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Just to promise you there's still room for basically four to four units of variance. But then you're looking for the rest of this class. You're looking for the rest of this class. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. You can join with her. Thank you. Please do. Good morning, Paul Mulis. Welcome, Paul Mulis, Averity Baptist Church. A starting second service. Hymn number 61. Hymn number 61. Hymn number 61. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Hymn number 61 will never say goodbye. Well, how many cows are happy and guys are always fine And absent ones will greet them In the city hallways cryin' We'll never say good-bye in the morning In the morning over yonder We'll never say good-bye in glory We'll never say good-bye up there on the third We greet and bark with dear ones We say hello good-bye And let us find our fellow sheep With mist and cold we try To feel them always near us And follow them with fear But forty days are ended We'll meet them in the end We'll never say good-bye in glory In the morning over yonder We'll never say good-bye in glory We'll never say good-bye up there on the last Oh happy glad homecoming With Jesus in the sky For sometimes he stands for a way Though always here we cry He might give in to help us His spirit draws within But only perfect good will When the heaven men turn rich We'll never say good-bye in glory In the morning over yonder We'll never say good-bye in glory We'll never say good-bye up there Amen Amen Hymn number 281 Hymn number 281 Pass me not O gentle Savior Pass me not O gentle Savior Pass me not O gentle Savior Hear my humble cry While on others thou art calling Do not pass me by Savior Savior, Savior Hear my humble cry While on others thou art calling Do not pass me by order again Let me at a throne of mercy Find us with relief Feeling very thick with where to shine Help my unbelief Everybody Savior, Savior Hear my humble cry While on others thou art calling Do not pass me by order again Trusting only in Thy Spirit Would I seek Thy grace Heal my wounded broken spirit Save me by Thy grace Savior, Savior Hear my humble cry While on others thou art calling Do not pass me by order again Let us bring our moment on board For the life to be Hope not by a purpose I be Hope in Him God be bruised Savior, Savior Hear my humble cry While on others thou art calling Do not pass me by And let's go through four things real quickly. First, let's count up salvations. Did anybody have any salvations to report? Any salvations? One. All right. Three. All right. Anybody else? One. All right. It'd be a lot easier if that big pillar was not in the way. It's hard to see back now that we've got lots of people. But anybody else? All right. Well, great work, everybody. We'll have soul winning here roughly 2.15 p.m. here today. And a couple other things. We're going to have a quick choir practice here today And also on the 19th in two weeks. Next week there is going to be a basketball game. You can ask Brother June for more details. So, you know, bring your basketball shorts and bring the ones that go down. Everyone's going to be wearing like dress pants or something to play now. They're like, oh, man, I've got to make sure. And also there is going to be a soul winning marathon on Wednesday. So I said nearby. Case on Memorial Circle is kind of nearby, right? So it's not too far away. So I think it's going to be a Case on Memorial Circle, right? That's what I heard. So that will be on Wednesday. Obviously our normal Wednesday is soul winning time at 5 p.m. I'm not guaranteeing people are meeting here at 5 p.m. at the building if they're going to be going soul winning. Things might be a bit magalo or whatever. But if you want to go soul winning, you can talk to Brother Ehrman about that. And that will be on Wednesday. And I think that's it for announcements. We'll have Brother Rafi lead us in another song. Hymn number 433. Hymn number 433. Hymn number 433. Hymn number 433. Away in the matron. First song. Away. First song. Ready, sing. Away in the matron. Away in the matron. Away in the matron. Away in the matron. Away in the matron. Amen. For your scripture reading, please open your Bibles to the book of Psalm. Psalm 32. Psalm 32. And as our custom, we will be reading the entire chapter. Psalm 32. Right in the middle of your Bible. Psalm 32. Please say amen if you're there. Amen. Psalm 32, verse 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputed not iniquity. And in his spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones waxed all through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer, Selah. I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord. And thou forgaveth iniquity of my sin, Selah. For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou may'st be found. Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance, Selah. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as a horse or as the mule, which have no understanding whose mouth must be held in with bit and brittle, lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked. But he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall come pass him about. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice. Be righteous and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. Bless the beauty of God's word. Let's pray. Lord God in heaven we thank you, Lord, for the stage you've given to us. Say for the Lord your wisdom and knowledge for this day, and bless the Lord for the preaching of your word, Lord this day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, we're here in Psalm 32. The name of this sermon is Songs of Deliverance. Now, I don't normally do this, but I did want to mention something I forgot to mention during the last sermon. And so, talking about the conscience, so you got basically like a five-minute sermon before the next sermon, okay? I promise we'll be done on a normal time. It's not going to be a super long second sermon. But in regards to the conscience, as I said, something might seem like it's okay to you, but it doesn't mean that it is okay. But the Bible does also teach that if you feel guilty about something, if you believe something is wrong, then you need to hold that standard even if somebody else doesn't hold that standard. And I want to give you an example that's kind of a gray area situation. But for example, you know, I love working out. You know, obviously I talk about it a lot in sermons and stuff. But, you know, I used to go to the gym all the time. In the U.S. you'd call somebody a gym rat if they're there all the time. And I was always at the gym in college and everything like that. But, you know, with a lot of gyms and the gym I used to go to, especially as I started reading the Bible more and everything, I just felt wrong about being in that atmosphere. Not about lifting the weights, but just the way that women were dressed at the gym. I didn't want my eyes to see certain things. I was trying to get rid of all this worldly music I used to listen to. And of course when you're lifting, especially at the gym, they got that, you know, hard pumping music to, you know, you know, that you're listening to as you're, you know, working out, right, that's always at a gym or whatever. And I just felt like it was, I felt guilty when I would go there just because of the atmosphere. And I felt like my, you know, I was being, you know, my heart was being smited when I went because I just felt it was a bad atmosphere. But at the same time, I can't point to a verse in the Bible that would say that would be wrong. And I'm not saying I'm definitely correct on that or I'm just saying that I personally felt guilty about it. So for me it would be wrong. The Bible says that. If you believe something's wrong, you need to hold that standard. But somebody else might not have that same standard. It might be a bit of a gray area situation. And