(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Hey You You You You You You You You Amen good morning wasabi the hot welcome to very deep Baptist Church Manila Let's start our second service by turning he books to him number 423 Him number 400 units. Let's sing a song joy to the world Oh Oh Oh Oh That's me Far you think Lord for a good car that you have given us for this morning I pray that you invest us Lord as we go to our second service I think that you would help us look to understand preaching of The sermon Lord and I pray that you feel very sucky with your own spirit So that he could be rich with all boldness and clarity Lord, I prayed to help us to be a Blessing Lord and to continue to Holy life in our in our own personal Question even Lord and I pray that you would also bless our soul winning this afternoon. Give us a good fellowship We're asking all these things in his name. We pray amen for our next song. Let's turn to him number 43 Let's sing the song away in a manger You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You Amen for scripture reading please open your Bible is to Psalms to the book of Psalms chapter 149 149 Psalms 149 right to the middle of your Bible Bible and as our custom wheel rooting the entire chapter Psalms 149 Please say man if you're there Amen Psalm 149 verse 1 Praise see the Lord sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation of saints Let Israel rejoice in him that made it that the children of Zion be joyful in their kingdom Let them praise his name the dance Let them sing praise unto him with the timbrel and heart with the Lord take a pleasure in his people He will beautify the meek with salvation Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds Let the high praise of god be in their mouth and the two heads short in their hand to execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people To bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron To execute upon them the judgments written this honor have all his saints. Praise you the Lord Bless the word of god's word. Let's pray Lord god in heaven. Thank you for the state given to us and I swear that you bless our second service For this morning and I prove that your blessed feature and the future of your will go this day. I love you in Jesus name we pray All right, we're here in psalm 149, uh one thing I did forget to mention before you get started in the sermon I do believe we have baptisms here today if you're here to get baptized today, you know, the water's ready We'd love to have you get baptized when I get done with the sermon During the last song men can get changed up here in the comfort room and then ladies back there in the mother baby room If we could also allow the people that are getting baptized to basically have Preference with the rooms first to get changed and everything because obviously we have a lot here to go To do today a lot of activities. We want to try to be as quick as possible But um, anyways just during the last song you can get changed and ready to go so Anyways, uh, we're here in psalm 149 and you know, usually I would preach a christmas sermon And then the week after I picked a sermon about reading the bible But just kind of the way the days align i'm doing both of these things here today And we'll talk about later on during the sermon in your bulletin. You should have This we have a lot of people here. So maybe not everybody has one of these we have more in the back table I can send them to the group chat and things like that. We'll talk about this chart chart But but during this time of year here, you know, of course, we're trying to worship the lord and remember him But things get very busy you have family over you get out of your routines And this is often a time of year where people's bible reading actually goes down You got so many activities and holidays or structures all over the place at the start of the new year It's good to just get back into your personal time with god, right? And if i'm honest i'd say this time of year is tougher for me as well, you know, you're staying up later You're spending time with family. You're eating a bunch of junk foods. You have to sleep longer and everything I mean, it's tough this time of year, right? But then on january 1st, which is going to be on saturday We want to kind of hit the ground running for the start of the new year And we're trying to challenge you to read your entire new testament in the month of january We're going to do that as a church family. So the name of the sermon is holding the word of god in 2022 Holding the word of god now in this chapter psalm 149 I do believe there's a link to the millennial reign of jesus christ because it talks about him being our king. Okay However, there's also symbolism. I want to take from this chapter as well. Notice what it says in verse six Let the high praises of god be in their mouth And a two-edged sword in their hands Now, of course the bible refers to the word of god as being a double-edged sword or two-edged sword The sword of the word of god, right? And so let the word of god be in your hand in 2022 To execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron To execute upon them the judgment written and notice this this honor Have all his saints praise ye the lord oftentimes we look at things that god tells us to do We consider it a burden But it's not It's an honor And let me tell you something in 2022 It is an honor to have the word of god at our fingertips and to be able to read the word of god And yes, god commands us to read his book, but that is not a burden It is an honor that god allows us to do that. All right, go to hebrews four real quickly hebrews four hebrews four And by the way, the bible said this honor have all his saints not just all the men Not just all the women not just all the parents everybody So whether or not you know, you're a parent that's very busy and your kids have a lot of free time It's for all of you. It's for the kids. It's for the adults. It's for men. It's for women everybody This honor have all his saints. It is an honor for us to be able to use god's word in 2022 for the purposes God intended as a safe person. God is a place for you. Notice what it says in hebrews 4 verse 12 For the word of god is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing Even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart The bible refers to the word of god as being sharper than any two-edged sword Right and what the bible describes is that this book has a power to do something that nothing else in this world can do Do something that