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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you 16 you you you you you you you you you you you Let's have a break Do you have a fire? We thank the Lord for this morning We thank you for the good God that you have given to us and also for the good weather I pray Lord that you would bless each and every part of our service from the Congregational singing from the reading of her word and also the preaching of the sermon I pray to go God that you would bless brother Saki and help him preach and edifying sermon to us Lord and guide him and Knowing his lips Lord. I pray that you would remove the distractions from us and so that we could be attentive with a sermon I pray Lord that you would that's also our fellowship this afternoon and also the soloing and please Keep the weather in good condition Lord and hold the rain for us to go out Lord and Win souls for you, and we're asking all these things in Jesus name. We pray amen For our next song let's turn to name number 360 him number 360 that sing the song On the first Then They see So Oh Oh Oh Oh All right morning everybody welcome to Verity Baptist Church take out your bullets in here today And I did want to thank everybody for the prayers for my wife and our son who was born just a few days ago And I did want to give a special Thank you to a few people brother Matthias and brother Chris for stepping up and preaching that I mean everybody knew was gonna happen Right like last second someone would have to come and preach because same thing as Christabel, but also a special Thank you to brother June and sister glassy because you kind of figure you know wow did you guys get any sleep? They didn't get any sleep You know they're the ones who watched our kids and woke up in the middle of the night You know drive us and everything's a special Thank you to them and also everybody who prayed for us But anyways our verse of the week is James 4 verse 2 the Bible reads He lust and have not he kill and desire to have and cannot obtain He fight in war yet you have not because he asked not in case you haven't figured it out the sermon is on prayer That's why the songs and the verse are about prayer We are a family integrated church meaning children and infants are welcomed during the services We do have a mother-baby room back there for your convenience as well as the ladies comfort room the men's comfort room is up Here in front remember no eating during the service maintain a professional Atmosphere and keep the children from running and making noise during the church service on the next page our service times listed Our first service is at 10 a.m.. Second service is at 1130 Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 p.m. So winning times listed, so there is one change to the so winning times Wednesday is now going to be at 4 p.m. So one hour earlier, and so I'll have it updated for next week's bulletin but if you're going to be here for Wednesday, so winning you meet up at 4 p.m.. To head out for that and Saturday afternoon we have so winning from 10 to 12 in case on Memorial Circle Lunch provided by church, and then 2 to 4 p.m.. Of course we have so winning this afternoon at around 2 15 p.m. And obviously as we're entering rainy season things kind of depend on the weather as well So you know obviously we hope that the weather is going to be good But we should have so many here this afternoon at around 2 15 We have our salvations and baptisms listed there for both of our churches and our Bible study fellowships Birthdays and anniversaries for May are listed there below next page our Bible memorization challenge and our upcoming activities So next week will be our prayer meeting So we'll have that right after soul winning next week and also we do have an activity coming up in June that I don't yet Have in the bulletin so as I said we delayed the ladies tea party We also have Father's Day coming up So it's going to be at the same time in a different location though so the ladies tea party will be here And then the men will be out. You know doing something. We're still figuring that out So basically the ladies tea party is going to be you know in June 19th. I think is Father's Day, so that's four weeks am I correct four weeks from now and We'll have the men's event as well on that date current an upcoming series. We are in the book of Daniel What am I doing and also? We're starting a new series next week verse by verse We're gonna be going through the Song of Solomon, and so I personally love the Song of Solomon It's one of the most misunderstood books There's a lot of great wisdom whether you're married or not married But it's it's it's a great book very misunderstood, so we're gonna start it next week So I encourage you to be here for the first Sunday for that We'll have an introductory sermon then just one sermon per week as we go through the chapters Information on our group chat down there below and on the back there are notes for the sermons here today So I believe that's it for announcements. We'll have brother Marlon lead us in another song Even for our next song let's turn to him number 361 361 Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh This time we'll have our offering You You Amen for a scripture reading, please open your Bibles to the book of Exodus Exodus chapter 2 second book in your Bible Exodus chapter 2 and as our custom. We'll be reading the entire chapter The Exodus chapter 2 Please say men if you're there Amen Exodus chapter 2 verse 1 and there went a man of the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of Levi and The woman conceived and their son and then when she saw him that he was a goodly child She hit him three months and when she could not longer hide him She took for him an ark of bull rushes and docked it with slime in the pitch and put the chill up and put the child there in and she laid it in the flags by the rivers brink and his sister stood up far off to with what would be done to him and A daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river and her maidens walk along by the rivers side And when she saw the ark among the flags she sent her maid to fetch it and once she had opened it she saw the child and behold the babe wept and She had compassion on him and said this is one of the Hebrews children Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew woman that she may nurse a child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her go and the maid went and called the child's mother and Pharaoh's daughter said unto her Take this child away and nurse it for me And I will give thee thy wages and the woman took a child and nursed it And a child grew and she brought him into Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son and she called his name Moses And she said because I drew him out of the water And he came to pass in those days when Moses was grown That he went out into his brethren and looked under burdens and he spied an Egyptian a smiling in Hebrew one of his brethren And he looked this way in that way And when he saw that there was no man he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand and When he went out the second day behold two men of the Hebrews strove together and he said to him that did the wrong Wherefore mightest thou thy fellow and he said who may be a prince and a judge over us Intendest thou to kill me as thou killest the Egyptian and Moses feared and said surely this thing is known Now when Pharaoh heard this thing he sought to slay Moses But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian and he sat down by a well Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock As shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock And when they came to rule their father he said how is it the air come so soon today? And they said an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and also drew water enough for us And water the flock and he said unto his daughters and where is he? Why is it that you have left the man call him that he made bread? And Moses was content to dwell with a man and he gave Moses a porous daughter and she buried him a son And he called his name Gershom. He said I have been a stranger in a strange land