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More love to thee, more love to thee. Then shall my latest breath whisper thy praise. This be the parting cry my heart shall raise. May still this prayer shall be, more love of Christ with thee, more love to thee, more love to thee. All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside, we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. And tonight, we're starting out with the book of Proverbs, chapter number 1. We've got the soul winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. And then across the page there, we've got the Navajo reservation soul winning trip. We've already got about 30 people signed up for this one. So we're going to be going on Friday, August 26 through Saturday, August 27. The schedule and the details and the sign up are over there. So we're going to be exceeding the vehicles that we have. But don't worry, go and sign up anyway, because we're going to be renting vehicles to make sure that we have enough space for everyone. So we will definitely accommodate everyone that wants to go. And then on the back, we've got the Tucson anniversary coming up on Sunday, September 4, if you want to go down there and have some special services with Brother Oliver Gonzalez from Verity. There's a potluck lunch involved. It's not absolutely necessary. But if you could let Brother Corbin know if you're planning on going, just so that he can have a vague idea of how many people are coming. And then keep praying for our ladies that are expecting that they'll have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery. And then other upcoming events are listed there below. That's about it for announcements. Let's go and count up the soul winning from the past few days. So going back to Monday, anything from Monday? OK, anything else from Monday? How about Tuesday? Got it, got it. OK, anything else from Tuesday? And then how about today? I know we had six for the van. What about outside the van, outside the main van group? All right, very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. And with that, let's go and sing our next song. Come lead us. All right, we're going to sing Psalm 96. You should find the answer in your hymnal there. If you don't have one, please raise your hand. Psalm 96, so sing unto the Lord a new song. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name. Show forth His salvation from day to day. He blared His glory above the hill, His wonders among all people. For the Lord is great and great to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. Give unto the Lord, all ye kindreds of youth. Give unto the Lord, glory and strength. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name. Show forth His salvation from day to day. For all the gods of the nations are else. For the Lord made the heavens, honor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, all ye kindreds of evil. Give unto the Lord, glory and strength. Give unto the Lord, the Lord of you unto Thee. Bringing hovering and coming to His words. Oh, worship the Lord with the beauty of wholeness. Fear before Him, all the earth. Say among the heathen that the Lord reigns. The world also shall establish, that it shall not be moved in. He shall not appeal righteously. Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad. Let the sea pour and the fullness swear out. Let the field be joyful and all that swear in. And shall all the trees of the world rejoice. For the Lord, for He cometh. For He cometh to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness and the people with it's truth. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, blessed be. Show perfect salvation from day to day. Amen, your Psalm looks down. Let's go to hymn number 247. 247, saved, saved. Hymn number 247 begins, I found a friend who is all to me. His love is ever true. I love to tell how He lives in me. And love is free. I love to tell how He lives in me. I love to tell how He lives in me. And love is free. He's here to warn you. Save thy heart, be fine. Save thy life, survive. I'm now asleep and my joy is not weak for us. Save, save, save. How many here are saved? Okay, let's figure out how many are saved. He saves me from? He saves me from every sin and harm. Signores my soul each day. I'm leaning strong, but it's like the arm. I know it'll guide me all the way. Save thy power, be fine. Save thy new life, survive. I'm now asleep and my joy is not weak for us. Save, save, save. When Lord and Lady and all are gone, if love be said to be with me, come unto me and I'll lead you home to live with me eternally. Save thy power, be fine. Save thy new life, survive. I'm now asleep and my joy is not weak for us. Save, save, save. Alright, this time we'll pass our offering plates around and as the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Proverbs chapter one. Proverbs chapter number one. As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter. Beginning in verse number one, follow on silently with brother Hester as he reads Proverbs chapter one, starting in verse number one. Proverbs chapter one, the Bible reads, Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment and equity, to give subtly to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion, a wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. To understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head and chains about thy neck. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause, let us swallow them up alive as the grave and whole as those that go down into the pit. We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil, cast in thy lot among us, let us all have one purse. My son, walk not thou in the way with them, refrain thy foot from their path for their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood. Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird and they lay wait for their own blood. They lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets. She crieth in the chief place of the concourse. In the openings of the gates in the city she uttereth her words saying, how long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge. Turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you. I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded. But ye have set at naught all my counsel and would none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind. When distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer. They shall seek me early but they shall not find me. For that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof. Therefore they shall eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil. Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for the preaching and thank you for the rest to hear from the book of Proverbs. We know it's a precious book and please give us wisdom through this series. And we thank you for sending Jesus to save us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. So as we get into this new book of Proverbs, chapter one provides a great introduction to the book. Let me just quickly explain to you how this book is laid out. The first nine chapters are really different than the rest of the book. So the first nine chapters are kind of following a certain flow or thought process explaining things. And they're really just explaining a lot about the importance of wisdom and learning and avoiding the strange woman. And they kind of narrate through different scenarios and different things. But then when you get to chapter 10, the book changes quite a bit. And from chapters 10 through 29, it's more just these individual little Proverbs. So sometimes one verse doesn't really feel like it has that much to do with the next verse. That's chapters 10 through 29. But the first nine chapters, everything flows together in kind of one thought per chapter or a couple thoughts per chapter. Then when you get to the very end, you have chapters 30 and 31 which seem to be from different authors than the rest of the book. So they're put at the end. You have the words of Lemuel and the words of Agur. Some people say that these are also written by Solomon. That it's just like a pen name or something. But I don't believe that for one second. I think it's just two different authors that are tagged on at the end. So that's the basics of the book of Proverbs. But chapter 1 is a great introduction to the book because it really starts out just by talking about the purpose of the book of Proverbs and the importance of gaining wisdom in general. And I have four points that I want to give you from this chapter tonight. And I'm just going to tell you right now what those four points are because we're going to see these four points come up over and over again in this chapter. Point number one is that in order to learn, you have to want to learn. Learning is a choice. And people who don't want to learn are not going to learn. People who do want to learn are going to receive wisdom. Number two, that wisdom and righteousness are inexorably linked. You can't separate them. You can't have wisdom without godliness and vice versa. Number three, we need to listen to other people. Listen to what other people are saying and learn from them. And then number four, eventually if you fail to choose wisdom, it will be too late for you to learn. And that ship will sail, so you better learn while you can. So these are kind of the four main points of this chapter. And so let's pray and go home. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, I'm giving you these up front because we're going to see all four of these come up over and over again in this chapter. I feel like these are the four main messages of this chapter. So let's start out in verse number one. The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. And then he gets into the purpose of the book. To know wisdom and instruction. To perceive the words of understanding. To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment, and equity. To give subtlety to the simple, to the young man, knowledge and discretion. So let me show you what I mean about my four points here. First of all, he says in verse three, to receive the instruction of wisdom. Notice, the instruction, the wisdom has to be received. I can get up and give you all kinds of facts and all kinds of information and all kinds of deep truths and expound the Bible to you. But if you're not open to receive that, it's not going to do you any good. You have to show up wanting to learn. Wanting to learn what Pastor Anderson can give you from the Bible on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. If you show up ready to hear and ready to learn, you're going to learn a lot. But if you just show up thinking that you already know everything, you're not going to learn much, are you? How many things did we study in school growing up and we have no idea what we were supposed to get out of that class and we didn't learn anything because we didn't want to? I mean, think about how many people have gone through Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 in high school. I know it was required in California to graduate from high school. You had to do two years of Spanish. Who here has had a couple of years of Spanish? Okay, who here has had a couple of years of Spanish and you don't speak Spanish at all? Okay, yeah, it's almost the same number of people. Why? Because you probably weren't that jazzed about it. You're kind of just grinding it out because it's a requirement and you show up, you cram for the test, you get through it. But let me tell you something. I went to Spanish 1, 2, I actually went to Spanish 3 even in high school and I took some Spanish in college as well. But honestly, I didn't really learn that much until I became a pastor. And then as a pastor, I started seeing how many doors didn't speak English and how many people needed to hear the gospel in Spanish. Then I had a desire to learn Spanish and I learned more Spanish just on my own in like six months than all those classes put together because I really wanted to learn it. It was really important to me. And so you learn what you want to learn. If you go to school and you don't really want to learn what they're teaching, you're not going to get a whole lot out of it. Well guess what? Church is the same way. Reading your Bible is the same way. You have to want to learn. So he said the purpose of this book is so that you will receive the instruction of wisdom. And then he says justice and judgment and equity. So remember point number two is that wisdom and righteousness are inexorably linked. You can't really separate them because notice, in order to learn wisdom, you also learn what? Justice. What is justice? Justice means righteousness. In fact, most languages in this world don't have two different words for righteousness and justice. They just have one word for both. Like in Spanish, it's just Justicia and it's both. Latin, one word for both. German, one word for both. Greek, one word for both. Hebrew, one word for both. Hungarian, one word for both. In fact, there are very few languages that have a different word for righteousness and justice. And in fact, the Bible will use righteous and just interchangeably because they mean the same thing. It'll talk about just Lot who was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. And then the next verse says that righteous man. That just man. The righteousness man. It's the same thing. And so justice is righteousness. It is what is right. Okay? If we went to a courtroom, we said we want justice. It means that we want the judge to rule the right way so that the right person is found to be the winner of that suit. Or the right person is convicted and the right person is set free, right? We want justice. We want the judge to do right by the law. Judgment and equity. What is equity? Equity has to do with things being fair, things being righteous, things being just. You see, wisdom and doing right go together hand in glove. Wicked people don't really have wisdom. Think about the most wicked people that the Bible describes. Romans chapter 1, right? Romans chapter 1 kind of describes that downward spiral of people getting worse and worse and worse and worse. Okay? And they get to that final stage of depravity where they're just completely perverted and completely reprobate in the eyes of God. What does it say about that group of people? On the way down, it says professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. So in the process of becoming wicked, you become a fool as well. And in the process of becoming godly, you gain wisdom. Because being really smart and having wisdom and not just knowing facts or knowing math or something, but actually, you know, being smart about how you live your life, it really is connected to being godly. You know, the wicked, the atheists, they are foolish in the eyes of God. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. True wisdom cannot be separated from righteousness. A lot of people have defined wisdom as being, you know, knowledge being put into practice in a practical way. You know, because a person could have a lot of knowledge but not necessarily have wisdom, right? A person could know a lot of facts, do really well on a test, but then, you know, make a bunch of stupid decisions in their life. They don't have wisdom, right? I heard one person say that knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad, okay? It's, you know, being able to practically apply the knowledge that you know in real life, okay? And so we see that wisdom goes right along with justice, judgment, and equity. To give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. Remember my fourth point was eventually it's too late to learn. So you better learn this stuff when you're young because you're the most open to receive learning when you're young. Now, if you're smart, you will stay open your entire life, and I've known people that are 70, 80, 90 years old that are still learning. They are truly a lifelong learner and they're still processing information and still grasping new things and they're still growing in knowledge and wisdom. And I pray to God that I will be that way when I'm 70, 80, 90. I'm trying to stay, you know, in a process of learning all the time so that I can be that guy that's not just stuck in my ways when I'm 70 but I'm still growing, still learning, okay? But sadly, most people, you know, they get to a certain point and they stop learning. So the book is directed at young men because they're the most likely to be ready to be able to receive this kind of wisdom because it's not too late for them because the whole end of this chapter is about it being too late at some point. If you're stupid and don't learn