morning everybody and welcome to steadfast Baptist great to see everybody here this morning.
If we can go ahead and find our seats we will get started with the singing this morning.
We've all found our seats let's grab a hymnal together the song number 203.
So much we just thank you so much for this church thank you so much for all things you've
given us Lord.
It's a wonderful morning to sing unto you we just ask that you help us lift up our voices
and everything that we say and do this morning and it's in Jesus name we pray for our next
songs go on in your hymnal song number one pretty easy to find this I can song number
is church have a Bible memory passage we're working on Jude chapter one and we're on verse
thirteen any children that can quote the verse of the week can get a special prize at our
Wednesday midweek service on the inside we have our service and soul winning times down
below is our church stats and then on the left list or on the right hand side is several
expecting ladies please be in prayer for them also upcoming events this evening we're going
to have our semi-annual business meeting all members are highly encouraged to attend we
have a soul winning marathon coming up in a couple weeks Saturday July 19th and that's
going to be a meeting here at the building so we're just going to meet here at 9am go
send out around 10am like usual and Lancaster is honestly not too far from here it's probably
about a 20 minute drive or so so it's it's honestly not too bad and we're really looking
forward to this opportunity even though it's pretty close it's just an area that we really
haven't done much soul winning in yet and so it's it's kind of an untapped area where
i think it's going to it looks receptive and it's just an area we haven't been to so i
think it'll be a really good opportunity if you've never been soul winning this is probably
one of the best opportunities you're going to get just because it's right here in our
neck of the woods should be pretty receptive type soul winning will feed you a couple times
even if you are intimidated in talking you can just be a silent partner just get paired
up with other people that are experienced and really all you have to do is just keep
your heart beating i mean that's pretty much all you have to do is just show up and so
but of course we do want to encourage people to learn how to give the gospel and if you
want to you can pay attention to your partner and their presentation it can kind of help
you have the courage and the boldness to preach like we should be able to preach also down
below is a couple other events bowling night July 19th we already have the venue and time
set up we'll probably put that in our group chat all teams are invited to participate
if you have a friend or family member that wants to participate you can always you can
always bring them with you not even that far along is going to be the August 1 as well
so we have kind of a team night once every month this this summer and our August 9th
is going to be an adventure park it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun as well
our men's retreat August 14 through the 16th FBBF conference can be August 27 through the
31st and we've got a lot of things going on for that we did have a signup sheet we're
just trying to get a general idea of who is participating if you haven't please look at
that if you're for some reason missing on the list just add your name on there and we'll
make sure to have updated we just kind of want to have a general idea of like what how
many people were kind of expecting just because unfortunately we don't have a lot of extra
space but we're going to cram everybody in here so I'm really looking forward to it I've
heard a lot of people are coming to our conference and so it's going to be a lot of fun we have
a lot of activities we have a kids spelling bee I put a kids spelling word list on our
website so if you go to sbckjv.com and you just go to the events there is a PDF link
that you can just click on right there in the in the links for the spelling bee competition
and it has age group distinctions we have like three different age groups that we do
the spelling bee for and then also we have some some other activities a couple family
friendly activities throughout the week we have a men's event in the evening we have
football men's football that we're going to do on Saturday and then we're also doing
a pickleball tournament and the thing about the pickleball tournament is you know it's
such an easy sport that literally everyone can play so that's kind of the reason why
we're doing it is it's try to encourage people that just want to do something we've already
booked a place that we're going to do it it's indoors but it is going to be late night
so just kind of keep that in mind if you want to participate you can we'll probably just
make a bracket where we will make a bracket for men's there's like four different competitions
like men's there's mixed there's women's and then there's youth and you just have to sign
up by Wednesday night of the conference with your partner and so we can create all of our
brackets and everything like that but we'll have a challenge we'll have the brackets kind
of on Thursday Friday and Saturday night depending on if you stay in the competition those are
kind of like how it will work but there'll be some prizes for first place it's honestly
just a lot of it's a lot of fun even if you're not that experienced you're probably already
good at pickleball because everyone's good at pickleball because it's so easy and it's
just that's again I'm just telling you it's like that's why it's so popular I mean it's
like one of those popular things ever I mean if boomers can do it you can do it okay and
so boomers love this thing it's the new hot thing and so we're just leaning into that
all right now if you want to like be a really rough and tough guy you play football too
okay so that's where you get in and we have another fun activity I don't want to say exactly
what it is but there's another men's activity that we're going to be doing it's a lot of
fun so we have lots of different things going on for the conference preachers every single
night I'm really excited about our conference I just pray that things would go smoothly
and we also will probably need some extra volunteers for things like cleaning and stuff
like that I'll try to get that information out hopefully maybe the next week or so so
that way everybody can prepare but I'm really looking forward to that event we have our
missions trip to Mexico City September 8th through the 12th brother Diego is helping
lead this and so if you have any questions you can ask him email us we'd love to get
you those details it's it's you got to you know pay your way out there but brother Diego's
been helping with some like lodging and logistics also you got to be able to speak Spanish pretty
much because you're going to be dropped in the middle of somewhere where they don't speak
English for the most part I'm sure you'll find somebody in Mexico City that speaks English
but for the most part you pretty much need to speak Spanish enough to give the gospel
if you want to actually get people saved and so see brother Diego about that Mexico City
is gonna be an awesome trip I think it's like almost a whole week and it's like 20 million
plus people or something like that I mean Mexico City is giant and so I think it's gonna
be a big fruitful harvest we have other events that aren't listed here but major ones probably
just the Bahamas missions trip October 6th the 11th I continue to announce that and people
keep signing up for it so it's gonna be a lot of fun to go out there again so winning
stats reporting reminder down below brother fur was telling me people are doing a really
good job putting in their soul winning statistics but occasionally we get like some data that's
just maybe not formatted the best and so just as like a little reminder when you're putting
stuff in our soul winning chat group please make sure you just list the soul winning partners
first and last name just because we have like so many Jared's and whatever and so like sometimes
it gets a little confusing also if you'd include a location if you do a special event so sometimes
we just don't like special events or do like Shreveport or something just kind of like
indicate that and then also if you get someone saved and even if they're not saved but you
just get someone's email address that's interested in our preaching or anything like that you
can just drop it into the soul winning chat group whenever you want, if it's Spanish only
please just indicate to say like Spanish only and then just put their email address but
I ask that for anybody whether they're saved or like before I talk to them or they get
saved after I talk to them you know if you talk to somebody say hey we have a lot of
preaching would you like it and we could sign them up for our preaching email list and
things like that it's a great way to just continue to connect with people.
When we get people's email address brother fur is always sending them a welcome email
and it's got some of our documentaries it's got kind of just like a little bit of an opener
to them so that's kind of what happens they get that I would say like probably 90 some
percent of the time I'm able to get someone's email address after I get them saved obviously
if it's a young child or something like that sometimes they may not have it but for the
most part most people have email most people let you have their email and you can give
that to them and it's kind of a nice way to just do a little bit of that's your follow
up program all right so you get their email and then we can email them and contact them.
