We're going to turn to our first song, 364 in your hymnals.
If you can make sure to share with those that are on the row beside you.
Song 364, Standing on the Promises.
Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
Make sure to get in your hymnals.
Song 364, Standing on the Promises.
Turn to the first.
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 my Savior,
Standing, standing,
I'm standing on the promises of God,
Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When 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,
I'm standing on the promises of God,
Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord,
Bound him to eternal leave by love's strong core,
Overcoming daily with the Spirit's sword,
Standing on the promises of God,
Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Savior,
Standing, standing,
I'm 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,
I'm standing on the promises of God.
Very good singing. Let's start with the Word of Prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father for giving us this opportunity to be gathered together.
I pray that you would just bless our church services.
You'd help fill us with your Holy Spirit.
That you would bless all those that are here and those that can't make it.
And I pray that everything would be done in honor and glory of your Son.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Go to our next song, He Leadeth Me, song 116.
116.
He Leadeth Me, song 116.
He leadeth me, O blessed thought,
O words with heavenly comforts fraught,
Whate'er I do, where'er I be,
Still tis God's hand that leadeth me.
He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me,
His faithful Father I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.
Sometimes mid scenes of grief is gloom,
Sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom,
By water still or troubled sea,
Still tis His hand that leadeth me.
He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me,
His faithful Father I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.
Lord, I would clasp Thy hand in mine,
Nor ever murmur nor repine,
Content whatever lot I see,
Still tis my God that leadeth me.
He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me,
His faithful Father I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.
And when my task on earth is done,
When by Thy grace the victory's won,
In death called wave I will not flee,
Since God through Jordan leadeth me.
He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me,
His faithful Father I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.
Very good singing.
I only have a limited amount of bulletins,
the printer just started going crazy on me,
but if you have one and you've already looked at it,
pass it to your neighbor and let them look, all right?
So we're just sharing bulletins this morning.
On the front we have John chapter 1 verse 20.
Any child that's able to quote that verse
for the midweek service can receive a special treat.
On the inside we have our service and soul-wanting times
as well as our church stats.
And then on the right we have a list of our expecting ladies.
Also we have our prayer list.
Continue to pray for all those that are listed here.
We had a soul-wanting marathon yesterday at College Station
and we had about 25, 30 soul winners come out
and we had 28 salvations that were reported.
So praise the Lord on that.
So a lot of great work and it was really receptive.
So we didn't have a large group,
but pretty much everybody was able to get people saved
and it was really fun going down there
and we had a great time, great weather.
And so thanks for those that prayed,
even if you weren't able to make it.
On the back we have the note
about the homeschool field trip, April 29th.
And in order to participate,
you just need at least one child of the age of five
that you're homeschooling.
So if you have at least one student in your family,
then you can bring the whole family
and we'll let you participate in the homeschool field trip.
We're going to be going to the zoo
and so that'll be a lot of fun.
Hopefully they'll have the cat exhibit.
That's what I'm looking forward to.
Also May 21st is an Austin, Texas soul-winning marathon.
And so we'll be headed that way.
We're going to try and make Austin normal
is our philosophy.
And then the greatest announcement,
congratulations to the Urbanic family
on the birth of Rachel Michelle.
She was born on the 30th at 1208 AM.
She weighed six pounds, six ounces
and 19 and three quarter inches long.
So congratulations then that's so exciting.
And it's great to be able to see
a physical representation of our church growing.
All right.
So we get to see these babies
and what a great blessing to see our prayers
turn into literal people.
So that's pretty much all I have
for announcements this morning.
We're going to go and go to our third song,
64 in our hymnals song 64.
There is in the back more soul-winning materials.
So we have new testaments,
some of those Spanish new testaments that we've made,
some DVDs and cards and everything like that.
So get it while it lasts.
That's all I can say.
I borrowed some from Pure Words.
Most of our stuff is still in deep storage.
So it's kind of hard to get access to it,
but hopefully I can still bring up
some material here and there.
And that way we can grab it.
Some leftovers from the soul-winning marathon as well.
