everybody and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. We can go and find our
seats. We'll get started. We find a seat, go and grab a hymnal. For our first song
we'll start in song number 48. Song number 48, "Be So Glad." It may be a new song to
some, familiar to some. Those that know it well, sing it out. Song number 48, we're
gonna do it two times. Song number 48, "I'll Be So Glad." We love you and we just thank you again for this
church. Thank you for everybody here. Such a privilege and an honor to be in your
house, Lord. We just ask that you fill us with your spirit and bless this church as
we sing unto you. And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, for our next song,
let's go to song number 207. Song number 207, center. Song number 207, "Dinging." If you
need another bulletin, you can lift your hand nice and high. One of us just can
come by get you guys a bulletin. Thanks for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
We're on Jonah chapter 2 as a memory verse, and then on the inside we have our
service, soul winning times, our church stats. Make sure you're turning those
into our new soul winning group. If you have any questions about that, you can
ask one of our captains. If you're not sure who your captain is, you can ask me
ushers and we can help point you in the right direction. On the right, we have the
list of our expecting ladies, our prayer list. We'll go over that in just a moment.
Coming events, we have tomorrow night is our Texas chili cook-off. Just just for
an idea, who's planning on bringing a chili? Just so I have some kind of idea.
And if you can try to get those by 530, that would really help, especially for
the competition. You don't have to enter the competition if you just still just
want to bring chili, you can. The only, really our rules are very simple, just no
fillers. So just no beans, noodles, or rice as far as the competition portion. If
you want to bring your nasty garbage bean chili that's not gonna be in the
competition, you can of course do so and it'll be the last one to be eaten. But,
sorry that was harsh, but I was just you know sometimes you need the hard truths
of the Bible. Of course you can bring that and I will not partake, but can
always do what you would like. But we would love for you to visit, we're gonna
have my wife's been making cornbread muffins, we have Fritos, we have cheese,
and then if you'd like to also bring a dessert can, also if you'd like to bring
cards or board game or something, we'll be fellowshipping. In fact, I'm kind of
like maybe about 20 or 30 minutes after the service, we'll try to make an
announcement and if you guys can help us, we're gonna try and bring a bunch of
tables in here and just get it all set up this evening. So if you want to stick
around and help us, we'll give you a few minutes to fellowship, but maybe about
20 or 30 minutes afterwards, we'll probably ask and see if people can help
us just kind of transform our area into a nice fellowship area. And so looking
forward to tomorrow night and we'll even have some candy to throw at you kids,
okay? So there you go. So you can have some candy tomorrow night as well. But
we're looking forward to a time of fellowship tomorrow night and some
Texas chili. November 16th is the Miami swimming marathon. Please pray for that.
November 24th is the ordination service for Brother Oz in Oklahoma City. And
really looking forward to this. Brother Oz is such a loyal, God-fearing, great
preacher, great family. Really looking forward to what they're gonna do there
at Anchor Baptist Church of Oklahoma. And so just definitely pray for them. And if
you know him or if you have his information, contact him, encourage him. It
definitely means a lot to know that you have people supporting you. And so we
really look forward to that. On the back, it does have those notes that I just
kind of brought up again. And so if you are curious about some of those details.
Our prayer lists, we've been praying for the Naim's grandmother, continue to pray
for her vision, health and salvation. We've been praying for the Carlson's
mother's health as well. We've been praying for Ms. Miller's friend's mother
who unfortunately has cancer. We've been praying for the Scotts' parents for
their health. We've been praying for the Garcia's for their daughter's pregnancy.
We've been praying for Brother Foley for his fiance and also for a co-worker, and
they've had some positive news as far as a fiance, so that's still going well.
Continue to pray for them. Brother Caputo, we've been praying for his
healing. I think he's doing better. Also we've been praying for Brother Stuart
for a sister-in-law who's also struggling with cancer. Continue to pray
for Brother Roger's mother who's having surgery on the 1st. We also have the
FERS if you continue to pray for them for the passing away of their grandparents.
So we'll just go ahead and say a quick word of prayer for those that were
mentioned. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church and thank you for all
these ladies are expecting. I pray that you please be with them in their
pregnancies. I pray that you'd also bless our church family that's struggling with
health. Please help those that are struggling with cancer and with these
serious illnesses. I pray if possible you just give them a miracle. Just give
them full recovery. I pray that you just give them patience and give them peace
during this time of tribulation. You just help them, that you would comfort them. I
pray that you would help us to be an encouragement and to bear one another's
burdens in these situations. I pray that you would help us to bring the gospel to
those that are still needing it, whether it be our friends or family members. I
pray that you just also give favor to our church family that needs it with
their jobs or with their relationships. I pray that you would just be with those
that have lost loved ones and you'd comfort them. And I pray that you just
continue to use us as a bright and shining light in such a dark world. In
Jesus name we pray. Amen. We're gonna go ahead and sing our Psalm of the week Psalm
147. It's in our special handouts. Psalm 147. Sing it out nice and loud. Psalm
147. Psalm chapter 147 in your special handout. King James Bible. Psalm chapter 147.
Book of Ecclesiastes chapter number 11. Book of Ecclesiastes chapter number 11.
The Bible reads, "Cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it
after many days. Give a portion to seven and also to eight. For thou knowest not
what evil shall be upon the earth. If the clouds be full of rain, they empty
themselves upon the earth. And if the tree fall toward the south or toward the
north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. He that
observeth the winds shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not
reap. As thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the bones do grow
in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not the works of
God who maketh all. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not
thine hand. For thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that, or
whether they shall be, or whether they both shall be a light good. Truly the
light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun. But if
a man live many years and rejoice in them all, yet let him remember the days
of darkness, for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity. Rejoice, O young
man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and
walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes. But know thou
that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore, remove
sorrow from thy heart and put away evil from thy flesh, for childhood and youth
are vanity. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for allowing us to be in
church. Thank you for said Baptist Church. Thank you for the King James
Bible. I pray that you'd be with Pastor Shelley. Bless him, fill him with your
Holy Spirit and help us to receive the sermon that you've laid on his heart.
