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Psalm 27, the Bible starts out, The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? The part that I want to start with is just that first phrase where it says, The Lord is my light. Turn, if you would, to John chapter 1. Now, we won't turn there, but of course, in 1 John chapter 1, the Bible says, This then is the message which we have heard of Him declaring to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from all sin. But look at John chapter 1. The Bible says this in verse number 6, There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. Actually, let's back up, I'm sorry, to verse number 4. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John, the same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, the true light, which lighteth every man, that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not, but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. Boy, doesn't that just destroy Calvinism right there? You know, this teaching that salvation is only for certain people, that God just picked out certain people? It's very clear that the Bible says, verse 7, the same came for a witness, speaking of John the Baptist, to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe. The purpose of John the Baptist preaching was that all men might believe. Now, did all men believe? No, but that was the goal. That's what God wanted. God was willing that all men through Him might believe. That's why He was said that all men through Him might believe. But when He got there, He preached the truth, many people rejected it. Jesus came unto His own, His own received Him not. Those who did receive Him became the sons of God, even them that believed on His name. But notice it says in verse 9, again, that was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And so every single person who comes into this world is exposed to the light. And the light is talking about, basically, God manifesting Himself to them. He manifests Himself physically in the form of Jesus Christ. God was manifesting the flesh. But He's manifested most often to those of us today, obviously, just through hearing His Word. Through hearing the Word preached, just like John the Baptist preached God's Word, they heard the Word, and basically they were receiving the light through God's Word. God's Word, the Bible said, the entrance of Thy word giveth light. Okay, now I heard, you know, famous preacher Billy Graham, probably everybody's heard of Billy Graham, you know, America's favorite preacher. And the guy who used to hold the Bible out, you know, now they have a new heretic false teacher to hold out, Rick Warren. But he used to hold out the Bible for the president of the United States, he's sworn out, that's how popular he is. And even independent Baptists get all hung up when you start preaching against Billy Graham. Here's what he said, he said that Muslims are just following the light that they have. And he said, I believe they'll be in heaven. You know, they're just following whatever light they have. No, there is only one true light, and that is the light that lights every man that cometh into the world. God is the only true light. Islam is a religion of darkness. Catholicism is darkness. That's why the time period that was ruled by Catholicism in Europe is known as the Dark Ages. All of the world's religions that are outside of Jesus Christ and the Holy Bible are darkness. Then there's the true light, the one light that lights every man that cometh into the world, that all men through him might believe. He is the savior of all men, the Bible says in 1 Timothy 4, especially of those that believe. He's not the god of the white man or the god of the western hemisphere, he is the god of all men. And he's the light of the world. He said, as long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. You remember when Jesus said that? But then he turned around and said, ye are the light of the world. Because Jesus is no longer in the world physically. And so now we are the light of the world. And so we are to shine the glorious light of the Gospel into men's hearts whose eyes have been blackened and blinded by the god of this world, the Bible says. We need to shine the glorious light of the Gospel to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to the power of God. And so look back at Psalm 27. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Those two things go hand in hand. Okay, because you basically receive light. And what does light represent? Light is basically knowledge. Darkness is ignorance. Light is exposing the truth. It's making it clear, making it manifest. Darkness is where I can't see where I'm going. I stumble and fall because I don't know where I'm going, because I'm walking in darkness. And so the Lord is my light. The Lord is the one who lights up the path before me. The Lord is the one who exposes things to me, shows me what's really going on around me. And that's why people who are not saved, who are not walking in the light, they don't have a clear picture of the world. You know, they can't see things very clearly because they're in darkness. Whereas those of us who are saved, we see things that make sense to us. We understand things in this world because we're saved, because we have the light of the Lord. And it says the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? You've heard of people being afraid of the dark. But you see, we're never in darkness. Even if we're in physical darkness, we have the light of God, the light of the Holy Spirit with us all the time. It says, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, now tell me if these sound like some pretty gnarly people, came upon me to eat up my flesh. These are some serious enemies. This isn't just somebody who doesn't like him a little bit. I mean, these are enemies that want him dead, right? He says, when they came to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though a host shouldn't camp against me. That's basically an entire army. He said, even if an entire army camps out around my house, he says, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. Of course, confidence is the opposite of fear. Fear is not something that should ever be a part of your life as a Christian. The Bible says God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. David's using extreme examples here saying, even if this happened, I wouldn't be afraid. Even these monsters who would just devour me up, even if they're camped around me or a whole army, he says, I will not be afraid. And yet today, so many Christians are scared. And you know, that's one thing, but it's really sad when preachers are scared. That's worse. You know, you understand that the baby Christian or the new believer or those who are babes in Christ still growing, but the pastor is supposed to be the leader. And so many pastors are afraid of their own shadow. They're afraid to preach what needs to be preached because they're not sure how people are going to receive it. They're not sure whether people are going to like it or if it's going to make people leave the church. And so they live in fear and it shows in their preaching or lack thereof. You know, and really the worst thing about most churches, it's not what they say, it's what they don't say. You see, if