And he came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died And the children of Israel side side by the reason of the bondage and they cried and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage and God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob and God looked upon the children of Israel and God her respect unto them Bless the root of God's word. Let us pray Lord God in heaven. Thank you Lord for state to give it to us I pray that you would bless this day Give us good weather for our soul any later on and a prayer load which would also bless the preaching and the preacher of your Word Lord this day. Love you in Jesus name pray. Amen All Right, we are in Exodus chapter 2 and as I mentioned in the announcements I am preaching on the topic of prayer here today and Notice what it says in Exodus to look at verse number 23 Exodus chapter 2 verse 23 the Bible reads and it came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel side by Reason of the bondage and they cried and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage and God heard their groaning and God Remembered his covenant with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob and God looked upon the children of Israel and God had respect onto them So we're here in Exodus chapter 2 and you know what you find in the Bible is that God's people during this time period were under oppression and They basically spent hundreds of years underneath Egypt and as they grew basically the Pharaoh ended up becoming mad or envious at that So he's trying to oppress them and God's people which were very centrally located at that time Were not able to serve God and I remember reading the Bible many years ago and I just kind of wondered in my head Why would God allow that because you have to realize during that time period God's people were really centralized in one location It pretty much shut down most of soul winning around the world So why would God even allow something like that to happen and I was reading as I was reading my Bible I realized it was simply because they did not pray for deliverance because what you see here is when they cry unto God God hears their groaning and what happens? Well, God ends up delivering them and he sends them Moses to deliver them and that's a pattern you see throughout the book of Judges Over and over again, they basically backslide they get out of God's will once they pray unto God God delivers them and so what I'm preaching on in this sermon is Prayer the world's great time saver Prayer the world's great time saver. Sometimes we have this idea. You don't understand brother Stuckey I'm too busy to pray. My schedule is all over the place. I don't have any time. I'm tired all the time But look when you feel like you do not have any time to pray that you're too busy to pray You're actually too busy not to pray and it's not just a cool sounding cliche I'll actually prove it to you from the Bible that prayer will actually save you time in your life and not cost you time You feel like in the morning. I don't have 15 minutes But in reality if you would spend that 15 minutes, it would actually save you a lot of time Go to Psalm 23 Psalm 23 Psalm chapter 23 Psalm 23 I Mean the book of Exodus it would have saved them hundreds of years That's a lot of time They could have saved if they just prayed on to God and asked for help and asked for deliverance and you know We can read that and it seems very foolish, you know Why would you not just cry out to God and pray and look realize I'm sure there were some safe people that were crying out to God, but as a whole the people of God were not crying out to God where God was actually going to deliver them But you know, we look at that and it seems kind of foolish and yet many times in our lives We have situations we have difficulties We don't spend any time praying to God about it, but we try to figure it out in our own wisdom Is that not true? We try to figure it out in our own wisdom and what we end up doing is Wasting a lot of time that we could have saved if we just prayed on to God Why does prayer help you save a lot of time? Well number one because when you pray you get the directance of God in your life You get the directance of God in your life when you pray Psalm 23 verse 1 the Bible reads The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want he maketh me to lie down in green pastures He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul Notice this he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake now It's kind of a common theme in the book of Psalms It will mention basically various paths basically the paths of God or paths of righteousness and then the paths of the wicked one or the paths of the devil and Basically, you know think of going out for a hike right you go out on a hike Let's say it's a 10 kilometer hike But there's usually a lot of side trails that you can go down if you go down this direction It's a couple kilometers this direction this direction and you know That's the analogy the Bible is trying to give you that you're basically trying to serve God live your life And there's a lot of paths and you got to make decisions. Sometimes you're driving and it's either left or right or crash Right, you got to choose left or you got to choose right? And here's the thing when we try to figure things out in our own wisdom Good luck We're not that smart and one path might seem like the perfect one, but you don't really know right think of a basic example Let's say you get two job offers Well, here's the thing and you're gonna decide on one of them in your own wisdom this one pays more money Better schedule or whatever a better room for advancement. It seems like an obvious choice that you're gonna take but here's the thing We need to pray unto God because we don't know the end of the road We see the first little bit of that path. We don't see a one kilometer down the road or two kilometers down the road We don't know what a day brings forth. I don't know what my life is gonna be like in five years I might be able to figure out the next couple days or whatever But you can't figure out a long way in the future That's why you need God to direct you in the right path go to Psalm 119 Psalm 119 Psalm 119 You say well, how is he gonna do that? Well, basically when you pray unto God God's gonna give you the wisdom where it's very obvious what the right thing is that you need To do things. Maybe you didn't think about you're just thinking about immediately the example I gave with a job offer The first thing you're gonna think about is money, right? Which one's paying more money? But then if you pray unto God you might think of some other things and realize well Maybe that's not the best choice, right? And you know what if you pray unto God he can help direct you in the right path in life And here's the thing if this is 10 kilometers and you waste three kilometers this way It's gonna take you a lot longer going around this way or you're gonna spend three kilometers three kilometers You got 16 kilometers when you add it up, right just as an analogy notice what it says in Psalm 119 verse 105 Psalm 119 verse 105 Thy word is a lamp onto my feet and a light onto my path and it mentions there in Psalm 119 I know it's the longest chapter. So you guys are turning which you know page for Psalm 119 Okay, verse 105 thy word is a lamp onto my feet and a light onto my path So mentions the path again and it mentions, you know light obviously the Bible gives the analogy. God is light, right? But I want to give you an analogy to help you understand this about basically how you can waste time You know if you're like me sometimes maybe it's late at night or early in the morning You know, you don't want to wake up your kids You don't want to wake up your wife, but you're you're trying to find something and you basically, you know You know, it's somewhere in the room but you don't know exactly where and it's kind of too dark to see and Then all of a sudden you spend a couple minutes trying to find it you spend a couple minutes you're wasting all this time and then you're like, all right, and then you basically take out your cell phone and You turn on This and then you find it in a couple