Praise in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. So here in Ecclesiastes chapter 11 we're kind of
getting close to the end of this particular book of the Bible and he's
giving us some more instructions that's just general wisdom. I think that
Ecclesiastes has a lot of similarities to the book of Proverbs where it's giving a
lot of just general wisdom. There are some themes that we can kind of draw
out from a few of these chapters but this particular chapter is a pretty
interesting chapter. It has a few different concepts that are pretty
famous. This first verse is kind of an interesting more famous section of
scripture but it says, "Cast thy bread upon the waters, thou shalt find it
after many days." Now this has kind of been a puzzling proverb or a puzzling
concept to a lot of people. You could look it up online. Lots of different
ideas but I want to explain you know what I believe the Bible is clearly
saying in this passage and I think in order to understand spiritual truths a
lot of times it helps to try and understand maybe the carnal aspect
that's being mentioned here and so if we kind of really just think about this for
just a second, "Pasting bread upon the waters." Now it's funny because I asked my
wife, I said, "What do you think that this is like referring to?" and she's like,
"It's just saying feed the ducks," you know and so and she was just joking with
me but it was just kind of funny but obviously you know this does have some
kind of a significance and sometimes when we think about a carnal truth though
the carnal truth isn't always necessarily positive because if you
were to take bread and we think about bread it's a finished product. Bread is
something that's gone through a lot of different processes and it's in a
consumable form. It's essentially you've you've sowed wheat, it's grown up into
wheat, then you've harvested the wheat, you've turned into grain, it's now flour,
you've mixed it with other substances, now you have baked it and it's become
bread, now it's a consumable product, so it's kind of at its its final stage and
then water itself is not something that you sow anything into, right? You're not
gonna you're not gonna plant things in water, you're not gonna throw things in
water and expect some kind of a yield or some kind of return, so I think what's
kind of being illustrated here is the idea of taking a finished product and
sowing it into something that will for sure yield no profit whatsoever, okay? So
if we kind of think about what's being illustrated here, it wouldn't make any
logical sense to take bread and throw it into water and expect any positive
result out of that, whereas the opposite when we think about like taking seed
and sowing it into soil, that's what we would try to do to try and actually get
some kind of a return, some kind of an investment. We're sowing into something
that we believe will help us or benefit us, whereas taking a finished product
like bread and just throwing it into water will not benefit us. In fact, it
will ruin the bread. If you throw bread into water, it's kind of ruined now. It's
soggy. It's gross. It becomes inedible. It's kind of wasted in a sense. And what
the Bible is saying here, "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find
that for many days," is saying there are decisions you can make that carnally
cannot benefit you, that do not make sense whatsoever carnally, but in some
way you're gonna reap a benefit or a blessing out of this, okay? Now he's not
saying this in the sense that this will apply carnally. This is obviously a
spiritual truth only. You cannot literally throw bread into water and
expect to find it and it's gonna help you in any way, okay? But what we could do
is we could potentially take a finished product in some way and somehow
distribute it in a way that could never potentially benefit us and then somehow
receive a blessing. What would be one application of this? This would be
illustrated in the idea of giving money to the poor, okay? And I think that that's
one of the main applications that is being illustrated in this particular
concept or in this particular idea. I want you to go to a lot of places. I want
to really focus on this verse for a while. So I want to go to a lot of
verses because I think this is an important concept. Go to Proverbs chapter
19, go to Proverbs chapter 19. Think about this, giving money to a poor person in a
sense is a bad investment, carnally speaking. And by giving money to the poor
you're kind of giving them a finished product, right? You go and you work, you
labor, you pay taxes and you have to do all this stuff and now you get money and
that's kind of the end result of your labor of all your work. You have a
finished product and then you're just handing it over to someone that's poor.
Well in a sense it's almost like casting bread upon the waters in the sense that
you're not really benefiting anything from this carnally. It doesn't make sense
to lend money to poor people because they're very unlikely to pay you back.
They don't have the ability to help you in any kind of way and so in a sense
you're just kind of like in a carnal sense just throwing money away. You're
just kind of destroying some finished product. But what the Bible teaches is
that when you actually give money to the poor you're gonna reap some benefit from
doing this but it has to take faith. It takes faith in order to reap that
particular benefit. Now, Proverbs chapter 19, look what it says in verse 17, "He that
hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given will
he pay him again." So notice, actually by giving money to a poor person you're
somehow lending money to God and God says well I'll repay. Which, again, if you
didn't believe the Bible, if you don't believe in God, this makes no sense
whatsoever. And honestly giving money to the poor, expecting something in return,
is not worth it anyways because the Bible actually teaches that when you
lend you should be hoping for nothing in return and that that's actually how you
get this kind of a blessing. We're not, we shouldn't be giving money thinking
like oh now I hit the jackpot because I'm like God's gonna bless me or
something like that. There is no guarantee or certainty about what
happens in this life but what we do know is that God will repay. It may not even
be in this life, it could be in the next life, but we do know he will repay. But
we also just know it's right to help and lend unto the poor and to cast thy
bread upon the waters and that God has benefits to the people who bless the
poor. Now I don't want to just leave this hanging. That's why I want to look at a
lot of verses about this subject. So let's look at a few more verses and
Proverbs and then I want to go to the New Testament on this subject as well.
Look at chapter 14, but notice when you give money to the poor you're lending to
God. That takes faith. It takes faith to give money to somebody that you're never
gonna see that money back. You're never gonna get repaid. You're never gonna get
any kind of carnal benefit out of it, but you're just trusting, you know what?
God gave me that money in the first place and if I give it to them, God's
gonna make sure I have what I need and He's gonna take care of me and I'm
really lending it unto the Lord. I'm not just throwing money away, but it could
look like you're just casting your bread upon the waters in a carnal sense.
Proverbs 14, look at verse 21. The Bible says, "He that despised of his neighbor
sinneth, but he that hath mercy on the poor hapiest he." The Bible actually says
you can be happy by giving money to poor people. That's like a
tangible benefit that'll just make you feel better when you just give money to
somebody. That's why the Bible also talks about when you give, you shouldn't be
giving grudgingly, because then you're like ruining the entire benefit anyways.
You should just, you should just be like, "Hey, this person needs help. I like this
person. I want to help them. They're poor. Hey, I'm just gonna help them." And then you
can actually feel better about it. You know, we should live our lives seeing how
we can help people not hating people. We shouldn't spend our entire lives just
focused on hating people. Notice what the Bible said in this particular verse, you
know, verse 21, "He that despiseth his neighbor sinneth." We shouldn't just go
around hating people. We shouldn't just go around despising people. Like, this is
the bad way to live your life. We should not live our life being a hater. We should
live our lives being someone that loves people and does good unto people and is
focused on the people that we can build up and the people that we can do good
unto, not the people we can hate on. Like that's just a bad way to live your life
and according to the Bible you're sinning by just despising your neighbor
anyways. Go over to Proverbs 22 for a moment. Go to Proverbs 22. Hey we've all
been poor at times probably. If you haven't I don't know who you are. I don't
know what your life's like. But most of us we probably had times when we were down
on our luck. We've needed money. We've needed a handout. We need something and
you know what it's really nice when you had somebody just there to help you.
