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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] All right, everybody, we're going to go ahead and get started this evening. If you would, find your seat and grab a hymnal and turn to our first hymn, hymn number 425, No Room in the Inn. Hymn number 425. 425, we'll go ahead and start there right on the first. No beautiful chamber No soft-railed bed No place but a manger No bed for his head No praises of gladness No thought of their sin No glory but sadness No room in the inn No room, no room for Jesus Oh, give him welcome free Bless, you should hear at heaven's gate There is no room for he No sweet consecration No seeking his heart No humiliation No place in the heart No thought of the Savior No sorrow for sin No prayer for his favor No room in the inn No room, no room for Jesus Oh, give him welcome free Bless, you should hear at heaven's gate There is no room for he No want to receive him No welcome while here No want to relieve him No staff but a spear No seeking his treasure No weeping for sin No doing his pleasure No room in the inn No room, no room for Jesus Oh, give him welcome free Bless, you should hear at heaven's gate There is no room for he Good singing. Let's open with a word of prayer. Dear Father, thank you for the service that we have and the opportunity that we have to sing praise unto you and to your son. I pray that you bless the remainder of this service at this time and I pray that you fill Pastor Oz with your spirit as he preaches for us this evening, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. For our next hymn, if you would, turn in your hymnals to hymn number 430. While shepherds watch their flocks, hymn number 430. Hymn number 430. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. While shepherds watch their flocks by night All seated on the ground The angel of the Lord came down And glory shone around And glory shone around Fear not, said he, for mighty dread Had seized their troubled mind Glad tidings of great joy I bring To you and all mankind To you and all mankind To you in David's town this day Is born of David's line The Savior who is Christ the Lord And this shall be the sign And this shall be the sign The heavenly baby there There shall find to you May you disclaim O bid we wrapped in swabbing bed And in a manger lay And in a manger lay All glory be to God on earth And to the earthly peace Good will and store from head to neck Begin and never cease Begin and never cease Good evening everyone. Welcome to Anchor Baptist Church. This time we'll go through some announcements. On the front is our Bible memory passage of the week. Remember this is the last verse of the chapter. So we have this week and next week as a grace week. And then we'll be handing out those prizes for those that finished the chapter memorization. Our service and soul winning times are listed there as well as our nursing home ministry schedule. And over the Christmas break, if you will, I'm going to work on getting that first quarter schedule made. So those of you that are preachers on that, be looking for that update. On the bottom is our year to date statistics. Great job about soul winning today. So far I've heard we had six salvation. So great job. Keep up the great work on that and one very angry care and apartment manager. But you know, that comes with six salvation sometimes. So it is what it is. Please be in prayer for Miss Whitney Reed for expecting ladies upcoming event. Again, just want to say thank you to the halls and to all the kids that participated in the Christmas choir today. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone sing. Make sure that if your parents allow it, you get your bag of candy if you haven't already. I think there might be a couple more or they all hand it out. OK, great. Awesome. Well, thanks again for that. And December 25th, after our Wednesday service, we're going to have a cookie bake off. So make sure to bring some of your entries for that evening. December 31st is our New Year's Eve party that's going to be on Tuesday. And as a reminder, no service on Wednesday. So if you come here Wednesday, you won't see anyone. We're going to have a immense preaching night on Tuesday and then have some games and food after that. So that is it for the rest of the year. We have our online giving. If you'd like to scan that code as well as our prayer list, make sure to update me with any requests that you have. We'd be happy to pray for you. That's going to be it for announcements this evening. I'm going to go to our third song. All right. For our third song, if you would take your hymnal and turn to hymn number 433. Away in a manger. Hymn number 433. In 433, we'll go ahead and start there right on the first. Away in a manger. No prayer for a bed. The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head. The stars in the sky looked down where he lay. The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay. The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes. But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes. I love thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky. And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh. Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay. Close by me forever and love me. I pray bless all the dear children in thy tender care. And take us to heaven to live with thee there. Good singing this evening. As the offering plates are being passed around, turn if you would in your Bibles to Luke chapter number 15. Luke chapter number 15. Good evening, Luke 15, the Bible reads. Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners, for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost? Until he find it. And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. Either woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it. And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I had lost. Likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. And he said, A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that follows to me, and he divided unto them his living. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave to him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father have bread enough to spare, and I perish with hunger? I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and be merry. For this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found, and they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore came his father out, and entreated him. And he answering, said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment, and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad, for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again, and was lost, and it is found. Let's bow our heads forward in prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for this day, and help us stay safe out soul winning. And we just ask that you be with those people that got saved, that received you as your savior today. And we just ask that you would fill our past with your Holy Spirit, and that you would help us to pay attention to the sermon, and to help us move better Christian lives in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen, all right, we're in Luke 15, the Bible reads in verse 11. He said, A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me, and he divided unto them his living. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And this is, of course, the story of the prodigal son, a very famous story. There's many movies even made about the similar plot of the prodigal son. And here at the beginning of the story, just to set some context, we kind of see the story of a young man who demands his inheritance now. You know, he had something that was rightfully his, but it was rightfully his at a certain time usually. Most people wait until they're older to get their inheritance or sometimes even when their parents die. And often that could be sometimes for cultural reasons or even monetary reasons, allowing their assets to mature and get even more wealth. But here, for whatever reason, this young man, he gets kind of hasty and he demands that the inheritance is given to him right here, right now. And one of the interesting things about this story is that this son that does this is, in my view, clearly the son of a rich man. It seems like this father here is a rich man. Why do I think that? Well, look at verse 15. It says, And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger? So here he's thinking back to what he left behind with his father, and he's thinking about how even his servants have what they need of his father, and even more so. There's even stuff left over. So, you know, if his dad not only has servants, but also has so many assets and things that his servants have in abundance, it makes it sound like this man is a very rich man. You know, this prodigal dad, I guess, of this prodigal son. But look at verse 18. It says, I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he rose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth notice the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry. And I kind of want to just explain to you again, because this is going to be important later on in the sermon, that this man is a rich guy. I mean, he's giving the robe to his son. A robe is not something that everyone at this time just had available. A ring, that's costly. Shoes on his feet. I mean, it's not like us today. We go to the thrift store and just buy any pair of shoes. You know, shoes were a cumbersome thing to make that cost money. And it says the fatted calf. That's always been expensive, no matter what economy you've ever lived in. The fatted calf is an expensive thing. And so he just has all these goods that he could just bless. His son with. Why? Because he's a pretty rich guy. He's a rich man. Now, the reason I bring that up is because this young man, when you read this story, he really was born into a great situation. I mean, most people in this world, if you ask them, would you like to have been born into a rich family with a rich daddy that could just give you everything you want? Most people like that idea. Right. And this guy, he had that. He pretty much had it all, carnally speaking. But because of his impulsiveness, because of him being impatient, he kind of ruined his life and he kind of ruined the blessings that he could have obtained and had of his father for his temporary pleasures. And why does God give us this story? I think one reason is that God does not want us to be impulsive. God does not want us to be shortsighted. We're supposed to look at this story and say this was dumb that this guy did. He should not have gotten so impatient. He should not have been so rash and hasty. He should have just been patient and gotten his inheritance when it was rightfully his. And so the title of my sermon this evening is this. Do not be short sighted. Do not be short sighted. This is a lesson that God wants us to take away from this story. Now, what does it mean to be short sighted? It