you went to the average liberal Baptist church, you'd probably agree with 95% of what was said, but there wouldn't be much said. That's really, you know, there wouldn't be much content. I mean, you could probably go to a Mormon church and agree with a lot of what's said. You know, love one another. You know, do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. But when you start getting up and preaching some real doctrine, it's going to divide people. When you start preaching things clearly and distinctly, people are going to be able to have to take a stand and say, I'm either with you or I'm against you. And so it's not what they say, it's what they don't say. And it's what they don't say because they're afraid to say it. I mean, so many preachers I talk to will say, hey, I agree with you, you're right, this and that. But they won't preach it because they're scared. And you know what? If you're a preacher and you trim the message at all, you know, some of you guys that preach, if you trim anything out of the message, you know, how dare you? It's God's word. Preach the whole counsel of God. How dare you decide what's acceptable and what is not? You don't have the right to look at the Bible and decide which part you're going to preach and which one do not. You have to preach the whole thing. And otherwise you shouldn't be a preacher. And if you're afraid to preach certain things and certain parts, then just let somebody else preach who's not afraid. And if I ever get to the point where I'm afraid and I'm afraid to really preach the things that need to be preached, then I need to step down as pastor unless I can stand up with, you know, and just preach it like it is without censoring it or trimming the message. You know, otherwise I don't belong in the pulpit. And so don't ever live a life of fear. Fear will stop you from going soul-winding. Fear will stop you from preaching what you need to preach. You know, fear will stop you guys from finding a wife. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, it says in verse number four, one thing have I desired of the Lord. What did somebody say? It's true. I heard that. I finally solved your problem. One thing have I desired of the Lord. Verse four, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in this temple. Now, you see how important it is to be in church? David said if there's one thing I want, there's one thing I'm going to pray for, it's that I would dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. You know, that ought to be something that you pray. God, keep me in church. Help me to stay in church, God, my entire life. Help me to never quit church. You say, oh, I've never quit church. We've seen a lot of people quit church, and it's not because they went to church somewhere else, it's just because they quit church. People get backslidden, and it starts with just missing a few services, and then you get out of the habit, you start to drift, you start to get far away, and pretty soon you're just completely out of church. And I can name for you several people right now that used to be zealous members of this church out soul-winning here three times a week that do not go to church anywhere today. I can name for you several like that. And so pray that God will keep you in church. Decide that you're going to be planted in the house of the Lord forever. David said in another Psalm, he said they that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of their God. He said they'll still bring forth fruit in old age. You know, and you've got to be in this thing for the long haul, not just the Roman candle Christian, the kind of really big and brilliant, and then all of a sudden it just fizzles out and they're gone. There are people like that. I'm in it for the long haul. I'm not in it for years. I'm in it for decades. I'm in it for a lifetime. You see, you can do so much more for God being in it for a lifetime. If somebody just came for six months and just went crazy, just sold every day, just involved, you know, they wouldn't do as much as the person who's just steadily in season out of season week after week after week after week keeps on serving God, keeps on winning souls, keeps on preaching. See, if you go soloing for 10 years, even if you're only going soloing a short time each week or, you know, or whatever, it adds up to a lot. Think about that. I mean, if you could get, if you could get approximately one person saved a month, which is not a huge goal, but if you could just get like one person saved per month, that's, that's 12 people a year. One in 10 years, you've got 120 people saved. And then hopefully they've had some people save it. That's a pretty big number. You know, and then you do it for 50 years. That's 600 people. Even if you're just getting one person saved a month. If you could do a little more soloing, put in some hours and get one person saved a week. If you get one person saved a week, that's 52 people a year. And in 20 years, that's 1,040 people. That's a pretty big group. 50 years, 5,000. Who knows how many they wanted to work. You see, it's all about being consistent for the long haul. And let me just promise you something. Everybody that's here right now, will not be here in one year, five years, 10 years. It's true. Those will turn to the world. They'll, they'll quit church. Are you going to be one of them? Or are you going to pray like David and say, you know what, God, just one thing, God, I know I'm not going to be perfect. I know I'm going to make mistakes, but God, just the one thing that I'm going to seek after, one thing I'm going to desire of you, Lord, is that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Because even if you get backslidden and everybody gets backslidden, everybody goes through, I go through phases where I'm not as excited about solving. I'm not reading my Bible as much. Okay. Because we all go through phases where we're on or maybe we're a little off. But the key is that those who are a little bit backslidden that stay in church will eventually be okay. You know, they can hang in there through those times because all of us are going to go through ups and downs. But when you're on the downtime, just stay, just drag yourself to church, even if you don't want to be here and you'll be all right if you just keep coming to church. It's true. You just keep coming, keep coming. Something in the sermon will strengthen you. God's Word will strengthen you. Your friends will strengthen you. And you'll get through the trials. You'll get through those dark times and you'll be back on fire and winning souls and doing what you need to do. Stay in church. Can't emphasize it enough. And then you know what happens? People quit church when they're backslidden and then they want to get right with God and then they're embarrassed to come back. You know, and if they came back, we'd be glad to receive. We'd just be happy. We wouldn't give them a bad time. We'd be thrilled. But you know what? People still have a tendency to not want to come back because they're embarrassed. They're, you know, they're ashamed. So then they'll maybe just go somewhere else that's probably a little more watered down. Or maybe they'll just not go anywhere at all because they just don't want to face people or whatever. Just stay in church. Don't get out of the habit. Just get