Someone you could ask. And look asking for money is probably one of the most
embarrassing things to have to do. I hate asking for money. I don't want to ever do
it and frankly speaking like the Bible talks about men just working with
quietness anyways. So it's a biblical construct that men would just work. You
know sometimes people just need help. They need something you know some some
extra encouragement or whatever and it's always been nice. I remember my dad and
my brother would make fun of me because when I was in college I didn't have
enough money to fill up my gas tank. Like I would just put as much as I could
like I'd put 20 bucks in or 10 bucks or whatever and and so I would usually like
just put enough to just get through the week or something like that. Well they
were making fun of me in front of my grandpa and my grandpa just whips out a
couple hundred dollars and just hands it to me he's just like he's just like hey
now you can fill up your gas tank and I was just thinking like this is great you
know like they're making fun of me for being poor but my grandpa he just like
well you know what instead of making fun of my grandson I'm just gonna give him
money and you know I love my grandpa you know unfortunately passed away but that
was that was cool and you know that made me feel that made me feel better as a
person I didn't ask him for the money he didn't have to give me the money but you
know what he just thought hey instead of making fun of poor people why don't we
just help poor people you know why don't we just do good on the people that are
down on their luck or don't have much again I didn't have a job I played golf
I was in college it wasn't like I was lazy it was just I didn't really have an
opportunity to have much money and he just helped me out he blessed me
Proverbs 22 look at verse 9 he that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed for he
giveth of his bread to the poor notice again the person that's blessed is the
person that's giving to poor people and this just makes logical sense if you
actually believe in God go to Proverbs 28 go to Proverbs 28 why because if God
cares about poor people and you're a vessel to be used to bless poor people
then why would God not want to keep blessing you I mean God's gonna want to
keep making sure that you're doing well and that you have financial means and
that you're taking care of when you're taking care of other people and so if
you really want God to bless you sometimes we got to think about like are
we helping what are we doing with the stuff that God's given us you know you
want more well what are you doing with what God's already given you and are you
considering you know helping people when they have need Proverbs 28 look at
verse 27 he that giveth unto the poor shall not lack but he that hideeth his
eyes shall have many a curse now again what is the temptation to not want to
help somebody is that you're afraid you'll go without you're afraid hey if I
give money this person then I won't have money or I won't have what I need or I
won't be able to take care of the things that I need to take care of or whatever
the potential or situation is but notice what the Bible says if you give unto the
poor you shall not lack but if you hide your eyes you shall have many a curse so
here's the thing there's obviously more poor people in this world than you could
ever even give a dime to okay we couldn't even give a dime to every single
poor person that exists we don't have that much money we're not Elon Musk or
something okay so it's not possible for you to just help all poor people or just
help people poor people all the time and you know it's no blessing for you to go
into the poor house to help poor people either right it's when you have extra
when you have abundance when you have the ability that's when you're gonna
help poor people obviously you know you first put the oxygen mask on yourself
and then you assist others around you right so obviously we're talking about
situations where you have the ability you have something but hiding your eyes
is the idea that you have some money you don't have to have it and you're aware
of somebody that has a legitimate need or concern or has talked to you or
whatever and you could help that person but instead you just I kind of want to
ignore their situation I want to ignore their need for help I want to ignore
the people in my life and I'm just gonna kind of pretend like they don't exist so
that I don't have to feel like I should give them money that's what the Bible is
bringing up and it's saying hey if you decide to just go ahead and just lend to
the Lord you're gonna be happy you're gonna be blessed you're not gonna lack
but here's here's the problem with God is he blesses you when you do right he
curses when you don't do right so it's not even it's not even only like hey if
I don't help this person it's just a oops not a big deal what does the Bible say
he shall have many a curse that's what the Bible says so you know we should
take this seriously and what does the Bible say cast thy bread upon the
waters sometimes you need to just take something that's a finished product and
yeah it's not gonna bless you it's not gonna help you but that's just how God
wants to be look at Proverbs 29 verse 7 right there here's another thing to
consider though the righteous consider it the cause of the poor but the wicked
regardeth not to know it so we also should not just indiscriminately give
money out to poor people and the Bible has many caveats this should be a whole
sermon honestly I'm just trying to condense it quickly for this point
because I think it's an important point but the Bible says in 2nd Thessalonians
chapter number three if a man would not work neither should he eat so the Bible
is not saying giving money to the lazy the Bible is not saying giving money to
drug addicts the Bible is not saying give money to people that are going to
use it for wicked means the Bible does not say to give it to people that are
going to do something bad with it okay but what would be somebody that would be
poor would be somebody hey they're still working they're still trying they're
still you know doing what's right but they go on a hardship they get sick they
have an injury they have a problem maybe they're a widow maybe they're an orphan
the Bible talks about people that are in bad situations they're not bad people
you know we shouldn't just give money to bad people but we can there can be a
good person that's poor there's plenty of good people that are poor and
especially the brethren especially God-fearing soul-winning fundamental
badness those are great people to help out and honestly I think the vast
majority of giving and blessing the poor should probably be doing it to the
people in your in your church obviously you've got a really small church you
don't know that many people obviously you could help some other people on the
way hey if you have a co-worker that needs help you can help that person
family member you can help your neighbor that's literally across the street or
whatever I'm not saying limit your charity and your benevolence to only
people in the church but I'm just saying like primarily if I'm to give money to
somebody that's poor I'd rather give money to people in my church than than
anybody else and then probably next would be like family members or co-workers
or friends or then you know maybe some people that are near me in my near
proximity and everything like that but in general we should not hide our eyes
but we should consider the cause of the poor hey are you poor because you just
keep drinking alcohol day and you won't get a job I won't give you money you
know when homeless derelicts asked me for money you know what I say I say go
to church and then we'll talk come to my church and then we'll talk I say I help
people my church but you know what I'm not just gonna give money to some
homeless derelict who refuses to work who's just gonna spend that money on
drugs and alcohol that will not help him and if you think that giving money to
that person is helping him you are deceived by the reason why people are
homeless in America people are not homeless in America just because you
know they just have a bad luck or something now again maybe that has a
little bit to do with it but it's usually because they burn the bridges in
their family they won't take accountability for the actions they won't
work they're doing drugs they're doing alcohol kinds of stuff and look I've
personally been involved with homeless shelters for years I've gone to homeless
shelters for years and preach to those people I know what they're like I know
why they're there and you know what I preached in the gospel I helped them I
did good on them you know I'm not going around giving the money because that's
not what they need this in fact it makes them worse and it makes them live in
that lifestyle even longer and you would actually be amazed at how much money
some of these people actually get it was weird I don't I don't think we should I
don't think I didn't really agree with this but one of the people that worked
in this homeless thing decided to like pretend to be homeless for two weeks so
he like went on undercover homeless mission and he like went to this random
place and just like did this and I think even news reporters have done this and I
mean they're making like 10 grand a week sometimes you know but honestly you say
like they're not actually making 10 grand a week because think about it the
person that's going undercover is actually a hard-working person so they're
like hard-working while being homeless so they're really raking it in whereas
the homeless people they're even lazy at asking for money okay so they're not
necessarily raking it but I'm just saying like if you were just a
professional homeless person you could probably make a quarter million dollars
a year and I'm not giving any ideas okay do not do this I will have a problem
with you you'll have a problem with church okay I'm just telling you that
it's like this is not the problem is not that they just need a little extra dough
because they could be a professional paying handler for a year and save up
enough money to just buy a house they probably richer than us you know if they
