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Now, before I get into this, I want to look at Proverbs chapter 30 verse 25, just want to read one more verse, but you can stay there in Proverbs 6, and the Bible reads, The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer. Now going back to Proverbs 6 when it talks about the ants, it says in verse number 6, Go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide overseer or ruler, providedth her meat in the summer, and gatheredth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Now what I want to preach about is the idea of preparation, and how God is a God of preparation. He wants us to be prepared, He wants us to be ready, and you see the example of the ants in Proverbs 30, so I want to go back and see a little bit about ants in Proverbs 6. Now I actually watched a couple documentaries on ants and read a lot of articles about ants in preparation for the sermon, and obviously you can't trust necessarily everything you see in the documentary, but one thing I found was interesting that I didn't realize, they said all worker ants are female. Now it's interesting that the Bible says consider her ways in verse 6. Verse 8, provideth her meat and gathereth her food. This book was written thousands of years ago, the book of Proverbs. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the Bible uses the feminine there. I thought that was really interesting. And so what we see here in these verses though about the ants, ants are hard workers, and that's what I really came across with these documentaries I watched. They prepare ahead of time. They don't wait until they need to get food. They prepare ahead of time. They are ready. And I'm going to look at a lot of different verses, and then I'm going to show you five different points on the idea of how we need to be prepared in our lives. So I'm going to blow through these verses, but in 2 Chronicles 12, 13, and 14 the Bible says, So King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned. For Rehoboam was one and forty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother's name was Naaman and Ammonitis, and he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. In 2 Chronicles chapter 19 it says, In Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldst thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, and that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God. This word comes up so much in the Bible, and it also talks about being ready a lot of other times as well. The next chapter, 2 Chronicles 20, starting in verse 31, And Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Asabu the daughter of Shilhai, and he walked in the way of Asa's father and departed not from it. Doing that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Howbeit the high places were not taken away, for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts on the God of their fathers. Now turn to Exodus chapter 34. So you see, I'm just showing you a few examples of this, how preparation is a very important thing. So many times in life we fail at things, or we're not that successful, and the whole reason is we're not that prepared. I mean you could spend hours and hours and hours out soul winning, but if you don't know how to lead someone to the Lord, it doesn't do any good. You're not going to lead anyone to the Lord. You have to be prepared. And this idea of preparation is throughout the Bible, and I'm just going to read you one verse here before we look at Exodus 34. And Ezra 7 verse 6 talks about Ezra being a ready scribe, and in verse number 10, For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. So the first idea of being prepared or being ready I want to talk about is just being prepared and ready for the day. Each new day that comes up, we need to be ready. In Exodus 34, looking at the first four verses, the Bible reads, And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou breakest. And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount. And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount. Neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount. And he hew two tables of stone like unto the first, and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. Now, whenever you read through the Old Testament, it's interesting about Moses. Over and over again, it says early in the morning, early in the morning. He arose. He was always ready to go. But I wanted to focus on this chapter because this chapter is a very interesting chapter. It gives us kind of the analogy of how a person gets close to God, okay? Moses is told to climb a mountain, okay? Now Moses is over 80 years old at this time. He's not a young man. Climbing a mountain is pretty difficult, isn't it? You know, a lot of people like to look at every chapter of the Old Testament and apply it to salvation, but you don't have to climb a mountain to be saved. The Bible says it's as easy as drinking a glass of water. Now that's pretty easy. Climbing a mountain, it's not easy. But getting close to God, it is difficult. It's like climbing a mountain. Every day is a battle to get a little bit closer to God. Every day you've got to dig down. I remember when I was a kid, and me and my buddy, we climbed this really, really long hill. And my buddy went to the very top. And it was one of these hills where you had to go down really low on the ground. And you would just hold onto a tree, and you saw a couple feet in front of you all just try to get to that tree and hold onto it. And slowly you went up the hill. And I got pretty high up the hill, and I grabbed a hold of this branch that I thought was really rooted into the ground. And it just pulled right up out of the ground. I just went tumbling down the hill. I got completely scratched up. And that's how the Christian life is. Even if you're facing forward, even if you're trying to live