nothing else in this world can do This book has a way to get on the inside of you It says piercing even dividing asunder of soul and spirit And of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart I mean you'd refer to your thoughts and your tenses intents as synonyms But the bible says the word of god has a way to get to the inside and divide And see the word of god has a way to get on the inside of your heart And it makes you feel uncomfortable And then you've got to make that decision whether or not you're going to listen to what the bible says or just go off What you want, right? This word of god has powerful. It's alive and it's powerful in 2021 and 2022 Go to second samuel 23 second samuel 23 So god told us That this double-edged sword ought to be in our hands now I do believe that literally during the millennial reign of christ a literal sword But symbolically speaking that god's telling us a double-edged sword ought to be in our hands And it says to execute judgment Upon them the judgment written this honor have all of the saints. So what are a few of the things that are in honor to us As christians as saved people in 2022 One of the honors that god has given us to use this word of god for is soul winning Soul winning is not a burden. It is an honor to us that we get to win souls All right second samuel 23 verse 9 And after him was eliezer the son of dodo the ahoy One of the three mighty men with david when they defied the philistines that were there gathered to battle and the men of israel were gone Away, he arose and smote the philistines until his hand was weary And his hand clave onto the sword So basically he's fighting a battle and everything and you have a sword in your hand eventually your hands going to get tired Right, I mean you you might not believe this if you've never done song leading but you know what song leading actually gets tiring on Your arm when you do songs that are just you know, right? Is that not true song leaders your arm can get tired just leading music without anything in your hand Right, imagine having a sword and going out to battle for hours and just wielding that sword and carrying it. It's probably very tiring Right I mean there's exercises for lifting weights where you're just holding weights and then it gets tiring after a little while when you're moving them Just a little bit and see the bible is saying this he was smiting people until his hand got weary And what took place is his hand clave onto the sword? And basically what the bible is saying is that he was using the sword so much It's almost as if his hand got stuck into the sword where he couldn't let it go Right if you hold something for a while It's almost like it starts to form into the object you're holding and then it's like stuck to you Right and symbolically speaking, you know, we ought to be holding this word of god and basically saying, you know I got to keep going So what i'm gonna let this clean on my hand go out there and win souls for the war You say for how long until you get tired? Until you get weary until you get exhausted Right, if we only went soul winning when it was easy and we didn't get tired, you know what you wouldn't go for very long Because you get tired after just a little while right One thing is just physically you're walking around but a large part of it is just mentally it's draining You preach the gospel for 20 minutes and then you preach to another person and i'll be honest with you I've had times you preach the gospel a couple times and someone says they want to listen to the gospel I'm, almost like oh no I'm tired I want to rest kids. I do the one who gets the one who nobody wants to talk to I mean, it's it's tiring sometimes right? Is that not true? It gets tiring preaching the gospel and i'll be honest sometimes inside of your your flesh. You got to fight To basically make sure you do a good and thorough job because on the third and fourth time You kind of want to just be a bit lazy with it because you're tired And it's not right to do i'm just being honest to you that when I go soul winning I get tired I get exhausted Right. I mean it gets tiring after a little bit of time to see our job and That god has given us is to go out and execute judgment. You say well, how do you execute judgment? Well, you explain to people that if you don't believe you're going to spend forever in hell Now that's not my words That's the words of god. Here's the thing. They can either decide to get saved or if not They understand the judgment that's coming to them. Now, of course we do it in love Of course we show that we care about them i'm not saying we become rude and obnoxious out there But what i'm saying is we're literally explaining. This is the judgment that god has given and a lot of people are not aware of this They have no idea what the bible teaches about this, but that is our job. But see here's the thing don't consider it a burden This honor have all his saints Go to second chronicle 17 second chronicle 17 Yeah You say brother stuckey, why do I have to be born in new testament times? I mean, we got to go soul winning. There's so much to do. Well, actually they went so many in the old testament Right, and maybe you need to read your old testament a little bit more Right so you can see that so maybe after january get started on an old testament bible reading challenge, right? Because notice what this says in second chronicle 17 verse 9 And they taught in juda and had the book of the law lord with them and went about throughout all the cities of juda And taught the people Now, what do you think that they're teaching the people? They're teaching them how to get saved and go to heaven You say how do you know this because here's the thing inside of a church setting we have people gather and I teach and I preach a sermon Why would we go to some random door and just explain something random from the bible? Right what they're doing is going and explaining the first thing that people need to hear and that is the message of salvation If someone's not saved, it doesn't matter what they hear or what they know or what they learn It's just like they need to hear the gospel first above anything else And it says, you know what they had the book of the law of the lord with them They held the word of god and they went throughout all the cities of juda and taught the people now turn to matthew 28 matthew 28 matthew chapter 28 matthew 28 Now yes, we understand that you know what soul winning gets tiring and there's times that we don't want to go soul winning We feel like resting But but don't consider it a burden