seconds, right? Just a basic analogy But you wasted several minutes when you could have just taken a couple extra seconds To turn on a small light and then you would have been able to find it And if you're like me, I do that all the time, right? I try to find it cannot find it And it's like alright, I got my cell phone Let me just turn on this little light and I'll be able to find it and see the thing is in our lives We can waste a lot of time because we're trying to figure things out in our own wisdom And if we would pray unto God the path would just be lightened and it would be very obvious which path to go down Well, this one's dark. I see all the problems here. This one's light and you can see what is the right path to actually take Go to Proverbs 3 Proverbs 3 Proverbs chapter 3 Proverbs 3 And look this is one of those sermons it's it's a very easy sermon to preach But it's not an easy sermon to apply. I'm not sitting here saying that for me I just every morning I wake up and it's just like so easy to spend you know I mean the songs in our hymnal sweet our prayer. I'm thinking our Wow Right. I mean, it's not an easy thing to do and it's not an easy thing to Basically put full confidence in because in our flesh we feel like we're wasting time sometimes now prayers not a waste of time But if we're just honest with ourselves Sometimes we feel like it's a waste of time like does it really make a difference I'm spending all this time My life's so busy. I have so much to do today I don't have time But the reality is the Bible teaches it will actually save you time in the long run if you take a break and get God to direct you Proverbs 3 verse 5 Proverbs 3 verse 5 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 as we said the directance of God He will direct you in the right way to go In your own wisdom, you might choose one thing, but you cannot lean on your own understanding You must realize you are a sinner with limited knowledge. You can make mistakes. You can be wrong, right? Something might seem right but you need to trust in God to actually direct you and if you choose to direct yourself in your life You're gonna make a lot of mistakes. You're gonna have a lot of regrets You're gonna spend a lot of time in this direction and spend a lot of time getting back on the right path To get back in God's will go to Proverbs chapter 4 Proverbs 4 Proverbs 4 Now our general habit ought to be that every single day We're spending time with God in the morning and the way I do my prayer is basically, you know, seven days a week I pray for something different depending on what day it is. For example, one day I would focus on my personal growth myself There's certain things I pray for every single day, but then there basically I have categories for the days one day It's primarily praying for myself another day primarily for my wife another day primarily for my kids and I basically seven different categories So it's not I'm saying the same thing every single day. Now. There are certain things. I think you should pray for every single day But then there are certain things where basically you could pick a day and pray but then other things will come up in life big Decisions and you got to add that to your prayer time and you got to pray about it And you can't just trust in your own wisdom to figure it out If something big comes up in your life a big decision You need to pray to God to actually help you and he can lighten the path and make it various very obvious What is the right choice rather than leaning on your own understanding and trying to figure it out yourself? You 26 the Bible reads Ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established and when the Bible says Ponder the path of thy feet basically ponder means put in a lot of great thought and really think about you know What direction you're headed like which direction are your feet headed? Because here's the thing it might not seem like a big deal which direction you're headed because at the beginning of the path It's not going to be so destructive for your life But if you start heading down the wrong path Let's check on in on you a year from now and your life could be destroyed Ponder the path of thy feet verse 27 turn not to the right hand nor to the left remove thy feet from evil Now go back to verse number 14 in this chapter because it's still in the same context here verse 14 verse 14 Enter not into the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men Avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away For they sleep not except they have done mischief and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence But the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more on to the perfect day So it talks about how the right path is the shining light that shineth more and more Meaning as you start that path, you can't necessarily tell a major difference between these two paths But as you start heading down the right path it shines brighter and brighter as you're getting closer to God Okay, and it says this in verse number 19 the way of the wick the wicked is as darkness They know not at what they stumble if you're in darkness. You don't see everything that's around you might accidentally you know just bump into this or bump into this right because you don't see and See if you're on the wrong path of life, you're gonna make a lot of mistakes. You're gonna be stumbling You're gonna end up wasting a lot of time because you didn't get the directance of God go to Matthew chapter 6 in your Bible Matthew 6 Matthew chapter 6 I'll give me an example for my life about four years ago So four years ago before I lived here in the Philippines We had you know the missions trip and I can't really remember everybody who was there But I know a lot of people were there for that missions trip in April of two I think it was April 2018 if I remember correctly and we had the missions trip in April 2018 And you know what the day before we flew out, you know I was making sure everything was packed and I had everything arranged and that night We had a men's preaching night that I was basically overseeing his pastor men as I think was out of town preaching or whatever And I remember looking for everything and I was missing one very important thing. I was missing my passport and I'm getting everything gathered. I'm like, where's my pack? Because here's the thing with things that are important. I don't just move them around. I know exactly where they are Okay, my passport is always in the same spot and it wasn't there I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. And so I'm looking around frantically, you know getting in a you know Pretty bad mood and everything like where is this? This doesn't make sense and everything I'm looking around and I spent a lot of time trying to figure it out My wife was helping me try to find this and everything like that and I was like, it doesn't really make any sense But I didn't stop to pray to God about it I was just figuring it out because I knew this is where it always is, right and I'm like Why is it not there? And so, you know, I ended up going to the men's preaching night and everything and I'm I'm pretty worried Right because if I don't find that passport the next day, there might not be a BBC Manila. I don't know what happened I probably would have been fired or whatever I don't know right and I'm trying to figure it out and everything and my wife called me when I was there and she Found the passport and it turned out we actually had a relative that had actually visited our house and they had rearranged some stuff And so in many ways they were helpful So I don't want to you know be like too upset especially now four years have gone by but they moved my passport and I was like I knew where my passport was I couldn't find it and I knew for sure it has to be here and you know It should have been except that it had been moved. But here's the thing, you know We prayed about it before I went to the the men's preaching event and everything My wife was able to find it shortly after that But it's like sometimes God is waiting for us to rely on him and then it's like boom Just check this location and I can think of other things that I've lost before and