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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Good evening, everybody. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could all find your seats, we'll go ahead and get started. We're going to start this evening off in song number 160, Crown Him With Many Crowns. Song number 160, Crown Him With Many Crowns. Song 160, Crown Him With Many Crowns. 🎵Music🎵 Sing it out on the first. 🎵Crown him with many crowns, the lamb upon his throne, 🎵Hark, how the heavenly anthem drowns, all music by its own, 🎵Awake, my soul, and sing of Him who died for me! 🎵And hail Him as thy bachelors speak, to all eternity! 🎵Proud is the Lord of love, behold His hands and sign, 🎵Raised wombs yet visible above, in beauty glorified, 🎵No angel in the sky can fully bear that sign, 🎵But downward bends His wandering eye, at mystery so bright. 🎵Proud is the Lord of light, who triumphs for the brave, 🎵Who rose victorious to the strife, for those He came to save. 🎵His glory's now we sing, who died and rose on high, 🎵Who died eternal life to free, and lives that death may not last. 🎵Proud is the Lord of heaven, one with the Father known, 🎵One with the Spirit through Him given, from yonder glorious grown, 🎵To Thee, the endless praise, for Thou for us has died, 🎵Be thou, O Lord, through endless days, adored and magnified. Great singing, everybody. Let's go ahead and open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for all the souls that were won today. Lord God, please fill Brother Oz with your Holy Spirit, helping to preach a edifying sermon. Father, thank you for everyone that's here. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, next up we're going to sing song number 296, Follow On. 296, Follow On. Song 296, Follow On. Down in the valley with my Savior I would go, Where the thousand crown He led, the sweet waters flow, Everywhere He leads me I would follow, follow on, Walking in His footsteps till the crown be won, Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus, Anywhere, everywhere I would follow on, Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus, Everywhere He leads me I would follow on, Down in the valley with my Savior I would go, Where the storms are steaming and the dark waters flow, With His hand to lead me I will never, never fear, Danger cannot frighten me if my Lord is near, Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus, Anywhere, everywhere I would follow on, Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus, Anywhere He leads me I would follow on, Down in the valley o'er upon the mountain sea, Close beside my Savior would my soul ever be, He would lead me safely if the path would be as strong, Up to where they gather on the hills of God, Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus, Anywhere, everywhere I would follow on, Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus, Everywhere He leads me I would follow on, Good evening, everybody. Good evening, everyone. Great singing this evening. We're going to go through our bulletin at this time. If you don't have one, go ahead and raise your hand. Usher can bring you one. We have our Bible memory passage of the week is Proverbs 31, 19. If anyone 18 or younger, after the Wednesday service, can quote that to me, Pastor Shelley, or an usher. They will receive an ice cream. On the inside, we have our service times listed there. Sunday morning, 10 30. Our Spanish service at 4 30, and our evening service at 5 30 every week. Also make sure to join us this Wednesday as we continue going through the Book of Revelation at 7 o'clock p.m. Our church-wide zoning times are listed there that meet here at the building, and regional times meet throughout the DFW area. Just as a reminder, please remember to turn in your zoning maps to the bin located in the hallway over there, and please continue reporting your salvation numbers. Just as some reminders, make sure to continue to pray for our expecting ladies there and our weekly prayer lists. And as always, please let me know if you have a prayer request by emailing that to our church. We have our upcoming events here. On February 3rd, as a reminder, all ladies are invited to attend a baby shower in honor of Catherine Craker and her baby girl on Saturday. February 3rd, from 12 30 p.m. to 2 30 p.m. at the church. Nurselings only preferred. Please RSVP to Lauren Milstead and bring a side dish or dessert to share, so please take part of that. And because of the baby shower, we're gonna postpone the preaching class that weekend and one more week while I'm in OKC. So I've updated the bulletin from this morning to show the next preaching class is going to be February 17th. So if you'd like to come to that, I'd love to have you. And then again, as a congratulations to the Gore family, they had the birth of Travis James Gore on 123 24, 7 43 p.m. weighing 90 pounds. Six ounces and measuring 22 inches long. Congratulations to them. And to their family. All right, that's it for announcements. Let's go ahead and sing Psalm 126. Psalm 126. All right, that's Psalm 126. It should be in the white handouts or in your King James Bible. It should be in the white handouts or in your King James Bible. When the Lord turned again, the captivity of Zion, we were life and battery. Then use our mouths filled with laughter and our tongues with joy. He did not say, He was my God, or was my son, or was my father, or was my son, Oh, Lord, as the streams in the south, their golden tears shall reap in joy. They shall reap in joy. They shall reap in joy. Oh, Lord, as the streams in the south, their golden tears shall reap in joy. They that sow the tears shall reap in joy. Then, today, among the heathen, the Lord at the great things were done, the Lord at the great things were done, whereof we are glad. We will go forth and reap it, there in precious seed, shall doubtless come again, shall doubtless come again, with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Then, today, among the heathen, the Lord at the great things were done, the Lord at the great things were done, whereof we are glad. Great singing, everybody. As the offering place is passed around, you can go ahead and turn your Bibles to Luke, chapter number 10. Luke, chapter number 10. Great. Luke, chapter number 10. The Bible reads, After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest. Go your ways, behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves, carrying neither purse, nor script, nor shoes, and salute no man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house, and if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it. If not, it shall turn to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you, and heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city which cleaveth on us we do wipe off against you, notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Zidane, which had been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Zidane at the judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell. He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me, and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me. And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this, rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me of my Father, and no man knoweth who the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right, this do, and thou shalt live. But he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister had left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you so much, Lord, for Brother Ross and his family. And I just pray, Father, that you would enable him to preach the sermon that you've laid on his heart with clarity of mind. And Lord, just help us to apply the message. Help us to pay close attention and draw lessons from the sermon tonight that we can apply to our lives and serve you better. We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. Thank you, Pastor Shelley, again, for the opportunity to preach to you guys. And we're here in Luke chapter number 10. Let's start reading in verse number 38 in Luke chapter 10. The Bible says, Now it came to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving and came to him and said, Lord, does thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her. So