I couldn't just say, thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not go to this specific gym because I don't have a Bible verse or anything like that. It's just kind of the way I felt in the situation. But I also know that I've been at other gyms before where I didn't feel bad at the atmosphere at all because I didn't feel like women were really dressed like that and the music wasn't so, you know, loud or whatever. So somebody might have a stronger standard than me in a certain situation like that and say, Brother Psyche, I'd feel bad about any of them. And somebody might have a weaker stand. Obviously, you know, we need to be long-suffering with people that might have a different standard and stuff like that. But I just want to point out that if your conscience tells you something's wrong, well, then that is something that you should uphold for yourself even if somebody else might not quite see it the exact same way. Okay? That leads to a lot of gray area situations. And honestly, when it comes to gray area situations, I kind of like to let everybody just kind of decide for themselves. It's like, you know the Word of God. You've got to make your decisions. You know, obviously there's a lot of situations that are gray area. You know, raising kids, you know, there's a lot of different situations. Maybe people do things a little bit differently. And I might do things one way and I might feel like this is not the best thing to do. But it doesn't always mean that I can point to a Bible verse that says I'm right and somebody else is wrong and vice versa. So there are those situations, but if your conscience tells you something's wrong, then that's something that you should personally follow. Okay? Now, Psalm 32. That was Sermon number 2. Now on to Sermon number 3 for today. Okay? Songs of deliverance. Songs of deliverance. So this is not the longest Psalm. It's only got, what, 11 or 12 verses here, so it's not going to be too long. But notice what it says here in verse number 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord impudeth not iniquity, and in his spirit there is no guile. Now in these verses, you see something that's very common in the Bible where God will kind of define words. And the way He does this sometimes is He states the exact same thing just in a slightly different way. And what I mean by that is this. It says transgression in verse 1. It says sin in verse 2. It says iniquity in verse 3. And in verse 2, it also says guile. It says iniquity in guile in verse 2, and it says transgression and sin in verse 1. Well, those are synonyms. Right? They're saying basically the same thing. When it says blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, it's basically saying the same thing just in a bit of a different way. And oftentimes, depending on how He words it, there's various images or symbolism that you can see to help it make more sense. But then it says in verse 2, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord impudeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. So if God does not impute iniquity unto you, then that means in your spirit there is going to be no guile. So it's basically restating the same thing. Okay? This is quoted in the New Testament. Go to Romans 4. Romans chapter 4. Romans 4. And so what he's describing in the first two verses of Psalm 32 is basically blessed is the man who's saved. Right? If you're saved, you know what? Consider that a great blessing. Right? Even if everything goes wrong in your life, you know what? At least you're saved. Right? And sometimes, you know what? We can just kind of pass over that in our heads. Because I remember when I first got saved, I was so relieved. I mean, I was so thankful. But then as time goes by, you kind of forget about it. Right? And I've been saved for over 18 years. You kind of forget about it. But honestly, if we would just go back to that time period when life is difficult, it's like praise the Lord that we're saved. No matter what happens in this life, very few people in this world are actually saved. And when you stop to think about hell and how few people are saved, it's a pretty scary thought that 99% of this world or so is going to hell. And you know what? We are in probably one of the more Christian countries in this world in terms of percentage of people saved. And when we go soul winning, what percentage of people we talk to are actually saved before we talk to them? Not a lot. I think all of us, we talk to people and we hope some of the people we talk to are just really confused on stuff. I hope that. Right? I hope they're just brainwashed. They're actually saved. And I really hope that, you know what, my standard was a bit too strict and people could get more confused than I thought. But honestly, the vast majority of people we talk to are not saved. Right? So blessed are you if you're actually saved because that's very few people. It says in Romans 4, verse 6, Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sins. So you see Romans 4 quoting from Psalm 32. Now, Romans 4 is a passage we would often go to on salvation. Right? I mean, Romans is New Testament, isn't it? Am I correct about that? After the death and resurrection of Jesus. Right? So this is in the, I mean, I don't call it dispensation. That's not the word the Bible would use. But it's in the time period we live in, post-resurrection of Jesus Christ. And you know what? It's going back to Psalm 32. And what the Bible's saying is, you know what? The person who is blessed is the one who gets saved, but not by their works. They're imputed with the righteousness of God by putting their faith in Jesus Christ. Okay? But see, here's what's interesting. Many people will say, Well, Brother Stuckey, you know what? You're right. People are saved by grace through faith. But that's just today. I mean, in the past they were saved by works. They'll say, Well, in the past they had to sacrifice all those animals. They had to live a good life. They had to do all these things. Salvation was different back then. Well, if that's the case, then why would the New Testament be quoting from the Old Testament about salvation? It's not quoting about something else. It's quoting about salvation. And what that shows is David understood salvation is by grace through faith, just like we are saved by grace through faith today. Romans 4, verse 1. Romans 4, verse 1. What shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found? Now, help me out. I mean, I don't know the Bible that well. Abraham, Old Testament or New Testament? Old Testament, right? And way, way back in time. I mean, not that much after the flood, right? I mean, Abraham pops up pretty early in Genesis, right? And Abraham pops up, and you know what it says is, What shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found? So what did Abraham teach? What did Abraham preach? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. So the Bible says that if Abraham got to heaven by his works, he would be able to glory, right? And, you know, what the Bible is showing you is this, that Abraham was saved by grace through faith. And verse 2 is interesting because it sounds a lot like Ephesians 2, 9, doesn't it? Right? We're saved by grace, you know, not of works, lest any man should boast, right? Very similar to saying, you know what, that no one's going to be able to glory, right? Nobody can be my yabang in heaven and say, look at me, look at what I did, look at how good I am. So here's the thing. Nobody today can be saved by their works because there's none righteous, no, not one. Believe it or not, there was none righteous, no, not one before the time of Christ 2. I mean, Abraham was a sinner. David was a sinner, right? Everybody's a sinner. I mean, there's only really a couple characters in the Bible where it doesn't even mention them committing a sin. I mean, Daniel never mentions them committing a sin, but, well, there's none righteous, no, not one. He was still a sinner. It just doesn't specifically mention him doing anything wrong, at least that I'm aware of, right? Of course, there's not as much written in the Bible about Daniel either compared to some of the other prophets. So maybe if there was like 50 chapters, then you'd start to see some mistakes he makes or something. But what I'm saying is, nobody gets saved by their works today because we're sinners. Well, nobody was ever able to get saved by their works because we've always been sinners. And we would be able to boast in heaven, whether it was pre or post Jesus Christ, if it was by our works. I mean, what sense would it make to say that people before Christ can be up in heaven and say, Look at how good I am because of my works, but after the time of Christ, you've got to get there by faith. It doesn't make any sense, right? It says in verse 4, Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. And what the Bible says is this, that those that place their faith in Jesus Christ, it's not that you're righteous, but it's counted for righteousness. You're imputed with the righteousness of God. And when you are imputed with the righteousness of God, that doesn't mean that you're going to start doing good automatically either. You're still a sinner. Nothing changes there, right? I mean, the Bible says, If there had been a law given where of right... Man, if there had been a law given where of... I'm misquoting from Galatians, but righteousness should have been by the law. Right? And the Bible says that if there was a way to get to heaven by your works or by what you do, then that's the way it would have been. Okay? Turn to Psalm 32. Psalm 32. Alright. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given which could have given righteousness, verily righteousness should have been by the law. And what the Bible says in Galatians is, if there was a way to get to heaven by our works, that's the method God would choose. But see, here's the thing. What that's saying is, if in the Old Testament they were able to get to heaven by their works, well, we'd be getting to heaven by our works today as well. So, salvation could have never been by works, because if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But there is no law or works that you do that are going to give you righteousness, according to the Bible. But only that Jesus Christ died for you, and you believe on Him. That's what the Bible says. Psalm 32. It's always dangerous when you quote verses that are not in your notes. Because then you're like, man, how does that go again, right? It's somewhere in Galatians, right? Psalm 32, verse 3. He says, When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. You say, what is that talking about? Well, what he's going to basically transition into is talking about basically personal sin and personal iniquity, okay? And he basically starts with these two verses about salvation, and he's saying, hey, blessed are you if you believe on Christ, if you're saved, right? If you put your faith on the Lord, you trust in Him to come and die for your sins, the Bible says blessed are ye. And you know what? It makes sense, because then he's going to start talking about how he's a sinful man, and it's kind of like when we commit sins and do wrong, sometimes it just kind of reminds us, man, we're really blessed that God lets us be saved, because we realize I don't deserve this. You start realizing, man, I really don't deserve to be saved. You're very thankful. So he talks about that in the first two verses. Then in verse 3, he's going to start transitioning, talking about personal sin, and he says, When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. Now, what he's going to start talking about is confessing your sins to God and praying to God, and he's saying, When I kept silence, I didn't pray to God. I didn't confess my sins to God. I didn't get right with God. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. And what the Bible's saying is the bones are actually crying out and yelling out. Now, I believe this is speaking symbolically, but basically what the Bible's saying is that when you confess your sins to God, what will take place is the rest of your body is going to basically cry out to God. Now, I do believe, and we're going to see this here in these verses, that the best thing you can do for your physical health, in my opinion, is live a godly life. You could have the perfect diet. You could work out all the time. The most important thing, though, is that you're right with God. It talks about your bones waxing old, and kind of the indication is that sin will actually aid you. So what do we need to do? Well, when we sin, we need to get right with God. Now, go back to Psalm 31, and we'll cross-reference here. Psalm 31, verse 9. Psalm 31, verse 9. Psalm 31, verse 9. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. Mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing. My strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. So just the chapter 4 talks about your bones are consumed, and he says, My strength faileth because of mine iniquity. So when you're committing sins, you have no spiritual strength. That's what the Bible's saying. Now, in verse number 9 of Psalm 31, what it said is, Mine eye is consumed with grief, which is talking about sadness, and sin is something that will depress you. Now, we're going to come back here in a second, but go to Lamentations 3. Lamentations chapter 3. Lamentations chapter 3. Lamentations chapter 3. And the verses we're about to read, this is actually where we get our song in our hymnal, Great Is Thy Faithfulness, which is a great song. I think all of us would say that's one of the best, right? I don't know. It's not my number one, but I don't think there's anyone who would say, Man, I'm not really a fan of that one. That's a great song, right? Great Is Thy Faithfulness. And it says in Lamentations 3 verse 22, It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness. And the Bible speaks about how God's mercy and His faithfulness towards us, His compassions fail not. It says they are new every morning. There's just something about waking up and it's a brand new day. And it doesn't matter what happened yesterday. It's a brand new start. It's a new day. The sun rises. It's completely brand new from yesterday. Anyway, I do believe that before we go to bed at night, each night we should tell God, I'm sorry for what I did. Forgive me. Help me do better tomorrow. But obviously when you're waking up the next day, you say something similar. God, help me to do better than I did yesterday. Please forgive me for my iniquity and my sins. And you know what? The Bible says that God is merciful. I mean, if we come to God and say we're sorry and we mean it, He will forgive us. Now, for our personal salvation, we don't have to worry about that in terms of going to heaven. That's done when we believe on Jesus Christ. But when you believe on Jesus Christ, you become a child of God. And you know what? If my son does wrong and disobeys me, I expect him to say he's sorry. And if he doesn't, I'm not going to be very happy with him. What's the same thing with God? If you break His rules and don't obey what He says and you don't say you're sorry, well, then God's not going to be merciful to you. But He wants to be merciful to you. He wants to be compassionate. And if you come to God and cleanse yourself and you mean it, you know what? Great is the faithfulness of the Lord, okay? Now turn in your Bible to Psalm 32. Psalm 32. Psalm 32. Psalm 32, verse 4. He says, For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. And when He's saying God's hand was heavy upon Him, what He's saying is that God will judge His people. If we do wrong, God is going to judge us. And what He's saying is, God, Your hand was heavy upon me because I sinned and I screwed up. Now what you notice here in this verse is it says, For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. Right? Past tense. We're not talking about present. He's saying it was heavy upon me because He's speaking about how He got right with God and it was heavy upon Him. But then when you get right with God, great is the mercy of God. Then He says this, My moisture is turned into the drought of summer, selah. So my moisture is, is, is present tense. Right? So God's hand was heavy upon David, but his moisture is turned into the drought of summer. You say, what does that mean? My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. You know, what's that saying? Well, a drought would be a period of no water. And what the Bible's saying is during the summertime, there wouldn't be a lot of rain, not a lot of dew on the ground. Obviously, things like this are dependent upon where you live. Climates are very different. Okay. But what He's saying is this. