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

Amen, the title of my sermon this morning is best friend or worst enemy. Best friend or worst enemy, God can be your best friend or he can be your worst enemy. If you would flip over to Hebrews chapter number 12, you're there in 1 Peter, just flip a few pages over to the left to Hebrews chapter number 12. The Bible reads in Hebrews 12 verse 18, for ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which voice they that heard and treated that the word should not be spoken unto them anymore for they could not endure that which was commanded and if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with the dart and so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake but you are coming to Mount Zion. Now what's interesting is that there's a contrast here between these two mountains. There's Mount Sinai and it says in verse 18, you're not come unto that mount that might be touched, that burned with fire, the blackness, the darkness, the tempest. Moses himself is terrified at Mount Sinai. He said you're come to Mount Zion. If you think about it, these are both mountains of God though and so Mount Sinai is the mount of God. That's what the Bible calls it. Mount Zion is the mount of God and both of these places represent who God is, his power, his presence but one of them represents the judgment of God, the wrath of God, God's holiness and then the other mountain of course represents salvation and redemption, God's blessing. The Bible says you are coming to Mount Zion and under the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of angels, verse 23, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven and to the God the judge of all and his spirit's adjustment made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. The Bible is talking about all the blessings that we have as children of God. We approach unto Mount Zion and we're going to be up in heaven with the general assembly and church of the firstborn, we've got the salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ but then it says in verse 25, see that you refuse not him that speaketh for if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven whose voice then shook the earth but now he has promised saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only but also heaven. Here's what's interesting, out there in the world for some strange reason, people get these weird ideas about God and the Bible because they haven't really read the Bible and for some reason in our popular culture there's this weird idea that Old Testament God is a mean God and then New Testament God, he's kind of softened up in his old age and now he's nicer and gentler and more forgiving but this is total garbage because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. God said, I'm the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Sometimes I wonder like where did this idea even come from? Where do people even get this idea when some of the gnarliest things in the entire Bible are in the New Testament but it's simply because they don't really read the Bible, a lot of Christian churches are really sugar coating the New Testament, they're only preaching the nice parts of the New Testament and then everybody just kind of vaguely has this idea that in the Old Testament God is, you know, torching Sodom and Gomorrah and flooding the whole earth in the days of Noah and people are falling over dead and everything but you know people are falling over dead in the book of Acts too, remember Ananias and Sapphira and so there really is no difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament when it comes to the nature of God because God's nature always stays the same. God was a loving, kind, forgiving God even in the Old Testament. You know, love thy neighbor as thyself is from the Old Testament and there are so many passages in the Old Testament that talk about how great God's faithfulness is and his mercies are new every morning and praise the Lord for he's good because his mercy endures forever and just how gentle God is. You know, David in the book of Psalms says thy gentleness has made me great and so there's so much positive and kind and loving and gentle about God in the Old Testament and then there's so much wrath and judgment and holiness of God in the New Testament because they both contain an equal mix of both and really there's no difference between Old Testament God and New Testament God. That's just coming from people that are just super ignorant. One of those just kind of urban legends or something that people just keep repeating over and over again and they just think it's true and it's just totally based on ignorance because the Bible says, yeah, back then in the days of Moses, Mount Sinai was scary and God appeared at Mount Sinai and the people begged God, sorry, they begged Moses and said, we don't want God to talk to us ever again because the children of Israel actually heard the voice of God on Mount Sinai and they said, like, we don't ever want to hear that again. That freaked us out too much and so basically they told Moses, you go talk to God and come tell us about it but we don't want to have that experience again. So they were terrified and that's what this is talking about in Hebrews chapter 12. So they are terrified and God's voice, it says in verse 26, his voice then shook the earth and this is why they were so terrified when they heard the voice of God. But now he had promised saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only but also heaven. So he's saying in the New Testament, I shook things up back then, I'm going to shake it even harder in the New Testament and the Bible says that if we, verse 25, if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, how