describes a lack of foresight or long term planning. It refers to focusing only on immediate concerns or benefits while neglecting potential future consequences or broader implications. Here's some synonyms of being short sighted, impulsive, hasty, rash, imprudent, careless, reckless, uncircumspect. And sometimes in life you see Christians and just people in general are very short sighted. I mean, you just look at someone's life, you look at the decision they make in all sorts of different categories in their life. And oftentimes a person is categorized by being just short sighted, being impulsive, being rash. This is something God wants us to avoid. Let me show you this principle and then we'll make some application. Go to Proverbs 22, Proverbs 22, verse three. Proverbs 22, verse three. The Bible says, A prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. Notice God wants us to be prudent people. And part of being prudent is having foresight where you could foresee problems, evils, harm, and you could actually make a plan in your mind to avoid those evils, to avoid those problems. But what does the simple, foolish person do? They ignore it. They don't pay attention. And eventually they're punished. And didn't that happen to the prodigal son? Of course it did. He spent all of his living with riotous living and he ended up coming to himself realizing, hey, I've messed up. I've lost everything. The servants are living a better life than me. And many times, because people are shortsighted, they make rash, hasty decisions that have lifelong consequences. And sometimes it's consequences that they can never reverse, never change. Go if you would to Matthew, chapter seven, Matthew seven. Matthew, chapter seven, verse twenty four. Jesus said in verse twenty four. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. And the rains descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for was founded upon a rock. You know, if you are a builder, if your job is to build homes, it would be good to be circumspect, to have a vision, to not be shortsighted, where you look at a piece of land and you think, OK, there's going to come rain, there's going to come wind, there's going to come storms. And if I build my house right here, how is this going to hold up against the storms of life? And a wise person looks at the Bible, looks at the things of God and says, OK, the storms are coming. Should I build my house on the rock, the word of God, the Bible, or should I build it on the sand? And of course, the man's house who's built on the sand, what happens? It falls and great is the fall of it. And that is someone that lacks foresight. That is someone that is shortsighted. They don't really think about the long term consequences. They're just like, oh, yeah, this sand looks like a good enough place to build a house. And they build a house. They spend a lot of money on it. They invest a lot into it. But then that first storm comes along and just wipes them out. And there's many things like this in life. Go to Ephesians five, Ephesians chapter five. I'm just showing you this principle first in Ephesians five, verse 15. That God wants us to be thinking about these things. The Bible says in Ephesians five, verse 15. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. What does it mean to walk circumspectly? It means that you're going through life, cautious, careful, thinking of the consequences, thinking in your mind. OK, if I perform action A, what is the consequence going to be, good or bad? If I go down this road in life, where is that going to take me in 10, 20, 30 years? We don't want to be fools that just don't think about things, just make rash decisions. And it feels like in America, in our day and age, people have the disease of now. All they could think about is what they want right now. What's convenient right now? What's going to have the biggest impact on them right now? Not thinking about what life is going to look like in the future. What are some ways people get shortsighted? Number one, don't be shortsighted with your finances. Don't be shortsighted with your finances. Go to Proverbs 21. You know, here in this story of the prodigal son, it's really a perfect story of an example of someone that's shortsighted with their finances. I mean, they're born into a rich home. They've got a rich dad. They've got a big inheritance coming their way. But because they want something right now, what does he want? He wants a party. He wants to go live his life and have riotous living, right? He wants to go be Hunter Biden or something like that. But guess what? When you live that type of a lifestyle, money goes real fast. And people that are just unwise, uncircumspect, it does not matter how much money they have. The quantity does not matter. Someone who is unwise, uncircumspect, does not have a vision. They're shortsighted. They could go through money like that. It doesn't matter how much they have. And this is a prime example of that. He's rich. He had a big inheritance and he just wasted it all. Look at Proverbs 21 verse 20. There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man spendeth it up. And you're supposed to look at this story and say, what a fool. I mean, this guy was so blessed. This guy was so set up, yet he just spent it up. He just wasted it. And you know us, we need to look at this story and say, hey, if God's blessed us with some money, if God's given us things, we shouldn't just go wasting it and blowing it on riotous living. Look, if you're spending money on alcohol, you're wasting your money. If you're spending your money on cigarettes or gambling or something like that, you are wasting your money. That's not something that God would be pleased with. You're just being a fool at that point. And, you know, there's nothing wrong with spending your substance for living. Right. We all have to use our substance to live. But riotous living is a different story. Right. Yeah. The economy is expensive. Yeah. We got to put food in our bellies. But do we have to buy filet mignon every single night, though? No, you don't. We can learn to be content. We could be content with such things as we have. Whatever God has blessed us with, we don't have to have a party at all times. Go to Proverbs chapter 22, Proverbs chapter 22. Proverbs 22, verse seven says the rich rule it over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender. You know, some ways that people are just extremely careless with finances is just going into debt for any reason or no reason whatsoever. I mean, they they want an 85 inch TV and they can't afford it. They have no second thought about just swiping the credit card and going into debt where their interest rate is 24, 25, 26, 27 percent and just getting destroyed by the lender. They're now the servant to the lender for no reason. It's not like they needed to make that decision. And look, it's wise to avoid debt as much as you can. Obviously, we lived in a debt based world. I'm not saying don't get a mortgage. I'm not saying don't buy a car, but it's like don't buy a timeshare on your credit card. Like that's a bad idea. Don't go and live a riotous lifestyle on your credit card when you can't afford that. That is not wise. Go to Proverbs 23, Proverbs chapter 23. First forces labor not to be rich, cease from thine own wisdom, wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not for riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away as an eagle toward heaven. You know, money, when you have it, it just has a way of just flying away. Just seems like, you know, when you come into some money, it's just life has a way of just causing that to fly away. So it's important that what God gives you, you make a plan for right that you budget out where your money is going and not just fly by the seat of your pants and just decide, oh, you know, I'm just gonna spend money on this and that today. No, you should be wise, especially if you're providing for a family to make sure your bills are being paid and that your fun money is the last priority in life. You know, us as men, we should be men that sacrifice for our families and we should make sure our families are taken care of 100% before we ever think about spending fun money on us. That's just how we should live. You say that doesn't sound fun. Well, you signed up to be a husband and a dad, so that's your job is to take care of your family first, their needs first. I would say they're fun first as well. And then you come last. That's a wise way to live. Go to Proverbs six. Let's look at some more financial wisdom here in Proverbs. Proverbs six verse six. The Bible says, go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide overseer or ruler, provide it her meat in the summer and gather it her food in the harvest. So notice how the ant, without having to be told what to do, how to work, the ant shows us wisdom because the ant is gathering together, providing meat in the summer, gathering food for harvest. It's like this ant in a way kind of has foresight saying, hey, there's coming a time where things are going to be more scarce and we're not going to have as many resources. And so I've got to gather more now. And this is supposed to teach us that, hey, we're supposed to look at life and be wise with our finances planning for the future. I think one way that men could do this is don't just pick the easiest job that you could find. You know, don't just pick like the most convenient job that you could possibly find. Well, it's like, well, this is the closest employer to my house, so I just picked this or this is just the easiest thing. No, you should be looking forward to the future and not being short sighted and then thinking, hey, how is this going to look like when I get married? How is this going to look like when I have kids? And you should pick something that's actually hard to do. You should pick something that's going to take a long time to learn that could eventually provide for your family really well, not just be so short sighted. Be like, well, this is the easiest job and I'm just going to stick with it. That's not a very wise thing to do. And especially when you're young, it's the time to do this, especially if you're not married yet, especially if you don't have kids yet. Like if you're not married yet and you don't have kids, this should be one of the biggest focuses of your life, because when you invest into it now, it'll be easier once you are older. And this is something I thought about, like ladies, their childbearing years could be between, I don't know, 18 years old and like 40 years old. Right. So 22 years. But men providing from their family is from when they get married till they die. Usually like like us men, we have to have a little bit more foresight on this because this is something that we're going to be doing for decades and decades and decades and decades until your body shuts down or you die. And so it's better to just put the investment on the front end of your life so that you could enjoy and reap the benefits later from it. So