though It's an honor that job is that god has given us a job that we should do Because here's the thing. Let's say that all god wanted from you in your life is to get saved Well, what's the purpose of living after you get saved then? Because before I was saved I remember wondering inside of my own mind like what's the purpose of life? Right, like I was in college. I was majoring in engineering. I was like, okay, i'm gonna get a job, you know, lord willing You know, I have a family one day, but I just felt like I was missing something Right And here's the thing when I got saved what I realized immediately was My job is to try to help other people get saved now. I didn't know what that meant But just inside of my mind it just made sense it's like wow I didn't know about this And I was like, I wonder how many other people don't know about this Right. I've got to find a way to help people know about this now I didn't know what soul winning was. I didn't know bible verses or anything like that I just knew that man I got to do something, right? And see here's the thing if all god wanted from you was to get saved and he didn't care about anything else Then your life is basically vain and meaningless But we do have a purpose here because god left us to reconcile souls to the savior Matthew 28 verse 18 and jesus came and spoken to them saying all power is given on to me in heaven and earth verse 19 Go ye therefore and teach all nations now didn't it say they went and taught the people they taught in juda They they had the word of god with them and they taught everybody and see god's jesus says here. He's like teach all nations It's like your job to teach all nations now, of course We hope people will come to church so we can teach them more than just salvation But the bare minimum is people need to hear about salvation And i'll tell you what There's a lot of people that we get saved and they're never going to come to church They're never going to make changes in their life and you want that's sad that they won't make changes But praise the lord that we're going to see them again in heaven We're meant to go out there and teach the nations teach the people go here for and teach all nations Baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son of the holy ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you and law them with you always even on in the end of the world. Amen And so the bible says we go out there and we teach all nations now. Here's the thing Jesus left them with that commandment. Did they really obey that? Not really Right when you read the book of acts, do they really listen to what jesus said? Not really. They were perfectly comfortable just being in jerusalem and just hey, we got a good church here We got good fellowship. They didn't really go until what happened Well, god said i'm going to send persecution so that way you get scattered And the persecution actually led them to go to other locations It was actually a good thing for them because before that they just kind of wanted to teach locally rather than teaching all nations And see here's the thing. That's the error of the jews in the old testament Even those that were saved they were still very comfortable with what they had but it was their job to bear fruit Right and that is our job in 2021 Now, of course individually none of us can teach all nations Right. I mean we put sermons online. Hopefully people listen to them and things like that But realistically we can't but the the concept is getting churches started and spreading out and doing more for god But being here in this local church, our job is to win souls the lord in the surrounding areas One thing that's great is when we go soul winning now, we start going to areas that are a bit farther out Hop onto a gypney 20 minutes later. Boom. Here's my location because we've hit everything in that area Right that's closer Right. That's a good thing because we're trying to teach as many people as possible and with more soul winners You can always send so many people to these villages before they'll just burn this place down, right? They'll eventually get mad at us, right? We we've knocked these doors a lot and look we're going to keep knocking these doors because it's a good way to try to bring People to church we have people at our church that came from this village that live nearby But we want to try to expand and reach people this is not a burden It is an honor Consider it an honor this honor have all the saints go to second corinthians five second corinthians chapter five second corinthians five Second corinthians chapter five And second corinthians chapter five notice what the bible says in verse 18 second corinthians chapter five verse 18 verse 18 And all things are of god who hath reconciled us to himself by jesus christ And hath given to us The ministry of reconciliation now when he says he's he's given it to us He's referring to save people Not the angels God did not give this ministry to angels Right now you can ask yourself this question if you want to get philosophical. Why is that? Well, it doesn't really matter why it's just a matter of fact that he's given it to us Right, it's given to us. It's our job. God's not coming down from heaven to preach the gospel to these people Sometimes I mention this to people after they get saved i'll ask them that question, you know Do you think most people know this or most are confused and they'll say most are confused and I say well Do you think god's going to come down from heaven and tell your neighbor how to go to heaven or you think it's your job? And they're like, it's my job Right now the reason why I try to do that is try to encourage them Even if they never come to church at least that's in their mind to try to reach people and I don't I don't know how Effective is you know, but it's just like you want to leave them with something because most people who get saved We're probably not going to end up coming to church right But they understand immediately god's not going to come down from heaven And preach the gospel of my neighbors, right? The only ones who might get confused on that are maybe the pentecostals, right? Okay But I mean like, you know, we understand god's not coming down from heaven to preach the gospel to anyone it's our job Right. We have to go and preach the gospel and get people saved. He's given to us the ministry of reconciliation Right. This is the ministry that god has given us right verse 19 To wit that god was in christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses onto them And have committed unto us the word of