much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that's speaking from heaven. So the New Testament is saying, hey, if you think that was scary, God has some other scary things coming for this world in the New Testament, even beyond and even worse than anything that we find in the Old Testament. And so it says in verse 28, wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is, not was, our God is a consuming fire. And so there's this dual nature of God where God's a God of wrath and judgment but he's also a God of kindness and love and forgiveness and it's not that God changes over time, it's that God is different toward different people. The Bible says unto the pure he will show himself pure, right? He's going to show himself unsavory to the froward and so it really just depends on which side of God we're on, whether God is our best friend or our worst enemy. To those of us that are saved, he's our best friend and he's our savior and we love him and then on the other hand, those that are not saved, man, he's our worst enemy. I mean, he is going to destroy them someday, both soul and body in hell and so that's a scary thought. Jump back a couple of pages to Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter number 10. So in Hebrews chapter 12, we had this idea and you could think of this as a saved, unsaved dichotomy because that's really the big one because if you're not saved, the Bible says that if you don't believe on the son of God, the wrath of God abideth on you. And so if you're not saved, you're on the wrong side of God, period, versus if you're saved, at least you're God's child, he'll never leave you or forsake you. You're going to go to heaven someday no matter what because you're saved, you're forgiven, you have eternal life. But even as a saved Christian though, God could still get angry with his children and discipline them and chastise them on this earth, even severely sometimes. And so we see even an example of Moses at the burning bush. The Bible said that God's anger was kindled at Moses at the burning bush. Then right after the burning bush, God gets mad at Moses again about not circumcising his son. And so there are all kinds of examples where even saved people, even godly people can still get on God's bad side, sort of like my children. They're always going to be my children, okay, I'm not going to throw them out of the family, but I am going to discipline them and I guarantee you pretty much everybody gets angry at one of their children at some point, but it doesn't mean that they don't love them, it doesn't mean that it's not their child. And so it's the same thing with God. We are forever saved and protected from God's wrath of sending us to hell, we can never lose our salvation because Jesus already died for all of our sins, past, present, and future, and nothing can separate us from the love of God and he'll never leave us or forsake us, but at the same time though, he can still get angry and punish us pretty severely on this earth. The Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son and he receiveth. And so in chapter 10 we see a little bit of that aspect. It says in Hebrews 10, 19, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he had consecrated for us, through the veil that is to say his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. So this is all very positive about being saved. We have access into the most holy place, just like children of Israel couldn't go near that most holy place and only the high priest could go there once a year and he had to follow these really strict protocols, but in the New Testament, spiritually speaking, we can march right into the most holy place. We could just come boldly to the throne of grace and go to the Father through Jesus the Son and find grace to help in time of need and it's so great. But he says in verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. He's saying it's so important that we assemble together in these last days and motivate each other, encourage each other, admonish each other to be here in church. Because he says, for if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. Now this is not talking about losing your salvation or anything like that. What it's doing is it's comparing the New Testament to the Old Testament where if you made God mad in the Old Testament, you'd go down to the tabernacle or the temple and you'd bring an animal sacrifice and that would actually make things right between you and the Lord. It was a way to kind of fix things with God. And those animal sacrifices never provided salvation. The Bible says it's not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sins. It's only the blood of Jesus that could ever take away sins. People in the Old Testament were still saved by the blood of Jesus because Jesus is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world from God's perspective. So Jesus died on the cross for the people before him and the people after him. He died for the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints. Jesus died for everybody. But in the Old Testament, the idea of bringing a sacrifice down to the tabernacle is to basically just make peace with God. And some of them were even called a peace offering. Make peace with God, fix the relationship, and walk with God, but not about salvation. So what the Bible is saying here is that in the New Testament, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, okay, it says, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. But thank God in the New Testament, God has lightened up so much. But that's not what it says. It says, he that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who had trodden underfoot the Son of God and had counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and had done despite under the spirit of grace. You know, here we've got the spirit of grace. God gives us all this grace and if our sin abounds, grace much more abounds, and we don't want to abuse that grace of God because we could just say like, oh, no matter what I do, I'm saved. Well, you know, you can see how somebody could abuse that, right? Because I know that no matter what I do, I'm still saved because I have eternal life and Jesus saved me. But here's the thing, I'm not going to abuse that by just going out and living a sinful life because if I do, God's going to get really mad and God's going to punish me seriously. I mean, think about this, my wife, I will never leave my wife. I will never divorce my wife. Like we are married for life. And no matter what she does, she could do all kinds of crazy, horrible things. And I would still stay married to her because I have to, you know, if she did these horrific things, you know, thankfully she's not doing horrific things, but I'm saying like, if she did now, now what if I then just said, oh, well, my wife stuck with me no matter what if I, what if she said like, my husband stuck with me no matter what. So I'm just going to treat him like dirt. You know, would I stay married to her? Yeah. But is that the right thing to do? You think we're going to have a good marriage? No way. And we could flip that over and I could just say like, well, my wife's never going to leave me no matter what. So I'm just going to go out and do all these horrible things. And then she'd stay with me because she has to. And I'm just, just doing all kinds of horrible things and she's just staying with me because she has to or whatever. And then, you know, you could just, you could look at that as the same way of salvation. You see what I'm saying? Like my wife and I both know that the other person's not going to leave no matter what. Does that mean that we should abuse that relationship and that she should treat me like dirt or I should treat her like dirt? Absolutely not. And here's the thing. If the only reason that your wife is nice to you is because she knows you're going to leave if she's not nice to you or if the only reason that your husband is nice to you is because, you know, you're going to leave if he's not nice to you. Is that really the way that marriage is supposed to work? You know, that's kind of sad, isn't it? Like I better mind my P's and Q's or my wife's going to be out the door or, you know, she better, you know, cook the right stuff that I like and it better be on the table or I'm out of here. Okay. Folks, that's not marriage. Marriage is till death do us part. But even though I have total assurance that my wife is never going to leave me, I don't wonder about that. I don't wake up and wonder like, man, is my wife going to stay with me till the bitter end? I don't wonder about that. And she doesn't wonder that about me. But here's the thing. Does that mean that we just go out and do whatever we want and act however we want? So it's the same way with salvation. And sometimes I don't understand why people have such a hard time understanding that concept where they're like, well, if you can't lose your salvation, then, you know, who cares what you do? But that's like saying, well, if your wife's not going to leave you, why even do anything nice for her? That's bizarre because we love each other, right? We love each other. It's not that we're scared of each other. It's that we actually just love each other. So I want to do nice things for my wife. She wants to do nice things for me. And we don't want to just kind of do the minimum, what's it going to take to stay married? And I'm going to do the minimum because, frankly, the minimum is zero in our house because we're going to stay married no matter what. And so it's the same thing with God. So that's grace. We don't deserve salvation. We never deserved it in the first place. And so he's not going to take it away from us. We were never good enough to get it in the first place. We're not going to be so bad that he takes it away from us. That's grace. We don't want to do despite under that spirit of grace. We don't want to count the blood of the covenant we're with. We were sanctified, an unholy thing. We don't want to disrespect the Lord and just turn the grace of God into lasciviousness and just indulge all of our appetites because we can or something. Because if we do, God is going to get angry and he's going to cloud up and rain on us because it says in verse 30, for we know him that it said vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, saith the Lord. And notice this last part. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. He's not even talking about judging the heathen in this verse. He's saying the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So even though you're not going to lose your salvation, God can mess you up on this earth. I mean look, we're all going to be on this earth, most of us at least, for a long time from here on out. Like some of us are going to be here for 10, 20, 30, 40, maybe even 50 or 60 years. Some of you young children and teenagers, I hope you're going to be on this earth for maybe even 70, 80, 90 more years, right? And so you're going to be here for a long time. That's because you're going to go to heaven no matter what. There's some stuff that can happen between now and then. And you've got a long life to live, and God can really mess with you. And that's the same thing. You know, if I treat my wife like dirt, she probably is going to retaliate in some way or vice versa. And so therefore, if we want to have a happy home and a nice marriage, it's not just like, well, we're going to stay married no matter what. We