On the back we have our prayer list continue to pray for our church family if you have
a different if you have an update to your prayer request please email us so that way
we can keep our list pretty fresh and then also if you have additional prayer requests
just email them in and put prayer request at the top if it is ever private just please
indicate otherwise we just assume it's a public prayer request and that's pretty much all
I have as far as announcements we're going to go ahead and sing our psalm of the week
psalm 67 psalm 67 open your bibles to the book Hebrews chapter 13 that is
Hebrews chapter number 13 strangers for thereby some have entertained angels
unawares remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them which
suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body marriage is honorable
in all and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will
judge let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such
things as he have for he hath said and will never leave thee nor forsake thee
so that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man
shall do unto me remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken
unto you the word of God whose faith follow considering the end of their
conversation Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever be not
carried about with diverse and strange doctrines for it is a good thing that
the heart be established with grace not with meats which have not profited them
that have occupied therein we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat
which serve the tabernacle for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is
brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the
camp wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood
suffered without the gate let us go forth therefore unto him without the
camp bearing his reproach for here have we no continuing city but we seek one
to come by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name but to do
good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well
pleased obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they
watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with
joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you pray for us for we
trust we have a good conscience and all things willing to live honestly but I
beseech you the rather to do this that I may be restored to you the sooner now
the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great
shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you
perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well
pleasing at his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever
amen and I beseech you brethren suffer the word of exhortation for I have
written a letter under you in few words know ye that our brother Timothy is set
at liberty with whom if he comes shortly I will see you salute all them that have
the rule over you and all the Saints they have Italy salute you grace be with
you all amen let's power heads for a word of prayer father in heaven I pray
Lord God that you bless the sermon this morning and fill pastor Shelley with
your Holy Spirit just help him to preach the sermon with
boldness and clarity of mind and Lord God enable us to apply it to our lives
and listen closely to the message you've laid on the pastor's heart we love you
and in Jesus name I pray amen then Hebrews chapter 13 is ending with a lot
of just general instruction general wisdom and in verse 15 the Bible says
by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually
that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name here in verse 15 it
says by him therefore talking about the Lord Jesus Christ talking about what
Jesus has done for us because of what he's done for us and because he's given
us reconciliation to God the Father then let us offer the sacrifice of praise to
God continually and then it explicitly tells us what the sacrifice of praise is
it says that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name those are
important aspect of Hebrews because the entire book of Hebrews is trying to
explain to those that were Hebrews those that were the Jews how the
sacrificial system has evolved and how it's changed and how the Old Testament
is wax old and has done away with now we're in the New Testament and the
sacrificial system has been done away there's no more offering of the oxen and
the bullocks and the sheep and the goats and all the different birds and there
was a lot of physical sacrifices animal sacrifices done in the Old Testament and
in the New Testament we don't have any of that because the Lord Jesus Christ is
the Lamb slain and we have a spiritual sacrifice through the offering of Jesus
Christ of himself yet God still wants us to offer him continual sacrifices and
the Bible is telling us those sacrifices are sacrifices of praise with our lips
unto God and so the top of my sermon this morning is this just praise God
continually we need to be people that are praising God continually and the
Bible emphasizes this point this is probably if there was any commandment
that the Bible brings up the most I personally think it is just to praise
God I mean there's a lot of commandments brought up in the Bible there's a lot
of things the Bible emphasizes but to me if we're just gonna take the Bible as a
whole and we said what's just the most common instruction the most common
thing brought up in the Bible is just simply praising God and it's a shame how
the vast majority of our world does not praise God at all we see even Christians
today most of their lives is not spent praising God and it's kind of a shame
and embarrassment considering how amazing our God is and all the things
that God has done for us yet people are not praising him very much and we should
be different we should be those who are praising God continually now the Bible
brings us up in many contexts as far as how where and what we're praising him
for and I want to show you go back to chapter 2 for a moment the Bible really
emphasizes this point and God really wants us to do something he wants us to
praise him in a specific location and that specific location is church the
Bible brings this up often Hebrews chapter 2 look at verse 12 saying I will
declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church will I sing
praise unto thee now again church means congregation congregation means church
both of these mean assembly and what church is is saved people getting
together and gathering together and one of the functions one of the most
important functions of church according the Bible is for us to lift up our
voices and for us to sing and to praise Jesus among the brethren God wants us to
come together and have a concert for God a concert for the Lord Jesus Christ
where we are singing praises and we are praising God and we are thanking God and
we are blessing God and we are singing about God and that's what God really
wants us to do you know people that are forsaking church are forsaking the
worship and the praise of God that's what they're really forsaking because God
wants us to come together and I love this person's attitude saying I will
declare thy name unto my brethren he's not saying like maybe hope so I don't
know what to do on Sunday morning he said no no no I will praise the Lord no
I will praise his name no I will do it amongst the brethren and you know what
we need people to have an attitude today that say you know what I am going to
church church is where I'm gonna go and when I go to church I'm gonna open my
mouth and I'm gonna praise God like I ought to praise him you know what we
keep all the lights on we do songs that are pretty easy we do songs that are
about God and you know what that's why I love the hymns that's why I love the
Psalms is because we're here to praise God it's not about glorification of
self it's not a bunch of just mindless lyrics that people don't know what
they're saying and it's also not just gibberish like the Pentecostals would do
but no we sing what the Bible says we sing the doctrines of the Bible and in
some cases we just sing the Bible because we're singing the Psalms
literally and God wants us to do this in a specific location it's called church
now go through to Psalm 22 go back to Psalm 22 and we're gonna see this as
being quoted here in Hebrews chapter 2 from the book of Psalms now Psalms is a
book dedicated to music to God it's the largest book in the Bible so the number
one commandment I mean you could correct me if I'm wrong but in my mind
the number one commandment in the Bible is to praise God or some variation there
of bless the Lord honor him praise him thank him all of these I'm clumping
together in the same idea if you look up all those mentions I mean we're seeing
hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of mentions and commandments for you to
do that then the largest book in the entire Bible is dedicated to singing
praises unto God and as all the doctrines virtually of the Bible found
in the book of Psalms so we're supposed to sing all the doctrines of the Bible
and we're supposed to sing praises unto God and this is such an important
emphasis in the Bible it's sad today because really you know all the
doctrines that we believe that people might get mad at we could find the book
of Psalms and yet churches today they get mad about these things but they
should be singing them and if they were singing them they would have a lot
harder time getting mad at us for believing them and we need to praise God
for his word the book of Psalms is so magnificent that not only is it a psalm
book we can just read it and it's amazing just the doctrines of it is
amazing but again it's emphasizing the exact same point because while I said
there was a transition in the book of Hebrews there was never a point in time
where we weren't supposed to constantly praise God with our lips and there
wasn't a time in the Old Testament where you weren't supposed to gather
together and what we would still call church in a sense and praise God. In the
Old Testament they were still supposed to gather they were still supposed to
assemble and they were supposed to sing praises unto God. Psalm 22 look at verse
22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the
congregation will I praise thee so we're supposed to gather together and we're
supposed to praise God and we're supposed to declare the name of Jesus
Christ verse 23 ye that fear the Lord praise him all ye the seed of Jacob
glorify him and fear him all ye the seed of Israel now here's the thing we are
the seed of Israel we are the Israel of God we are those who actually fear him
and we're the ones that supposed to get together and we're supposed to sing
we're supposed to glorify we're supposed to fear him verse 24 for he hath not
despised nor abhorred the afflicted affliction of the afflicted neither
have he hid his face from him but when he cried on him he heard my praise shall
be of thee in the great congregation I will pay my vows before them that fear
him the meek shall eat and be satisfied they shall praise the Lord that seek
him your heart shall live forever now why should you praise God here's one of
the reasons why you should praise him is because you have eternal life why should
I praise God every single day because he's gonna give you every single day
you will live forever and because we live forever because we have eternal
life we should be praising God every single day that we have because it's
another gift from God no one was promised tomorrow no one was promised a
future but when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ we got that inheritance we
got that hope we got that promise of salvation and so now we can know for
sure hey I do have eternal life you don't get born promised with the