wisdom while you can. And then it says in verse 5, a wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels, right? So the smart person finds someone who's laying down wisdom, someone who's giving good instruction. They seek out teachers that can guide them and give them learning. They want to get instruction, they want to be taught, right? And so again, that's my third point, listen to other people. Be willing to learn from others because a wise man will hear, a wise man will listen to when other people tell him something, he'll listen, he'll increase learning. A man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels to understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings. That's listening to other people, isn't it? Don't be a know-it-all. Don't be somebody, and especially teenagers, don't be thinking that you know so much more than your parents and you know so much more than your elders. You know less than you think, my friend. When I was 15, 16, 17, 18, I thought I knew everything too. But now I look back and there's so much I did not know that I've learned since then. So you don't know everything, listen to other people. And so those four points are all really laid out in the first six verses, and the rest of the chapter is going to develop these four points further. Look at verse number seven. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Point number one, you have to want to learn. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. They don't want to learn. They're not interested in learning more. They're not interested in learning anything new. They don't want to listen to other people. They don't like instruction. They don't like people telling them what to do. You know, I want people to teach me new skills and new learning. I don't want to be an idiot that just says, oh, I already know. I don't want to learn anything. You know, I want to attain unto wise counsels. You know, one of the illustrations I think of with this is weightlifting. You know, I remember when I first got into weightlifting a long, long time ago. And, you know, I got a bunch of training from Brother Segura. You know, Brother Segura knew a lot more about weightlifting than I did in those days. And he had done a lot of stuff in the military, and he'd run a lot of the physical training in the military. And at that time, he was stronger than me. Now, I don't know about now, Brother Segura, but maybe, I don't know. After the service, maybe we can have another contest like we used to back in the old days. But anyway, like, but back then, he was definitely, he was definitely a lot stronger than me. And he knew a lot more about weightlifting than I did. And I remember, you know, being trained by him and having him show me stuff. And I would go over to his house, also known as, you know, Brother Segura's House of Pain. And he had some gym equipment set up, and he would show me some of the movements and everything. Now, here's the thing. I could go seek out someone who's weaker than me to make me feel better about myself. And I'd just beat them in every lift, and I could be telling them what to do and be stronger. You know, but I sought out the guy who's stronger than me and knows more than me so that I could learn. Because I wanted to learn. I wasn't trying to just have an ego or be a big shot. It was like, no, no, no. I wanted to listen to someone else, learn from someone else. I wanted to lift with someone who was actually stronger and more experienced than me so that I could learn something. OK. And it's the same thing spiritually. Like, we want to seek out people who know more than us, who know the Bible well, who are more knowledgeable about whatever the subject we're trying to learn. And we want to get them to teach us and get them to show us things and learn from them. But you know what a lot of people? They don't want to be around people who are more advanced than them because it makes them feel bad about themselves. Because they're too prideful to humble themselves and learn from someone else. And so therefore, you know, they get around somebody who knows more than them, and they would avoid that person because it hurts their ego, it hurts their pride to be around someone who's more advanced. But really, we should want to be around people that are more advanced than us in order to challenge us and drive us to further our knowledge, further our abilities in any area in life. Right? I mean, we should want to get around people that are going to lift us up. And that's the great thing about Faithful Word Baptist Church. The Faithful Word Baptist Church has a lot of great Christians in it, a lot of people that know the Bible, a lot of people who've been soul winning for a long time. So you can really learn a lot just by going out soul winning with different people and picking up different things and having conversations about the Bible. You know, there are a lot of people who are experienced here and who know a lot. But we should seek out those wise counsels and seek out people who have skills that we need and get them to teach us and learn from them and glean what we can from them. It takes a humble person, right? To put yourself under someone else's tutelage takes a bit of humility. You know, the same thing with swimming, you know, like I grew up swimming around, but I'd never really had any formal training. And so I submitted myself to Brother Berzins and Pastor Berzins taught me how to swim properly because he used to be a competitive swimmer. And then other different guys in different churches that we fellowship with, whenever I would hear that somebody was a good swimmer, I'd say, hey, let's go down to the gym. I want you to watch me swim and tell me what I'm doing wrong. I want you to correct me and give me tips on how I can get better at swimming. But see, a lot of people, they don't want to be corrected, do they? They don't want somebody to tell them what they're doing wrong. They want someone to just be like, man, you're doing great. You're so awesome. You're the best. You know, I'm like, tell me what I'm doing wrong. Look at me. And I remember the first time I showed Pastor Berzins my swimming stroke, because this was like my really early days of swimming. And I said, you know, so what do you think? And he's just like, no, that was horrible. He's like, you're not even close. And I'm just like, get out of here. No, I was like, oh, well, yeah, tell me what to do. You know, how do I fix it? I wasn't offended because he told me the truth that my swimming was wrong. I was glad that he told me my swimming was wrong so I could get it right. OK, you want to just go to church and have the pastor just tell you everything you want to hear? Or do you want the pastor to tell you, hey, this is what you're doing wrong. So you can fix it. So that you can do better. So that he can save you a lot of trouble down the road and you can actually swim the right way, right? Because in this world, you want to be swimming right. Here's the thing about Pastor Berzins, you know, when you watch Pastor Berzins swim, it looks like he's just putting forth no effort. But he's just going way faster than you. You know, we were just at the camping trip a few months ago and I swam across the lake with Pastor Berzins. And like, I'm training all the time. I'm swimming all the time. And he's like, oh, yeah, I haven't swum in months and months and months. I'm out of shape. I haven't been swimming. But we get in the water and he's just like, bzzz. Because it's all technique. And I look at him and it looks like he's not even putting forth any effort. And he's just flying. Why? That's how life is, my friend. Some people are working really hard in life, but they're not getting anywhere. Bad swimmers look like they're working really hard. Good swimmers don't look like they're working at all. They're just like, la da da da. And they're just like, zoom. Because it's not always about working harder. It's about working smarter. Learn the Word of God. Learn the wisdom from God's Word. Listen to the pastor. Listen to your parents. Listen to wise counsels. Listen to instruction. Listen to what people are saying. And gain the knowledge and the wisdom that will let you sail through life like a skilled swimmer. Not just doggy paddling through life and wondering why it's so hard. Well, the way of transgressors is hard. Christ's yoke is easy. And so, sorry to bring exercise into this, but I know that hurts your feelings. But anyway, it was too good of an illustration to pass up. So he says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Idiots don't want to be told how to do things. Right? Fools despise instruction. Idiots don't want to be taught. They don't want to be told, here's what you're doing wrong. Fix this. Change this. Do this. They're just like, let me figure it out myself. No, no, no. Smart people, they want training. They want advice. My son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother. For they shall be an ornament of grace under thy head and chains about thy neck. Listen to your parents. Listen to other people. Verse number 10, my son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. These are the kind of things that your parents will tell you. If they say, come with us, let us lay weight for blood. Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause. Let us swallow them up alive as the grave and whole as those that go down into the pit. We shall find all precious substance. We shall fill our houses with spoil. So, here's the way I see this. Verses 1 through 9 are just sort of setting up the need for wisdom, the need for instruction, righteousness, justice, judgment, equity, wisdom, learning, instruction. Listen. Listen to me. Listen to your parents. Listen to God. Listen to the Bible, right? Learn. Get smarter. Get wisdom. Do right. Be godly. Okay. But then, when we get to verse 10, it's like we get specific now. Here's the first, like, piece of advice you're being given. Because over the first nine chapters, you're being given all this advice. And all these things are being explained to you over the first nine chapters of the book of Proverbs. And this is sort of the first thing that's being explained. The enticement of the sinful crowd. Okay? And there are a lot of different ways we could apply this scripture. But I'll tell you, every time I read this scripture, I'll tell you where my mind instantly goes is to gang culture. It goes to gangs. Like, that's the first thing I think of whenever I read this. There are other ways to interpret this that are legitimate. And there are lots of other applications you can make. But I feel like right on the surface, the obvious thing right here is sort of the gang culture. And you know what? Let's just go ahead and call it what it is. In many ways, it's the hip-hop culture. You know, sorry to break that to you. But guess what? A lot of the rap music is promoting the gang lifestyle. Gangster rap. I don't know if that's still what it's called, but that's what it was called when I was a teenager. Is that still a thing? Can I get a witness? All right. All right. Couple white people are saying it is? Okay. They're the experts, right? No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, no, but seriously, you know, this gang culture, it's like described to a T of just kind of petty crime. And just let's all join together. We're going to be this group. And, you know, we're all going to put our money together. First 14, cast in thy lot among us. Let us all have one purse. So these sinners are enticing you with the gold rims on the SUV. And they're enticing you with the fancy clothes, the fancy shoes, the fancy jacket, the jewelry, the fancy car, the hydraulics, everything that goes along with that culture of being a petty criminal and having all these fancy things because you stole or because you dealt drugs or whatever. I feel like that's really a really primary application that's basically saying stay away from that gang crowd, that sinful crowd. And of course you could apply it beyond that, not to just gangs, but to just say stay away from the sinful crowd. They make sin look fun and exciting and good. But what you find is that the sinful crowd is going to take you further than you want to go. And eventually they may turn and devour you because they don't truly love you. There's no honor among thieves. Now a lot of people are drawn into either gangs or other just sinful peer groups because they find acceptance there, they find a sense of belonging. We need to find that sense of belonging in our families and in the local church. That's where that sense of belonging is supposed to be found. We all as human beings, we desire to be a part of a tribe. We desire to be a part of a group or a gang or some kind of a family or some kind of a group of people that's larger than us. We want that connection with a community or society. Am I right? Find it somewhere else. Don't find it amongst sinful, wicked people. And look, a lot of times the sinful crowd is ready and willing to accept you just as you are. They're not like the mean old pastor and church people that are telling you that as a man you need to dress like a man. As a lady you need to dress like a lady. And they don't want you to get a tattoo. And they don't want you to get so many piercings that you look like you fell into a fishing tackle box. And they don't want you to drink and do drugs. They have all these rules about living a clean life. Whereas the faggoty lesbo crowd, they'll accept whatever freaking weirdo you want to be. You can be whatever and they'll accept you. They'll accept anything. You know, the gangs, they want you to get a tattoo. They want you to drink. They want you to do drugs. You know, basically these groups will accept you however you are. They don't expect you necessarily to change or whatever. So there's an appeal of saying like, well these people, you know, they're going to kind of let me do whatever I want. I can get with these people and it's really loose. It's really laid back. They're really cool. But let me tell you something. It is an illusion. These people are going to take you down a dark path. You start hanging around with a bunch of faggots and lesbians. You know what they're going to do? They're going to ply you with alcohol or ply you with drugs and they're going to abuse you. They're going to molest you. They're going to get you into some weird junk that you have no desire to get into. Stay away from them. They're evil. They're freaks. They're predators. They're not reproducers. They're recruiters. They're molesters. They are predators. Stay away from them. Yeah, the gangs maybe, you know, yeah, they accept you and, you know, you can act however you want. And yeah, they want you to steal and drink. But here's the thing. When you get with these groups, you know, the stealing is not going to be optional. The violence isn't going to be optional. The fistfights aren't going to be optional. The drinking, the drugs, the smoking is not going to be optional, my friend. And they are going to take you deeper in than you want to go. See, Christians always want to dabble with sin. You know, we as Christians, like, we don't want to go all the way off the cliff and get deep into sin. But, you know, we kind of just want to dabble in sin. I mean, it's human nature. But the problem is that sin takes you further than you want to go. It keeps you longer than you want to stay and it costs you more than you're willing to pay. And these peer groups, these sinful groups of people that will try to pull you in, they want to pull you into the bar scene, they want to pull you into the nightclub scene. You know, it might just seem fun on the surface. Hey, it's just fun. We're just going to go and dance and we like the music and the lights and the fun. There's a lot of energy. But then the drugs come out. Then the pills come out. Then the drinking comes out. You know, and then next thing you know, you're being pressured to do things physically with people. And, you know, you're being taken to a lot of dark places that you want to go, you don't want to go. And so let me tell you something, is that it's easy to be foolish and naive as a young person thinking that the world out there actually has something to offer that's of value. They don't. Oh, but Pastor Anderson, I'm just so lonely. You know, I go to church and it's like, I just, you know, I'm just lonely. I just don't have enough meaningful relationships at church, you know, or whatever. Let me tell you something. Out there in the world, people feel the same way. A lot of people out there in the world, they also struggle to find meaningful relationships in their life. This is called the human condition. And you should