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. So it went from being wet to being dry. You know, what is He talking about? Well, He's saying when He got right with God, His moisture dried up. Because when you're sinning, you're miserable. You're depressed. You're sad. Right? Now, I don't think this necessarily means that He actually had tears coming out, but it's certainly at least symbolic of that, of being sad and depressed. Right? You can be sad without any tears. Okay? But what He's saying is I was miserable. Your hand was heavy upon me, but my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. What He's saying is when you get right with God, you go from being depressed to no longer depressed. Isn't that true? When you live a sinful life, you're depressed. You're miserable. But when you get right with God, it's like a brand new start. Okay? Go back to Psalm 31. Psalm 31. Let me cross-reference to show this to you. Psalm 31, verse 9. And it said, Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. Mine eye is consumed with grief. Okay? Now, grief is sadness or sorrow. And of course, when you're sad, you know what? You might have tears coming out. Right? I mean, all of us, I'm sure, have cried before in our lives. Right? And it's nothing to be embarrassed about. I mean, Jesus wept in the Bible. I know there's this thing in the modern day, well, if you're a tough guy, you would never cry. But you know what? I've had moments in my life where something was very sad to me, where it brought tears to me. I was very sad. You know, I was depressed. You know, we all cry from time to time. Okay? Now, if this is happening like 25 times a day for like 20 years, well, that's a little bit different. Okay? Crying is a normal thing that takes place, you know, when people are depressed. And He says, Mine eye is consumed with grief. And then He says, You know, Yea, my soul and my belly. We talked about last week how your belly represents the things that you're allowing inside of your body. And basically, you think of a diet where, oh, I want to eat this. I want to eat this. And the Bible's saying that basically, He's got this sin that's coming into Him, and the result is He's miserable. He's sad. And He says in verse 10, For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing. My strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. And He's saying, I'm miserable. I'm depressed. God's hand was heavy upon me, but then I got right with God, and you know what? My strength came back. Now, I do believe that we're mainly primarily talking symbolically when He's using these references. But I don't think this is 100% symbolic because the Bible says a merry heart doeth good like a medicine. Right? I mean, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine. The Bible says someone who's happy, it's like a medicine to them. You say, Brother Stuckey, is that just symbolic? No, I don't think that is symbolic. One way to look at this is living a sinful life will make you depressed. And the Bible talks about many sins that will actually aid you. They'll actually be detrimental to your body. I mean, certain sins are just going to destroy your body. Sin is always destructive. But a merry heart doeth good like a medicine. You know, being in a good mood, that will actually help you. You know, they say this as well when people get sick or have major injuries. It's just like as long as they're in a good mood, it's going to be okay. Right? I know that's what you worry about when you have kids. It's just like if they're in a good mood, then you know what? They're not going to be that sick, and they're going to recover from it if they can stay in a positive mood. Our daughter has actually been, she got a stomach virus. We think she was drinking the shower water or something. And a few days ago, she's like really depressed and everything, but now she's like, well, she's in a good mood again. Right? But it's like being in a good mood actually is like a medicine, the Bible says. Now look, I'm not going on some crazy rabbit trail just saying, you know what? You break your leg, just have a good attitude, and it's going to heal back together. I'm not saying that. Okay? It's like people can sometimes go to too big of extremes to this. Okay? If you get a major wound, you know what? You might need to get stitches. You might need to make sure there's no infection or whatever. But what I am saying is, you know, actually living a godly life, it will be like a medicine to you. Actually be very healthy for you, the Bible says. Psalm 32, verse 4. But the contrary is true. If you live a sinful life, it's going to depress you. It's going to be like the opposite of a medicine. Psalm 32, verse 4. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned in the drought of summer, selah, so indicating that he's no longer depressed and crying and filled with sorrow, but he's gotten right with God. And you say, well, how do you know that, Brother Stuckey? Well, verse 5. I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgaveth the iniquity of my sin, selah. So the prerequisite to going from sadness to being in a good mood was the fact that he acknowledged his sin. He confessed his sin. He didn't hide anything, didn't make excuses. He just said, you know what? I messed up. I'm sorry. Forgive me. Forgive me. And you know what the result was? God forgave the iniquity of David because of the fact he had the right attitude towards him. And that really is the key, right? Having the right attitude, you know? And of course there could be people that do wrong, and then they just, you know, don't really mean it. It's just sort of like a get out of jail free card sort of thing, but obviously God sees our hearts. But what the Bible says is God's mercies are anew every morning. So if we get right with God and we mean it, God will forgive us, okay? Jonah 2. Jonah 2. Jonah 2. Jonah chapter 2. And Jonah 2 is a great example, and you know, in Jonah chapter 2, this is when Jonah is in the whale's belly. Not Pinocchio, but Jonah is in the whale's belly, okay? And it says in Jonah 2 verse 8, They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. And you know, Jonah in Jonah chapter 2, he's inside of a whale's belly, and you know what? He has a moment of clarity in his life. He realizes, you know what? My life is a disaster. My life is messed up. And Jonah has to look at the situation and realize, you know what? I'm the reason why I'm here. I can't say it's because of the situation or the circumstance. I chose to just rebel against God and do wrong. The result is he's inside of a whale's belly. But he makes a statement here where he says, They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. Now ask yourself this question. Was God merciful to Jonah after Jonah chapter 2? He was, right? Jonah chapter 3, God, you know, I mean, he gets right with God and God's merciful, right? So what that shows is that Jonah did get right with God because of the fact, what Jonah said is, if I observe a lying