actually were diligent and hard-working okay it's just they're lazy drug addicts
many of them are sodomites many of them are just some of the most evil people
you've ever met in your life okay and not all homeless people it's about 20 30
percent probably but I'm just saying I'm not just gonna indiscriminately give
money to lazy derelicts or whatever they'd be like oh where's your soup
kitchen I don't have one okay but again people that want to come to church and
want to serve God and are down on the luck yeah we've helped them our church
has helped them I've helped them we should consider helping those people but
I'm not gonna help people that won't even show up for one churches I mean
think about it if you were really on the street and and you approached me and I
said hey come to church is that really that hard of an ask I mean we can get
you an ice cream we can get you some water we can help you we can there's
lots of places that are hiring people know how to get jobs I mean our church
is very friendly charitable church you could get back on your feet if you
wanted to if they don't want to okay so who are the type of people that want to
help I want to help people that are actually in a bad situation they're
actually still a normal person hard-working they love the Lord but
they're just down on their luck they had a sickness they had an illness they got
laid off they have you know they have some kind of a problem and you just want
to help that particular individual they are a widow they're they're poor you
know whatever their situation is that's but I'm what does the Bible say the
righteous considered the cause of the poor how can you interpret this verse is
just give money indiscriminately what is what is the bad person do they just give
money out they're called Democrats okay Democrats just have welfare programs and
just give money out to people that don't actually deserve it that shouldn't be
getting handouts shouldn't be getting money that are even using the system to
take advantage of it they have tons of money that is coming in but it's off the
books and yet they they go and file for WIC women infant children or they file
for government assistance or welfare or whatever and they just rip off the
system and take advantage of the system and you know what it's because the
Democrats are not considering the cause of the poor they're just indiscriminately
giving out your money and you know why they're indiscriminately giving out your
money it's because they take a cut of all that money that's coming in that
they supposedly give to the poor not that they actually even care they're
just taxing you taking 20 50% of that off the top giving it to themselves and
then giving the rest out to buy votes and it's just a vicious system and
they're not righteous okay the righteous considers the cause of the poor and says
hey what's going on and frankly speaking when you look in the Bible how they
actually help poor people is they didn't even give money out many times they gave
jobs out they said hey go go glean the corners of my field now that's why I've
explained this in the past too is hey maybe you give someone a job and you pay
them way more than what the job's worth but give them just a little bit of work
just to make sure that they're not a derelict. Go over to Psalm 41 go to
Psalm 41 I don't think it's right you know if it's an able-bodied man they'll
even feel better anyways if you just hire them to do something as opposed to
just like as opposed to just giving them free money you know even even people
that have needed stuff for the church it's like hey we'll have you know clean
the church or do some work or do something like that if they were you
know impoverished and they needed something it's like hey I'll pay you
for some work you know give them a job give them an opportunity you know that
just that's just a win for everybody okay now again there's could be some
people like an orphan you don't you know you don't necessarily force them to do
work or whatever but you know you could just help them or help widows or help
somebody that's in need but even the church itself is not allowed to help
certain widows is what the Bible says I mean ever thought about that the Bible
is like literally forbidding the church from giving out money to certain widows
you know it's unscriptural and it's unbiblical for the church to just
randomly give out money to people now whether it's legal or not I don't know
you know that that's you know for them to figure out but you know what it's
unbiblical to just hand out money to individuals indiscriminately that are
off-limits according to the Bible okay and whether or not you think it's right
based on your perverted sense of justice doesn't make it right okay the Bible is
literally saying hey we should just give money to widows certain widows and some
people to just give money to people you know what that's not the right thing to
do with God's money okay we should consider the cause of the poor and if
you want to give out charity let's make sure they actually are charitable like
should we really just give money to people that are making six figures and
then call that charity like is that biblical whatsoever that doesn't make
sense okay and so whether or not it's real or legal or what you like we should
make sure that we're doing matches what the Bible says okay and a righteous
person considers the cause of the poor an unrighteous person just
indiscriminately gives money to people and even wicked people okay that doesn't
make any sense look at Psalm 41 look at verse 1
blessed is he that consider it the cause of the poor hey that sounds like a
familiar verse doesn't it sounds like the Bible is saying it can sit us a
consistent thing hey why are you giving money to this person there should always
be a legitimate reason why you're giving money to somebody okay blessed is he
that considered the poor the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble the Lord
will preserve him and keep him alive and he shall be blessed upon the earth and
that will not deliver him under the will of his enemies so look we should
consider why they're poor and we should consider the poor in the sense that we
should think about them here's an actual poor person let's give money to the poor
person and we all have limited resources the church has limited resources and we
should use those limited resources for the people that need it the most not
just to gain advantage not to do something weird or whatever we should be
considering what we're doing and when you do so what does the Bible say the
Lord will preserve you and keep you alive and will bless you and I love this
and will not deliver him under the will of his enemies there's a lot of enemies
today I don't want to be delivered to the will of my enemies and you know one
of the things the Bible says is the way that I can preserve myself is literally
helping poor people that's what the Bible says now go to Matthew chapter 6
let's get a couple more caveats before we finish this point and I know this is
I'm drawing out the first verse here but I think since it's such a famous verse
and honestly there's so many weird interpretations Calvinist interpretations
this verse are bizarre okay and I don't I don't want to poison your mind with
even telling you what it is but you know I wanted to get a good application from
casting thy bread upon the waters here and I think that helping poor people is
one of those particular applications there could be other applications of
this don't don't hear me wrong I'm not saying this is only saying this I think
this is just a clear example Matthew chapter 6 verse 1 take heed that you do
not your alms before men to be seen of them otherwise you have no reward of
your father which is in heaven therefore when thou dost thine alms do not sound
a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
that they may have glory of men verily I say unto you they have their reward but
when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth that
thine alms may be in secret and thy father which seeth in secret himself
shall reward thee openly so the Bible's saying this though when we decide to
help poor people we shouldn't make a big deal about it that's the spirit of
giving okay what would be making a big deal about it like putting it on YouTube
like hey look I gave this this person a bunch of money hey I helped this poor
person and I posted on Facebook hey here's this big check that I gave to
this poor person the Bible says that person's a hypocrite the Bible says that
they're actually not even giving money because they actually care about the
person they're only doing it for the attention they only want attention or
views or likes or subscribers or whatever and that's why they're doing it
if they saw this same person and there was not a camera filming they would not
actually give them money they don't actually help poor people when no one's
looking they only help poor people when everyone's looking because they're just
trying to buy attention okay and that's what the Bible is saying is wrong it's
saying it's not right to do when someone is like this they're not the good person
but you know of course everybody looks at a church like ours or Baptist
churches and look down on them like well why aren't you just giving money to
people and telling everybody about it because the Bible says to not do that
the last thing I'm gonna do is tell you when I help poor people because I don't
want to lose my reward I don't want God to say like okay well this person
thinking something positive you is gonna be your reward now which frankly is
being you guys know Matthew 6 so if I brag to you about helping a poor person
you think negatively about me and I would lose my reward so I would
literally gain nothing I'm definitely not gonna tell you guys you guys know
that that wasn't even right okay I don't want to go down bragging to my church
members that I gave money to poor person because you'd be like yeah but what about
amount these six pastor like isn't this saying not to talk about it I mean that
would be the worst move okay the best move is just to not say anything about
it now of course I don't think that you need to take this to a some like
