Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Good morning.
Looks like everybody's ready to sing.
All right, so let's go ahead and find a hymnal, and we'll get started with song
number 364.
Thank you for being patient.
Good to see everybody here this morning.
Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If we can find a hymnal, we'll go ahead and start in 364 in the red hymnal.
Song number 364.
Standing on the promises.
Song number 364.
Standing on the promises of Christ my King.
Through eternal ages, let his praises ring.
Glory in the highest I will shout and sing.
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises that cannot fail.
In the howling storms of doubt and fear assail.
By the living Word of God I shall prevail.
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord.
Bound to him eternally by love's strong core.
Overcoming daily let us be restored.
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises I cannot fall.
Listening every moment to the Spirit's call.
Resting in my Savior as my all in all.
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God.
Great singing everybody. Let's open up the service with a word of prayer.
Lord we love you and we just thank you again for Steadfast Baptist Church.
Just to have a great church to attend and sing unto you and hear great preaching Lord.
We love you and we just ask you to fill this church with your Spirit.
It's in Jesus' name we ask it. Amen.
Alright for our next song let's go to song number 359.
Song number 359.
Thy word have I hid in my heart.
If you know it well sing it out.
Thy word have I hid in my heart.
Song number 359.
Thy word have flipped my feet.
A light to my path always.
To guide and to save me from sin.
And show me the heavenly way.
Thy word have I hid in my heart.
That I might not sin I can see.
That I might not sin.
Thy word have I hid in my heart.
Forever alone is thy word.
Established and fixed on high.
Thy faithfulness unto all men.
Thou mighteth never die.
Thy word have I hid in my heart.
That I might not sin against thee.
That I might not sin.
Thy word have I hid in my heart.
At morning at noon and at night.
I ever will give thee praise.
For thou art my portion O Lord.
And shall be through all of my days.
Thy word have I hid in my heart.
That I might not sin against thee.
That I might not sin.
Thy word have I hid in my heart.
Through him proof thy word hath foretold.
The savior and warning star.
Salvation and peace have been brought.
To those who have strayed apart.
Thy word have I hid in my heart.
That I might not sin against thee.
That I might not sin.
Thy word have I hid in my heart.
We're working on Proverbs 31.
Hopefully you've been working on memorizing that.
And you kiddos, any of you that remember the verse of the week
or can quote the verse of the week
can get a special treat on our Wednesday night services.
So there's an incentive there.
On the inside we have our service times.
We have a Spanish service at 4.30 in the afternoons on Sunday.
And then down below is our church wide soul winning.
That meets here at the building.
We also have regional soul winning times
that meet in different parts of the city.
We also try to divide up our church into soul winning tribes.
And so if you are newer to our church,
you should automatically get grafted into a particular tribe.
But that is also just a way for you to record soul winning,
be encouraged, also have someone to go to
and just ask if you have any questions about that.
And so if you do have questions or you're not sure,
please ask me or one of the ushers
and we can help you determine that information.
As far as our soul winning times though,
all you have to do is just show up.
And we love people that come new to soul winning.
We love to help take you out soul winning with us.
It's where we go and just preach the gospel
to different people and just invite them to church.
So there's no pressure.
And also just being just a supportive partner,
just a silent partner is what we call them.
That's always very appreciated.
Down below we have our church stats.
And then on the right we have a list of expecting ladies.
And we have several there who are expecting.
So please make sure that you're praying for our expecting ladies.
Down below is also a prayer list.
We try to update this once a week.
And so if you have various prayer requests,
please email them into us or let us know
and we'd like to just update it
or put in extra information.
On the back is the note about preaching class
and upcoming events.
We do have a preaching class on the 17th.
So that's that Saturday.
It's at 2 p.m.
So our preaching classes are at 2 p.m.
If you have a question or you're interested
and you haven't already been a part of the class,
please just ask me or Brother Dylan
and we can give you that information
as far as the next preaching class.
Also I just wanted to put on your radar,
one of our friends, Pastor Jimenez,
his church, Verity Baptist Church,
is hosting a youth conference or a youth rally
in April and he just wants to invite
as many like-minded church members
and other people to attend and to visit as well.
I know they did this last year
and I heard it was a great success.
I know at least a few people have indicated
that they wanted to go from our church
and so our goal is just at least
we'll have a sign-up sheet in the future
but just for those people to at least know who's going
and if they want to maybe carpool
or have some kind of similar accommodations
or meet up or just whatever.
Let me double check on that
because I don't know what the youngest group
but I think it's just basically all ages.
I think but I could be wrong.
It might be like the young, like really young,
aren't necessarily that involved
but of course parents are welcome to attend
with their children to the event as well
so I'll double check on that for you.
Down below we have the congratulations
to the Galaso family on the birth of John Christian.
He was born on the 11th at 3.18 a.m.,
nine pounds 14 ounces and measuring 21 inches long.
Congratulations Ben.
I like how babies just come whenever they want, right?
Like three in the morning or whatever
so that's really convenient
but congratulations to them, that's great
and that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements.
We're gonna go ahead and sing our third song this morning
which is a psalm of the week, Psalm 146.
We do have a special handout for that
or you could use your Bible
but the handout makes it easier.
Psalm 146.
Brother Dustin's gonna lead us.
That was Psalm chapter 146 in your handout
or in your King James Bible, Psalm 146.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
While I live, while I praise the Lord,
I will sing praises unto my God,
while I have any meaning.
But not your trust in princes,
nor is the Son of man,
in whom there is no hell,
whom there is no hell.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
His breath goeth forth,
he returned to his earth,
in that very day his thoughts perished.
Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help,
whose hope is in the Lord, the Lord is God.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
Which made heaven and earth the sea,
and all that there is which keepeth true forever,
which executed judgment for the oppressed,
which giveth food to the hungry,
the Lord will loosen the prisoners.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind,
the Lord raiseth them that are bow down,
the Lord loveth the righteous,
but the Lord preserveth the strangers,
he relieveth the fatherless and widows.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
But the weight of the wicked,
he turneth him upside down,
the Lord shall reign forever,
even my God, oh Zion,
unto all generations.
Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord.
Alright, great singing everybody.
Now as the offering plates are passed out,
go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 32.
That's Genesis chapter number 32.
Now as the offering plates are passed out,
go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 32.
Now as the offering plates are passed out,
go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 32.
Now as the offering plates are passed out,
go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 32.
Now as the offering plates are passed out,
go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 32.
Now as the offering plates are passed out,
go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 32.
Now as the offering plates are passed out,
go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 32.
Genesis 32, the Bible reads,
And Jacob went on his way,
and the angels of God met him.
And when Jacob saw them, he said,
This is God's host,
and he called the name of that place Mahanayim.
And Jacob sent messengers before him
to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir the country of Edom.
And he commanded them, saying,
Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau.
Thy servant Jacob saith thus,
I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now,
and I have oxen and asses,
flocks and menservants and womanservants,
and I have sent to tell my lord that I may find grace in thy sight.
And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying,
We came to thy brother Esau,
and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.
Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed,
and divided the people that was with him
and the flocks and herds and the camels into two bands,
and said, If Esau come to the one company and smite it,
then the other company which is left shall escape.
And Jacob said,
O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac,
the Lord which saidest unto me,
Return unto thy country and to thy kindred,
and I will deal well with thee.
I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies
and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant,
for with my staff I passed over this Jordan,
and now I am become two bands.
Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother,
from the hand of Esau,
for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me
and the mother with the children.
And thou saidest, I will surely do thee good
and make thy seed as the sand of the sea
which cannot be numbered for multitude.
And he lodged there that same night,
and took of that which came to his hand
a present for Esau his brother,
two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats,
two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
thirty milch-camels with their colts,
forty kine and ten bulls,
twenty she-asses and ten foals.
And he delivered them into the hand of his servants.
Every drove by themselves,
and said unto his servants,
Pass over before me,
and put a space betwixt drove and drove.
And he commanded the foremost, saying,
When Esau my brother meeteth thee,
and asketh thee, saying,
Whose art thou, and whither goest thou,
and whose are these before thee?
Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob's,
it is a present sent unto my lord Esau,
and behold, also he is behind us.
And so commanded he the second and the third,
and all that followed the drove, saying,
On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau when ye find him.
And say ye moreover, behold,
Thy servant Jacob is behind us,
for he said, I will appease him
with the present that goeth before me,
and afterward I will see his face,
peradventure he will accept of me.
So went the present over before him,
and himself lodged that night in the company.
And he rose up that night,
and took his two wives and his two woman servants
and his eleven sons, and passed over the four Jabbok.
And he took them, and sent them over the brook,
and sent over that he had.
And Jacob was left alone,
and there wrestled a man with him
until the breaking of the day.
And when he saw that he prevailed not against him,
he touched the hollow of his thigh,
and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint
as he wrestled with him.
And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh.
And he said, I will not let thee go,
except thou bless me.
And he said unto him, What is thy name?
And he said, Jacob.
And he said, Thy name shall be called
no more Jacob, but Israel,
for as a prince hast thou power with God
and with men, and hast prevailed.
And Jacob asked him and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name.
And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?
And he blessed him there.
And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel,
for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
And as he passed over Peniel, the sun rose upon him,
and he halted upon his thigh.
Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew
which shrank which is upon the hollow of the thigh unto this day,
because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father in heaven, we thank you for this chapter,
and I pray, Lord, that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit now,
and bless the sermon.
And, Lord, I pray that you would give him clarity of mind as he preaches to us.
And also, Lord, help us to pay close attention to the message
and apply the sermon to our lives
so that we can glorify you in everything we do.
We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Amen.
I want to look back at verse 24,
and the Bible says,
And Jacob was left alone,
and there wrestled a man with him,
until the breaking of the day.
And when he saw that he prevailed not against him,
he touched the hollow of his thigh,
and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him.
Now, in this story, it's very clear that Jacob wrestles with God.
This would be what we would consider the pre-incarnate Christ.
This is a manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ
before he was ever even born in the manger.
And obviously here he wrestles with Jacob.
And there's a lot of symbolism
and all kinds of interesting things about this chapter,
but I'm not really going to focus on the spiritual in this.
I'm kind of just focusing on the physical for a moment.
Because notice, when he wrestles with God,
for whatever reason,
for the spiritual reason specifically,
the Lord Jesus Christ allows Jacob to win.
And I believe the spiritual picture is just simply
how the Jews ended up killing Jesus.
They ended up crucifying Jesus
and how he let them take his life.
He laid down his life.
I would say that's similar here
to how Jesus is kind of letting Jacob win
in this particular fight or this particular battle.
And yet we understand, obviously,
Jesus isn't going to lose a wrestling match
unless he allows himself to lose, right?
It's kind of like Dad wrestling with his kids,
and maybe he let his kid win or something like that.
But because he doesn't win,
and the story is that he can't win,
at least in this context or whatever,
that he ends up touching Jacob
and he causes something,
some kind of deformity in Jacob's thigh.
Now skip down to verse 31.
The Bible says,
And as he passed over Penuel,
the sun rose upon him,
talking about Jacob,
and he halted upon his thigh.
Therefore the children of Israel
eat not of the sinew it shrank,
which is upon the hollow of the thigh unto this day,
because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh
in the sinew that shrank.
Now sinew is just a part of your body,
talking about the different muscles
and the different groups in your body
that basically just keep it all together.
And so Jacob basically has to walk with a limp
or walk halt,
or another way to word this is a gimp.
A gimp is if you are a disabled person
or you walk with some kind of impediment.
So he's kind of like,
there's something obvious about the way that he walks now
that something happened, okay?
And so here's something that's permanent about Jacob.
Now what's interesting about Jacob
is prior to this incident,
Jacob is noted as being kind of a superstar
when it comes to a physical prowess.
Jacob is capable of lifting heavy objects.
I mean the Bible talks about him lifting off the stone
from the well's mouth
that typically would take multiple men.
Jacob obviously is denoted here as being very strong
considering the fact that he wrestled with God
for an entire day.
And in fact, according to the Bible,
God can't even beat him in a wrestling match.
Now obviously we understand the context around that,
but showing that Jacob is really
probably kind of a star athlete,
very strong, has a lot of, you know, greatness
to his physique.
But after this event,
he's now a gimp for the rest of his life.
And I think that that, you know,
we don't really understand what it was like
and the Bible doesn't really elaborate on this too much,
but I'm sure that was really frustrating to Jacob.
I mean I'm sure no one wants to walk,
halt for the rest of their life.
I'm sure nobody wants to have some kind of an impediment
or some kind of a physical deformity
for the rest of their life.
But even more so, I think all of us men,
it would really hurt our ego.
Like I'm just thinking like myself included,
you know, we all kind of typically take a little bit of pride
in our ability to run, jump, or play sports,
or do all kinds of different physical activities.
And if that were to be stripped from us,
that would be really frustrating to our ego.
That would be kind of a blow to our ego.
It may cause us to feel depressed
or to feel upset about the fact that we now have this gimp.
And what I want to talk about this morning
is just the gimps of life.
Because the reality is a lot of people
end up having gimps in their life.
And I'm not saying just physical deformities.
I want to expand that.
But I think what you have to realize is
life itself is going to be full of gimps.
And one aspect of this is the permanency of this.
Like, Jacob's never going to walk normal again, ever.
And you know, unfortunately, there are people in this world
that have something happen to them,
and it's a permanent thing.
Like, they get in a car accident,
or they have an injury, or something happens,
and now they're never going to be the same ever again.
They're never going to walk the same way or run the same way.
This happens a lot in athletics.
Players will get injured,
and then they just never get to play again.
They never get to compete in a high level,
or they're just never the same.
This happens to people that aren't even in athletics,
just normal people.
They get in a car accident,
and then they have to have a knee surgery,
or now they have some kind of a limp.
Or it's just the aspect of getting old.
That's the other scary part.
When you get old, sometimes things just happen.
Or parts of your body just don't work
the way that they used to.
Part of life is accepting the gimps that you have.
Just kind of accepting.
That's point one that I have.
Go to Job chapter one.
We don't have to go back to Genesis,
but if you just go to Job chapter one,
I want you to realize that it's really important
that you accept the gimps in your life.
Think about it this way.
Jacob can go the rest of his life,
and every single step that he takes,
he's always thinking about his gimp.
Every step, just like every single moment of every single day,
he can just be focused on the fact that he can't walk normal,
on whatever pain, whatever grief,
whatever sorrow that he has.
That is one option.
But you know there's another option
that he never thinks about.
Apart from the fact that obviously you're walking
and you have to take care of yourself.
I'm sure that he might have to be careful
when he goes upstairs or whatever.
But at the end of the day,
he doesn't have to dwell on the gimp in his life.
He can dwell on other things.
And you know there's people in my life
that always inspire me in this area.
People that I know that have problems or have issues,
yet they're never bringing it up.
They're not talking about it.
They seem like a jovial and happy person.
You know someone that I think of often
and someone that's on our prayer list
is Brother Cameron Hall,
who's had a severe leg issue.
And you know it's kept him,
like we've gone to our men's conference every year.
He's like gone every single year.
And he's usually kept from a lot of the physical activities
that we do as a result of that.
But then the guy is still so happy.
Like I would think, me personally,
I would really struggle not being able to participate.
Even recently we had our
Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship Conference
and I had injured my ankle right at the perfect time.
And so I didn't get to necessarily enjoy
all the activities everybody else would normally do.
I just went to the trampoline park,
but I didn't get to jump.
I know a lot of people played softball on the weekends
and that was fun and I didn't play.
And so me personally,
I may not have had the best mindset around that.
But that doesn't mean that I should.
I should focus on the things that are good.
And sometimes we get permanently injured
and we can't necessarily fix that.
We just have to accept that reality.
And even if you're not permanently injured,
maybe you're just temporarily injured,
sometimes you've just got to accept
what state you're in
and focus on the good things that you have.
But again, point one is just accept.
Don't focus on it.
Don't bring it up constantly.
Don't allow that to affect your mood
and your attitude all the time
because everybody has some kind of an issue.