here's an example. If you're going to go into debt for education or trade, pick something that pays well. I'm not saying college is always bad. I used to be probably a little more anti college than I am now. I think there's some good things you could do with a college degree. There's some good trades that you can learn. I'm not 100 percent against those things. But if you're going to get an education or go into debt for something, make sure it's for something that pays off well in the end. Don't get just a random general degree on something that's not going to make you any money. Get a specialized degree, get something that's going to be paying you well. Here's an example of a trade. How about being a pilot? So right, right down the road here at Wiley Post, there's the ATP Flight School, which, granted, is like one of the most expensive flight options you could do. But the kind of cool thing about their flight school is that they take you from zero to airline pilot certifications in 12 months. Now, the catch is you can't work a job. It's 100 percent full time. It's a full time thing to go to this flight school. But if you went to ATP Flight School from zero to 12 months, you would pay one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars for the whole thing. That's pretty expensive. Like that's a big loan for sure. No doubt about it. But if you got hired as an entry level pilot, you would make an average of eighty seven thousand dollars a year. That's year one. OK, here's after year five. The average salary of an airline pilot after five years of experience is two hundred and nineteen thousand dollars a year. So it's like you pay one hundred seventeen thousand dollars to go to ATP Flight School, but in five years you're making two hundred nineteen thousand dollars a year. Like that would be an example, numerically speaking, of an investment that just makes sense. Right. But what doesn't make sense is just getting your random degree that has no actual tangible skill attached to it and you're still paying one hundred seventeen thousand dollars or more. That doesn't make any sense. That's not good. So that's just an example. And like I said, that's like the most expensive option. If those of you aspiring pilots out there, you could do this a lot cheaper, but that takes you from zero to 12 months. So it's just like a short, quick way of doing it. And, you know, I was telling my younger brother he wasn't really doing anything. He wasn't going to college. He wasn't working. And I was just like, dude, 12 months you could be an airline pilot, you know, and he went and joined the military. But I'm just saying like that could be an option for someone out there. Now, this is especially important. I'll say this. This is especially important for people who are not planning to go into full time ministry with their whole life, because, you know, for me, I have been working full time in the ministry from twenty three years old. So it's not like I had like so much time in my life to invest in my career. I was a full time working for church since I was twenty three years old. I'm twenty seven. That was my goal since the day I got saved. That's what I was working towards. I'm not my life isn't here on this earth to strive for some great career. That's something that I kind of laid aside because I wanted to dedicate my life to Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that being said, it still is important for everyone. And, you know, I still did get a CDL certification and I work in IT right now. And my mentality right now is that I'm going to work my secular job so hard as if I'm going to do it for the rest of my life. That's my mentality. I'm working as if I'm going to be working secularly for the rest of my life. But if that someday, you know, I'm able to drop that and work full time for the church. Praise the Lord. I would do that 100 percent. But I'm just saying like us as men, you got to have that mentality that like I have to do this the rest of my life. So I need to like take care of business right now. I need to invest in this right now and not just think like, oh, what's the easiest thing I could do? What's the most convenient? What works the least hours? What's the closest to my house? What's the thing I could use my brain the least about? No, like you should try to do something hard with your life. Go to Hebrews 12. So, you know, people are often short sighted with their finances. Number two, don't be short sighted with your virginity. This is something people are often short sighted about. They want something right now and they completely disregard the consequences that they're going to be facing in the future because they have the disease of now. They just want that right now. But I'm telling you, that's a foolish decision. Look at Hebrews 12 verse 16. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. You know, the Bible is comparing a fornicator with Esau, who what did he do? Something very similar to the story of the prodigal son where he just traded away his birthright for a little bowl of soup, basically, because he was hungry. Right. He had a temporary feeling, a temporary need. And he just said, hey, give me that bowl of soup and I'll sell you my birthright. And just what a stupid, foolish thing to do. And the Bible here is comparing. That's like someone that commits fornication. They have a great future ahead of them. They have all these blessings ahead of them that God wants them to have. God wants us to get married and enjoy that relationship. But oftentimes people just trade away the future that they could have just for that short moment of pleasure. And it's foolish and stupid. You know, we need to make sure we're not being short sighted. Go to Deuteronomy 22, Deuteronomy Chapter 22. And I want to show you how people are harming their futures by committing fornication. Deuteronomy 22, verse 28 says, If a man find a damsel that is a virgin which is not betrothed and lay hold on her and lie with her and they be found, then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father 50 shekels of silver and she shall be his wife because he hath humbled her. He may not put her away all his days. So in the Old Testament, if some guy went and fornicated with the young virgin, she wasn't betrothed, she wasn't engaged or anything like that, he would have to pay money to the father of that virgin and he was supposed to marry her. Now, the father could refuse him, but that would be the right thing to do. According to God's law is that if you do this, you're supposed to pay money and marry that virgin. Why? Because you've defiled her. You've taken her virginity. And so now you should be the one marrying that woman. But what I want to point out, though, is that there was a monetary value associated to a woman's virginity in the Old Testament. There was literally a price tag associated with it. And how foolish would it be if a woman in Old Testament Israel, who she could literally redeem money by getting married and some some guys literally going to pay money to her family to redeem her. But she just completely wastes it and gives it away for free to everybody. That doesn't make any sense. Right. That's so foolish. Go to Esther, chapter number two, Esther two. Esther two. And, you know, there's money attached to it because, newsflash, men like women. Men want to get married. And there's even literally a monetary value attached to it. Look at Esther two, verse three. It says, And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom that they may gather together. Notice all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace. So when the king is looking for the best women, what is he looking for in them? Fair, meaning beautiful, young virgins. These are qualities that make a lady attractive to a man to marry. And when ladies purposely give away or maybe not purposely give away certain of these qualities, it makes them less desirable to get married. This would offend a lot of people, but this is just true. OK, I mean, if some dude is just like 25 years old, he's killing it in his career. He's making tons of money. He's a great provider. He's fit or whatever. Do you really think that he's going to marry some 40 year old divorced woman with three kids? Does anyone in here think that that happens? No, it doesn't happen because that's not reality. OK, what are good men, really, every man, what are they looking for? Young, fair virgins. This is just whether you like it or not. That's just how it is. Let me read for you. You can go to Second Samuel 13. Let me read for you this. Amos eight thirteen says this. In that day, speaking of the day of God's judgment in that day, shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst? He's saying he's kind of highlighting like, look, the judgment of God is going to be so bad that even the beautiful young ladies, no one's going to want to take care of them or even be able to take care of them. Why is that even highlighted? Because it's just so obvious that a beautiful young woman, there'd be tons of men lining up to take care of her and want her and desire her. But he's saying, look, when I'm going to judge the world here, when I'm bringing God's wrath on this place, even the young virgins aren't going to be able to be taken care of. They're going to be fainting for thirst. God's highlighting like the cream of the crop of society that everyone wants are going to be not able to be taken care of. And look, this is still true today. Good men, high quality men are looking for a fair young virgin to marry. And when ladies decide as a young person to just give away something for free that should only be given to their husband, they are literally devaluing themselves as a person. It's just true. I wish that women wouldn't be doing this today. But think about it. A man's willing to marry you, commit to you, provide for you for the rest of your life. And again, it's not 20 years of childbearing. It's age 18 to 80 or whatever when you die. I mean, that's a lot of money he's going to be bringing in in all these years. And women will just give it away to some jack wagon loser for absolutely free. I mean, what a stupid thing to do. I mean, you have so much value. You're on the marketplace. Some great guy could scoop you up and marry you. But you're just going to give that away to just some loser scumbag. And any guy that would do that with you before is probably a loser. You know, the real man, the one that actually loves you is not the one that just says, oh, I love you, babe. Words are cheap. It's the guy that actually says, I'll put a ring on it. I'll provide for you. I will commit to you. I will vow myself only unto you as long as I shall live. That's the only person that you should ever give that away to. It's so foolish to do otherwise. Go to Second Samuel 13. And of course, everything I'm saying applies as well to men. Godly young ladies, they also want the same thing in a man. You know, but obviously it's usually the man that's approaching women for marriage anyways. And it's usually women that are struggling with this more. Second Samuel 13 11 says, so this is a very, very crazy story. But in verse 11, it says, And when she had brought them unto him to eat, he took hold of her and said unto her, Come lie with me, my sister. So Amnon here, he's kind of fallen sick in love with his half sister, Tamar. He had a bad friend who kind of gave him this wicked plan to feign himself sick, pretend to be sick so that his sister Tamar could come into the chamber and wait on him and serve him. And then he says that's where he took takes hold of her, says under come lie with me, my sister. Verse 12. And she answered him, Name my brother. Do not force me for no such thing ought to be done in Israel. Do not thou this folly. And I wither shall I cause my shame to go. And as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel. Now, therefore, I pray thee speak unto the king, for he will not withhold me from thee. Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice, but being stronger than she forced her and lay with her. And of course, this is extremely just disgusting act. Not only is this fornication, but this is rape because he's forcing her against her will. Very terrible situation. Verse 15. Notice what happened, though. It says then Amnon hated her exceedingly so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone. So at first, Amnon was so in love with Tamar that he was physically ill from it. Or he's experiencing these emotions of love, which he was. It was really just infatuation. It wasn't true love. But the Bible saying here that once this act happened, once he finally got what he wanted, did he love her now? Does he cherish her now that he got what he wanted? No, he hated her so much that he hated her more than any amount of love that he ever loved her. And this is what happens often times when people fornicate is they mistake in their mind love with infatuation or they mistake in their mind love with lust. And when they finally get that, they realize that they don't even love the person. And, you know, that's a scary place to be in as a woman where all of a sudden now you've given that away. You can't take that back. There's no going back on that. And now all of a sudden this guy that you thought loved you now hates you and sends you away. And it says in verse number 16, and she said unto him, there is no cause. This evil and sending me away is greater than the other that thou didst unto me. But he would not hearken unto her. And, you know, she's right. That's why the law of God said, hey, if a man does lay with a virgin and if they do commit fornication, the right thing to do is to get married, because it is more evil to just send her away after that than the first sin that was done. Does that make sense to everyone? Verse 17 says, then he called his servant that ministered unto him and said, put now this woman out from me and bolt the door after her. And she had a garment of diverse colors upon her, for with such robes were the king's daughters that were virgins appareled. Then her then his servant brought her out and bolted the door after her. And Tamar put ashes on her head and rent her garment of diverse colors that was on her and laid her hand on her head and went on crying. So notice the just emotional pain that she goes through because she's been defiled in this way. She's been forced in this way. And now not only has she had to endure that, but now this man doesn't even love her. Just completely discards her as trash. Let me tell you, this is happening in college dorm rooms all over America where women are just getting used and discarded as trash, where the man will never see them again, never talk to them again. There's all sorts of broken families in America where children are being produced as a result of fornication. And dad does not care at all. You see it out soul winning all the time. The single mom with the kids dad's gone and it's like she's probably experiencing very similar emotions here. She's sad. She's eaten up. She's been her life has been destroyed in a sense, all because of this foolish decision to commit fornication. And of course, in Tamar's situation, it wasn't her fault whatsoever. But let's just be brutally honest about a lot of people who are in similar situations today. It was their fault. It was their decision. And many women today are not just having children out of wedlock because they were raped. Look, that's terrible. I feel terrible for those women. Those men that did that should be put to death. OK, that's a terrible crime. But most people in that situation, they were just deciding to give it out for free. And now they're suffering as a result. Why? Because they're being short sighted. They're looking at something that they want. They're not thinking about the consequences. And they're just giving up all the blessings that they could have received just because they wanted to commit fornication. First Corinthians 6 18 says, Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body. But he that committed fornication sinneth against his own body. Look, we all have to be reminded that it does not matter what our flesh is telling us is good. We have to remember what the Bible says is good. OK, every single human being is going to struggle pretty much with this desire, but you just have to remember the Bible says, flee fornication. Do not be short sighted in this area. Do not think that it's not a big deal. Don't think that God doesn't really care about it. No, it's a big deal that could have life altering consequences, whether that's through disease, whether that through that's childhood teen pregnancy. No, you need to flee fornication. Go to First Corinthians 7, First Corinthians 7. Now, a similar topic. Number three, don't be short sighted on who you marry. Don't be short sighted on who you get married to. This is a big, big decision in your life. First Corinthians 7, verse 34. This is a funny verse to me. There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. It's like, oh, you don't say this is like a blatantly obvious with Ben moment. There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. Yes, the unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. And this I speak for your own profit, not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely and that you may attend upon the Lord without distraction. But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncombly toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age and need so require, let him do what he will. He sinneth not. Let them marry. You know, elsewhere in this chapter talks about how it's better to marry than to burn. Talking about burning in your lust towards this person. The Bible saying, look, there's nothing wrong with getting married. If you're behaving yourself uncombly towards this person, as long as she's past the flower of her age, people get all weird about that age. Notice it says past the flower of her age. Right. So this is an adult woman. This is a fully grown, mature woman. If you want to, of course, that you're not sinning. Let them marry. Verse thirty seven. Nevertheless, he that standeth steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but have power over his own will and have so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin. Doeth well. And Paul, of course, he himself decided not to get married. This was something that he could control in his life. Let me just say this for ninety nine point nine nine nine percent of men. This is not you. You are not the apostle Paul. You likely should get married. Now, the apostle Paul is a real person that existed. But for most guys, this is not the case. Verse thirty eight. So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well, but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better. The wife is bound. Notice this. The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth. But if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will only in the Lord. Notice what the Bible teaches till death do us part. That phrase is a biblical phrase because the wife is bound by the law to her husband as long as she lives. God does not recognize divorce. Divorce is not something that God wants. No, the only time that you could be loosed from your spouse and get married to someone else is when your spouse has died. That's it. And so because this isn't even like men. I told you men providing for their family. That's a long commitment. OK, marriage is longer. It's literally till death. And so you want to not be short sighted with who you marry. This is a big, big decision. And I worry about, you know, I like the fact that we promote getting married young. I preach a sermon of why I think that's a good thing. But I worry, though, that on the flip side of that, that people are just like, oh, I turned 18. That means I have to get married right now because that's just what you do in the new IFB. I mean, you turn 18 and you get married. Look, there's nothing wrong with that if it's the right time for you. But let's just be honest, that's not necessarily the right time for every single person alive right now. OK, some people, it may be just better and a just different part of your life for you to wait until you're a little bit older, a little more truer or things are different. Why? Because it's a lifelong relationship. Here is some tips. OK, so that you don't make a big mistake with who you marry. Ben, don't marry just for looks. Don't marry just for looks. OK, I've known guys where that was their number one qualifier. They ignored major character flaws. They ignored major family issues, all sorts of big problems because they were just into that one thing. And they end up not living a very happy life afterwards. Look, I want you to like how your spouse looks. You want to be attracted to the person that you marry, but do not marry for the sole purpose of looks. And let's just be honest, it's not women that are marrying for looks. OK, it's usually dudes that are marrying for the sole purpose of looks. That is a foolish thing to do. It is till death do us part. The Bible talks about how how it's like like gold in the snout of a swine. It's like a fair woman without discretion. It's like, oh, cool. You married a fair woman. How wonderful. It's like you have a pig with a little nice little gold thing in his nose. It's still a pig. And those looks are only going to satisfy you for so long until you realize I've got a pig with me. And I'm not very happy. So don't marry the pig. OK, don't marry the pig. Let me say this to everyone. Don't feel pressured to just marry the first person that comes along. Don't feel pressured to just marry the first person that comes along. Again, there's a kind of this culture in Baptist circles where it's like you turn 18 and you got to get married. And look, if that's right for you, there's nothing wrong with that. Praise the Lord. If that's you, I know great pastors who have done that, other people who have done that. But that doesn't mean that, oh, the first girl that talks to me is the one I've got to