tomorrow you have to be born again to get the promise of tomorrow and the
promise of tomorrow comes to the hope of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and
when you believe on him you get saved and you have eternal life therefore we
ought to praise him every day what does it say at the end of this your heart
shall live forever God wants us to praise him out of our hearts and he gave
us eternal life so that we could constantly praise him and we need to
start right now why are in the great congregation go through to Psalm 35 and
I'm gonna go to a lot of places in the Bible we're gonna constantly come back
to Psalms I have three simple points that I want to just categorize my sermon
in this morning and when we talk about praising God I think there's a few
different ways we can praise him a few different vehicles a few different
formats number one is that we praise him through the Psalms which would just be
singing praises unto God and that's what I think most of us think of I believe
we can also praise him through our prayer and we can also praise him through
our preaching and I want to emphasize here first the Psalms we should praise
God through Psalms singing and making melody unto God and we need to do this
in church Psalm 35 look verse 18 I will give thee thanks notice this in the
great congregation I will praise thee among much people you know put that in
your small church mindset and smack it I mean yeah I'm not against small churches
I love small churches I love church plants I love people that are trying to
do some work for God but let me tell you something I don't think that we should
have this mindset of like we have to have a small church in order to be right
with God in fact the Bible even says explicitly right here I will praise thee
among much people and you know what there's plenty of examples in the Bible
where churches grew and there are biblical churches you could look at the
church in Acts and they added 3,000 souls in one day that's a pretty big
church in fact that would be in the top 5% of churches in America right now with
our population being way larger than at that time in history at that time in
history they don't have near the world population that we have today if you
understand population statistics I think it wasn't even until the last 100 years
or so that we even had a billion as the total population in the world it's like
in the last hundred two hundred years that we eclipsed a billion and then it
exploded to 8 billion as we see today back then it's like hundreds of millions
of people yet they have a church of 3,000 pretty much overnight let alone
how many more people they may have added and may have accumulated over that
period of time and so there's nothing wrong with having thousands of people
in church obviously we don't want to grow through compromise we don't want
to go grow through carnal means but at the end of the day you know what there's
nothing wrong with growing and there's nothing wrong with having a big church
but if you have a big church you better be praising God and you better show up
at church and praise God because that's the commandment go to Ephesians chapter
number five go to Ephesians chapter number five I will give thee thanks in
the great congregation you know don't show up at church and and don't sing
that's kind of disrespectful it's disrespectful to show up at the church
that Jesus Christ purchased with his own blood as the Bible says and then you're
not even willing to say thank you to God and you know there's some magic that
happens when we all sing that we can't hear your terrible singing anyways like
I don't get it but it's like when you have a bunch of people singing it just
sounds good and if you were just singing well most of us don't sound that great
you know it's just kind of unfortunately most people just don't sound like awesome
by themselves but for some reason when we're just kind of all singing together
it sounds really good and if you sing more you'll probably get better most of
the time people just get a little bit better over time just like anything the
more you walk the better you are walking the more you run the better you aren't
running the more you sing the better you're gonna be at singing and we need
to exercise that and hey the better you the more you give thanks to God the
better you get at giving thanks to God the more praise you're giving to God but
this is another commandment in the New Testament explicitly saying this Ephesians
5 18 and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit
speaking yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making
melody in your heart to the Lord giving thanks always for all things into God
and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ you know a lot of people
drink alcohol to affect their attitude to affect their mindset maybe they're
drowning their sorrows and alcohol you know what if you just praise God hey he
could actually change your mind and heart too but for the good for the
positive instead of going and drowning your sorrows in some Jack Daniels or
Captain Morgan why don't you actually praise God for eternal life and what
he's done for you and maybe he'll help you get over your sorrows maybe he'll
get you over your pain I mean we were singing one of the songs today I think
it was a one you can open your him knows if you want I think it was Jesus I my
cross have taken and I want to I didn't I didn't think about this until I was
like reading it or whatever doesn't it say that you're gonna be driven into
man's or driven into the breast of the Lord yeah man may trouble and distress
me, 12, but drive me to thy breast." Hey, man's gonna stress you out, man's gonna
disappoint you, man's gonna cause you problems, but you know what? It should drive you to
the house of God, it should drive you to the bosom of the Lord Jesus Christ, it should
drive you to praise God and thank Him, and you know what? That can overcome whatever
problems and difficulties you have. Don't go to alcohol, don't go to drugs, don't go
to the things of this world, go to the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell you something,
people that are showing up at church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, belting
out the hymns, typically are not the people coming up to me and saying, "Oh man, my life's
so terrible and I'm so depressed and I'm so upset and I'm so angry." No, it's the people
that are backslidden, not going to church, not singing the praises to God, because there's
something that changes in your attitude when you start singing. It doesn't matter what
song. If you start singing hip hop and rap and thug music, you start feeling like you
want to be a criminal. You start singing country music and you just want to be an idiot
that just gets drunk and lives a loser lifestyle. You sing anything and it just kind of affects
your attitude, affects your mind. You start singing love songs, it can kind of make you
feel dopey and kind of make you feel sentimental and make you feel emotional. There's a reason
why music exists. There's a reason why when you watch a movie, they play specific music
in the background to drive whatever emotional state they want you to have. They want you
to feel scared. They'll put on some kind of eerie music, some kind of dark sounding music
to give you that kind of an emotion. They want you to feel happy. They'll kind of play
some light, joyful song or music in the background to make you feel kind of light and joyful.
And here's the thing. You want more joy in your life? Sing the Psalms. Sing the hymns.
I mean, they have a lot of joy. They have a lot of cheerfulness. Things bring you up,
helping you through sorrow. I mean, how many people would say, "You know what? I was sorrowful
and I decided to sing a bunch of hymns to see how it would affect me." As opposed to
saying, "You know what? I was kind of sorrowful so I just drank some alcohol. I just drank
a beer. I went and watched TV. I went and took some drug." That's not going to solve
your problem. You know what? That's not the right way to do it. Why does the Bible contrast
being drunk with wine as opposed to being filled with the Spirit? Notice, maybe you're
just not filled with the Spirit. What fills you with the Spirit? Not only reading the
Word of God, singing the Word of God and singing praises unto God and giving thanks always
for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know,
in this hymnal that we have, there's different themes. And if you look at the very back,
you'll notice there's like two different ways to look up information. One is just basically
an index alphabetically. It's a general index and you just find it. But right before that,
it has a different way to look up music and it's categorized by theme. It's a thematic
categorization of our songs. And one of the sections is called praise. And it's just saying,
hey, these are hymns that we sing to praise God. That's like the emphasis. That's what's
major, like the major importance of this. And some of these, I mean, I just love some
of these. If you want to, you can look, I want to look at, I will praise him 166 in
the hymnal. And I mean, we come here and we sing this. Why? Because we're supposed to
come here to praise God. And that's what gives us the filling of the Holy Spirit.
"When I saw the cleansing fountain open wide for all my sin, I obeyed the Spirit's wooing.
And he said, 'Will thou be clean?' I will praise him. I will praise him. Pray the lamp
for sinner slain. Give him glory, all ye people, for his blood can wash away each stain."
I love this song. And you know what? I just love this chorus. It's like, "I will praise
him. I will praise him. Pray the lamp for sinner slain." I mean, we're sitting here
praising God over and over. That's on purpose. You look at the lyrics of this particular
song. I mean, look at verse four. "Blessed be the name of Jesus. I'm so glad he took
me in. He's forgiven my transgressions. He has cleansed my heart from sin." I mean,
the name of Jesus is special. And then, of course, the last lyric, "Glory, glory to the
Father. Glory, glory to the Son. Glory, glory to the Spirit. Glory to the Three and One.
I will praise Him. I will praise Him. Praise the Lamb for sinners slain." I mean, why are
we showing up at church? It's to praise God the Father. It's to praise God the Son. It's
to praise the Holy Spirit. It's to praise Him for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's why every single day we can praise Him for the eternal life He's given us through
the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Go back to 2, if you want 2 more, 164, "Praise Him. Praise
Him." "Praise Him. Praise Him. Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O earth, His wonderful
love proclaim. Hail Him. Hail Him. Highest archangels in glory. Strength and honor. Give
to His holy name." We're not even saying just us. We're saying, "Hey, the angels need to
sing this too." And not just the angels. Notice this, "O earth." That's everybody. Hey, everybody
should be singing about Jesus. Everybody should be honoring Jesus. Everybody should
be glorifying Jesus. We should be praising God continually. You know what would make
America great? Praising God continually. That will make America great. Go to Colossians
chapter number three. Go to Colossians chapter number three. You can keep your hymnal out
if you want. I'm not done. Colossians chapter number three, look at verse 16. "Let the word
of Christ dwell in you richly at all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Now, in
Ephesians five, it says speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and
Colossians three, it's saying teaching and admonishing one another in psalms. Because
when we sing the song, we need to be thinking about it in a self-reflective perspective.