notice we have a great story here in the New Testament where Jesus is invited into the home of these sisters, Mary and Martha. And Martha's working really hard. She's cumbered about with much care. She's serving, which is a good thing to be a hard worker like we talked about today. But notice Mary, what is she doing? She's sitting at Jesus' feet listening to him speak. And Martha sees that her sister's not working with her, that she's just sitting down listening to Jesus, and she says, Hey, Jesus, don't you see how hard I'm working? Don't you see all the things that I'm doing over here? Why don't you tell Mary to stop sitting there doing nothing and to come help me work, help me in the kitchen, help me clean, right? But Jesus actually says to her, notice in verse number 41, it says, And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. Notice Jesus recognizes that she's working. He sees what she's doing. But what he said in verse 42 is really interesting. He said, But one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. So notice Jesus actually commends Mary. Instead of her working, she decided to sit at his feet and listen to him speak. He actually commends this action and says that she's actually chosen the better part. She's made the better decision. And right off the bat, what can we learn from this? Well, very simply, we can learn that the spiritual things are always more important than the carnal. You know, there's a lot of carnal things in our life that's very important that we need to do, that we should take care of. And what Martha's doing is a good thing. Cleaning, serving, that is one of the greatest things that women can do, is being a servant. That's a great thing. Jesus commends that. But at the end of the day, the spiritual is always more important. There's a lot of carnal things that matter, where you live, right, what your job is, what education you're going to get. These are things that are important. These things matter, but we always have to remember that more important than those things is the spiritual. Go to Colossians chapter number three. Colossians chapter number three. And when you get there, let's start reading in verse one. It says, If ye then be risen with Christ, talking about people that are saved, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, notice this, who is Christ, notice this, who is our life shall appear. Then shall ye also appear with him in glory. The Bible says here that Christ is our life. And at the end of the day, the goal of our lives is not necessarily to live in the best place or have the best job or have the best career or anything like that. The goal is God. God is the goal in our life. Christ is our life. And whenever we have an opportunity to live in Christ and the preeminence in our lives, we should always do that. Realize the spiritual is always more important. Look down at verse number 18. It says, And he, talking of Christ, is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Notice that in all things he might have the preeminence. Now what does something being preeminent mean? It means that something is respected above all other things. So the Bible says that Jesus Christ should be respected or regarded or acknowledged in our lives above everything else. That in all things, Christ may have the preeminence. That's our mentality. That's how we should live our lives. That's how we should run our homes, our churches, our business. Everything we do, we should be thinking about Christ, okay? And throughout life, you're going to be given tons and tons of opportunities to make a choice for the spiritual or for the carnal. And here we saw that Martha decided to make that choice for the carnal. Mary decided to make that choice for the spiritual. And the title of my sermon tonight is Make the Spiritual Choice. Make the spiritual choice. Think about what Martha was doing. Was there anything wrong with what she was doing? Cleaning, serving? Absolutely not. But when Jesus Christ is in your home, speaking the word of God, everything else needs to be placed aside. Let's stop everything we're doing. Let's listen to the Lord talk, okay? Here's another lesson we can learn from this, is that you can be a well-meaning, hardworking person and still miss out on the most important things in life. I mean, no one's going to call Martha lazy. No one's going to call this woman a feminist. She's working, she's serving, she's cleaning. But she still missed the point. She still missed the whole point of life, which is putting Christ in His proper place as preeminent above all things. And think about this. How long does Martha have Jesus Christ in her home for? Probably not that long, right? It sounds like she's missing an opportunity. Go to James chapter number 4. James chapter number 4. James chapter number 4. Look at verse number 14. The Bible says, Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appearth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. We have to remember sometimes how short our lives really are. It's like a vapor. It's just, it's there one moment, and it's gone the next. And the things that we have in life, the blessings God gives us, the opportunities that God gives us, we have to realize that these things don't last forever, oftentimes. Obviously, things like salvation last for forever. Obviously, people that you get saved last for forever. But you know, there's some opportunities that you have in life that are fleeting, that are short, and you want to make sure that you choose the spiritual. How much time does Martha have with the Lord in her home? A very short time, like a vapor. She needs to choose the spiritual. You know, I ask myself these questions. You should ask yourself these questions. Sometimes it's good to think about this kind of stuff. Ask yourself this. How long do I really have to raise my children for the Lord? How long do I really have? 18 years? That goes by so fast. That goes by so fast. I mean, it's 2024, and I'm just trying to think of like a decade ago in 2014. It feels like it was yesterday, right? And I feel like the older I get, the faster time goes on. Everyone says that, but I found that to be true in my life. How long do you have to be married to your spouse? How long do you have? You don't know. You could die at any day. Your spouse can die at any day. How long do you have? Choose the spiritual. Choose the focus on the spiritual in your relationship. How long do you have to go to church? A lot of people skip church on a whim. They don't care about church. There's not as many people here tonight as there was this morning. But you know what? How many more times are you going to get to go to church? Do you know? No, you don't. Because tomorrow you could get a serious illness that makes you bedridden, and you can't go to church anymore. You know? You don't know how much longer Jesus Christ is going to be in your home, Martha. You don't know how many more times you can go to church. How long do you have to go soul winning? Okay, you're a young man now. You're a young woman now. You're an able-bodied person now. Do you expect that to last for forever? You don't know if it will. How many more times do you get to go soul winning in your life? How many more times do you get to fellowship with friends and family that you love? You don't know. You don't know how many more times. How long do you have to pour into your church to be a blessing to your church? You know, preachers, how many more times do you get to stand up and preach the word of God? You don't know. You don't know any of these things. The average life expectancy in the United States is 77 years old. So if you're 38 years old, you're halfway through. That's pretty sobering, right? Wow. But guess what? That should clarify in our mind. That should bring life into clarity, and make us realize we don't have a long time. The Bible says our life is a vapor, and if my life is a vapor, and I'm living my life, and every day I'm being presented with choices that I need to make, I want to choose the spiritual. And I want you to choose the spiritual. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter number 3. Sometimes we just need to think about our life soberly. You know, we live in this social media generation where our society, our culture, people living in our society are detached from reality. And I've preached about this before. I think a good example of this is something like road rage, where like even women will road rage. They're detached from reality. They don't realize their mortality sometimes, maybe just because you're living on a screen. But look, you are not invincible. I am not invincible. We are mortal, and our physical bodies will die someday, and it could be tonight. It could be tomorrow. This could be your last day on earth. This could be my last day on earth. Think about that every single day. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 9. For we are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. You know, we don't have a lot of time in this life, and there is coming a very real day in all of our lives where we will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will be judged according to our works. And the gold, the silver, the precious stones are going to be the only thing that matters and the only thing that remains. And all the wood, all the hay, all the stubble, all the meaningless things, all the vain things of this life will be burned up, will have no more value, and will be a total loss. And here's the thing, here's the crazy thing about the judgment seat of Christ, is when I think about that it's sobering. It makes me think like, wow, I need to spend my whole life serving God, because it's the only thing that matters. But here's the scary part, is how long is my whole life anyways? You know what I mean? Like, Lord willing, I would live to an old man and be able to serve God with my whole life and gain a lot of rewards in heaven, but I could die at age 27, I could die at age 30, I could die at age 50, who knows, right? So every single moment, every single day is a gift from God where we need to soberly look at our life and say, hey, I need to choose the spiritual. I need to make the spiritual choice. You don't know how long you have, now is the only time in your life that you have to make the spiritual choice. And so my application for this truth is very simple tonight. Make the spiritual choice. Make the spiritual choice. What's an example? Hey, make the spiritual choice and go to church. Go to Hebrews chapter number 10, Hebrews chapter number 10. This is something that is dying in our society. A lot of people want to say, oh, just me hanging out in the woods is church. Oh, I'm in church right now. You hear these idiots say this all the time, right? You know what? That's not the spiritual choice. Staying at home, pretending like you're in church, taking a walk in the woods. It's fun to take a walk in the woods. That's not church, though. Make the spiritual choice. And when the doors are open, get in church. Look at Hebrews chapter number 10, verse 24. It says, and let us consider one another, like we were talking about this morning, to provoke unto love and to good works. Notice, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. Think about the day, right? And we often think about the day spoken of in this verse as the day of the Lord Jesus, His returning. But think about the day in this context as the day of your death, right? There's that day coming for you. And you know what? As you get older, so much the more should you be seeking the Lord. So much the more should you be trying to choose the spiritual, because you have less time to get rewards in heaven now than you did 20 years ago. You have less time next week on this earth than you did today. And so that's why, as the time goes on, as we get closer to the day of Christ, or you get closer to the day of your death, that's why how much the more should we be gathering ourselves together, making the spiritual choice. Look, this whole world wants you to be anything but spiritual. And all week long in the world, the world just wants you to think carnally, act carnally, just follow the course of this world and do whatever the devil wants you to do. But this is the only place, not saying steadfast specifically, but the church of Jesus Christ is the only place on this earth that's going to tell you, make the spiritual choice. Everyone else is telling you, make the carnal choice. This is the only place that's going to tell you to make the spiritual choice. And so you want to see your family just get destroyed? Stop coming to church. You want to see your kids turn out bad? Send them the message with your actions that church doesn't matter. Oh, we're tired. Let's just skip church. What message are you sending to your kids? You're telling them that when your flesh doesn't want to do something? God's not that important. Oh, we're on vacation. We're not worried about church anymore. Okay, so do we take a vacation from God? Is that the message that you're sending your kids? You know, we need to take church seriously. And if for no other reason for your kids, make the spiritual choice to go to church because it will affect them. And I know myself, I need to go to church. I need to go to church because if I didn't go to church, I'd be carnal. I'd be lazy. I just live for myself. I wouldn't care about anything that the Bible wants to teach me. I need to renew my spirit by hearing hard preaching. I need to be refreshed in the spirit by being around my brothers and sisters in Christ that love Jesus Christ. And I can say, hey, look, they're provoking me to love and to good works. You guys are provoking me to love and good works by showing up right now. It wouldn't be a lot of fun preaching to an empty crowd, right? So look, it's important to go to church considering others. Make the spiritual choice to go to church. And think about it. What do people do when they skip church anyways? Are they doing anything important? Are they doing anything spiritual? You know what they're doing? They're sleeping. You know what they're doing? They're watching football. They're watching the NFL. You're setting up an idol in your home where you're exalting something above God and saying, hey, look how important, kids, NFL football is rather than God. That's idolatry is what that is. That's not making the spiritual choice. That's making the carnal choice. Or they don't want to show up because they don't like the guest preacher, right? Because there's always a lower attendance when there's a guest preacher. Guess why? Because you're not making the spiritual choice. That's why. Because I'm just a man. I'm no one. But this is the eternal word of God. And I don't care who's preaching it. I want to hear it. That's the spiritual choice. Jesus wants you in church. Let me read for you Ephesians 5 25. It says, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Jesus Christ died for the institution of the local New Testament church. Nothing else is more important. There's nothing else that I want to instill a love for more in my family and my kids and my friends and anyone I come across than love for church. And so one way you could do that is just by showing up. It's not hard. Just sit there and listen to someone scream at you for an hour. That's all you have to do. Or for me, it's like 45 minutes. It's not even that bad. Come on. Here's one. Hey, make the spiritual choice and move to a good church. Raise your hand if you've moved to a good church. Look at how many people have moved and made that spiritual choice. People want to complain, there's no good church in my area. Well, make the spiritual choice then and move. I've done it several times. And it's worth it. And going to a great church is worth all the sacrifice. It's worth being far from family. I miss them. I love them. But you know what? It's worth being here. Because guess what? I'm standing before Jesus someday. He's going to judge me according to my works. And if my family's saved, I'll spend all of eternity with them. But you know what? I can only serve God right now. Here's another one. Make the spiritual choice and pay attention during church. You know, I think a good example, you think about Martha, right? She's working hard. She's serving. She's coming about with much care. Well, at our church, we have a lot of workers. We have a lot of volunteers. We have a safety team. We have ushers. And praise God for those people. We need workers. We need volunteers. But you know what they should be doing