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

All right, we're here in 1 Timothy 4. We're continuing our series on the alphabet of characteristics. The letter S, we're looking at serious, being serious. And the character that just kind of came to my mind was immediately Paul the Apostle. When you read about Paul the Apostle and the way he lived his life, he's a very serious person. I mean, he took life very seriously. It wasn't just a joke or a game to him. And, of course, you know, we do understand that there is a time to joke. There's a time to laugh. There's a time to have fun. But I would say in the world that we live in today, most people think their entire life is a joke. It's all just a game. They don't take life very seriously. And I would say all of us can learn and be edified from this, and we need to take things more seriously because life is not a joke. It's not a game. We live a short life, and then it's gone. We ought to take this time very seriously that we have on earth that God blesses us with. Now, in the Bible, you will not see the word serious in your King James Bible. But there are a couple words that mean, are basically synonyms. They roughly mean the same thing. So, for example, the word sober in your Bible, it is not really referring to not getting drunk. If you look up definitions on the word sober, one of the definitions will be to be serious. And that's what the Bible is referring to about being sober is to be serious. Now, obviously, someone who's drunk is not serious. They're not clear-headed. But sober in its totality in our Bible is talking about being serious. Another word you'll see is grave. And, of course, grave will literally mean where people's bodies are put after they die. When we talk about something having gravity, you're talking about seriousness because, obviously, a grave is not a joke, right? I mean, if you were to go to a funeral and you're just telling jokes, you're going to offend most people because it's just not the right time to tell jokes at somebody's funeral. So the word sober and grave, you're going to find those sober, grave, gravity, and those are linked with being serious. Now, we're going to go back to 1 Timothy 4 here in a second, but go to 1 Timothy 3, the previous chapter. And with Paul the Apostle, instead of looking at his life, what I'm going to do is just look at his writings. So we're going to look at just Paul the Apostle's words here today, and he can tell he's a very serious man, right? One area we need to be serious is in leadership. If you are in a form of leadership in your life, you ought to be very serious. The Bible says here in verse number 1, this is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given a hospitality, apt to teach, not given a wine, no striker, not greedy, a filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous. One of the first things mentioned is to be sober if you are in leadership in a spiritual position. And this does not only apply in spiritual leadership, but it certainly does apply in spiritual leadership. To be serious, to take things seriously. There are certain things that would not be a sin, but it's just kind of a sign that you don't take things seriously. So for example, let's say that I showed up here today wearing shorts and a t-shirt and sandals, and then I got up to preach. I mean, the looks on everybody's faces. I mean, what kind of sermon illustration is Pastor Stuckey doing? But think back to those that were here for the first service of our church. You didn't know who I was, right? You had maybe heard me online a few times. But if you saw me the first day, first church service, and I'm just not dressed up at all, you'd be like, what is this? We expected him to be wearing at least a tie, if not a suit. Why would he be showing up and he's wearing shorts and a t-shirt? You wouldn't want to listen to me because you wouldn't take me serious. I mean, if you want to be taken seriously, you need to be serious. Isn't that just common sense? And so the thing is, if I showed up not dressed very respectfully, it doesn't mean I've sinned because there's nothing sinful about wearing shorts or wearing a t-shirt. But there's a time and a place for things. And if I show up just not being dressed up, you would not take me seriously. I mean, isn't this what you find? When you find pastors and religious leaders that are not on fire for God, often the non-denominational type of churches, what do you often find? They don't dress up. They don't wear a suit and a tie. They don't dress appropriately. It's just kind of like, just wear whatever, not take it seriously, because they don't want it to be such a serious thing. But here's the thing. I believe church is serious. I believe it's important. I believe we ought to take it with all gravity and realize this time of our week is important. And the way you dress matters. Another thing that would not be sinful but just kind of indicates how serious you take something is how on time are you? Right? If I showed up and I was late every service or every other service, you just wouldn't take me all that seriously. Now, here's the thing about this. I come from a long distance away. When am I late on Sundays? I'm not. You say, why? Because we leave early just in case. I mean, today we were so late compared to normal. And so late for me is 9.40. I mean, that's like 20 minutes after I normally am. And, yeah, I was like a chicken with my head cut off because there's a lot of stuff with just organization. And it's just by means of travel just took a lot longer than normal. And it's like, but here's the thing. I show up early. You say, why? Because I take it seriously. Number one, there's stuff to do. But number two, I want to be taken seriously. And if I just show up right before church starts or, you know, I show up right after the first song and I just kind of walk in and I just get up here, you just wouldn't take me seriously. I'm not saying it's a sin to show up late. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying it's a sin to wear shorts and a T-shirt to shirt. I'm just saying it kind of gives a sign of how serious you take things. Right? Being organized. Things such as this. I mean, this is all linked with being serious. And I think if you look at Paul the Apostle, I would imagine that he was an extremely organized person. You know, he dressed, you know, the best he could and everything like that. Verse number four. One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? You know, when you're raising kids, one thing that kids don't fully understand is the difference between when to have fun and when to be serious. And sometimes I have to stop my kids because I like to have fun. I like to play with my kids. I like to joke. But sometimes, like, now is not the time to joke. Right? It's time to be serious. Right? Sometimes kids will goof off or joke around at church. It's like, no. It's like you don't joke around during the preaching time. This is serious. Right? It's time for that. Right? And here's the thing. You might not be in spiritual leadership. If you're a parent, you're certainly a leader. Right? I mean, it talks about raising your kids. Well, if you don't take your job seriously as a mom or a dad, do you really expect your kids to be that serious? They're not going to take you seriously. They're going to take you serious if you're serious. If not, they're not going to take you seriously. It's just the way it is. Verse six. Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach in the snare of the devil. So the Bible says one requirement to being in ministry is you have a good report of them that are without. Without would be referring to without the church. So, for example, if somebody wants to get ordained at the local church and you look at their reputation outside the church and it's horrible, we're basically at their work. It's like, yeah, they're always late. They clock out early. They're always taking breaks. And they have a bad reputation everywhere they go. I mean, they're always losing their temper and yelling at their waiter at a restaurant or whatever. It's like, well, that's a bad reputation, a bad report, and you're not fit for the ministry, the Bible says. And you have to have a good report without, not even just inside the church. You should have a good report and reputation outside the church. I've given this example before, but my old job in the U.S., I remember I got called down with all the managers one time, and someone had heard a sermon I preached like ten years ago or whatever, and I got called down, and they said, we called you down here. We've never had this situation, but we heard that you hate homos, and you're sexist against women. That's what they said, right? Those are the two allegations. You hate the LGBT, and you're sexist. Now, they're half right, okay? The first accusation, hey, it's true, right? It's like, you didn't take me out of context. I didn't argue with them. You know, they brought that to my attention or whatever, what their thoughts were. And here's the thing. People will accuse you of being sexist if you say that husbands are the head of the home. That's what they'll say in 2024. Well, that's so sexist. That is so 19th century. It's like, well, it doesn't change the Word of God, because the Word of God is timeless. So if it applied in the 19th century, it applies in the 21st century also, that husbands are the head of the home. Right? Here's the thing. My philosophy when it comes to work is I'm being paid to work. So when I go to work, I work. I work and work. Now, whenever I do give the Gospel to people, it's outside of work hours. Like, I'll pay for someone's lunch to give them the Gospel or whatever. But when I worked a secular job, it's like, well, I'm being paid to work. So when I'm there, I'm working. That means I'm not being paid to text on my phone or whatever. I understand emergencies come up. But it's like, I was very disciplined. I'm working. I show up early. I stay late. I work hard on the assignments. And this is exactly what they told me. They said, you know, we've never had this situation, but we talked to all of your coworkers, and they all said, you're a great worker. You're the nicest person. You're very respectful. You're hardworking. And so they said, you know, that, you know, that's it basically. And I was like, okay, are you going to fire me next week? But basically they said that, you know, and I don't know if they're trying to be this honest, but they're basically telling me, we would have fired you except you're a really good worker. You know what that's called? It's called having a good report of them that are without. And you have to realize, as a Bible-believing Christian in 2024, it is very possible for you to have people that hate you at your job just because of your beliefs. And yeah, you know what? There could be people that want to get you fired simply because of what you believe. So you better make sure that you have a good reputation where it's like, hey, you know what? They show up. They're here early. They stay late. They don't take breaks. They're working hard. They're not just sitting on their cell phone or watching videos on YouTube at the job. And it's kind of like, you know what? The only thing we can criticize is the law of him and his God. That ought to be the way that you are. And the Bible says you ought to have a good report of them which are without. And, you know, a lot of that is linked with just being serious. Just take your life seriously. Right? Verse 8, likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved. Then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless. Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderous, sober, faithful in all things. Now, obviously when the Bible's bringing up sober, it's not saying, hey, you know what? If you want to be a pastor, you better make sure you're not a drunk. Most people that want to be pastors don't really struggle with alcohol. I'm not saying there's nobody, but when it's saying sober, it's not saying just you don't drink alcohol. Obviously that's a given. When it's saying the deacon's wives, you better make sure the deacon's wives are not drunk. So we want to make this guy a deacon, but his wife is a drunk. I don't think that's a normal situation that's going to take place. But it's talking about are the deacon's wives serious? Do they take their lives seriously? Right? I mean, are they very diligent in the way they live their lives? That is what Paul the Apostle is referring to. So not just for the pastor or the deacon, but their wives as well. Go to Titus 1. Titus 1. I mean, if you're a boss and you have employees and you want your employees to work hard and take things seriously, you know what you have to do as the boss? You need to be serious. Because if the boss is just not taking it seriously, what's going to take place with the people underneath? They're just not going to take it seriously either. That's just common sense. I promise you, if you work at companies where there's a boss that is a hard worker and he's always there, you know what's going to take place? As a result, people are going to work hard. But if you have a boss that just goofs around, doesn't take it seriously, the employees won't take it seriously either. It's just common sense. And if you want your kids to learn to be respectful and more serious, well, then you need to be serious as a mom or a dad and realize life's not a joke, right? Life's not a game. Titus 1, verse 5. For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless as a steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given a wine, no striker, not given a filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, wholly temperate, sober, linking to, being serious. And it's a big qualification in God's book to being a pastor. And I'll tell you my personal opinion. Far more important than your natural ability to preach is how seriously you take the Word of God. It's far more important. It's like, do you take it seriously, though? I mean, a person could just have the greatest gift to be a speaker ever, because people have different natural abilities. And someone, if they're the greatest natural ability ever to be a speaker, they're just very eloquent with their words. But you look at their life outside of when they're preaching, and it's like, they don't take the Word of God seriously at all. It's just a joke. It's like, that's not the sort of person that's going to be fit for the ministry. More important than just an eloquent speaker is, do you take the Word of God seriously? Now, I'm not saying being eloquent is not important. I do believe that everyone who's a speaker ought to try to work on their ability and get better. And obviously, you know, it's something that we all need to improve on when we're preachers. I could improve on it quite a bit. But more important is, do you take the Word of God seriously? Turn your Bible to Titus