We need to be thinking about how does this apply to me and what kind of changes do I
need to make. Of course, one of the sections of the hymnal is about praise. And so what
we're doing there is we're thinking, you know what, it's not really about me. I came to
church for God. I came to church to praise God, to thank God, to bless God, to honor
God, to lift up His name and His voice and magnify the God of the Bible. That's something
that we should be thinking, hey, that's what I need to be doing. And then when I'm singing
out loud, you're hearing me, and you're not just hearing me, you're hearing everybody,
and I'm admonishing you. You need to praise God. And you're telling me I need to praise
God. And He's telling you that you need to praise God. And He's telling her that she
needs to praise God. And she's telling Him that He needs to praise God. And the children,
out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, now it's perfected praise. And the children are
telling us, hey, we need to praise God. And so we're not only speaking to ourselves, we're
admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And we're supposed to
be doing it with melody in our hearts, with joy in our hearts, with love in our hearts,
with appreciation in our hearts. But not only do we sing about praising God and just lifting
Him up, in some ways we're also kind of preaching at each other and trying to tell each other,
hey, there's some things that we need to get right. There's some things that we need to
change. There's some things that we should do differently. Of course, you know, when
it comes to just my favorite hymn in the Bible, it's to me, it's again, it's getting the right
mindset. We need to have the right mindset. And my favorite hymn is 162. We're right there.
We're pretty much close. It's "To God Be the Glory." It's a classic. It's easy. It's simple.
But man, that is just the heart of Christianity. That's the heart of the church. That should
be the heart of soul winning. That should be the heart of everything. It's "To God Be
the Glory." To God be the glory, great things He hath done. So loved He the world that He
gave us His Son, who yielded His life, an atonement for sin, and opened the life gate
that all may go in. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear His voice. Praise
the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice. O come to the Father through Jesus
the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done. Just think about how many people
can't even sing that right now. I mean, your Jew can't sing this. He's not saying to come
to the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Muslim can't sing this. And you know what?
We ended up be thundering this forth from pulpits all over America, all over this world,
and praising the name of God, and realizing it's all about God, and we're giving Him
all the glory. Our church is only great because of God. It's only great because of the King
James Bible. It's only great because of the lamb that was slain, and it's to God be the
glory. Not about man. It's not about us. It's not about what we do. It's all about God.
I want to look at another hymn because that's the right mindset. There's other aspects of
the Christian life. Go to 351. Here's one that I think is really important when it comes
to the Christian life, and a lot of people, they come to church burdened. They come to
church discouraged. They come to church upset with the world. They're disappointed with
their job. They're disappointed with their family situation. They're disappointed with
maybe their living situation. They're disappointed with maybe a physical infirmity that they
have. They're disappointed about a friendship. They have some kind of tribulation, some kind
of persecution. They have some kind of issue. They're coming and they're looking for hope.
They're looking for an answer. They're looking for some encouragement, and the Bible is
saying, "Hey, we need to all get together. We need to encourage this person because we're
admonishing one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs." And how do we help people
that are discouraged? How do we encourage people? How do we tell them to deal with their
problems? We tell them this. Tell it to Jesus. 351, "Are you weary? Are you heavy hearted?
Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Are you grieving over joys departed? Tell it to Jesus
alone. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well known. You've no
other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone." You know what I love about
this? We're telling you, stop being a murmur, stop being a complainer, and stop being a
gossip. Hey, tell it to Jesus alone, right? Hey, are you upset about something? Are you
weary? Are you tired? Are you heavy hearted? Does your heart hurt? Are you sad about something?
Did you lose a loved one? Did you get fired at work? Did something bad happen to you?
Do you have a physical infirmity that's dragging you down? Are you grieving over joys departed?
Do you have no joy? Well, you know what? Tell it to Jesus and tell it to Jesus alone.
Hey, I'm looking for some man to cure me. I can't cure you. They can't cure you. Jesus can cure you.
Tell it to Jesus and tell it to Jesus alone. Look to the cross. Look to Jesus Christ. Look to the
fact that he's sitting at the right hand of the Father. Look to the fact that you can come boldly
under the throne of grace to find help in time of need is what the Bible says. We need to be coming
to Jesus Christ and being filled with the Spirit and singing praises unto God, and you
know what?
That can help overcome your discouragement.
That can help overcome your depression.
That can help overcome your sadness.
That can overcome your difficulties and your griefs and your problems.
People are constantly coming to me with their griefs and problems and that's fine.
I will be there to help and we should bear one another's burdens, but let me tell you
something.
I'm going to encourage you to tell it to Jesus.
I'm going to encourage you to seek Jesus because that's what's going to really help.
That's the real person that's a good friend.
That's the real person that's the brother.
That's the real person that we should be seeking.
I mean, and, you know, as we keep singing this, it just has so much good encouragement
for the Christian life.
Do the tears flow down your cheeks unbidden?
I mean, have you been sobbing and crying?
Have you since that two men's eyes are hidden?
We don't need to know all your sins.
Hey, did you screw up this week?
Did you get backslidden?
Tell it to Jesus alone.
Verse 3.
Do you fear the gathering clouds of sorrow?
Are you anxious what shall be tomorrow?
Are you upset about the future?
Are you worried about something in the future?
What about this one?
Are you troubled at the thought of dying?
Maybe that's one that we need.
What if you're facing severe persecution?
What if you're facing the end times?
What if you're facing the antichrist?
Are you afraid of dying?
Tell it to Jesus alone.
That's what we should be doing.
We should be encouraging each other.
We should be exhorting one another.
Hey, tell it to Jesus.
Go to 406.
You know, people are always looking for that encouragement.
People are always looking for answers.
People are always looking for solutions.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if you want me, or if you want someone in this room to satisfy all of your needs
for friendship, all of your needs for counseling, all your needs for encouragement, all your
needs for faithfulness and being steadfast and a perfect example, you will always be
disappointed.
There's only one that we can truly look to and never be disappointed, never be forsaken,
never be deserted, never be let down, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's why we need to have the right mindset.
It's about Jesus and drawing people to Jesus.
And let me welcome you to Jesus.
He's right here.
Why is it so important that we're King James only?
Because we want Jesus with us, because we want to be comforted by Jesus, because we
need to tell it to Jesus, because we want to know who Jesus is.
And it's all about Jesus and it's all about what He gave us.
You know, we should never be apathetic about the Word of God.
We should never be apathetic about having the right translation.
We should never be apathetic about having the King James Bible, because this is the
Word of God.
We believe it without error and we trust alone in it.
This is our Jesus.
This is what guides us and leads us and who we're praising and who we're singing to and
who we're having fellowship with.
And when you don't read your Bible at all, when you don't sing your Bible at all, when
you have no fellowship with this, you're missing out on this great relationship with
Jesus.
You're missing out on the great counsel of Jesus.
You're missing out on the consolations of Jesus.
He went through suffering.
He went through sorrow.
So He can help us.
He's not, He's been touched with the feeling of our infirmities is what the Bible says.
So that He can be a great high priest.
So that He can understand, He can be empathetic and He can realize our weaknesses.
He can realize our trials.
He can have compassion.
The Bible says God is pity, pitiful.
He pities us.
He understands our difficulties and our problems and our struggles.
And He's gracious unto us and He's long-suffering and He's merciful.
And He'll give you great counsel and He'll give you great wisdom and He'll give you encouragement.
This world will constantly beat you down and we need that encouragement.
And at the end of the day, you're going to see not only people getting sad and discouraged,
you're going to see enemies come in.