marry. The first guy that ever talked to me is the guy that I have to marry. That is not necessarily the case. Now, look, if the first guy that he talks to you happens to be just an awesome, godly, on fire, wonderful Christian man, then praise the Lord. There's no reason you shouldn't marry him. I'm not saying that you can't marry the first person that comes along. What I am saying is don't feel pressured to. Don't feel like, oh, this is my only chance. I'm 18 years old and no one will ever come around again. It's like you're 18 years old. You're OK. You're still going to be beautiful for a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time. All right. Ladies worry about these things. And sometimes guys do, too. In fact, just I'll just admit my fault to you of a funny story about me. This is just young men are just dumb. OK, I'll just admit to you. You have issues. But when I was like, I don't know, I think I was 19 or 20 years old. I was working as a pipe fitter and I was working like 60 hours a week. I had no time for anything else in my life. At least I thought so. Now I live my life now and I realize it was it was a lot easier then. But anyways, I was just thinking like, how am I ever going to find a girl? I'm just working so much. I'm working around all these rough dudes and constructions. And I just I had this foolish thought. I was like, you know, I just give up. I'm just going to join the Marine Corps. And I went down the recruiting office and I was like, I might as well just, you know, have some fun and blow some stuff up. This is what men do. We're just dumb. OK, I'm sorry. I went in and listen to the Marine Corps and I was going through the background process. And just by chance, my brother had just graduated from the Marine Corps in San Diego. And on our way back up, I stopped at the Red Hot Preaching Conference, which is where I met my wife. And I said, you know, maybe the Marine Corps is not for me. And so, you know, praise the Lord. I met my wife at Red Hot and didn't go down that road. But look, sometimes young men and young women can think like, well, I haven't found anyone yet, so I just I'm giving up or whatever. Look, that's not reality. OK, that's not true. You don't have to worry about that. And thankfully, God was looking out for me and led me to a great woman. Here's another tip. Use the dating person to really get to know the person you're dating. Don't waste the opportunity you have during the dating phase where you're not actually talking to each other. You're not communicating. You're not giving your expectations of what you would like your life to look like, what your beliefs are, what your philosophies on marriage and child rearing and church and things like that. Like these are all things you should really be talking about during the dating phase, not just like, wow, I like your eyes. Oh, cool. I like your smile. Oh, man, your hair is wonderful. I really like your shoes. It's like, don't waste your time. Actually get to know this person because you're going to be with them till you die if you marry them. So that is something you should keep in mind. Here's another thing. Don't ignore major red flags. Now, here's the thing. Don't hear me wrong. We're all sinners. Everyone is a sinner. And you don't want to be having such a high standard. We are constantly passing up wonderful ladies or ladies are constantly just passing up. Good godly men, because you have some weird standard of perfection. But also during the dating period, you should not ignore major red flags. And those of us that are parents, we should be looking out for our children and looking for those major red flags and trying to help our children with those things when those times come. But, you know, you should be looking out for those things. Here's some red flags. Here's some major red flags in a woman. So, man, this is something you should be thinking about. A major red flag is when a woman is majorly disrespectful to her parents. If a woman is extremely disobedient and disrespectful to her mother and father, you are going to be extremely disrespected and disobeyed when you are the authority. You got to realize that how does she treat her authority right now? Oh, she crap talks mom and dad. She doesn't listen to anything that they say. She breaks all the rules. You're going to be in for a world of hurt when she's your problem. So when you see that kind of stuff, that's a red flag that you should not ignore. Here's another major red flag. Don't ignore when a woman is overly flirtatious with other dudes because everyone puts their best foot forward while they're dating. And if while you're dating, she's flirting with other guys, that's a serious red flag. A woman that refuses to dress modestly when you're dating her, that is a major red flag. And look, I've heard guys say, oh, I'll never even approach a woman that wears pants. It's like, dude, come on. You can go approach a girl. You could get her saved. You could try to get her in church and try to get her to learn the Bible. You know, you don't have to have this ridiculous expectation. But if you've been dating a girl for a really long time and then she refuses to dress modestly, she's being flirtatious, she's showing off her body to other men. That is a red flag that you should not ignore. You should not marry a woman that you know is a major flirt and is just promiscuous like that. That sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. Here is some major red flags in men. Lack of ambition and work ethic. Ladies, here's the thing. You know, us as men, whoever we marry, we could force her to go to church because we're in charge. We could force her to go soul winning with us. We could force her to do certain things because we're literally the authority. We're literally in charge. You ladies are marrying someone who you're kind of like giving up the ship and saying, OK, you're the captain. You've got to lead this. You've got to be in control here. And if you're dating a guy who doesn't have any work ethic, no drive, no passion, no tenacity, that's not a problem that's just going to fix itself magically when life gets hard. It's like if he can't work hard as a teenager, if his and I'm not saying he has to be rich, but look at the trajectory of his life. Like, is he working super hard? OK, the trajectory is good. He's going to be successful because he's working hard. But if while you're dating, he's lazy, he has no drive, he has no goals, he has no vision for his life. That's a major red flag that you should not ignore. A lack of character or a history of commitment issues. That's a red flag in men that ladies should not ignore. Again, men are the leaders. They need to be people of strong character because they are setting the tone for you and for the whole family. So you don't want to ignore when you see that there's just major character issues, major commitment issues. He never follows through on anything. He's constantly quitting jobs. He's constantly burning people in his life. That's a major red flag that you should not ignore. And of course, this is the same with men. A man that is flirtatious, flirtatious with other women. That is a big red flag that you should not ignore. OK, because usually, unfortunately, what I've just seen is that this is something that's just not easily fixed. Someone that grows up and is really promiscuous, commits a lot of fornication. Usually, unfortunately, they bring that stuff into their marriage and causes issues. And so when you see a man or a woman overly flirtatious like that, you should not ignore that. Here's another red flag in men when they push boundaries during the dating period. You know, the young man should be respectful to you. The young man should be respectful to your body. To be respectful to your father should honor your parents, obey your parents rules. You know, that is the sign of a man that actually has character and integrity. You should not ignore it when the man is constantly pushing boundaries, trying to do things with you that, you know, your dad doesn't want you to do. Constantly wanting to touch you, things like that. You should be aware of that. And last red flag in men is spiritual immaturity. Spiritual immaturity. Do not marry ladies, especially ladies growing up in church, going to a good church, knowing what the Bible says. Don't marry a guy that's less spiritual than you. He should be more spiritual than you. You should look at him and be like, wow, he's a really awesome soul winner. Wow, he's really zealous route. He really knows the Bible. Well, he's passionate about the things of God. That's the type of guy you should marry. Not someone's like, well, he's got a cool car. He's never read the Bible. Don't make that mistake. That's a foolish mistake. That's being short sighted. Why? Because you're going to be with this man for the rest of your life, man. You're going to be with this woman for the rest of your life. And unfortunately, I've seen people rush into marriage and they're struggling. They're having serious issues because they just like, all right, I'm 18. I just got to get married or days. The first girl to talk to me was just got to get married and just being short sighted, not thinking about the things that I'm telling you. Look, I haven't given you Bible verses for everything that I'm talking about, but I'm telling you, I've just seen this to be true. OK, and I would be I would be where if I were you go to Genesis chapter 16, Genesis chapter 16. Here's another one. Don't be short sighted when it comes to having children. Don't be short sighted when it comes to having children. Genesis 16, verse one says, Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bear him no children. She had in handmaid an Egyptian whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold, now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian. And Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan and gave her to her husband, Abram, to wife. So notice Sarai is getting impatient, right? She's becoming hasty. And in her desire to have a child, she ends up being very short sighted and says, you know, rather than just waiting on God and allowing him to bless us with a child, let's do something sinful. Let's just give Abram to another woman. That's a short sighted thing to do. And you could tell it's short sighted because Sarai is immediately pissed. She's ready to burn the world to the ground because any woman that gives their man to another woman is going to be ready to burn the world to the ground. Right. But yet it was her idea. And men, don't just listen to every idea that your wife gives you, especially in this area. OK, like if your wife ever tells you to do this, this is a trap, bro. No, she's a fed. No, I'm just kidding. She's not a fed. All right. But this is a bad idea. This is being short sighted. Genesis 2 24 says, Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife. And they shall be one flesh. The Bible says that a marriage is literally between one man and one woman. I know that's real controversial today, but