chapter 2. Titus and 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, these are known as the pastoral epistles. And it's basically Paul's epistles that are written to pastors, people in spiritual leadership. There are what are called the church epistles, which you have Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. You know, the epistles are letters that are written to the churches. And it's basically wisdom in general to the entire church and all the members. But then you've got the pastoral epistles, where directly what Paul is speaking on is to people that are going to be in spiritual leadership. That's why in Timothy and Titus, he has the qualifications, because he's letting people that want to be pastors know. So here's the thing. If you have a desire to be a pastor, one of the scriptures you should really know, or the books, are Timothy and Titus, because that is basically God's instruction manual to you. It's like, you want to be a pastor? Okay, 1 Timothy, there you go. 2 Timothy, there you go. Titus, there you go. Those are books you want to really understand and know and pay attention to everything that needs to be done. One area you need to be serious is in leadership. Another area you need to be serious is in youth. As a young person, you need to be serious. Titus 2, verse 1, But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, that the aged men be sober. So it's not just young people need to be serious, but here's what you have to understand. People that are older, at some point, they usually learn to take life more seriously. Right? I mean, I think all of us that are adults would probably say, yeah, when I was young, I was stupid. I didn't take life seriously. And no offense if you're younger than 20, but it's just the way it is. When you're younger than 20, you usually are foolish and stupid and don't take life seriously. And I would say the same about myself. It's like, man, I wish I had taken life more seriously when I was a teenager and realized, hey, it's not just fun and games and joking around. I wish I had taken life more seriously. That the aged men be sober, grave. And so with the aged men, sober and grave are the first things mentioned. And one of the big reasons why older people need to be serious is you need to teach the young people to be serious. The Bible is going to tell us the aged women teach the young women. Obviously, aged men can lead by example as well. They take things seriously. And as a young man, you learn to take things seriously also. That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith and charity in patience. The aged women, likewise, that they be in behavior as become of holiness, not false accusers, not giving them much wine, teachers of good things. Why? That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children. So the Bible says here in verse number four, young women be serious. Take your life seriously. You say, why? Because being a wife, being a mom is serious business. It's important. Now, look, I do believe in letting kids be kids and letting kids have fun, but what we see in 2024 is people that act like they're six years old when they're 20 years old. Right? That's what you see. That's what I see in today's world. I look at people that never grow up. They just act like kids. They don't take anything seriously, and it's thinking, man, I acted like that when I was 10 years old, but it's like, this person's 20 years old. They're 30 years old. Look, it's not normal. It is not normal for adults to spend all their time playing video games. That is not normal. It's not the way that God intended. I get it. When I was a kid, I sat around. I played games, but you know, when you're a grown adult, it's different. Take things seriously. But you know what I see sometimes is just people sitting around on their cell phones. We go soloing, and people are just playing psych. Do you have a few minutes? I'm busy. Is that what your life's about? Just sit around playing games all day? No, take life seriously. And here's what I want you to understand. What is taking place in today's world is people will act like they're 6 years old, and then once they finally reach the magic age, they think they're going to flip the switch and start acting like a grown adult that's very mature instantaneously. When does it ever work that way in any area of life? I mean, if you start lifting weights for the first time today, and you bench 135 pounds, the bar with 145 on each side, I do things in pounds, not kilograms. You bench 135 pounds, and you say, I have a goal to bench 300 pounds. You're not going to bench 300 pounds in one week. To go from 135 to 300, it's going to take years. It doesn't happen immediately. I mean, if you're training for a marathon, and you want to run a marathon in under 3 hours, and you run one today, and it's 4 and a half hours, you're not running in less than 3 hours next week. You've got to work up to that level. It works this way in all areas of your life, so why would you think somebody could act like a kid for 20 years, and immediately they act like a mature adult instantaneously? It doesn't work that way. What takes place is you slowly get more mature, and what needs to take place with us as parents is we train our kids to start taking life more seriously. Because kids naturally, it's just a game. They don't take things seriously. It just is what it is. We have to train them. We have to teach them. And I can tell in the world that we live in today, there are kids that were never taught by their parents to be serious. The Bible says in verse 5, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, the word of God be not blasphemed. It sounds pretty serious, otherwise you might blaspheme the word of God, women. Young men, likewise, exhort to be sober-minded. Young men, take your life seriously. And if you're going to actually take your life seriously, that means you're not going to act like all the other people in the world today, at your age. Because the average teenager does not take life seriously at all. But it says, exhort to be sober-minded. In all things, showing thyself a pattern of good works, in doctrines showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he is of the contrary part may be ashamed of having no evil thing to say to you. I mean, what are you really seeing in these verses? Be serious! Young women, young men, be serious. Take your life seriously. Verse 9, exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. So verse 11 says, God's grace appeared to everybody. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. No question. We believe that Jesus died for everybody. We don't believe in Calvinism, limited atonement. No, Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. The Bible's very clear. But then it says this in verse 12, teaching us. Us is not referring to everybody. So the grace of God appeared to everybody, but it teaches us. There's a distinction. A distinction with what? A distinction between saved and unsaved people. So Jesus died for everybody, but for us that are saved, it teaches us, denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. Now, here's the thing. Being saved does not teach you or does not guarantee that you will be good. It does not guarantee that you will be righteous. It does not guarantee that you will be sober, but it does guarantee that you will realize you should. There is a difference here. But I'll tell you what, when I got saved, you know what you realize? When I got saved, it's like I realized I would have died and gone to hell yesterday. Man, that's pretty serious, isn't it? It's like I would have died and gone to hell yesterday and now I'm on my way to heaven. It's like, man, that's some serious business. That's not a joke. That's not a game. It's funny because we go out soul winning and we take the eternal destinies of people more seriously than them. And it's crazy, but unsaved people just don't take life seriously. And then once you get saved, it's like, man, this is heaven and hell. This is real. And instantaneously, it teaches you, I should live soberly. So here's the thing, whether or not you follow the advice in this sermon or not, you know what I'm saying is true, that you should be serious, that you should take your life seriously, that life is not a game. Life is not a joke. You should take things very seriously, teaching us that we should live soberly. Drop down to verse number 15. These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. Now, he makes a statement to Titus, let no man despise thee. And what I would say is, if you're looking at the context of this chapter, what you're seeing is that if you are taking things seriously, people are not going to be able to criticize you. When he says, look, no man despise thee, he's not just saying, say these things and don't let anybody stop you. It's more about living your life in a way where they can't really just say, well, look at this. Now, to prove this, you go to 1 Timothy 4, and this verse is not as famous in Titus, but the one in 1 Timothy 4 that we started with, our verse of the week, is actually a pretty famous verse. And I would submit to you it is one of the most misunderstood verses in the entire Bible. 1 Timothy 4. Verse 11. Now, let me ask you a question. Paul is writing to Timothy, right? Is Timothy a young man or an old man? A young man, right? The Bible is very clear in that Timothy was not an old man. Timothy was a young man. 1 Timothy 4, verse 11. These things command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth. He's saying you're young. You're in youth. How is it that no man is going to be able to despise your youth? But be thou an example of the believers in word and conversation and charity and faith and purity. Here's what he's saying to Timothy. Timothy, people that are old are already going to look down on you for being young. That's just the way it is. People that are older are going to assume you're not mature. They're going to assume you don't take things seriously. Look, I can't tell you how many times when I first started going soul winning, I was a teenager. How many times did people tell me, well, you know what? You just got saved. They don't despise me because of my youth. They look down on me because of my youth. Now, this verse, it's not really saying, hey, you know what? Don't let anybody criticize you for being young. It's saying don't live your life in a way, but be thou an example. Live your life in a way where they cannot really criticize you because you're blameless. Hey, Timothy, you're a young man, and when you stand up to preach the word of God, you are a 25-year-old man, and you know the Bible better than anybody, but people are going to look at you and say, you're supposed to be my son, and I'm going to listen to him. I mean, it's just a natural thing. We as people have trouble listening to people younger than us, right? There's a natural thing inside where if somebody's younger, it's like you want to just think you know more than them. I mean, I'm not, you know, real young. I mean, I'm 39 years old, but I'm younger than other pastors, and people might look at me and say, well, you're just some young kid. You've been in the ministry for five years. You know what that means? I need to take life very seriously because I want people to take me seriously. If I'm serious, people will take me seriously. If I am not serious, though, people might not take me seriously. And if you're young and you want to be taken seriously, you need to be serious. And if you're not serious, people are not going to take you seriously. Why? Because everybody in this room that's an adult that's my age or near my age, we naturally have an assumption of people that are under the age of 18 that they're immature. You know why we assume that? Because it's usually true. Because young people are immature. Because I was immature when I was young. That's just the way it is. Now, of course, when someone's a child, yeah, you know what? They think it's a child that's normal, and I can just say that when I look at people that are young in today's world, I just think they are immature. They do not take life seriously. It's a game to them. So if you want to be taken seriously, you better be serious, because it's not going to naturally happen. You're not going to naturally get that respect from people when you're young. Now, Timothy might have read the Bible 50 times, but he's not going to get that sort of respect from people even though he deserved it, even though he was very godly. And so if you are a young person and you want to be taken seriously, you need to be very serious. Your life cannot just be a joke or a game. Go to 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13. You know, at the start of this year in January, we started having our Laguna ministry, and the Laguna ministry has been a big success. We've had at least in the mid-20s... We really need to have the kids, please. I'm being very patient, but the kids are being very distracting right now. We need the kids to be quiet. When we started our Laguna ministry in January of this year, we started it, and we started the Laguna ministry because Laguna is obviously a long distance away, and so it's very hard for people to be diligent, to be able to come all the time, especially if there's bad weather. A couple hours is a long travel, and when it comes to our monthly church services, one of the things that we need to do a monthly church service is, well, we need people. There's no point of having a monthly church service where there's not a lot of people. We need a place to meet, and we have a place to meet. One of the families in Laguna offered their home where we meet to have services, and we've had at least the mid-20s, I think, in every service there, and up to the 30s has been a big success, but one of the things you obviously need is you need somebody to preach the sermons, and of course, when we started in Pampanga, we had a rotating schedule of people preaching, but that's not really something we're going to be doing right now in terms of just, you know, it costs money to send people to preach. We're just going to stick with one person preaching, and I had an interest in the church service in Laguna because it seemed like a lot of people were coming from there, but the big question is, well, who's going to preach, right? And Brother JR that preaches the sermons in our church service in Laguna, he has a desire to preach. Brother JR is not the oldest person in this room. He's younger than most people in this room, and the big question I had in my mind was not about what's his natural ability to speak. I'd never heard him preach a sermon before. The big thing I thought in my head is, is he going to take it seriously enough? And here's what I would say to you. For anyone that knows Brother JR at a church, I'm going to tell you, Brother JR is not the oldest person in this room. He's younger than most people in this room, and for anyone that knows Brother JR at a church, everyone would say, there is a young man that takes his life seriously. There is a young man that is mature and a hard worker. I remember the first time I met Brother JR was at our missions trip going way back in 2018, but also when the church started in November of 2018, and he was just a teenager at the time, and it's like, he worked so hard. I mean, I was just like, You know, he's a mature person, and that's the sort of thing that actually matters more than your ability naturally to speak is, hey, do you take things seriously? And here's what I would say. If you're a young person that wants to be taken seriously, you've got to be serious. You've got to be grave. And I can say this. You know what? I want people to respect me, and if I want people to respect me, I've got to be serious. I've got to take my life very seriously, and it's just the way that it works. Right? Go to 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 11. Very famous verse. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 11. When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. Now, the Bible says that when people are children, they think like a child. They understand like a child. You know, it's interesting as a parent when you talk to your kids, sometimes, you know, your kids surprise you. They really know a lot of things, and other times you talk to them, you expect them to understand something, and it's like they don't get it. Right? You know, the Bible used the expression, for example, you know, how many? You have to discern between their right and their left hand. And what it's referring to is people that are young, because young people, left and right is very complicated for them. It's like it's very hard for them to understand left versus right. They just don't get it. It takes them a while. Young kids do not understand the difference. They think like a child. Now, to us, I hope as a grown adult, you know, left and right. Right? I hope that you've got that figured out. It's cemented in your head. But, you know, when you're a young person, I remember struggling with that when I was young. Right? I was playing sports. I'm four years old, and it's like the coach said something like, go to the left side of the field, and I'm just thinking, which is the left side? Right? It's something you struggle with when you're young. You think like a child. But when you become a man, you put away childish things. And here's the thing. As you're getting older, you should be progressively becoming more like a man, not a 15-year-old that's acting like they're five. But you should start getting some responsibility. I mean, think about the world 100 years ago. You would not be able to be a teenager and just goof around and play all the time. No, your life was very serious. Life was hard. Right. With a life that is so much easier in today's world, there are benefits to that. There are also a lot of drawbacks. And a big drawback is people just don't take their life seriously. And look, I'm not criticizing you if you're a young person here today. I'm admitting that when I was young, I did not take life seriously. I wish I had taken it more seriously. I wish I had learned skills that I could still be using today rather than just kind of floating through life and doing whatever, playing games, doing whatever's fun. No, I wish I had taken it more seriously. Go to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians 6. One area we need to be serious is in leadership. Another area we need to be serious is in youth. Another area Paul mentions of being serious is in work. In our secular jobs, we need to be very serious. Ephesians 6 verse 5, Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. You say, what does it mean, eye service or as men pleasers? Well, the idea is this, that when the boss is around and eyes are upon you, you work very hard. But when the cat's away, the mice will play. Now, this is the way most people are at work. I mean, I worked in offices, and you know what? Our boss, you know, he was kind of, in the last couple years of his job, he was kind of, you know, getting closer to retirement each and every day. We're basically, oh, I'm not going to show up for work today. And, you know, sometimes he did. And so when he was at work, people were working hard. People were like, right? When he's not around, guess what? Cell phone's out. Just looking at your cell phone all day. People just, you know, taking, you know, smoke breaks for like 20 minutes, just over and over again during the day. I mean, there were times at the office because we were divided in defined contribution and defined benefit. And my section was like the math section defined benefit. And, you know, I remember calls were getting bounced over to us. We got like 20 employees over there, and the calls were bouncing to us, dealing with the administration. It's like, I don't know this stuff. You look over there, there's nobody there. It's like it's two in the afternoon. Where is everybody? And all the people are just outside smoking cigarettes. It's like, you've got to be kidding me, but the cat's away? Mice will play. No, boss, I'm not going to take you seriously. I'm not going to take you seriously. That is exactly what the Bible is saying when it's saying with eye service or as men pleasers. You work hard when eyes are upon you, but what benefit is it for me to work hard if my boss isn't here? Maybe the Bible says in all labor there is profit. Maybe, just maybe, the eyes of your boss are always upon you because your boss is not here on earth. Your boss is in heaven. He says in verse number nine, And ye masters do the same things unto them for bearing threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him. So guess what? Our master, our boss, is God Almighty. So it doesn't matter if people see what you're doing here on earth. God sees what you're doing. And it doesn't matter if everybody shows up late to work. That doesn't make it okay for you to show up late to work. It doesn't matter if everybody clocks out early. That does not mean it's okay for you to do that. I mean, if you're given a one-hour lunch break, you know what that means? You make sure you're done in less than 60 minutes with your lunch break. Not, well, you know, an hour and seven minutes because that's what everybody else is doing. It's like, no, you better make sure that you don't go over that 60 minutes with your lunch break. And here's the thing. If you really want good advice, you want to move up in your company, guess what you can do? Just work for free during your lunch break. Take a quick 30-minute break to eat and then just work. And don't put it on the clock because, you know, you have a mandatory hour break or whatever, but just work for free. You say, why? Because of the fact your boss is seeing it. In old labor, there's profit. It's like overtime. Just take a 30-minute lunch break, then you've got 30 minutes of overtime. You say, well, how does that work? The way it works is maybe, you know, a year from now, your boss comes to you and says, hey, you know, we've seen you. You're a hard worker. We're going to hire you. You're going to be the assistant manager now. And you're going to bypass a lot of people in the company that have been around for longer. Why? Because you're a better worker. You work harder. Go to your Bible to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3. I mean, work is not a game. It's not a joke. It's not fun time. It's not goof off. No, work is serious. It's something that should be taken with all gravity. I mean, as a husband, as a father, it is your duty to provide for your family. It sounds pretty serious to me. You're responsible to take care of your family. I've got a wife and three kids. It's like, that's a big responsibility. I need to take my work seriously. Whatever job you have, you've got to take it seriously. It's like, oh, you know, my company, I never get any raises. They never give me any bonuses. There might be a reason. And there might not, but here's the thing. If you're being cheated, then God's going to look down at you like Jacob and say, you know what? I've seen your affliction. You've worked hard because in all labor there's profit. So I take by faith any labor you do, God is going to reward you for. That's what the Bible says. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3, verse 6. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not of the tradition which he received of us. For yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you, neither do we eat any man's bread for naught, but rot with labor and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you, not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensemble unto you to follow us. And Paul's saying, hey, we were an example or example unto you to follow us to work hard. And it talks in this passage about people that are walking disorderly, and it's directly linked to not working. And one of the amazing things is, when you look at the world today, I've seen this in churches for the last decade-plus. You know, people that are lazy in their work are also the people that cause problems at church. I mean, people that got kicked out of the church in Sacramento, it's like most of them weren't working. They're like, oh, it's going to be such a loss to the church. It's like, a loss to the church? You're walking disorderly. You have zero dollars as your tithe. I mean, it's not really that big of a loss to the church. I mean, people that have been problems at this church, they got kicked out, people we've had here before. Guess what you can also link with them? They weren't working. It's like, it sounds like the Bible's true. It sounds like the Bible's timeless. It sounds like the advice from 2,000 years ago still applies today as well. Turn your Bible to Acts 26. Acts 26. And what I would also say to you that are not yet working, maybe you're younger, maybe you're a teenager, maybe you're in school or whatever, here's what I would say. Take it seriously now to prepare yourself to work. And what I mean by that is if you're 15 years old, start learning some skills that will pay the bills. You go to a job interview, and they say, well, what can you say about yourself? It's like, well, you know, I broke the world record beating Super Mario 27. They're not going to hire you for your skills at Nintendo whatever the Nintendo system is today. They're going to hire you with real skills. That's the way that it works. You better make sure that you have something that can be impressive to them. Here's other good advice. When you go to a job interview, dress more sharp than anybody else that's going to go to that interview. Guess how I always dressed at job interviews in the U.S. Like this. I always wore a suit and a tie. Even at jobs, I went to job interviews for minimum wage dressed like this. And guess what always takes place at job interviews. They'll kind of like make a joke or something like that, like, oh, you didn't have to dress this sharply, and you always get hired. Always. I mean, almost every job that I interview for it's just kind of like, all right, you're hired. And you know what? They won't say it's as a result of how you dress, but I promise you, when you take it more seriously than anybody else, when you're there 20 minutes early for your interview and you're dressed in a suit, and then other people that are interviewing after show up right before, not dressed as sharp, guess what? You're going to be the one that gets hired. I would always show up very early for an interview. I mean, I showed up sometimes like 45 minutes early for an interview. I was like, yeah, you know, I'm a little bit early wearing a suit and tie, and I just waited. Other people showed up later. They got interviewed, and then they don't get the job. I get it. Because here's the reality. On a resume, same degree, same grades, roughly same experience. It's like, well, how am I going to stand out? I'm more serious than them. And what I would say is, you go to interviews, dress sharp, show up early, show that you're serious about it. I'll tell you what, even at a young age, I'm telling you, if you're a teenager, and I've worked at fast food before in my life when I was younger, you show up at a fast food interview wearing a barone or wearing a suit and tie. They're like, all right, we're hiring you. It's like, I don't care what it says on your resume. You've got the job. Because they're looking at you. They're going to assume, I'm assuming this person is going to show up early for work. He's not going to, you know, lie or anything. That's going to be their natural assumption. Why? They say you're serious. Look, I mean, being serious is something I think we can all benefit from. It's something we can all be reminded about. Seriousness in leadership. You want to be taken seriously as a leader? Be serious. Seriousness in youth. You want to be taken seriously as a young person? Be serious. Because I'll tell you what, as an older person, I just naturally assume young people are immature and stupid. Prove me wrong. And I might be the only one that's saying this, but everyone my age agrees with that. That's what we naturally assume from someone who's young. They don't take things seriously. Right? I mean, you can just look at people that drive on the road. People that are teenagers driving, it's just kind of like, they don't take it seriously. Race on the highway, goof off. But then people that are older, it's just like you often see they take it very seriously. It's not a game to them. Not always, because sometimes older people act like kids, but you'll often see that. In work. You want to be taken seriously, be serious at work. But lastly, and most importantly, spiritually. Spiritually, take the word of God very seriously. Acts chapter 26, here's a soul-winning story with Paul the Apostle. So here we're actually going to see Paul in action, not just his words, but let's just see how he lived his life in a very serious, sober-minded way. Acts 26, verse 24. And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee mad. What's Festus saying? Festus is saying you are insane. You are crazy. You're a madman. Now you have to realize that, number one, Paul does not have a silent partner to help him out. Number two, Paul is not trying to get Festus saved. He's trying to get Agrippa saved. Sometimes you're talking to a group of people and you have someone who's a distraction during the conversation, but you realize they're not going to get saved. They're not interested. Now, I will say this advice, when you go soul winning and you're in a pair and there's two of you and one of you is a silent partner, when there is a Festus, it is your job to just say, hey, let's go and talk over here, right? There's many times I've done that. I say, hey, you know, hey, that's an interesting question you said about how do we know Jesus existed. Let me hear what you have to say about that here. And just be like, yeah, okay. You're just listening. It's like, all right, you heard the person got saved. All right, well, have a nice day, right? No, but as a silent partner, it's important you're there to stop distractions, right? I personally believe Agrippa would have gotten saved if Paul had more time. But when someone starts saying you're insane during the conversation, it's kind of like I don't have time to finish this conversation because someone is out of control. We've all dealt with this. Someone's just out of control, and you cannot control the situation anymore. And Paul says, but he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. It's serious to me. For the king knoweth of these things before whom also I speak freely, for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him, for this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, believeth thou the prophets. I know that thou believeth. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. In my opinion, verse 28 is one of the saddest verses in the entire Bible. And I've been soul winning, and I've seen it in action, where you're talking to people, and you're hoping they're going to get it, and sometimes you think they're going to get it, and you're looking and looking and looking for that decision, and then they do not quite believe it. It's one of the saddest things. When you experience it in person, it's very sad. I mean, I know of a relative that I gave the gospel to a couple times for an hour and a half, back to back days, for an hour and a half, and I remember they were at that point to make a decision, and I thought, they're going to get it. They're going to get it. But I still think that if you follow the commandments, I'm just like, oh. I mean, I literally, when I left the door, I was crying. This is one of my relatives, and it's just like really hurt on the inside because they were so close, but they did not believe. Look, when we go soul winning, it's very serious. It doesn't matter if they don't understand it. We understand this. I mean, we are the ones standing between heaven and hell to try to help someone get saved. We are trying our best. I mean, it is very serious business. So, look, the work of God is something that should be taken seriously. It's not a joke. It's not a game. This is why, you know, why go soul winning? If it's raining, we should just not go soul winning at all. You know the reason why it's going to go soul winning today? Because people's eternal souls are dependent on what we do. I mean, it's very serious. It's important. I mean, even if we have to go out and it's kind of rainy and we can only go nearby and five people get saved. Hey, that's five people that are not going to go to hell for all they do. That's serious. That's important. And we're going soul winning. It's serious business. Go to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. Another area that's very important, very serious, is our personal walk with God. I mean, it's important when we go soul winning. It's also very important, our personal walk with God. The Bible says in Ephesians 4 verse 21, it shows me that we have heard him, that he has heard him and has been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that he put off concerning the form of conversation with the old man, which is corrupt, important and deceitful to us, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that he put on the new man, which after God has created righteousness and true holiness. Salvation is a one time thing, but putting on the new man is a daily thing. When you wake up and in your class, you just want to sit here and sleep, or get on social media, but you're like, you know what? I really shouldn't read the Bible. I really shouldn't go to church. I really should get in the new man. But this is a very serious thing to do. And what am I saying? Do what I'm saying. When you read your Bible in the morning, open up your Bible, have a notebook beside you, have a pen where you can take notes, and put your cell phone away and turn your cell phone off, turn your computer off, and just be one on one with God. I wake up pretty much always 4, 5, and 4. I wake up early, and you know what? I turn to coffee, and it's like, you know, there's coffee right now. I drink coffee. I wake up, I put on my coffee, and I wait until I'm kind of awake, because my first wake up is like, you know, in the South these days, you're like, I'm kind of here, I'm kind of not. And once I'm awake, you know what I do? I go out walking. I have a basically dead cell phone, but it has the Bible on it. It doesn't have the internet, but I just have the Bible. I go walking daily for an hour and a half. Right when I wake up, what do I do? I just memorize the Bible and walk back and forth, memorizing, memorizing, memorizing, memorizing. You say, why do you do that? Well, because if I can stay at home, there's more likely to be distractions. It's going to be harder to focus, so I just go out for a walk, and I just mindlessly repeat the verses over and over and over and over again. You say, what's the reason for that? The reason for that is because I've memorized hundreds and hundreds of chapters of the Bible, and that's the way that I do it. I just take it seriously. I go out, and it's just like, I'm here to just meet with God, memorize, memorize, memorize, memorize, memorize, memorize, and just repeat over and over and over. You say, Pastor, is that fun? Not really. It's not. I mean, walking back and forth and just memorizing the same verse that I messed up 20 times, it's not really that fun. You say, why do you do it? Because I take memorization very seriously. It's not going to happen unless I take it seriously, because hard things don't just come very easily. You've got to take it very seriously if you want to do it. So it's like, yeah, you know, I'm going to get away from distractions. And for me, other areas, like read the Bible, are fun in a lot of years. Like, memorization is hard unless I'm making diligent decisions. You go out, and you memorize, memorize, memorize, memorize, memorize. But it's very important. And what I'm saying is your personal walk with God, I mean, if you want to learn something from your Bible, you better make sure you take it seriously. You better make sure there are no distractions. I mean, if you have your cell phone beside you when you're reading your Bible, and then every 10 seconds you're like checking your messages or whatever, you're going to get nothing out of your Bible. And why are you wasting your time? It's going to give you nothing. You better take it very seriously. Your prayer time, take it seriously. Memorization, take it seriously, because your personal walk with God is serious business. I mean, you grow by the word of God. I mean, do you want to grow spiritually? Because if you don't take it seriously, you're not worth it. Do you know why? Because serving God is not easy. What's easy is just flipping on YouTube videos. What's hard is to get away from distractions and just read and memorize. I mean, it takes work to read a Bible. To pay attention and take notes. And I don't really suggest speed reading either. I mean, I'm not saying stop at every verse. I'm saying that when I read, I'm not trying to make it through as quickly as possible. I'm trying to really be wrong. I have a Bible reading chart. I haven't gave them my wall. My wife turns on the wall. My son's deaf turns on the wall. My turn turns on the