I prayed about it because I couldn't find it After spending a lot of time and then all of a sudden it just popped into my head Oh, I left it over here and then I find it immediately and it's like instead of wasting 20 minutes He could actually pray to God and God can just reveal it to you and I believe sometimes God wants us to rely on him So he'll put us in difficult situations to force us to start relying on him and Sometimes in our lives when everything seems to be going so smoothly We kind of just forget about God and God is wanting us to go back to him because he wants to direct us in the way That we ought to go Matthew chapter 6 Point number one because we get the directance of God in our life when we're praying on to him Point number two because when we're not praying on to God We have a tendency to deviate from God's commandments and will and get in to sin notice what it says in Matthew 6 verse 11 Matthew 6 verse 11 Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors verse 13 and lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen Now here in Matthew chapter 6 this is known as the model prayer and it's basically a template on how to pray It's not something that we just repeat word for word but in this template what it says is lead us not into temptation and See what the model prayer is stating here is that we should pray to God God help me not be in situations where I could be tempted or could screw up or make some sort of mistake and See a lot of people in in 2022 have this attitude that you can basically be in any Situation and just trust in your own strength not to commit a sin But see what the Bible teaches is don't even be in the position to sin Right. It's foolish to put yourself in a position where you've got to trust in your own strength Because if you're strong Ninety-five percent of the time that's not good enough Ninety-nine percent of the time not good enough Because if you're in that situation enough times eventually you're gonna screw up But here's the thing if you never put yourself in that situation You're not going to screw up and see part of the model prayer is hey Praying God lead us not into temptation. I don't trust my own flesh And look if you have this attitude brother Stuckey, you know, you don't trust your own flesh. Aren't you strong enough as a Christian? Hey take heed lest ye fall the Bible says Those that think they stand take heed lest ye fall one day because here's what I know I'm a sinner and I'm capable of any sin that's a natural sin and you see godly people commit those sins in the Bible So what do you do don't put yourself in that situation and see part of the model prayer is God Help me not to be in those situations where I could screw up Go to judges chapter 3 judges 3 judges chapter 3 And Here's the thing when you get involved in sin I mean it misdirects your life and you're gonna take a lot of time fixing the problems that have been caused by your sin and See when you get involved in sin when you deviate from God's commandments What takes place is you get involved in sin and you waste a lot of time fixing something and here's the thing Instead of having to fix something that's broken. How about it just doesn't get broken. I Mean it takes a lot of time to fix a mess But here's the thing if there's no mess to begin with then it doesn't take any time Right, I mean just imagine just spilling food on the ground spill pala book on the ground right on the carpet or something You're gonna spend a lot of time fixing that Right, you know for us, you know We sometimes we've had candles that spill on our carpet at our house and I I'm an expert on how to remove You know wax from carpets because unfortunately I've had to deal with that and there is actually a way to do it But you know what? It takes a lot of time Right, but see better off is not getting into sin and you don't have to waste time fixing the problems that have started because of your sin judges 3 verse 7 judges 3 verse 7 and The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and forgot the Lord their God and served Balaam and the groves So here they're getting involved in in sin in verse 7 verse 8 therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he sold them into the hand of I Don't know Shushan risk of fame, I guess King of Mesopotamia and the children of Israel served Shushan risk of fame eight years So what you're seeing here in verse 7 is they get involved in sin They deviate from God's commandments and how many years do they lose? eight years That's a lot of time The Bible says our lives are roughly three score plus ten or four score seventy to eighty years Eight out of eighty that's ten percent of your life Do you really want ten percent of your life just to be gone? I mean, I would hate to wake up tomorrow and then just eight years of my life is gone Wouldn't that be pretty miserable eight years just gone like that now in in all realization A lot of people just waste their lives. That's really what their lives are like They just do nothing with their life and then they wake up. It's like what did I do? The last 25 years it's like I saw every single movie every single TV show and that's about it every single video game But you know what wasting eight years of your life would be, you know, quite a shame to lose eight years of your life But they lose eight years Simply because they get involved in sin and see if they had prayed to God for help Then they wouldn't have gotten involved in that sin and wasted eight years Verse nine and when the children of Israel notice this Cried on to the Lord So what are they doing crying on to the Lord? They're basically praying on to God and asking for help They waste eight years Get involved in sin and then they finally take a break to cry out to God and what happens the Lord raised up a deliverer To the children of Israel who delivered them even off kneel the son of keen as Caleb's younger brother So what you see in these verses is that prayer saves? Basically, however many extra years they would have lost if they had cried on to God at the beginning Eight years they would have saved and how much more time could have gone by if they didn't pray on to God and ask for help Right. They lost hundreds of years in the book of Exodus at the end of Genesis beginning of Exodus why because they didn't pray on to God verse 10 and The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he judged Israel and went out to war and the Lord delivered Chushan-Risethamem king of Mesopotamia into his hand and his hand prevailed against Chushan-Risethamem And the land had rest 40 years and Othniel the son of keen has died So a godly man dies and then also notice verse 12 and the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord Once again, they're deviating from God's commandments They're getting involved in sin and the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel Because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord and look the Bible does teach that a nation can be in bondage Due to the sin of that nation and that's what we're actually seeing from God's people I mean, these aren't the heathen people. These are God's people in bondage. Why because of their sin They're deviating from God's commandments then it says in verse 13 and He gathered on to him the children of Ammon and Amalek and went and smote Israel and possessed the city of palm trees So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab 18 years 18 years That's basically 25% between 70 to 80 if that's your lifespan 25% of your life could be lost Right. I mean that's a lot of time and they lose 18 years. Why because they get involved in sin Well, what fixes the problem verse 15, but when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord the Lord raised them up with the liver He had the son of Gera a Benjamite a man left-handed and by him the children of Israel sent a present on to Eglon the king So basically sin makes them lose all this time and when they pray to God all of a sudden God gives them a deliverer And look if you get involved in sin in your life you can waste a lot of time trying to fix it yourself or you can actually cry unto God and have true repentance for your Sin and God can deliver you and