also want to have harmony in our home. Well, it's the same thing with God. We want to have that walk with God. We want to have peace with God. And I don't know about you, I want God being my best friend. I don't want to be in my worst enemy. I like the fact that we sang that song. I was just by chance that we sang the song, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. And so I want God to bless me because I know that if God blesses me, whatsoever I do is going to prosper. Whereas, if God's against me, nothing that I do is going to prosper. You know, everywhere I turn, things can just go wrong. And we've all had days like that, right? Have you ever had a day where just everything you touch falls apart? And then you've had other days where everything you touch turns to gold. Well, you know, your whole life can be like that on a macro scale where God is just making everything you do fail or he could give you good success and make your way prosperous. And so, therefore, we want to stay on the right side of God. He can be our best friend or our worst enemy. The Bible says, The Lord shall judge his people. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So think about these two statements. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And the Bible also says, Our God is a consuming fire. Our God is a consuming fire. Flip over if you went to 1 Peter chapter 2 where we started, 1 Peter chapter 2, a couple pages to the right in your Bible, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 1 Peter 2 verse 6 says, Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. The him there is Jesus. He's the chief cornerstone. He's elect. He's chosen. He's precious. Verse 7, Unto you therefore which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. So to us he's precious. He's our cornerstone. But then in verse 8, to those that disobey the gospel, to those that reject the gospel, he is a stone of stumbling. What does that mean? It means that he is a rock that they trip over. They trip over this rock and crash and burn and get hurt. He's a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. He's offensive to them. And this world is often offended by Jesus, aren't they? They're often offended by the Bible. Bible verses offend people in this world. There are Bible verses that you could just post to Facebook and you're going to, you know, go to Facebook jail for 30 days or whatever. And that's just for posting a Bible verse. I mean I've literally had negative news articles written about me that said, Pastor Steven Anderson said, and then it literally just quoted the Bible and then end quote. And I'm like, are you going to put something that I said? But they literally just quoted a verse and then they just ended the quote. And it was just like, it was just a verse and I'm like, well, thank you for giving me credit for authoring part of the Bible, but it's kind of crazy because this was written a few thousand years ago. But you know, that's, that's what I'm saying. Like they're just offended just by that verse. Like can you believe this guy said that? Like they didn't realize that what I was saying was verbatim the Bible. They didn't take time to Google that and figure out that's not my quote. It kind of reminds me of this one guy heard, he said, you know, you know, the words of John Lennon, there's nothing new under the sun. And it's like, you know, he didn't realize that's not John Lennon that, that came up with that. Okay. That's John Lennon quoting the book of Ecclesiastes, but John Lennon's burning in hell right now by the way. You know, it's funny, John Lennon said, you know, right now the Beatles are more popular than Jesus Christ. And he said, you know, I think he said 50 years, I might be getting the quote a little bit off, but I know, I know that part's accurate. He said, we're more popular right now than Jesus Christ. And then he said, I forget the number. I want to say 50 years. I think it's like 50 years from now, people aren't going to be reading the Bible, but they're still going to be listening to the Beatles. But I promise you there are more people in church today singing praises to Jesus than listening to the Beatles today. I mean, if we could get all the stats right now off of like, uh, Spotify is Spotify is a music listening platform, right? Spotify, Apple music, all the radio stations of the world, all the internet radio, I guarantee if we add it all up and can figure out like how many people are listening to the Beatles today on Sunday, and then compare that with how many people went to church today and saying hymns to Jesus, I guarantee more people are singing about Jesus today than the stupid Beatles. Okay. But you know, it's funny how he said, Oh, we're more popular than Jesus Christ right now. But then notice then, you know, I, I, I'm not really up on my history about this, but I'm pretty sure that their band pretty much fell apart right after and he started hanging around with that weird chick and whatever got weird, got really weird fast. And then, and then somebody shot him a little bit after that. And then he went straight to hell and he did not pass go. He did not collect $200. I mean, he's just burning in hell. And so, cause he said, he said that he blasphemed the Lord. You know, he's not, he was not a friend of God. God was his enemy and God punished him. God first of all, kind of embarrassed him and made him look stupid for a while before getting him shot in the head. Kind of let him make an idiot of himself for a while and then get shot. Okay. That way, you know, if he, if he got shot at the peak of his career, people would have thought like, Oh man, you know, he would have been cool if he would have kept going, but it's like, no, no, no. He, he first makes a