during church? They should be listening to the words of God too. Right? Don't get so busy, cumbered about with much care that you forget the most important thing. That you don't make the spiritual choice. Hey, please serve. We need servants. But make the spiritual choice and listen when you're at church. Go to Hebrews chapter number 12, Hebrews chapter number 12, Hebrews chapter number 12, verse 28 says, Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with, notice this, reverence and godly fear. You know, God wants us to have reverence when we're serving Him. What is reverence? It's extreme respect. It's just the highest form of respect. Like, if you were talking to a world leader, you would treat him with reverence. Right? You'd look him in the eye. You'd listen when he's speaking. You'd shake his hand. You wouldn't be texting. Right? Well, in church, God says He wants us to serve Him with reverence. So, any application you can make to this that is being respectful, God wants you to do that in church. That means showing up on time. That means not walking through the doors of God's house late every single service if you can avoid it. I get people drive from long distances. I'm not talking about you if that's you. I'm just saying the people that don't have the respect for God's house to show up on time when they can. That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about people who can dress reverently for the Lord and wear nice clothing to church and choose not to. I'm talking about being respectful to the pastor and not referring to pastors by their last name only, by calling them Pastor Shelley, Pastor Anderson. Not, oh, hey, did you guys hear this sermon from Anderson the other day? What? Let's be respectful here. This is the house of God. Let's make the spiritual choice. Let's be reverent. Hey, make the spiritual choice and read your Bible daily. Go to Psalm chapter number one, Psalm chapter number one. Make the spiritual choice. Psalm chapter number one. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight, notice, is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. The person here in Psalm chapter one that is blessed by God, we see here that he loves God's word and he meditates in God's word day and night. That's a person that makes the spiritual choice. Look, throughout your day, we're all busy. The world is going to be grabbing your attention from every angle. Your family wants your attention. Your boss wants your attention. Your job wants your attention. You know, whatever wants your attention. Your extended relatives, whatever. But you know what? You have to make the spiritual choice and read the Bible daily and say, look, I know I have all these attentions in my life, but guess what? Those things will never go away. You'll never stop being demanded of. So you must prioritize reading the Bible. You have to say, you know, hey, Martha, I'm sorry. The dishes are dirty. The house is dirty. Just leave it that way for a minute and listen to Jesus speak. And I would rather your house be a little more messy. I would rather you maybe not work as much overtime. I would rather you sacrifice something, but make sure that you read the Bible every single day. Why? Because you need to choose the spiritual. You need to make the spiritual choice. And one reason why I love the January New Testament challenge so much is that what we're trying to do is we're trying to instill a habit in you of reading the Bible every day. That's all we're trying to do. We just want you to build that habit. Because is it really that important that you read the whole New Testament in one month? No. But you know what's important is when you read the Bible every single day. And this is just my opinion. I think that there's no better indicator of a Christian spiritual future than whether or not they read the Bible. I think that a person that reads the Bible every single day is likely to serve God for their entire life. If you don't read the Bible, but you go to church every single week, that's not necessarily a good indicator that you'll continue serving God. But I think that you just reading your Bible every single day, getting along with the Lord, letting God speak to you through His Word, that is the recipe for longevity in the Christian life. That's the recipe for you to continue to serve God all your life. And so you need to make sure that you prioritize Bible reading. Make a plan. If you don't have a plan, I've made several that I could just give you. I made the January New Testament plan, then I have a five-month Old Testament plan. Because if you read the New Testament in January, you read the Old Testament in the next five months, well, you've already gone through the Bible once in the first six months of the year. You read it again. In the other six months, you've read through the Bible twice a year. That's what I like to do personally. There's been times I've read more. Some people want to read less. That's okay. I like to read a lot of books on top of that too. So for me, the sweet spot is two times a year. I think that's a good goal for people. If you want to do more, hey, praise the Lord, do more. But make sure you have a plan. Also, it's good if you pick a time to read the Bible. That'll help you make the spiritual choice. I'll read for you Psalm, you can go ahead and turn to Luke 18 and I'll read for you Psalm 63, 1. It says, Oh God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee. My flesh longeth for thee. In a dry and thirsty land where no water is. Here, the psalmist was seeking God early, right? And maybe for your schedule, that's the time you need to make it. I get up in the morning and the first thing I do is I read the Bible. That's a good thing to do. Maybe your schedule fits more like the Psalm 1 guy where he meditates on the law of the Lord day and night. A little bit of reading when you wake up, a little bit of reading before you go to bed. It really doesn't take that much to read through the Bible cover to cover when you just read a little bit in the morning, a little bit at night. It's not really that hard. It's easy. We just chip away at it little by little. Here's another thing. Make the spiritual choice and pray to the Lord. Look at Luke chapter 18 verse 1. It says, and he spake a parable unto them to this end that man ought always to pray and not to faint. So notice the end or the goal of Jesus giving us this parable that he's about to give us is so that we would always pray and not faint. That's Jesus' desire for us. Verse 2 says, saying there was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while. But afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Here with the unjust judge saith, And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cried day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Notice Jesus gives us this parable where he's saying, even an unjust judge that doesn't even fear God, he doesn't even care about his fellow man. Even a guy like that, if he's in a position of authority, and a widow, someone very, very lowly in social society, comes to him and just keeps begging him, keeps bothering him, trying to get him to do something. Even a guy like that will grant her requests just for the simple fact that he's annoyed. That's what it's saying. But how much more God our Father that loves us as his children, how much more does he want to give us our requests? But how often do we pray, though? That's the thing. This widow woman, she was annoying the guy, but she was persistent. Just keep asking him, keep asking him, keep annoying him. Then it's like God's in heaven. Our Father that loves us wants you to ask him things, but you don't ask him anything. So whose fault is it with all the problems in your life? It's generally our fault. Because most problems in our life is a prayer problem. Philippians 4 19 says this, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. The Bible says God will supply all our need. But the Bible also says you have not because he asked not. Right? So what are your needs? Are they physical needs? Are they emotional needs? Are they whatever your needs are, the Bible says God is going to give you those needs, but you have not because he asked not. So look, when you're going through life and your attention is being dragged by all these different things, all these distractions in life, make the spiritual choice and pray. Remember to pray to the Lord. Go to 2 Corinthians 4. Here's another one. Make the spiritual choice and preach the gospel. Make the spiritual choice and preach the gospel. Just like prayer is an act of faith, because you can't see prayer. You can't see God bending his ear and listening to you. You can't necessarily see him granting your requests in heaven. In the same way, you can't really see people get saved. A light doesn't go off on their forehead. And in the same way, when someone dies, you can't see them go to hell. You could watch someone die in front of you, and you'll see them close their eyes, and you can't see them go to hell. But that's happening every single day. Every single day that's happening, people are going to hell. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 1, it says, Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. Notice, Jesus Christ gave us, as a corporal body of believers, the ministry of reconciliation. And Paul's saying, we faint not. He's saying, I'm not quitting. I'm not giving up. Why? He says, as we have received mercy. Paul recognizes, hey, I've been forgiven for my sins. I've received mercy. I've received salvation. Well, guess what? Let's not quit preaching people the gospel so that they can get that salvation, too. I will never understand a person that has gotten a free gift from God, that has gotten their ticket punched out of hell, their ticket punched for heaven, and then they don't even care about other people that are doomed and going to hell. That's just, that's sick. That's disgusting. Just because you can't see people going to hell doesn't mean it's not happening. It is. It absolutely is happening. Look at verse 2. But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. Now, I believe that every single person who is seeking will find. Okay? Stay there. Let me read for you Matthew 7, 8. It says, for everyone that asketh receiveth. And he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. I believe that every single person that is seeking the truth will find it. I believe that every single person that wants to get saved will get saved. But here's the thing. There are some people who are not seeking. They're not seeking for the truth. They don't care who God is, but they would get saved if you open your mouth to them. Hey, I believe whoever seeks, finds. Whoever asks, it'll be opened unto them. But there's people that will never seek that, and they will go to hell if you don't preach them the gospel. But they would go to heaven if you did. We're not Calvinists. We don't believe God's preordained. Every single person who's going to hell, going to heaven. No, we make a difference. And that's why the Bible says if our gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost. And so while you are thinking about this temporal vapor of a life you have, there's people's eternities at stake that are going to spend forever and ever and ever in hell, and you don't want to open your mouth to preach them the gospel. That's not making the spiritual choice. Make the spiritual choice and preach them the gospel. Stay there in 2 Corinthians 4, it says in Romans 10-20. But Esaias is very bold and saith, I was found of them that sought me not. I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. The prophet Isaiah, he got people saved that didn't care who he was, that never would have asked him what his doctrine was, that never would have asked him about salvation, but yet, Esaias was found of those people. Why? Because he made the spiritual choice, that's why. And when you walk up to someone on the street, when you knock on someone's door and ask them, hey, if you were to die today, are you 100% sure that you're going to heaven? There's a chance that they would have never asked themselves that question. There's a chance that they never would have cared, that they never would have sought the Lord, and that they would have died and gone to hell. But by you being sought of those that asked not after you, you could change that person's destiny. You could change that person's eternity. Why? By you making the spiritual choice. That is why it is so important for God's people to make the spiritual choice. Look at verse 4. In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Now, we've got to remember that we're in a spiritual battle, and the devil's goal is for as many people to go to hell as possible, and he's blinding the eyes of the unsaved. Why? It says, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. That's what it takes for someone to be saved, is for them to believe the gospel, for them to hear it and believe it. But obviously the devil wants to stop that. Look at verse 5. It says, for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants, for Jesus' sake, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Meaning what? We've been illuminated. We've received the light. And now God has ordained us to shine that light in the face of Jesus Christ, meaning in His stead. Meaning Jesus Christ is not on this earth knocking doors, asking people if they're 100% that they're saved, but He's given that duty to us and to no one else. And so if you don't do it, no one else will. And there's people that if you don't preach the gospel to, they will go to hell. That's the truth. And it's a sick thing to think about. And I'm amazed at men like the Apostle Paul who says that, you know, his hands are clean from the blood of all men. Would to God that that would be our life's goal, that we so consistently make the spiritual choice that we could say like, Paul, my hands are clean from your blood. That would be the goal. Go to Deuteronomy chapter number 22. Here's another thing we need to choose. Make the spiritual choice, Christian, in how you dress. Make the spiritual choice in how you dress. Deuteronomy chapter number 22, one of the aspects that God cares about when it comes to how we dress is dressing gender specific. Deuteronomy 22 5 says this, the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man. Now this verse is really hard for our modern culture to understand, but there is a type of clothing that pertains, that is assigned to, that belongs to, that is owned by, are we understanding? The man. And the woman is not allowed to wear that. Let's keep reading. Neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, okay? There's a garment that is assigned to, owned by, pertaining to a woman. And everyone that does that for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God. What is this talking about? Obviously nature itself teaches you and all of human history teaches you that women wear skirts and dresses and men wear pants. This is not saying that a woman shall not go into the Rangor cowboy cut section, but it's okay if she goes into the super skin tight jean section because that's women's jeans and this is men's jeans. Look, that is just terrible logic. That's not what God is saying here. You really think from a distance, like from far away you could even tell the difference that much anyways? No. Look, there's something called the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. Here's the letter of the law. Women don't dress like men, men don't dress like women. What's the spirit of the law? God wants there to be a distinction. God wants it to be clearly evident the difference. Men have short hair, women have long hair. I could be half a mile away from a couple and just with my naked eye I could see which one's male and female, if they're following the Bible. Now, if you're in Portland or Seattle, that is not true. Be careful, because you don't know who you're talking to. You don't know what, you're just like, what? What is that? You don't know. But if you're following God's way of dress, if you're making the spiritual choice, ladies, then you're wearing skirts and dresses. And I hope I never even have to rip face on the other side of that equation. Make the spiritual choice, men. Wear pants. God help us if we ever have to really rip face on that, but I would not be surprised. But let me do some preventative preaching. Men, always wear pants. Please. And if we end up living in a society where that's controversial, just play back that clip and I'm just going to be banging my head into the wall like, what is happening, okay? Like, wow. But look, make the spiritual choice. And here's the funny thing about this, is that dressing gender specific is not even a spiritual issue. It's not. It's a gender issue. And I always say this, women should wear skirts and dresses not because they're Christians, but because they're women. It's not even a religious issue. It's not even a spiritual issue. It's a gender issue. But because we live in such a wicked world, it's become a spiritual issue. And now you are making a statement as a woman by wearing skirts and dresses. You are identifying as a Christian. And it shouldn't even necessarily be that way, but hey, praise the Lord anyways. Oh, people get to know that you're a Christian. Great. Sounds like a soul winning opportunity. Oh, people make fun of you for wearing dresses and skirts only. Cha-ching. Remember Pastor Shelley said, rejoice. Yeah. Make fun of me some more. That's what you should do. It's make the spiritual choice. Go to 1 Timothy chapter 2. Here's another aspect of dressing godly is dressing modestly. So dressing gender specific, dressing modestly. 