help you out through that But what we're seeing is because they were not praying they lost a lot of time Eight years 18 years and look this is the entire book of Judges pretty much I'm just giving you a couple of examples. But if you're familiar with your Old Testament and you've read Judges This is the same thing over and over again history repeats itself, doesn't it? They lose eight years. They lose 18 years They lose 20 years over and over and over again. And once they cry out to God God sends them a deliverer Right turn in your Bible To Psalm 90 Psalm 90 Psalm chapter 90 Psalm 90 I Mean because some of you might think well, you know brother Stuckey, I mean 15 to 20 minutes a day You know, my life is busy. That's a lot of time and look over a year. That's a hundred hours Right, if it's 15 minutes a day, you're looking at 90 plus hours if it's 20 minutes a day. It's 120 So like a hundred hours, I mean that's a lot of time to pray But here's the thing. You don't know how much time you would actually lose if you weren't praying on to God You don't really realize how bad you'd screw up your life If you weren't praying on to God and it might feel like a lot of hundred hours a year And that is a lot of time But here's the thing that will actually save you a lot of time in the long run You could actually lose years and years and years of your life because you're not praying unto God That's a lot more than a hundred hours. I mean, it only takes basically four days to get to a hundred hours So it might seem like a lot but imagine losing years and years and years of your life Because you screw up your life because you're not actually allowing God to direct you and help you not to deviate from his commandments and rules Point number one we saw the directance of God prayer will help give you the directance of God point two Prayer will help you not to deviate from God's commandments point three Prayer will help you to discern what is important in life and to discern what is not important in life Psalm 90 verse 9 For all our days are passed away For all our days are passed away in thy wrath We spend our years as a tale that is told When it says we spend our years as a tale that is told What the Bible is saying is that our lives are like a story or a tale think of a fairy tale We live our lives as a tale that is told now. We don't tell our own story, but we basically act out that story We determine what is going to be told about our lives, but we don't actually tell the story about our lives So basically, you know think about somebody dying and then at a funeral people give various words about the person people that are close to Them and everything and here's the thing you have to ask yourself that if you were to die What would you want people to tell about your life? What kind of story would you want people to tell? Right say man that person love money. Is that what you want people to tell about your life? Right Man that person he really loved to get every new every new movie that came out every new video game Is that what you want people to tell about your life? I mean you got to ask yourself What kind of story do you want told about your life? What do you want people to say about your life? What kind of impact you want to have on this world because here's the thing people will tell stories about you Right now I'm sure people tell stories about you while you're alive, too I mean whether it's good like they're praising you or gossip I mean it takes place, but here's the thing You know what for sure when you pass away at your funeral people will tell stories about your life You've got to ask yourself. What do you want people to say about your life? Once you want somebody to say man that person he loved God That person was always in church. Just happy to be in the house of God where that person man. He loved his kids He poured his heart and his care and his love into his kids That man was a family man that loved his family I mean wouldn't you want good things to be said about your life? But here's the thing if if you live a pretty miserable life those things aren't going to be said Think about rich people that have died that just lived all for themselves and all about money What kind of story do you think people told about their lives? It's all about their business transactions and the money they made look. There's nothing wrong with working hard at your secular work I believe we should work hard. I believe it's okay to be successful I believe God can bless us, but let us get a proper balance on everything And here's the thing if your whole life is just money and living for yourself What a miserable way to live your life, and you want the sort of story people are going to tell is not going to be That great of a story Can you imagine if your kids at your funeral could have nothing really that positive and say about you? That'd be pretty depressing. We live our lives as a tale that is told the days of our years are three score years in 10 70 years and if by reason of strength they be four score years yet It is their strength labor and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away, so the Bible says you live basically 70 to 80 years and obviously there's exceptions But generally it's going to be within that time frame or a little bit to one of those sides It'd be rare for someone to live to be a hundred years old It'd be rare for someone to live you know a much shorter life, but in general 70 to 80 years is a decent-sized life right 70 to 80 years the Bible says and Then it says this who knoweth the power of thine anger even according to thy fears so is thy wrath So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom So what this passage is saying is we're going to live our lives as a tale that is told But you know we only have a short amount of time to live that life. It seems like a lot of time Right I mean we feel like we have all the time in the world to accomplish this stuff and yet your life Flashes before your eyes, and I really don't understand how it does this, but time speeds up as you get older is that not true I don't understand it. That's what they tell you when you're a kid, and it turns out They're right you never believe your parents when they tell you that But that's true as you get older your life starts to really speed up, and it's just like things just pass Really quickly I mean I've lived in the Philippines three and a half years. I'm like what? It's really been three and a half years like where did all that time go and yet I mean this church has been around for three and a half years I mean that time went by pretty quickly and time really does fly by so what it says here in this passage Is teach us to number our days? This is someone basically talking to God praying on to God and say God help me realize how short my life really is Because if you don't stop to meditate upon it It just feels like you have all the time in the world to accomplish everything, but see when you pray you discern What is important and you discern? What is not important? You say why is that because you have two natures inside of you if you're saved you've got the new man and the old man And see when you're not praying unto God you're walking in the old man, and what seems important are the things that the flesh wants Which are not necessarily sinful, but it's not the spiritual man But see when you pray unto God it will help discern to you help you understand What is actually important in life, and here's the thing if you waste time on things that are not important You're gonna spend years of your life doing nothing Nothing actually important, but if you pray unto God God will help you discern What is important and what is not important go back to Matthew chapter 6 Matthew 6? Matthew 6 Matthew chapter 6 I mean and the Bible teaches this and I'll show you some verses on this But there's just something about prayer that just really makes you realize What is important in life and when you're not praying unto God you just kind of go about your life And don't think about it, but once you pray it just kind of hits you What's actually important, you know it really helps you discern helps you understand What is important in life, and if you don't do that, then