I guarantee if we just went down the line
and we asked people,
it's like my back hurts, my head hurts,
my ear hurts, my knee hurts,
that's maybe the same person.
We go all up and down.
Everybody has some kind of disease
or some kind of issue
or they struggle with gastrointestinal issues
or they have some kind of thing that's bothering them.
They have some kind of a wart or some kind of a pimple
or they have something going on in their mouth.
They have something going on in their head.
I guarantee you talk to people,
everybody has something
and then sometimes people have multiple things.
Almost everybody just has some kind of an issue
and some of them are temporary
but then also what I'm really kind of focusing on
in this sermon is the permanent ones.
When we talk about this issue for Jacob,
realize he's never going to walk normal ever again.
You know what he has to do?
He has to accept that I'm never going to walk normal again.
You know that's a big component to our lives
is accepting the gimps that we have.
Now in Job chapter 1, look at verse 13.
And there was a day, talking about Job,
when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine
in their eldest brother's house.
And there came a messenger to Job and said,
The oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them,
and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away.
Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword
and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another
and said, The fire of God has fallen from heaven
and hath burned up the sheep and the servants
and consumed them, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another
and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands
and fell upon the camels and have carried them away.
Yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword
and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another
and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating
and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house.
And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness
and smote the four corners of the house
and it fell upon the young men and they are dead.
And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
And Job rose and rend his mantle and shaved his head
and fell down upon the ground and worshiped.
You know, think about this, he has so much loss,
he probably can't even mourn all of it efficiently.
Because he can't even think, like that's so much loss,
it would be hard to even know how to respond.
Like, do you mourn for the oldest child,
the youngest child, your favorite child,
your flocks, your herds, the houses, your servants?
I mean, he has so much loss, there's like,
it's hard to even know how to grieve or how to mourn
because he has so much to possibly even think about.
He obviously is upset.
He rents his mantle, meaning his coat or his jacket,
he just rips it off of his body, he's so upset.
He shaves his head.
That's just weird, isn't it?
Like, you just found out everybody died and you're like,
the first thing I need to do is get a haircut, you know.
Obviously, it's just kind of a picture of mourning,
typically in the Bible is what that is.
Like, you know, there is no normal emotion here.
I mean, you just lost everything.
It's like, what's the playbook here?
I don't know.
I mean, obviously, the guy is just distraught.
But notice, it says this,
he fell down upon the ground and worshiped
and said, naked came I out of my mother's womb
and naked shall I return thither.
The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord
and all this Job said not, nor charged, goes foolishly.
I mean, if you just found out this information,
isn't it kind of a limitless possibility of what you might do?
I mean, you could like run to the house
and just see it for yourself.
Maybe you don't want to believe it.
I mean, how many parents, if they just heard
all of their kids are dead,
would not believe it immediately?
I mean, they would be like,
I need to find this out myself, right?
Just accepting the fact that your children are dead
would take a lot of people a long period of time.
Just accepting the loss of just your finances
or your other things.
Sometimes people won't accept loss financially,
and you know what they'll do?
They'll go on a credit card binge.
And it's like, you know, it's real.
You don't have the money.
You can't buy these things.
But then they're like,
I don't want to accept the fact that we're broke,
so I'm just going to keep spending like I'm not.
It's called the United States government, okay?
It's like, we don't have money.
We'll just keep printing some.
Nothing bad will happen, right?
Yeah, okay.
But it's just, it's one of those things where
sometimes the first step is just accepting the reality.
But notice that Job seemingly
accepts reality right away.
He right away, he just gets on his knees,
he worships God, and he says,
you know what, blessed be the name of the Lord.
He gave me all this stuff, and wow, that was amazing.
That was the best part.
He took it away.
That's the worst part.
But you know what?
Still, I should bless God.
And I think that that is just,
this is the epitome of someone having the right attitude
when faced with the worst circumstances.
So if Job can do this,
then I believe we can as well.
Now that doesn't mean that necessarily
we're as good a person as Job or spiritual as Job,
but I'm saying that we're physically capable.
God would give us that opportunity
if we would make the right decision,
but we have to sometimes accept our gimps in life.
This is a major setback.
I mean, to lose 10 children,
and you know, I was talking about
they were drinking wine in their eldest brother's house.
Obviously, some of these children
are at least 20 years old or maybe even older.
I mean, think about how much investment
you've made into a child when they're 20 plus
or they've already moved out.
I mean, you've invested so much time, effort,
and energy into these children
and to lose them is just, it's overwhelming.
Some people's hearts might just even burst
just because of the grief, the sorrow,
the pain, the suffering, the evil.
But Job, for some reason, just like immediately accepts it.
He just immediately just says,
well, that's my life, but you know what?
I can still praise God, right?
I mean, let's say none of this bad stuff happened.
Couldn't he have gotten on his knees
and worshiped God that day?
Yes, he could.
Couldn't he have gone to church that day?
Yes, he could.
Could he preach the gospel
or do something spiritual that day?
Yes, he could.
Now, he lost all of that.
But did any of that stop him
from worshiping God that day?
No.
Did anything stop him from going to church that day?
No.
So you know what he did?
He just accepted the gimp that he had in his life
and he just said, you know what?
I'm just going to worship God anyways.
And I think that sometimes we have to realize
there are going to be things that happen to us
in our lives that are going to permanently alter our lives,
maybe a permanent disability or a permanent loss
or a permanent grief or a permanent sorrow,
but we can still praise God that day.
And you know, you're in church this morning.
We're here to worship and serve God.
That doesn't mean that God won't bring you
extreme sorrow in your life.
I think that the Joel Osteen message,
we sometimes mock, but then yet it still sticks
with a lot of people like, it's your blessed life now.
You know, your best life now or your blessed life now
is when you go to heaven, right?
When we're in the millennial reign of Christ.
That's when it's all blessing.
But you know, in this life there is sorrow.
In this life there is pain.
In this life there's going to be loss.
In this life there's going to be gimps.
And sometimes what we have to do
is we have to accept the gimps of this life.
We have to accept the evils of this life
and no one did it better than Job.
And you know, what I'm saying, let's be real.
Let's be honest.
It's pretty easy for me to say.
It's difficult to do.
This is the most difficult thing
that anybody's probably ever done
is to serve God after such extreme loss.
The Bible then goes on even further
to show that he ends up suffering boils.
So it even affects his body.
And the devil literally throws everything at Job
that he possibly could.
And yet Job still is capable of worshipping God.
Showing us that you always have a purpose.
Like no matter what happens or no matter what evil
or no matter what suffering,
you can still have purpose in this life.
I mean, from a human perspective
everybody would think that Job is not worthwhile.
Like if Job went to the hospital in Canada,
they would say,
you should probably just take medically assisted suicide.
They're just like, you're not worth living anymore.
You have boils, you lost all your money,
you're just like worthless.
From a human perspective,
Job was just kind of like meaningless
from a carnal perspective.
He's a leper in a sense almost.
You wouldn't want to touch him.
You wouldn't want to be around him.
He can't benefit society.
He's lost everything.
He's broke.
You know, his wife's a nag.
I mean, nobody wants to be around Job, right?
I mean, Job is basically a zero.
He went from everything hero to zero just like that.
Absolutely nothing whatsoever to be desired carnally speaking.
But at the end of the day,
he still had value to God.
And I would argue this,
he was still technically the most valuable person to God.
He was the VIP spiritually,
but he was the worst carnally.
And of course that's because Job pictures the Lord Jesus Christ, right?
The Lord Jesus Christ had everything in heaven
and he decided to lose everything to come to this earth.
And then to go onto the cross at that point
was basically the worst of the worst,
carnally speaking, the lowest of the lows,
something that nobody wanted anything to do with,
carnally speaking,
yet Jesus was the MVP on this earth, spiritually speaking.
And so I think that sometimes we get too focused on the carnal,
we get too focused on our circumstances,
we get too focused on the gimps of life,
rather than accepting the spiritual responsibility we have
to accept our reality.
We must accept our reality.
We must accept who we are.
We must accept where we are.