extremely hyper literal sense that like you know the money has to fall out of
the sky and no one can know that like it literally like it's just basically
saying you don't want to be something you brag about or you're like you're
making a big deal if you can give it to them and they don't really know that's
the best even if you give it to them and they know it's not a big deal but at the
same time it's just you're not trying to tell other like hey everybody I'm gonna
give some money to brother Sam over here so I don't let y'all know over here
remember the Sam hey I get like that would be weird right hey if you just you
just came up to him just said hey I wanted to give this to you and you just
move on that's what the Bible is basically trying to say okay just saying
don't make a big deal about it don't tell other people you're just helping
people and the more discretion the better it is because it just proves that
your your heart was in it to help the person not for attention and not
necessarily even for forgetting them on your side you just genuinely wanted to
help that particular individual okay that's what the spirit of giving should
be like so when we help somebody we don't want to make a big deal about it
that's fake go to Luke chapter 14 go to Luke chapter 14 and look there's plenty
of poor people there's more poor people than you could ever give enough money
to so you know it's not it's not saying like let's make sure to end poverty
world poverty can't happen it literally could never happen but when we have
opportunities when God presents people in our lives when he presents
situations when there's a when it makes sense God's touched your heart about a
situation or a person or someone asked or whatever we should make sure that
we're not hiding our eyes we're considering the cause and we're using
discretion when we do so okay what does it say in Luke chapter 14 verse 12 then
said he also to them that bade him when thou makest a dinner or a supper call
not thy friends nor thy brethren neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors
lest they also bid thee again and recompense be made thee but when they'll
make us a feast call the poor the maimed the lame the blind and thou shalt be
blessed for they cannot recompense thee for thou shalt be recompensed at the
resurrection of the just now this is it probably one of the more extreme
versions of what we're talking about here but it's literally even saying hey
maybe you should bless and give good food unto people that could never repay
you never bring you back to their house never help you in any way and he's even
saying you're only gonna be rewarded at the judgment so you're not even he's
like saying you will this is literally casting your bread upon the waters but
you're not gonna get anything in return for this but you will in the
resurrection you will and so what does that take takes faith now again I want
to make sure that you know I don't think this don't take this too literal again I
don't believe this is saying you can't have meals with your friends okay I'm
not saying this means don't have have good fellowship and don't hang out
friends and don't do this thing but it's just saying don't think though by
having a dinner with your friends that you're getting any spiritual reward out
of it you're only gonna get a spiritual reward out of blessing people and having
fellowship and making meals for people that would not be able to actually
recompense you okay and so again do we want to live all of our lives just
carnally or do we also want to at times make spiritual decisions and help people
that are poor and can't necessarily recompense you and that is what the Bible
is saying here go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 11 so I hope that maybe with all
those verses we get a balanced view and we have to be careful in any doctrine and
any subject that we always have a balanced view of scripture that we're
not just taking one of these verses and running with them but we're considering
all of them okay we're considering hey we should help poor people but we should
consider why they're poor when we do it we should use discretion and we should
do it understanding that we're lending unto the Lord that he's gonna bless us
understanding that God's gonna be mad if we never help anybody if we're never
generous with what he's given us and that if you want God to bless you not
only in this life and the next we should always consider the poor and I think
that's what's being brought up here that we should sometimes cast thy bread upon
the waters why for thou shalt find it after many days so hey you helped
somebody God will help you later God's gonna take care of you later that's a
good application of this verse verse to give a portion of seven and also to
eight for that knows not what evil shall be upon the earth this verse also
kind of falls on the heels of this and I think gives us just a little bit more
information give a portion of seven this is what this is what I always find when I
read these it's like and also to eight and I always get confused by this I'm
like it's not like God forgot how to count or something it's not like God was
like oh I meant to say eight and then he brought up eight who's ever wondered
like why it says like an also to eight or like it just tags on more you're just
kind of like thinking like what is but this is you know being around people
that don't understand the Bible and hate the Bible and are dumb spiritually
helps me understand these verses better because you know what you know what he's
doing he's basically saying like it's not only help seven people it's like
somebody's gonna take this so overly literal that it's gonna be like okay I
can only max out at helping seven people I mean think about Peter and them it's
like forgiving my brother like seven times it's like no no it's seven times
seventy and then there's some people out there like so it's max 490 it's like no
no no no no it's like hey it's just saying let's help some people and what
would be a realistic practical thing helping about seven people you know
helping about some people but you know don't be like well I've helped seven
I'm done no if there was eight people let's just also help the eighth guy too
don't don't get like super over literal but it's just saying like hey if you're
gonna help people help seven people if you got seven people that need it help
all seven if it happened to be just one more or one less like yeah let's just
help the eighth guy too you know it doesn't say help a thousand it doesn't
say give a portion to a million it says hey give a portion to seven right and
then also I mean don't get so stingy that it's like okay I've maxed out at
seven I would actually even help the eighth too okay so it's just kind of the
spirit of the law that's being applied here and he's saying look you don't know
what's gonna happen when you have good it's like you're not supposed to
withhold good under them to whom it is due when is that in thy power thy hand
to do it so that's another proverb it's like hey if you literally have the
ability to help seven people do it now because you may not have that ability
later you don't know what evil is gonna happen you don't know when you're you're
gonna be in poverty or and want yourself so it's saying hey now while you have
stuff help people when you can and then maybe you'll need to help and then
they'll need to help right it's just saying like hey when you have the
ability do it now because you don't know what's gonna happen when Kamala
becomes your president okay and I'm not saying she is God forbid I hope that
she never is okay but you don't know we don't know what evil is gonna happen and
we don't know what's gonna happen so it's just like saying bless people now
you could die tomorrow you could lose all your money you could lose your job
your legs could break you could go blind I mean how many of us are gonna keep the
exact same job if we go blind tomorrow and then would you be the person that
needs help would you be the person that needs someone to give a portion unto
right I mean we never know what a day may bring we never know what evil may
come upon us and so we want to be willing to be the person that's
distributing generously hey give a portion of seven and hey don't get don't
get technical on this even eight okay even if it was one more you know if you
have it give it verse three if the clouds be full of rain they empty
themselves upon the earth and if the tree fall toward the south or toward the
north in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be this is a
really interesting verse two one application or one idea is number one
that nature has a particular course of action nature has its own system one
clouds get full they're just they're just gonna rain it's just gonna happen
okay but then there's this other idea of like a tree falling and it's saying if
it's falling towards the south that's where it's gonna be and you're in you're
kind of like God I feel like this is really simple right I mean who's who's
reading this thing like that kind of that seems a little overly simple but I
think what he's trying to communicate and what this verse is actually helping
us understand is that some things are going to happen and they're inevitable
and you have to accept the inevitability of those realities like
what's reality if a tree is falling you're not going to stop that you're
not going to be able to get there and prevent that like it's gonna happen and
no matter what it's gonna fall in the direction that it was headed and it's
just like once a once a cloud gets full there's no stopping it it's gonna rain
that's what happens once the cloud gets full it's gonna rain it's just kind of
like this when a lady gets pregnant births gonna happen now is it gonna
happen exactly nine months later we don't know there's nothing that promises
nine months but you know what I've never seen a woman pregnant 13 months or 15
months or whatever why eventually something's gonna happen and I think
what the Bible is trying to help us understand is that some things are just
gonna happen you cannot stop them it's inevitable here's another one death
death will happen here's another one there will be an end times Babylon there
