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

To take us from the Father's hand, one by one, the day's the moment fleeting, till I reach the Promised Land. Alright, turn your Bible to Psalms chapter 7. Psalms chapter 7, we'll read Psalms 7 and 8 tonight. We'll read Psalms 7 and 8. And in Psalms chapter 7, starting in verse number 1, the Bible reads, O Lord my God, indeed do I put my trust. Save me from all them that persecute me and deliver me, lest they tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces while there is none to deliver. O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there be iniquity in my hands, if I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me, yea, I have delivered him without cause as mine enemy, let the enemy persecute my soul and take it. Yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth and lay mine honor in the dust. Say, O Lord, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies, and wait for me to the judgment that thou hast demanded. So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about, for their sakes therefore return thou on high. The Lord shall judge the people, judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to my integrity that is in me. O, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just, for the righteous God trieth the hearts and brains. My defense is of God, who is saved with the upright in heart. God judgeth the righteous, and his God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will wed his sword, he hath bent his bow and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death, who ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors. Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit and digged it, and has fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealings shall come down upon his pad. I will praise the Lord, according to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. Psalm 8, verse 1. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of, and the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor, that thou mayest send down dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. Let's open it in one prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here in your house this evening, and I ask you right now to help us to put aside all distractions that we have in our hearts and our minds, God. Help us to be attentive to your word and give me boldness and clarity right now to preach your word, God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're here in Psalms chapter 7, and we're just going to kind of go verse by verse and learn some things here tonight. Let's look at verse number 1. Bob reads, O Lord my God, indeed do I put my trust. Save me from all them that persecute me and deliver me, lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces while there is none to deliver. And so this is kind of a common theme throughout the book of Psalms where the psalmist is asking God to deliver him. He says, Save me from all them that persecute me. And see, when you see this come up over and over and over again, what you're always seeing is this is not a possibility, it's a guarantee that it's going to happen. If you're living for God, you will be persecuted. You know, we have not really been persecuted that much as a church for the time being. So far not too much has happened. But look, as a church, as we do more soul winning and our church grows and we have more soul winning events and churches get started, the persecution is going to come. It's going to come to us as a church and it's going to come to us as individuals if we're living godly. And the psalmist here is saying, once again, save me from all them that persecute me and deliver me. Now once again we see that salvation is not always salvation from hell. Oftentimes salvation is referring to physical salvation. Honestly, most of the time in the Bible, salvation is referring to physical salvation. He's saying, save me from all them that persecute me. Why? Because people want to kill them. He says, indeed do I put my trust. We should put our trust in Jesus Christ for our salvation. We should also put our trust in the Lord in our daily lives as well. In all areas. Not just for our salvation but also with our finances, also with our marriages, also with raising kids. We must put our trust in the Lord and that comes through what he says in this book. And so if God tells you to do something, you're trusting what the Bible says. And you do it whether or not you understand it or whether or not you don't understand it. If we're going to put our eternal destiny in the hands of God, shouldn't we put our daily lives in the hands of God? I mean it kind of makes sense that if we're going to trust Him for our eternal destiny, we should trust Him for each and every area of our lives. Now you see at the end of that verse, verse number one, it says, deliver me. In the Bible, deliver sometimes is used in reference to salvation. And so that's why he uses that terminology. He says, indeed do I put my trust. He says, save me. Then he says, deliver me. Sometimes that's what it's referring to. Obviously this is physical deliverance but sometimes it's that terminology. It's synonymous with salvation. Now in verse number two he says, lest he tear my soul like a lion. And so what he's saying is, if you do not save me, God, they will tear my soul like a lion. It's going to happen. You know, one of the best things, and me and brother Chris were just talking about this tonight, but I'd already thought about it in my head, that I remember when I really kind of first came to a realization about this. It was during a protest in Orlando. And I remember just thinking out there that, you know what, if these people could tear our souls limb from limb and not get in trouble for it, they would do it. The only thing that was stopping them was they were afraid they'd get arrested. And you know, obviously that's common knowledge, but sometimes once you're in a situation it kind of forces you to think about stuff. And I remember like just thinking about the story of Genesis 19, and literally I thought the only thing that's stopping these people from being in a Genesis 19 situation is they're afraid they might get in trouble for it. That's the truth. When you're dealing with reprobates and bad people, they want to tear your soul like a lion. They're bad people. They want to harm us. And that's why he's praying for deliverance. He's praying for salvation from these evil people. He's putting his trust in them. Now when it talks about tearing my soul like a lion, it reminds me of 1 Peter 5-8 when the Bible says, As a roaring lion, the devil goeth about, whom he may devour. And so the devil is going about as a roaring lion, and his minions are going about kind of in the same way. He wants to destroy our lives. He wants to get rid of us. And he hates people that love the Lord. Now turn to Proverbs 3. Proverbs 3. One thing you can do sometimes in your free time, when the Bible uses examples tearing your soul like a lion, he's actually trying to give you a visual understanding of what he's talking about. And you could go on YouTube and punch a lion as it kills his prey or something like that. But you know, it's pretty vicious. The lion's basically like a giant cat. We had a pet cat growing up, and honestly, cats are pretty vicious when it comes to other animals. They like to torture them, don't they? I remember just walking on our back porch one time, and our cat had this little mouse, or not mouse, it was a rabbit, and we basically bite it and then just let it go, and then just pack it again, and just kind of throw it into the wall and just play with it. That's the way that cats are. And lions, you know, if you think of the analogy he's given you, people that are reprobates, they hate us, and they want nothing more than to harm us. That's the truth. I saw this video on YouTube one time. It's a fight between a jaguar and an anaconda. An anaconda, giant snake, and then a jaguar. And so they're kind of wondering, who's going to win that battle? Because the