reconciliation So in verse 19, it talks about the word of reconciliation And what do we use to get people saved? the word of god Right, we use the word of god the word of reconciliation. That is an aspect of soul winning So we hold the word of god as we go out in 2022 2021 2022 and then thereby into the future to win souls to the lord and then it says this in verse 20 Now then we are ambassadors for christ as though god did beseech you by us We pray you in christ said be reconciled to god. Now. It says that we are ambassadors for jesus christ What is an ambassador? Basically a representative of a nation or organization It's it's a very big responsibility. For example, let's say somebody's an ambassador For the philippines. It means that they will go on behalf of the philippines and they represent the entire philippines to make a decision on something Right, you know there's ambassadors in the us ambassadors for the united nations And they'll go out on business meetings with other people from around the world to basically represent that country We are the representatives of jesus christ in 2021 and 2022 That's a big responsibility Look, if you're selected as an ambassador That's not a burden. You should consider it an honor Like what if your boss comes up to you and says, you know what? I think you're doing a great job at this company We've got a very very important meeting. I need you to fly to sabu And it's just like you're going to represent our company on this big account You know, you would consider that an honor that your boss selected you above other people Wouldn't you say that's a blessing not a curse now? Here's the thing. Is that going to be difficult? Yes Is it going to take work? Yes Are you going to get nervous? Probably are you going to get scared? Yes. I mean, are you worried you're going to mess up? Yes, but you know, it's not a burden though. It's not like oh no The boss picked me right now. I mean he picked you because he trusts you And that also might mean you're the next person getting a raise sometime if you do a good job Right if he selects you you would consider that an honor Right. I remember my old job in maryland. My boss came to me and said I want you to fly with me to kansas on This project I was like man, that's awesome Right, you know, he selected me to go with him on this project and and basically he had this account that we were doing and It was an honor Now did it mean extra work there's a lot of extra work, right? But it was an honor It wasn't something that was a burden and then christ god says here in the bible second corinthians five. We are ambassadors for christ Christ obviously Is not with us now Right. He resurrected he was here for a time and he went up to heaven Well, we are now the representatives of jesus christ here on earth right That's not a burden consider that an honor and that's not just an honor to some people no this honor have all his saints Everybody who's saved right now go to deuteronomy chapter six deuteronomy six Now realistically speaking I would say probably most if not all of us if we got dropped into a battle from thousands of years ago with a giant sword In our hand, we probably would not last very long Right because I I assume it's more about being trained on how to use it than just I mean, I don't think you know It doesn't matter. I mean if you're strong or whatever I mean, you're probably going to get killed by somebody who has experience using a sword, right? Well, likewise when you go soul winning if you just have a book in your hand You know the king james bible the word of god in your hand and you go out there and you don't know what you're doing Good luck Probably not getting anybody saved though Right, you're not going to get anybody saved unless you know what you're doing Right, and here's the thing if if you do know how to get people saved then praise the lord for that But if you don't know how to get people saved it actually takes some training to learn how to do that Or how to do it effectively Because you can go out there without knowing what you're doing and you know, you might plant seeds and stuff But actually getting people saved it's it's probably not that likely if you've never done it before Because you got to be able to explain what the bible says Right now the good thing is what we're sharing with people is not that complicated So it is something you can learn You don't have to get uh, you know a doctorate in chemical engineering or anything to learn how to preach the gospel All you have to do is learn how to explain a gift, but to explain salvation to an unsaved person. You got to be clear And honestly, you know, you got to practice it memorize the verses think about how to explain it because honestly you only have a limited amount of time And then if you're not ready, you don't know how to do it You might not be able to do it Right. You got to you got to memorize the verses practice and know what you're doing But you know, this is an honor that god has given to us You need to make sure you're prepared for it. So here's the thing Let's say for example, you don't know how to get somebody saved or you've never gotten somebody saved Or it's something you're not that good at. You know what you need to make sure you know how to do this Memorize the verses on salvation take the word of god very seriously figure out how to do it while you're reading through your new testament In january pay attention to what jesus is saying when he's preaching the gospel pay attention to what paul the apostle's saying Pay attention to the soul-winning conversations to learn some things start going out there getting some practice Start as a silent partner, but learn how in 2022 to hold the word of god and go out and win souls of the lord One thing that's an honor to us is soul winning in 2022 Another thing that's an honor is to show our children or teach our children the word of god deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 6 deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 6 And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine hearts and thou shalt teach them diligently onto thy children And shalt talk of them when thou sitest in thine house And when thou walkest by the way And when thou liest down and when thou risest up and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand and they shall be As frontless between thine eyes and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates God says that it's the job of parents to teach their kids the word of god Now this is not a burden This is actually an honor that god has given to us to be