You're going to see people attacking the things of God.
You're going to see people coming against the Church of God.
You're going to see people dragging themselves out of church and dragging others out there
with them.
And at the end of the day, sometimes we just have to remind ourselves who is on the Lord's
side.
Psalm 406.
Who is on the Lord's side?
Who will serve the King?
Who will be his helpers, other lives to bring?
Who will leave the world's side?
Who will face the foe?
Who is on the Lord's side?
Who for him will go?
By thy call of mercy, by thy grace divine, we are all side, Savior, we are thine.
This sounds like some steadfast Christians right here, doesn't it?
Hey, I like this attitude.
Hey, who will face the foe?
Yeah, there's enemies.
Oh, you guys are always fighting.
Well, you know what?
Who's on the Lord's side?
Oh, man, you guys don't like the world.
You're constantly bringing up sin and trying to get away from the world.
Well, who will leave the world's side?
Who's on the Lord's side, right?
Who for him will go?
That's going out and preaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, I was looking at our calendar, I feel like we've had scheduled or have planned
like almost a dozen events of soul winning marathons that we've had this year.
I mean, we've never had this many marathons and missions trips, let alone we have a soul
winning time every day of the week, even multiples.
We have times for ladies specifically.
I mean, we need to go out there and preach the gospel.
And let me tell you something, those are the people that are on the Lord's side.
You look at churches today, not emphasizing soul winning, not emphasizing soul winning
marathons, not emphasizing missions.
They're not on the Lord's side.
Whoever's on the Lord's side will go.
Show me a church that's doing a lot of soul winning, and that's somebody on the Lord's
side.
Show me a church that's criticizing soul winning, downplaying soul winning, not going soul winning,
and also you someone who's not on the Lord's side.
That's why we need to be singing this about who is on the Lord's side.
How many Christians today never go and preach the gospel.
They're not on the Lord's side.
We need to be the ones that are on the Lord's side.
Hey, we're going to serve the king.
We're here and we're his helpers.
We're on his program, to God be the glory.
It's his team.
He's the king.
He's the one in charge.
But you know what?
Someone needs to go with him.
Someone needs to serve him.
Who's going to be on his team?
Who's going to be on his side?
Why?
Not for weight of glory, nor for crown and palm.
Enter we thee.
Notice this.
Army, raise the warrior's psalm.
I like this language.
Hey, we should raise the warrior's psalm.
We are warring today.
We're supposed to war a good warfare.
We're supposed to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
We're supposed to go out there and battle.
There's so many good battling songs, and you know what?
Our church is a battling church.
Hey, we have conferences that we're going to really fire people up because this is a
real battle.
Do you realize that most militaries, especially before they go out to war, often they'll bring
in some of the most famous singers of our culture to try and like rile them up and encourage
them and they'll sing all kinds of songs to try and get them like ready for the battle
or being more patriotic or whatever it is that their agenda is, they're trying to rile
them up.
You know what?
That's what militaries really do.
I mean, it's a real thing where they'll try and encourage them through song.
I've seen even soldiers themselves, they're seeing all kinds of songs, a lot of battles
in times past, especially historic armies, they're playing the drums, they're playing
the trumpet, they're playing battle music right before the battle, during the battle,
they're trying to encourage the troops, they're going out there.
Why?
Because music has something to inspire us, music has something to get into our heart,
the warrior song.
And you know what?
Our God is a man of war is what the Bible says.
And you know what?
We go out there and we battle.
But it's funny, it's like, oh, you guys have all these enemies.
Well, how do you battle if you don't have an enemy?
And you know what?
There's a lot of enemies of soul winning and it's not just reprobates, folks.
There's other enemies, too.
There's just bad Christians.
There's even saved people that are in the flesh.
And you know what?
There's even your own flesh that you have to battle with, too.
So a lot of enemies of soul winning.
There's a lot of enemies.
And you know what?
We're here to praise God.
And we're supposed to be singing this to each other to remind ourselves why we're here.
The warrior Psalm.
It says verse four, "Fierce may be the conflict, strong may be the foe, but the king's own
army none can overthrow, round is standard raging, victory is secure, for His truth unchanging
makes the triumph sure, joyfully enlisting by thy grace divine, we are on the Lord's
side, Savior we are the Lord's."
We are the Lord's and we are supposed to be on the Lord's side and we are to go out
there joyfully enlisting and preaching the gospel and praising the God that gave us
that salvation.
You know, go if you would to Psalm 58, let's go to a few Psalms here for a moment because
people get upset about us not only being positive but you know what, even the hymns have some
grit to them.
Hey, we've got battles, we've got foes, fierce may be the conflict and some people they get
mad at our doctrine or our preaching but you know what, the Bible just explicitly tells
us that many times you just don't even understand reality, you just don't understand judgment,
you don't understand how wicked things are and you just have a warped mind and one of
the great psalms on this to me is Psalm 58 which just rattles the minds of all these
liberal love everybody weirdos which they don't love everybody, I've never even met
this person.
I was trying to think about it, I was like maybe Joel Osteen is like the most consistent
person I've ever seen being kind of an advocate for everybody but even like our quote frenemies,
it's so funny they'll be our frenemies, they'll leave and like they knew I'd be so hateful
and then they spend a whole sermon dedicated to hating us and trashing us and telling
us how bad we are and I'm thinking like I thought we were hateful, it's like everybody
hates somebody, everybody trashes somebody, everybody has their little punching bag that
they love to beat up and hit on, even the quote love is love crowd, they have their
punching bags don't they, Donald Trump or Elon Musk or just a Tesla somewhere, let's
go key it while we sing love is love and how loving we are and how wonderful we are,
but the liberal democrats they don't love anybody anyways, but let me tell you something,
everybody hates, everybody has their enemy, everybody has their punching bag, everybody
has the person that they trash and you know what, it's just a joke when people act like,
oh no we're not like you, we're not scumbags and losers and haters like you, we don't trash
people like you, you idiot fool, loser cult member, what, yeah we don't trash people like
you trash people, you're right, we trash you with the truth, you trash us by railing on
us.
That's the only difference, but let me explain something, we're both trashing each other.
Don't act like you're such a better person, oh no I don't trash people, liar, liar, and
you know what?
We need to have the right kind of judgment which comes from the Bible.
Do ye indeed speak righteousness, oh congregation do you judge uprightly, oh ye sons of men.
Hey, do you actually judge uprightly sons of men, do you actually really understand
the Bible, do you actually really understand the mind of Christ.
I love verses 10 and 11, the righteous shall rejoice when he seeeth, I'm getting this wrong,
help me for a second, I might not get it, the righteous shall rejoice when he seeeth
the vengeance, he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, so the man shall say
verily there is a reward for the righteous, verily he is a God that judges in the earth.
I mean how many people would be weirded out by you saying hey, I'm going to rejoice and
wash my feet in the blood of the wicked?
But wait a minute, do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation, do you judge uprightly, O ye
sons of men?
Do you actually judge uprightly, or is the Bible right?
Which one's right?
And you know it's kind of a dark hymn, but you know it's kind of a dark subject, isn't
it?
When it's saying stuff like break their teeth, O God, in their mouth, break out the great
teeth of the young lions, and let them melt away as waters which run continually.
Verse 8, as a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away like the untimely birth
of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
That's the Bible.
That's not Islam.
That's not Afghanistan.
That's the Word of God.
That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
I mean, you realize that God created a place called hell.
It doesn't get worse, folks.
Hell is the most unimaginable punishment, and we need to sing Psalms like this, even
if they're dark, even if we don't like them, just to get the right mindset again.
"Hey, do you actually speak righteousness? Do you actually understand judgment?"
Because, you know, it's really easy to just be like, "I'm for everybody. I like everyone."
Everyone always makes good decisions. All of our friends are good.
All of the things they say is always right.
It's really easy to just want to be like that, but you know what?
Do you really speak righteousness? Are you really right?