anaconda, I think, was 500 pounds, and the jaguar was 300 pounds. I might have got those backwards, but they're both pretty big. And then the jaguar kind of attacks the anaconda, and the anaconda goes into the water. The jaguar just dives into the water after an anaconda. Now, that's not a very smart strategy, because if you get an anaconda on land, you got a good shot, but in the water, when you can't even see, the jaguar just dives down. And then all of a sudden he comes back up, and the anaconda's like half wrapped around his neck, and you're watching it for, it's about like for 20, 30 seconds, you're wondering, is he going to choke out the jaguar? And eventually the jaguar gets free, and that was kind of all the anaconda's energy. So then the jaguar kind of drags it out to the land, and then it starts to kind of hit it, and it slowly kind of dies. And then all of a sudden you just see, as they fade out from the video, all of a sudden there's this other jaguar that was just watching it. And now that they've killed the anaconda, they just go and play. It was just for fun. And it's like, you know, you think of a lion, you know, which is the analogy the Bible gives for a devil. The devil, that's the analogy he gave here in Psalm 7, you know, it's pretty vicious the way they kill their enemies. They really don't have any mercy whatsoever. Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not out of thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. So when it comes to trusting in the Lord, yes, you put your trust in the Lord for your salvation, but we put our trust in the Lord in our daily lives. And see, in verse number 6 he says, In all thy ways, and see, what you see Christians do oftentimes, they'll put their trust in the Lord for certain things, but not for everything. See, most people, they'll hear what the Bible says. They're not necessarily ignorant to what the Bible says, but they just choose not to do it. I mean, you think of something that honestly is pretty plain as day in the Bible, and that is God's ideal plan is for the husband to go out and work, and the wife to stay home and raise the kids. Now, I don't think any of us could really deny that that is God's ideal plan, perfect situation. I'm not saying it's possible for everyone, but that is God's ideal plan. And yet, most people that are married, both the husband and the wife work. Say why? Because they're not putting their trust in the Lord in all their ways. They're only doing it in some ways. Now, look, we have to be responsible and put ourselves in good situations to be able to do that, and quite honestly, I'm preaching a sermon here in a few weeks on preparing for marriage that I think would be helpful, and I'll talk about things like that. But the truth is that most Christians will trust in the Lord in some areas, but not in all areas. See, God says that we should trust Him in all thy ways, and what will happen, He shall direct thy paths. He will direct us, but we need to go the way that He wants us to go. So we're not just talking about the way of salvation, but also just in our daily lives. Every single direction we go, every single way, we trust in the Lord, even if it doesn't seem right to us, even if it makes us nervous, even if we're scared about it, we say, I don't know if I can do this, Lord. We trust in the Lord and follow the direction that He has. We shall direct thy paths if we follow the way He tells us to. I mean, you walk into a bar this direction. Look, He's not following you. It's not going to help you out. You go the way that He tells you to go to and He is going to direct you. Now, turn back to Psalm 7. And so in Psalm 7, here starting in verse number 3, there's kind of a challenge given to God. He says in verse number 3, Oh, Lord, my God, if I had done this, if there would be iniquity in my hands. And so what the psalmist is going to be saying is this. Look, I want you to deliver me. I want you to save me. But he's saying, you know what? If I'm in some sort of sin where I deserve this, then let me be destroyed. And he's saying, you know, look, basically, there's no iniquity in my hands. I'm trying to live for the Lord. I'm trying to do what's right. Verse number 4, If I ever rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me, yeah, it delivered him that without cause is mine enemy. So in verse number 4, he talks about if he would have a personal enemy because he chose to be rude to that person. He chose to reward evil to someone who was kind to him. And look, he's saying basically, you reap what you sow. If I have done this to somebody else, then allow them to do it to me back. Allow them to tear my soul apart. If I've done this. Verse number 5, Let the enemy persecute my soul and take it. Yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth and lay mine honor in the dust. Selah. And so basically, he's saying, if I've done something wrong, then just allow me to be destroyed. But what he's saying is, you know what? I haven't done anything wrong. I know that I'm living for God. I know I'm doing what's right. Now every single one of us, we could look at our lives and every single day we do something. We're not perfect. We're not perfect. We sin every single day. But you can still be living the sort of life where you can say, Hey Lord, I pray every day. I read the Bible every day. I'm not involved in some wicked sin. I go to church. I go soul winning. God, please deliver me. Because of the fact, I'm obeying you. But if you're living a wicked life, then you honestly have no right to beg for mercy. And look, I saw the picture on Facebook this week and it was kind of sad. It's kind of funny, but it's true. On Easter, all these Catholics are out celebrating. They're celebrating getting drunk for their holidays. And then all of a sudden the earthquake hits. And it's like, Oh, please God. Please deliver me. It's like, well, if you're living an unrighteous life, why does God need to deliver you? Now look, there's people here in the Philippines. There's people in Pampanga that are living righteous lives. And I pray that God will protect them. But if somebody's living a wicked life and then all of a sudden they say, God, please protect me. Why would God have any reason to protect you? Here, the psalmist is able to say, I don't have any iniquity in my hands. It's like, look, I didn't nail myself to a cross a couple days ago and get drunk before I did it. He's like, I haven't done that. I haven't committed some wicked sin. So God, please deliver me. But look, if you're not living a godly life, then you can't really stop and say God. Because look, if you live a wicked life and then you put yourself in a situation where you're going to reap with yourself, you can't just beg God for mercy the last second and expect him to come through for you. But if you're living a godly life, you can't expect God to come through for you if you're living a godly life. That's what we're seeing here in Psalms chapter seven. It's kind of interesting here where he talks about if I've done this sin, if I've done this, allow this to happen to me. It kind of reminds me of, there's this pro baseball player and I don't remember specifically which one it was. The name dropped and I'm pretty sure I know the person but I want to falsely accuse someone. But it was one of the big baseball players during the steroids era. I don't know if you guys follow baseball at all. But during the steroids era, they were hitting all these home runs because all these guys were just injecting themselves with drugs and all of a sudden their muscles were getting huge. And they're launching every ball and everything. And so there's a big steroid scandal in baseball because drugs are illegal to take, performance enhancing drugs. And so then this one reporter basically was talking to one of these guys that was suspected of being on steroids because you don't gain 30 pounds of muscle in a year. If you've regularly been working out for years and all of a sudden you gain 30 pounds of pure muscle, it's not normal. And so all of a sudden he was talking to this guy and he was talking about, do you think that we should have steroid testing? And he's like, yes, absolutely. We should have steroid testing. And he said, would you be willing to get tested for whether or not you've taken steroids? He's like, oh, absolutely. I'd be the first person in line. And then he said, hey, that's great because I actually brought a steroid test with me. So why don't you get tested right now? And then he got really angry at the reporter and everything like that. It basically showed that he was guilty. But see, David here, he's not just making this up saying, hey, I'm living a clean life. Test me, prove me. He actually was living a clean life. He actually was doing what was right. Verse number six, Arise, O Lord, in thine anger. Lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies, and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded. So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about for their sakes, therefore return thou on high. The Lord shall judge the people. Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to mine integrity, that is in me. And so David is basically lumping himself in with these other wicked people and he's saying, hey, judge me and judge them. And he wants the Lord to lift himself up because of the rage of my enemies. And he's saying, people are living wicked lives. You should step in and judge. He's perfectly willing to be judged. Now, one thing we need to understand is this, that sometimes when judgment comes forth, it will come forth upon believers and unbelievers in a situation. Even if God's not specifically judging the believers, sometimes you happen to reap consequences that they commit. What's a great example of that? Well, how about in 1991 during Mount Pinatubo? The judgment came out, and guess what? I'm sure there were saved people that did some semblance of soul winning back then that weren't bad people living there. But guess what? They still had the same consequences as the other people in Phnom Penh. They were still out of their homes for six months and everything that happened. Look, sometimes you get caught up in it. And look, if our country is being judged, which is a possibility, and I'll talk about this a lot on Sunday, the truth is we might reap consequences even though it's not our fault. Even though we've done nothing. In fact, we're the ones giving out the warning. And quite honestly, because we give out the warning and people reject it, then the judgment comes. I mean, it's throughout the Old Testament. That's what always happens, isn't it? The prophets stand up. They preach against the wickedness. People reject it, and guess what? It doesn't benefit the prophets. They don't live great lives as a result. Hey, if we're a church that's standing up and preaching the truth, guess what? It's not going to help us out. If judgment comes upon this country and earthquakes, volcanoes, whatever, tsunamis, it doesn't help us out at all. In fact, it's going to harm our personal lives. But the truth is we're here to do what God tells us. To preach the truth, to go soul winning, and if judgment comes forth upon this country for being the most idolatrous country in the world, then you know what? We might get caught up in something. It's just the way it is. And David's here, and what we have to understand is this, that when God's judgment comes forth, sometimes as a believer, you happen to live in the area where God's judgment comes forth. That's the truth of the matter. Verse 9, O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just, for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reigns. My defenses of God are safe at the upright heart. God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. So there's two things there, and one of them is that God judges the righteous. God judges those that are saved people but are not living godly lives. That's what he's saying with righteous. He's saying save people. Save people that are choosing to live ungodly lives, God will judge them. That's the truth. And look, here's the thing. Quite honestly, when you're a saved person and you know what the Bible says, God will hold you accountable if you choose not to do this. And look, the truth is, there's plenty of Baptists here in the Philippines that are just like, I know my pastor's a false prophet, but I've just been there for ten years, I'm just going to stay there. Well, you go ahead and do that. You listen to hundreds of sermons online that tell you to depart from wickedness, where you know what the Bible says and you still choose to go to those churches where your pastor's not even saved. Well, go ahead and do that. But what you'd be better off doing is quit listening to any preaching if you're not going to actually do what the Bible says. I don't understand people that will listen to lots of preaching online and not apply it to their lives. Because if you know what the truth is, you're accountable for it. If you don't know the truth, then God might be merciful to you. Look, if you commit some sin and you aren't aware that God is really angry about that, you don't really realize how wrong it is, you've never heard it preached, God will be more merciful to you. But when you've listened to hundreds of sermons and you know what the truth is and you know repentance of sins is a heresy and the people that are preaching that are probably reprobates and you still go to those churches, you go to a church that doesn't go soul winning, that clearly their candlestick has been removed, and you save those churches that don't go soul winning, look, God holds you accountable. You know what the Bible says and you don't have the guts to leave that place. You're going to be held accountable. And look, when you look at natural disasters and things that happen, quite honestly, you know one group of people that God is judging here in the Philippines potentially are the Baptists. Because the Baptists in this country are a joke. They don't preach anything. They don't preach anything whatsoever. And look, where I come from in the United States, there's decent churches out there. Within an hour and a half, it doesn't matter where you live, you can find a decent church. You can't find that necessarily here. But you know, in these Baptist churches, there's pretty much saved people in every one of those churches. And a lot of those people, they know what the truth is, but they still choose to go there. I don't understand that. And the truth is, they're going to be held accountable for this. Because they know what the truth is and they don't have the guts to change. Look, God is going to judge the righteous. That's what the Bible says. One thing you see throughout the Bible, now turn to Psalms 50. Psalms 50. I mean, there's going to be people in one week from today that they know we're going to so many marathons and kavitae. And they know they should go to it, but instead they're going to be going to the Baptist Day celebration and kavitae. That's the truth. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with going to a church service, you know, but I'm presuming the people preaching there aren't going to be saved. I mean, it's pretty rare the Baptist invites a saved preacher to preach the sermons. So I'm pretty sure that the people that are there, you know, are, and they're going to be sitting around singing hymns, doing whatever, I'm sure there's going to be people that feel guilty about going there, but they go there, why? To be seen in men because they're worried about what other people think of them when in reality, they want to go to the soul of America. We have that soul-winning marathon there at that time for a particular reason. The hope is that people will choose to come and be a part of the soul of America. If it's just our church and a few other people that listen to sermons online that are good people, then that's fine. We're going to get a lot of people saved. We're going to have a great time at fellowship. I can't blame you. It's going to be fun. It's going to be exciting. No matter how many people get saved, we're going to have a great time. But the truth is that, you know what, there's a lot of people in that area that should just decide, hey, I'm going to join you. They know that's what's right, and they probably choose not to. God will judge the righteous, and in our lives, if we choose to live wicked lives, we must realize we're going to reap your consequences. A lot of verses in the Bible, people get confused about where they think it sounds like you can lose your salvation like in the book of Hebrews and stuff like that. It really just comes down to God is sending a very strong warning that He will judge you as a saved person if you live a wicked life. People get this idea that if you're saved, nothing's going to happen to you. Yet, your sins are forgiven in terms of the fact your soul is clean and you're on your way to heaven no matter what. But here's the thing. Your soul is clean forever. Your body's not clean forever. And if you choose to live a wicked life, God will judge your flesh in this life. Now, yes, your soul is still clean. You'll go to heaven, but He's going to judge your flesh for choosing to commit sins. And so in Psalms 50, verse 4, the Bible reads, He shall call to the heavens from above and to the earth that He may judge His people. Turn to Psalms 135. Psalms 135. So He's going to judge His people. He's not just going to judge unbelievers. He'll judge His people as well. Psalms 135, verse 14. For the Lord will judge His people, and He will repent Himself concerning His servants. So once again, He's going to judge His people. Look, as believers, if we choose to live a wicked life, God is going to judge us. Turn to Psalm 7. Say, why does God have to keep judging the righteous people? You know, all these laws that we have to follow, it's so hard to obey. And all these wicked people, they don't have to follow them. They don't have to obey. Well, look, you know, wicked people can seem to get away with things in this life, but they won't pay for each other and every one of their sins in hell if they don't pay for it in this life. They're not getting away with anything. It says in verse 11 of Psalm 7, God is angry with the wicked every day. Not some days. Not most days. Not when they commit a bad sin. No, no. He's angry with them every single day. You say, well, why doesn't He just judge them right now and just send them all down to hell? Well, you know, you can ask God when you go to heaven. I can't say that I understand every single thing in the Bible. Sometimes God allows them to exist so He can test us. There's various reasons why He might allow them to exist, but He's angry with them every day. You say, what does God think about all these politicians in our country? He's angry with them every day because most of them are probably reprobates. He's angry with the politicians every single day. What does He think about the LGBT movement? Because it looks like God's really blessing the LGBT movement. I mean, they're just skyrocketing in our country. Tons of guys just walking around in dresses and everything like that. Looks like God approved of it. No, He's angry with them every single day. Even though He doesn't just drop them all down to hell immediately, He's angry with them every single day. And for each and every sin they commit here on earth, they're going to pay for it even more now. He's angry with them every single day. Now turn to Psalm 73. Psalm 73. Let me give you a logical reason why God does not always lay down the hammer on unbelievers or reprobates in this life. Let's say, for example, that, you know, at this Sowany Marathon next Wednesday in Kamite, let's say, for example, that my son is just acting all out of control and he's acting bad, disobeying me. What am I going to do as a parent? I'm going to spank him, right? He's my son. Let's say, for example, that, you know, Brother Emmon's kids are acting like my son. Am I going to take his kids and spank them? No. They're not my kids. I'll spank my son if he acts up. I'm not going to spank somebody else's kids. Now look, us as believers, as children of God, God will chasten us because he wants us to get better. Look, I spank my son just about everything. I don't hate him. I love my son. But I don't want my son to grow up and be a whiny little kid. I want my son to be disciplined and love the Word of God. I want him to learn to respect me because it's going to help him respect his heavenly Father. So yeah, you know what? I spank my son. I discipline my son because I love my son. And look, God disciplines us. Why? He loves us. He wants what's best for us. And when we live a life of sin, it destroys our lives. It doesn't help us. And so God will judge us to try to get us on the right path. Why does he not judge the wicked? Well, I mean they're not his children. And he will send them to hell forever, but sometimes on earth, you know, wicked people get away with it. Well, in Psalm 73, there's a whole chapter that talks about this. Psalm 73, verse 1, Truly God is good to Israel, even as such as there are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My step said, Well, and I slipped. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. So what he's saying is, you know, I envied the foolish people. I looked at these wicked people that are prospering. I looked at these wicked politicians that are prospering. I looked at these wicked people that are prospering. I looked at these wicked people that are prospering. I looked at these wicked false prophets that are prospering. You look at all these wicked people in Hollywood, the Vice God, there's all these people, and they're prospering. They've got a nice little house with makati and everything like that. Man, they're living the high life, lots of money. It seems like God is really blessing them, and we can get envious at these people. But notice what it says in verse number 16, because he goes on and on. We're not going to read those verses about basically how he's envious with them. That's the way he feels. Then it said in verse 16, I got to know this. It was too painful. Yeah, you know, it's pretty painful if you live a godly life, and then you look at wicked people, and it seems like they're prospering, and our lives are really wrong. That would be pretty frustrating. Verse 17, until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end. What does he say? Basically, when I went to church, when I heard the preaching of God's Lord, I summoned the hymns. Then I realized, you know what, I understand what's going on. You're not getting away with anything. See, this is why at church, you need somebody to preach hard against wicked people. You say, why? Because otherwise, the people that are believers in the room, they'll start to get envious of the foolish and wicked people. Because look, our lives aren't the easiest as believers sometimes. We live godly lives. We get mocked by our families. We go soul winning, and guess what? You'd think other Christians would say, man, that's great because they say, they say you're prideful, they say this, they say that. You're just trying to live godly life. You're trying to read the Bible, they make fun of you for reading the Bible. No matter what we do, it's like people will make fun of us, they'll mock us. We spend so much time in church and soul winning, it's like, man, all my free time is spent doing this. Is it in vain? It's not in vain. You have to understand these wicked people, they're not getting away with anything. And these lazy and lame Christians, you say they get all this free time and all this time reading the Bible and everything like that. Look, they're living pointless and worthless lives. They're gonna get to heaven with no rewards. What a wasted life. But it's not just that. See, when you live a godly life and do what the Bible says, you know what is a good reward on earth? A good reward and a good promise for God is that when your children grow up, they'll still love you and they'll love the world. But these lazy and lame Christians, their children are gonna grow up and probably hate them. They're not gonna grow up and love them and when you teach people to love God, the more I teach my