for the Lord, you're going to stumble along the way. It's not going to be easy. It's going to be a battle. And here's the thing. Every day we need to be ready early to go. Every day it's like no matter what you did today, if you led five people to the Lord today, that's great. If you led no one to the Lord and you skipped church, either way when you wake up tomorrow it's a new day. Your momentum is stopped when you wake up. You see if you're going through a day and you're not living for the Lord, you're tumbling down the mountain. It is very hard in the middle of a day when you're backsliding to stop in the middle of that day and start climbing that mountain. Usually for me I got to wait until the next day before I can really get my feet set again. And like today's a new day, I'll start climbing that mountain. But you know it's so important though because you're thinking about climbing a mountain, your momentum is going backwards. Even if you're not moving, your momentum is already facing backwards. I remember about a year ago out in West Virginia, we were getting home from church, we were driving some of the bus kids back from church in a couple cars. And we were going up this long hill and there was snow and there was ice on the roads. And there was just this one car that was stalled and it couldn't make it up. It kept trying to go up the hill and it kept sliding down. So it was just stopped. And the roads were completely blocked. And it was trying to make it up and it couldn't make it up. And I got out of my car and my buddy got out of his car and we started pushing it. And it wasn't moving, we were pushing, pushing. And suddenly we got it going just a little bit and it just zoomed up the hill. It just needed that little bit of a push. And see this is the Christian life every day. Because I don't know about you but nobody comes to me on my job and says, Brother Stuckey, I read Jeremiah chapter 30 last night. What did you think about that chapter? You know I was thinking this, what do you think about that? Nobody does that to me on my job. I seriously doubt anybody in this room has people come up to them on the job like that. In fact, most people come up and they say, did you watch the Dallas Mavericks play? Did you watch this football game? Did you watch this or this? And that's about the best thing they're going to talk to you about. Usually they're going to talk about sin and worldliness. And you know what, no matter what you try to do to avoid it, you go to lunch somewhere, the worldly music's playing, sin is all around you. Worldliness is all around you. And it's going to be very hard to break forth and get that momentum going forward unless you start the day that direction. And see what I'm basically saying is this, I believe that I'm not saying everybody has to wake up. I wake up really, really early, like around four in the morning most days. But you know what, no matter what time you wake up or when you start work, you need to get some time in the Bible. You need to get some time in prayer before you get started with your day. If you just kind of roll out of bed right before you go to work, start work, having not spent any time with God, you know what, your momentum, it's going to quickly start going down that hill. And by the time you try to spend time in the word of God later on, you're already sliding down that hill. You're not even going to want to read the Bible, because you're already backsliding. You have to get your day started off with God. You have to get your momentum going forward. Turn to Genesis chapter 19. Now, Genesis 19, very famous chapter. I think it's very interesting in the Bible when you look at two people, Lot and Abraham, and the parallels between those two people, kind of the differences in their life. What made one person so successful and made one person such a failure? Well, in Genesis 19, we see one thing that's kind of interesting. It kind of goes with the same analogy, starting at verse 15. And I'm expecting you're pretty familiar with this story. But in verse 15, it says, And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto him. And they brought him forth and set him without the city. This story blows my mind. What in the world is wrong with Lot? I mean, he's lingering in the city. God has already been so merciful to Lot. I mean, he could have destroyed him easily without giving him a chance. But you wonder, why is he lingering in sin? But you know what, you notice that Lot, he wasn't ready to go early in the morning. He wasn't ready to do what God had him to do. Now here's the thing, at work sometimes somebody might tell you a dirty joke, or they might start talking about something that you shouldn't hear. And it's very easy to just kind of back down and let them talk to you. They might blaspheme God. It's very easy to not say anything and back down from what you believe. And see, here's the thing. If you don't go get your momentum going forward, if you don't arise early in the morning, that's probably what you're going to do. You're probably going to linger in that sin. You're probably going to listen to someone talk about some dirty movie, and you're going to kind of chuckle out loud, pretending you find it funny because you're embarrassed. Why are you lingering? Because you didn't wake up early ready to go. You didn't get your momentum going forward. But you look later on in the chapter, verse 27, it says, And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord. And he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain and beheld. And lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt. Now, Abraham's not really involved in this situation. He doesn't have to worry about being destroyed himself. But Abraham still rises early in the morning. The way I look at it is you might work a Monday through Friday job. That's what I do. But you know what? On Saturday, that