vanity, I make excuses for what I've done, then I'm going to forsake my mercy. And Jonah does get right with God. Now, of course, in Jonah chapter 4, he kind of goes right back into the old Jonah. So he kind of goes back and forth. But he does get right with God in chapter 2. And I believe he means it because of the fact God was merciful. And so that's the only way I would reconcile that verse is that he really did get right. I don't think he was just faking it. I think he really meant it. But obviously, you know, getting right with God is not an easy thing to do. Well, staying right with God is not an easy thing to do either. And especially because whatever sins we have that are besetting sins is the term they use, people are different. And certain sins that you might have might be your besetting sin that you struggle with, right? Like maybe somebody here struggles with drinking alcohol. You know, I'm sure in a room this size, I'm sure there are people that struggle with that from time to time, you would say, well, that's your besetting sin. I don't personally struggle with drinking alcohol. But I have certain things that I do struggle with. And all of us, we might have certain things that we really struggle with. Well, Jonah obviously really struggled with forgiving the Assyrian people for being such wicked people. And you know what? That attitude kind of creeps back in. But he does get right with God. And he makes a great statement here in verse 8 because he says, they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. So what he's saying is, you know what? If you acknowledge your sin, as it says in Psalm 32, God will be merciful to you, right? Great is the faithfulness of the Lord. He's very merciful to us even if we've done wrong, if we acknowledge our sin, confess it, and don't hide it, but just admit that we've done wrong. Go to Psalm 32. Psalm 32. I mean, the Bible says God has punished us less than our iniquities deserve. So, I mean, all of us, you know, we've done wrong, we've, and you know, it's always interesting, we go soul winning, and then people say that they're not that bad of a person. It's like, I'm a good person. Like somebody yesterday told me, it's like, you know, I keep the Ten Commandments. I was like, really? All of them? And it's just like, you know, have you ever lied before? And it's just like, of course this person doesn't know the Ten Commandments, right? And that's usually, it's pretty easy to keep them when you don't know them, right? And it's just like, he didn't know the Ten Commandments, but you know, it's just like, he's like, oh no, I'm pretty good. I keep them. And then it's like, well, I mean, do you lie? Yeah, but only from time to time. It's like, well, then you haven't kept the Ten Commandments. But that kind of goes back to the idea of wanting to justify your own actions. And that's what people want to do. And honestly, even when it comes to an unsafe person, they have to be willing to acknowledge their sin. And sometimes they'll say, yes, there's none righteous, no, not one. They'll agree, yes, we're all sinners. They usually agree. But if you get to Revelation 21a, they don't always agree that liars go to hell after they die. Because now that hits a little bit too close to home, right? It's just like, oh, wait, no, no, no. I mean, I agreed with you on murderers and sorcerers and liars? No, I don't think so. It's like, well, once again, you're putting God on judgment then and saying, well, God's ways are unequal or not fair or not right. But God's ways are always equal and they're always fair. Go back to Psalm 32, verse 6. Psalm 32, verse 6. For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. And there's a couple of things to notice in what I just read that there is a time when God can be found. There is a time when God cannot be found, right? Because He's saying we're going to pray to Him in a time when He may be found. And the indication is that, you know, when we mess up, God's willing to forgive us. But you know what? God's not Santa Claus, right? God's not just, well, no matter what you do, you know, I'll give you something, right? It's just like, that's not the way God is. It's like God has rules that He expects you to obey. And you know what? Oftentimes people treat God like He's Santa Claus or something, where it's just like, well, you know, I'll just, you know, ask for what I want and then God's obligated to give it to me. But does that make any logical sense? I mean, if you have a child and your child does something really wrong. Let's say your child just starts screaming and just like throws something at you. And then 30 seconds later, you know, I want ice cream. You're not getting ice cream. It's like, are you kidding me, right? I mean, it doesn't, I mean, we're children of God when we get saved. So God is going to treat us like, you know, we would treat our children. I mean, He's obviously a loving Father and a perfect Father. But what I'm saying is, you know, we wouldn't do that with our kids. I mean, if they do wrong, we're not just going to listen to everything they say. It's like, no, you need to learn to obey me first. Okay? And the indication is there is a time when God can be found, but there is a time when He can no longer be found. Now, oftentimes we think of this in terms of people that are reprobates before salvation and there's a time when God can no longer be found. But I don't really think that this is referring to reprobates here in verse number six. I think what it's saying is this, that, you know, God is there for us, but, you know, you can't just be like King Saul who didn't really mean it, but basically he got caught and he was guilty and then it's just like, oh, you know, forgive me now. It's like, well, you could have come clean at the beginning, but you tried to hide your sin and God can no longer be found. You've been rejected. But what it also says is, everyone that is godly shall pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. Well, this is also linked with committing sins and acknowledging sins. So the indication is that someone who is godly is someone that can commit sins. Right? Because it talks about getting your sins and getting right with God and, you know, someone that is godly does not mean that they're sinless because none of us are sinless. Right? But what the Bible says is someone who's willing to just get right with God when they actually mess up and actually move on and make the changes. That's what the Bible would define here in verse six. And then it says, surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance, Selah. So the Bible mentions here songs of deliverance. Songs of deliverance. Now, the book of Psalms is a song book. So he's basically singing about songs of deliverance. And you say, well, what exactly does that mean? Well, I believe the Bible's indicating that the songs we sing are songs of deliverance or they should be. Now, there's a couple ways to look at this and I want to just kind of compare a song in our hymnal versus a common Christian rock song, okay? Here's what it says in Sound the Battle Cry. Sound the battle cry. See the foe is nigh. The foe would be the enemy. Raise the standard high for the Lord. Gird your armor on. Stand firm, everyone. Rest your cause upon his holy word. It talks about being delivered from the enemy. Delivered from a foe. Well, that sounds like a song of deliverance. You're singing about basically God, protect us and help us and fight our fight and be on our side and help us in this battle. Sounds like a song of deliverance. Roused in soldiers rally round the banner. Ready, steady, pass the word along. Onward, forward, shadow out of Hosanna, Christ is captain of the mighty throng. Strong to meet the foe, marching on we go while our cause we know must prevail. Shield and banner bright, gleaming in the light, battling for the right we ne'er can fill. Sounds like there's a spiritual fight going on. And