son to love God, the more he's gonna love me. That's the way he's gonna work. And the truth is, with these lazy and lame Christians, they will destroy their lives by choosing not to live for God. Now, they might not ever realize that one day, but you see people that 20 years down the line, their kids are grown up and their kids want nothing to do with them. They say, why? Because you choose not to be godly and spend time with them. Instead, you just shove them in front of a TV and just say, hey, just entertain yourself. And you wonder why when they grow up they don't love you. See, the lazy and lame Christians that would spend all their time watching TV and movies, go ahead and do that. You're gonna regret it one day. Look, when we live godly lives, it helps our lives. It benefits us, even if it seems like we're putting in all this time. Verse number 18, surely thou didst set them in slippery places, referring to their children. But when they grow up, they don't love you. When thou didst set them in slippery places, referring to their wicked reprobates, thou castest them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment? They are utterly consumed with terrors, as in a dream when one awakens. So, O Lord, when thou awakens, thou shalt despise their image. Thus my heart was grieving, I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I and ignorant, I was as a beast before thee. The truth is, every single one of us in this room may be I'd be happier if I just kind of calmed down my Bible reading, calmed down my going to church, calmed down my sowing, if I just kind of got a little bit horrible, just watched movies from time to time, I'd be a little happier. You know what the Bible says? The Bible says it's a foolish thought. That's the truth. The thought of foolishness is sin. That's a foolish thought. Now look, everybody thinks that from time to time. Every once in a while a thought comes in. You say, Brother Stock, is it really worth it? That stupid foolish thought, yeah, it enters my mind somehow. It enters all of our minds. Of course it enters my mind and your mind sometimes because there's a whole chapter in the Bible. The psalmist here in Psalm 73 feels that way. If a godly person who wrote a chapter of the Bible would feel like that from time to time, we're going to feel like that from time to time. You say, well, how do you fix that? Well, one way you fix it is you go to a church and preach hard against the wickedness and it is worth it because those people are going to live wicked lives and they're going to pay for each and every one of their sins in hell. That's the truth. Turn to Psalm 73. Here's another thing that would help make you happy as well and realize it's worth it. Every single person puts a smile on their face in hell. Not everybody's happy about it. Just because they're smiling doesn't mean they're happy. Everybody smiles on their face in hell. Everybody smiles. They pretend to be happy. It's what you do. You either are happy or you pretend to be happy. That's the way everybody is. Every single person pretends to be happy. That's the way it is. You know, when people go to church and, you know, husband and wife are driving in the car and they get in a fight five minutes before they enter the building, they're both smiling when they get here. This is the way it works. Everybody's always smiling. Everybody wants people to think that they're happy. Look, these wicked people, they're not happy. They say, well, how do you know that? They're all drinking themselves to death when they're 30 years old. They're committing suicide. Of course they're not happy. What makes you happy? Keeping the commandments of God. That's what the Bible says. Laying Christians, you think they're happy? Do you really think that they're happy? I mean, they're basically kind of going halfway in between being wicked and being godly. That's like the worst position. You're going to be depressed all the time when you know what's right and you choose not to do it. People that aren't as fired up as you and people that don't and you know that honestly we care about them. We hope they grow and become full-fledged members of our church or lead their lead church to come here. I pray for those people. I hope they make the decision because this is a church they'll grow in and they won't regret that decision. Look, they're not happy right now as they're like kind of walking both sides. They're not. And they might act like they're happy. They might act like they're happy at church and everything, but they're not happy. Trust me. When you know what the Bible says, you're not going to be happy unless you do it. But just going to bed at night with your conscience. Nothing better. Because when you go to bed at night with your guilty conscience because you know you did something wrong in that day and chose not to do what you should do, you feel terrible. It hurts you from the inside. You feel like you can barely move because of what you've done. Look, people that are living ungodly lives are not happy. I promise you that. Psalm 7. Say, how do you know that? Because we trust what the Bible says. We trust what the Bible says. You know, we don't talk to them off the record. I can promise you they're not happy. They're not happy. They're not happy. I promise you they're not happy because ungodly people are not happy. Psalm 7 verse 12. If he turned not he will wet his sword. He hath bent his bow and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death. He ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors. It says God ordaineth his arrows, which basically means he chooses the arrows that will kill the persecutors and destroy them. It's not a coincidence when some wicked rock star drinks himself to death at the age of 31. He said, what happened to them? God sent that arrow to destroy them. That's the reality. Now it is possible they just, their own sin elected their destruction but oftentimes God just sends that arrow to destroy them. Sends that arrow to kill them. Why do you think all these wicked reprobates only live out after pain? So many people you see dying at a young age. Verse number 14. Behold he travaileth with iniquity and hath conceived mischief and brought forth also. He made a pit and digged it and has fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head and his violent gilling come down upon his own paper. Now when it talks about mischief, as I've mentioned before in sermons, if you look up every single reference to this, this is referring to death. When somebody wants to perform mischief on someone it means they want to kill them. The Bible talks about a woman being with child and mischief befall her. What does that mean? It means she lost the child. That's the way God used that terminology. The word mischief in the Bible, 85% of the time when you look it up it's obviously referring to death but when you look at all the other verses that's what it means. I would say every time you see it in the Bible it means referring to being killed whether it's killing or murder it refers to death. So basically here in these verses it talks about someone digging a pit making a pit and digging it and they want somebody else to fall into it to be destroyed or to be killed. But it says it's going to return upon his own head. It says it's going to return upon his own head and it says it's going to return upon his own head. Verse 17 I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness and will sing praise in the name of the Lord most high. Now I want you to turn to Esther 5 and show you exactly what it's saying here in Psalms. 