will be an Antichrist and it even could be possible that America is that in
times Babylon now I lean towards that being a very likely scenario a very
likely reality but if it is you and I can't stop it and some people get mad
about that they're like mad that you're like you're not trying to stop that from
happening but it's like look if a treat like a giant redwood tree was falling
and I didn't want it to fall south I'm not gonna try and stop it I'm not gonna
get underneath and be like no I'm gonna stop I'm gonna move out of the way and
be like dude it's landing there you know what I mean I can't do anything about
that and if America is gonna become Babylon look as much as I don't want
that to happen or I don't like some of those things I can't necessarily stop
that so what I have to do is I have to have the serenity to just accept things
that I can't change I have to accept the fact that hey if this cloud gets full
it's gonna rain if this tree is falling it's falling hey if this nation's going
bad this nation's going bad I can't always get upset about the things that
I can't control and there are some people that obsess obsess about things
that they can't control that they have no impact over but they just sit here
and whine and complain about things that are not something they can even change
and it's like why why obsess about things that you can't change why get
fixated on a tree falling to the south if that's where it's headed just let it
fall just just get over it move on with your life and focus on the things that
you can control we should be people that are focused on the things that are in
our power and in our control and not on the things that we have no control over
whatsoever well I don't want it to rain on this day stop it then right get mad
like how many days have been spoiled because it rained on the day when you
didn't want it to rain happens for people all the time but you know what
you can't change it just suck it up buttercup and just get over it and move
on with your life don't obsess about things that you cannot change this is a
bad habit it's a bad idea you know there was something that really upset me it
was slot skis okay who knows what I'm talking about slot skis restaurant okay
they used to have this soup called the Wisconsin cheddar cheese soup and this
was amazing but then they got rid of it and I'm a little bit I'm a little bit
bitter okay let's be honest you know what I'm not gonna do I'm not gonna go
on an endless campaign trail trashing slot skis because they got rid of this
Wisconsin cheddar cheese soup because I'm not gonna be able to bring it back and
I would love to bring it back if I could bring it back I would if I could help
them whatever I would love to have it back you know what I still even eat
there even though I'm mad about it and you know what I don't even go through
the line I'm like you also get the seat back you know I just I just accept that
they got rid of it I don't know why it was like their number one best-selling
soup it was on the menu every day everyone loved it it was so great it
might have been because it was too popular that I had to get rid of it I
don't know what happened it was it's kind of mind-boggling I'm just thinking
like why is your most popular item you're discontinuing it make I'm I'm
bitter okay I'm just being honest getting off my chest now but you know
what I'm not gonna do is I'm not gonna obsess about it every day of my life and
talk about it all the time and get mad at them forever it's not gonna happen
it's it's over it's done I'm just gonna move on and you know what I still like
slots keys they still have good sandwiches this stuff some things that
I can eat there and you know what I'm not just gonna hate them forever for you
know this decision I obviously don't agree with okay and you know what I'm
not gonna go on an endless campaign trail trashing going to the subway and
be like man those slots keys people you know it's just like move on with your life
okay except things that you can't change look at verse 4 he that observed the
wind shall not sow and he that regarded the clouds shall not reap here's
another thing when people just get too cautious you're just so afraid of what
may happen in the future that you end up don't you end up not doing anything
just like well I don't know it could rain but it may not well the wind might
blow oh may not verse 5 as though knows not what is the way and of the spirit
nor are the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child even so they'll
notice not the works of God who make it all so verses 4 5 & 6 kind of this
thought but it's like don't be too cautious verse 5 you don't really
understand how things work tell some doctors that we need we need to tell
some medical doctors and some scientists and stuff you don't understand how
everything works I mean the Bible is literally almost pretty much explicitly
saying that we as humans can't fully comprehend or understand all the science
behind our bones are growing in the womb like we don't really understand how all
these processes work we'll probably never understand them and notice it says
even so they'll know it's not the works of God who make it all we can't
understand how we get life from non-life you can sit here and hypothesize all day
long about spontaneous generation and all this garbage that pseudo scientists
will love to pontificate about but let's just be real we don't understand the
miracles of God conception and birth and maturation and development and all these
different things I mean it's just incredible I mean humans in general are
just incredible beings because you think about like a superhero and a superhero
does certain things that are kind of cool like one of them like Wolverine can
like heal himself but think about it we heal ourselves too just not exactly like
some of the cartoons and stuff but think about it you get injured your body
literally heals itself that's incredible how in the world do we have a self
healing vessel that God has created that we can use like that's a pretty
incredible and since superpower that you can literally be injured or hurt and
your body can literally heal itself and regrow skin regrow hair and regrow all
kinds of different things on the body I mean that's a pretty incredible process
that we have in in our bodies that we don't understand we don't understand
everything we should sometimes also just accept the fact that we don't understand
everything verse six in the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not
thine hand for that knows not whether she'll prosper either this or that or
whether they both shall be like good so this is kind of calling falling on the
heels of four five and six here in the sense that hey don't be too cautious in
the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thine hand isn't
that similar to even verse one giving money given a portion of seven also to
eight hey cast thy bread upon the waters the Bible just basically saying we need
to do stuff don't just sit here and just sit on your golden chest you know
Scrooge we should be willing to do something with what God has given us
when God gives us seed we need to sow it when God gives us bread we need to cast
upon the waters whatever God's given us to do we need to try stuff do something
look at chapter 9 verse 10 the Bible says whatsoever thy hand findeth to do
do with I might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the
grave with the ghost hey whatever God's given you do do it try something hey sow
your seed start a business you don't know if it'll be prosperous or not I
don't know hey start a new friendship like I don't know if this person will be
my friend okay but you will not have friends by not trying you won't have a
successful business by never trying to have a business how about dating well I
don't know if she likes me but you won't get a wife unless you try to date
someone it's just saying hey so I see try something just try a relationship
try a new friendship try a business how about this try a recipe I've never made
this meal okay try it try to make a new thing try to do something like we should
just be willing to just try stuff and doing stuff we don't know whether this
will possible either this or that whether this is gonna be good a craft how
about this how about soul winning just try it and sometimes there's even people
that you're like mmm but you just just just do it just try it there's plenty
people that I've gotten saved that I literally just was like I don't even
want to try and talk to this person but you know and then there's been other
people that I thought like this person looks like a good receptive person and
not receptive whatsoever and so what the Bible is saying is like don't just try
to always figure out how everything's gonna work out sometimes you just got to
do stuff sometimes you just got to try stuff don't be just like well but I'm
observing the wind and I'm observing the times and whatever no no just do
stuff sometimes we just got to do stuff don't just sit here and just plan your
life to death don't just sit here and just sit and worry about everything
being too cautious God just wants us to literally just start doing stuff just
try friendships try recipes try soul-winning try friendships try
businesses try try anything hey you single guys the worst thing that can
happen is you stay single like you're already at this position that you're in
like you can only go somewhere positive by talking to girls and trying to go on
a date you're like well I might lose some money well cast thy bread upon the
waters okay you know there's gonna be a lot of dates that you're like that was a
waste you know I literally just wasted that bread I was but you know what
that's how you get married you just got it you just got to try projects just try
you know I've every project you don't try is a sick is a failure and look
sometimes we will fail okay it's not saying you will for sure be successful
sometimes some recipes fail Indian food fail this is my personal opinion all
right sometimes the date fail sometimes the business fail sometimes the movie
the flop sometimes the church it's a fail sometimes ordinations are a fail
sometimes soul winnings a fail sometimes a mission trips a fail so I mean we don't