in that habit. Just make it a part of your life to just be here, be here, be here. Dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire and settle. Boy, isn't the Bible a beautiful book? I mean, God's words are beautiful. You know, and we sing these beautiful hymns. And you know, it's a beautiful thing to serve God. It's much more beautiful than anything that the world has to offer. And it's not a temporary beauty. It's a lasting beauty that becomes more and more beautiful the more you come to church. It says in verse 5, For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion and the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock. You know why he's going to be set upon a rock in the tabernacle? Because the Bible says that the church of the living God is the pillar and ground of the truth. And you could be firmly planted on the rock when you're going to a church that's a pillar and ground of the truth. Don't de-emphasize church. People today say, oh, church doesn't matter. It's just the relationship with God in your heart. Church matters. Being in God's house matters. The Bible says, Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. And that's where we're at, by the way. We're in the so much the more phase right now. We can see the day approaching and so we need church more than ever. He says in verse number 6, And now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore while I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy, I will sing ye, I will sing praises unto the Lord. So notice, God's house, the house of the Lord, God's tabernacle. In the New Testament, that's the church of the living God. The house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth. That's where you're sitting in right now. Let me explain some to you. Some church that's preaching out of the NIV is not God's house. Because it's not the pillar and ground of the truth. Because thy word is truth. So if you have a totally different Bible, it's completely different. Well, at least so and so is going to church. If they're going to some NIV preaching charismatic rock and roll church, they're not in church. Now they're in some kind of an assembly. They're in a congregation. But it's not a New Testament church. It's not what God's talking about. It's not God's house. Because you see, not everything that calls itself a church is God's house. Let me prove it to you. In Revelation 2 and 3, you have seven churches in Asia Minor. These seven churches had a lot of positive things said about them and some negative things said about them. And these seven churches were told, if you don't correct this and that, he said, I'll remove thy candlestick out of his place. If you don't get the fornication and sin out of your church, I'll remove thy candlestick out of his place. He said, if you don't be zealous and repent, I will get the candlestick and take it away from you. Basically, he said, I'm going to take away your franchise of being a legitimate Bible preaching church. He said, you will no longer be recognized by me as my house. Unless you get back to the first love or whatever it was that he was telling them. You know, I've used this illustration before, but I love this, I got it from my pastor in Sacramento that I went to church with for years and years. But he talked about a story where there was a Kentucky Fried Chicken and there was a big crane removing the colonel's head from the Kentucky Fried Chicken. The head was dangling from the chain on the crane. And Pastor Nicholas said, what's going on? Why is the colonel coming down? And they said, well, because this restaurant has lost the franchise. They were not keeping their standards of quality high enough for the company. They were starting to serve things that were not supposed to be on the menu. They just had changed the formula, that secret formula, and so forth. And so he said, the colonel's coming down. And he used that as an illustration. He said, for a church, if you start offering stuff that's not on God's menu, you know, you start changing the formula, you start changing the standards of what God has told us a church ought to be, basically, God's not going to allow you to shine his light and to be his candlestick. He said, I'll remove your candlestick out of this place, except I'll repent. And so many churches have lost the franchise a long time ago. They're independently owned and operated, my friend. But this is a franchise location right here. This is a location that is owned by the mother company. Okay, this is God's house owned and operated by Jesus Christ. It's not one of these ones like I saw when I was on Route 87 in Mesa. I saw a place. There was a donut shop. It used to be a Winchell's donut. They had changed the W to a V and took off the S and said, Winchell. Because I guess they just couldn't afford a new sign, but they couldn't call it Winchell's, so they had to change a few letters. There's a place in Sacramento, Rico's Pizza. They lost the franchise or whatever. They just moved the C and the R and became Ciro's Pizza, because they lost the franchise. And that's what you're being deceived by when you go to one of these so-called places of worship or whatever, where you go there and the Bible's not being preached. It's some watered down perversion of the Bible. And let me tell you something. The NIV is so perverted that in Luke 2 33, it calls Joseph, Jesus' father. That's what a perversion of scripture is. It's such a perversion of scripture that it removes Satan being cast out of heaven in Isaiah 14 12 and replace it with the Morning Star, which is Jesus Christ, according to Revelation 22 16. It's so corrupted that in Micah 5 2, it said that Jesus had an origin. No, Jesus Christ is without beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth the priest continually. Jesus had no beginning. He has no end. He's the creator. And yet the NIV says he had an origin, according to Micah 5 2. And so that's not God's house when you're preaching a totally different Bible. If there's no soul in it, it's not God's house. I mean, go down the list of Revelation 2 and 3. If it's filled with fornication, it isn't God's house, because he said, I'll remove the candlestick if you allow rampant fornication and adultery to take place. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators, it says in 1 Corinthians 5. He said, now I've written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one know not to eat. That's still in the Bible. He said, wherefore put away from among yourself that wicked person. We don't want to have a church so-called filled with a bunch of wicked people, a bunch of extortioners, drunks, fornicators. That's not what God's house is for. You say, well, you should care about those people. We're going to go out and get them saved. But our church should be filled with people who love God and who want to serve God, not be filled with a bunch of drunks and fornicators and covetous, idolater, whatever, that whole list. And so the Bible says here, hey, I want to be in God's house. He says it over and over again, but he says in verse 6, now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore, while I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. So God's house is supposed to be a place of joy, right? And here's part of why. It says, I will sing. Now read that with me, everybody. Ready? Just those three words. I will sing. Yeah, I will sing praises unto the Lord. That's what you ought to say when you walk into church. I will lip sync. No, this is not nilly-vanilly Baptist church. I will sing. And you should come to church and sing out loud. Don't come here and just mumble and sing to the Lord. Are you singing to me? No. Are you singing to your neighbor? No. Sing to the Lord in God's house. You see, I don't like to sing. Change. It's true. Change. Oh, this is not my first time. Change. You know, oh, I just don't really like to sing. Change. Oh, I don't have a good singing voice. If you sang more, you would get a better singing voice. Do you think I have a good singing voice? No, I don't. I can tell by the look on your face. You're supposed to say, oh, yeah. I don't have a good singing voice, but I can carry a tune. Okay. And the reason why I could carry a tune is because my entire life I've done a lot of singing. That's why. I don't have a natural ability as some kind of a singer to be up here, you know, in an operatic voice or something. There are many people who do have a natural born God-given talent to sing. I'm not one of them. But I can hit the right notes. You know, some people can't even do that. Okay. I can, come on now, throw me a bow in your eye. At least I can hit the notes, okay. You know, I can hit the notes through practice. That's why. And the more you sing, the better you will become at singing. It's a fact. People take voice lessons just like they learn to play a musical instrument. They take vocal lessons because they're learning how to sing. You will learn how to sing by singing in church, by singing Monday through Saturday at home, singing the praise of God. This will change your life if you would get this one verse. Literally. I mean, this will make you a much happier person if you go through life singing the praises of God. It'll change your whole attitude because it's hard to have a bad attitude when you're singing God's praise, when you're singing the hymns. You know, there's a reason why he said being filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in songs, hymns, and spiritual songs. Because it's a spiritual thing to sing praises to God. And so decide that when you come to church, you will sing. And God wants to hear you sing. Not a paid professional singer down in Nashville recording a CD for you to play in your car. He doesn't just want to hear, you know, a sister so-and-so is going to get up and wow us all with her amazing voice. He wants to hear your voice. He's the one who created you. He made the tongue. That's what he told Moses. When Moses said, I'm not open, he said, I'm the one who made your tongue. I know what you can and can't do. And he tells us to sing. God has given you a voice. He wants to hear your voice. Even if you don't think it's a good voice. Think about this. When you hear your little kids sing, they're not singing right. They sing the wrong notes. They sing the wrong words. But don't you like to hear them sing? You know, you enjoy that. And the more they mess it up, the more you like it. It's fun. Anybody who has kids knows what I'm talking about. You know, you like it. Oh, it's funny, you know, the way they sing and they mess it up. And they get the words wrong, you know. And they think it says one thing and it doesn't really say that. And it's fun, you know. God likes to hear his children sing. Not just a paid professional or a performer. And many churches, unfortunately, it's just a performance, you know. And I would tell you something. I get really bored when I'm in church and there's a special music up there. I find that really boring. Does anybody else find it boring? It's so much more entertaining when you're the one doing the singing, you know. So I don't understand why you would want to come to just sing. And half the time you don't even know the song is part of the problem, you know. But then when they're singing the hymns, and here's what's funny. Because my kids have grown up in this church. When we go to another church for some kind of a preaching deal or something on a weeknight. If it's a song they know, they'll just start singing. And I start singing right with it, you know. And I would love to see a movement across America, where just in Baptist churches all across America, whenever somebody gets up to sing special music, if it's actually a hymn that people know, that everybody would just start singing along. They can't stop us all. If we all do it, they can't stop us from all just joining in and saying, hey, in the midst of the congregation, I will sing praise on thee. I mean, it'd be great. Just, you know, if Sister So-and-So gets up in American Idol Baptist Church and wants to show everybody, you know, how great she can sing. And then the whole church all of a sudden just starts singing, just drown her out. Wouldn't it be great? Problem is, they'll figure out our plan, and then they'll sing even weirder songs that we don't know. They won't be able to do it. But seriously, I mean, I'm not kidding. I mean, we bring our kids, and they would just start singing along. And they look at me like, yeah, you know, sing. You know, start singing too, you know. So I find it boring to be a spectator. That's why I don't watch sports. That's why I've never watched sports. I'd rather play sports than watch. You know, be a participant, not a spectator. Don't just come and enjoy the show, and, you know, maybe we'll put a turnstile at the front door and start charging you money. You can come in, you get tickets, and assign you seats. We can have an usher lead you there and sit you down. And then you can pull down your seat, like we get movie theater seats in here. And you can bring soda and a popcorn and just watch the show. No, you should come here and participate. You know, when I'm praying, you should be praying with me. When I'm singing, sing with me. You know, when I'm preaching, you're listening, you're turning in your Bible. You know, participating, you turn in the Bible, finding the scriptures and everything, and not just be a spectator. So he said, I will sing. That should be your statement right there. Yea, I will sing praise unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, verse 7, when I cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me and answer me. When thou seest, seek ye my face, my heart seventh thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me, put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. Now this is David praying, right? And David's praying to God and saying, you know, don't leave me, don't forsake me. But then he gets to verse 10, he says, wait a minute, I know God's not going to leave me. He says in verse 10, when my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. He's saying, look, God's not going to forsake me. He said in Hebrews chapter 13, Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. God's not going to leave you, He's not going to forsake you. He doesn't just save you and then just, okay, you're on your own. He said, I'll not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you. And the Holy Spirit is with us everywhere we go, He'll never leave us, He'll never forsake us. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, He's none of His. And so we have the Holy Spirit with us all the time, we're never alone. And so he's praying here saying, God, don't forsake me, don't leave me. But then he says, wait a minute, you know, when my father and my mother forsake me, even then God won't forsake me. Now most people, their mom is not going to turn on them. You know, pretty much your mom, no matter what you do, you know, I mean, she goes, oh, that's okay, honey, you know. I mean, you'd have to do something pretty bad where your mom just disowns you, right? You know, I mean, it's true. I mean, usually mom will look past almost too much sometimes, you know, of adult children and just, oh, it's okay, it's fine. You know, when mom forsakes you, you're in a bad place, okay? When dad forsakes you, you're in a real bad way. But he says, that's where God will step in and say, hey, I don't forsake you, I'm still here. And that's why, you know, we got to understand that our relationship with God is actually a closer bond than with our family. It's true. Jesus said, he that loveth father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son and daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. You see, sometimes, you know, people in your family can let you down, even mom and dad, you know, who are always there for you. They could let you down, or your children could let you down. God is the one who's always really going to be there, and we should love the Lord with all our heart, more so than our parents, more so than even our wife or husband or children. You should not love your wife more than you love God. You should not love your children more than you love God. That's what the Bible teaches. You should love those people with a lot of love, but not as much as you love God, because he's the one who's really the more permanent, he's always there, he'll never forsake you, he'll never let you down. And it says in verse 9, hide not thy face far from me. See, God's always there. He might hide himself, you know, he might hide his face from you. You may not see him, but he's always there, because he's everywhere. David said, if I ascend into heaven, behold, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. I mean, God is truly everywhere. There's not a place where he is not. It says in verse number 11, teach me thy way, O Lord. That was a theme of, I believe, last week or the week before, where it was just, teach me, teach me, God, teach me the Bible. He said, teach me thy way, O Lord, and, watch this, lead me in a plain path because of my enemies. Now, what does that mean, lead me in a plain path? The Bible says that the way, the fool's way is like a hedge of thorns. The path of the fool, I'm paraphrasing. But you see, when God leads you, it's in a plain path. What does that mean? Plain is something that's clear, okay? If I make something plain, if I say, let me just make this plain to you, I'm being very clear. You're not going to be wondering what I meant. The Bible says, having this confidence, we use, and it's talking about preachers, Paul said, we use great plainness of speech. He's saying, we speak clearly in words that are easy to be understood. We don't beat around the bush. We don't say things that are enigmatic or hard to understand. He said, we use great plainness of speech. God told Habakkuk, make it plain. He said, write the vision and make it plain. And here he says that the Lord is going to lead, he's asking the Lord, lead me in a plain path. It's a path where it's clear that I'm going in the right direction. You see, when you're doing the right things, it's always clearly right. You always know you're doing the right thing. It's always obvious, that'd be another word, instead of plain. It's obvious that it's right. I mean, when you're living for God, I mean, it's obvious to anyone that if you're married, staying married is the right thing to do. I mean, that's plain, that's clear, that's obvious, right? If you're going out soul-willing, you know you're in the right place. You're doing the right thing. You know, you're reading your Bible. It's plain, it's clear, it's obvious. When you get into the gray areas, when you're doing wrong, when you start to do the wrong things, then you're not really sure whether you're on the right track. If you ever know people who are in college and they keep changing their major over and over again, you know, like, right, it starts out in marine biology for the ladies, you know. Oh, I'm going to be a marine biologist, you know. Then they get into that, you know, that forestry, that forestry major looks pretty good because it's just a lot of hiking. You know, I remember I was looking at that when I was, when I was like 18, 19, I was looking at that college course catalog. I was like, this forestry major is awesome. It was like, you go on this big hike and you get, you get all these credits and everything just for hiking. You know, it costs a little more money, but you just go on these camping trips and hikes and you get credits. I was thinking, you know, that sounds pretty good, you know. But, you know, you see people who kind of just go through life and they don't really know where they're going. You know, the career student, sometimes, you know, they get the degree and they get another degree and then they change from forestry back to marine biology and they're in art and graphic design and there's PE, you know. You know, they're just kind of going from one core, you know, educational path to the next. And you see people that, you know, they don't know who to marry. They date for five years and then break up and date somebody else and they basically just, they live here and then they live in this state and pretty soon they live in this state. It's like they just don't have a plain path. You know what I mean? They're just going through life without a lot of direction. There's a lot of people today who don't have any direction in their life. They don't know where they're going. They don't know what they're doing. They don't know what to do, you know. They're in college. They're drifting here. They don't know who to marry. They don't know where to go. They don't know what they want to do with their life. They don't have a goal. You know, I know what I'm doing with my life. And if you're living for God and if you're following the Bible, you know, God has set before you a plain path that He'll lead you in and it's clear. And there's a direction. I mean, do you have a purpose in your life? Or are you just trying to just get through another week? Or, you know, eating, drinking, go to bed, try to have a little fun on the weekend or what, you know, is that really what life is all about? You know, I'm going somewhere in life. Because I'm, you know, I'm winning souls and you ought to be winning souls. You know, I'm reading my Bible. I'm walking with God. I'm trying to grow as a Christian. I'm trying to get people safe. You know, my marriage is going somewhere. You know, it's called having more kids, okay? You know, that's the direction. That's the path that I'm on. But, you know, some people, they have all this spare time on their hands because they're not doing anything with their life. And they sit around bored. I, you know, what, I don't even know what it means to be bored except when I'm on an airplane on my way to work, I get bored. But, you know, they just sit around. They don't know what to do with