresses up like Baphomet I mean look if you just looked
at this guy on paper he's not that great and look the rest of them are probably
worse I mean Bill Gates a lot of these individuals obviously you know the
secret wealth club the Rothschilds and all the secret bankers or whatever
they're super evil super wicked people that are trying to get rich are evil
people so you don't want to ever get this attitude you don't ever get this
bug in your mind or you think like I just want to get rich why because if you
want to get rich then you're gonna have to lie steal cheat and forsake God to do
it that's not that's not what we should we should be striving for and often the
reality is no one in this room could even achieve it anyways and all you'll
end up doing is being bitter your entire life because you probably won't be rich
you probably won't be even less you probably won't be Warren Buffett and even
if you could acquire it it's not worth it but I see so many people they just
they're so bitter they're like they just can't stay in their job they can't stay
in their house they can't stand their bank account look at you don't have to
have money to be guilty of 1st Timothy chapter 6 it's not even saying like
rich people are bad you know what it's saying it's people that want to be rich
or bad there's many poor people homeless people that want to be rich it is a
disease of the mind that will destroy you why because they're just so bitter
about who they were that they didn't want to live their actual life and now
they're gonna destroy what they actually had you should be content with what you
have and you know this bug can easily planted in every woman's mind and when
we think about Eve Eve is sitting in the garden and she's being tempted by the
devil with something she doesn't have and she just desires that wisdom she
desires that fruit and she wants to take it and you know it's gonna destroy her
it's gonna destroy all of mankind you know as my wife you need to just be
content with whatever situation you have be content with whatever husband you
have you know why does the Bible say in Proverbs 15 16 better is little with the
fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble there with look at verse 17
better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred there
with the Bible saying it's better just have salad for dinner than to have steak
and everybody be mad at each other verse chapter 17 verse 1 better is a dry
morsel and quietness therewith than a house full of sacrifices right it's
saying it's better to have bread with no butter and oil it's just dry bread but
everybody's you know quiet then you just be basically full of just the best food
and everybody's mad fighting attacking each other look at Proverbs 21 verse 9
it is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman
in a white house I like how the Bible paints this picture because notice that
this brawling woman she's not even happy in a white house why because you like
think like oh I'll be nice when he gets me the nice house I'll be kind when I
have the good food I'll actually be a happy and content person when I get here
none of the Bible say even when you have the big fancy house you can just still
be just a total witch she's like man like why are you like this it's because
you have a problem because you just can't be content with what you have you
can go find some woman in a trailer park home and she's happy and ear-to-ear and
kind and you can go find some woman that lives on Rodeo Drive that lives in San
Diego that lives in South Lake Carroll and boy she is so unpleasant to be
around you'd rather just go hide in the attic you'd rather not even be around
her you know what being around a nice woman has nothing to do with how much
money they have and look I'm not saying if a woman has money she's gonna be like
this and I'm not saying woman that doesn't have money won't be like this
it's not about the money it's about what's your attitude are you a kind
generous person are you content with what you have or you always wishing for
more I wish I had this purse I wish I had these shoes I wish I had this and
that I mean oh it's Christmas I didn't get what I wanted well tough you need
some rebuke probably oh I you know my husband didn't turn out to be the the
lottery ticket I wanted it was a dud sorry that's the lottery ticket you got
you know at the end of the day hey you have a husband that's taking you to
church you don't have a dud you have a stud you have a husband that corrects you
you have a real winner oh we don't tons of money well maybe he's just keeping
you a better person maybe God's is helping you be a better person because
you've got a White House maybe you just start fighting with him more you fight
about money you'd fight about all kinds of different things you know sometimes
just not having money just humbles you and just makes you have a better
character and you have lots of money more problems more money more problems
right I know you listen that rap music or whatever look at verse 19 it is
better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and an angry woman
it's saying guys don't even want to come home when they're just around a woman
that's constantly fighting you said like why is she fighting she's just not content oh I'm just I
don't want to have to make the meals or I don't want to have to be the wife or I
don't want to have to be subservient or I don't want to have to serve my husband
or I don't want to have to raise the kids or I don't want to have to do this
you know you look at feminism and it's all about them not wanting to have to
serve other people you really look at feminism is just being selfish it's like
I don't want to have to cook I don't have to clean I don't have to take care
of the kids I don't have to tell my husband yes sir I don't want to just do
whatever he wants I don't want to just live on a budget if he gives me a budget
it's never enough I mean how many wives and I'm not asking for raise of hands
how many wives their husbands said hey here's your budget for the month they
said that's too much I don't need that much can we reduce it please that never
happens it's like I guess what to live on this how am I supposed to spend I
can't do this that's not contentment look at Proverbs 25 or 24 and then what
they do they get bitter think about how many women today they especially young
women they go out and whore themselves repeatedly and then no one wants to be
with them no one's to marry them and then they just keep getting bitter and
bitter and bitter like maybe just accept your reality of who you are humble
yourself get right with God you know Raab the harlot was still taken as a