doesn't mean on Saturday I can just not spend any time with God in the morning. I mean, you still have to wake up early. And Abraham's not involved in this situation. He doesn't have to worry about people coming in, like the analogy of people telling you worldly stuff and talking about sin. But even still, Abraham had a pattern in his life. I'm still going to just do what I need to do, waking up early. We need to be doing that throughout the week. You know, it's very easy. I remember earlier in my days being a Christian, when you would go on like a soul-winning marathon or something, it was very easy to kind of justify not doing a ton of Bible reading in the morning, because it's like, I'm going soul-winning all day anyway. And at the end of the day, you've read like nothing in the Bible. You know, I don't do that at all anymore, but it's a very easy thing to do, because you think, well, I don't have to worry about it. I'm already doing something else for God. We need to be in a pattern of reading the Bible every day, no matter what. I mean, I would say that's probably the biggest problem in Christianity, because if people read the Bible, the other problems would fix themselves oftentimes. But people just do not read their Bibles. Turn to Ephesians chapter 6, and I'll just read you Proverbs 6, 9, where it says, how long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Those are from our main verses we read earlier, and that's the analogy right there. It's like, when will you arise out of sleep? It's like, get up, get ready, do something with your life. Don't just sit there and be lazy. In Ephesians chapter 6, this is probably one of the most famous passages in the Bible, starting at verse 11. So the first thing we saw is just to be ready for the day. Every day, we need to be ready. And if we're not ready for the day, we're going to have so many other problems in our lives. But in Ephesians chapter 6, verses 11 through 19, it says, put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. So in verse 19 is kind of the end of that, that I can open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. But you know the middle verse in here is verse number 15, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And this idea of the preparation, it's not just, well, I know the verses I need to use, and that's it. No, it's a daily thing. You need to always be prepared, always be ready to preach the gospel. Can somebody get maybe a bottle of water, someone? But we need to always be ready. We need to be always prepared to preach the gospel, okay? Turn to Acts chapter eight. You know, so many times in life, there are probably people that we could lead to the Lord if we would just be prepared, if we would just be ready. You know, just on Friday night, we were up in Washington, D.C., and we flew out of that airport. It was a few hours from where we live. And there were a couple kids I had led to the Lord a few weeks earlier when we were just kind of walking around and I saw two of the kids there with two other kids at the playground, and I just said, hey, can you introduce me to your friends? And they introduced me, and we gave them the gospel just on Friday night. We were just going out for a walk and led them to the Lord. Those opportunities are out there every week. You know, and apply this if you can apply it. I understand if you're a mom and you have five kids at Walmart, I'm not expecting you to forsake your kids and start preaching the gospel to people. But you know what? So many times we go through life and we don't even look for the opportunities. And a large problem is because we're so lazy earlier in the day that we have other things we have to get done. We don't even have time to look for those opportunities. But you know what? There are opportunities pretty much every week if you would look for them. And we need to take advantage of those. I'll just read you 1 Peter 3.15. It says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. We need to be ready always. That's what the Bible says. We need to be prepared. We need to be ready. In Acts 8, verses 26 through 30, the Bible reads, And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopian, eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him. Does he sound ready? He ran thither to him. What if he didn't run? What if he was just like, well, think about it. The opportunity would be gone. That's generally how it is in our daily lives for opportunities God gives us, even out soul winning. People walking down the street, those opportunities are there as well. And oftentimes they're so much easier to lead to the Lord. Oftentimes I think God specifically is sending that person along our path to talk to. And if we're just kind of like, well, I don't know, he's not gonna get saved anyway. Well, the opportunity is gone. It's there in a moment and it's gone. Why? Because we were not ready for it. We need to be ready at all times. And if we're not, there's gonna be so many opportunities that are here and they're gone. Turn to 2 Kings chapter 20. And I'll just say this to think about this thought, because I know there's a lot of people in here that are really dedicated to soul winning, but I'm just gonna be honest with you, if you go soul winning every Saturday and Sunday, which is pretty zealous, and you average two people saved a week, that's over a hundred people in the year, but if you don't lead a single person to the Lord and don't give the gospel to anyone Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday during the entire year, most of the year you were not ready to preach the gospel. That's the truth. I mean, I don't keep track of every single day of the week, but I've given the gospel to people every single day of the week this year. You know, there are opportunities every day. We need to be ready for these opportunities. And if we pray for these opportunities, God's