able to hold the word of god and to teach our children I can say that as a father even though my kids are young i'm very excited when i've taught my son Zephth things and he knows them and he learns them Right, and here's the thing if you don't teach your kids they're going to learn from some other source You better hope they've got a good source they're learning from And most of what's out there is not a good source And look you might know something it might seem very obvious But you know It's going to take time for your kids to understand things Right, like when we first started teaching when I started teaching my son when we taught him that santa claus was bad You know My son understood that but then when he saw like christmas, he's like christmas is bad. I was like no no, no christmas is good Santa claus is bad And santa claus is trying to steal christmas from god I mean he figured it out as we explained it But I mean when everything's new there's going to be stuff that it takes them some time We have to actually explain it and sometimes when we understand something and know something We just kind of assume that everybody's going to know it. It's going to be easy, but actually everything we know we want And look it is an honor to be able to teach our kids you say when do you do this? Well, you do it when you're sitting in your house You do it when you're walking by the way You do it when you're lying down and when you're rising up so it sounds like when you're getting ready to go to sleep Use that time to talk to your kids about the word of god if you have a chance You're waking up use that time. I mean, it sounds like the bible is saying at all times be ready to teach your kids the word of god And look they don't know these things And just simply coming to our church. They might hear certain things. But you know what they're going to learn more from mom and dad Than they are for me preaching a sermon if you're actually teaching the word of god Now the great thing about kids at a young age, they believe what their parents say They trust their parents If mom and dad say something they believe it Right. We've told our son stuff and you know, he automatically believes it and you know what? Later on in life. You start always asking why but our son we say something he believes it Right, we say something he'll repeat it. I say god created us or something like that. God created us, right daddy. I was like, right Because they love their parents and they want to be like mom and dad, you know, you teach at a young age They're going to believe it Right, if you don't teach who knows what they're going to end up believing Go to daniel chapter one daniel one daniel one You say what does that really mean though to teach your kids at all the time Well, one thing I mentioned was you're walking by the way. So here's an example Let's say you're walking with your kid to You know, I don't know grocery store 7-eleven or whatever going to the park And then there's somebody who's basically just drugged out of their mind or doing alcohol Hey as you're walking with your kid take time to explain why alcohol is evil Take time to explain why doing drugs is evil right Because that's an opportunity where they see it then explain it to them Right when you're walking by the way, you know You're seeing events that are happening use that opportunity to teach your kids the word of god Don't let those opportunities slip away. That's what the bible is saying and look it's a big responsibility Because that basically means that there's never a time where you get to say Hey, I get to relax and I don't have anything to do now. I mean if you're a parent there's always something to do You always need to be ready to teach your kid according to the bible But you know what your your child's going to believe it and the bible says train up a child in the way He should go when he is old. He will not depart from it But if you do not actively train your child Who knows what they're going to believe when they get older and maybe they still get saved, but it doesn't mean they're going to love god see Most people that get saved don't love god Right. They don't serve god with their lives And look if you're in this room and you're going soul winning and serving god, you know what you are the minority of safe people But our kids are not automatically going to end up serving god and soul winning and loving god Even if they get saved they're in this church. You need to actually take the time to teach them right as I do as well Right with my kids. I need to take the time to do that. I mean, I can't have this attitude Well, i'm the preacher so obviously my kid's gonna love god. I mean have you seen a lot of preachers kids? They don't all love god, do they? Right. I think sometimes the problem is people have this attitude. Well, you know what i'm teaching and preaching and everything I'm already doing my job and then they let their own kids end up not loving god and I hope I don't do that But it's a possibility for any of us to have that attitude. Well, they're at a good church So it's okay. No, we have to actually take the time to teach and train our kids Daniel 1 verse 3 Daniel 1 verse 3 and the king spake onto ashpenaz the master of his eunuch said he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed and of the princess children in whom was no blemish But well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning and knowledge and Understanding science and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace And whom they might teach the learning in the tongue of the caldians Now these are kids that are prepared and you know what I would say that there's a good chance that just naturally these kids are intelligent But at the same time there's no way these kids are prepared for this unless mom and dad actually took time to invest in their kids Right your kids aren't just born automatically and they're just knowledgeable about everything Even if they're naturally gifted or intelligent, they have to actually be trained to actually know that stuff Right here are kids that are at a young age and you know what they understand science They're cunning in knowledge skillful in all wisdom These are kids that have knowledge right verse five and the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine Which he drank so nourishing them three years that the end thereof they might stand before the king Now among these were the children of judah daniel hananiah michel and azeriah under whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names for he gave under the name of Gave