wife at some point she obviously humbled herself and came back to the things of
God and look I'm not saying that if you're just a whore a literal prostitute
that tons of guys are gonna want to marry you but I'm just saying like a
woman that got right with God and starts serving the Lord and has a humble heart
she could be you know taken in by men of God potentially but you know what they
don't want some girl that's just gonna be you know ungodly ill-content just
needing all the possessions of this life I mean there's a lot of famous
prostitutes that have like turned to Christianity and men have have wifed
them up or taking them on I mean it's not like they can't turn around but in
the day they have to humble themselves and they have to be content with who they
are and content with whatever their circumstances are now women that have
ruined their lives and and just cause there's so many mistakes in their past
they're thinking like I still want a six-five guy that's you know gonna love
me and just put me first and have all this money and be rich but this is like
you're not that kind of girl and you know what some of the single guys maybe
need to be content with who you are and and find a humble wife and not think
like you know where's the Hollywood celebrity that's a new ib wife or
something it's like doesn't exist okay maybe you need to humble yourself and
just say hey I'm just gonna find the Bible says it's better to marry than to
burn just humble yourself or if you say hey I want a better option then make
yourself better improve yourself Proverbs 25 verse 24 though it says it
is better to dwell in the corner of a house top than with a brawling woman in
the White House you know you think like oh man I just want my wife to look a
certain way how about act a certain way you know instead of being so worried
about what the woman looks like you know what does she act like that's way more
important you're gonna deal with that so much more you know we want women that
are content that's what men really want go to Philippians 2 I'm just gonna kind
of finish I have one other point but I'm not gonna really belabor it I'm just
gonna explain it the last one you really need is charity if you struggle with
bitterness you need charity and what is charity it's it's caring about other
people and not yourself at the end of the day you know if you struggle with
being bitter on a regular basis you need to just say I need to be corrected and
receive all the kinds of wisdom and humility in your life you need to become
content with whatever you have thank God for what you have you know we sing that
song like count your blessings that will bring you contentment in your life say
thanks God for this husband thanks God for this wife thanks God for these
children thank God for my house thank God for whatever food I get to have you
know we're supposed to pray a prayer of thanksgiving every time we have a meal
you know you should be thankful for what God's given you and what God's blessed
you with and you know at the end of the day if you really struggle with
bitterness just start blessing other people helping other people you know the
Bible says let no man seek his own but every man another's wealth the Bible
says in Philippians 2 verse 3 look there look not let nothing be done through
strife or vainglory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than
themselves look not every man on his own things but every man also in the things
of others the Bible says charity suffereth long and is kind charity envyeth
not at the end of the day the reason why most people are bitter is because they're
envying something that they don't have they wish they had a different spouse or
a different car or a different house or a different position or a different life
or different circumstance and they just get bitter about it as opposed to just
getting better let's let's apply this to a few things what about finances well if
you're not content with your finances or your financial situation you know at
the end of the day you need to recognize there's a lot of people worse than you
probably and you came in this world at a net at a net negative so you're already
doing well so you have to find contentment somehow but at the end of the
day you know start thinking about all things you do have and just thanking
God for them thanks for this car thanks for this job thanks for my boss thanks
for whatever but look there's nothing wrong with receiving correction and
working harder if you want to improve your financial situation you want to
make sure you're not being a liar that that's not your goal in life and at the
end of the day if you're struggling in finances this might seem counterintuitive
but I think this is what the Bible teaches if you're not content with the
money you know you need to do you need to give more money away you have more
charity it's more blessed to give than to receive you find somebody that's
less fortunate than you and give it to them it'll probably actually change your
attitude and you'll be like you know what I don't really care about having
money anymore I mean the poor widow woman gave all the money she had many
people give and sacrifice then they end up becoming more content with what they
have don't don't sit here and just be bitter about not having the money oh I
don't like this person they have more money than me this person has a better
job than me this person has a better car whatever who cares go find someone that's
something worse than you and go give them something and I'll make you feel
better in life because you know what you're cut you're always looking up
instead of looking down if you're always just like I don't have I don't have I
don't have as opposed to like here you go here you go here you go it'll change
your attitude it'll change your life and you become better instead of bitter and
look if you become some of this constant looking dad down God will bring you up
and if you're constantly looking up God will just keep pushing you further down
the way up is usually down anyways just be more charitable another area that we
can think about is church you know as a church we want to make sure that we're
receiving correction you need to go to a church that you're gonna be hearing hard
preaching where you're gonna be challenged to become a better person and
you know churches need to become content as well as a church we need to be
content with the members that we have we need to be content with the area that
we're in we need to be content with the building that God's given us we need to
be content with the works that we can accomplish because there could be this