7 verse 14 says we have a story in the Bible just like this. And so it talks about the violent person who wants to destroy or kill or harm somebody else. The Bible says it's going to return upon them. You're going to reap what you sow and it says here in Esther chapter 5 let's look at the story of Haman. Esther 5 starting in verse number 9 the Bible reads Then when Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate that he stood not off nor moved for him he was full of indignation against Mordecai. Haman is the second person in the kingdom. He's second to Ahasuerus. You would think being second in the kingdom you'd be happy wouldn't you? I mean you're a powerful person. People are bowing down and revering you. When you walk by they look at you with respect they act kind to you why? Because you're a powerful person but then one person refuses to bow to you. That's Mordecai. Why? Mordecai is a godly person. You don't bow to a man no matter what the government tells you. No matter what our government would ever tell us. No matter what the Catholic church might try to force upon you when they never bow down to a man and worship a man. Verse number 10 Now I want you to understand something in verse 11 Haman does not have any friends okay? Now the Bible says he has friends it says he has a wife but they're not really friends. You say well how do you know that? Well we're gonna see that later on in the story. But you can tell that in verse number 11. Look I'm bragging to people about how much money you have and look at how God's blessed. Look at how much money I have and my children and how the kings promoted me. Look people aren't gonna like you. If you walk around and just brag about how great you are people aren't gonna like you. Would you like somebody like that? Let's say we had somebody who came to church and every single day all they talked about is man I got this bonus at work I'm promoted I'm second in the company now people don't like people that brag about themselves. That's what Haman's doing. He comes home to his quote unquote friends. He comes home to his wife and he just brags about how great he is. Why are these people his friends? Look doesn't the book of Proverbs say that everybody loves them when you have money? Of course people act like your friend when you're a powerful person. Of course they want to be your friend so to speak when things are going well for you. They're not gonna be Haman's friend when things aren't right. But in verse number 12 it says Haman said moreover yea Esther Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king under the banquet that she had prepared for myself and tomorrow am I invited unto her also in the king yet all this availed me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. I have everything in life I could possibly want but I'm not gonna be happy until Mordecai bows down in portions. This shows you that nobody bows down. I'm happy just going about I'm happy I have lunch and man the food tastes good. I'm like man my life's awesome. You have food it tastes good you read the Bible you spend time with yourself I'm happy with that. I don't need people to bow down and worship me to be happy. But I guess when you're rich and powerful you always want a little bit and that's what we see here. Verse 14 then said Juresh his wife tomorrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon then go thou and merrily with the king unto the banquet and the thing please Haman and he cause the gallows to be made. So basically his friends and his wife suggest hey just have Mordecai put to death and he's like I like that idea that would make me happy. Well what did Psalms tell us? It told us that when you're born in the name of Jesus you're the one who's going to die. Notice verse number 12 and Mordecai came again to the king's gate but Haman hastened to his house mourning and having his head covered. In verse 13 and Haman told Juresh his wife and all his friends everything that have So basically, what do they say? They say, you know what, if Mordecai is to deceive the Jews, you're not gonna be able to overcome him. It's like, well, you know, you probably should have given him that advice before you tried to kill him. Instead of trying to tell him to just kill him, you probably should have just told him if you were actually his friend, hey, you know what, there's a good chance you're gonna lose this battle. Because it seems like the Jews win these battles. It seems like God is on their side. They say, you're not gonna win this battle. In fact, they say you're going to fall. What does it mean by thou shalt surely fall before him? They're saying you're surely gonna be killed before him. That's the terminology you often see when you're falling above. They're saying, you know what, you've begun to fall. You're obviously gonna lose this battle. You're going to fall. You're going to die. The same people that gave him the advice to put him to death and how he's gonna be able to accomplish it are now saying, whoa, looks like the Lord's against you. You're gonna fall. Why? They wanna distance themselves from him. They see he's gonna end up dying. They don't wanna be a part of it. Verse 14, and while they were yet talking with him, came to King's Chamberlain's and hastened to bring Haman under the banquet that Esther had prepared. I'm not gonna finish reading this story for the sake of time, but if you know the story, Haman gets put to death in the same way he wanted Laura Kight to be put to death. Now, were these people really his friends? They weren't really his friends. They gave him this advice to put him to death. Did they also get put to death with him? Did they say, you know what, I'm the one who gave you the bad advice. Let me step in for Haman to be put to death. Do you see his wife doing that? Why? His wife didn't love him. His wife loved him because he had a lot of money. She didn't actually love him. Look, you know, the truth is, you can go around in the Philippines and you can see a lot of really young girls with a lot of really old guys, and those girls don't really love those guys. You say, why do they love them? Because they have a lot of money. That's the truth. And look, you know, the truth is, that's a problem in our country. It's reality, though. You see it all the time. Look, being in Pampanga, you go to Ancle City, and guess what, you see that a lot. And do they really love them? No. It's kind of an agreement. The husband doesn't love the wife. He just finds her attractive. And then the wife doesn't love the husband because, you know, he's like 35 years older than her. She's just marrying him for the money and saying, you know, basically, you know, often times, man, I hope he doesn't make it another 10 years and I can have that money. That's the reality. Now, that's not, you know, politically correct. That's the reality of the matter. And, you know, hearing this story, look, Suresh doesn't love him. The husband hates him. She obviously loves him because he's a powerful person. And once things go against him, and she's the one who suggested it, guess what? Hands off. It's like, well, you're gonna be put to death. I don't want to have anything to do with this. I don't want to get put to death. Turn to Psalms 8. Psalms 8. Say, brother Stuckey, how can I avoid having friends like that? You know how you avoid having friends like that? You go to a good, godly church. You go to a church like our church. You get to know the people. Sometimes people come to a church like this, but they don't really get to know everybody. Look, you need to dive in when you go to a church. The preaching's a small part of this church. The soul winning's a small part of this church. You know, one of the big parts is just having good friends that you love and care about and they care about you. You won't find that out in the world. Here, people actually do care about you. In this room, we care about each other, whether things are going good or whether they're going bad. Look, if you lose your job tomorrow, we still love you. In fact, we'll pray for you. We'll do everything you can. I'm sure people at our church will try to get you a job at their companies. They'll do everything they can to help you. The world doesn't love you like that. The world is like this story with Haman. They'll reject you when things aren't going well. Psalms eight, verse number one. Psalms eight, let's quickly be able to put them in the Psalms chapter eight. Verse one, oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens. The Bible says that the name of the Lord is excellent, okay? The name of the Lord is