total idiot of himself and does all the stupid weird stuff to alienate everyone. Then he gets shot in the head and then he burns in hell. But that's who the world looks up to as a hero. They think he's so cool, but let me tell you something. It's all about your standing with the Lord. That's what matters. Not how popular you are, how much money you have or whatever. It's about your standing with God and the Bible is going to last forever. The Bible will never be gone and people will always believe in Jesus all the way until the end, of course. And so, but I don't, I can't, I don't know how long the Beatles are going to last. Okay. You know, there keeps me in new music and eventually people are going to forget my friend. Okay. Once all the boomers are gone and everything, it's going to, it's going to fade away, but the word of God is still going to be cranking. It's still going to be going strong. There's still going to be hundreds of millions of people worshiping the Lord every Sunday. I mean, think about it. There are literally hundreds of millions of people in this world today at church singing praises to Christ, literally hundreds of millions. Okay. I guarantee you that the Beatles aren't getting that many downloads. Okay. However many they're getting. Where were we? They stumble at the word. It's a rock of offense. They're offended by the Bible. They're offended by God's word. Where unto also they were appointed, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show forth the praise of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So he's speaking to believers of all nationalities, not a certain ethnicity, but he's speaking to all nationalities. That's why he says to these believers, he says, which in time past you were not a people in verse 10 you were not a people in time past because you're a mix of all nations. You're a mix of all ethnicities because it just saved Christians. So you're red, yellow, black and white, but now you make up this holy nation. You make up this, this chosen generation, royal priesthood, holy nation, peculiar people verse 10, which in time past were not a people, but now are the people of God which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Let's look at a parallel passage of this in Matthew 21. So let's go to Matthew 21. There's a nice parallel here with what Jesus preached while he was on this earth. And so Peter is echoing in 1 Peter 2 what Jesus already taught in Matthew chapter 21. Of course, Peter was following Jesus and hearing all these teachings from Jesus. And it says in Matthew chapter 21 verse 42, Jesus saith unto them, did you never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected? The same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. And that's the same thing that Peter quoted in 1 Peter 2. Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, talking to the Jews, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 1 Peter 2 goes into a little more detail about that nation and explains it. But this is the part that I really like here in Matthew 21 that's a little bit different than 1 Peter 2. It says whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. So it's like no matter how you hit this stone, it's going to break you. Like you can land on it and it breaks you. Or it can land on you and it grinds you to powder. You lose if you go up against Christ. Which goes back to what I was saying about a guy like John Lennon or something blaspheming Christ and then just getting ground to powder, just getting completely destroyed. And so God's word is the rock. Jesus is the rock. They're both the rock. Jesus is the word. And so if you think about it, God's word unto us that are saved is like a foundation that we build on. The Bible says other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. The Bible also says that whoever hears the sayings of Jesus and does them is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock. And so God's word is this rock of a foundation for us to build our lives on. But to those that are non-believers, it's not a foundation for them. It's something to trip them up. It's something that they stumble at. And what's interesting about that too is that it says it's a rock of offense. It's a stone of stumbling. It's something that trips them up or makes them fall. But it said in 1 Peter 2 that whereunto they also were appointed to suffer that fate. So basically God's word is intended to be a foundation to the saved and a stumbling block to the unsaved. So it's not like God gives us the word and then he's somehow surprised by the fact that people get offended or he's surprised that people are tripping and falling and getting crushed by the thing. No it says he appointed that. He already ordained and appointed that basically people who don't believe in Jesus that they crash and burn. Like that was always the plan. And so the word of God is meant to offend people. You know it's like oh man the Bible offends people. Well it always has offended people. It's not just 21st century America where all of a sudden people are offended by the Bible. People were offended by the Bible in the 20th century. People were offended by the Bible in the 19th century. 2,000 years ago people were offended by the Bible. 