you basically have the wrong mindset Matthew 6 verse 9 Once again we're hearing the model prayer here Matthew 6 verse 9 After this manner therefore pray so basically in this way pray It does not say word for word pray this, but it says in this manner Okay our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name so the start of this sample prayer is basically saying Our father which art in heaven and what that's doing is basically showing reverence to God Basically you're our father. You're up in heaven. We're just I'm just a person here on earth right I'm nothing special basically giving reference to God see in our modern day people say things like the man upstairs I'm sorry, but that's disrespectful to God It's like you look I wouldn't appreciate if my son talked to me just in a disrespectful way being his father And when we talk to God and don't put reverence upon him. It's insulting to him Our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name showing how powerful God is which shows that we're really nothing special We're just a human being that God has in his hand that he can basically end at any moment if he chose to right We're nothing right Then it says this thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven so what it's saying there is basically let your will be done God Not my will and the start of this prayer is about basically God. I want you to be exalted You're powerful. I'm not I want you to be pleased I want you to get what you want not what I want and that is the way that we should pray You know sometimes we pray, and we say things which this is a good thing to say you know God I would love to have this job if it is in your will right Now there's nothing wrong with saying I would like to have this job, but we must realize that wait a minute It's what's more important. Is is it's in God's will Now here's the thing you might think it is you might see nothing wrong with it But see that's why you ought to pray and tell God hey if it's not in your will Then I'm okay with that in my flesh. I want this I think would be great But you know what you know all things God if it's not in your will then basically just let me know that That's once again allowing God to do what direct you right make sure you make the right choices in life And basically it's not about what we want, but it's about what God wants so what you're seeing in the start of this model Prayer is right at the beginning You're basically showing what the will of God to be done and what you're doing is discerning or trying to discern What is important? What's not important? What you're saying is what God wants is important what I want is not that important verse 11 Give us this day our daily bread now in verse 11. This is just praying for a basic necessity Basically give me bread, so I don't starve to death is basically what the prayer is now in our modern day You know we really don't live poor lives and see we have a tendency to judge What's poor or rich based on other people that were around and Basically if you have the smallest house on the street you feel like you're poor or whatever someone has a bigger house But you know to be honest in 2022 nobody here in the Philippines is really living that poor of a life right I mean in This room you know we have a place to stay we have clothes to wear God's providing your food, and here's the thing obviously you know what especially as you look at finances You can get stressed sometimes, but I don't have to go personally on a daily basis saying I hope I'm gonna have food to survive today. I mean God provides my needs Now by all means we ought to be smart with money be wise with money and work hard I'm not saying to be foolish, but what you're seeing in this model prayer. Just give me my basic necessities It doesn't say just give me like a 10-bedroom house Just give me this job where I'm rich right that's not what you're seeing in the model prayer You say why because that shouldn't be what's in your heart? It's not important to be rich. It's important to have your needs provided go to Psalm chapter 8 Psalm 8 Psalm 8 Psalm 8 And let me just give you an example for me What was kind of humbling you know honestly like moving here in many ways things are a little bit different in some ways very humbling Experience you know growing up in the u.s.. There's obviously the u.s. Is a pretty rich country and in the u.s. Growing up our family was basically middle class so basically right in the middle You know we were neither rich or poor by American standards But that's actually pretty rich by world standards And there are certain things that you take for granted that you just kind of assume everybody has and you know everybody where I lived everybody owns computers and TVs and printers and washers and dryers and dishwashers I mean when I was a kid I just kind of took like everybody has that right like it's an actual necessity, and then you know what honestly It's just like no people are just really rich in America And you know for my wife, and I we actually bought a house when we were in Sacramento And you know what I liked our house. It was great for us, but one thing that frustrated me is I felt like it was really small Now here's the thing to be honest as I look back. I think man that house was pretty big Because you know moving here in the Philippines we've been tomorrow We're headed back to Pampanga, but where we're staying you know at one spatial right now. It's just like it's a lot smaller Right then where we live in Pampanga It's a lot smaller than the house that we had in Sacramento But the reason why I felt it was small is because I was comparing myself to other people that I knew that had bigger houses There's nothing wrong with our house. I mean it was a two-bedroom house. We had a kitchen We had a living room, and that's basically four rooms. We had a pretty big backyard I mean it was plenty big, but the problem was I was comparing myself to other people right and see here's what I'm saying you know when we actually pray unto God it can help us be thankful for what we do have and Realize that you know what I don't need to have the biggest house in the world I don't need to have the biggest car. I just need my needs provided Psalm 8 verse 1 oh Lord our Lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth who has set thy glory above the heavens Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings has thou ordained strength because of thine enemies that thou mightest still the enemy in the avenger When I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained and what you're seeing here Obviously the book of Psalms is a song book But this is like a prayer talking to God and this person is talking to God And he's talking about the heavens the work of thy fingers Which is the moon the stars the Sun all the things that God has created the mountains the rivers the lakes Everything you see out there the sky the clouds and you look outside so just imagine this you walk outside and you look at what God has created and When you stop to look at it and think about it what you realize is what is man? That thou art mindful of him Right basically like who am I like why would God care so much about me when you look at what he's creating It's so magnificent It's amazing the things that God has made And I remember I was in the u.s.. And I saw Mount Rushmore they have like those four you know presidents that are sculpted there And I remember looking at the sculptures And this is like a famous thing in the u.s.. At Mount Rushmore the four sculptures And then I remember just looking at the mountains beside the sculptures And I was like the mountains are more impressive to me than the sculptures that may have made Right I mean, it's like I looked at it, and I just wasn't impressed I mean it's a long time ago I saw that but I just remember thinking man the mountains are more beautiful to me than what You know man-made and in reality when we look at what God has made. It's amazing You look at all the animals that exist in the world that are so unique and so Magnificent and so different. I mean it's just amazing the way that God has created the world And it makes you stop and think you know what is man? That thou art mindful of