So song 64 in our hymnals,
Shall We Gather at the River?
Song 64.
You're on the verse.
Shall we gather at the river
Where bright angel feet have trod
With its crystal tide forever
Flowing by the throne of God
Yes, we'll gather at the river
The beautiful, the beautiful river
Gather with the saints at the river
That flows by the throne of God
On the bosom of the river
Where the aviary king we own
We shall meet in sorrow never
Neath the glory of the throne
Yes, we'll gather at the river
The beautiful, the beautiful river
Gather with the saints at the river
That flows by the throne of God
Ere we reach the shining river
Lay we every burden down
Grace our spirits will deliver
And provide a robe and crown
Yes, we'll gather at the river
The beautiful, the beautiful river
Gather with the saints at the river
That flows by the throne of God
Soon we'll reach the shining river
Soon our pilgrimage will cease
Soon our happy hearts will quiver
With the melody of peace
Yes, we'll gather at the river
The beautiful, the beautiful river
Gather with the saints at the river
That flows by the throne of God
The throne of God
This time we'll turn our Bibles and we'll pass the offering plate to Psalm 29
Follow along as Brother Ben's gonna read for us Psalm 29
And we'll pass the offering plate to this time
Psalm 29 the Bible reads
Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness
The voice of the Lord is upon the waters
The God of glory thundereth
The Lord is upon many waters
The voice of the Lord is powerful
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty
The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars
The Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon
He maketh them also to skip like a calf
Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn
The voice of the Lord divided the flames of fire
The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness
The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh
The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calf
And discovereth the faucets
And in his temple doth everyone speak of his glory
The Lord sitteth upon the flood
Yea, the Lord sitteth king forever
The Lord will give strength unto his people
The Lord will bless his people with peace
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer
Why don't we take you before the morning service and set fast the Baptist church
and let's pray you fill in the name of God with your spirit
and enable him to thunder forth your word
and help us to pay attention and apply the message to our lives
Okay? Amen
Amen. So we're here in Psalm 29 and it's a really great psalm of the Bible
It really emphasizes God's word and the title of my sermon this morning is
The Power of God's Word
And we see here in verse number one the Bible reads
Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength
Now this one verse you could probably preach a whole sermon on
but if you think about it what the Bible is saying is that we're supposed to
give glory unto God because he's worthy of that glory
and it's specifically calling out a group of people
it's calling out the mighty meaning those that have strength
those that have might given to them by God
God gave us might for a reason that might is to give glory to God
you know and what kind of might do you need
well I don't know how about the might to fight to fight a giant
a Goliath that's standing in the way defying the God the armies of Israel
you know and it takes a lot of might to face off with someone twice your size
to go toe to toe with the man
but you know what God gave David that might so that he could give glory to the God of Israel
by striking the Philistine in the forehead with a rock and slicing off his head
and going around and triumphing and destroying all of the Philistines
you know God didn't make David a great warrior just to give glory and honor to David
no he made David a great warrior to give glory unto God
and you know what God gives us strength and he gives us might and he gives us power
so that we can take that energy we can take that effort we can take that strength
and use it to give glory to God
notice that is saying that we're supposed to give of our strength
meaning oh I have all this ability to think critically or I'm very strong physically
or I have a lot of assets that are at my disposal
well you know what God gave you that might God gave you that strength to glorify God
to end up expending all of your energy all of your assets
all of the things that God's blessed you with giving him glory giving him honor
giving him praise and yet we often spend it on ourselves don't we
we often allow ourselves to think well look how wonderful I am think how strong I am
think how mighty I am to end up what collecting a lot of wealth
collecting a lot of praise when we think of the mighty of the earth today
most of the mighty are not interested in glorifying the Lord
they're interested in glorifying themselves
you know last time I checked the jerseys at every single one of the
sport teams the professional athlete teams in this country
have the guy's own name on it don't they
it doesn't say like praise the Lord on the back of their jersey
it doesn't say John 3 16 on the back of their jersey
it has their name or it has a fake name like Ocho Cinco
which is just completely worthless there was a football player Chad