We must accept what's going on in our lives
and just say, you know what?
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
You know, sometimes we could sit here and be mad.
I could be mad and be like, why am I not six foot five?
You know, when I was young, I was very short growing up,
pretty much consistently.
I was always the shortest kid in school.
And I remember just all the time
just being upset about being short.
But you know what?
Some people are tall, like some people are giant,
and they're mad about being tall.
Some people, you know, people get upset about who they are,
no matter what they are.
They're too short, they're too tall, they're too ugly.
Maybe even sometimes people hate themselves for being attractive.
Because, you know, you would think like in your mind,
like why would being attractive be a negative thing?
But when you're attractive, often it causes you to be vain
and the people to be around you to be vain
and for you to be focused on things that are meaningless.
And so people sometimes get frustrated
even by beauty.
Sometimes people get frustrated by success.
I mean, we always think that if we had all these things,
we'd be happy.
But then why are all the people with all the money
and the good looks so miserable all the time?
I mean, there are so many women in Hollywood right now
that are actually very attractive
and then they're getting plastic surgery
because they're upset with how they look.
They're already in the top one percent of looks department
and they're just not even satisfied with that.
They're still so upset about how they look
and many a times, if not almost always,
plastic surgery will make you look worse.
I mean, if you've got a physical deformity
or you were in a fire or something,
hey, I'm all for cosmetic repair.
I'm not going to say that that's necessarily wrong.
But, you know, when you don't have some kind of an issue
and you're trying to fix what God did,
you know, those plastic surgeons aren't as good as God.
He already gave you as good a nose
and all the other stuff as you're going to get probably, okay?
And so you need to just embrace who you are.
Embrace the gimps of life.
Embrace what you look like.
Don't be mad.
There's so many people that are mad about the color of their skin.
It's so meaningless.
It's so silly.
You know, if you're black as night,
well, enjoy not getting sunburned as much.
You realize that?
And if you're white as snow,
well, embrace the fact that on cloudy days
you'll get vitamin D and you'll probably be healthier.
You know, there's pros and cons to your skin color
no matter what shade it is.
There's pros and cons to everything.
There's pros and cons to being shorter.
There's pros and cons to being taller.
Like, you'd think, like, what's the pro to being shorter?
Well, usually people that are shorter
have better eye-hand coordination
and they're actually better at using their body parts,
whereas people that are bigger and taller
are usually a little more awkward.
Maybe they don't have as good eye-hand coordination.
Often, a lot of times, their joints also suffer
more pain over time
because they have so much more stress
and so much more weight being applied to those joints,
and so it actually causes them more issue.
So you think, like, oh, I want to be tall,
but then you have these issues.
And then you're like, I want to be short,
but then you can't reach stuff on the tall shelf.
You know, it's like, there's always a pro
and there's always a con.
You know, we always often try to think of things
in a carnal way,
but we usually have the wrong perspective.
And we sometimes just have to accept who we are.
We have to accept the personal limitations that we have.
We have to accept the issues that we have in our lives.
And once you've accepted them,
then focus on the good.
Accept the gimp, point one.
Point two, focus on the good.
Now, go to Job chapter 42.
Go to the last chapter of the book of Job.
And I want to look at a couple verses here.
Focus on the good, and really,
I want this to be the point,
but another really important aspect of this
is just, and a way to focus on the good,
is just loving other people.
Why is it, you know, what's the problem
when we talk about not accepting the gimp that you have
is you're focused on you.
You know, other people typically don't care
that much about your problems.
We're all a little bit more narcissistic.
We really don't necessarily,
we can't truly appreciate pain and suffering.
Like, we can all feel bad for Job,
but you know what, we have no idea
what it's like to be Job.
Like, Job's pain level is higher
than us trying to feel bad for him, okay?
And whoever's experiencing pain,
we can try to empathize and we can feel sadness,
but it's not the same.
Like, my wife, when she's having contractions,
I felt bad and I felt pain,
just like watching her feel pain,
but I guarantee her pain was worse.
You know what I mean?
Like, I didn't really experience the contractions.
I have no idea what it was like, okay?
I'm sure it was horrible.
But it doesn't mean that I didn't feel some pain,
but it's just not even close to that same level of pain.
So we'll never truly understand
the pain level that another person has.
Therefore, no one's gonna truly understand you.
But you know what you can do?
You can just still love other people.
You can still just do good unto others
and stop focusing on yourself,
stop focusing on your problems.
I mean, doesn't Jacob still have a lot to offer
in his life, even though he's halt?
I mean, isn't it important for him
to raise his 12 children and daughter?
Isn't it important for him
to give instruction unto Joseph?
Isn't it important for him to bless Joseph
and to bless Pharaoh,
and he has a lot of works left for God
to have him accomplish in his life?
You know, isn't it important for him
to still lead his wives?
Yes, it's important.
Jacob has a lot of work to do,
even though he's halt, okay?
So it's not for him to just give up on life
or quit on life or stop doing right
just because he has a particular gimp in his life.
No, he needs to accept that gimp
and then focus on the good
and love other people, okay?
Same with Job.
Job is in a really bad spot,
a really bad issue.
I mean, he has boils over his body,
he's been rejected,
his friends aren't even his friends anymore, basically.
Job's lost everything, okay?
And God ends up finally showing up
at the end of Job
and kind of helping him get the right perspective.
And then God tells him
how his friends were wrong,
and he wants them to do some kind of
an offering, sacrifice.
Look at verse 8.
Therefore take unto you now
seven bullocks and seven rams
and go to my servant Job
and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering,
and my servant Job shall pray for you.
For him will I accept,
lest I deal with you after your folly,
and that you have not spoken of me the thing
which is right like my servant Job.
That's a really important verse in the Bible
to understand that you shouldn't be quoting
Job's friends authoritatively.
God says he won't even accept
sacrifices from Job's friends
because of how badly they spoke about God.
So when anybody's quoting the book of Job,
be careful who's talking, okay?
When it's Job, that's fine.
When it's a friend, that's suspect, okay?
Now, and the thing that's difficult about Job
is his friends often even quote Bible verses
or they quote things or say things that are right.
It's just usually they have the wrong context,
like fake preachers today.
There's a lot of churches today
that they'll use a Bible.
They'll even read verses,
but you know what the problem is?
That they didn't say that which is right about the Lord
because they take it out of context.
They twist it.
They pervert it.
They rest the Scriptures to their own destruction.
So you got to be careful how you apply the Bible.
It's just like a sword or a gun.
There's nothing wrong with a sword or a gun,
but they could be really beneficial
and they could be really harmful
depending on how you use it.
Just like the Bible.
The Bible is the sword of the Spirit.
This will do spiritual battling and warfare.
It can heal people and it can destroy people very quickly,
and so you want to be careful
how you use the Word of God because it's powerful.
Now, this is what's interesting.
Job's friends just came and trashed him
over and over and over.
After he's having the worst few weeks of his life,
he's lost everything,
and then notice what God is telling him.
Job shall pray for you.
Isn't that kind of a bummer
when God is saying,
like, pray for this person
that's treating you like garbage?
Right, imagine you have a bad day
and then someone just comes and attacks you
and is vicious towards you and evil towards you
and says horrible things about you,
and then it's like God's like,
hey, will you pray for that person?
You're thinking like, yeah, like an imprecatory prayer
or what am I praying exactly?
No, you're praying for their good.
You're praying for their mercy.
You're praying for their kindness.
And you would think like, wouldn't Job think like,
hey, God, could I pray for myself?
Like, could I pray for my problems?
Could I pray for like my issues here?
How about my gifts that I have in my life, God?
Don't you care about me?
I mean, my friends are bozos.
My friends didn't even say that which was right.
I said what was right,
and now you're asking me to pray for them?
How does that even make sense?
Wouldn't you think, does God even care about me?
Like, why does he want me to pray for them?
I'm pretty sure my life's worse than theirs, right?
But he's still asking Job to pray for them.
And then look what it says in verse 10.
And the Lord turned the captivity of Job
when he prayed for his friends.
Did this verse say the Lord turned the captivity of Job
when he prayed for himself?