polygamy is not biblical. OK, this was a one time act of adultery. This was not perpetual adultery. But Abram going on in unto this other woman, it was a one time act of adultery because polygamy was not something that God ever permitted. It was something that people did, but it was not right. But because they were short sighted, they ended up what? Sinning. Today, sometimes people get impatient. They want to have children and they end up sinning in order to do so. It's called IVF. What is IVF? It's in vitro fertilization. Literally, that just means fertilization in a lab. So what is IVF? This is from the Mayo Clinic and says an in vitro fertilization, also called IVF, is a complex series of procedures that can lead to a pregnancy. It's a treatment for infertility, a condition in which you can't get pregnant after at least a year of trying for most couples. IVF also can be used to prevent passing on genetic problems to a child during in vitro fertilization. Mature eggs are collected from ovaries and fertilized by sperm in a lab. Then a procedure is done to place one or more of the fertilized eggs called embryos in a uterus, which is where babies develop. One full cycle of IVF takes about two to three weeks. Sometimes these steps are split into different parts and the process can take longer. Here's a simple breakdown of how it works. Now it's just going to give us points of the simple way that it works. Number one, how does it work? Ovary stimulation. Normally, a woman's ovary releases one egg per month and IVF doctors give medication to stimulate the ovaries to produce several eggs at once. Number two, egg collection. Once the eggs are mature, a doctor uses a small needle to collect them from the ovaries in a minor surgical procedure. Number three, sperm collection. The partner provides a sperm sample, which is processed in a lab to isolate the healthiest sperm. Number four, fertilization in the lab. The eggs and sperm are brought together in a dish. The sperm fertilizes the eggs just like it would in the body, creating embryos. So what is happening here in the dish, in the lab, is conception, right? Fertilization is conception. So they are literally creating human beings in the lab with IVF. Don't let anyone fool you. That's literally what this is saying. They are creating human beings in the lab. Then it says, number five, monitoring the embryos, which, let's just be honest, is babies. OK, monitoring the embryos. The embryos, fertilized eggs, are watched closely for a few days as they start dividing and growing into cells. It's weird how it's not a life, but its cells are dividing and growing. That's so weird that a non-life would do that, right? Because it is a life. Doctors look for healthy embryos that are developing properly. Number six, transferring the embryo. One, or sometimes two, healthy embryos are placed in the woman's uterus using a small tube. This is called embryo transfer. If the embryo attaches to the uterus lining, pregnancy begins. So this kind of begs the question, if the doctors in the lab are taking the seed and the eggs and just fertilizing all of these and bringing conception forth in these little petri dishes, what happens then to the ones that they don't use? OK? Now, number one, it says, number one, not all eggs get fertilized. Some eggs might not combine with sperm or may not grow into embryos. OK, fertilization didn't happen, then life wasn't created, right? Number two, abnormal embryos. Some embryos stop developing because they aren't healthy enough to continue. These are usually not used. Number three, freezing extra embryos. There are extra healthy embryos that can be frozen for future attempts. Number four, discarding embryos. Embryos that are abnormal or not used are typically discarded based on the couple's or individual's decision and medical guidance. So what happens is a lot of times these doctors, they're taking the seed and the egg, they're fertilizing it, conception has taken place, human life has been created, but they say, hey, you know, we made all these, we're going to put two in your uterus, see if one implants, and then they take the rest and they just throw it in the trash. You know what that is? That's called being short-sighted because in your haste to have a child, just like Sarah was just so hasty to have a child, she's like, OK, just go commit adultery. Just go into my handmaid. People today are just so in a rush to have a child with like, hey, let's just create human life in a lab and we'll just implant some and the others will just throw in the trash and literally murder. Because life begins at conception, friends. Life begins at conception. And when you're taking fertilized eggs where conception has taken place and you're just discarding those, that is murder. That is murder. And no Christian should ever engage in IVF. Do not get impatient. Do not get short-sighted. Wait on the Lord. Trust in the Lord. And even if God decides to never give someone children, it's better to not have children than to have murdered children. What would you rather have? Lacking a blessing from God or having a child, but you've also murdered other children. That's sick to have that on your conscience. That's something you should never, ever do. Do not get short-sighted when it comes to having children. Go to Luke Chapter one. Luke Chapter one. We've got to get one Christmas verse in this this Sunday, right? Why is it a problem to discard fertilized eggs? Well, here's why. Luke 1 31 says, And behold, thou shalt, notice, conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt call his name Jesus. When conception took place in the womb of Mary, you know who was there? The baby Jesus was there. And you conceive. You don't conceive a watermelon. You don't conceive an orange. You don't conceive a lemon. You conceive a child. When a woman has had conception, she has a child inside of her. And of course, that child was Lord Jesus Christ. It's the same with every woman who's ever been pregnant. Conception has taken place and life is there. I have four beautiful children on this earth. But guess what? Two other times conception has happened or we've had a miscarriage. I have had six children in reality. I've got four in this world. Two are in heaven because two were real human souls that were created by God. And unfortunately, they passed away. But they were real people. OK. And these babies made in the test tube, they were real people, real souls. And those babies are in heaven right now. But just because they're in heaven doesn't excuse the wickedness of killing them. That's sick and disgusting. Go to Exodus 21, Exodus chapter 21. It's the same thing as like people desiring to be rich and being hasty to be rich and lying, cheating, ripping people off, cutting corners to get rich. It's like, look, there's nothing wrong with being rich from working hard and dealing honestly. And God blessing you. That's great. But there is something wrong with doing wicked things to get rich. Nothing wrong with having kids. There is something wrong with doing wicked things to have children. Look at Exodus 21, verse 22. If men strive and hurt a woman with child so that her fruit depart from her and yet no mischief follow, he shall surely be punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him and she shall and he shall pay as the judge is determined. So notice if two men are fighting, they hurt a pregnant woman, her child departs, her fruit departs, the child dies. And it says, and yet no mischief follow. I think that's saying that there was no premeditated murder that happened here. This was an accident. The man is going to be punished still. Why? Because there was a loss of life. But it says this. And if any mischief follow, if it comes to light that this was premeditated, that you purposely hurt this woman, that you purposely killed her child, which happens to this day. Notice the result. Then thou shalt give life for life. The Bible says that a child in its mother's womb, a child that has been conceived is a life. It is a living being. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for womb, wound, stripe for stripe. You know, if we were to apply this today, we would have to look at IVF. We'd have to just look at the facts and just determine that it is murder. It is premeditated. Yes, mischief has followed the diet. The doctors, the scientists, they know that fertilization is taking place. They're not dummies. And that's why it says like, well, they discard them based on the individual's preferences because they know this is wicked. And they know that people struggle with this idea because they are committing murder. The Bible says when you premeditated Lee hurt a woman or with child and kill the child, that you would get life for life. Stripe for stripe, burning for burning. What you did unto that baby should be done unto you if it was done purposely, is what the Bible says. And, you know, of course, we should apply this to abortion, too, that these disgusting abortion doctors that oftentimes use a saline solution to melt a precious little child in the womb. You know, we should just drop those doctors into a vat of saline solution and let them melt like a snail. Burning for burning, stripe for stripe, wound for wound, life for life. Don't be short sighted when it comes to having children. Don't don't also, you know, get pregnant and worry so much about your future that you're short sighted and then you commit an abortion and kill the child that God has given you. I mean, this works both ways. Don't be short sighted. If God has given you a child, he's given you that child for a reason. Don't discard your child and don't in your haste to have a child do something that God hates. Go to Proverbs 29, number five, don't be short sighted with your relationships. This could apply to family, friends, co-workers. Just don't be hasty and rash and short sighted when it comes to your relationships. Proverbs 29, 20 says, See is thou a man that is hasty in his words? There is more hope of a fool than of him. He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child shall have him become his son at the length. An angry man stirreth up strife and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. You know, it's a good reminder to us not to be short sighted and hasty in our words, because oftentimes what is it that destroys relationships? Oftentimes it's the things that we say. And sometimes people say the most hurtful things to the people that they should be loving the most. You know, we got to remember that in our relationships, there's going to be times where you're angry, you're upset, you feel vindicated and justified for whatever you're feeling. But you know what? Don't be short sighted, ladies, and mouth off to your husband because you could harm that relationship. And men, don't be short sighted and just come down like a ton of bricks on your wife and just be a complete jerk to her because, yeah, you're in charge. But you know what? You could still hurt that relationship on how you speak to her. And we should