unto daniel the name of belteshazzar into hananiah of shadrach into michel of meshach and to azeriah of abednego verse eight But daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat Nor with the wine which he drank therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself Now look when we see verse eight here we understand that daniel is making a free will choice to serve god Right and absolutely our kids have a free will choice, but I want you to understand something There's no way that daniel would purpose in his heart and make a strong stand unless mom and dad had taught him at a young age You've got to serve god and do right Now, yes that child has a free will decision, but let's have a balanced perspective on this Our children are just not automatically going to love god if we don't put in the time as parents Daniel purposes in his heart and that is his free will choice But I promise you mom and dad were training him at a young age to do right and obey god No matter what the consequences are And you're right It worked Daniel is actually prepared in life Right, but it's not like daniel shadrach meshach and abednego are the only four There were others and what many of them were probably saved but they were not willing to take a stand like those four were right Turn your bible to psalm 119 psalm 119 psalm 119 Look if you put in the time as a parent and then your child grows up and then you see your child at the age of 10 or 12 or 14 Going soul winning and serving god and they grow older and they love god And then you know, they have a family one day and they raise their kids and everything. They're in church They're dedicated serving god as a parent That's going to make you feel pretty good It's not a burden Right. I mean, isn't that isn't that kind of our goal as parents the number one thing that our kids just grow up and love God Wouldn't you say that's the number one thing your goal for your kids when they grow up is to love god Right. Look that's not a burden. We're all no i've got to teach my kids the word of god I've got to read them the bible Really? I just want to be on facebook or watch tv, right? That's a blessing It's an honor that we get to teach our kids the word of god It's an honor that god actually left us here with a purpose of something to do One of those purposes is so winning When do we get to stop? Well once we get tired And then keep going Stop once everybody's saved so never stop right How about showing your children or teaching your children the word of god when you get to stop well I mean teach them as much as you can Because eventually they're going to grow up and be adults and make their own decisions You better you better hope you invest the time into it and you know many times you see this and and look I'm, i'm not standing up here saying i'm going to do a perfect job as a parent because my kids are very young What I am saying is i i've seen it when kids grow up in their adults and then basically the parents really regret Not putting in the time and they wish they could basically go back and do things differently, but you know what? Once that time's gone, it's it's done Right. This is the way it is point number one soul winning is an honor point two showing your children or teaching your children The word of god point three and lastly is slaying your flesh slaying your flesh And what I mean by that is basically fighting against sin and doing right that is an honor. It's not a burden psalm 119 verse 9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word with my whole heart Psalm 119 verse 10 with my whole heart. Have I sought thee? Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments Thy word have I hidden mine heart that I might not sin against thee See the bible tells us that if we hide god's word in our heart, it will help us not to sin Look reading the bible and memorizing the bible is going to help you not sin That's what the bible teaches So see by holding the word of god reading the word of god memorizing the word of god It is going to help you slay your flesh in 2022. You say brother stuckey. I know I should do right But it's so difficult It's so hard Right somebody who's so many of the park recently outsold. He's like, you know maraming took soul, you know, so many temptations. I was like It's like yeah, but you know what how we fight against that is say people we read the word of god We memorize the word of god it will help you fight against your flesh It will help give you the strength and power to fight against it because the bible says thy word have I hidden mine heart why? That I might not sin against thee By reading god's word. It's going to help you live a better and cleaner and holier life You say oh, that's such a burden. I don't get to do what everybody else does. Look people are miserable in this world You can pretend like they're happy. They're not they're miserable And they're frustrated because they keep committing the same things do the same wrong things the same sense and they feel guilty about it They can't make any changes about it and they're miserable, but they pretend to be happy You say brother stuckey, you know, how do you know that because they that weep weep in the night? They don't go i'm so sad during the day because they're faking it People that are drunks hate their lives But they that drink drink in the night they that weep weep in the night That's what the bible says right people try to hide their emotions You can't just look at someone they seem so happy on facebook They had that smile on their face in that picture. They look so happy Right. This is this is what they always say this looked like the perfect family ever and then it turned out the husband ended up Like killing the family what in the world? It's it's just a picture That's what they always say when you have trials or like murders that everybody thought they were the perfect family right because Everybody just pretends to be happy Most people 95 percent of people just pretend to be happy and not show their emotions in public. That's the way it works, right? Go to james 4 we'll close up here for sake of time. I want to try to keep my Light promise of a short sermon, right? We're not going to be done by 12 30 apparently but before 12 35. That's the goal now James 4 verse 7 I'm not going to go to the to it for sake of time but you know the story of of the devil trying to tempt jesus christ in matthew 4 you're going to james 4 but He basically quotes the word of god three times, right? He quotes from the book of deuteronomy and if you cross reference, it's those weren't the only three