When he asked for things for himself.
When he was thinking about himself.
God turned the captivity of Job
when he prayed for his friends.
What did he do?
He focused on the good that he could do.
He focused on loving other people.
He wasn't focused on his problems.
He was focused on other people's problems.
And you know what?
That is typically the best way
to get through difficulty or sorrow
is to think about other people.
Because you know what?
There's an endless supply
of other people that need things.
There's an endless supply
of other people that need prayer and need help.
You'll never run out of that.
And let's be real.
Even if you could fix all your problems,
you'll have new problems pop up.
Like, we always have problems.
Like, we always have issues.
We always have things that we could worry about.
But at the end of the day, you know,
why don't you focus a little bit more on other people
instead of focusing on yourself?
Accept your problems.
Just say, hey, if I have to have this problem
for the rest of my life, fine.
But can I pray for other people?
Can I do good on other people?
You know, what if Job never got recovered?
What if nothing good ever happened to Job?
Couldn't he still pray for other people?
Yeah, he could, right?
But you know, then God ends up deciding
to bless him anyways because he did that.
Now, I want to be careful here
because the majority of my sermon,
it's different than this
because I don't want to focus on
the recovery of Job that much
because, like, for Jacob, there was no recovery.
And when we talk about these gimps,
many things are just going to be permanent.
There's no, like, fixing it.
And even for Job himself,
there is a permanency to his loss.
He will never have those ten children ever again.
Never.
He's never going to hold them in his arms
on this side of heaven.
He's never going to get to, you know,
giggle and laugh with them
and enjoy their presence.
He's not going to have any of that ever again.
It's been wiped away.
It's been taken permanently.
He's halt for life.
He's a gimp for life.
He can never love that child again
in this life, in this world, in this context.
Obviously, in heaven, we get that,
but I'm just saying, to this life,
But while he was on this earth,
he's halt for the rest of his life.
Job has the loss of his children
for the rest of his life.
You know, money comes and goes,
but you can't replace children.
Like, you're going to always have
a spot in your heart for that child.
You're always going to love that child.
And you lost it.
And, you know, this makes me think of how
many people in our lives
and people that we know and even ourselves,
you're going to suffer loss.
And there's been people that lose
children through miscarriage all the time.
Like, the numbers are staggering,
and most people are very private about it.
Like, most of us, we don't even know,
like, what...
We don't even know, like, what happened,
or we don't even know what's going on there.
And, you know, me and my wife,
we've suffered that too.
And here's another thing, though,
about that, especially with miscarriage,
is, like, sometimes you could have a miscarriage
and then you could have another child.
From a timeline perspective,
you could have never had both.
The timeline, you know,
you can't have both because they
overlap too much.
So, in essence, you could have only
ever had one. And so there ends up
actually being a positive. There ends up being
a good side of this
to where you still get
to have a child. Right?
And here's the thing, with Job, he ends up getting
10 more children, as the Bible says.
Look at verse 12.
The Lord blessed the latter end of Job
more than his beginning, for he had 14,000
sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000
yoke of oxen and 1,000 sheasses.
He had also seven sons and three daughters.
So he gets 10 more children.
And maybe Job
would have had those 10 children regardless.
I don't know. But maybe it's also
a result of this loss that
they ended up having more kids or whatever.
God opened his wife's womb
when he wouldn't have opened it, necessarily.
And so, you know,
there is a type of replacement.
Just like Jacob, you know, he's never
going to walk normal again, but
maybe there's some kind of grace
in that situation. There's something
that comes out of it that was a positive
that would have never happened
if he weren't hauled.
So out of Job's suffering,
he ends up getting blessed, and maybe
he would have never had that blessing
or got those children if it wasn't for this
particular loss. And so
sometimes we have to just
receive God's grace.
Okay, so those are the three points
I want to make this morning.
Number one, we need to accept the gimps.
Number two, we need to focus on the good.
And number three, we need to receive the grace
that God has. I mean, this is a lot of grace
that God showed unto Job to where he then
recovered him. He got full health,
full strength, money back in the
accounts. He got new children.
And that's a type of grace that God
is showing unto Job and giving
unto him so that he can
be somewhat comforted.
Again, he doesn't get those
previous ten children back.
And some people could just decide
I'm just going to stay mad at God for the
rest of my life because I'll never have those ten children.
But why can't you focus
on the ten that you do have?
Why can't you focus on the grace that God has shown you?
Why can't you embrace what God
has bestowed upon you rather
than just being frustrated about what you
don't have or what could have been
or, you know, whatever issues?
Because sometimes you just can't
have both either.
So just embrace what God has given you.
You know, one thing that I was thinking
about in this context is how women
who give birth, they
have permanent stretch marks on their body.
I mean, that's just a reality.
You know, there's a lot of celebrity
women and young women that won't
get pregnant or don't go through that because
they don't want their bodies to be different.
They don't want to have to go through that.
And, you know, the mothers
in this room that have stretch marks,
you know, praise God for you
and praise God that you'd be willing to take
that permanent gimp,
that permanent suffering,
that permanent mark, that permanent
whatever scar
so that you could have a child.
You know, you have to accept that
and then focus on the good
and then receive God's grace
that you now have a child.
Here's the thing, you can't have both.
You can't have the child
without the stretch mark.
Both are together.
It's a package deal.
And, you know what, just like this life,
you know, you can't live life without having
some scars, some pain, some sorrow,
some evil.
You know, some people, oh, like,
Job at one point in the Bible was wishing
he could have just never lived, right?
Like, he wished that his day had never,
he'd never been born. He'd never seen the day.
But, you know, if you live,
you get to experience good,
but you also have to realize sometimes
you're going to experience bad.
Sometimes you're going to experience evil.
Sometimes you're going to experience sorrow, too.
To be able to be young, you know,
means you're going to get old, right?
To be able to live and do all these things.
Like, there's a good and a bad to life.
Go if you went to Philippians,
chapter number four.
If you want to go to Philippians,
chapter number four.
Here's another thing, when you get older,
and you could lose your hair color forever.
Once you go gray,
like, we all,
you know, we all started different,
but then eventually we all get the same hair color.
Okay, it all gets white, gray, or whatever, right?
And you could never get it back.
Now, some people, they get mad about this.
They dye their hair or color it or do something.
But, you know, naturally speaking,
I mean, once it's gone, it's gone.
You know, old people,
they all kind of have that white hair
and I was thinking about this, you know,
the Bible says the hoary head is a crown of glory
if it be found in the way of righteousness.
So, you know, being older
and losing your hair color,
you could look at that as a gimp
or a negative or a bad thing,
but you know what, God is saying,
I like the person that has white hair
or gray hair,
and they're a righteous person.
Meaning that, you know what,
God still finds joy
and spiritual value
in a person that's older,
a person that has no hair color.
God's not looking down from heaven like,
well, what use do you have anymore?
No, he's saying,
hey, if you have righteousness,
then that's a crown of glory.
That's a good thing.
That's a positive thing,
showing that you're an older person
that still serves God.
Because a lot of older people
are just bitter and upset
and do nothing for God.
And they just focus on retirement.
In fact, it's funny how people
get even more selfish
when they get older.
Like, it's all about them now
and their vacation
and going and doing the things they want,
and they'll even just say stuff like that,
like, I've been working my whole life.
I finally get to spend some time on me.
And it's like, well,
if you've been doing this for 60 years,
what's another 10 or 20?
You know, it's like,
if you've been focused on other people
your whole life,
why stop now?
Right?
But there's a lot of people
that are like that,
they just basically kind of
become really selfish and bitter
when they get older.
Why do they get selfish and bitter?
Number one, they didn't accomplish
the things that they want in their life.
They don't have their youth.
They don't have their mental capacity
that they used to.
There's a lot of pain with being older.
And so as a result,
they're just focused on themselves
instead of focusing on other people.
You know, we have a church
filled with a lot of young people.
And I want you to have the right mindset
when you get older
that, you know,
you are focusing on other people
when you're young
and just keep doing that
when you get older.
Because older people
have a lot of value in this life.