1 Timothy chapter 2 says in like manner also that women adorn themselves in, notice, modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. Hey, make the spiritual choice, ladies, when you're getting dressed in the morning. Don't show off the world your thighs. Don't show off the world your body. Dress modestly. Okay. And husbands and dads, it is your responsibility to make sure that the ladies in your house are doing this. I don't even blame a woman when she's dressed like that. I blame her dad or I blame her husband. Okay. Men, make the spiritual choice for your family. If she won't make the spiritual choice, you make the spiritual choice. Here's another thing. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Make the spiritual choice in who you get married to. This is super important. This could affect your life positively or negatively for as long as you're on this earth. Okay. Make a spiritual choice with who you marry. 2 Corinthians 4, or sorry, 6, 14 says this. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? This is one aspect of life you really don't want to make the carnal choice on. I've known people that have married for looks and they kind of overlook the spiritual and they live to regret it greatly. Marriage can be one of the best things in life or it could be one of the absolute worst things in life. And one thing that will keep you safe in choosing a spouse is to not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. It's like, hey, rule number one, when you're looking for someone to get married, they must be saved. Period. Not even questionable. Don't even think about talking to a Catholic girl, besides getting her saved. Don't even think about talking to, I don't know why you would talk to a Muslim or anything else, but okay. Don't even think about talking to those people in the context of wanting to marry them. Okay. That's off the table. And here's something that I love that Pastor Thompson did when I was dating Jasmine, and that is he took me out soul winning like 50 times. It's like, preach the gospel, preach the gospel. I want to see you get someone saved. I want to make sure you got the right doctor to make sure that's a good idea. And look, if you're dating, make sure the person you're dating is saved. But if you are the parent of someone who's dating, make sure that that person's saved. You want your kid to just ruin their life. Because here's the thing. When you're dating, you're under the passions of love and it's kind of clouding your brain and you're not necessarily seeing everything as clearly as you normally would be. And so it's good to have mom and dad that loves you, that has your best interests at heart to say like, hold on, he's Catholic. It's like, let's fix this before you go anywhere farther, right? Hey, let's go soul winning, buddy. I want to go soul winning with you every single week until you put a ring on my daughter's finger and make sure that things are good. I think that's a good idea. I'm glad Pastor Thompson did that. Plus, it was so fun. I have so many great memories of soul winning Pastor Thompson and getting to fellowship with my father-in-law. And that was a great time. And I think it made us good friends. So that's a great thing to do. Here's another thing when it comes to being equally yoked. Not only should you both be saved, but if you are at a certain spiritual level, they should be striving to or very close to that spiritual level. What I mean by that is if you're a man and you're three to thrive and your girlfriend is a Sunday morning only, that might be a problem. Now, it's more of a problem if it's opposite. Like, if you're a woman that's three to thrive and the guy is a Sunday morning only, that's even more of a problem. Because a strong man can lead a woman and say, hey, you've just become three to thrive. Congratulations. You got married to me. You're now three to thrive. Like, it's that easy, right? But a woman that makes the wrong choice in marriage, it's way more dire consequences for her. She could want to serve God. She could want to be three to thrive. But if her husband doesn't let her, man, she's in a really hard situation. Hey, if you're a soul winner, the person you're dating should also be a soul winner. The person that you're engaged to should also be a soul winner. If you have a really special calling or desire in your heart where, hey, you want to be in the ministry full time someday, you want to be a pastor, you want to be a minister of some sort, that's probably something you want to talk about with who you're dating or engaged to because that's a huge part of your life. That's a big decision. That's something you should talk about. Also, just make sure you're equally yoked together on values. You know, what do you guys believe about spanking kids? That's something you should talk about. What do you guys believe about homeschooling? What do you guys believe about gender roles? You really want to find that one out, right? But look, instead of just talking about, like, wow, you have, you know, cute hair. Wow, I really like your tie. Oh, yeah, you know, did you see the baseball game the other day? Just wasting your dating time. Like, you should actually get to know each other. Make sure you know the person you're getting married to. Parents, make sure that you allow your children to get to know who they're dating. Don't just be, like, so restrictive where they're never allowed to speak and then they got married and then they're not equally yoked. It's like, that's a big mistake. That's bad. Here's another thing. Make the spiritual choice and have lots of kids. Go to Psalm, chapter 127, Psalm 127. Hey, once you've found the right spouse, you're equally yoked together, you made that spiritual choice, make another spiritual choice. Have lots of children. Psalm 127, look at verse 3, it says, Lo, children are in heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Notice how children is a reward from God. It's like getting a bonus on your paycheck. It's a blessing. It's something that's extra, that we don't deserve, but that is a blessing from God to us. But today, our society does not view children as a reward. You say, how do you know that? Well, because right now, the U.S. fertility rate is 1.6 births per woman. So, women in America, couples in America, they're not even replacing themselves. They're not even having two children just at the replacement rate. 1.64. That shows me that our society does not view children as a blessing. You want to know what the fertility rate was in the United States in 1960? Almost four births per woman. Almost four as the average. Now it's 1.64. Man, the devil's done a good job lying to us. The devil's done a good job convincing us that having kids is nothing but a burden, and it's going to take away from your life, and it's just going to be so much harder, and you just want to go live it up and be a dink. Have you guys heard of this? Dual income, no kids. Man, you just want to be a dink. That's the epitome of living life, right? I'm 38 years old, and I've never had a baby in my womb, and I drink alcohol every night because my life is so miserable, but I make Instagram videos making it look like I'm having fun. We're dinks. It's like, your life sucks. I feel bad for you because you don't know the blessings of having kids. Praise the Lord. My wife has had five pregnancies since we've gotten married, and I love all of my kids. We have one in heaven. I'm looking forward to meeting him someday, or her. You know? I'm thankful for that. Give me more. Can I have another, sir? Give me another one. I love it. Why? Because it's a blessing. Verse four says, As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Hey, remember how we were talking about we're in a spiritual battle? Well, when you're going out to battle, would you like to go out to battle with many arrows or a few arrows? How many magazines do you want? How many bullets do you want in that magazine? I'd like lots, please. I'd like people to be like, oh, that's too much. No, give me more ammo, right? And especially because in our world that we're living in, the spiritual battle is raging hotter than it ever has. Hey, give me some more ammunition. Give the Lord's army some more soldiers. Let's raise them up in this battle. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they, I believe that's referring to the children, shall speak with the enemies in the gate. Let me tell you something that excites me is when I see a young person in our church learn to preach the gospel. What excites me is when I see young people in our church start to say amen when they get a little older and pastors ripping on the sodomites, and you know what they're doing? They're speaking with the enemies in the gate. You know, they're our enemies, and they're making them their enemies too. They're making that personal choice. They're believing the doctrines that we believe, and they're starting to even become soul winners, and man, that excites me. It tells me people are making some spiritual choices. Keep making those spiritual choices. Make the spiritual choice and raise those children for God. It's not just enough to have kids. Hey, once you've made the spiritual choice, you've had kids, now make the spiritual choice and raise them for the Lord. Ephesians 6, 4, if you want to turn there, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 4. I think in this context, I think sometimes dads are the ones that drops the ball on this, because I think dad can kind of be like Martha, where he's busy working, and he's busy providing, and he's cumbered about with much care, and he is, trust me, especially with inflation going on. Hey, dad's working hard right now. Dad is cumbered about with much care right now, but make sure, dads, that you don't forget the important thing. Make that choice. Make that spiritual choice in raising your kids. Notice Ephesians 6, 4. It says, any fathers, notice the audience here. This isn't by accident. It says, any fathers provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. You want to know why this admonition isn't given to women? Because they don't need this admonition. Because women are naturally around their children all day anyways, unless you've bought into some weird feminist belief and you go out to work, but just naturally, women are with their children all the time. But dads need to be reminded, hey, don't forget to bring them up. Raise them. Don't just have them. Raise them. Bring them up in the nurture. What is that? Tenderness, love, care. Men sometimes need that reminder. In the nurture and admonition of the Lord. What's admonition? Instruction, discipline. They need both of these things. And us fathers, we need not just be totally consumed with providing for our family that we don't raise our family. What does this mean? Look, spend time with your kids. You may not view that as a spiritual thing, but it is. That is making the spiritual choice. Make the spiritual choice and spend time with your kids. Get some time with them where you're looking at each other in the face and having some fun, have some tickle wars, have some wrestling wars. When they get older, do things that are more age-appropriate. Whatever you have to do to spend time with your kids. And I'm telling you what, I love spending time with my kids. I find it so fun. I've got three girls. We have a blast. We have a ball. I love it. I love having children. I love being a dad. And you know, remember, dads, make the spiritual choice. Raise your children. Here's another thing. Make the spiritual choice with your finances. Go to Malachi chapter number three. Malachi chapter number three. Make the spiritual choice with the money that God has blessed you with. Malachi chapter number three, look at verse eight. Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me, but ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse. For ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house. And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Notice God here, he's kind of like challenging you. Hey, prove me. Why don't you go ahead and just give me the tithe and prove me that I won't open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing. Verse 11, And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and ye shall not destroy the fruits of your ground. Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. Hey, do we believe God's word or not? Do you actually believe this promise right here? Because every single person here that's saved, you believe John 3.16. You believe that if you believe on Christ, you have everlasting life. We believe those things. What about the ironclad promise that God will bless you when you tithe? Do you believe that? Because this is just my opinion, I would be terrified not to tithe, especially in 2024 with inflation. And the harder it gets financially, the scarier I am to stop tithing, because then God would just cease pouring out the blessings. He would just have the devourer come and rebuke everything that I have. Look, now is the time when things are hard. This is the time where you don't want to stop tithing. You don't want to stop praying. You don't want to stop soul winning. You don't want to stop going to church, because we need God's blessing in our life right now. We need Him. And here's the thing. I've never really understood why it's so hard for people to tithe. I started doing it as soon as I got saved. But if you read in Hebrews, it says that Jesus is the one that receives the tithe anyways. So it's like, people want to complain and be like, well, I don't like my church that much. I go to an old IV church, so I don't want to tithe. But it's like, it's going to Jesus anyways. And here's the thing about steadfast. You really have no excuse in my opinion, because I think the tithes here are used for great things. I think that the tithes here are being used to go to the Bahamas and get hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people saved and sending evangelists like Duncan or Bannock across the world to preach the gospel and starting churches. I think that the tithes that are used here are used for a great purpose. If I went to an old IV church, I would still tithe, even if they were giving their money to Israel, because God commands me, and Jesus receives that money anyways. But here it's just like, duh. It's not hard to tithe when you're in a new IV church. It's like, it's being used so that Pastor Shelley can rip on fags. Amen. I love it. It's just, it's a no-brainer. You get a blessing by God, and it's being used for the glory of God. Hey, make the spiritual choice. Tithe. Make the spiritual choice with your entertainment. Go to 1 John, chapter number 2. 1 John, chapter number 2. 