gonna send them our direction, because there's not that many people out doing the work. You know, often, I mean, when we pray for them and God sends them, He's doing a lot of the work Himself. Instead of having to knock for hours and hours and not having anybody listen, sometimes He just sends someone right to you. I mean, and don't get me wrong, I would never forsake soul winning, because if you forsook soul winning, you'll never get people saved in your personal life. I don't buy it, I don't care what anyone says. If you're not a door-to-door soul winner, you don't win people in your personal life. But let me tell you something, there's a lot of door-to-door soul winners that never win anyone in their personal life. We need to be ready at all times. You're in 2 Kings chapter 20. I'm gonna read you Romans 1, 14 through 16. The Bible reads, this is Paul speaking, "'I am deader both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, "'both to the wise and to the unwise. "'So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel "'to you that are at Rome also, "'for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, "'for it is the power of God unto salvation "'to everyone that believeth, "'to the Jew first and also to the Greek.'" So he says in verse number 15, "'I am ready to preach the gospel.'" You wonder why Paul was so successful? He was ready. He was always ready to go. I mean, he was so zealous. He did so much for the Lord. Why? Because he was ready. He was always ready. He was always just ready to get somebody saved. In 2 Kings chapter 20, so that's the second point here. The first point was just to be ready for the day. We need to be ready every single new day. Second point, we need to be ready to preach the gospel every day, not just Saturdays, not just Sundays. We need to be ready at all times. In 2 Kings chapter 20, third point though is this, we need to be ready or prepared for death, okay? In 2 Kings 20 verse one, it says, "'In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death, "'and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amaz came to him "'and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, "'set thine house in order, "'for thou shalt die and not live.'" This is a very interesting story, because Hezekiah, when you read in the Bible, he was a really good king, and the end of his life, he didn't end up very good at all towards the very end of his life. But you know the story, how he prays, he basically tells God that he sought after him, he's lived a good life, and God gives him 15 more years to live, okay? Now, what's interesting, when I was preparing this, I was thinking about this, I believe Hezekiah was actually pretty ready at that time. I think his house was kind of in order when he first comes to him, but when he dies, his house is not in order. Later on in the chapter, and I'll explain that to you in a second, in verse 16, it says, "'And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, "'Hear the word of the Lord, behold, the days come "'that all that is in thine house "'and thou which thy fathers have laid up in store "'and of this day shall be carried into Babylon. "'Nothing shall be left, saith the Lord, "'and of thy sons that shall issue from thee "'which thou shalt beget, shall they take away, "'and they shall be eunuchs in the palace "'of the king of Babylon.' "'Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, "'Good is the word of the Lord, "'which thou hast spoken.' "'And he said, Is it not good "'if peace and truth be in my days?'" It's one of the most perplexing verses in the Bible where Hezekiah just doesn't even seem to care about his kids. Now, look at the next chapter, chapter 21, starting at verse one, it says, "'Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign.'" Now, how many years did God promise Hezekiah more? 15 more years. Manasseh is 12 at this time. So this is approximately three years after Isaiah's come to Hezekiah, okay? See, I believe he was probably ready at that time. His house probably was in pretty good order, but you know what? Manasseh was not a good king. His house was not in order when he died. It says, "'When he began to reign "'and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem, "'and his mother's name was Hepzibah, "'and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord "'after the abominations of the heathen, "'whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. "'For he built up again the high places "'which Hezekiah, his father, had destroyed, "'and he reared up altars for Baal, "'and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel, "'and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them. "'But they hearken.'" Verse number nine, "'But they hearken not, "'and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil "'than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed "'before the children of Israel.'" Verse number three is one of the saddest verses in the Bible. Hezekiah had done so many good things in his entire life. What does it say in verse three about Manasseh? "'For he built up again the high places "'which Hezekiah, his father, had destroyed, "'and he reared up altars for Baal, "'and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel, "'and worshiped all the hosts of heaven, and served them.'" I mean, his son pretty much destroyed, everything Hezekiah had done pretty much destroyed. Why? Because his house wasn't, he was not prepared when he died. He was not ready for that. Turn to James chapter four. Okay. You know, another thing I thought was interesting in preparing this sermon, when I was looking at the life of ants, I was kind of curious, I was like, well, how long do ants live? Ants don't live long at all. Now, there's so many different types of ants, so you know what, you might find one type that lives a little bit longer, but pretty much everything I