And unfortunately,
the reason why
a lot of our world's terrible
is because of the older people.
Because the older people
were not staying focused
on their children
and on their grandchildren
and teaching them
the ways of righteousness
and trying to help them.
But rather,
they're just focused on themselves.
You know, a lot of times
the Democratic Party is elected
because of the older vote
because they're so focused
on Social Security and Medicaid.
And usually the Democrats
are the ones that are
giving out all this money.
And so they're just so selfish,
they're so concerned with them
and having some kind of money
and government assistance
that they'll literally
vote in the devil himself
just to harm the country.
Okay?
And you know what?
That's a terrible attitude.
You know, maybe if they had
worked hard or continued working
or were more involved
in their children's lives,
they wouldn't have to be
such a way
to become a parasite on society.
You know?
And I'm just telling you that,
you know, just accepting
the gimps that you have
will help you then
to focus on the good.
Now, Philippians chapter number 4
reminds us to focus
on the good things.
Look what it says in verse 4.
Rejoice in the Lord always.
And again I say rejoice.
Maybe Job was thinking
something like that.
Hey, even in this suffering,
I'm supposed to rejoice in the Lord.
Verse 5.
Let your moderation
be known unto all men.
The Lord is at hand.
Be careful for nothing,
but in everything,
by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving,
let your requests
be made known unto God.
And the peace of God,
which passeth all understanding,
shall keep your hearts
and minds through Christ Jesus.
You know, that's an
unpowerful verse because
sometimes people can be at peace
when you look at their lives
and you think like
why are you not upset?
Like I would think like
I would be more upset than you.
Or I would be more frustrated.
I would be more fixated
on my issues if I were you.
But then God can give you
a peace which passeth
all understanding,
meaning sometimes people
can accept who they are
or what's going on in their life
more than you can.
Like some women that are very vain,
they look down on other women
who maybe aren't as attractive
or don't have as much
going for them,
and they think like
why are you not obsessed
with your clothing and your hair
and all this stuff?
Like if I was as ugly as you,
I would be so obsessed with that.
But it's like they've just
accepted who they are.
And they're not going
after this vain challenge
of trying to be something
that they're not
and going and getting
plastic surgery
and ruining their face
and putting on hours and hours
of makeup to change
who they look like.
I mean if I just put
someone else's face on mine,
what's the goal of that?
Right?
What if I carry around
a face mask of Brad Pitt
and I just put it on
or something?
Like what's the point
of makeup exactly here?
You know it's just like
you just got to change
who you are
to a completely
different person?
So then whenever the makeup
runs off in the morning
and your husband's like
ah who's that?
He's like
Leah I thought it was Rachel.
You know it's like
what's going on?
And look
I'm not against you
if you wear makeup.
I'm just saying
just generally speaking
like why can't people
just accept who they are?
Just accept what you look like.
Don't be so focused.
People get upset like
you're not a narcissist
like they are.
You're not focused on
all these things
that they are focused on.
You know
but at the end of the day
God can give you peace
with passable understanding.
There are people
that are just
you know weird
and awkward
and they have problems
or whatever
and they just don't
even care about it.
They're not
they're not concerned with it.
They don't have
an issue with themselves.
They just accepted
who they are.
They're focusing on the good
and you know what
God can sometimes give you
that peace
that passable understanding.
You know how could someone
be okay when they've
had severe loss?
I don't know
but God can sometimes
just allow people
to have peace
when they're going
through great difficulty
and look what it says
here in verse 8.
Finally brethren
whatsoever things are true
whatsoever things are honest
whatsoever things are just
whatsoever things are pure
whatsoever things are lovely
whatsoever things are good report
if there be any virtue
if there be any praise
think on these things.
This is the opposite
of the news media.
Have you ever noticed
that the news media
only report stories
about bad things happening?
This person got shot
this person was killed
this store was robbed
like that's the news.
The news is not like
hey this person had a baby.
Hey this person got a
promotion at work.
Hey this positive thing
happened.
It's just all negative.
It's just like
this person was shot
this person was killed
this person was
drugged through
you know the sea
by a shark
and you're just like
ah!
You know it's like
that's all it's focused on.
And it's like
what is the Bible saying?
It's like think about
things that are pure
true how about things
not the news media
not the internet
not Hollywood
not a lot of these things
but then what is everybody
obsessed and focused on?
They're focused on things
that aren't even real.
They're focused on things
that aren't even pure.
They're focused on music
that is telling them
to sin and to do wickedness.
I mean people listen
to music so much today
and look I get it
I like music
I'm sure a lot of you
like to listen to music
and everything like that
but what is the world's music?
Most of the world's music
is not thinking things
that are pure
honest
things that are lovely
it's usually thinking about
sin, evil, bad things
negative things
if it's country music
it's definitely not
something that's good
I mean country music
is like the worst genre
of music in this category
I mean it's like
the exact opposite
of what I'm preaching
this morning
they cannot accept
who they are
they're just so upset
about how they lost
their dog and their wife
and their car and their house
and I'm not as good
as I once was
and whatever
it's like
they're just like
sorry
a tear in my beer
or whatever
and it's like
their lives are so miserable
they have to drink
themselves drunk
they have to drink
themselves into oblivion
because their life
is so miserable
but you know what
Job didn't have to drink
himself out of his misery
you know what he did?
He worshiped God
he praised the Lord
he was focused on the good
you know what's a good place
to think about good things?
Church
you know if your life's
getting hard
get more in church
not less
if your life's hard
read more Bible
not less
if you feel like
your life's a train wreck
preach the gospel more
think about more people
think about other people
receive God's grace
and you know
sometimes things can change
I'm not trying to say
that some of our suffering
won't get even better
but some suffering
is definitely permanent
go to Ecclesiastes
chapter number 12
go to Ecclesiastes
chapter number 12
you know here's some ones
that just hurt my heart
I don't know how you feel
but if you ever get a new car
once it loses the new car smell
I'm just telling you
it hurts my heart
like a new car
it just smells so great
like there's just something
about that scent
and that feeling
and then your kids
vomit in the car
you're like no
like it used to smell good
and there's something about
toddler vomit
that is the worst
I don't know what it is
I remember Jackson
he threw up in the car
like a few times on a trip
and it's from these
like fruit bars
and it just had this
overwhelming sweet smell
it's so bad
and my wife
like she doesn't throw up
from bad smell
but she makes the worst sounds
like it's like
she's gonna throw up
so she's
so she's just like
over here in the corner
she's like
and I'm like
smelling this
and I'm just like
no
there was one time
it was cold
she's like
making these sounds
she's not cleaning it up
the kids vomit
all over themselves
in the car
I just wanted to run
like I was just like
this is the point
when I'm done
with my family
like no
I don't want to
do this anymore
but you know what
I had to do
I just had to
accept reality
I was like
if I don't clean this up
you know what I mean
and it was just like
I don't know
then your car is permanently
just like
it is what it is
does anybody need to buy a car
I'm just kidding
you know
when your favorite shirt
from like a long time
gets a hole in it
and your wife's like
we should get rid of it
you're like
it's just a small hole
you know
you have those sunglasses
and they get a scratch on it
I remember
I went to the store
and I bought these sunglasses
and went to church
and I set them down
on the chair
while we were doing
praise and worship
and then I sit down
I just sit right down
on my glasses
and smash them
as soon as I got them
I was just like
no
here's another one
when the honeymoon's over
and here's the reality
you never get to do that again
like the honeymoon
is a special time in marriage
that you never get again
now it's not that you
can't have special times
in your marriage again
but I'm just saying
the honeymoon is a special event
it's a lot of fun
it's really exciting
and then it's over
and you never get it back
and then you have to accept
I'm still married to this person
like you were like
I married them for the honeymoon
but it's over
get over it
well you know
I wish we could go back
everyone does
everyone wishes they could go back
you know maybe you had a terrible honeymoon
I don't know
some people do
but virtually speaking
I really enjoyed the honeymoon phase
of our marriage
it was a lot of fun
but you know it's over
accept that it's over
and focus on the good
and focus on
you know
the grace that God gives you