and he changed his name to Ocho Cinco which was his number in Spanish
you know 85 in Spanish is Ocho Cinco and so he thinks he's cool
he's not even Hispanic I don't even get it
it's like Chad Johnson or whatever some black guy
changes his name to Ocho Cinco or whatever
it's like if you're gonna put something different on the back of your jersey
why not put John 3 16 right
I mean if you're gonna put something completely obscure
but of course they're not given all this power and might
to glorify themselves the Bible says we're given that to give him glory
to give him honor not to have statues and posters and billboards in our name
and in our glory and in our fashion and all the things that God has blessed us with
it's not to glorify man it's to glorify God
and the Bible makes it clear that we're supposed to give that back to the Lord
whatever God gave us of power might strength money any of that
we're supposed to bless the Lord and give the Lord that power
why would God want to create a bunch of weak beings to worship him
no he gave us great strength great in fact we are the top of the food chain
you know there's no animal that can conquer us we've conquered all the animals
yes I kill the wasps okay yes I kill all the beasts of the field
yes man conquered all the beasts he conquered the lion he conquered the dragon
he conquered the bear and you know what man is supposed to be at the top of the food chain
to give glory to God to just show how great God is
you're supposed to expend all of our efforts and all of our energy and all of our might
and the praising the Lord and giving him the glory that he is due not trying to see how
much glory we can rack up for ourselves not see how much we can enjoy this life for
ourselves but rather seeing how much we can give back to the Lord considering he gave us life
considering he gave us breath the Bible says in verse two give unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name worship the Lord and the beauty of holiness here's a way that you
need to expel a lot of strength and a lot of might today is living a clean life and you know
what the Bible says that God gets more praise more glory out of you serving him in holiness
what is holiness holiness is being set apart holiness is doing that which is right holiness
is being holy be holy is what God said and you know what the more separated life you live
the better you aren't following God's commandments the more you obey and every single day the more
that you're reading your Bible the more that you're praying the more that you're getting the
sin out of your life gives more honor and more glory to the Lord Jesus Christ when you have
a group of people that are washing the filth of this world off of themselves and they're
separating themselves and they're making themselves holy and then they're worshiping
God and they say I don't care how weird this world gets I don't care how disgusting and
filthy and abominable this world gets I'm gonna stay holy so that I give more honor and more
glory to God what gives more honor to your guests when they come over to your house for
a dinner party the cheap silverware the cheap bowl the bowl that you cooked spaghetti in
and now it has a like a red ring around the edge of it you know what I mean like if you
ever put spaghetti sauce in anything plastic it's red for the rest of its life you know what
I mean and you know or do you want to bring out the cleanest vessel you want to bring out
the nicest dishes you want to bring out the fine china as it were to present unto your guests
that gives them more honor that gives them more glory and here's the thing we are vessels
of the Lord and you know what God wants us to be as clean as possible
God doesn't want us to just be some dirty vessel you know do you really want me to offer
you a beverage that I already you know have kind of taken some use out of you know like hey
I took a couple drinks out of that and so did my toddler now he was eating a cookie before
so you might get a little extra cookie in there you know here you go buddy or would you like
just a brand new clean I mean it's just been hand washed and hand toweled here's a here's a
vessel for you to drink out of right isn't that what you want and the same as with God God
wants a clean vessel God wants a vessel that's been cleaned up to be presented unto him and to
give him honor and to give him glory and you know what that's what God calls us to do the
Bible orders us to do this the Bible says give unto the Lord the glory do unto his name
notice that God deserves this God is owed this we are supposed to live a holy and separated life
just for God's sake alone just to give praise I mean if Jesus Christ died on the cross
for every single one of your sins why would you not then say you know what I need to stop
doing such wickedness such evil such rebellion considering what Christ had to do for me
you know the Bible makes it abundantly clear that God is deserving of our praise God is deserving
of our glory we should be constantly glorifying the Lord you know one of the best ways to do
this is singing that's why a lot of the great books of the Bible talking about praise and
glory are the songs why because we're supposed to glorify God on a regular basis we're