temptations Those are the three that are highlighted though But but here's the thing He quotes the word of god To basically fight against sin now. We know that the son of god was never going to sin Right, we understand that but it's also giving us a template on how we fight against sin and what the bible is saying is hey Hide god's word in your heart If you're tempted to do wrong quote that verse in your head and you know what? It can help you not commit the sin that you were thinking about doing Right. It gives us a template on how to fight against sin. Here's the thing. You cannot quote a verse if you don't know that verse Right the more you read the bible the more you're going to know and look we do these memorization challenges We try to encourage you to memorize the bible and everything like that But you know if you read the bible a lot, there'll be a lot of verses, you know Just because you've heard them preached and you've read it over and over again And you know, you can just kind of quote it by memory Sometimes you might not know where the verse is, but you kind of quote from memory thus saith the lord Right fear god keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man many people know that verse Even though you probably didn't actively try to memorize it just because it's preached a lot You've read it you've heard it and eventually, you know it, right? So by reading the word of god and reading through the new testament in january, it's going to help You know the bible better. It's going to help you fight against sin. It's going to help you slay your flesh, right? James 4 verse 7. We'll close up here. James 4 verse 7 Submit yourselves therefore to god resist the devil and he will flee from you now Doesn't this verse prove to be true when the devil flees from jesus in matthew 4? Because he resists the devil and he flees from you and see the promise to us is that if we resist the devil Eventually, the devil is just going to flee from us. You say why the devil cannot be everywhere at once He can't waste all of his time on you Now i'm not saying he's never going to come back to try to make you do wrong But but what it's saying is basically hey, you know what i've lost lost this battle. I'm going to live to fight another day The devil's wise He doesn't fight battles. He's going to lose Right something we can learn from the devil is we go out soloing if they're not getting saved just move on But it's just like he doesn't stick there and just keep fighting that battle because he's like man This person keeps reading the bible every day. No matter what I try to do to him Why am I wasting my time? It's just logical Right, but the way we fight against our sin and our sinful flesh is by knowing the word of god And reading the word of god and quoting the word of god, which means you got to hold the word of god in 2022 In what ways do we need to do this? Well out soloing you're literally Holding the word of god when you go out soloing and you're going out and it's an honor to all of his saints the bible says Showing your children teaching your children the word of god now. This does not mean that you're always going to literally be holding a bible When you're teaching your children All the more reason to memorize the bible all the more reason to read it Because you need to have that word of god inside of you to show your children right And slaying your flesh. Well, you need to be ready for the temptations that will end up coming meaning you need to read your bible and know the word of god, so Quickly pull out your chart here that we have in our bulletin if you have one if not, we should have extra back there and I underestimated how many people are going to be here today. I think I printed off like 58 or something like that I thought this is going to be plenty right? Well, I guess I was wrong but But Most of you should have one or maybe look off your neighbor we can send you one I'll post it in the group chat. We should have extra back there But basically this has two sides to it Okay. Now it does not have two sides because I wanted a double-edged sword These sides are different. Okay so One of the sides says nine chapters a day in the month of january. So this one's basically pretty simple. You basically read nine chapters Every single day and basically you're going to finish on the 29th day You'll have eight chapters to read if you keep this pace the entire time And then basically you have two days which are known as grace periods and what that means is this Basically, you finished up the reading early But if you get behind by a day, it's okay because you're given two extra days to begin with So basically reading nine chapters a day will get you through the new testament in january. Okay? This is kind of the traditional version I I always did this version And there's a few reasons why I like this i'm a math person. That's really the big reason So when I see 28 chapters, i'm like it has to be four days of seven Because nine chapters you get 27 chapters after three days. It leaves one chapter hanging so Basically, this list does the same thing You have one grace period day instead of two but also because the early chapters in the bible the early books the chapters are super long So this side gives you more of like an equal amount of reading every single day But the advantage of the nine chapters a day is basically you get ahead of schedule if you keep to it so if you get lazy on the 12th or 13th or 14th, well It's easier because you've already basically gotten yourself an advantage by working extra hard Now by all means you say better stuck if I have a list it's going to hold me back You can always read ahead of schedule Okay, I mean if you read nine chapters Hey go for 18 if you can I know that when we do this challenge in sacramento the young kids They finish the reading pretty early because they're like competing against one another It's like one week later. We're all done and it's like us that are adults like man. I'm still in matthew What are you talking about? Right, I mean they have a lot of extra time they get excited and zealous and look that'd be great If the kids get excited and say hey, I want to finish as soon as I can great That'd be awesome, right I would say this that the attitude that a chart is going to hold you back from reading the bible I think is a very foolish statement I use a bible reading chart not just in january. I have a chart that tells me what to read every single day I wake up this morning. It's like well i'm in the book of daniel. That's what my chart says, right? What I found through the