read says that they live around 45 to 60 days, and we're talking about the worker ants. That's a pretty short life. And so when you think about this, if you look at 40, even if someone 45 days times eight, that's 360 days, that's less than a year. Basically what I'm saying is they're preparing food that they already have their own food, and they're preparing for food for generations to come, far down the line, not just like their kids, but far down the line. When you think about, obviously everybody loves their kids and their grandkids, but are you gonna have more love for your kids, your great, great, great, great grandkids? And they prepare, they live a very short life, and they still prepare. They're just, ants are just really hard workers. Most things in life that we prepare for, usually they benefit us in our lives. You know, the ants, the things that prepare, that doesn't even benefit them. They're not gonna be around for it. Most things in life, if we prepared ourselves, it would benefit us, and we're just lazy. We just don't do it. James chapter four, verses 13 and 14, the Bible reads, go to now ye that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain. 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 vanish the way. So the Bible talks about our lives being a vapor. They're here, and then they're gone. Yeah, I'm amazed that, you know, I'm 30 years old. I can't believe like I'm in my 30s now. It's like, where did the time go? But our lives, they're here, and then they're gone. They come, and they just go really quickly. And you know what, there's no guarantee of living tomorrow. I mean, you can leave this room tonight, and you'll be in heaven tomorrow. You might not, you say, well, you know, Brother Stuckey, I don't know if I believe that, you know, I'm a soul winner, I'm living for the Lord, I'm reading the Bible all the time. Well, Stephen was living for the Bible. Stephen was living for the Lord, wasn't he? Did he live a long life? He didn't. And you know what, there's actually, my friend that I used to go sowing with almost every week died at the age of 20 years old in a tragic accident. You can actually go to the website at Faith Forward Baptist Pastor Anderson preached a sermon called What Is Your Life? In either the first or second week of August, 2008. Died at the age of 20 years old. He went sowing every week, never drank, went to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, died at the age of 20. There's no guarantee that you're gonna make it tomorrow. There's no guarantee. Now, I mean, obviously, I think the same way. Obviously, if you're living for the Lord, you're under God's protection. But you know what, who knows what God's plans are for you? You don't know when your last day's gonna be. And this idea of being prepared for when you die, you know, when we give the gospel to people, sometimes someone I talked to today, they were kind of foolish. They said, well, you know, one day I'll think about it. It's like, you know, I'm not thinking about this now. But you know what, we look at that and say it's foolish because you don't know how long you're gonna live. And yet we do the same thing with our lives. We have so many things that aren't prepared if we were to pass on, which is pretty foolish as well because we don't know how long we're gonna live. Turn to Psalms chapter 90. I will say this, so the truth is, yes, you know what, most likely if you're living for the Lord, you're probably not gonna die at a really young age. But you know what, there's probably a lot of people you know in your life that aren't really living for the Lord at all. Unsafe people that maybe drink a lot and drive and they do stupid things. You know, I know someone back in college, I took a Spanish class, and we had this project on Friday. There's like 60 kids in the class. And we split off into groups of five people. And this one day, I can't remember this guy's name, but we come to class on Monday and the teacher said, I'm sorry I have an announcement, so-and-so was killed on Friday. And they had flowers and memorial and everything like that. It was actually a huge case in West Virginia. This was like a trial for two years because what ended up happening is the guy went out drinking and there's these other guys that were drinking. Somebody made a joke, the other guy threw a snowball, then a knife ends up coming up, and then one guy gets stabbed. And the question was, whose knife was it originally? Over someone making a joke about a girl and then throwing a snowball, why? Because of alcohol. That's the real reason when you go down to it. Alcohol will destroy your, and kids listen to this, alcohol will destroy your life. Never drink alcohol. It will ruin your life. So many people's lives have been killed because of alcohol. I mean, what a stupid story. Somebody threw a snowball and they get stabbed to death. I mean, so stupid, such a dumb way to die. But you know what, that guy, once our teacher said that, I looked around the room, because I didn't know who it was, and he sat right behind me in one seat to the left. He was actually in my group project on that Friday. I talked to him just a couple hours before he was stabbed to death. And here's the truth. I can't say there was one time that I ever asked God, you know, God, I've got all these kids and all these students in here, please give me an opportunity for the person who's gonna be receptive. Because obviously you can't give the gospel to everyone. But you know, if you actually prayed and said, God, there's 60 people in here, please open up the door for the person that would receive it. I believe God would have presented that opportunity. Would he have received it? I will never know. You know, was he saved? I hope so. Probably not. I hope so. In Psalms chapter 90, verse number nine is my favorite verse in the entire Bible. It says, for all our days