We always need to evaluate it with the Bible and what the Word of God says.
And don't allow your hearts and your minds to get twisted into having the wrong kind of affections,
glossing over everything. Hey, sometimes we need to judge people,
even people we like. You know, there's a kind of a special song, what I would call like special music
that I heard my wife sing. She made a CD a long time ago of like special music.
And there was this song that I had heard in it. To me, again, it's the whole point is speaking to
yourselves, right? Also admonishing one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. I was
trying to think about what this song was saying. And I doubt very many of you probably even heard
this or even know about it. But it's, it's kind of one of the chorus lines of it says,
"Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful. May the fire of our devotion light their way.
May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe. And the lives we live inspire them to
obey. Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful." And I was thinking about these lyrics and
I'm thinking like, you know, what kind of legacy are you really inspiring your children to live?
Are your children going to come behind you and find you faithful? Are your children going to
come behind you and find you in church? Are your children going to come behind you and see the fire
of your devotion, the fire-breathing Baptist fellowship? Are they going to see, hey,
my parents were zealous for the things of God and not just for a year, not for a day, not for six
months, not for eight years, but you know what? They were always zealous. They were steadfast.
They were unmovable. They were always abounding in the work of the Lord. I mean, how many Christians
today are out of church this morning and their kids realize, hey, they're going to church. Now,
Sunday morning, they're not in church. Are those that are coming behind you finding you faithful?
How many people this morning are not going to go soul-winning when they've been going soul-winning?
How many people are not going to read their Bible today when they have been reading their Bible?
And you know what? What kind of example are you leading your children down? And you know,
be really careful when you come to a church that's emphasizing the right things of God,
emphasizing Bible reading, emphasizing church, emphasizing soul-winning because your kids soaked
that in. And then when they see you not being faithful, boy, it can really change their mindset.
It can really cause some internal damage. And, you know, there's something about children.
Children just want to be like their parents. Obviously, there's always exceptions. Obviously,
we can't force our kids to do the right thing. But you know what? Why can't we be a good example,
at least? Say, "Hey, I'm going to be a good example, and then I'm going to pray that they'll
follow me. I'm going to pray that they'll be like me." Because people that get out of church
and they emphasize something else, maybe they're just going to emphasize sports now.
Well, pretty soon your kids, they'll just emphasize sports too. Well, maybe they'll just
emphasize sleeping in or watching football or going on hikes or just going to get morning coffee.
Now, we don't go to church anymore. We just go get morning coffee on Sunday and we love it.
And it's just a family tradition. And then everybody's like, "Yeah, now we just have the
family tradition of getting coffee. Or we have the family tradition of getting pancakes. Or we have
the family tradition of doing whatever, all getting on a cell phone and just looking at it and being
in the same room together." You know, if I did this long enough, y'all would start doing it too.
Because you'd be like, "That's boring. Why, is Pastor really going to say something? I better check
my phone too. Like, what is he looking at?" I mean, if you're just in the room and you're
just looking at your phone, what are your kids going to start doing? What example are you really
leading for your children? "Well, I never sing songs. I never read the Bible. I don't go to
church. I don't go soul wedding." Then why would you expect your children to? You know, you can't
really expect your children to do things that you're not even encouraging them to do that you
won't even do yourself. Are the children coming behind you? Are they going to find you faithful?
Are they going to see, "Hey, you're still in church. Hey, you're still reading the Bible. Hey,
you're still praising God. Hey, you still love God. Hey, you're still being a spiritual person."
Or you can emphasize carnal things, maybe work. Well, we used to as a family go to church three
times a week and emphasize going to church, but now I got an opportunity to get a high-paying job
or do my own business and now I'm not in church anymore. Now I'm emphasizing making money. Now
all I do is just try to just accumulate lots of wealth. And then what are the kids going to see?
Oh, I guess making money is more important than church, isn't it? Are they going to find you
faithful? What direction are you even headed in? Maybe you should just look at your life and say,
"Hey, I was going to church three times a week. Now I'm going once." And you say, "Well, it's far."
Okay, well talk to Brother Marcel about that. Guy lives in the middle of nowhere. I feel like he
tried to be as far away as possible just to show you how faithful he can be, right? And you know
what? Some people can handle it. Brother Marcel can handle it. Maybe you can't handle it. Maybe
you shouldn't live two hours away from church. I remember somebody telling me they were three to
thrive, went soul winning, loved God, and they were telling me hey I'm going to move to this place
and I'm going to be two hours and like 15 minutes from church, newly married. And I said well,
I said here's the thing, pretty soon you'll stop coming like three times a week. Pretty soon you
just drop the midweek service. And then I said once you have kids you'll miss like at least a
month or two because you know you just kind of go through that routine of just like helping out and
being there and whatever. So you'll probably miss and then you'll pretty much just stop coming very
regularly. You'll pretty much just come once every couple like maybe twice a month and then pretty
soon you just won't go to church. This person he's like well that sounds terrible I don't want to do
that. I said if you do this if you move there you will do that and you know what they did they moved
there and then they cut out the midweek and then they had a kid and they didn't come for a couple
months and they started coming sparingly and now they don't come and now it's like where are they
now i don't know you know what i do know is hey are you kids gonna come behind you and are they
gonna find you faithful you know to me church wasn't really optional when it says hey i'm
supposed to come in the great congregation and sing praise unto god you just want people to come
to your kingdom it's not my kingdom it's god's kingdom and we're here to praise god and we're
here to sing glory unto god and we're here to emphasize church and we want my children to
actually realize why church is important and look i can't force my kids to do right or be right when
they get older but you know what i can do is be a good example and encourage them to do the right
thing and what i do know is it's very very rare when you're a bad example for your kids to overcome
your bad example are they going to come behind you and find you faithful are you admonishing one
another in psalms hymns and spiritual songs are you singing songs with your children are you
encouraging them to do the right thing are you taking them out there to do the work of the lord
with you are you dragging them to church you say i don't need church well maybe your kids need
church maybe your wife needs church and let me be honest you need church too if you have that
attitude and even if you don't have that attitude you need church we all need church we all need
that constant encouragement we all need that that uplifting message from the bible go if you would
to psalm seven you know the bible says in verse chronicles 16 sing unto him sing psalms unto him
talk ye of all his wondrous works psalm 95 says let us come before his presence with thanksgiving
and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms psalm 105 sing unto him sing psalms unto him
talk ye of all his wondrous works i talked about praise hymns i believe it's also praise psalms
and i wrote music to psalm 146 7 8 9 and 50 and you know what you'll notice about all all five of
those is they have the exact same lyric to start every single one of them they all start with
praise ye the Lord. And I just thought, man, this is a great opportunity to kind of make them seem
similar and kind of like flow in together. And hey, what's the Psalms ending on? What is its
conclusion? What is this like the end? Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord,
praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord. It's just emphasizing, hey, we need to praise God.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul. Praise ye the Lord, for it is good
to sing praises unto our God. Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord, from the heavens,
praise Him in the heights. Praise ye Him, all His angels. Praise ye Him, all His hosts.
It just keeps going. Praise ye the Lord, sing unto the Lord a new song, and is praise in the
congregation of saints. What is Psalm 150? Praise ye the Lord, praise God in His sanctuary.
Praise Him in the firmament of His power. Praise Him for His mighty acts.
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet.
Praise Him with the psaltery and harp. Praise Him with the timberland dance. Praise Him with
stringed instruments and organs. Praise Him upon the loud cymbals. Praise Him upon the high sounding
cymbals. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise He the Lord. Look at verse six
again. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Let everything that hath breath praise the
Lord. Why are we in church? Because we have breath and we're supposed to praise the Lord, aren't we?