3,000 years ago people were offended by the Bible. This is not a new phenomenon. The Bible has always been a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to the unsaved. Jesus has always been a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. But to us which are saved he is our foundation. I mean think about it. Let's say you were building a house or something. If you found some really good stone or bedrock or something to build on as a good foundation, you know that could really cause you to have a great building. You know to have a great stone underneath it, a solid foundation. You don't want to build it on the sand, you want to build it on the rock. But now think about another plan where you're doing a building project and you run into a rock that's in the way. You know what if you're trying to build the foundation a certain way, you're trying to build the building a certain way and there's this giant rock that's in your way. That could create a huge obstacle to what you're trying to build. And so the idea here is that basically we need to, when we find that rock of God's word, we should plan our building around the rock. Like okay here's where the rock is, let's use it as the foundation and build here. Not come with our own blueprint of like well this is where we're going to build, this rock's in the way. So we better just plan around that rock and build around that rock and let that rock determine our building instead of trying to make our building determine the rock and then we're going to try to get out the dynamite and get rid of the rock and we're going to end up blowing ourselves up with the dynamite because you know you're just going to be crushed and broken to pieces by the rock of God's word if you're on the wrong side of God. Want to be on the right side of God, he can be our best friend or our worst enemy. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and in 1 Peter 2 it said, unto you therefore which believe he is precious. He's precious to us but to them he's a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Look what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, it's a similar idea. God can be our best friend or our worst enemy. It says now thanks be unto God, verse 14 of 2 Corinthians 2 verse 14, now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ and make him manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. And a savor is basically like a flavor or a smell, it's like a taste or a smell. And it says in verse 15, for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. We are a sweet savor of Christ, we're unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. Now you say, well sweet should always be good, right? I mean who doesn't want something sweet? Let me tell you something, sweet things are not always what you want. Now I have a bit of a sweet tooth, you know I like to eat a lot of sweets, I think most of us. We like to eat sugary foods, we like to eat candy, we like the sugary drinks and so forth. I think that that's pretty universal. But here's the thing, you know, I like to do a lot of long distance running. And here's the thing, at the very beginning of a run, sweets are good. Like I'm popping chocolate peanut butter cups or whatever. But let me tell you something, if I get a couple hours into a run, anything sweet just tastes so nasty to me. After two hours, as I get that stuff away from me, like I only want something savory and everything sweet is gross to me. And not only that, but even after I'm done with the run, for about 24 hours afterward, if I do a really long run, for 24 hours I do not want to eat anything sweet, just nothing. Even things I would normally love like ice cream, candy bars, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, I'm not even kidding, I'll be deep into a run and I'll just be thinking like, man, Cinnamon Toast Crunch is the nastiest cereal, like it's so gross, how can anyone eat it? Those are the kind of thoughts that go through my mind when I'm running, I'm not kidding. And you know, I've kind of overhyped my love of Cinnamon Toast Crunch a little bit. First of all, I like the off-brand Cinnamon Toast Crunch better, like the healthy one. Is that a Trader Joe's thing? Sprouts? Yeah, Sprouts has like the more healthy, you know, healthy version of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It has less sugar in it and it's way better than Cinnamon Toast Crunch, is the sprout stuff. But even that, you know, there is something better out there than Cinnamon Toast Crunch, folks, and it's called Peanut Butter Love Crunch. Who knows what I'm talking about? There's like four people in the room that have had it, five, six, God bless, every head bowed, everybody's closed, God bless you, I see that hand. But like Peanut Butter Love Crunch is so good, but I was just recently on a long run and I was just thinking, man, Peanut Butter Love Crunch is so nasty. Because it's just for some reason when my body is in that mode, everything sweet is just disgusting to me. And all I want to eat is like, I want to eat pizza, I want to eat like Nacho Cheese Doritos, I want to eat like quesadillas and burritos and enchiladas, but just, oh, sweet, it's like, ugh! Right? Now here's the thing, the Lord is sweet. God is sweet. The Bible says that his word is sweeter than honey. But this world that's out there, you know, many times, they're sort of like me, deep into those runs, that's how they feel about the Lord. Like we're like, hey, taste and see that the Lord's good. And they're like, they take a bite of that Peanut Butter Love Crunch that is the word of God. And they're just like, ugh, nasty. But you know, it's really just because their body is in a messed up place. Like my body's in kind of a messed up place on these long runs and I got probably all kinds of stress hormones and whatever going on. And so it just messes with my taste. This world's got messed up taste. I mean, look at all the junk that this world loves, the garbage that they love. And they love all of these just nasty things. And then they don't want Christ, they don't want the Lord, you know. And so we're that sweet saver of Christ. We're sweet people, you know, and you say, well, it's a hate group. No, no, no, we're sweet, okay. Pastor