him and see when you pray to God and talk to God and you realize How it would be thy name our Heavenly Father and speak to him in reverence you really start having this idea. You know what is man? I'm nothing significant. What what's happening is you are discerning What is important and what is not important? And if you waste time on things that are not important Then you're losing a lot of time in your life that you could have saved on things that actually matter turn in your Bible to Joshua 10 Joshua 10 Joshua 10 Joshua chapter 10 Joshua chapter 10 Joshua chapter 10 Point number one we saw that prayer will give you the directance of God in your life point to Prayer will help you not to deviate from the commandments of God point three Prayer will help you to discern or understand what is important in life, and what is not important in life And point four prayer can actually delay time Prayer can delay time now I'm gonna give you an example in Joshua 10 of what I'm talking about and I want you to realize I'm not saying it's gonna Work in the same way as it does in Joshua 10 But we're seeing an example of Joshua 10 where there's actually a literal miracle that takes place Where there's extra time in the day, and I'm not saying that if you pray unto God There's gonna be like 26 hours today instead of 24. That's not what I'm saying But the concept is understood from Joshua 10 Joshua 10 verse 12 Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel And he said in the sight of Israel son stand now still upon Gibeon and now moon in the valley of Agelon So Joshua they want to win this battle and he asked for the son to basically stop moving Son stand now still and the son stood still and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies is not this Written in the book of Asher so the son stood still in the midst of heaven and hated not to go down about a whole Day and there was no day like that before it or after it that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man for the Lord fought for Israel so in Joshua chapter 10 we see a literal miracle that takes place Joshua prays that the son is basically gonna stop and basically instead of 24 hours because everything kind of works like clockwork 24 hour days the Sun rise at the same time every day it sets at the same time every day He prays that the day will be Extended and God actually extends the day for them to get done what they need to get done now I'm not saying this is gonna be the same way in your life But if you pray unto God and you have actual important things that you must do and you pray unto God for help I believe he can give you the time to get done what you actually need to get done Go to Malachi chapter 3 and I'll show you exactly what the Bible is talking about Malachi 3 Malachi 3 See in life there are certain things that we must do and then certain things that are not sinful But are not necessary and certain things that are waste of time or sinful complete And so for example, you know some things that you must do Well, you need to read the Bible every day. The Bible says you need to be in church every week You need to pray every day certain things you need to do every day, but not just spiritual In your personal lives. There are things that you need to do every day, right? You need to work to make money You got to pay your bills. You got to take a shower brush your teeth. You got to eat food There are basic necessities that you need to or at least you should be doing every single day, right? There are certain things you need to get done and you want it takes a lot of time to do all of these things You know, you can be very busy doing these things and see, you know, sometimes, you know You feel like you're really busy because you waste time on things that aren't important and you run out of time You need to realize in your life and look it might be something you just consciously know or you might just need to write Down the things that you need to get done. I try to live a very organized life So for me personally on my phone It will tell me this is what I need to do on Monday and I'll have a list in Order of the things I need to get done some things I don't get done on Monday They carry over the next day on Tuesday just basic things. I need to get done on Monday Tuesday Wednesday or whatever I have a basic schedule You should live your lives if you're smart and want to be successful based on routine not based on emotions But on routine that will just tell you this is what I do at this time This is what I do at this time. Obviously, it's hard for it to be perfect Sometimes it can get messed up, but you should have a basic idea what you're trying to get done And so you need to make sure you get those things done because those are necessary things to do Now here's the thing. These are things that God wants you to get done Whether it's spiritual or whether it's you know, your personal maintenance, you know showering brushing your teeth eating food Those are things you need to get done right God wants you to get those things done Now the key is not wasting your time on things that are not important That goes back to that idea of praying that God will help you discern what is important and what's not important So you do the important things first and if you have time for the hobbies or whatever you do those as well if you Would like if you have extra time But here's here's what I'm trying to tell you the Bible says we need to redeem the time because the days are evil You say what does that mean redeeming the time because the days are evil? Well, the evil days are referencing when you get older in life Ecclesiastes 12 talks about you know, basically all these things that take place as you age and get older and Basically instead of waiting where basically, you know, you're a lot older and you run out of time redeem your time work hard Don't waste your time Because as you get older you're not gonna be able to do certain things that you were able to do when you're younger redeem your time Don't waste it. This should start even at a young age People that are in this room you say well, I'm not even 10 years old This sermon doesn't apply to me. You should take heed now. I Wish I had read the Bible once a year when I was a kid. Wouldn't that be great? I Mean, it doesn't seem like much but if you're 10 years old and you read the Bible once through cover to cover when you're 10 Years old and 11 and 12, you know, you're gonna know more than most Baptist pastors in a couple years Right You're gonna know more than most people because most people don't really read the Bibles It's like I wish when I was a kid I had spent more time on things that mattered rather than spending time on video games and things that did not matter Now if by all means we believe kids should be allowed to be kids and have fun and play I'm not saying but what I'm saying is a proper balance Not just basically you waste your first 18 years and boom you are now officially an adult now take life seriously Why not just work hard at a young age and then basically you're gonna be very thankful that you didn't waste all your time right Here's what it says in Malachi 3 verse 10 Malachi 3 verse 10 Now the direct context of Malachi 3 is about money But we can make the same applications with time Malachi 3 verse 10 Bringing all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now herewith sayeth the Lord of hosts 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 the basic principle is that if you give your tithe you give your 10% to God. God will provide your needs Doesn't say you're gonna be the richest person in the world, but he will provide your needs Okay, and he basically says test me give your 10% and I will Basically make sure you're provided for okay the same Applications can be made with time Give your accurate time to God don't waste your time and see here's the idea if God can look if God gives you a bunch Of money and you use it on drugs and alcohol. You know what God's gonna say. I'm not gonna give that person more money Because he's just gonna waste it Just gonna screw up his life. Why would God give more money to someone who's wasting it, right? Why would he give more to one of his children that's just