wall. You say, why? You take it seriously. Because it's like, hey, there's my chart that tells me this is what I'm going to read today. And then I mark it off after I've read it. And look, if you want to be successful at something, you have to take it seriously. Look, your personal walk with God is serious. It's only serious. Your personal walk with God is serious. The church is serious. It's not a game. It's not a joke. Now look, there's a time to laugh and have fun. During lunch time, we're going to laugh and have fun. We're going to fellowship and all those things. I'm not going to be telling jokes. I tell jokes. I like to have fun. But I'll say this. One of the biggest compliments I've ever gotten. And go to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. One of the biggest compliments I ever got was in Sacramento. And I've been in the church for six months. And my natural personality is I tell a lot of jokes. You ask me why. I'm the one in the family that tells a lot of jokes. Always laughing and having fun. But that's it. There's been time and place. I'm going to be serious. I'm going to tell jokes. One of the biggest compliments I got was one of the members at the church. We had been there for six months. And we were just fellowshiping outside the church. And I told a joke. And he's like, I've never heard a joke before. And he's like, you're always so serious. And to be honest, that was one of the biggest compliments I got. I was like, it made me feel great. That's the way that he looked at me. Because in the house of God, you're just like, very serious. Not a joke. Not a game. Like, they're being very serious. And that should be the way that all of us are. We ought to take our lives. Now, here's the outside of your natural personality. You might like to joke and have fun. There's nothing wrong with that. People, when they think of you, shouldn't just think of you as a clown. Like, growing up, there's a class clown. It's like, that's not the way that I want myself to be a clown. That's not the way that I want my kids to be a clown. They never take anything seriously. That's not the way I want to be a clown. I want to be known to someone who's very brave and thinks he's very serious. The work we do at this church, your spiritual walk with God is very serious. And, yeah, it's definitely serious for me being a pastor in this church. It's also serious for anyone who wants to be used to God. I mean, I don't think that, I mean, if Jesus was around today, and he's giving instructions, and then someone's not taking anything seriously, I don't think Jesus would find that funny to you. No, I mean, you're pretty vented by this. Hey, what if these are the rules? Like, this is what I mean. And you'll probably be very serious when you come to the house of God and say, hey, this is not the way I want to be. I mean, yeah, during the week, you know, play a game with your kids and laugh and joke and have fun. Do that thing. Wrestle with your son. Play with your kids. Joke around. That's great. But this is not easy. And I'll tell you what. Most of life is not easy. Most of life is not easy. Most of life should be taken very seriously. Well, one thing about this is if you take life seriously, there's times where you do get the joke and have fun or have no meaning because you don't do it as much. It's not your whole life. Jokes and jokes. If you're serious, most of the time. And then you get to just, hey, I've got some great time. Let's just do some family time and joke around and play for 30 minutes. You get a lot more meaning. It's in the back. Most of your life is just very serious. And you have to listen to certain things. I mean, in your work, at your office, just joke around and show up late and don't take experience in. See how it works out for you. And in your marriage, just joke around and not take it seriously. See how it works out for you. Everything should be a big joke. You know more. Well, good luck with your life because, in my opinion, you want to be successful, you're going to be very serious. Right? 2 Timothy 3. It knows what Paul says in verse 10 of the book up here. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose made among suffering and serious patients. One thing that Paul says here is he says, you know my manner of life. You know the way I've lived my life. OK, well, I mean, you're safe. We've got a Bible. We read about Paul in the back. We read what he wrote. What was the manner of life of Paul? Was he just joking around all the time? Was he serious? I'd say pretty serious, wouldn't you? I mean, when I'm looking at the sermons, I've been looking at one character for every sermon, and immediately he comes to my mind, all the apostles. Isn't that what comes to your mind? Here's a guy that's very, very serious. Like, he's starting churches everywhere. I mean, he's almost being killed and persecuted and all these things. He's like, do you know my manner of life? And he's writing to Timothy. He's like, Timothy, hey, do you know my manner of life? Like, Timothy, follow the pattern. You're going to be successful. You take things very seriously. I mean, that ought to be the way. And I would say this, that the second job that I worked in, if you were to ask my co-workers that I worked with, they would have said, I mean, clearly, you know, you go to the companies, you work in an office, and they have, like, parties and they go through stuff like that. And I never went to the federal government or anything. And, you know, people, their opinion of being at work was he's a nice guy that never is really joking or having fun. He's just working, working, working. Right? And, like, that's what their assumption would have been about me. You know? And here's the thing, is that my natural personality is not. I mean, my wife knows me better than anybody in this room. And my natural personality is to tell a lot of jokes, because, like, that's the way my reputation was at work and on class. That ought to be your reputation when people know you. That's a serious person. It's like, this is the way your co-workers ought to think about you. Well, you know, I think you're a bit of a failure. Like, they got kind of some strange beliefs. They're always, like, you know, doing sort of stuff. But, man, they are serious. They're respectful. They take their bike seriously. I want to be known the best way that we are. You know, I think it's a great service for all of us. I talked about in youth, but that passage told the aging men and aging women, young men and young women to be serious. Be serious. You know why? Because there's, like, a natural tendency just to not take it seriously. But the work we do here, your personal life, you only have one life to live. I mean, think about this. You know, there are times you do things in life where you don't have to be serious. You know, maybe you have some free time for eating lunch or kind of watching a video. You can stop and pause the video every 15 seconds. But, you know what, if you want to accomplish something, things that are important or dangerous, that's the way that we all live our lives. You know, father, when you go out here today, you're going through the advice that you give to all of my folks about the experience, and that's about all of the other things that you can do. And I think that's a very important thing. Very much so that we all take our life more seriously, you know, work hard, and have an incredible life. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.