supposed to praise the Lord on a regular basis you know and a sad thing is how few people on
this earth actually praise the Lord on a regular basis how few people are giving glory unto the
Lord Jesus Christ you know praising his name and you know what God likes to be worshiped in
a certain way and one of those ways is singing the Psalms and if we're going to narrow
it down I mean even if you just take the most liberal Christian you know you take the most
liberal of Christianity all these people a lot of them will sing songs to the Lord but if you
were to say who's singing the Psalms like who's singing the words right here found in your Bible
it's such a small group of people on this planet and let me tell you something it's a shame
how few people today are singing the Psalms of God you know we should be putting our effort and
our energy into making music out of the Psalms and singing praises unto God you know what I
get convicted by this that's why I work on a lot of Psalms and let me tell you something it's not
easy it's not you know something that just goes overnight it takes a lot of effort it takes a lot
of energy and because we're singing about God I also don't want to just do a half job you know
I don't want it to just be kind of like a weird musical tune I want it to be something that's
makes a lot of sense it's a really good tune the lyrics fit really well I mean I don't
want to just put a little bit of energy in this I mean we're singing about the God of the universe
here we better put some effort and energy into this thing we better make sure this is going to
work really well and here's my philosophy I want to do the best that I can but I understand
I'm limited in my abilities there's people that are infinitely smarter wiser and more talented
in this area than I am but here's my philosophy if I can make a good Psalm and you make a better
one then I'll start singing yours when you make yours okay so it's like there's no when you have
nothing on the table when you have nothing to give when you have nothing to even offer me
like let's just use what I got and then when you make it 10 times better I'll start singing
yours you know I have no problem in fact if you look in your hymnal you'll find some songs
doubled like you'll find like a Jesus loves me and then like a Jesus loves me
you realize that there's a reason why we sing one of them because one of them is way better
than the other one let's just be honest right I mean some songs are just better some songs are
a little bit more unique or they're easier to sing or whatever the case is but you know what
we should be putting effort and energy into praising the Lord and praising God you know here's
some effort energy learning an instrument you know no one virtually can just pick up an
instrument and just start playing it sounds good your children are helping you realize this every
day okay if you give them any kind of lessons you know my children love the piano but let's
you know be real they can't just play it you know they get up there just bang it you know
it's just like clang clang clang clang whatever but you know they have that interest it takes a
lot of effort it takes a lot of energy it takes a lot of skill to get to a point where you
can play an instrument of the Lord with a lot of skill you know and I took piano lessons the
majority of my life growing up and I hated it you know what it's because I really didn't have
any purpose for it you know I really I just it was just playing music and I was just playing
classical pieces I didn't really care about the classical pieces that much I wasn't even really
learning music theory so unfortunately despite all the years of practice I had it didn't even
really profit me that much because outside of playing that specific piece of music I was worthless
you know as a piano player I was basically like a parlor trick right I'd come in and just play like
a fit like a bunch of fancy classical pieces of music and people like oh you're so good at the
piano it's like well I mean I'm good at this song you know but eventually I got to a point
where my music teacher thought I needed to go up to another level get actual music theory learn
how to play the piano learn really difficult pieces and I basically told my mom I was like I
hate piano I don't want to do anymore and so she let me quit and let me tell you something
that was a bad decision I wish that my mom had said I don't care if you hate it or not you're
going to learn this you're going to do this anyways and you know what now in hindsight I would
have been like wow that'd been a great ability a great skill if I could just sit down and just
play any song just like that and you know what people that have put a lot of effort and
energy into an instrument they can some people are savant and that that's not fair but most of
us humans we have to actually put a lot of practice a lot of effort a lot of energy into
playing an instrument but you know what you can do with that instrument you can praise God with
it you know how many people are literally playing music for hours every single day
and they're so good at an instrument and they're never going to worship God with it
you know they're just they want to be in the band you know they want to make an album
they want to get a hit you know they want to be a YouTube sensation or whatever and they're