and there's still going to be
good things in your marriage
how about vision problems
that's frustrating
tooth problems
you know there's a
Bible verse that says
confidence in an unfaithful man
in time of trouble
is like a broken tooth
and a foot out of joint
and you know
the first set of teeth
you lose
it's okay
you get new ones
but that second teeth
they're not coming back folks
and boy
that can be horrible
tooth pain can be
some of the worst
you know we talked about
losing your hair color
what about just losing your hair
I mean there's some people
in this room
like Jason
I mean this is not coming back
okay sorry
but you know what
he can just accept that
and he's just like
I'm getting rid of the rest of it
you know
the other parts
you know they're gone too
and he's you know
he's like fine
I'll just work out
I'll be so buff
that nobody'll ever
say anything to me
you know
it's like
they won't be like
go up bald head
he'd be like
what'd you say
but Ecclesiastes
chapter 12
look at verse 1
remember now
thy creator
in the days of thy youth
while the evil days
come not
nor the years draw nigh
when thou shalt say
I have no pleasure in them
this is a scary verse
but it's real
there can come a
like when you get old
it gets to a point
where carnally speaking
you don't enjoy life
that's rough
but you know what
instead of just being focused
on how it sucks
you could do what
you could focus on other people
you could focus on the good
you could focus on the reality
I have a lot of other verses
I want to go to one more
go to Galatians chapter 6
and I want to focus on that
for a few minutes
but
think about Hosea
Hosea has to go
and the Bible says this about him
love a woman
beloved of her friend
yet an adulteress
wow that's rough
what if God told you
you have to love your wife
even though she's committed adultery
against you multiple times
you have two children
that are not yours
that you have to raise
and you have to pay her
pay your wife money
not to cheat on you
wow
that's a pretty good marriage
isn't it
but you know
here's the reality
about marriage
and I want you to
just think about this
for a second
realistically
in a marriage
it takes two people
one spouse
will be better
than the other
like it's impossible
to say like
both spouses
love each other
equally
like they're both
exactly the same
in that marriage
no
the reality is
one spouse
will be better than the other
and you know
you could say like
well that sucks
that my spouse isn't better
but do you really want the flip to be true
do you want to be the person
that's the worst spouse
in the relationship
I mean let's just be honest
objectively speaking
Hosea is the better spouse
than his wife
it's not even close
in their case
it's not even a competition
alright
it's just a fact
in 1 Peter chapter number 3
the Bible talks about wives
who are obviously superior
in that relationship
than their husband
the husband is not very good
in that relationship
the wife is doing good
ok
so when you look at your relationship
in marriage
often what everyone is focused on
is them
what am I getting out of it
or my marriage isn't great
or blah blah blah
rather than thinking about this
I'm just going to be
the best spouse
that I can possibly be
I mean Hosea
is being a better spouse
than most men in this room are
to their wives
who have never cheated on them
when his wife did cheat on him
that tells me
that you know what
there's no excuse
for you not being the best spouse
that you can possibly be
but why is it that
everyone tells me
that they don't want to be a good spouse
because their spouse sucks
well I would try harder
if she tried harder
well I would be nice
if she was nice
well I would treat him with respect
if he deserved it
well I would you know
be kind on him
or I would look
it's like it's always about
the other person
is the reason why
you're not doing
what you should be doing
but you know what
that is an excuse
and you're not accepting
the gimp that you have
in your life
you know what's a major gimp
what if you married this woman
it's not my fault
I didn't marry Hosea and his wife
okay
and yet
you know it's something
he has to live with
for the rest of his life
but God says just love her anyways
just do good under her anyways
you know
quit looking at marriage
as like what you're
going to get out of it
and start looking at
what you can put into it
it's the way
you look at marriage
from now on
you're only concerned
with one thing
how you treat your spouse
and loving them
and making them feel good
and making them do right
and helping them
and blessing them
that's what you should do
in marriage
marriage is not about you
it's about them
you're one flesh
and when one hurts
the other hurts
and you know
the problem is
everybody in marriage
just wants to think
about them
themselves
what they get out of it
they're focused on their gimp
they're focused on their issues
and I guarantee
every marriage problem
is just because
both parties are being selfish
because
because here's the thing
I guarantee
Hosea's wife
doesn't have a lot of complaints
doesn't have a lot
to bring to the table
to the marriage counseling
or whatever right
just like the woman
in 1 Peter chapter 3
her husband
doesn't have a lot
to bring to the table
like well she always
has the meals on the table
she always says to me sir
she's always
doing everything for me
it's like what is he
going to say
he can't
so you know what
he's probably happy
with his relationship
she might be miserable
she might have
the worst relationship
but he's having
a grand old time
but okay
that's just life
what if what if
the rest of my life
I have to suffer
and like my side of the equation
marriage sucks
but on my wife's side
it's great
okay
I mean isn't that
isn't that what I'm called to
didn't I make a vow
at the altar to do that
I said till death do us part
for better for worse
for richer for poorer
in sickness and in health
I mean that's what I said
did I mean it
or was I just saying it
thinking about the honeymoon
just like whatever
honeymoon
that's dumb
that's a bad way
to look at marriage
marriage is choosing
to love someone
when they don't deserve it
oh yeah that's what
Jesus does for us
he's focused on us
now here's the last one
I want to look at
look at verse 17
the bible says
from henceforth
let no man trouble me
for I bear in my body
the marks of the Lord Jesus
so the apostle Paul
had permanent scars
in his body
from having been beaten
for preaching the gospel
of Jesus Christ
was he focused on
his physical beauty
or his physical ability
to do things
or was he focused
on other people
hearing the gospel
you know he was willing
to take gimps
so that
other people
could be saved
other people
like in order
for some people
to be in heaven
the apostle Paul
has to get beaten up
he has to have
scars on his back
like the scars
on the apostle Paul's back
literally represents
certain souls
going to heaven
just like the stretch marks
on a woman's body
signifies the baby being born
just like the apostle Paul
he has stretch marks
on his body
for spiritual births
that are happening
but you know what
that's someone that just says
I'm willing to accept
the gimps of this life
and focus on the good
and just take God's grace
say you know what
hey God is going to give me
this life in this area
I don't know how he did it
it's pretty incredible
and you know
if you look a little bit
earlier in this chapter
it says in verse 12
as many as desire
to make a fair show
in the flesh
they constrain you
to be circumcised
only less
they should suffer persecution
for the cross of Christ
so an interesting aspect
of this is
in the Galatians
chapter 6
the Pharisees
or the Judaizers
are trying to teach
work salvation
they're trying to add
to the gospel
they teach that
salvation is not
by faith in Jesus Christ
it's by circumcision also
and not just by circumcision
in fact just keeping the law
is what they pretty much
are packaging in
with that saying
and the apostle Paul
in the book of Galatians
is combating that
and saying
salvation is a free gift
I'm not going to frustrate
the grace of God
if righteousness
come by the law
then you know
Christ is dead in vain
I mean just make it
abundantly clear
like salvation is a free gift
just by faith
not circumcision
and the people that think
it's adding circumcision
he says he's afraid of them
he says they're not saved
he says that they're
going to go to hell
that's what he's saying
very clearly
and
yet these individuals
what's interesting in verse 12
is
they're not constraining
themselves to be circumcised
they're constraining
others
to be circumcised
other people
to take this potential mark
for other people to be
permanently altered
for what?
for their benefit
and
notice if they didn't
they should suffer persecution
for the cross of Christ
so I was thinking about this
this is really an interesting idea
like
how are they suffering
by not getting people circumcised
okay
well look at verse 13 too
for neither they themselves
are circumcised
keep the law
but desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh
so
what's interesting
is
how
people who teach a works-based salvation
kind of fall victim
to not accepting certain things
and what I mean by this
is
there's a
modern-day context
where people preach
what you call
repent of your sins
as being necessary for salvation
who's heard that?
you got to repent of your sins to be saved
yeah
here's the problem
there's not one verse in the Bible that says that
zero verses say repent of your sins
now of course
we all need to
acknowledge that we're a sinner
and admit that we're a sinner
so that we can be saved
but turning from sin is impossible
notice what it said in verse 13
it says
for neither
they themselves who are circumcised
keep the law
you know what it's saying?