are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are three square years and 10. And if by reason of strength they be four square years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger, even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts onto wisdom. You know, if we would realize how short our lives are, we would apply our hearts onto wisdom. We really care about this book and getting people saved. We really realize how short and how brief life could be. That's what the Bible's talking about there. It says, teach us to number our days. Turn to 1 Chronicles 22. Actually, turn to 1 Timothy five. I'm just gonna read these two verses from 1 Chronicles 22. In 1 Chronicles 22, speaking about David, it says in verse number five, so David prepared abundantly before his death. Then he called for Solomon his son and charged him to build a house for the Lord God of Israel. Also in 2 Timothy four, six and seven, it says, this is Paul speaking, for I am now ready to be offered. In the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Those were the words of Paul. Is that something that you could say about your life? If you were to die right now, could you really say that, that I've really fought a good fight for the years I've lived? Or would you say there's a lot of loose ends I still need to tie up? Is your house in order or is it not? I still have a lot of things in my life. People that, if I died right now, there's probably a list of people I know that I'm probably their only hope. And I could probably put in more of an effort to try to get them saved. In 1 Timothy chapter five, so the third point was this, to be ready for death. Now the fourth point, somebody might get offended, but anyways, is be ready for your role in a family, okay? 1 Timothy chapter five verse eight. Now I want you to notice the pronoun here. It says, but if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. So whose job is it to provide the food, to make the money? It's the men. It's very clear it's the masculine. I'm gonna read this from the NIV and tell me if it says the same thing. Anyone who does not provide for their relatives and specially for their own household has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. I don't know about you, but the NIV just said that if you're a woman and you're not providing for your family, then you're worse than an unbeliever. That's what it says. I mean, the NIV basically teaches anybody, man or woman, that's what it says. And I get it. People that read the NIV, they're probably not reading to get their doctrine. They're getting their doctrine from movies and music and things like that. But here's the thing. We're not ignorant of Satan's devices. If the devil is attacking God's word in the NIV, he's doing the same thing in this life. And this is something that is being attacked big time. About as much as anything, roles in a family are being attacked so much, the media's lying, everybody's buying into it. And you know what? Christians are meeting the world halfway. Even independent Baptists are meeting the world halfway. And 1 Timothy 5.14, actually, let me just say this other point here from what the NIV says, because the NIV says to provide for relatives, not even his own relatives. There's something that goes around in some countries where men that are old enough to work, not that old, like 50 years, they retire, and then they have their kids or their sons-in-laws provide money and send it to them. That's something that's going on and look, I'm all for if your parents get old and they can't work anymore, but you know, a man who's 50 years old can still work. And there's just laziness going across the entire world, people trying to justify not working and the NIV saying the same thing. Talks about how parents are supposed to lay up for their kids, okay? And it says in 1 Timothy 5.14, I will therefore that the younger women marry bare children, guide the house, and give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. This isn't a confusing verse. It's very clear, but people just don't want to know what the truth is. The Bible says the role of women is to marry bare children, guide the house. Turn to Titus chapter two. And the reason why I'm talking about this in terms of preparation is this, because what people are saying now is this. Girls at a young age, they need a backup plan. They can't assume they're gonna get married. They can't assume that their husband's gonna live forever. Girls need to go to college and get a backup plan. You know what, that's a lie from the devil, and I'm gonna show you this in the Bible. We should not be meeting the world halfway. We should have trust in God. You know, when people say, well, you know, you need to prepare. You're preaching on preparation. You need to prepare in case something happens. You don't prepare for things that God tells you not to prepare for, okay? It's like when you get married, you don't get a prenuptial agreement and say, if things don't work out, no, they will work out because marriage is forever. Divorce is wicked. It's an abomination before God. You know, my sister, she has eight kids, okay? Four boys and four girls. And it's funny because I even have family members that are stay-at-home moms, and yet they push my sister so much in her family that the girls need to get a backup plan and go to college. It's like they're meeting the world halfway. And you know what, I look at those kids, and I'm saying, they're already preparing. That is so great because when they get married, a lot of the problems, they're not even gonna have to deal with because they're already preparing. They're practicing cooking, cleaning, and all the things of being a stay-at-home mom. That's what they wanna do. It's like, that's great, because that's what God wants you to do. That is great that my nieces wanna be stay-at-home moms. That is the perfect thing that they