worthy to be praised. A problem you see in this world is people don't hold the name of God very memorably. They just flippantly say things. People will flippantly say things like GD or JC, just blaspheme the Lord and think nothing of it. What I would wish they did is I just wish they changed God's name to Buddha. If you call yourself a Christian, why don't you just change it to Buddha? Why don't you just change it to Mohammed? Why don't you curse Mohammed? Why are you cursing your God? Does that make any sense? You know, that commercial that's on where that lady just keeps saying, oh my God, over and over again, what is the meaning of this? That is the most annoying commercial in the world. I'm so sick of hearing that every time I'm in a radio, it's like, I'm sure that person's probably Catholic. Because Catholics are really the ones who blaspheme God the most in this country. And it's like, why are you using the Lord's name in vain over and over and over and over again? I hear that stupid thing everywhere I go. I'm sick of it. I don't like hearing people blaspheme the Lord. It's not funny to me. Now look, before I was saved, I watched a lot of movies that were pretty blasphemous. And I remember just after I got saved, even though I hadn't grown much, it just really angered me when I heard people use the Lord's name in vain. And I was like, I no longer wanna hear music or movies where they're doing that. And I didn't listen to the perfect music. But that's just one thing. I'm like, man, that's the third commandment. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. And yet people just flippantly use God's name in vain all the time. Now one thing Christians are often guilty of is they don't necessarily use the Lord's name in vain, but they use a lot of euphemisms for God. Now remember the Bible said the Lord's name is excellent. Look, we're not supposed to use God's name just flippantly and then just use a euphemism to sound like God, but not actually say God. Or sound like the Lord. Sound like Christ. Say something pretty similar. No, just change it to Buddha. If you get so mad and you lose your temper and you gotta shout out something, curse Buddha. Curse Muhammad. Don't curse the Lord. Curse, you know, I'm not gonna say it because that church down the street would probably curse. Curse them. Don't curse the Lord though. Why would you do that? Now let me give you a quick list of some of the common euphemisms. Now if you're in this room and these are words that you use sometimes, I'm not mad at you. You know, honestly you probably aren't aware of the fact that this was used as a euphemism for God. But look, if you know, once I name these words and you realize this is a euphemism for God and that's why it sounds close and it wasn't really a word, it was like a made up word used as a euphemism for God, you shouldn't use these words. Why? The Lord's name is excellent. It's worthy to be praised and we don't just flippantly use the name. Gosh is a word that is a euphemism for God. You say, should you use the word gosh? No you shouldn't. It's a euphemism for God. Use Buddha. Instead of saying gosh, say Buddha. That's the truth. Golly, that was a year word used as, and when I was on this website, I don't have the years listed, but it showed the year that this word was put into place for that reason. Golly was a year word used instead of golly. Good grief. That was given kind of as a euphemism for God. Geez, you can see that, that's almost just like Jesus. Geez is a euphemism for God. Gee whiz is a euphemism for God. You see, but people say this just innocently. Yeah, they say it innocently and ignorantly, but you shouldn't do it if it's, I mean, it sounds like Jesus. Gee whiz, geez. That was put in there for that reason. Look, you know, you shouldn't use that as a euphemism for God. Jeepers creepers, Jiminy crickets, and crikey. These are euphemisms for God and for Jesus. Look, God's name is excellent. We should hold it reverently. Honestly, put any other thing out there, but don't use something that sounds just like God, but isn't God. His name is worthy to be praised. Another example of this, something I don't do, and you can think about this, and I'll explain to you the history of it, but one thing I don't do is, I don't say God bless you when people sneeze. You say, why don't you say God bless you? Well, do you know the history of where that came into being? It was started by the Catholic church, and when people were, there's two main times they really used it. One was during the Black Plague, and when people sneezed, that might be at the point of death. So when they say God bless you, they meant it. They didn't want them to die. Look, when somebody sneezes, they're not at the point of death. I sneeze every other day. I'm not at the point of death. During the Black Plague, though, when somebody sneezed, you were really worried for their life, and you were also like, God bless you, and you got away with it. Why? Because you might catch what they had, and end up dying. Look, half of Europe, a third to a half of Europe died during the Black Plague, okay? If you got the, during the Black Plague, people were scared to death they were gonna die every single moment of the day. So when they said God bless you, they really meant it, because they were worried they were at the point of death. The other thing is, some people that are, it started with Catholic churches, because they believed that when you sneeze, you were casting demons out of your soul, okay? Now look, neither one of those seems like a valid reason for me to say God bless you. Because if you're gonna say that, do you really mean that when somebody sneezes, do you really want God to bless you? Is that your intentions, or are you just vainly repeating something that society does? I don't do it, because I don't think you should, understanding the history of it, because I don't really mean it. If some random person on the street sneezes, sneezing's a part of life, it's not that big of a deal. Now look, I do think, hey God bless you if you're sick, pray for you, pray for Brother Dustin, you know, honestly we mean that, we want him to get well. But look, if you sneeze tonight, I'm not like, oh man, I'm so sorry for you, oh that's terrible. You know, sneezing's part of life. It's not the end of the world. And so we need to be careful, when we use the name of God, and insert him into things, that we actually mean what we're saying. We're not just flippantly using his name, and say why? Because his name is excellent. Look, I wouldn't want my name flippantly using his name. I mean would you want your name inserted into using the Lord's name in vain, like people do? Just have your name instead of your mom's name, your dad's name? No, you know what, that's not appropriate. People would get offended if their mother or their sister was used, and their name was used flippantly. And people use God's name flippantly. Look at Psalms eight verse number two. The Bible reads, out of the mouths of babes, the mouth of babes and sucklings, hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mine for, and the son of man that thou visitest in? And honestly, this is reality when you think of the Lord. His name's excellent and his works are excellent. You go outside and it's just amazing the things he's done. And look, you could spend your entire life and never visit another country outside of the Philippines. And you would have so many awesome things to see. There's so many awesome things in this country. So many great islands, so many different things. You could spend your entire life and just see amazing things just here in the Philippines. The things the Lord has made are just amazing. And sometimes, we should probably just put away our Facebook, put away our cell phone, and just look at the things God's done. Look at his amazing creation. You'll be more impressed with it if you spend less time being impressed with these movies and gadgets and all that other stuff. You'll be more impressed by God if you would just set other things aside and just think upon those things. Verse