look, if you're saved, you are in spiritual warfare. Now, hopefully you realize that. Whether you realize it or not, I mean, you're enlisted for the fight. God expects you to go out to battle. And the truth is, though, that you know what? When you're serving God, there's gonna be enemies. And we need deliverance sometimes from those enemies. We need protection from those enemies and things that would actually fight against us. And in certain times, it might not be an individual person that's fighting against us, but it's the devil using certain things to actually fight against us. I mean, now's a good time to sing songs of deliverance. I mean, these are difficult times in 2021 compared to 2011. I mean, it's a much more difficult world right now than it was 10 years ago. I'd imagine in another 10 years, it's not gonna get better. Right? It's gonna get more difficult. Right? And so songs of deliverance are very important. It says here, O thou God of all, hear us when we call. Help us one and all by thy grace. When the battle's done and the victory's won, may we wear the crown before thy face. You say, Brother Stuckey, when is the battle done? The battle is done once you've passed away and you're in heaven. That is when your battle is over. That is when you're no longer enlisted for war for God. Now, we're gonna have enemies, and this is basically a song of deliverance praying for God's protection, but let's compare it to a common Christian song, Our God is an Awesome God. Who knows this song? Our God is an Awesome God. Okay? Now, here's how Our God is an Awesome God. It says, Our God is an Awesome God. He reigns from heaven above with wisdom, power, and love. Our God is an Awesome God. Our God is an Awesome God. He reigns from heaven above with wisdom, power, and love. Our God is an Awesome God. Wow, really deep lyrics. Right? Just repeating the same thing over and over again. Now, you say, Brother Stuckey, what's wrong with that song? There's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing right about it either. You say, What are you saying, Brother Stuckey? Well, I mean, Our God is an Awesome God. That's true. Our God is an Awesome God. Right? I mean, He reigns from heaven above. Doesn't God reign from heaven above? Well, that's true. Right? With wisdom, power, and love. You say, But what's the problem then? Well, the problem is it's not really saying anything. Here's the problem. There's this giant prayer breakfast between the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Muslims, the Jews, and the Christians, and they could sing this song, Our God is an Awesome God. He reigns. It's like, All right, you know, let's bring up the Buddhists to lead the next song. Our God is an Awesome God. He reigns from, with His orange, you know, like monk suit, and His shaved head, and everything like that. It's all right. Great job. You know, for the next verse. Right? We got through one, but for the next verse, let's bring up the Muslim. Our God is an Awesome. This is the problem with modern day Christianity. Right. It's not very specific at all. Let me give you an example. If I got up here and I screamed, Sin is bad. Does anybody disagree with that statement? No. Do Muslims disagree with that statement? No. Do Hindus disagree with that statement? No. Now, they might define sin differently than we would, but they're not going to disagree with that statement. I mean, sin is still bad in 2021. Wow. That's a really thought-provoking sermon. That's really deep. Way to really step on some toes, Brother Stocky, man. Half the church is going to leave. Sin is still bad. I don't care what anybody says. Sin will still be bad in another 20 years. Right. Well, no one's arguing that. Right. But see, that's the problem with modern day Christianity is because they don't actually say anything. Right. I mean, Joel Osteen, he's very popular. You say, why? He literally doesn't say anything. Now, if you ever listen to him preach, which I'm not recommending, but he doesn't really say anything wrong. I mean, usually what he's saying is correct, but he's not actually saying anything. And see, the point of actually preaching the Word of God is to actually teach people something. And if you don't actually say anything and you're not specific about it, you know what? It's not going to matter. I mean, look, if I preach a sermon on loving God, of course, you know, hey, if I say we ought to love God, it's like, well, that's a true statement. But you've got to actually explain what that means. Not just say, hey, we ought to love God in 2021 and never explain anything. And people walk out saying, that's right, we should love God. But they don't realize they need to start reading their Bibles. They don't realize they need to start keeping God's commandments. Right. So our hymnal here, this is not the Word of God. Right. Obviously, we know that, but this is sort of the standard in our types of churches. Like, this specific hymnal is commonly used because it's a very good hymnal. But it's also not the Word of God. I'm not claiming this is perfect. You know, for example, song number, let's see, 73, I think it is. No, not 73. That's the song. That's a good song. We just sang that song. That's a good song. Okay. 72. That's the song. Okay. We will never sing song number 72 in our church. You say, why? Well, this is how it starts. Jesus may come today. Glad day, glad day. You know, why don't we sing that song? Because Jesus is not coming today. It's just wrong. It's a very heavy pre-trib rapture song, right, which is very clear that it's teaching a pre-trib rapture song. Or we don't sing the song Victory in Jesus, which is a common song. And Victory in Jesus has a great tune. I think everybody loves the melody to it. And we do actually have Victory in Jesus 2.0 here where the words are changed. But, you know, another song we don't sing is, you know, the Lily of the Valley is a song that's, you know, because Jesus is not the Lily of the Valley in the Song of Solomon. And you know what? Most songs we do sing, but there are a handful of songs where, you know, we don't sing them. And then there's certain other songs as we talk about things where sometimes you get to the gray area because sometimes we're trying to figure out, well, what did this person mean when he wrote this? And some of these songs, some of them to me, sometimes sound kind of Calvinistic. And depending on what church you're at, they might have certain songs that, you know, they do sing or don't sing. Some of them are kind of gray area. So when you sing songs of deliverance in your free time, use your brain also. I'm not saying just sing every single word. Jesus may come today, but it's like, no. I mean, use your brain when you're reading this, just like when you're reading the Bible. You need to make sure you're paying attention. But what I'm saying is, it's a good song book. And the songs we sing, they should actually teach doctrine and teach the things we believe. They should be songs that are actually edifying to us. Okay? And look, just because a song has a good tune, that doesn't mean that we're going to sing that song. Victory in Jesus has a great tune. It's got one of the best tunes in our hymnal. I think everybody would agree with that. I mean, that's the reason why it's so popular, but it also very clearly says that Repented of My Sins and won the victory. Now, there are certain other songs where basically, the song has already been edited before it was put in here. We're actually in the original, it mentioned repentance, but then it doesn't in our hymnal. And that goes down to the gray area as well, whether or not you... I mean, I don't think that most of the authors that wrote these songs were actually saved personally. But if they're saying good doctrine, then I think it's okay. You know, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, I think it's a great song, right? But Charles Wesley, I mean, I grew up