their life. And that's when people get into trouble too because an idol mind is the devil's workshop. Young people today don't have a direction. And so that, you know, they're 18 and they just don't know what to do with their life. Because, you know, God forbid they get married and do something with their life and have kids. You know, they're too young for that. Yeah, it's funny how everybody tells you you're too young to get married. But you're not too young to go drink and fornicate and get on drugs, which is what 90% of the people at that university are doing. Instead of getting married, you know, oh, wasn't it horrible back in the days when people would get out of high school and get married and get a job and start working and doing something? Now it's like, well, you're way too young. You need to go out and sleep with a bunch of different women to make sure you're really marrying the right person. That's really what they're saying. Go out and just try it all and then you can get married. You know, and just try. How do you know you're marrying the right person? You know, you got to try everybody, right? It's wicked. But that's the society we're living in. People don't have any direction. And then they basically, and let me explain this. Most people waste the time between their 18 and 30. It just kind of just goes down the toilet on just being an idiot or just going all different directions, just all these different paths. They have no goal. They have no vision. They have nothing that they're working toward. And then maybe they get to be about 30. And it dawns on them, oh, man, I'm turning 30. I don't have a family. I don't, you know, I mean, I've talked to a lot of people who told me this. They're like, man, it hit me really hard when I turned 30. I talked to somebody else. It was like, man, it really hit me when I turned 35. Like, where am I going in life? You know, I don't own a home. I'm not married. I don't have children. You know, I don't even know where my life is going, you know? And I don't, I'm not saying own a home has arrived. I'm saying that's what somebody told me who was that age. And then you just say, man, what have I done with my life? I'm 30. I need to do something with my life. Why don't you just, young people, why don't you just decide to do something with your life right away? You know, get married so that you're not out fornicating and sowing your wild oats and all these wicked things. You know, marry a godly Christian that's going to help build you up and that's going to help you be a better Christian. Have children, okay? And, you know, people don't know God's will for their life. And they're wandering around. There's a plane path right here. It's the Bible. Here's a plane path for you, ladies. The Bible has God's will for ladies. He says, I will, therefore, that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give that occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. And women say, I don't know whether I should work for NASA as an astronaut or be a marine biologist. You know, just get married and have children, for crying out loud. You know, you're not going to be an astronaut. You know, that's what they tell these little girls. You can be the President of the United States when you grow up. God help us, you know. Some, you know, some classroom somewhere. Somebody told that to Sarah Palin or something, you know. You know, we're all suffering. You can be whatever you want. You can be the President. You can be an astronaut. You know, why don't you be what God wants you to be? You know, and why don't you be a woman? Why don't you be feminine? You know, you say, Pastor Anderson, haven't you ever heard of the feminist movement? You know, I'm a feminist. A lot of people don't realize this. I'm a card-carrying feminist, my friend. You heard it right. Pastor Anderson believes women should be feminine. From the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. I'm a feminist. I think they should be feminine, dress feminine, act feminine, stay home, bake cookies, cook, clean. That's what I'm talking about. Feminism tonight. I'm for it. Give me the button or whatever. The piece of flair or whatever you call it, you know. I'll wear the button on my lapel. You know, woman power. I'm woman, hear me roar. You know, women should be feminine. But today, women aren't walking in a plain path. They don't know whether they're supposed to be a man or a woman. They don't know whether they should go work a construction job like a man, or whether they should be at home being married and bearing children and guiding the house. They don't know whether they should be a roofer or a mother. They don't know whether they should be an electrician, or whether they should be baking bread for their family. But the Bible's got a plain path. And you know, if you're a man, you need to work hard, get married, have children, live for God, win souls. You say, well, I'm not married, I'm divorced, that's not my situation, I'm not in a position to get married, I'm old, whatever. You know what? Go out and get people saved, win souls to Christ, make it your goal to bring forth some spiritual children, like Paul didn't have children either. But he said, Timothy's my own son in the faith. So you say, well, I can't have children. You know, I'm past that age, or I'm not married, I'm divorced, whatever the situation. You know what? Go bring forth spiritual children. Get people saved. Like Titus and Timothy and Philemon, who were his sons of the faith. But you've got to be going somewhere in life. Don't just drift through life. Have a purpose. Sit down and say, this is where I want to be. This is what I want to do. This is where I want to go. And your goals may not be the same as my goals. Your life is not the same as my life. Not everybody's going to be a pastor. You know, not everybody's going to run a business like I run a business. You have your own business that you're in. You know, whatever trade you're in, or whatever business you're in, whatever you do for a job, wherever you go. But have a goal, have a path that you're walking in that's a plain path that's lit up by God's work. And God is not for you being a female CEO. I don't care whether that's what your kindergarten teacher told you. That's not what the Bible teaches. That it's a place for women to be running men and usurping authority over the man. It's wrong. The Bible says, I suffer not a woman to teach, nor do you serve authority over the man, but to be in silence. And so therefore, it's not the path that God has for you, ladies, to go out and have a career and to run a business and to be a CEO and a lawyer and the vice president and whatever. It's just not God's will. I don't believe in it for a second. You say, oh, I can't believe you said it. It's the truth. And I'm not going to back down on it just because our society is changing. And my daughters, I'm not going to teach my daughters this. Well, girls, you know, you want to get married and everything, but you need to have a career to fall back on. You know, who knows what he's going to do or whatever. I hope my daughters, and this is my plan for my children, is that my daughters will live with me. And then you're not going to believe this. They'll leave father and mother to cleave to their husband. And guess what? My sons are going to live