Hey isn't it great? I mean all these are pretty similar so you can just you can just look in your
Bible. In fact when I'm reading the Bible a lot of times I come across these psalms I have a hard
time not singing them. Great way to memorize them. It's a great way to lift yourself up. Hey when
you feel down why don't you praise God five times and then tell me. Psalm 7 verse 17, "I will praise
the Lord according to his righteousness and will sing praise the name of the Lord most high." You
know what? Why why is it so important that God's righteous? You know what it means to be righteous?
Doing right. Isn't it nice that God always does right? He never gyps us off. He never rips us off.
He never makes campaign promises that he doesn't deliver on. He never says, "Hey there was no Epstein
client list. Sorry." Oh no there wasn't three buildings that fell down on 9/11. Oh it's just
it was just jet fuel. Forget about the Solomon building. Oh you know we caught the guy that
shot JFK. It was random. Random acts of violence. It wasn't like he was gonna uncover a bunch of
evil secrets in our government. Isn't it nice that we have a real king that just always does right?
He doesn't like burn William Tinda at the stake for wanting to give people a bible. He doesn't
want to just cover up all kinds of drama and and just war and just pedophilia and sodomy
and just I mean they find like cocaine or something in the White House. You think if we
found cocaine in the White House we would just be like ah just don't worry about it. Oh we found
out there's a guy in our church that is committing pedophilic acts and he has a huge client list of
people in our church that he's been working with. We're not going to expose that list. I mean look
we would be taking these people to task. We would be hunting them down like a dog. Yeah I would be
checking your phone. It's so funny that I checked every single person's phone and then the last
person who was caught they're all upset about it. You know other people are and look I didn't walk
up to you and say like I'm checking your phone. I kind of was nonchalant about it right because you
would probably be like weird enough but at the end of the day it's like hey do you want a pastor
that's going to try and figure out if there's bad people in the congregation and let me tell
you something even after that that same person tried to ruin someone else's life in our church
and one of the worst ways imagined in fact many men in here might have just like beat the out of
him. I was struggling for a word. I'm not joking. Gum bag. You don't want to just let these people
just fester and just be in here. I mean do you really want our government to say like yeah there's
somebody in here smuggling drugs in the White House? Let's just not care about it. Yeah there
was somebody that was going to a pedophile island. Let's just not worry about it. Yeah there's people
in here that are double agents for Mossad or double agents for Chinese intelligence but let's
not worry about it. Let's not try to get to the bottom of it. Let's not figure out what's going
on. Yeah there's certain people in our government that yeah of course they're in bed with pharmaceutical
companies and yeah they know they're killing tons of people and lying about it and they're
getting all kinds of money from it but we're not going to worry about it. We're not going to look
at it. No no I love the God of the Bible that's always doing right and he judges in the earth.
That's the God that I like. That's the God that I worship and you know we should praise God for his
righteousness. That says hey I see what happened down there. You know what you mess with God's
people. I'll just give you a skin disease no one has ever had or ever will have. Enjoy hell buddy.
That's the God that I worship. Look at Psalm 16 verse 7. I will bless the Lord who has given me
counsel. My reigns also instruct me. You know we should not only just praise God for being right
and doing right for giving us counsel and understanding the world that we live in.
Just teaching us stuff. I have so much I don't know if I'm gonna get through it but I'm just
gonna go through really fast if you want to try and keep up. Psalm 30 verse 4. Sing unto the Lord
oh you saints of his and give thanks that the remembrance of his holiness. We're supposed to
praise God for his holiness that he's set apart. He's not like others. He's different. He's unique.
He's special. He's always righteous. He's always godly. He loves us. I love this verse 5. For his
anger endureth but for a moment and his favor his life weeping may endure for a night but joy
comes in the morning. Isn't it nice that God is so quick to forgive us and so quick to get over
things and he tries to turn our mourning our sadness into joy. Verse 10. Here oh Lord have
mercy upon me Lord be thou my helper thou has turned for me my mourning into dancing thou has
put up my sackcloth and girded me with gladness to the end that my glory may sing praise to thee
and not be silent oh Lord my God I will give thanks unto thee forever. There's so many times
we go through bad things and sadness and problems but isn't it nice that God allows us to get over
it he helps to turn our mourning into joy. There's been times when we've been sad we've been upset
we've had hard times and then God can just work in our lives and allow us to have that joy again
and allow us to get over things and allow us to be renewed and refreshed and the Bible is saying
hey whatever glory I have whatever God's given me I'm going to use that to then praise him. Hey if
you have a great visage if you have a great singing voice if you're awesome use that to praise God
with it not glorify yourself. Go to Psalm 54. I'm just going to keep reading for you. The Bible
says rejoice in the Lord oh you righteous for praise is comely for the upright. The Bible says
sing unto him a new song play skillfully with loud noise. The Bible says to sing unto him with a
psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. That's why we have a piano church of Christ. How in the
world do you sing the Psalms that's telling you and commanding you to sing with instruments?
Sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings and then they don't do it. Well
they're not saved. That's one. Sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises unto our king. Sing
praises for God is the king of all the earth. Singing praises with understanding. We don't want
to be the Pentecostals today and get up and sing nonsense and gibberish. That doesn't give glory
to God. We sing with the understanding. We want to know what we're saying. We want to understand
what we're saying and we want to mean it. There's so many songs today they're being sung that nobody
knows what they're saying. We need to be singing with understanding. Verse 54 or verse six. "I will
freely sacrifice unto thee. I will praise thy name, O Lord, for it is good, for it delivered me out of
all trouble, and mine eye hath seen his desire upon my enemies." You know, we should praise God when
we're delivered from difficulties. Go to Psalm 56 right there, verse 10. "In God will I praise his
word. In the Lord will I praise the word." You know what? We need to praise God for the King Day's Bible.
Praise God for brave men who died so that we could have a Bible in English. Wouldn't it be a shame
if we said, "Hey, the real Bible's in Latin." If you want a perfect transcription, if you want the
perfect, accurate word of God, you got to go to the Latin. That would be disappointing. How many
people in here speak Latin fluently? Yeah, zero. That's what the Catholic Church was doing. Hey,
we've got the Latin Vulgate. Learn it. And they're like, "We speak English. What are we going to do?"
Oh, brave men like William Tyndale got it translated into English so that you could have a
Bible today. And not just them. The Bible came out through that time period into all kinds of
languages, into German, into French, and all kinds of other languages all throughout the world.
Spanish was another big one where it got out there. The romance languages, the love languages,
were the most important love letter ever of the Bible. We should praise God for His word.
66 verse 8, "Oh bless our God, you people, and make the voice of His praise to be heard."
Verse 26, "Bless ye God in the congregations, even the Lord from the fountain of Israel."
Chapter 69 verse 30, "I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify Him with
thanksgiving." Psalms 71, 8, "Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honor all
the day." Psalm 92 verse 1, "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praise
unto thy name almost high." Psalm 95 verse 1, "Oh, come let us sing unto the Lord, let us make a
joyful noise under the rock of our salvation." Psalm 104, "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
into His courts with praise, be thankful unto Him and bless His name." Psalm 103, "Bless ye the Lord,
all ye His hosts, ye ministers of His that do His pleasure." Psalm 104 verse 1, "Bless the Lord,
O my soul." Psalm 107 verse 8, "O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His
wonderful works to the children of men." Verse 15, "O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness
and for His wonderful works to the children of men." Verse 21, "O that men would praise the Lord
for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men." Verse 31, "O that men would
praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men." Psalm 118,
verse 1, "O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good because His mercy endureth forever."
Psalm 145, verse 2, "Every day will I bless thee and will I praise thy name forever and ever."
"Every day will I bless thee and I will praise thy name forever and ever." Verse 21, "My mouth
shall speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless His holy name forever and ever."