know that whatever trials and tribulations you're going through, that the same temptations are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world as well. Christians that are out there living in the world, they're going through the same stuff you're going through. Except that they don't have the joy of being in church and serving Christ and doing the right thing. They have a bad conscience and they still don't have meaningful relationships. You know, it always cracks me up how young people, they think if they go to public school, they're just going to have all these wonderful friends. Those of us who went to public school know that most of those relationships are not meaningful. Most of your friends at public school or Christian school, you don't really care about them and they don't really care about you. You're kind of just going through the motions. And it's really rare that you actually have a meaningful friendship. You know, I had some really meaningful friendships when I was growing up and you know what I find is that they didn't last. You know, there are times I have a best friend and then six months later they're not your best friend anymore. And it's like, dude, folks, good friends are hard to come by in life. And it's not just because you go to church. It's not just because you're a Christian. Oh, but if you were worldly, you'd just have all these wonderful meaningful relationships. It's baloney. Because let me tell you something, the world out there is going through the motions. And yeah, on social media, they can really polish the apple and they can really make it look like, oh, me and the boys and blah, blah, blah. It's not that cool. It's fake. It's a facade. The sinners are enticing you. Do not consent unto them. Don't listen to them. It's a lie. It's a fraud. The party scene, the bar scene, the nightclub scene, the worldly scene, it doesn't offer what you think it offers. Some meaningful sense of community, belonging. Being in a gang is not going to give you the sense of community that you're looking for because you're going to get into deeper stuff than you expected. You're going to end up in prison. You're going to end up in trouble. And then you try to leave and you can't leave and whatever because that's the way it works. Well, what does the Bible say? Verse 10, my son of sinners entice thee consent thou not if they say, come with us, let us lay weight for blood, let's lurk privately for the innocent without cause. And you know what? This is what a lot of teenagers and young people do. They just go out and do random acts of violence for kicks. I mean, how many times have you known about teenagers, those of you that are older and actually know about life, how many times can you think of in your life that you've seen young people go out and just do random acts of violence or random acts of vandalism? Who would say when I was a teenager, either I or people that I knew right around me were out just randomly breaking stuff, destroying stuff, hurting animals, hurting people. Folks, almost every hand is up of people who've actually been out there in the world and know what's going on out there. Let me tell you something. Young people, these roving bands of teenagers, you know what they do? They're constantly breaking stuff. They're destroying stuff. They're ruining stuff for no reason. They hurt animals for no reason. They hurt people for no reason. This is what they do. It's not meaningful. It's stupid. It's foolish. It's idiotic. But I guarantee you, young people are out doing it right now as we speak. OK, so that's what the Bible's talking about. People are just like, they lay weight for blood. They lurk privately for the innocent without cause. They just think it's fun to just beat somebody up for kicks, to just, I mean, think about these kids that are just like dropping rocks off an overpass or something, just causing car accidents, just graffiting up everything, break through a window just for kicks, kill a cat, kill a dog just for kicks. It's wickedness. They're out destroying people's property, hurting people's feelings, making fun of people for no reason, harming people for no reason, breaking stuff for no reason. This is the kind of stuff that they do. You know, just getting in the car and just driving full speed on trash day and just slamming into all the empty barrels and just knocking them all over the street. Busting mailboxes down with a baseball bat, right? Pipe bomb under the car. OK, all right, I'm giving you ideas. But I'm just saying, like, you know, this is stupid, idiotic, random acts of vandalism, violence, whatever. But, you know, the wrong crowd of teenagers, they do this kind of stuff. And that's what God's warning you about. Don't fall in with these kind of people that do this kind of stuff because they're going to turn on you, too. And then they do the petty thievery. We shall find all precious substance. We shall fill our houses with spoil, right? We're going to steal. We're going to shoplift. It's going to be great. We're going to do credit card fraud. I had a teenager try to get me into credit card fraud when I was about 17 years old. And he taught me how to do credit card fraud on the Internet. This is the early days of, like, dial-up Internet. And he was explaining to me, and by the way, this guy claimed to be a Christian. Maybe he was saved, you know, because even saved kids can be an idiot. And he justified it. He's like, well, and I watched him steal someone's credit card and order a samurai sword and have it delivered to a house down the street. And then he retrieved the package and used a stolen credit card number to buy himself a samurai sword. And the way that he justified it was he said, well, you know, when these people get their credit card statement and they see a samurai sword being delivered to Elk Grove, California, and they're in Minnesota, they're just going to call their credit card company and get it straightened out. And so really the only person I'm really stealing from is the credit card company and they're thieves anyway. So he had this all figured out in his head why this is okay. But by the way, not everybody reads their credit card statement. So that's the first problem with his logic. Number two, you can always find a way to justify sin, but it's still sin. It's still stealing. The guy who steals your bike, he thinks, oh, I'm a victim, I'm underprivileged, you're rich, you have two bikes, I can take your bike. It's stealing. Thou shalt not steal. But I'm telling you, there are the kids that are going to try to get you into credit card fraud. They're going to try to get you to smoke pot with them and drink with them and party with them. Next thing, they're handing you pills. And you don't even know what those pills are. And you take them because you want to be cool and fit in and you're going to fry your brain, you're going to ruin your life. And by the way, let me just bring up steroids as well. Something that I've rung that bell a lot. Do not be so stupid as to get into steroids. Okay? And that's a whole, that deserves a whole sermon. But anyway, so I don't want to spoil it. But, you know, oh, we're going to fill our, we're going to find all precious substance. We're going to fill our house with spoil. We're going to get the samurai swords and the shoes and the jackets and all the stupid things that you don't need in life. Okay? I mean, yeah, if you're in medieval Japan or something, get a samurai sword. But we don't need one in 2022 America. Okay? Cast in thy lot among us. Let us all have one purse. My son, walk not thou in the way with them. Refrain thy foot from their path, for their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood. They are going to do worse than what you think and they're going to take you further into sin than you want to go. Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. Obviously you're not going to see it coming when they turn on you, when they rob you, when they decide to harm you. They lay weight for their own blood. They lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain, which take away the life of the owners thereof. People that are willing to steal and rob and kill and hurt other people, these gang members that are willing to shoot other people, they're eventually willing to shoot you also. Or to force you to shoot someone. And then it's just going to ruin your whole life. And so that, you know, that's kind of the first teaching that we get here, verses 10 through 19, is basically just explaining stay away from the gangs, stay away from the hip hop culture, don't get involved in violent gangs, don't get involved in petty crime, the stealing, the random acts of violence, the random acts of vandalism. You know, it's going to take you further than you want to go. Don't be fooled or seduced by how good it looks to be a part of the brotherhood or the group or the gang or whatever. Stay away from that crowd. Stay away from the wicked crowd. So then he changes gears in verse 20. Wisdom crieth without. She uttereth her voice in the street. She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates, in the city. She uttereth her words saying, how long ye simple ones will you love simplicity? And scorners delight in their scorning. And fools hate knowledge. Turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you. I will make known my words unto you. And again, getting back to my four points. You have to want to learn. It's like, hey, idiot, how long are you going to love simplicity and hate knowledge? Desire learning. And listen to other people. Wisdom is crying without. That's your parents, that's the pastor, that's the Bible, that's other wise people in your life, other people that are giving you good advice. Listen to them. Turn at their reproof. When they tell you to change, you might need to change because they're older and wiser and warning you about the path that you're going down because eventually it's going to be too late if you don't listen. And so the sinful crowd, you know, let's generalize because the Bible is kind of specifically talking about like a gang culture, a violent gang. And violent gangs are out there, am I right? That's still a thing. That'll always be a thing. It was a thing in the Bible days. Obviously, the surface right there is just don't get involved in a violent gang. Most of us are probably not tempted with joining a violent gang as teenagers, you know, growing up in a Baptist church. But in general, you can extrapolate this out, just don't be seduced by the sinful crowd no matter who they are. Don't get seduced by the drug crowd. Don't get seduced by the pervert crowd. Don't get seduced by whatever the sinful crowd, the steroid-filled muscle head crowd. Don't get seduced by any of these, the drinking crowd, you know, the nightclub crowd, whatever. Just don't get seduced by any of these crowds. Listen to wisdom and get in a godly crowd. Get in a Christian group. Find that sense of community in the local church, family, Christian friends. And you know, you ought to thank God that our church is a big church. And you know, a lot of people have a weird standard for what they think is a big church. They think you have to be Joel Osteen to have a big church or something. You know, our church runs like 300 on Sunday mornings. We have approximately 400 people who come to our church on a regular basis. You know, in the course of a month, we have like 400 people who regularly will attend this church. Evening services, over 200. Sunday mornings, over 300. That's actually like four times as big as the average independent fundamental Baptist church. So we ought to be thankful for that. There are opportunities for fellowship here. There are friends to be had here. Now if you come, if you show up and there's hundreds and hundreds of people and you say, oh, I just can't find any friends here, you know, maybe you're the problem. Maybe you need to be a little friendlier. Maybe you need to reach out to more people and meet more people because there are a lot of great people here. You know, if you can't find friends when we have, you know, 400 people in our church, what about churches that have 50 people in them? What about churches that have 75 people in them? What about churches that have 100 people in them? You know, I bet God still expects those church members to be faithful to their church and love their church and find friends in their church. Now I'm not saying not to have friends outside church. I have friends outside of church. But you know, we need to seek out good influences. Yeah, have friends outside of our church, but make them Christian friends. Make them friends who love the Lord. Make them friends who want to do right, not friends that are trying to get you to drink, trying to get you to do drugs, trying to get you to fornicate. Find some friends that actually want to do right and be smart and be wise and whatever. And so it says in verse 24, verse 23 says, you know, wisdom is speaking. Wisdom is being personified. Turn you of my reproof. Bold I will pour out my spirit unto you. I'll make known my words unto you because I've called and you refused. I've stretched out my hand and no man regarded. But you've said it not all my counsel and would none of my reproof. You know what it means to set it not all of wisdom's counsel or the Lord's counsel? It's like when you give someone really good advice and then they explain to you why you're wrong. Right? It's like, you know, you'll sit there, you'll go to an unsafe person, explain to them why it's by faith, why salvation is by faith and not of works. And then they'll explain to you why you're wrong. And you, having the Holy Spirit inside you, being enlightened, you're just thinking like, this person is so lost. This person is so lost. But they're basically like setting it not your counsel. Like you go to the door, you knock on the door, you give the gospel, you present the plan of salvation and then they just like undo everything you've said, un-preach everything you've said, unravel everything you've said. But they're wrong. And this is how sometimes teenagers are. You'll explain to teenagers, hey, you know, this is what's right. And then they're just like, well, dad, let me tell you how it is, dad. Let me explain to you, mom. And they'll kind of like set it not your counsel and explain to you why it's all wrong and why you're all wrong and why, you know, and you're just like, dude. And it's the same thing with the atheists. They'll just kind of just unravel the Bible and whatever. But they're wrong. They're trying to make nothing. They're trying to make a zero out of God's word. But God's word is the truth. God's word is the rock. God's word is right. The wisdom is sound, but yet, you know, people can still set it at naught in their own mind and then they walk away thinking that they have won the argument. But it's like, no, you know, all you're doing is just making an idiot out of yourself. Professing yourself to be wise, you're making yourself into a fool right there. I mean, I remember just just a couple of weeks ago, we're out sowing and we give the gospel to this guy and the guy was just not receiving the gospel. And he gave the dumbest answers like his answers made no sense. Like, well, Jesus paid for all your sins, but, you know, but you got to pay for your sins, too. It's just like like he said all these he just had all these dumb things that he was saying. None of it was making any sense. So, you know, when we're out sowing and we run into somebody like that, we don't want to spend all day with someone like that. So basically, you know, a man that is a heretic after the first, second admonition, reject, the Bible says. So it's like we gave him some verses. We gave him some thoughts. And then we're just kind of like, all right, you know, have a good day. See you later. And then as we're walking away, the guy's just like, yeah, you got no answer for that. Yeah. Yeah. Walk away. Yeah. Even though like the guy was so wrong, but in his own mind, he was so right. Folks, the fool is wiser in his own conceit. The slothful man is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. Right. People that are dumb think they're smart. And they said and not the counsel of the Lord. Now, the counsel of the Lord is not naught. It's not zero. It's infinity. But in their mind, they chalk it up as, oh, it's nothing. You've said it, not all my counsel. You would none of my reproof. You didn't want me to correct you. So what is God's ultimate response? Verse 26. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh. That's scary. When God's laughing at you and making fun of you, when when scary things happen to you. That's a bad place to be. OK, that was the fourth point. Eventually, it's too late for you to learn wisdom. You better learn while you can, because eventually. When you reject it too much, God's just going to laugh and mock and he's done with you. When your fear cometh as destruction and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then shall they call upon me, but I'll not answer. You know, you've been just ignoring the Bible, ignoring your parents advice, ignoring all the wisdom. And then all of a sudden you get in too deep with the sinful crowd. You get into trouble. You get into danger. You're getting shot at. You're going to prison. Your brain's fried on a bad trip of drugs or whatever. You get into some bad situation. You get in trouble. And all of a sudden now you're like, Oh, God, I need help. And God's just like. That's to you. You didn't want to listen. No, I'm not going to listen to you. You say, well, I just don't believe God would ever be that way. You know, God, he's always there to listen. God's always there when you need him. He's just at your beck and call. You can just give him the finger for decades on end. And then just the moment you're like, Oh, God, please help me. Oh, yes. Can I help you? You rang? Is that what you think God is like? My friend, what does the Bible say? You want to know what God's like? Look down at your Bible. That's what God's like. God is the kind of God where if you keep telling him no, and if you're an idiot who doesn't want to learn. Eventually, when your greatest fear comes upon you, when the thing that scares you and terrifies you more than anything else finds you and seizes you and you call out for help to God. God will laugh at you. God will mock you. You'll call out and he will not answer you. You say, I just don't believe that. Well, I'm sorry that you don't believe the Bible. But Proverbs Chapter one is warning you that God gets sick of people ignoring him and rejecting his word. And eventually he will just ignore them. You say God would never laugh at anyone. Verse 26 says he will laugh at you. God would never mock or make fun of anyone. Verse 26 says that he will mock you. God will answer anyone who calls to him. They shall call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. Why would God laugh at someone? Why would God mock someone? Why would God refuse to answer someone? Because they hated knowledge. Look at verse 29 and did not choose the fear of the Lord. That's why. You know a great example of this? I was just reading in my Bible yesterday King Herod. King Herod was excited to hear Jesus. He said, I've always wanted to hear this guy. Maybe I can see him do a miracle. I've been wanting to hear Jesus. Jesus brought to King Herod and Herod asked him a bunch of questions. And you know what Jesus said to King Herod? You want to know what he said to him? Nothing. He refused to say a single word to King Herod. Why? Because King Herod was a reprobate. And I believe that what God is teaching us with King Herod is that, you know, when Herod beheaded John the Baptist, that was the man that God had sent to bring the message of the word of God to him. And when he chopped off his head, he pretty much silenced the voice of God in his life. And if he's not going to listen to John the Baptist, then Jesus has nothing to say to him. And so Herod's an example of a guy that God won't answer. I want to hear what Jesus has to say. And Jesus is like, nope, not going to say anything to you. I mean, Jesus talked to Pilate. Jesus talked to the high priest. Jesus talked to a bunch of other people. King Herod, he was just silent. And so because Jesus refused to answer King Herod, you know what King Herod did? King Herod then made fun of him, laughed at him, mocked him, and sent him back to Pilate. But really, the joke was on King Herod. King Herod's the one who's burning in hell right now. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father in heaven with a name that's above every other name. And so they hated knowledge. They did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof. You didn't want my advice. You didn't want me to correct you. You didn't want my rules. You didn't want all the thou-shouts and thou-shout-nots. You didn't want religion. You didn't want God's word. You didn't want church. Therefore, they shall eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But who so hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil. You want to be blessed? You want to be safe? You want to have real prosperity that lasts? You've got to get the wisdom of God. And you've got to listen to God's word, embrace teaching, learn, listen to other people, get the instruction. And when these sinners try to entice you into whatever the lifestyle, whether it's the gang culture or whether it's any other sinful sub-group that's out there, any other group of petty criminals or organized crime or just whatever other sinful groups that will take you into their number, folks, they want something in return. Oh, they're so accepting. They're so loving. But they want something in return. Because guess what? Ungodly people are in love with themselves. Wicked people are in love with themselves. Christians are supposed to be loving God and loving other people, esteeming others better than themselves, loving others, loving their neighbor as themselves. You know, the godly person loves his neighbor as himself. The ungodly person is in love with himself alone. He's a lover of his own self. And so if he shows you love, it's because he wants to get something in return from you. And it's going to cost you more than you're willing to pay. Don't be fooled. Don't fall for it. Don't be naive. Look, everybody in here has a choice to take the path of learning, instruction, wisdom, listening to other people, and choosing good over evil. Everybody has this choice? If you take the wrong choice, you are going to face a world of hurt. You are going to face serious consequences. You're going to destroy your life. You're going to be miserable and suffering. And someday when you come to your senses, hopefully it won't be too late for you to come back and at least salvage what's left. But you could just go all the way off the cliff and just permanently ruin your life. Permanent brain damage. Prison for 20 years. I mean, who knows what could happen to you? Disease. Now, I realize that there are a lot of diseases that are just genetic or just diseases that you pick up by chance. We live in a world that's filled with germs and diseases that are out there. And so lots of people just get diseases for whatever reason. But then there's diseases that God sends as a scourge on certain wicked groups of people. Diseases like syphilis, gonorrhea, AIDS, and monkey pox. And let me tell you something. I'm sure that innocent people that are even righteous, clean people are still going to end up getting these diseases. It's still possible for them to get them. Because of the fact that, you know, let's say people that got AIDS through a blood transfusion or something, or they got it from their mother in the womb or whatever, or they got monkey pox just from some faggot, I don't know, getting slobber on them or something. But the point is, from some of the statistics I was looking at, there were legitimate reports and from legitimate news outlets and things. This wasn't some wild-eyed conspiracy. But even the mainstream media was talking about how 85% of the people in Los Angeles that had gotten monkey pox were dudes who slept with other dudes. It was 85%. Other areas, it was like 90-some percent. And they're like, we ought to make sure this doesn't get stigmatized as a gay disease. And then I even saw some mainstream news articles that were saying, like, you know, the World Health Organization is asking sodomites, they don't use, you know, I use my words, okay. Let me paraphrase, because I don't like to use the words they use. I like to use my own words, biblical words or just more offensive words. I don't want to handle this subject with kid gloves. You know, we need to make sin exceeding sinful. You know, I like to use words that are real negative about real negative things, because it's just, I want to use words that are appropriate. You know, if something's gross, I want to use a word that makes it sound gross. You make a word that sanitizes it. So, you know, where was I going with this? Oh, yeah, the World Health Organization was saying, like, hey, you know, we want these sodomites to tone down the number of partners that they have per week to help stop the spread of monkey pox. Because, folks, that's the reality of that faggot lifestyle. They're always going after strange flesh. They're always going after, they're just disgusting. They have an average of 500 to 1,000 partners, according to many studies. I mean, it's revolting. It's horrific what they do. The media, everything the media tells you about it is a lie. Everything Hollywood and TV shows you about it is a lie. Oh, it's just these loving couples. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. They are out there just swapping germs with everybody. That's why monkey pox was spreading like wildfire amongst the queers because they're gross, because they're getting involved with so many dudes that they, 85% of the, they're not 85% of the population, folks. And they're like, well, we don't want to be like in the 80s where AIDS became associated with being a faggot. It's like, you know, AIDS was associated with being a faggot for a reason because they were the ones who were spreading it. They were the ones who were mostly, look, it was sent as a judgment from God to punish that sinful community. And you say, well, what about the, what about the straight people who get it? Well, you know what? AIDS is not just a punishment on the queers. It's also punishment on the society that tolerates queers. Because the society that tolerates queers ends up being around all these disease dispensers, these bunch of monkey pox dispensers, these bunch of AIDS dispensers, they are filled with disease. The disease rates, you know, the current stats from the CDC, I've done the math, other computer programmers and mathematicians I know, I had them check my math. I knew my math was right, but I had them check my math anyway and they ran the numbers. A queer man is more than 200 times more likely to contract HIV this year than a straight man. Go to cdc.gov and if you know how to do math, you will find that over, a faggot is more than 200 times more likely to contract HIV in 2022 than a straight male. So why doesn't the media tell you that? Oh, but they love us. They care so much about our health and they want us to wear a mask and they want us to get vaccinated and, you know, they want us to use Purell hand sanitizer like a bazillion times a day. And I refuse to use hand sanitizer by the way, but that's another story. But folks, if they really cared about your health, wouldn't they warn you? They tell you that smoking is going to shave years off your life. Why don't they tell you that being a faggot is going to shave 20 years off your life? Because that doesn't fit their little narrative, does it? And I'm telling you that God will allow people to eat of the fruit of their own way, verse 31, and the fruit of that lifestyle is disease. And by the way, I know that none of you are tempted by, you know, the same gender because that's not normal for anyone to be tempted by that unless they've been given over to a reprobate mind. That's not a normal temptation that is common to man. But let me tell you this though, that if you're a young man and you're just going to get on some app where you just have casual relationships with whatever the chick that comes up on that app, or if you're just going to go out to some party or dance club or bar and just go home with some easy chick. Let me ask you this, how do you know that she hasn't been with some dude that goes both ways and she's a freaking disease dispenser as well? How about that? You ever thought about that? Because, or she's one of these bi or whatever. And she's out with all these weirdos and then you, because guess what? These kind of sleazy, easy women, guess what? They're probably filled with disease too. And you say, well, I'm going to take my chances, I'm going to roll the dice because, you know, statistically I think I've got a shot at not getting that disease. But let me tell you something, if you're a born again Christian, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, if you're a born again Christian, you go out and sleep with some easy chick, you know what? I'll bet you're going to get a disease because I'll bet God's just going to make sure you get a disease just to punish you. Because you didn't listen to reproof, you didn't listen to preaching, you didn't listen to the word of God. Okay, so sorry the sermon got a little dark there at the end, but, you know, we've got to warn our young people about these things because the world is trying to seduce them into casual S-E-X and trying to seduce them into all of this stuff, you know, and into these sinful lifestyles. And I'm telling you, like, it's a dark path, don't get into drugs. And I don't care if pot's legal, don't smoke pot, don't take the steroids, that's where it starts, my friend. And then next thing you know, it's escalating. You've got to decide, and you know what, how about this, just be a good person. Be a good person. Right? Because you know what? Wisdom is to be a good person. Be good. Be good. Follow the Bible. Go to church. Don't drink. Don't do drugs. It's all easy, common sense stuff. But don't be like, man, I'm going to be a bad dude, I'm going to be a rebel, you know, because the ladies, they love, you know, a rebel. You know, they like a bad boy. You know, I want to make sure that all the ladies know that I'm not too straight-laced of a church guy, you know. I want to let them know I'm a bad dude. And then the girls are like, oh, he's so bad, oh. Let me tell you something. First of all, if you girls are looking for a bad boy, you're an idiot. You're an idiot. Why don't you just say, I'm an idiot, I want a husband who cheats on me, I want a husband who doesn't go to work, I want a husband who gets fired because he steals from his job, I want to ruin my life, I want to get divorced. You're an idiot. Go for the good guy, the nice guy, the godly young man. And if you're a guy that's like, yeah, I'm going to be a bad boy, you know, that's what, you know, you're an idiot too, okay. Because the wise girls aren't looking for a bad boy. They're looking for a good guy, all right. Don't let the world seduce you with this kind of, yeah, let's, let's, let's lurk privately for the innocent. Yeah, we're going to hurt people, we're going to break stuff, we're going to break the rules, we're going to go out and raise hell and paint the town red and party and get drunk and get high and trash things, yeah. Folks, to those of us that are older, that all sounds stupid. But to young people, they're just kind of like, yeah, so awesome, man, breaking the law, yeah. Grow up, what are you, eight? And that's what the Bible is saying, like, don't be an idiot. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, please help those that are here to heed the warning, especially the youths, Lord, the book of Proverbs is really directed toward the young men. Obviously, young women can profit as well, and even those of us that are older, Lord, this wisdom is always applicable to us as well. Lord, help us all to be wise, to take the good path, the light path, the path of your word, and not to be seduced by all of the dark, evil things that are out there. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, take your hymnals, please, let's go to hymn number 41. Hymn number 41 in the suite by and by, hymn number 41. There's a land that is fairer than day, and by faith we can see it afar. Let's sing it on that verse, hymn number 41. There's a land that is fairer than day, and by faith we can see it afar. For the Father reigns over the land to prepare us a dwelling place there. In the suite by and by we shall meet on that beautiful shore. In the suite by and by we shall meet on that beautiful shore. We shall sing on that beautiful shore. The melodious songs of the blessed, and our spirit shall sorrow no more. Not a sign for the blessing of Christ. In the suite by and by we shall meet on that beautiful shore. In the suite by and by we shall meet on that beautiful shore. To our bountiful Father above, we will offer our tribute of praise. For the glorious gift of his love, and the blessings that hallow our days. In the suite by and by we shall meet on that beautiful shore. In the suite by and by we shall meet on that beautiful shore. Amen. Good singing tonight. You are dismissed. .