wasting the money It's like man, he's better off not having the money same thing with time God gives you free time and then you use it to get involved in sin and just waste it and just Screw up your life. You think God's gonna be like I need to give that person more time, right? Because what's funny is people often feel like they're really busy, but in reality, they're not really doing much of this But they're doing this and this I don't have any time to read the Bible, but you're on Facebook for five hours today You're On Instagram for like ten hours But you don't have any time. It's like man. It's already four in the afternoon It's like you just wasted your time. It's not that you don't have the time. It's just you waste the time that God gives you Here's the thing if you waste the time that God gives you God might look at you and say I'm not gonna give him any more God God give me more time to get everything done God gives you extra time and then you waste it and Then you pray again God give me more time you're wasting it you have the time, right? You're not actually that busy and see if God can actually trust you with your time God can give you more time to get done what you actually need to get done what he says in verse 11 is this I Will rebuke the devourer for your sakes the idea is think about someone who's farming he has plants he has fruits and The devourer is a reference to someone that would devour or eat up those plants So for example if you have fruits and vegetables sometimes there's animals that will destroy them So for example at our my parents house in Pennsylvania They've got an electric fence around it because if they don't then all the work for those fruits and vegetables are eaten by the deer So it's basically a waste of time Right and the Bible saying that God will rebuke the devourer and rebuking the devourer saying Preventing someone that's going to destroy the plants and fruits and vegetables that I gave you the same thing works with time though See here's the thing what I'm saying is you can be driving and hit every single red light you can be on in Lex and It could be two hours or six hours Right I Drive you know every week from Pampanga to Manila, and you know what most of the time It's not so bad, but then if there's an accident it might be a couple extra hours Right I'm gonna get back really late I leave here at five you know usually I get back roughly a little bit after seven or something like that or around seven But sometimes I've gotten back at nine You say why because there's a traffic accident or whatever and there's a lot of traffic And see when the Bible's saying I rebuke the devourer He's gonna prevent something from destroying the money that he's giving you your ability to make money same thing with time if You're using your time wisely God can allow there not to be problems in your life that take up time Problems take time to fix Right I mean from a financial standpoint if you're driving I mean you're driving behind a truck and then a rock kicks up and hits your windshield And it breaks the windshield cracks it a couple days later. It's completely destroyed right it happened to me I lost windshields in the u.s.. Driving. It was really frustrating you're driving you hear that rock hits your window It's like well. That's gonna cost me $100 or whatever right well the same thing with time though See God can allow that rock not to hit you God can allow the things not to come up that are gonna basically spend your Time okay, but here's the thing are you using your time wisely because if you're not he's probably going to allow things to come up Until we start relying on him Then it says this and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground so the devourer will not destroy the fruits of your ground Neither shall your vine cast or fruit before the time in the field saith the Lord of hosts The idea of the last half of that verse is basically fruit is a Wonderful thing to eat as long as it's you know ripe But not all fruit becomes fully ripe And what the Bible is saying is he will allow not there not to be problems to take place to destroy But he's also going to allow that fruit to become fully ripe so you can basically sell it and make money Right and see the idea is that God can basically cause your time to feel like a lot less because all these problems come up In your life, or you can basically Give you more time if you're using it wisely What I found in my life is that when I am doing right and serving God and living a clean and holy life And I'm really busy in my life. It just feels like I have plenty of time to get stuff done Just the way it works go to Luke 16. We'll look at one last place Luke 16 Luke 16 Luke 16 May as I've said before I'm an early riser I wake up early in the morning But I'll tell you what times when I've been really busy in my life, and and I have a lot to get done I feel like it's so busy, and I'm scrambling to get stuff done. It's 11 o'clock at night I'm finally going to sleep and then all of a sudden It's like when I'm really busy, and I don't feel like I have any time It's like I'll wake up at like 2 30 in the morning, and I'm fully refreshed. I'm like how is that possible? You say why would why would that happen well because if you start your day off with God then God can give you the time Needed to get stuff done There's times. I felt like I've got to get this stuff done for work. I've got like 70 80 hours I need to get done. I mean that makes your life pretty busy And you only have so much time But yet God can help you wake up early and be refreshed as long as he can trust you with that time But if you first wake up and the first thing you're doing is just social media for an hour Then God's like what's the point of me helping them get extra time because they're wasting it right Luke 16 verse 10 Luke 16 verse 10 Luke 16 verse 10 he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much and he that is unjust in the least Is unjust also in much if either if therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon Who will commit to your trust the true riches now this is once again about money But we can make the same applications the idea is if God gives you a little bit, and you waste it He can't trust you with more Same thing with time though right the concept is the same if God cannot trust you to give you a little bit of free time Then why is he gonna give you more time if you're just wasting what he is giving you? Right and see here's the thing if you actually pray on to God and actually work hard and do what you need to do God can actually Delay time symbolically speaking or allow you to get everything done You need to get done the problems that could come up will not come up Why because you need to have that time and you're using it wisely and God will give it to you, right? This is what about so look you might feel like brother Stuckey. You know okay? I get it I know I should pray and here's the thing all of us know we should pray Everybody already knows that but to be honest in my opinion prayer is one of the more difficult things to do in the Christian life It's a pretty hard thing to do it takes faith because we feel like we can figure things out on our own But here's the reality when you wake up in the morning, and you're scrambling around to get stuff done. You're like man I need to get my coffee. I need to get my breakfast I need to get this done before I go off to work. You know what you feel like you're too busy to pray The reality is you're too busy not to pray You would actually help save yourself a lot of time if you would take a break not rely on your own wisdom But trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not onto thine own understanding. Let's close an order prayer dear Heavenly Father Thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your word in this topic and ask you to help us to Apply this to our lives help us to be people that Spend time in prayer including myself and my family and help us to rely on you and and Take the time out every single day to just spend time in prayer and allow you to direct us in our lives in Jesus name We pray Amen On the first ready say Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Amen