with me. And then they're going to leave father and mother to cleave under their wife. And they too shall be one flesh. But you know, I want my children to live with me and then to grow up and get married. And obviously, there are people who have other situations. But you know, everybody's not the exception. You know, there could be exceptions to anything. But you know, when 60% of the people are the exceptions, something's wrong. You know, God's will, God's plan is simple. You know, you leave father and mother, you cleave to your wife, you cleave to your husband. You know, it's not you turn 18, you get your male roommate and two guys live together. You know, it's just not natural. And so God here has a plan. He has a plain path. Everybody's got their own way to do it. But this is God's way to do it right here in the Bible. And you know, follow it. It's plain. It's simple. It's clear. I know where I'm going today. Do you know where you're going today? Do you have a goal in your life? Do you have a purpose? Do you know what direction you're going in? If not, then you need to figure it out. You can get the Bible and say, what am I doing with my life? Where am I going? He says in verse 12, deliver me not over unto the will of my enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against me and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on Lord... You know, just back to the thing I was just talking about in God's will, of the path that he has for you. The Bible says, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. He'll lead you in a plain path. God has a will for every person's life. If God did not have a will for your life, you would not be alive. Because when you finished your course, when you finish the work that God has gave you to do, you will go home to be with the Lord in heaven. And the fact that you're still alive is testament to the fact that God has a plan for your life. Because why else would he leave you on this earth? Because he could end your life at any moment. Paul said, you know, I finished my course, I'm now ready to be offered. Jesus, right before he died, said something similar. He said, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. He said, I'm ready to be offered at the time of my departures at hand. I've fought a good fight. If you're here on this earth, there's a reason why you're here. God has a purpose for you being here. So you have to decide, am I going to fulfill God's purpose for my life, or am I just going to go through life accomplishing nothing? Now no matter who you are, God can use you. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter how old or young, married, single, whatever your situation, God has a plan. He has something that he can use you for. Anybody can win souls. Anybody can give somebody else to God. If you can speak, if you can open your mouth and talk, you can give somebody to God. You know, and if you're not doing it, then you're not fulfilling God's plan for your life. If you never win anybody to Christ, then what's the point of even being here? You know, you say, well, I'm just here to read the Bible and get to know God. You can do that for all eternity in heaven. And you ought to be reading the Bible. You ought to be growing. You ought to be getting to know God, but you ought to be winning souls. You ought to have some purpose in your life and say, hey, I'm here for a reason. I'm here because there's somebody out there that's not saved, and I'm going to go get them saved. That's where I'm going in life. You know, and if you're a young person, if you're a young person that has all of life ahead of you, you're a young teenager, a little child, then you ought to say, you know what? I'm going to follow God's plan right from the beginning. And just because others have messed, and you know, it's funny because some people get upset at me when I preach like this because they've already maybe messed up their life in a way, okay? So they're not on God's program of, you know, getting married, having children and so forth because they've already, you know, messed that up or whatever. But you know what? If you're a young person here today, you know, and you know, God has a plan for you too, if that's your case, obviously. God has a will for your life. But if you're a young person here today, if you're a child or a teenager, you ought to just decide, you know what? I'm going to do things God's way, not society's way. I'm not going to just wait until I turn 18. This is what teenagers do. Oh, when I'm 18, you know, I just want to get out of the house and I'm going to go get that apartment or go off to college to the dormitory and get into bunk beds with, you know, with four other guys. It's stupid. Why do you want to be in a bunk bed with four guys? You know, it's just not where you want to be, you know? And if that's where you're at right now, let me step over here. You know, if that's where you're at right now, you know, hopefully that's not where you want to stay. Can I get a witness over here? Because let me explain to you. It's a lot better, guys, and I got to bring it down to the bottom shelf, you know? I want my preaching to be so simple that even a theologian can understand it. So I'm bringing it all the way down to the bottom shelf. I'd rather live with a woman than a man. Men? All right. I'd rather be living with a beautiful woman than with a bunch of guys. Okay? Period. And you know, the world will tell you that, oh yeah, you know, the bunk bed, you know, from 18 to 30. No. You know? Get out of that bunk bed and, you know, get into the marriage bed, okay? Anyway, enough said about that. But, you know, follow God's plan for your life. Don't let the world determine you where you're going to go in life. And the world today acts like getting married. Oh, that's the end of your life, you know? It's all over. Be sure, and they brainwash kids, literally. They tell them like, oh, you better do that before you get married, then you're not going to be able to do anything. You know, you better get that education before you get married. You better go backpacking across Europe and climbing glaciers in Iceland. You know, you better don't do it all before you get married, because when you get married, it's over. You know what? I've been single and I've been married. I'm a lot happier being married than being single. That single life is not what it's cracked up to be, okay? And so, I'm telling you what. Don't demonize, and don't you demonize to other people getting married. Getting married is how this world has been going for the last 6,000 years. It's God's plan. He put a man and wife in the Garden of Eden. Don't demonize getting married and say it's the ball and chain or something. The old lady, you know, the old ball and chain. No, it should be a joyful thing, okay? And don't demonize having kids either. Oh, how many kids are you going to have? You know, don't you know what causes that? Do you guys have a TV? You know, and all this kind of stuff that people say. Demonizing having children, having children. Brother Dave, is having children a blessing? Amen. Yeah, you know, he's glad that he has a child. Having children is a wonderful thing. And so, that ought to be something that you would aspire to. Children, teens, marrying a godly, if you're a young lady, marrying a godly young man who's