want to be afraid of failure though we don't want to say like okay well this
one failed so I'm done no no try again just keep sowing my seed just don't
withhold my hand just keep going you know you may screw up here and there you
may have some failures but you know what don't be afraid of success don't be
afraid like I was I was trying to help someone with golf and I'm like don't be
afraid to hit a good shot it's like you know don't be afraid to actually be
successful do something try something and you know what if it's not that great
then take that opportunity to learn from it and do better the next time and just
keep going keep going hey try to preach a sermon guys go to the preaching class
or we do something try every sermon if it's not great try another one try again
try try to do something we don't want to be a bunch of people that do nothing
verse 7 truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to
behold the Sun but a man lived many years and rejoicing them all yet let him
remember the days of darkness for they shall be many all that come of this
vanity so you know in verse 7 it kind of gives us a positive here truly the light
is sweet and you know light in general is great we all love being able to see
colors are beautiful you know as a man I love getting to look at my wife she's so
beautiful truly sweet landscapes and you know looking out in the horizon and
looking at sunset there's so many beautiful things to behold and to see my
wife and I like looking at nice houses we think we find that something that's
fun to look at I like looking at golf courses that's really attractive and
beautiful to me you know people find all kinds of things some people find you
know the deserts of the Middle East attractive I don't know how but I'm just
okay some people just find whatever you know sometimes beauty's in the eye of the
holder okay but I'm just saying like just seeing is you know some people think
space is beautiful they think the moon looks beautiful they think that planets
and stars they look beautiful and people find all kinds of fabrics and tapestries
and children and playgrounds and flowers and bushes and animals and just there's
all kinds of things to see and and truly the light is sweet being blind is a
curse being able to see is such a benefit and it's a beauty to see the
things of the Sun and see that you know what's going on in the earth but even if
you live a long time and your choice remember sometimes though in verse 8
remember the days of darkness in the sense that not every day on earth is
gonna be good you know I talked to a guy this evening about soul winning and he's
like and sometimes you get this response about hell he's like I feel like we're
in hell right now and it's like look there are there is suffering on earth
and this is why I try to level people when people give me that response this is
what I say well there is bad days on earth and there is suffering on it but
hell is constant suffering it is different and we have to also have an
approach that we realize there are gonna be bad days on earth but we don't want
to allow that to discourage us from the sense that there still can be good days
too okay we have to take a balanced approach some days are gonna be good
some days are bad when we have bad days we need to remember okay hey this is
still the day that the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it number
one and number two that sometimes it can turn for the better anyways I want to go
to Job chapter 2 for a moment go to Job chapter 2 I think that in some ways
we've all been tainted by the teachings of Joel Osteen and by prosperity
preachers which which they kind of say and have this concept in this idea of
like God wants you to live your best life now or God like only wants good or
or if you believe and you get saved like you're gonna only have a blessed life
good things positive things like it's all good rainbows and unicorns or
whatever and I think all of us could be a little tainted by that viewpoint but
the reality is that God isn't gonna give us only good days sometimes God is gonna
give us bad days and in fact many times the bad days are what define us as a
person determine what kind of character we have and shape the outcome of our
future and the Bible says in Job chapter 2 look at verse 9 then said his
wife unto him "dost thou still retain thine integrity curse God and die" this
is such a weird verse Job has just lost everything he's lost his children he's
lost his money he's lost his health and this is what's interesting is his wife
says "dost thou still retain thine integrity" Job do you still think you're
innocent? Job do you still think you don't deserve all this? Job were you
gonna still pretend like you're a good guy? but you think what did Job do that
was wrong? it's like even his wife is just being like look obviously you've
done something wrong. obviously he's screwed up some way. yeah are you still
gonna pretend like you haven't done anything wrong Job? but he hasn't. why
don't you just curse God and die? are you gonna continue to pretend like you're a good
guy? are you gonna pretend to be a Christian? are you gonna pretend to be a
God-fearing man? why don't you just curse God and die? but you know what even in all of his
misery and woe and agony he said you know what I haven't done anything wrong
and God is still in control and you know what I'm not gonna curse God I'm gonna
still do what's right no matter what's happening to me you know what God takes
glory and people that will do the right thing no matter what's happening to them
no matter what's happening to you no matter what your circumstances no
matter what situation you find yourself in retain thine integrity if you're
Joseph and you've been lied about and thrown in prison retain that integrity
if you lost your wife and your goods and your house and your family retain that
integrity and do that which is right hey if you lose your job if you lose your
house you get an accident you lose your health retain that integrity and say you
know what I'm still gonna serve God that's what Joe's message is hey I'm
still gonna remember hey there's gonna be dark days just accept right now there
will be dark days in my life but when I come across a dark day you know I'm
gonna do I'm gonna retain my integrity and what does he even respond in verse
10 but he said under thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaking now
he didn't say she was foolish he said you're speaking like one of those dumb
women okay one of those silly women what shall we receive good at the hand of
God and shall we not receive evil and all this did not Job sin with his lips
here's an important question will you receive evil of the Lord or will you
only receive good hey sometimes in our lives we will receive evil and here's
the question how will you respond when you have a dark day how you will how
will you respond when you receive evil of the Lord will you retain that
integrity or will you get mad at God or will you curse God or will you turn on
God or will you well you know what I'm gonna go to church as long as good
things are happening to me but as soon as I have something bad happen to me I'm
out of church I'm not gonna read my Bible I'm not gonna serve God you know
that's the bad attitude the right attitude says you know what no matter
what evil I receive I'm still gonna retain my integrity I'm gonna serve God
they'll do it back to Ecclesiastes chapter 11 and that's building up to our
ultimate message in the book of Ecclesiastes is that the whole duty of
man is to fear God and keep his commandments no matter what happens good
or bad and if that God is testing Job and God will often test us not with
blessing because it's real easy to praise God for blessing it's not as easy
to bless God with evil it's not as easy to bless God when you're going through
difficulty it's not as easy to bless God when you're being persecuted for
righteousness sake it's not as easy to bless God when things are difficult hard
and a problem that's when it's really the test do you actually love God
because you know people are not tested on their love when things are going good
people are tested on their love when things are going bad do you love this
person when it's when it's not convenient to love them when it's not
popular to love them when it doesn't look good right it's not popular to like
Job right now he's got all kinds of problems it's not popular to be on Job's
side because he's got all kinds of issues you know what it tests to see if
you really love that person do you love your spouse when they're down when they
don't deserve it or do you only love them when they're doing good and they
deserve it do you know do you love church when things are going good or you
also love it when they're going bad do you read your Bible when things are good
when they're bad this is how you test to see if someone actually loves hey do you
love your friends when it's a burden to you or do you only love them when
they're buying you stuff that's not really a friend is it not a good friend
at least and we can see what people are really like when things are actually
rough you know what if what if someone in this room did you bad how would you
respond to them that tests if you love them you know what if what if I lied
about you or what if I did something to you how would you respond well that
would test to see how have you loved me that would test how you'd love other
people and you know even if someone did something bad to you you retaliating and
harassing them doesn't show you really love that person it doesn't show that
you have really any grace you know it's when someone does something evil or bad
to you and you still are kind you're still merciful you still love them you
still do them right that is the person that truly loves look at verse 9 rejoice
so young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy
youth and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but
thou but know thou that for all these God will bring thee into judgment
therefore remove sorrow from my heart and put away evil from my flesh for
childhood and youth or vanity now admittedly the Bible pretty much just
explicitly states that being young is better in a sense I mean it's better to