United Methodists. Him and John Wesley are the ones that founded the United Methodists. You know, more primarily John Wesley, but believed in loss of salvation and things like that. But he's not saying anything wrong in that song that I'm aware of at least, okay? And sometimes it's tough, because sometimes on the songs, I'm not really sure. Sometimes I miss something. Sometimes the song leaders point something out, like, hey, that song, it's kind of gray area there. It's unclear. And sometimes we're scheduled to sing something, and then we don't end up singing it because it's like, oh, there's something that's kind of questionable, right? Now, turn your Bible to Psalm 32, Psalm 32. Psalm 32, verse 8. But the point is just that the songs that we sing should be good doctrinal songs, not just a catchy tune. Obviously, Our God is an Awesome God is a catchy tune because people love it. It's like, I mean, Baby Shark, Our God is an Awesome God, it's like those two are like the catchy songs. It's like, it's the Baby Shark of Christianity. Right there, right? I mean, it's the Baby Shark of Christianity. It's got that catchy beat that everybody loves to repeat and wants to hear it. It's the Baby Shark of Christianity, right? But just because it's got a catchy beat doesn't mean that, you know, we're going to sing it, okay? Psalm 32, verse 8. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. Now, people use verses like this when it talks about guiding with mine eye. And, you know, the Bible is using symbolism here, and I'll explain what it's talking about, but you see these things like, who knows the eye of providence? You know what I'm talking about? You see that giant eye, it's like this satanic, the Illuminati, Masonic, all that sort of conspiracy theory stuff, where it's got like this giant eye that's kind of like looking over everything that's taking place. It's actually a religion in Vietnam, Cao Dai, which has like three or four million people, and it's kind of a quick-growing religion. It's kind of a new one. And in their church, they have this giant eye up above while they're singing songs or doing whatever during their worship service or whatever they call it. But they've got this giant eye that you can see up above. They also have snakes around all of the... Wouldn't that be interesting? Instead of this backdrop, I'm up here preaching, and you see this giant eye, and you're just like, man, I think that eye is staring at me. Like, this is creepy, right? And they've got snakes everywhere and everything. But they'll try to use verses like this, people that want to try to say they're Christian, but then they're into the Illuminati and stuff like that, and say, well, see, I mean, God's going to guide you with His eye, okay? Well, let me explain what that means. The symbolism is this. God, as we talked about during the first sermon, He sees the end of something. Like us, our vision is only so far, right? No matter how... I mean, I'm sure everybody in this room has better eyesight than me. I mean, if I take these glasses off, it's like, I got to... I mean, I see colors, so I can see that, but I got to watch where I'm going, right? I don't have very good vision. But no matter how good your vision is, you can't see one mile in front of you, right? I mean, your vision only goes so far. Twenty-twenty vision only takes you so far. But see, God knows the exact end of everything. And it's not really speaking about a physical distance. It's speaking about in terms of time. Where our eye looks this far down the road, God looks at the next hundred years. So kind of a practical example of this is, let's say you apply for two jobs. Let's say you're looking for a new job, and you apply for two jobs. And you compare these two jobs, and you're not really sure. Maybe this job pays a little bit more money. Well, that's a benefit, right? But maybe this job has a bit better of a work schedule, right? And then you're comparing all these different things, room for advancement, job stability, and you look at it, and you know what? You might make a decision. I think this is the best one. This is the one I'm going to want to go for. But God also sees the end of the matter. Sometimes God might look at something and say, you know what? I'm going to shut down this and actually open up this because, you know what? I can see why you think it's better, but it's actually not going to be better. It's actually going to be better in the long run. And here's the thing. None of us have this vision 20 years down the road. We don't know what's going to take place. I use the example just because from college, this was very specific in West Virginia, that in the United States, petroleum engineering was the best engineering degree to get, at least in terms of money. The one downfall is when you're in your early stages, you have to be on an oil rig sometimes for a couple weeks. You could be away from your family, which is a pretty big negative, obviously a big negative for church. But at least in terms of finances, it seemed like nothing is going to stop petroleum engineering because obviously gasoline is really important. But then you got a bunch of communists in the office in America, and they say, no, we've got to protect the environment. You can no longer drill for oil. Well, that pretty much makes your career kind of plummet into the ground, right? It's just like it used to be very valuable because there's lots of oil, but if they say, well, you can't drill any oil, then it's like, well, what am I going to do now because that's what I have my degree in, right? No one would have foreseen that, though, when I was in college. I mean, that was 20 years ago. You wouldn't have expected that, right? The point is this. Things change. I mean, you just look at the way computers are and technology. You know what the truth is? Some jobs could become obsolete in 5 years or 10 years. I mean, the way technology is moving, there are going to probably be jobs that are obsolete or useless 10 years from now, which right now we don't necessarily see that, but they make some sort of new invention or whatever, and all of a sudden certain jobs just don't really have that much of a purpose now because it's all automated or it's done with robotics or computers or whatever, and so the idea is this, that with our lives, we can only see so far down the road, and we make decisions based on the evidence we have and we should based on what the Bible says, but we also are looking toward the future of, well, what's going to be best for me, right, as long as it's not sinful, but if you're right with God, God can look down at you and say, you know what? You're right with me. You pray to me. You confess your sin to me. You're serving me. You know what? I'm glad that you're serving me, and you have this desire, but you know what? It's not going to be the best, and God shuts that door and leads you down the other path, but see, the problem is, if you're allowing yourself to guide yourself, when you go down the wrong path, you're just going to keep going down the wrong path, and I do believe that God sometimes looks down at us when we're not living a godly life, and he says, you know what? You're not listening to any of my rules anyway. It's just like, I'll just kind of let you go down that road, and sometimes we just have to learn by hitting rock bottom, right? And so the idea is just that, you know what? God is merciful, and he loves us. I mean, it's for our benefit to pray to God. I mean, what a friend we have in Jesus. I mean, we really believe this, right? We believe that God is our friend. He wants to help us out. He wants us to be successful. He wants us to do well in life, and you know what? The truth is, none of us are smart enough to see into the future. We do not know what's going to happen 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now, so we better make sure that God is the one who's actually guiding us. Verse 9, Be