Go over to Psalm 119. Go to Psalm 119. I'm not going to go to my other two points. Don't get
too nervous, all right? But we should praise God. We should thank God. We should bless God in our
prayers too for all things He's given us. Supposed to sanctify meat. The Bible talks about all the
creatures of God. It's supposed to be sanctified by the Word of God in prayer. And we should thank
God for it. Praise God for bacon. We're in the New Testament. Praise God for bacon! It's, you know,
Zionists shouldn't even be allowed to eat bacon because they just like, they want to partially
accept the New Testament but not fully embrace the New Testament. It's like, look, not only
we get bacon, we're the real children of God too. We're the real Israel. Just replace both.
Just get rid of both. Hey, just embrace bacon. And if you like other parts of the pig, I'm not
mad at you. Praise God for it. I'm just saying bacon is where it's at. Just even if that was
the only thing we got in the New Testament is worth it. Bacon. I mean, it's just, I love it.
But we should be thanking God. Like when you get it, when you have a meal and you live in America,
you should praise God for bacon. You know how many people just don't get bacon? You know how many
religions don't let you have bacon? Praise God you're not raised in a country where they refuse
to eat beef and bacon and cheeseburgers. I mean, Jews won't eat a bacon cheeseburger. You live in
India under like a Hindu regime. Many of them will not have cow products, which let me tell
you something, cow products are my favorite. They are the tuna of the land, you know what I mean?
And look, I like chicken, tuna's okay, but let me tell you something, beef's where it's at. And
look, I'm not even mad at you. You like other meats, deer meat, okay fine. You like quail,
you like rabbit, you like all this stuff, but you just aren't gonna beat steak. You're just
not gonna beat it. And hey, oh, I thought of another, I love baby back ribs though, I'll
be honest, okay. I love beef ribs, they're okay, but pork ribs, smoked correctly, are
just melt in your mouth, they're amazing. You're talking about food. I'm talking about praising
God. Look, God didn't have to make bacon. God didn't have to make, I mean, he's not
coming down here eating bacon every single day. He's not eating brisket. He's not eating
steak. He's not eating burgers. He's not eating tacos. He's not eating the hamburger. I'm
eating it. God was like, "Hey, I know what you like and I'm going to make it for you
and I'm going to put you in Texas where it's flowing with cows. It's flowing with steak
and brisket and burgers and all kinds of wonderful things that you can just enjoy." God made
that for me to enjoy and I should thank God while I eat it. I'm not in this setting that
says, "Oh man, we have to abstain from the pleasures of this life." No, no. I'm going
to praise God and enjoy it. We should praise God for the wonderful things that He's made,
the savory meats that He's made for us. I mean, look, the priests of God are just slaughtering
cattle left and right every single day and then guess what you know they're eating? Beef!
Praise God. We're the priests who are the believers, folks. We should be constantly
sacrificing our praise unto God with our lips for the meats that we're going to enjoy.
God's not like trying to withhold wonderful things from us. He wants to give us those
wonderful things. And you know what? Praise God we live in a country where we can enjoy
such delicacies. We can enjoy such things. There's so many people that don't get to
have these meals, don't get to have these pleasures. You know, you live in 2025 America
where you can pretty much have whatever you want whenever you want. Praise God for it.
I can go to the grocery store and I can have nectarines in the winter, in the summer, whenever
I want. I can have watermelon. I can have grapes. I can have grapes all year long if
I want to. I can have pineapple whenever I want. I can have apples of all sorts and all
kinds whenever I want. I can have all kinds of cuts of meat. I mean, I could have brisket,
steak, chicken if I'm, you know, feeling poor. And look, I love chicken. And one of my favorite
meals is chicken noodle soup. It's like one of the most economical meals you could ever
have. I love pinto beans too. You know what, if you slow cook some really good pinto beans
and you put a little bacon in there, okay, this is a trick, put a little bit of bacon
in there, it's delicious. Love it. My dad grew up, he had to eat pinto beans for every
meal. And it wasn't a side dish. It was the dish. He said, on Sunday, they got fried
chicken. He said, every day, Monday, you know what's for dinner? Beans. Tuesday, beans.
Wednesday, you're using the bathroom a lot. Thursday, beans. Friday, beans. Saturday, beans.
Sunday, beans. And fried chicken. Every day. Every day. You sit here and think like, oh,
my parents, you know, they don't make me all the foods that I want. Well, do you have
beans six out of seven days a week? You are spoiled. You are a spoiled brat. And you know
what? Because we're so spoiled, you know what we don't do? Say thanks. And we don't actually
really appreciate what we get. You're about to have an awesome lunch compared to what
most people have eaten for the course of history. You should say thank you about that. And you
know, we need to go out there and preach the gospel today because that's how we say thanks
to God too. And you know, it's all about God because we're praising God. When you preach
the gospel, if you're praising God, you get people saved. If you're praising your repenting
of your sins, you get no one saved. Why? We go out there and we praise God. We praise the
Lord Jesus Christ for being slain for us. This is what we do. And you know what? There's
never a bad time to do it. Psalm 119, look at verse 62. "At midnight, I will rise and
give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments." In fact, it doesn't matter whatever.
At 3 a.m. I was playing Psalm 146 on the piano because I couldn't remember how to sing it.
Because you know, it doesn't matter when. It doesn't matter what time of day. Just wake
up and sing a song to God. Just wake up and praise God. I'm stressed about tomorrow. Well
okay, sing Psalm 146. In fact, just Psalm 1 through 10, that'll help you. If you're
sad, mad, frustrated, upset, just Psalm 1 through 10 and before you even get to the
end of that, you'll feel a lot better. I'm worried about tomorrow, I'm worried
about stress, I'm worried about enemies, I'm worried about whatever. Just read
Psalm 1 through 10 and then praise God. And you know, in Acts 16, let's just go
there and we'll finish there. Say, "How long is this sermon?" Well, the Bible says, "Praise God
continually," so don't test me. I'm excited about praising God. I'm excited to come
back to church so I can do it again tonight. And then Wednesday night, and you
know what? I like a conference where I can come Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, and twice on Sunday. Actually, three times if you're Spanish speaking
because they need it, all right? They just need that extra little... And hey, you know
what? I'll be honest, the Spanish hymns are fire. I don't know, there's something
about the Spanish language. It's like, it's fuego. It's got that text mix, you
know what I mean? Act 16, look at verse 25. "And at midnight..." I feel like I remember a
psalm that said something about that. "And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and
sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them." No, they didn't. They were
like... No, no, the prisoners heard them. "To God be the glory..." They just got arrested,
falsely accused, arrested, put in jail. They're in shackles. It's midnight. They
probably can't even sleep and they said, "You know what? Let's just praise God.
Let's just sing to God be the glory. Let's just sing the Psalms. Let's just
sing the Word of God." And then you know what happens? God opens their shackles
and just brings people in to get them saved. Hey, maybe churches today, they're
looking for revival. Why don't you just praise God a little harder? And you know
what? Why don't you just go out the highways and hedges and you know what? God
will give you an increase. And let me tell you something, even when you're
being persecuted, you just praise God. And even when you can't sleep, you just
praise God. And even when you don't like it, you praise God. Even when you don't
feel good, you praise God. Why? Because you're supposed to praise God continually.
And let me tell you something, you come into the great congregation and that's
where you praise God. You need to be speaking to yourselves and we need to be
admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and making
melody in our heart unto the Lord. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father
for what you've given us. Thank you for the gospel of your son the Lord Jesus
Christ as unspeakable gift. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. Thank you
for what you've given us. Thank you for not only giving us the gospel, giving us
eternal life, never leaving us, never forsaking us, being a friend, being a
counselor, being one who's always with us, someone who can understand our
infirmities, who pities us, who has compassion on us, who gives us great food
to enjoy, a great place to live, a great church to come to, the most amazing book
of the universe, the King James Bible, to read and to sing and to understand. I
pray that we would just have a heart that realizes it's all about you. I pray
that you would help us to realize church is about you and our lives are about you
and I pray that you would help us to realize the sacrifices you really want
are coming from our lips when we praise you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Alright in closing let's go to song number 127. Song number 127 is so sweet
to trust in Jesus. Song number 127.
[singing]