1 John, chapter number 2. Look what it says in verse 15. It says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. You know, sometimes people want to debate on what exactly is appropriate entertainment for Christians. I do think that the man of every house should set what the personal standard is for their own house. But just consider something for a minute. The Bible says not to love the world or anything in the world. So sometimes when it comes to deciphering what's right and what's wrong, I just ask myself this question. Does this seem worldly? Is this the same exact thing that the world listens to, that the world watches, that the world does? If it's the exact same, you're probably getting into something that's worldly. Right? If you're listening to the same music, hey, if you really just love Taylor Swift, the great whore of Babylon, okay, you're worldly. You're not making the spiritual choice in your entertainment when you're watching some skanky whore dancing around called Taylor Swift. Man, that's disgusting. I'll read for you Romans 12 2, it says, And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Notice the command is to not be conformed. And so that tells me that conformity is a sign of worldliness. When you are conforming, meaning you're doing the same things, thinking the same things, having the same opinions, watching the same things, listening to the same things, smoking the same things, drinking the same things. Okay, you're probably crossing the line there. And in some of those things, you are for sure crossing the line there. But look, make the spiritual choice when it comes to entertainment. Look, I'm not some Amish person that thinks you should just sit in your house under candlelight and read the Bible all day and nothing but, okay? I think we should have fun as Christians. I like to play sports. I like to lift weights. I like to read books about random things that have nothing to do with the Bible. I love to have fun, right? But I'm not going to watch Taylor Swift. Not going to Taylor Swift's concert. Not going to listen to worldly trash. Not going to watch worldly trash. It's just not going to happen. You need to make the spiritual choice because the Bible says that mine eye affecteth mine heart. Oh, it doesn't affect me. Okay, what else don't you believe in the Bible? Mine eye affecteth my heart. You cannot just sit there and watch trash and listen to trash all day, day in, day out, and it not end up affecting your heart. It absolutely will. Don't fool yourself. And how much more your children, your young children who haven't read the Bible scores of times maybe like you have, their heart is probably even more penetrable from that stuff. Last one here is make the spiritual choice with who you fellowship with. Go to 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 5. Make the spiritual choice with who you fellowship with. 1 Corinthians 5. We're almost done. Look at verse number 9. It says, I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters, for then must he needs go out of the world. But now I've written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such and one know not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do you not judge them that are within? But them that are without, God judgeth. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Look, make the spiritual choice with who your friends are, with who you fellowship. Don't be hanging around someone that claims the name of Christ that drinks alcohol. That's a recipe for disaster. Just get away from alcohol. Get away from anyone who drinks alcohol. Don't be friends with someone that you know is committing fornication. Get away from that person. Get away from that wicked person, the Bible says. These sins that are worthy of being kicked out of church, you know, even if the pastor doesn't find out about them, you know about them. First of all, you should make that known. But look, if your friends are doing this kind of stuff, they're not your friends. Stay away from those people who are not people you want to be friends with. And even sometimes family, and the new IFB knows all about this, sometimes family needs to be cut off. Because I'm telling you right now, I don't have family like this at this point. But if my family was talking crap about my church, or my pastor, or my religion, or my faith, or anything like that to my kids, they would get one strong warning, and it would be done. Don't you dare try to speak poorly of my church to my children. Don't you dare try to tell them that what we're preaching is wrong, or that you don't like it, I don't care if you like it or not. You have no right to tell my children those things, and if you cross the line again, we're done. We're out. Goodbye. Why? Because our loyalty is to Christ. Why? Because we want to make the spiritual choice. Hey, we love our moms and dads, and our cousins, and our grandparents, and all these people, we love you, but we love Jesus more. And you want to make us pick between the two? We'll pick Jesus every day of the week and twice on Sunday. We're going to make the spiritual choice. Make the spiritual choice with who you hang out with. Don't let this stuff destroy your family, it's not worth it. Don't let other people destroy it, it's not worth it. Last verse we'll go to, go to Proverbs chapter number 3. Proverbs chapter number 3. You know, I hope I've shown you with this sermon that life is just a series of choices. That's all it is. Hey, you going to get married? Who are you going to get married to? You going to have kids? How many are you going to have? How are you going to raise them? Who are you going to hang out with? What are you going to do with your entertainment? Are you going to read the Bible in the morning? Are you going to pray? Are you going to go to church? Are you going to be a soul winner? Your whole life is just nothing but choices. And this is what I want you to do. I want you to make the spiritual choice. That's what I want you to do. Look at Proverbs 3, 5, it says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Notice the Bible says trust in the Lord with all your heart. One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. Because when I first got saved, it says, And lean not unto your own understanding. When I first got saved, and even now today, I read things in the Bible that I don't necessarily understand humanly speaking. Right? Am I the only one that doesn't understand everything in the Bible? I don't understand everything in the Bible, right? But you know what? I believe everything in the Bible. I trust everything that God tells me. Every single thing that God tells me is right for my life. Whether I understand it or not, I believe him. I trust him. And though I'm a sinner, and though I don't make the spiritual choice often in my life, I want to strive to make the spiritual choice. I want to strive to trust in the Lord with all my heart, not to lean on my own understanding. Because hey, like Pastor Shelley always says, I love how he always says this, It's not hard to know what to do. It's hard to do it. Hey, we all know what the spiritual choice is. You go to this church, you hear the preaching three times a week, you read the Bible, you know what the spiritual choice is. But I want to exhort you this evening to live your life thinking this question, what is the spiritual choice? Let us as a church make the spiritual choice. Let's pray. Lord in heaven, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for your Word, and just thank you that it's a light to our path, that it guides us, and that we can trust everything that it says. I pray that though we're sinners and though that we stray from the path, that every single person in here would have a strong desire to want to make the spiritual choice, and that you would just fill us with the Holy Spirit and give us boldness and strength to make that choice. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, for our last song, we're going to be turning to song number 270, Just As I Am. Song 270. Just As I Am. Song 270, Just As I Am. Song 270, Just As I Am. All first. Just as I am without one beat, Look that my blood was shed for me, And that thou bidst me come To thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, And made me come To live my soul of one dark lot, To lead through flood and plenty spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, O tossed about, With many a comfort, Many a doubt, My deeds and fears within, Without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, O wretched one, Slight riches, Feeling of the one, May all I need In thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Blessed, just as I am, Thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, Part of plans we lead, Because I promise, I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Great singing, everybody. You are dismissed. .