bug you consider they like I wish we had their building oh I saw I saw this
church had this special fun event when are we gonna get it look that I can do
not we've had so many events and do so many things but then people still be
like I thought it's this one church had like a friend Thanksgiving at church or
something it was so cool looking or they had this awesome photo booth or or they
had this cool event that we didn't get or whatever and it's just like okay don't
be like that you know why don't you be content with what you have oh well if I
lived in California's perfect weather all day every day yeah you also have
Gavin Newsom as your governor it's not all roses over there and look if you
want to move move oh San Diego so nice yeah to rent a cheap apartment six
thousand dollars a month have fun have fun raising a new IP family in San
Diego and affording that look and I'm not if you can't go for it I'm not I'm
not gonna fight you but at the end of the day you know everybody wants to sit
here and just cherry pick like the best thing of something and they don't take
the whole package and then they're just not content it's like start being
content with the church you have oh I wish my pastor was this pastor just love
your pastor whatever church you go to just love your pastor be content with
whatever pastor you have it be saved if he has the King James Bible you know we
need to bless other people and we need to have charity we need to do soul
winning it really this church needs to think way more about other people than
ourselves because we have it great at the end of the day we need to put all
our effort let's go to the Philippines and I'll show you people that are
impoverished I'll show you people that have less than we do let's go to Mexico
I'll show you people that are impoverished let's go to Fiji I'll show you houses with
zero furniture like I don't like my my chair they don't even have a chair I
don't like my bed I don't like my rug well they have one rug it's the rug it's
like welcome to my rug like I'll show you what it's like and look you go on a
missions trip with me to Fiji and you see that you come home you really like
your house you go into the impoverished areas of the Philippines where they
don't have running water the same way they don't have the hot shower at your
disposal they don't have the tankless water heater we have endless hot water
they don't have the fancy bathrooms in the fancy kitchen a fancy refrigeration
and they don't have just a Tom thumb on every corner and a Walgreens on every
corner like I'm telling you you come back and you're just like wow we live in
like a paradise wow we live you go anywhere else and you come back and
you're like man the food in Texas is amazing I'm just telling you Texas is an
awesome place you can get really bitter though I live in Texas is expensive yeah
because it's awesome let's go to California I'll show you it's really
expensive because Seattle's really expensive and it rains all the time and
it's depressing you can always have it worse and you know you're gonna reap
what you sow you I want to go to a church where they're not gonna preach you
know hard doctrines and they're not gonna challenge me okay well if the
pastor preaches lazy sermons and doctrineally false sermons you know
what you're gonna end up having a church full of dumb people who don't care
about doctrine pastors just stop emphasizing soul winning you're gonna
reap members who are apathetic and not zealous for the things of God pastors
who don't preach hard against sin you're gonna have churches filled with
backslidden individuals who don't take sin seriously and they won't change tons
of people in the first Corinthians five list in the building I don't be around
that look and you know the pastor tolerates his members railing on other
pastors and other people he's gonna totally tolerate it against you too do
you really want to go to a church filled with liars and railers because they'll
do that to you they'll take advantage of you oh I don't like how we have so much
drama yeah but it also keeps our church nice and clean I like it I like having a
clean church you know if you're not content with your marriage you need to
receive correction and you work on it how about come to the free marriage
workshop and work on your marriage hey how about you just be thankful to God
for the spouse that you have and at the end of the day this is what most people
they're not content with their marriage in one area what they're receiving why
don't you just give you can only control one aspect of your marriage it's how
much you bless your spouse why don't you go a whole year and instead of worrying
about what you're getting in your marriage just worry about what you're
giving in your marriage okay I'm gonna only concern myself with what I'm
what I'm gonna give this person not what I'm receiving and look I'm not saying
take this to such an extreme you never communicate your needs to your spouse
what I am saying is that if you just focus your effort and energy on just
being the best spouse that you can be and then come back to me next year and
tell me if your marriage is better or worse but the one of most people they
just get better and this is what's so stupid I hate this I just hate this I
watch so many people they get fat lazy and stupid and divorced and then as soon
as they get divorced they start working out reading books and working on
themselves and you're sitting here thinking like why didn't you try that
when you were married it's like and of course if they were good on a date or
something which you shouldn't do they're gonna be nice to that person kind and
flattering and whatever and the best version of themselves it's like why don't
you try that marriage why don't you try dating your spouse again why don't you
try working on yourself why don't you try improving yourself you're like oh man
I'm not content with my husband okay how about this never complain have food on
the table ready as soon as he comes home the his favorite meals have the house
perfect and tidy have all the kids chores done oh man I'm gonna get this
done wake up early wake up early work out get all the school done make a
really nice meal have the house really clean be ready to be there present with
him ask him whatever he wants to do every time he asks something you just
tell him directly don't play the games like I don't really want that but you do
want it and then it come back to me like oh is my marriage better or worse it's
like women don't want to do that they don't want to put in the effort they
want to put in the energy they just like they just think like I just wanted to be