be wise in the words that we use, not being hasty. Go to Proverbs 27 while I read James 1 9 says, Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. That's something we need to be reminded of. Slow to wrath. Don't be someone that's just so quick to get angry. Blow off your mouth. Scream at your spouse or at your children or at your co-workers or whatever. Let us be slow to wrath. Proverbs 27, verse 10. I love this verse. Thine own friend and thy father's friend forsake not. Neither go into thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity for better as a neighbor that is near than a brother far off. Don't be short sighted in your relationships. The Bible says your friend and your father's friend don't forsake them. Yet today we live in a society of an epidemic of people just willing to burn friendships and relationships at the drop of a hat. Right. And it's so easy for us. It's just the unfriend button. Right. It's just made us mad. Just unfriend button. And look, there's a time and place to use that. Believe me. But we should not be just by default. So quick to cut people off in our lives. We should be people that are not forsaking our friends all the time, forsaking our father's friends. We should be people that are loyal to the people in our lives and not just immediately forsaking them. Go to Luke Chapter 14, Luke 14. Number six, don't be short sighted in big life decisions. What am I talking about? Buying a house, buying a car, moving to other states, changing careers. These are things that you should not just do on a drop of a hat. Right. Getting married. Look at Luke 14, verse 28. For which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it. What is that a picture of? Of being circumspect, of being wise, of not being hasty, not being prudent, saying, hey, I want to build this tower. I want to do something great. What am I going to do? I'm going to sit down. I'm going to count the cost right before you move to a different city. Count the cost before you start a business. Count the cost before you get married. Count the cost. Make sure you're not doing these things on a split decision. Lastly, this evening, go to John Chapter six will be the last one we talk about. Don't be short sighted when it comes to church. Don't be short sighted when it comes to church. Specifically, what I'm talking about is quitting church. Sometimes people just quit church in an emotional fit, and it was not a wise decision. They didn't leave a bad church. They left a good church for a dumb reason. Let me show you some people quitting on a pretty good guy. His name was the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you think these people are quitting for a good reason or a bad reason? Obviously, a bad reason. Look at John six, verse 53. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in him and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying. Who can hear it? So notice his disciples are offended. Now, is there anything wrong with what Jesus preached? Absolutely not. He's the Word of God. Everything was right that he said he is the bread of life, but even his own disciples were shocked by this sermon. They were upset. They were offended. And notice Jesus' reaction in verse 61. When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? Notice his reaction was not coddling them. Well, let me explain myself a little more. What I really meant when I said I was the bread of life is that I'm the bread of life. Does this offend you? Right. He's not coddling them. He's just saying, look, does this offend you? Verse 62. What an if ye shall see the Son of manna send up where he was before? Why is he saying this? Because they're kind of offended at the the way that Jesus is exalting himself because he's God. I mean, he's literally saying, hey, I'm not talking about the manna that came down from heaven. I'm saying I'm literally the bread of life and that if you eat of me, you will never be hungry. Look, there's only one man that could claim that. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. But these disciples are just confused or carnal or not thinking of Jesus in the proper perspective that he's God in the flesh. And he's saying, look, does this offend you? How are you going to how are you going to be feeling then when you see me ascend up to God the Father? He's like, you think I'm a little exalted then? You think I'm a little high and mighty then when I ascend up in glory to God the Father? He doesn't, you know, mince words with his sermon. He doesn't take anything back. He's saying, look, everything I'm saying was right. Why are you offended? Guess what? It's going to get even more glorifying for me. Verse sixty three. It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. He's saying, look, my sermon is 100 percent right. In fact, the words that I'm speaking to you are life itself. He's not backing away from what he said whatsoever. But there are some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believe not and who should betray him. He said, Therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my father. Verse sixty six. Notice from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Even the Lord Jesus Christ had people get upset at his preaching and quit serving God. And guess what? There's never a good reason to quit on Jesus. Jesus didn't do anything wrong. Jesus didn't preach anything wrong. These people are quitting walking with Christ because they themselves are backslidden. They themselves are carnal. But it's just so funny because when people even do this today and people will quit a good church, they'll never tell you like, well, it's because I felt like I was pressured to go soul winning there and I just never wanted to go. And so I just quit or just like, well, I just really wanted to live a super worldly life and I really just wanted to embrace feminism. And so my family was just uncomfortable and hearing all the preaching about fix your face and all these things. I don't like that kind of stuff. And so I'm going to walk away and it's like they're never going to tell you those things. But that's just reality. If people just impulsively with a short sighted view with just not being prudent, not being circumspect, if they did that to Jesus, if they just on a dime quit on Jesus, let me just remind you that it's going to happen to good churches today. And look, just the reality is, is that if you stay in church, this church in five years is going to be unrecognizable from what you see right now. I wish that wasn't true, but I've seen it to be true so many times. And like I kind of expected it to be that way in five years. I didn't really expect that to be in five months. But what I'm telling you is that that's just reality. In five years, it'll happen. In five years, it'll happen again. Five years, it'll happen again. I mean, this is just what we see happen. But look at verse sixty seven. Notice Jesus's response to seeing people quit on him, leaving his ministry, walk away from him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye go? Will ye also go away? Then Peter asks a good question here. Verse sixty eight. Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. You know, that's a good question that people should ask themselves before quitting a church, before quitting on a good church or a good pastor. What these people should have asked themselves is to whom shall we go? You know, Peter is the only one who's actually thinking clearly here. He's the only one that actually has a vision for the future who's not being shortsighted, who's actually looking at the big picture, saying, OK, you know, Jesus offended some people. He's had a hard sermon here. People are quitting on him. Maybe outsiders are looking at this saying, oh, look, Jesus's ministry is sinking. It's getting destroyed here. But Peter says, but to whom am I going to go? He's the one that has the words of life. He's the one that's God. He's the son of God. And it's like oftentimes I think people leave a great church just because they're upset about one thing or they're they're not even they could just have misunderstood something. I mean, these people just misunderstood what Jesus was preaching. They didn't understand it. And they leave a good church. But it's like, where are you going to go, though? Are you going to go to the old IFB like we talked about this morning where they want to welcome in the pedophiles, where they want to welcome in the convicted child predators to sit in the church with you, where you do you want to hear about tithing every single service? Like, do you want to have an altar call where the gospels preached every single service and every sermon is about salvation? Is that what you want? Do you want the new King James? Do you want the NIV? Do you want the deacon led church and the democracy church where the women are voting on everything? Do you want the pastor and pastor's wife duo? Do you want the church with no soul winning program? Do you want the church where the hard preaching is never going to happen ever? Do you want the church where they preach a Bible study through Romans one and they'll stop once it gets to the reprobates? And we're going to Romans two. We're just reading the gospel part of Romans one. Do you want to hear the pre trip rapture every week? Do you want to hear let's worship Israel? Let's worship the Jews. Oh, well, you know, Pastor Ross said a mean thing one time. OK, well, well, you go away also. But I'm telling you, that's just a short sighted way to live your life. And it's so funny how people will give grace to these other churches for all these major issues. But then it's like they're upset and they're upset at Jesus here for what? What did Christ do? Preach the truth? Preached a hard sermon? Oh, sorry that this offends you. But what are you going to do when you hear the next sermon that's also offensive? I mean, who cares? But here's the thing. I do care, though, because I care about people just leaving a good church for no reason, because it harms them. It's there. It's their loss. And here's the thing, like like I'm not harmed by people quitting church because I'm still in a great church. Like I get to congregate with great people. I get to go out soul winning. I get to be new. I love it. I'm not suffering from it. But I do feel bad for people that leave a good church and go to a much lesser church for no reason. I do. That does hurt me. Not because of my personal pride or anything like that, but because of the betterment of your family or the hurt of your family. I mean, where are you going to go to where it doesn't make any sense. And, you know, praise God. Oklahoma City does have some good old IP churches. But I'm just saying, like, if you actually believe the doctrines that we believe, you're going to get sick and tired of hearing about the Jews. I mean, if you know what the Bible says, you've read the scriptures debunking Zionism, you're going to get real tired of please donate your money to Israel. Please help us build the Antichrist Temple. Please. Would you just