they don't keep the law
no one keeps the law
so the people that get up and say
you have to repent of your sins to be saved
let me tell you something about them
they have it repented of their sins
they don't repent of their sins
and they only want to bring up big ones
that they're not guilty of
like well I don't murder
oh okay wow
but you know the Bible says
having a foolish thought's a sin
the Bible says looking upon someone
that's the opposite gender
and desiring them is lust
and that's a sin
if you desire someone that's not your wife
that's a sin
and if we were really to study the Bible
we'd realize we sin all the time
you know you realize when you read the Bible
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God
that there's not a just man upon the earth
that doeth good and sinneth not
that we all sin all the time
here's something
that we accept the gimp in our life
that we're a sinner
we accept the reality that we're a sinner
and not just like a past sinner
a present sinner and a future sinner
you are a future sinner
if you think that you're going to give up sin
you are only deceiving yourself
no one in here will believe you
I for sure won't
and these repent of your sins preachers
they want to get up and pontificate about
oh you got to repent of your sins to be saved
I repent of my sin
liar
you've never repented of your sin ever
you might have given up one sin
but guess what
you still have thousands that we haven't been talking about
and they want to get up and say
you got to repent of your sins to be saved
it's a liar
and they don't keep the law
but you know what they are trying to do
they are trying to bring in converts
and get them to do a big show
so that it can look like they are actually reaching people
and you know these repent of your sins
they always want people to come up on stage
and give a testimony
and it's their fair show
look at this person that I brought in
he was a gang banging drug dealing
whore mongering freak or whatever
and now he's saved
but it's like what if we ask this guy
hey do you still look at people with lusts
yeah
did you still get high before here
it's like yeah
it's like okay
have you had any foolish thoughts
yeah
did you read your Bible yesterday
no
it's like did he really repent of his sins
or did he repent of a few big ones
hey I'm all for repenting of a few big ones
but you know who's also for that
everyone
that's why it's not controversial
it's not controversial to tell people
to live a better life
to clean yourself up
to not do really big bad things
like even killers
think that murder's bad
did you realize that if you go to jail
even they think that lying and stealing
and murder and those things are bad
and they really hate pedophiles
they'll kill them
praise god
but at the end of the day
what is not offensive
is telling people to clean up their lives
you know what's offensive?
telling them that you can't clean up your life
telling them that you're permanently a gimp
telling them that you're permanently a sinner
destined for hell
and there's nothing you can do about it
you can never fix it
that's offensive
that's offensive to people
and you know what brings in that offense
the cross of Christ
which says the only way
that you can have salvation
is through what Jesus did
and that is only by humbly accepting
the gospel of Jesus Christ
and focusing on the good of the gospel
that'll get you saved
and then what you have to do is
you have to then receive that grace
so just like our three points we've been talking about
you have to accept that you're a sinner
number two, you have to focus on the goodness of the gospel
of Jesus Christ
and then number three, what you have to do
is you have to receive that grace
but those who believe in or repent of your sins
they don't do that
you know what they do?
they pretend that they don't have a gimp
repent of your sins preachers
they don't have sin in their lives
they still have issues in their lives
they're still permanently scarred
they're still a sinner
and they can never ever fix it
and the first step to getting saved
is accepting and realizing
I have a gimp for the rest of my life
I'm a sinner
and point two is
realizing that the gospel
gives you that salvation
but you know what they do?
the gospel grieves them in their heart
it tells them that they're insufficient
it tells them that they're inadequate
it tells them that they're not capable
and you know what?
they don't like that feeling
of feeling like they're incapable of saving themselves
they don't like the feeling of feeling like
they can't earn their way to heaven
they don't like the idea of someone telling them
that they're not good enough
and that they need the gospel
that they need a savior
that's why they're so offended by the gospel message
that's why they're so offended by salvation
that's why they're so offended by believe only
is because they get no glory
the flesh hates this doctrine
the flesh hates every aspect
of what I preached this morning
the flesh hates the idea of you not focusing on
your problems or focusing on you
or focusing on your belly or focusing on your mind
the flesh wants you to focus on you
the spirit tells you to focus on others
the flesh wants to focus on
glorying itself
and lifting up itself like repent of your sins
false preachers
the spirit says you know what I'm a sinner
I can't reform myself
I can't save myself
I need to just accept what Jesus did
and lastly they won't accept grace
they just won't accept grace
and you know the vast majority of this room
is saved today
praise God if you're not saved you need to get saved right now
but the vast majority of people are saved in this room
but are you applying that same principle
those three steps
to other areas of life
are you accepting the other problems you have in your life
are you focusing on the good
and embracing the grace that God has
for you
you know we have to
recognize that we have issues
and we will always have issues
I will always have sin issues
you will always have sin issues
and we're even going to have permanent issues
and as we get older
you're more and more likely to have permanent
body issues
where your back's not right
or your leg's not right
or your arm's not right
your eyes aren't right
or your hearing
boy the hearing goes
what did you say sonny
you know it's just like
it's frustrating
it's not fun
but you know what
can't we just say right now
you know what
God I'm going to accept
who I am right now
you know what I'm just going to focus on the good
you know whatever my marriage is like
whatever my body is like
whatever opportunities I have
whatever losses I've had I'm going to accept them right now
and I'm just going to do the best that I can with them right now
and then
I'm just going to embrace whatever
grace God is going to bestow upon me
when I think about other people
if I'm permanently halt
I'm permanently halt
if he restores me whatever
you know the Lord gave
bless and be the name of the Lord
thank you Heavenly Father so much
for what you've given us
thank you so much for the free gift of salvation
I pray that you would just help us in our hearts
and our minds to just accept our reality
accept our lives that we have
and that we would just focus in
on the good
focus in on loving other people
and I pray that as we focus on others
and as we focus on good things
that you could just give us grace
that you give us mercy
peace that passes all understanding
and I pray that you would help us to realize
there's so many people dying and going to hell right now
being lied to by false preachers
that we would be motivated to go out and preach the gospel
that you would stir up our spirits
and our minds and our hearts
to be focused on other individuals
because this life is so short
and it's so vain
but the things that we do for Christ
will have eternal value
I pray that we would see the benefit of being spiritual
and that
rather you look at the outward appearance
but rather you look at the inward part of man
and I pray that we'll be motivated to serve you
all the days of our life
and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen
Alright, in closing, let's go to song number 81
Very applicable words
Song number 81
When we see Christ
Song number 81
Life's gimps will seem so small
when we see Christ
Song number 81
Life's gimps will seem so small
when we see Christ
Song number 81
Off times the day
seems long
Our trials
hard to bear
We're
damned into
the plain
to burger
and despair
But
Christ will soon
appear
to catch
Him right away
All
tears forever
over
in God's
eternal day
It
will be
worth
it all
When we
see Jesus
Life's
trials
seem so small
When we
see Christ
One
glance of His
dear face
All sorrow
will be raised
So
bravely run
the race
till we see
Christ
Sometimes
the skies
look dark
with not
a ray of light
We're
tossed and driven
on
No human
help inside
But there
is one in
heaven
who knows our
weakness
Let Jesus
solve our problem
Just go
to Him and
pray
It
will be
worth it all
When
we see Jesus
Life's
trials
seem so
small
When we
see Christ
One glance
of His
dear face
All sorrow
will be raised
So
bravely run
the race
Till we
see Christ
Life's
joy
All
storms
forever
cast
We'll cross
the great
divide
New glory
safe at last
We'll share
the joys of
man
A heart
will be vanished
We'll lay
our burden
down
It
will be
worth it all
When
we see Jesus
Life's
trials will seem
so small
When we
see Christ
One
glimpse of
His dear face
All sorrow
will be raised
So
bravely run
the race
Till we see
Christ
We have brother Colton
coming for baptism
Brother Colton have you trusted Christ your savior?
Then I baptize in the name of the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost
buried in the likeness of His death
raised to walk in newness of life
Congratulations
Make sure to congratulate our baptism
You are dismissed. God bless
you