years of being saved is when I use a chart I read a lot more And here's the thing when you have a chart by all means you can read ahead in that chart if you want to it Doesn't hold you back from it. What I found is this when people say well, you know I'm only going to you know, read when I feel like it or whatever. I'm not going to have a chart I'm not going to have a plan what I found is they don't really do a whole lot of reading The day just kind of goes by now the advantage of this is you've got a chart You don't have to figure out every day. What am I going to read? But it's like okay read these chapters and cross it off Very simple and at the end of january We'll give you basically bible reading charts to read through it the last 11 months during the year And if you want to take one up, you know By all means right many people in our church have asked me for bible reading charts And I know people that have read the bible like never before because they have a chart And you know what when you have a chart you just kind of read it whether you feel like it or not That is why it's effective and helpful now Here's the thing if you've got a method for reading the bible and it's working for you and you're reading lots You know keep it Right. I want to try to encourage you the best you can some people their idea is this I'll read for a time length each day like 40 minutes and once the clock goes then i'm done Nothing wrong with that. That's a good strategy or they'll say i'll read 10 pages or something like that That's a good strategy. Also, I make bible reading charts where it just tells me every single day And when you have a chart there are some days you get behind and then with a chart it helps you to catch up So you say what's the secret brother stuck you to reading the bible Well, let me give you a couple quick tips here And tip number one is pick a time to read the bible every single day If you're going to read the bible every single day pick a time It shouldn't just be well i'm going to read the bible at some time during the day Look, this doesn't work in any area of life Well, i'm going to go to work at some point during the day, right you start a new business It's going to be successful i'm just going to start working at some time during the day two o'clock in the afternoon. Oh, man Yeah, all right. I'm ready to go right. That's the way it works Right. It's like this in any even if you enjoy something, you know If you're if you're into working out you pick a time and a place to work out Right. I mean otherwise, it's just not going to be effective. That's the way it works. Right pick a time Of when to read the bible And pick a time where there's not many distractions Meaning at the dinner table with your family is probably not the best time to read the bible Right, you're going to get like, you know mashed, you know banana on you or whatever from your kids I mean, it's not going to work out right pick a time pick a location Pick a location to read the bible now Look by all means, you know You can you can during the day go to some other place to also read i'm not saying every single day It's always going to work. You can always have a backup plan if it doesn't work out or whatever but pick a time Pick a location without distractions and when it says without distractions what I mean by that is not around your computer Not around your cell phone Turn off your cell phone Put it on silence Right, whatever you have to do to just spend some time with god because what I found is when people are just like hey I'm gonna read the bible, but they got their cell phone around they got their computer and they got their tv It's like oh, you know this happened today, right? But then they don't actually get much reading done an hour goes by I didn't have any time I only got through one chapter. I don't know what how wait another text Oh, well, that's interesting, right? It's like you're not going to be effective You're effective when you get rid of distractions and look isn't this true with anything if you're studying for a big exam in college What do you do go to a set location without distractions? I got a big exam tomorrow. Let me just turn the music on full blast And the movie on and just boom i'm going to be ready for that exam. That's not what you do Right you go to a place away from distractions in order to be effective And honestly what I like to do is go to basically an uncomfortable place And what I mean by that is I don't think it's the best strategy just basically and if this works for you go for it But just lie in your bed on a pillow with your feet propped up because you're more likely to fall asleep I think the old-fashioned way of sitting in a hard wooden chair Just with the book open with a cup of coffee. That's the way to go in the morning That's what I found to be effective You know, but by all means whatever works for you But basically just try to do this chart and you know We are going to have a prize if you memorize the prize is going to be different than last year We're basically retiring the the the list of names. It's going to be basically like a food prize But basically take up this challenge and you want january 1st start saturday now. This does not mean you're on vacation for five days and then on saturday start reading the bible, but I would encourage you to basically prepare yourself for day one basically decide ahead of time. This is the time i'm going to go for This is the location at an old job. I had what I would do is just basically show up for work early like an hour early Because showing up for work early none of the computers are on and all you do is have like your desk lamp there What else are you going to do? There's nothing around literally, right? So you can try different things, but basically pick a time pick a location Distraction free you say why because you know god has given us many honors in the christian life and they involve the word of god We need to hold this word of god and read this word of god in 2022. Let's close in a word of prayer Dear heavenly father Thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your word on this topic and And help all of us to put aside our distractions in our lives and get back Into just the habit of reading the bible and having a daily walk with you every day god And we just pray this in jesus name. Amen Thank you In number four to five let's sing the song no room in the end Oh No For jesus Is Humiliation no place in the heart Is There is No Seeking his treasure no weeping for sin No doing his pleasure This you should hear at heaven's gate Right here Hey