pass the plate again and pay for the Jews that hate Jesus Christ to bomb some more kids in Palestine? That's going to start eating at you a little bit. And you ought to just stop being so short sighted and say, like, where am I going to go? You know, sometimes people will move. They'll just like, oh, I just want to live out in the middle of nowhere and just build a farm, build a ranch. It's like, dude, you live in Oklahoma. You can do that 20 minutes from church. Why would you just move super far away, though? You know, to where are you going to go? You're being short sighted and people's lives constantly are destroyed by this. I mean, to where are you going to go? Are you going to go to Anchor Baptist Church or the Anchor Baptist Church we talked about this morning where your kids are going to be forced to go into the nursery, where you're going to be publicly rebuked for having your kids in the service. Is that where you're going to go? Would you going to go to the church where the pastor's wife is wearing pants? The pastor's wife has a short haircut. Is that where you're going to go? But it's so funny. People get so blind. They overlook everything else because the one little thing that they're upset about and they act like, you know, they're the most gracious, loving people in the world. Go to Psalm 119, Psalm 119. But you know what? These disciples missed out on the ministry of God in the flesh because they got offended by one sermon. I mean, can you imagine the loss of rewards of these people? Like you literally were walking with the word of God in flesh. You had Jesus before your very eyes. You could follow him and you quit on him. You stopped following him because you got mad by one sermon that he preached that was true anyways. I mean, those people had to beat themselves up. I mean, it's just like they get to heaven. It's just like, all right, here's the mansion of the disciples of Christ that were killed for Christ, that suffered persecution for Christ, that stuck with him, that failed at times in life, but got back up and kept serving God. And it's like, here's the losers that got bitter over his John Chapter six sermon and quit on him. Yikes. That's a really sad back story there. Psalm 119, verse 165. Notice this says, Great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. Now, oftentimes people use this verse and I think it's a fair application talking about being offended in the way that we use the word being offended today, meaning our feelings were hurt. But I don't think that's the primary interpretation of what this passage is saying. To offend oftentimes in the Bible means to cause to stumble, to cause to cease doing something. And what the Bible is saying is that when you love God's law, you have great peace. Why? Because nothing will offend you, meaning nothing will cause you to stop serving God. That is what that verse means. It means, hey, I'm going to be steadfast. Why? Because I love God's word. That gives me peace and nothing shall offend me. Nothing shall stop me from serving God. Look, no sermon I hear preached is going to stop me from serving God, even if it's against me, even if it steps on my toes, even if it corrects my actions. I've told you guys this story before. I've literally had a pastor come up to me and say, the service tomorrow is specifically against you. Don't skip church. Come to church and listen up. You know what I did? I came to church and I took it like a man. I wrote my notes. I opened my Bible. I turned along. I'm saying, amen. OK, he's right. Yeah, I know he's right about that one. But people are like, oh, you preached against me. You said something against me. You hurt my feelings. I'm quitting. Well, it sounds like you don't love God's word because great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. You know, people who love God, they could literally have the pastor tell them, I'm going to preach against you tomorrow. And they still show up and they still listen and they still say, amen. Other people, they think everything's about them. They're they're mad at every sermon. They're super upset at everything. They're offended. They're ready to quit. They move on somewhere else because they don't love God's word that much. And look, I don't know if you notice, I try my best to bring a lot of Bible into my sermons because I love God's word. I want you to love God's word. And it's like, to where are you going to go to the old life? Be that has a 15 minute sermon with one verse. Look, I love God's word. I want you to love God's word. And if you do, nothing's going to offend you. Nothing's going to cause you to stop. But look, I need church. You need church. I need people to encourage me by going out soul winning. I get encouraged when I see the children of this church going out soul winning, preaching the gospel. That fires me up. I get encouraged singing the hymns together, fellowshipping with God's people. You know, iron sharpened with iron. You know, we need church really, really bad in this world. And it would be so foolish and just shortsighted to quit on church today. You know, the closer we get to the coming of Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says the more we should be coming together. And every day we go on in the future, when you quit, it's that much more foolish of a thing to do. Last place, we'll go where we started. We'll finish where we started. Luke 15, Luke 15, verse 11. Look, I'm not just preaching the sermon to try to beat up on people that have been shortsighted in the past and their finances or in fornication or who they've married, God forbid or anything like that. I'm trying to prevent other people from making those same mistakes. And I'm trying to help you minimize the damage in the future because we've still got a lot of decisions left to make in our life. Every day is a series of decisions, and we need to constantly be reminded, don't be shortsighted. Let's finish with this. Luke 15, 11. And he said, A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. When he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, notice this, and he began to be in want. Here is the reality, is that in any area of our life, whether it's finances, marriage, fornication, sin issues, children, church, when you decide to make the short-sighted decision without thinking of the long-term consequences, this is where you're going to come to in your life. You're going to come to a point in your life where you begin to be in want. Where you realize, I've messed up, and I'm lacking some things, and I'm hurting in some area because of the decisions that you've made. And we live in a world today that wants to eliminate pain and eliminate the consequences of bad decisions, right? I mean, that's what abortion is. It's trying to erase the consequences of bad decisions. There's all these safety nets trying to save you, but I'm telling you, God, especially those of us that are saved, those of us who are going to be punished by God, chastised with God, God can make sure that those safety nets fail for us. God can make sure that we do feel the pain and the suffering of our mistakes, and so what's better is to just not be so short-sighted in the first place and be prudent, circumspect. Last verse we'll read, verse 17, and when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my fathers have bred enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger? You know, this is what I'm trying to do with this sermon, is to get you to come to yourself now before you're in the situation of the prodigal son. Come to yourself now and realize, hey, I'm going to be in a world of hurt in my finances if I don't start working hard now as a young man. Hey, you know, I'm going to be in a world of hurt if I'm a woman that has a body count in the teens and I've got all these bastard children and I'm 30 years old and I've never been married. Look, that's a situation where you could be in a big world of hurt, and I want you to avoid that. I don't want you to have to go through that type of pain. You know, I don't want you to have to come to yourself when you've burned all the relationships in your life, you've burned all your friends, you've burned your pastor, you've burned your mom and dad, you've burned your church, you quit on church, you quit on God, and then you just come to yourself and realize, I'm an idiot. I screwed up. I wasted my life. Here I am. You know, I'm messing up. Now, thankfully, this story has a positive ending where the father receives him and brings him back. You know, we want to be that way as a church where this world has gone out living in the pig pen of this world. They've ruined their lives a lot of time, and we want to let them know that, hey, God loves you. God can forgive you. We want to receive you as a church. But you know what would be just better all around is if those of us in this room, we never had a prodigal son story. Let us just skip the prodigal son phase of our life. Let's just be faithful children of God the Father. Why? Because we have a really rich dad. We have a really cool dad, God the Father, that has so many blessings for us in this life. Why would we just run off on him and quit being his son and just stay away and just give us the blessings now? Let's just ruin our lives now. No, let the time past of our lives be sufficient for all those things. Let us not be shortsighted as Christians. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this day and thank you for this parable. I just pray that you'd help us all in this room, especially the young people, to be circumspect in their lives and every decision they make to think about the long-term consequences that it may have. I do pray that you would be merciful to us and gracious to us as we navigate life. Of course, we are just flesh, Lord. We make mistakes. We are sinners. But I pray that we would take seriously every decision, that you'd help us to have foresight and not be so hasty in our decisions. And just pray that you would receive us when we sin and forgive us when we sin. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, if you would, take your hymnals at this time. We'll go ahead and sing one last song to conclude the service. Hymn number 432 will sing, Angels from the Realms of Glory. Hymn number 432. Hymn 432. We'll start there right on the first. Angels from the realms of glory, wing your fire o'er all the earth. Ye who say creation's story now proclaim the Messiah's birth. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King. Shepherds in the field of hiding, watching o'er your flocks by night. God with it is now resigning, yonder shines the infant mind. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King. Sages, leave your contemplation, wider visions beam afar. Seek the great desire of nature, we have seen its fatal storm. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King. Saints before the altar bending, watching long in hope and fear. Suddenly the Lord descending, in his temple shall appear. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King.