number five, without us made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet. Now turn to Hebrews 2, Hebrews 2. I'll just look at a few more passages here. Hebrews 2, starting at verse number six. But one in a certain place testified saying, what is man that thou art mindful of, or the son of man that thou dissedest him? So you can see that this is parallel with the section in Psalms chapter eight, which we just read. Thou madest him a little lower than the angels. Thou promised him with glory and honor against, set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet, for that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under. But now we see not yet all things put under him. And so at this point, not all things are put under him. There will come a day when that will take place, but that day has not come upon us yet. Look, when Jesus came here, he didn't come as a conquering here. You say, well, how did he come? Well, verse nine. But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. His reason for humbling himself was so he could taste death for every man, not him. And when it says every man, what the Bible means in the original Greek is every man, okay? Tell that to a coward. It's the word every means every, because they don't seem to get it. He died for every single person, and he humbled himself, and that's the reason why he did that. Now look, when he was on the cross and he was going to the cross, didn't all these rich and powerful people just mock him? They just mocked him and said, well, if you're so powerful, why don't you get off the cross? If you're so powerful, and they just made fun of him. They totally didn't understand any of his preaching. He never said he came here to rule the world. He came here to humble himself and become obedient unto death, even death on the cross, if I'm saying. Now turn back to Psalms eight. Psalms eight, we'll finish up here. Look at Psalms eight and then Malachi chapter one. And in Psalms eight, verse number seven, all sheep and oxen name, the beast of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea. Oh, Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. You know, it is truly amazing when you look at all the creatures God's created, how powerful he is, how magnificent, how excellent. And his name is excellent in all the earth. Now turn to Malachi chapter one. Malachi chapter one. And in Malachi chapter one, notice what it says in verse 11. The Lord's name is supposed to be great among the heathen. Look, when we aren't reverent with God's name, and we just kind of flippantly use it, his name's not great among the heathen. He's meant to be respected, and people say things like, well, you know, the man upstairs. It's like, what kind of a reference is that to God? The man upstairs? Look, you know, I'd be offended if my son said that one day. Like, oh, you know, the old man upstairs. That's offensive. And it's like, you know, people say things like that. It's like, you know, we oughta use his name reverent. Now look, I know this sort of preaching is not very common, because what the Baptists do is they generally go kind of halfway in between, right? They'll say things like, well, don't blaspheme the name of the Lord. You know, you need to take it down a level, and preach against things that people actually do, because in most Baptist churches, there's probably a few people, hopefully no one, that goes to our church that just uses the name G.E. in their everyday speech. I hope nobody does that. I assume nobody does that, because that's pretty wicked. That's pretty bad, and you feel pretty guilty as a Christian doing that. But you know, what Christians can be guilty of is going kind of halfway in between true godliness and then what the world wants, and we need to strive for true godliness. His name should be great among the heathen, and if we go half in and half out on this thing, his name's not great among the heathen. His name's not excellent among the heathen. Verse number 14. But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock of male and valid, and sacrificed the thought of the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen. And so here in this last verse, it says he is a great king. Now, it's interesting that if you look in the Bible, there's really no king that I've seen that is referred to as a great king by God. The only king I've seen in the Bible which makes sense to me, you know, if you have a verse that would prove me wrong, you know, then I'm all up for seeing it. But from what I've seen, people will call somebody a great king, but the Bible only refers to someone who's actually being a great king is actually our Lord, and that makes sense. Because honestly, no king is truly great. No king. He said it was Nebuchadnezzar great. I mean, he was powerful because God allowed him to be powerful. He didn't get there with his own might. I mean, he said that himself, and then what happened? Then he's crawling around the ground like an animal. Look, no king is great. You say, isn't our president great? No, I mean, God allows him to be the president, but God can take that away in any second. Nobody is really truly great in this world. They're nothing compared to the Lord. The possibly the most famous king in history, you know, there's Nebuchadnezzar, but a guy who is known as the great king Cyrus. Cyrus the Great is how he was nicknamed. He's kind of the one person in history that name is attached to Alexander the Great, Cyrus the Great. There's certain people in history that were very powerful kings that the world would call these great kings. But look, you know, Alexander wasn't great. Very powerful man. You know, he basically ruled the world at the age of 30, died and went to hell. Doesn't sound so great to me. Cyrus the Great, you know, I actually think that he's in heaven. You know, it seems like he was someone chosen kind of like Nebuchadnezzar. But look, he wasn't great here on earth. He was just another man. He was put in a position of influence to do great things, but he wasn't in and of himself great. None of us are, because everything we have is given to us from God. He said, who's the great king? The great king is our Lord, amen. The Lord is great, but nobody else is great, okay? And so something just to take away from this is just the fact that, you know what, we as God's people, we need to be above reproach. We need to be different than the world. We need to be what the Bible calls peculiar. You say, it seems pretty weird to me that, you know, I don't say some of these things. You know, some of these things maybe I say as normal phrases. Yeah, we're peculiar. We act differently than the world does. And so the world out there says a lot of things and does a lot of things that we shouldn't. We ought to be different than the world. You say, why? You know what, God will judge his people. And you know, we as God's people, if we want to be saved when God's judgment comes upon his country, and whether it's coming now or some other time, I can promise you when you're the number one most idolatrous country in the world, God's judgment's gonna come down on you from time to time. It's not an accident when certain earthquakes or tsunamis or whatever strikes. Sometimes it's just the hand of God saying, you know what, I'm sick of your idolatry. And unfortunately, this world doesn't figure it out. But if we want God to be merciful to us, what do we need to do? We need to obey God's commands. Let's go to the word of prayer. Your heavenly father, thank you for allowing us to be in your house this evening. And we just ask you to help us apply these things to our lives. Help all of us, God. And I ask you to just help us all to try to be a love reproach and try to be more godly each and every day, God. And also think about the people in the church that are sick. And we ask you right now to even prepare for the big soloing marathon next week, next Wednesday at Comite, God. Help everything go smoothly and help everything go great, God. Help us to win many people who are God. And we just pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.