going to provide for you, who's going to pay the bills, so that you can stay home and raise children. That would be a very fulfilling thing to do. Then whatever else is out there for you in the world, okay? And young men decide now that you're going to work hard, you're going to do your studies now that you're at that age where you're studying and learning. Study, learn, so that you can grow up and make enough money to support a wife before you're 30, before you're 40. That you can actually afford to pay the bills and support a woman and children, so that you can go somewhere with your life instead of just dilly dallying around through those years of sowing your wild oats or playing around. And you know, I honestly believe, and some people don't like this kind of preaching, but I'm just telling you. That's what the Bible says. Leave father and mother, cleave your wife. That's what kept me out of trouble, I believe. You know what I mean? Because I went straight from living with my parents and there's accountability there when you're with your parents. Mom and dad, they know where you're at, you know, to an extent. They know when you get home, they know when you leave, they know what's going on, they keep an eye on you. You have an authority there. Dad is going to yell at you and blow up if you act like an idiot. Okay? And then you got your wife, she'll yell at you. She'll blow up. Just kidding. You know, you go straight from dad yelling at you. You know, you got to have somebody yelling at you. That's why you come to church three times a week. You get yelled at. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, you know, you got your parents, there's accountability. Now, even though in my marriage, my wife is not an authority figure to me, there's still an accountability there, you know, of being responsible to take care of her, of being responsible to be a leader, being responsible to provide that keeps you on the right path, that keeps you on a plain path. I mean, I don't find myself wondering what to do because I just have to work six days a week. So I don't sit around and say, what am I going to do Tuesday? Hmm, what should I do on Wednesday? No, it's like, you're going to get up early, you're going to go to bed late, and you're going to work the whole time. Any questions? You know, but it's great because it keeps you on a plain path. It's really simple for me. My life is very simple. Just work. You know, and then Sunday, church. Soul winning, right? And so you know what you're doing. My wife, I don't think my wife sits around wondering what she's going to do every day because she's got all these mouths to feed. She's got a house to clean. She's got children to teach and educate and train. It keeps you out of trouble. Then when you're just in some college campus somewhere, hundreds of miles from mom and dad, in some dorm room, wherever, living in an apartment, whatever, and you're just doing whatever, who knows? And no matter what time you get home, nobody's going to say anything. Nobody's going to care. Nobody's seeing what you got in the DVD case or the CD case. You know, I'm just telling you, when you get married, there's accountability there. And when you're living at home, there's accountability there. And it keeps you straight. It keeps you on the right path when you have that family atmosphere. And today in our country, the family is breaking down. And that's part of the problem that we have. Because the family keeps you on the right path, whether you're the son and daughter in that family or the mother and father in that family. It keeps you on a straight path. And so young guys, you know, teens that are living at home, children, listen to me. Your goal is to grow up, work hard, make money, get married, have children, not to just go out and see how many times you can backpack across Europe and whatever. Because that's not what life is about. Life's not a game. Life's not playing. And you know, I have fun in my life, but my life is not consisting of just fun. I have a goal in my life. Okay? And by the way, the Bible says if you're going to be a pastor, you know, you've got to be the husband of one wife. You've got to have faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. And so therefore, that's part of being a pastor. But by the way, there's something bizarre about people who say, well, I need to get married so I can pastor a church someday. You need to get married just so that you can get married. You know what I mean? I've wanted to be a pastor since I was a toddler. I'm not gay. I've always wanted to be a pastor. My entire life. But I never one time thought to myself, I need to get married so I can be a pastor. I wanted to get married just so I could be married. Okay? Because I knew that that's just part of life. Okay? And so you don't want to just say, well, you know, I don't know if that's for me. I think I'm just going to, you know, just get on the program here, okay, of a plain path. And you know, I hope my children are listening to this. I hope other children are listening to this. You know, and this is what, when you're dating, you know, don't date somebody that you're not going to marry or that you're not at least considering marrying. That's the whole purpose of dating. I say that to anybody who's single and dating. Adults, children who's single and dating. Don't date somebody that you would never have any intention of marrying because your goal is marriage. Get on that path to marriage. Any dating that you do should be a pathway toward marriage. It shouldn't just be just out having a good time. Just fooling around. You know, that's not what life's about. Get up tomorrow morning, no matter who you are in this room, and do something with your life. Get out your Bible and read it the first thing when you wake up tomorrow morning and decide I'm not going to waste my day. I'm going to do something with my day here. I'm going to go to work. I'm going to make some money so I can provide for my family, so I can provide for my own needs. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to go soul winning or work or, you know, raise my family. Just do something with your life for crying out loud and get on the path that's going somewhere, not the dead-end path that this world is on. What's on this dead-end street? Get on God's path and you're going somewhere. Let's bow our heads in that word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your word, dear God, and thank you for the clear, plain path that you've given us. Help us not to get off on these rabbit trails that the world wants us on. Fooling around, messing up our life, wasting time. Help every single person here to use their life. If they're young, if they haven't messed things up, to just, you know, get married, have a family. But no matter who you are, no matter who they are in this room, dear God, I just pray that they would just get on a pathway toward doing something for you, dear God, and serving you with their life. And God, I pray that as David prayed, I pray that you would make my pathway clear, dear God. Thank you for making it clear so far. But Father, when I come to a fork in the road, I pray that you'd make my path plain and that you would direct me and lead me in the way that you would want me to go. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.