better and men the same way hey you can put a lot of effort energy into your
relationship just do that love your wife be kind be gentle think about her spend
time with her talk to her every day you know what women want they just want
someone to talk to them and hang out with them and think about them and care
about them and put effort and energy like if both parties were doing this
you're gonna tell me they have a bad marriage if the husband's coming home on
time putting time and effort talking to his wife hanging out with his wife
taking her out on dates thinking about her being treating her with kindness and
she's just got the house clean meals on the table telling him whatever he wants
they're both doing the duty of marriage all the time they're gonna have so much
fun but what happens well he didn't come home on time so I'm gonna get better
well I came home and it was kind of a like a like a mini riot and it's just
like and he gets bitter and he goes and hides or something and again like women
have all kinds of emotions and they get postpartum and they get pregnant and
they're just a woman so just like but you know what you're supposed to not be
bitter against them husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them
wake up every day and be kind don't just think like I am man obey me why are you
crying don't cry like this doesn't work okay none of the work you know what be
kind be gracious be compassionate marriage is great two are better than
one but at the end of the day you know what why don't you just put a lot of
cherry in your relationship don't get bitter get better at marriage I don't
like where my marriage is at okay don't get bitter about it get better and how
about your body well you know what just work out more and eat healthier take
some correction be glad and who you are no matter what and how about this how
about you just use your body for other people and then you'll be a lot more
happy with your body if you're just if you're just only using your body just
take selfies and post them online you probably will never be that content but
if you take your body and use your little legs and you go out and preach
the gospel you'll be a lot more happy with your body spend your spend your
life on other people I want to go one verse first Peter 3 this sermons long
well don't get bitter get better okay it's like one of those you know I only
have like two one more sermon this year okay you can endure it first Peter
chapter 3 I want to go to the church where there's shorter sermons well then
you won't be as good like I'm using a lot of Bible here and I'm trying to
challenge you know I always try to make goals every year and and sometimes my
goals I accomplish sometimes I don't and that's okay you can't it can't be
perfect but I don't want to get bitter about it I just want to get better goals
that I still want to achieve that I didn't do instead of just getting bitter
about it for whatever reason I didn't accomplish it I'm just gonna get better
at it you know as a pastor I have a lot of goals for our church honestly we've
done great as a church but even if we do have setbacks even if we have
difficulties I want us to work really hard at not getting bitter and just
getting better we could have dramas next year we could have the church split
people can leave people can stab you in the back this is the year it steadfast
but you know what instead of getting bitter about it let's just keep getting
better let's keep improving and let's try to do what's right what does the
Bible say in verse Peter 3 verse 15 but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and
be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of
the hope that is in you with meekness and fear having a good conscience that
whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers they may be ashamed that
falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ for it is better if the will of
God be so then you suffer for well-doing than for evil instead of
suffering next year for being bitter why don't you suffer for being better and
look if you serve God you will have persecution it's not like you're not
gonna have problems you know I'd rather suffer for being better than being
bitter and you know what spend next year on the things that are making you better
or not the things that are causing to be bitter we all have bad spots we all have
low spots we all have issues that we don't like or things that we could be
upset about figure a way to get content and pour out charity on other people and
just work on becoming a better version of yourself that's all you can do we
can't change a lot of things about ourselves as far as our circumstances
and who we are and whatever and what God's given us but we can become better
versions of ourselves and I want to challenge every one of you don't think
about man I can't wait my spouse to get better you get better I can't wait for
anybody else to get better you get better let's work on ourselves and let's
not allow ourselves to fall victim of becoming bitter let's go and pray in
prayer thank you any father so much for all that you've given us thank you for
this church thank you for this building thank you for this congregation thank
you for all the missions trips and all the hard work that we were able to put
in to soul winning this year thank you for all the baptisms thank you for all
the awesome church services and the conferences and the friendships and and
thank you for giving us a state that we can live in where it's receptive soul
winning thank you for giving us an area that we can have so much prosperity
along with serving God I pray that we would find a way to be content with the
things that you've given us we'll be thankful for what you've given us I pray
that you would help us to continue to receive correction through the Word of
God that you'd help us to strive to be better and not allow bitterness in our
lives and I pray that this church would be a church known for its charity that
we would look on another's wealth that we care about other people that we
esteem other better than ourselves that we would go out into the highways and
hedges and we preach the gospel I pray that we'd find people that are less
fortunate than us and that we give them the gospel that we try to give them
wisdom I pray that you would bless next year's works and and the events and the
conferences and the marriages and all the works that we do and I pray that you
would give us a zeal and an energy to work and to become better versions of
ourselves in Jesus name we pray amen amen our last song this morning page
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