should wanna do. And yet, you know, Christians criticize that. Christians look down on women not getting a job or not going to college. They look down on that. You know, we should say that is a great thing, especially when you're willing to stand up for the truth because in today's world, this is under attack. In Titus chapter two, I'm gonna read verses three through five. The Bible says, the aged women likewise that they be in behavior is become with holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands that the word of God be not blasphemed. Now, notice here in verse number three, it talks about the aged women. They're supposed to teach the young women, okay? Now, what would you call me if I stood up here and preached, you need to go soul winning, but I never went myself? I'm a hypocrite, right. So if the aged women were working outside of the home and they were teaching the young women, you need to be a keeper at home. That would make them a hypocrite. And God speaks against hypocrisy. That's one of the things about the Pharisees. He says, behold the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Obviously, the aged women are keepers at home as well. Because people have this idea in Baptist churches, once you reach a certain age, your kids are out of the home, get your hair cut short like a man, go back to work. But you know what, that's a lie from the devil. You know, they're supposed to be teaching the young women, which means they should be doing the same thing. They should teach the young women to be a keeper at home. And what that proves is no matter what, whether you have kids at home or not, women's role is to stay at home. That's what the Bible teaches, okay? Now, obviously in Proverbs 31, we see that the woman does a little bit of work, not outside the home. And in today's world, if you can do something on the computer, a little bit on the side, I'm not saying that's wrong, but let me tell you something, it's not a woman's role to go outside of the home and work and make the money like the NIV teaches. And independent Baptist, to teach the doctrine that the NIV teaches, that's pretty bad when you're lining up right with what the NIV says and in the face of what the Bible says. Turn to Genesis chapter 47. In Genesis 47, verse six, the Bible reads, "'The land of Egypt is before thee, "'and the best of the land make thy father "'and brethren to dwell, "'and the land of Goshen let them dwell. "'And if thou knowest any men of activity among them, "'then make them rulers over my cattle.'" Once again, we see the same thing. We need men of activity. Now, this is interesting because the NIV once again screws this up as well. It says, "'And if you know of any among them with special ability.'" So there's two things messed up in this verse. One, it takes out the part about men. The other thing, it says special ability. You know, people that are successful in life, it's because they work hard. It's not because they have some special ability. You know, anyone who's successful in the Christian life, it's not because they were born where they just knew the Bible by heart. They were just a great speaker. They just could memorize the entire, no, it's because they worked hard. Those are the people that are successful in life. It doesn't matter how talented you are. If you never go out and go soul winning, never read this book, you're not gonna do anything in the Christian life. You know, it's people that work hard that are successful. And once again, the NIV attacks this. And I'm just gonna read you Proverbs 22, six. You don't have to turn there. But the Bible says, "'Train up a child in the way he should go, "'and when he is old, he will not depart from it.'" And this would go with women as well. We need to be training our kids, and we need to be teaching our young boys that they need to be the person who works hard, provides the money, and the girls at a young age, that their role is to be a stay-at-home mom. And that's a great thing for them to do. It's nothing to look down. It's the best thing they could possibly do. That is how God's designed it. We always think that we know better than God. But you know what? It doesn't work out if you don't go God's way. This is what God set up. Men are the head of the household. They provide the money, they work, and women stay home. That's what the Bible teaches. Now, in Titus chapter two, so the first point was just being ready for the day. The second point, be ready to preach the gospel. The third point, be ready for death. The fourth, be ready for your role in a family. And the fifth is be ready or prepared for your role in a church or to be used by God, okay? Now, honestly, a large part of a woman's job, to do what God has for her, is to take care of the home. And obviously, women should still be learning their Bibles. They're gonna be teaching the kids. Obviously, they need to know their Bibles. They need to go sowing. But a large part of their role is to stay home with the kids. Now, with men, on the other hand, men are meant to teach their wives and to teach their children. Now, the wives are meant to teach their kids as well, but the men are meant to be the head of that household. So even more so, they need to make sure that they know the Bible and that they're ready. In verse number six, it says, Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded, in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works, in doctrines showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity. Sound speech that cannot be condemned, that is of the contrary part, may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Now, I've been asked this question before, and it's an interesting question. It's like, should every man desire the office of a bishop? I don't necessarily think that's true, but I do think every man should be prepared for the office of a bishop, and every man