be having energy and in the prime of life Bible saying hey rejoice and like
you should realize that being young is a blessing there is a special benefit to
being young and you only have a certain portion of your life in some ways some
of the best parts of our life are the beginning and so you should take
advantage of that take advantage of her youth rejoice of thy youth rejoice when
you have this time this is the time to celebrate this is the time to enjoy life
but at the same time be careful of the decisions you're making because whatever
you do in this time of youth you will have to live with the consequences of
that for the rest of your life and he's saying in verse 10 therefore remove
sorrow from my heart and put away evil from my flesh what is he saying he's
saying that you should be careful the decisions you make when you're young
because if you don't and you make bad decisions you're gonna have a lot of
sorrow in your heart for the rest of your life and you could remove that
sorrow by actually making good decisions when you're young and actually being
diligent when you're young you know if you just go out and be a drunk
whoremonger and you have bastard children and you have no career and you're
just silly and lazy well you might enjoy that part of your drunken college
rum-shringa for lack of a better term but you know what you're gonna suffer the
consequences of that for the rest of your life you're gonna have all kinds of
sorrow in your heart and all kinds of evil in your flesh from those bad
decisions from all the SCDs and the bad relationships and the fact that you
don't have a job the fact that you don't have any money the fact that
nobody cares there are a lot a lot of young women who have ruined themselves
in America they have ruined themselves they have lived a life of whoredom and
debauchery and selfishness and they are now 28 29 30 31 32 and nobody will marry
them unless they may be made a radical change they might but I'm just saying
like there are so many women who have just pretty much permanently destroyed
themselves by making all kinds of horrible decisions having all kinds of
bastard children and all kinds of fornication where there's no guy that's
like yeah let me please dedicate my life to you now it's not gonna happen and we
are gonna have in America a just giant amount of women that are gonna suffer
and have all kinds of sorrow in their heart for decades because of the
horrible decisions they made in their youth and a lot of the decisions they
made it was because they were silly it's because they were foolish because they
were led astray because they didn't have parents that loved them enough to tell
them to warn them we had a society that enabled and fostered that rebellious
spirit in their heart and they've completely destroyed themselves and it's
dangerous it's dangerous what society is happening I mean men why do you think
we have so many men importing women from foreign countries to be their wives it's
because the women here are ruining themselves and destroying themselves in
many in many cases there's nothing wrong with American women there's nothing
wrong with the people that are here the problem is that they're destroying
themselves many of them not all of them and even young men there's many young
men that destroy themselves get thrown into jail for all kinds of crimes of
stealing and theft and making bad decisions getting on drugs there are so
many people in our society that have gotten on drugs and they permanently
ruin themselves they are addicted they can't they have almost no escape they
are permanently damaged and scarred by the decisions that they've made and they
have so much sorrow in there why do you think these people drink themselves
drunk they're trying to drink their sorrows away they're trying to drink
the pain of their hard life away you know people that are fundamental bad
people that are just fundamental Baptists reading the Bible working out
of their job having kids having a wife like they're not going home like man I
and I just need to drink a bunch of alcohol
to poison my life away,
they actually have happiness in their life.
And it's like, oh, you guys, y'all guys have no fun.
You're a bunch of fuddy-duddies.
You don't go out to the bar.
Look, these people are miserable.
These people are miserable.
And they have ruined their lives.
They have ruined their marriages.
They have ruined their children.
They have ruined their minds.
They have ruined their livers.
They have destroyed themselves.
Oh, you're just not any fun.
No, no, they're not having fun.
The overgrown 40-year-old still trying to go and have
college parties or whatever, he is not having fun.
He's just trying to distract himself from all the sorrow in
his heart from having a miserable life.
And they don't have money.
I mean, yeah, there's exceptions.
There's going to always be exceptions.
The celebrities that sold their soul to the devil,
literally, who, yeah, they're single.
And they're like, look, my life's so wonderful.
I don't have kids.
And I get to go vacation and travel and do all this fun
stuff or whatever.
They're still miserable anyways.
Why do they kill themselves so often anyways?
But even those exceptions don't prove the rule.
The rule is when you live a hard life, there's going to be
hard consequences.
The way of transgressors is hard.
Serving the Lord is a light burden.
It's still a burden.
It's a light yoke.
It's not necessarily not a yoke.
It's still a yoke.
I mean, you still got to work.
But you know what?
It's way better than just destroying your youth on this
cheap stuff.
And we see so much of the youth destroying themselves.
Do not do this.
As a young person, you need to stay clean, sober, a virgin.
You need to get a job.
You need to work hard.
As a young lady, you should only marry a young man that's
going to work hard, that's clean, that's sober, that
wants to marry you as a virgin.
Because you know what?
If he's not interested in dating you when you're a
virgin, he won't want to stay with you.
You want a guy that wants that.
And frankly speaking, every guy wants to marry a virgin, okay.
Even the whoremongers of this world, the guys that have podcasts that have bragged about
sleeping with thousands of women, they say they want a virgin, okay.
Every guy wants that.
So if you say, "Hey, I'm going to be a virgin on my wedding night and he's not interested
in marrying you," he was never going to marry you.
That's not a guy you want to date.
You want to stay away from that individual.
And look, as these young women are constantly destroying themselves, let us learn through
their bad example.
And look, I'm not mad at them.
I don't hate them.
I would love to give them counsel and try to help encourage them to get it right.
I'm just saying there's so many women on the path to destruction, so many young men
on the path to destruction today, and it's just sad to see people destroying themselves.
Also, be careful you marry anyways.
That can be a path of destruction.
Get to know them.
Know what they're like.
Know what they're into.
Make sure you're a match.
There's been people that have dated for like weeks and gotten married, and it's worked
out.
That is not my recommendation.
I do not recommend that.
I dated my wife for five years.
I also don't recommend that.
I think that there's a sweet spot between five days and five years.
But at the same time, I'm saying you'd probably be better off getting to know the person pretty
well before you dedicate 70 years of your life to them, or 50 years, or however long
you live.
You want to be careful and you want to make sure there's a person.
I knew a lot of things about ... I'll say this.
I knew who my wife was when we got married.
Yeah, maybe five years wasn't the right move, but I did know a lot.
I knew that she loved kids.
I knew that she didn't believe in divorce period.
I knew that she loved the Lord.
I knew what it was like to fight.
We had our share of disagreements when we were dating.
So I knew that we could handle conflict.
And you want to be careful because look, some people, they get into the wrong relationship
and it's a train wreck for the rest of their life.
It seems like when you're young, you don't want to wait and stuff, but you know, take
your time, get to know the person.
As parents, please get to know your in-laws, your kids, or the son-in-law and the daughter-in-law.
Get to know them, please.
Please go soul hunting with them at least or talk to them about salvation and talking
about the Bible and make sure they actually like your kids and stuff like that.
Please do this because it breaks my heart and it hurts my heart when I hear about people
that have problems.
I don't want that to happen.
It's going to happen.
Sometimes there's going to be bad situations that happen.
Nothing's perfect.
Nobody's ever going to, for sure, always marry the right person.
But at the end of the day, we want to do the best that we can.
We have to be careful because some decisions we make, we have to suffer the consequences
for the rest of our life.
So be careful as a young person.
Be careful of the decisions that you make.
And you know what?
You'll never regret being spiritual, but you will regret the carnal selfish decisions
that we make.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this wisdom that you've given us in this chapter.
I pray that we wouldn't be afraid to try things, that we would go out there, that we'd be willing
to distribute, and that we would trust in you and trust in your Word.
And I pray that these young people, that they would realize the blessing they have of youth,
but they would take their lives seriously.
They would take the decisions that they make seriously, and that they would realize that
some of the decisions they make will have life-altering consequences.
I pray that you would just continue to give our church wisdom, you'd bless us, that you'd
help us to be used of you, and that we wouldn't only rejoice in the good days, we would also
receive the evil, but that we would continue to be a bright and shining light for your
Son's name.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Closing, let's go to song number 210.
Song number 210, "Wonderful Grace of Jesus."
Song number 210.