just looking for vain glory all the skill all the effort all the energy that God gave them
to expound towards the Lord and then they just waste it they squander it on selfish ambition
on selfish glory and look none of these musicians it doesn't even their lives just
suck anyways because they always kill themselves they're on drugs and they basically ruin their
entire life I mean what's the point of even going down that road anyways for their 15 minutes
of fame you know what but you can sing in church your whole life and you can get great utility out
of playing instruments and singing to God your whole life and you know what God made us musical
on purpose so that we give honor and glory to him in fact probably the most musical creation
of God was the devil I mean he literally has musical instruments put in his body is what the
Bible says he's got like pipes and stuff like this and of course if the devil was made to create
music what does he do he perverts music to end up leading people into hell rather than
giving the glory that God gave him under the Lord but you know what if God made probably
arguably if at least in the angel realm the greatest angel to literally have music in his body
don't you think he thinks it's important for us to have music too
and let me tell you something God put music in your body
he gave you pipe he gave you pipes it's called your vocal cords and you're supposed to open
your pipes and you're supposed to give glory and praise unto God and God gave us an ability
to sing unto the Lord and that's what we're supposed to do on a regular basis is sing praises
unto God and let me tell you something I don't care how good you are at singing or not
get better you know I always love kids singing and they're not always the greatest but it just
sounds good anyways you just like it you love it when your kids sing and let me tell you
something God loves it when his children sing as well and we're supposed to be singing the
word of God and you say well why sing the word of God because the word of God has power
the word of God has power and let me tell you something the word of God makes major changes
because of the power of God's word let me tell you something there would be almost no false
doctrine in Baptist churches today if they sing all 150 Psalms on a regular basis
I mean the the ability to preach as much false doctrine as they do is because they haven't
even been singing the word of God but when you're just singing and screaming the word of
God it's really hard to then believe the exact opposite you know when you're literally singing
out loud do not I hate them oh Lord that hate thee it's going to be really hard for the Baptist
to get up and say like oh I can't believe this hate speech hate it's like we we what about
that song that we sang what about how the Lord abhors the bloody and deceitful man
I mean how about that song you know I mean how about all these you know songs about breaking
their teeth in their mouth oh God how about all these songs that it says that we're
going to rejoice when we see the vengeance Lord you know how how how how do you reconcile
that with your doctrine pastor oh it's because they don't sing it our God is an awesome God
he reigns I mean who's going to argue with that and you know I give that song a really hard
time but it's because of the lack of them actually singing the Psalms you know it's not like
I really just think any song praising God is necessarily bad but when we replace the power
of God's word with your cheap little ecumenical imitation I don't like it I like the power of
God's word I like singing what God actually said and let me tell you something there's a major
difference between the Psalms and the contemporary Christian music today it's giant
difference and if you've ever been to one of these lame Christian churches today you know what
I'm talking about a bunch of effeminate queer sissy little type singing a bunch of girls in
miniskirts and dudes in skinny jeans getting on stage turn out the lights and they basically
whisper in the mic our God is an awesome God it's like get that faggoty queer off the stage
let's start singing the power of God's word you know what God gave you some strength
why don't you put some strength behind that voice you don't even sound like a man
I mean a man sounds different than a woman that's why every time I go through the drive
through I know what you are you don't have to get I don't have to guess I don't have to
look at you in fact I can't tell by looking at many of the men today it's the Adam's apple
and it's the basic you know like my name is Karen no dude it's not okay and why would you
want to be Karen anyways all right sorry if your name Karen all right you can't you can't
change that all right just embrace it let's keep going I can spend all day on this verse
three the voice of the Lord is upon the waters the glory of God thundereth the Lord is upon
many waters the voice of the Lord is powerful the voice of the Lord is full of majesty you know
I love that word majesty and you know majesty is a picture of grandeur of greatness of splendor
the Bible is saying the voice of the Lord is full of magic meaning the word of God is unlike
anything else it's greater than anything else it has more splendor than any other words you know