should be ready to be a pastor. And especially if you wanna be a pastor, you need to be ready. I mean, you need to know this Bible inside and out. I mean, I preach generally one sermon a week, and it takes a long time to prepare. I wish I'd spent so much more time in preparation, reading God's Word over the last 12 years I've been saved. It would save me so much time in life now. And that's usually the way it works. If you prepare for things ahead of time, usually it saves you so much in the long run. If you wanna be a pastor, this is my personal opinion, you should always have a sermon ready. Always, because you never know when the opportunity's gonna come. I remember just a couple years ago, I started writing at least one sermon every week. I was like, I wanna get some practice, even though I'm not necessarily getting a ton of chances to preach. I was getting some here and there. Pretty much right after that, a week or two later, my pastor said, I want you to start preaching junior church every week. Now, is that a coincidence? I don't believe it is. You know why I think I got that opportunity? Because I was ready. I've had other opportunities visiting churches where I had a sermon ready, and I didn't know that I was gonna have the opportunity. And then they said, hey, would you be ready to preach? And I'm like, I'm ready. We need to be ready, especially if you wanna be a pastor. But you know what? At a young age, boys should be studying their Bibles and knowing their Bibles. Men should know their Bibles, okay? Turn to 1 Timothy chapter three. We're just gonna look at a few more passages. Starting at verse one, it says, This is a true saying. If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. For for man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest be lifting up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach in the snare of the devil. Now these verses really need to be posted for a lot of people in Baptist churches to read because people don't seem to believe this anymore. People are starting churches that aren't prepared at all. They don't know their Bibles. So they're just going to these commentaries, they're just listening to sermons and re-preaching it and just changing up just a slight bit. We need to know our Bibles and study and be able to teach. And here's the truth of the matter. You know what? It's great to respect your pastor and to look at everything he preaches, but you know what? We need to be checking to see if everything's correct. Anyway, if your wife has a question about the Bible, if you say, well, let me see if Pastor Romero has the answer. In my opinion, you're pretty much teaching your wife to respect your pastor more than you. You know, your wife should be respecting you. You need to know your Bible so she can respect you. And if you don't know your Bible, she's going to lose a lot of respect for you. Yeah, true. And so we need to be ready as men. We need to know this book. Whether you plan to be a pastor or not, it doesn't matter, you should be prepared. You should know this book inside and out. Turn to 1 Samuel 16. This is the last place we're going to look. 1 Samuel 16. And honestly, there's a lot of places I could have gone to here and being prepared for what God's role is. You see that just throughout the Bible. You know, the people that God calls, the people God used, the people God has for various positions to do various things, they're people that are prepared. It's not just kind of like, well, God's like, I want to use you. Now study the next year. Start learning your Bible. It's like, no, people that are already ready, people that have already put in the work, those are the people God uses in a great way. Everybody says, one day I'll learn the Bible so you can use me, God. But you know what, God expects you to do it right now and be prepared right now. In 1 Samuel 16, verses 10 through 12, it says, again, Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, the Lord hath not chosen these. And Samuel said unto Jesse, are here all thy children? And he said, there remaineth yet the youngest, and behold, he keepeth the sheep. Okay, see, I love the symbolism here with David, because David was someone, you always see this, he's always keeping the sheep. He's always taking care of the work that he was given to you, given to do, and he's given great responsibilities because he was already doing what he was supposed to do. He was already preparing something. He was already prepared. When I watch these, and we're done with the sermon, but when I was watching these documentaries on the ants, I thought it was a lot of interesting things. And one thing that I saw, they tried to excavate, I don't know if that's the right word, underground what the ants did, and they put like cement down there, and it was like the most complex structure I've ever seen. Like if you made it at the scale of how big we are, it would be the most phenomenal thing man has ever, it was ridiculous what they were able to accomplish. And it was also interesting because they show that if you set a fire by ants, ants will just keep doing their job until they're burned to death. It's like they're, they don't even, aren't even aware of what's happening. They're just working so hard at what their responsibility. So to me it looks like they don't really seem like they're necessarily the smartest creature, but you know what they do? They work really hard. And let me tell you something, this church is gonna grow and do great things, but it's gonna be held back unless the people of this church all prepare themselves and are ready and work hard, okay? Let's go to the word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here this evening. I just ask you to help us remember these things of being prepared, being ready and working hard. Just ask you to bless this time that we have a fellowship now. In Jesus' name, amen.