Anderson's a sweet guy and faithful word Baptist church filled with sweet people. And there's all kinds of sweet, loving people. It's true. You know, we visit our other friends' churches and everything. It's a lot of sweet people. Amen. The problem is this world's got a messed up taste buds. COVID messed up their taste. They can't taste right anymore, you know, they're tasting things the wrong way now. And so we're that sweet saver of Christ. But second Corinthians 2 16 says to the one, we are the saver of death unto death and to the other, the saver of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things for we're not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, as of God and the sight of God, speak we in Christ. And so today, this world in many ways can sometimes be disgusted by God. They're offended by God. They could be angry at God. They can hate the word of God. And we don't get it because we love God. We love the Bible. We're quoting these Bible verses, like, isn't this great? And people are just like, no, it's not great. But I'm like, yes, it is great. You're wrong. And you know, think about think about people who just eat a bunch of junk food. And then it's like you give them real food and then they don't like it. You give them something that's actually quality and they're like, give me McDonald's. That's their messed up taste. They think Taco Bell is the best Mexican food. You know, they think Burger King is the best burger. It's idiotic. But yet that's what their taste buds are telling them. Okay. Well, this world today has got messed up taste. And so even though we sing, what a friend we have in Jesus, my Jesus, I love thee. I know thou art mine. And we love Christ with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. And then they're out there just hating Christ, hating the Bible, hating church. And they don't even understand, like, why would you read the Bible? Why would you go to church? Why would you love the Lord? Well first of all, because he's the creator of the universe and we don't really have a choice because he's the boss and we need to just shut up and do what he says because he's the creator. But you know, we love it. We absolutely love it. You know, there are people, they take their vacation and they go on a mission trip. They get their week off from work, they go on a mission trip. They go to the Red Hot Preaching Conference. You know, they take trips. They do like church tourism and soul winning tourism and missions tourism. And the world would look at that and think it's crazy. But you know what? It's because they don't get it because they're on the wrong side of God. It's like they're looking at God and they're seeing all the judgment and wrath and they're seeing all the negative things. We're looking at God. We're seeing the mercy, the love, the kindness, the forgiveness. And it's just because we're on a different side of God. God can be our best friend or our worst enemy. So again, when it comes to saved and unsaved, this is very true. But even as saved Christians, we want to make sure to be like Abraham where we're the friend of God. But we don't want to be like King Saul where even though King Saul was saved, even though King Saul believed in the Lord, called upon the name of the Lord, it was definitely saved. Yet there came a point where God became his enemy and God actually made sure that he lost in battle, that he and his sons died on Mount Gilboa, that they were all slain in one day. Why did Saul and his sons die? It wasn't because the Philistines were just better warriors. It's because God turned on him. Because Saul did wrong and God turned on him. And we want God to be on our side. You know, the Bible says, if God be for us, who could be against us? What a great verse. If God be for us, who can be against us? But how about if we flip that over, you know, if God's against us, who can be for us? Who can deliver us? Who can help you if God's got it in for you? It's like, sorry, man, you're toast. Because what can you do at that point? Who can protect you from God? Nobody. And so God can be our best friend or our worst enemy. Let's make sure that we, first of all, make sure that everybody's saved. But once we're saved, you know, let's make sure that we're loving the Lord, that basically, you know, we're treating the Lord like we would treat our spouse the right way. That's how we should treat the Lord, right? And be kind and loving to our spouse. But then also, with the Lord, obey him, read the Bible, go to church, do right, get the sin out of our lives, because we want God to be for us. And you know what? Most of us want the same things out of life, right? I mean, we want to be blessed, we want to be able to take care of our families, we want to be able to put food on the table, we want to succeed at our job, we want to be healthy, we want our families to be blessed. We all kind of want the same things, right? You know, we want to be happy, we want to prosper, we want to do something great for God and win people to Christ, and you know, we all kind of want the same things. Well, you know what? We've got to get God on our side. If God's on our side, it's going to happen for us. He's going to give us the desires of our heart. But man, if we do not honor the Lord like we should, nothing we do can succeed. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, and Lord, thank you for saving us and loving us, Lord, and help us always to stay on your good side and not to anger you with our stupidity or our sinfulness, Lord. Help us to have a good relationship with you, even though there's nothing we could do to lose our salvation, Lord. Help us not to lose that sweetness of the relationship with you, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.