not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. And what the Bible is saying here is, you know, that with horses and mules, you'll put the bit in their mouth, and you can turn about their whole body, as the Bible says. The Bible says, don't be like an animal. We're basically, the only way God says, the only way I can get you to listen to me is if I yank you, or throw you inside of a blue whale, or throw you inside of a whale. I don't know if a blue whale, but throw you inside of a whale, Jonah, and then you're going to start listening to me. And he's like, that's the only way you're going to come near unto thee, right? Well, we should just come near unto God every day and just pray to God and say, God, please guide me. Otherwise, you know, God sometimes has to yank us to get ahold of us. And look, I'm preaching these things, but you know what? I'm guilty myself. It's like, I don't spend enough time in prayer. I don't come to God enough. And you know what? When you think of these things, it's like, how foolish was I not to spend more time in prayer when God can help me, prevent me from having all these problems in my life? It's like, maybe I feel like I'm too busy for these 15 minutes, but these 15 minutes in the long run are really going to benefit me as God basically directs my path the right way. But don't be like a horse where God has to basically yank you all the time just to get you to listen. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. What about if you don't trust in the Lord, though? What if you're saved, you've trusted on God for salvation, but every decision you make in life, you're just trusting your own thoughts? Well, good luck, right? You could end up having the same sorrows and the misery of the wicked if you just trust yourself with your life. I mean, isn't it foolish to trust God with our eternal salvation, but then just say, well, I can't trust God, though, with the decisions of my life? I mean, I've got to just make those decisions for myself. I mean, I know God says this, but I mean, it's just not the best thing. I mean, it's foolish. Because to get saved, we've got to put all of our trust on Jesus Christ and take it away from ourselves. But unfortunately, oftentimes as people, we trust in ourselves for our lives. We don't just go to God and ask Him to guide us in the right path. Verse 11, Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. And it kind of goes back to what I said earlier, where basically, you know, be glad in the Lord. It's talked about at the beginning, you're blessed if you're saved. And you know what? No matter how bad life gets, you can still rejoice in the fact that you're saved here today. If you had the worst life on earth, worst life in terms of everything goes wrong for you. You know, you just, your health goes bad, your finances are a mess, and everything in life goes wrong, but then you die and go to heaven. Isn't that better than being the richest, most famous, most powerful person, most respected person in this world, but then you die and go to hell? And so here's the thing. You know what? Let's say 1% of this world is saved. I always say 1%. I personally think it's less. I try to be optimistic, right? Because I just think in my head, and I could be wrong, but I just kind of assume in Muslim countries the percentage is going to be a lot less, and in other countries where, I mean, Christianity is very open here, and it's very small. I figure in Muslim countries and Hindu countries and Buddhist countries the percentage is going to be super low. It's my opinion. I could be wrong. I don't know. But let's say 1% of this world is saved. Well, then you're basically living better than 99% of the world at the very least. I mean, your life is truly blessed just being saved. I mean, you're in the top 1% of this world even if everything goes wrong, and oftentimes we don't look at it like that because we just kind of go about our lives. We just think about all the problems that we have, and look, I do the same thing, but an honest point of reflection is just going back to the fact, you know, man, I'm saved, right? You can enjoy in the fact that you're saved, and no matter what goes wrong around us, because things go wrong around us, and the world is so scared about everything. But when you're saved, I mean, you don't have to have the same perspective as them. You can realize that, you know, even if everything goes wrong, right, even if everything goes wrong, World War III strikes, that doesn't change my salvation. I'm still saved. I mean, we don't know what's going to happen. Let's say that in the next five years, this country goes through all kinds of wars and gets bombed, and it becomes like the most messed up country, the poorest country. Well, that doesn't change the fact that you're saved. And even if life gets very difficult, you're still living a better life. You know, this is honestly something that, you know, we should really think about, especially over the last year and a half that's gone by, because, you know, I know at least in Pampanga, you know, we take our kids to, like I took, you know, my kids to 7-Eleven yesterday. My daughter did not want to leave 7-Eleven. She thinks it's like the greatest thing in the world, because she's not really used to grocery stores, you know, and then there's like SM, Televistaga, and we can take kids and stuff, and they think it's like the greatest thing in the world, right? All these toys and everything like that, and it's just like, you know, they're so thankful. Well, I mean, the last year and a half has been very difficult, especially if you have young children, and even more specifically, I would say for moms, having young children, because there's a lot of things you can't do. You know, we need to go back to the fact and realize, you know what? I'm still very blessed, because I'm saved. And, you know, it's not just the fact that we're saved. I mean, we do live in a country where, even though things are not as easy as they were five years ago, you're freely allowed to read the Bible. This is not Egypt, where God's people were not able to serve God. I mean, even if things are a lot more difficult, we're still able to read the Bible. There's no law against praying to God. There's no law against evangelism. We can preach the gospel to anyone we want. We can preach the gospel to Muslims all the time here. Now, we couldn't do that in Iraq. We couldn't do that in Iran, but we can do that here. Right? So, honestly, there's a lot of things that we should feel like we're really blessed. The fact that we're saved, but also just the fact that, you know what, honestly, we're able to freely serve God. Anyway, no matter what goes wrong in our life, God's still providing our needs, and our lives are not as bad. The key really is, though, taking the focus off the problems and just thinking about the blessings God has actually given us in life. Let's close in with 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 help all of us apply this to our lives, including myself. Help us to be people that are filled full of joy and are happy to serve you. And, you know, that are happy that even if everything works out wrong, you know, we're still able to serve you and we're saved. Help us to be thankful for those things, God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Oh come, first stanza, ready? Sing. For the King of Angels Oh come, let us adore Him Oh come, let us adore Him Oh come, let us adore Him Christ the Lord Sing it. Sing, O King of Angels Sing in exultation Oh, sing, O infant, of heaven above Glory to God Glory in the highest Oh come, let us adore Him Oh come, let us adore Him Oh come, let us adore Him Christ the Lord One last Glory, glory, glory in Thee For this happy morning Oh Jesus, give me all glory Where of the fire now in flesh adhering Oh come, let us adore Him Oh come, let us adore Him Oh come, let us adore Him Christ the Lord Amen. Amen.