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Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy tabernacle forever. I will trust in the covert of thy wings, Selah. For thou, O God, has heard my vows, thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. Thou wilt prolong the king's life and his years as many generations. He shall abide before God forever. O prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him. So will I sing praise unto thy name forever, that I may daily perform my vows. Dear Lord, we just thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight, Lord, and we thank you for your salvation and your protection, Lord, and we just ask that you bless this sermon and bless our ears and open our hearts as Pastor Anderson preaches his sermon tonight, Lord, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Psalm 61, the Bible reads in verse number 1, Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. So again in this psalm, David's in a horrible situation. He's crying out to God. He's begging God to hear his prayer because he's in an urgent situation. He needs help right now. He's not just going through the motions of prayer but he actually has a pressing need and he's begging God to listen to him. And he says from the end of the earth will I cry unto thee. Now sorry flat earthers, but the end of the earth here is talking about the end of the dry land, the end of the inhabited world. And so a lot of times these bozos who try to teach this flat earth garbage will say, you know, well, you know, the Bible talks about the ends of the earth and, you know, it's got to come to an end or something. Here's the problem with that. It talks about God's word being preached to the ends of the earth. It talks about kings reigning up to the ends of the earth, people going to the ends of the earth, but then they claim that you can't get to the edge of this supposed flat earth. So none of that makes any sense. Remember Genesis chapter 1, folks, when God is explaining the creation of the world, he talks about let the waters which are under the heaven be gathered together under one place and let the dry land appear. And he called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters called he sees. And so the Bible defines the earth in that sense. Most of the time when you read the word earth in the Bible, it's usually talking about the dry land. It's not talking about the entire planet, although sometimes it is. It's mainly talking about the dry land, the inhabited world. So when the Bible says in verse number 2 there, from the end of the earth while I cry unto thee, he's not talking about going to the ice wall that these bozos are talking about, okay? He's talking about going to the edge of the dry land. He's talking about going to the edge of the inhabited world. Now remember, this is poetry. So in poetry, you use really flowery or descriptive or fancy language, really vivid, colorful imagery. You're going to use a lot of metaphors and symbolism and things like that. What's the opposite of poetry? Prose. The word prose literally means straightforward. You think about proceeding is going forward. Prose means that it's just straightforward, meaning, you know, it's just straightforward writing. What's the difference with poetry is that it's being spiced up with various features to make it poetry, whether that's rhyming or alliterations or just special flowery language, metaphors, whatever, parallelism as in Hebrew poetry. So it's poetry. So when he says from the end of the earth while I cry unto thee, he's not saying, hey, I'm literally going to travel to, you know, the edge of my continent so that I can cry out to God there and just, you know, cry out at the ocean or something. The symbolism here of crying out to God from the end of the earth is being at one's limit, being at the end of your rope is what he's talking about, right? So when I'm just at the end of my road, I'm being pushed to the boundary. I'm being pushed to the extreme of what I can handle. That's the imagery here. So it's a symbol. Being at the edge of the earth is the symbol of being, you know, at the end of your personal rope and at the wits end as it were. So the Bible tells us that God is not going to tempt us above that we are able. So he's not going to load us with more burdens or more temptations or more tribulations than we can handle. He'll always provide a way of escape and he'll always give us what we can handle and not more than we can handle. He won't put us in a situation that's impossible. Okay. He'll always know our limitations and you might think, man, I'm just at the breaking point. I'm just at the edge. You know, sometimes God just brings us to that point and look, I've been there. I've been to that breaking point. I've been to the edge. I've been to the ends of the earth and it's not a fun place to go, but you know what? God takes us there sometimes, but he doesn't take us over the line. If you go over the line, it's your fault that you go over the line, but God's not going to take you over the line. He'll take you to the brink. He'll take you up to the edge of the precipice, but if you go off the cliff, you have no one to blame but yourself because God will not tempt you above that you're able. He'll always provide a way of escape that you'd be able to bear whatever the testing or trial or temptation or tribulation that you're going through. So David here is crying out unto God from the end of the earth. He's at the end of his rope. He's at his limits and he's crying out to God and that's why he says when my heart is overwhelmed. So he's feeling overwhelmed. He's at the edge and when his heart is overwhelmed, he says, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Now this is a really popular verse. You've probably heard it before. It's a pretty famous verse. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. I mean that's the type of thing that you would cross stitch and frame it and put it on the wall for crying out loud, right? That's one of those really quotable statements from the book of Psalms. And usually when you think about this verse, you just think about being overwhelmed and God is coming from a higher place. You know the rock that's higher than us is the Lord Jesus Christ and he's touched with the feeling of our infirmities and he's at a higher place and we turn to Christ in times of trouble and that's how you think of this and that's the primary meaning. But also if you think about it, sometimes being overwhelmed can actually lead you to a higher place spiritually, meaning that it sparks Christian growth. You know, think about going to the gym as an illustration, you know, back when that used to be a thing before coronavirus. But you know, you go to the gym and in order to reach a higher level, you must be overwhelmed. It's called the overload principle. Anybody who knows anything about lifting weights knows the overload principle because if you do not overload, then you will not grow. If I just lift a certain amount of weight for a certain number of reps and I just do that week after week after week after week, I will not make any gains, period. You have to constantly be putting more weight on the bar. You have to add reps, you have to add weight and that's why people that are serious about weight lifting, they write it down because they want to know exactly what they did last week and they say, okay, a week ago I had this much weight on the bar, I did this many repetitions and even if they can just squeeze out one more rep or just add 10 pounds to the bar or whatever, you have to be making gains. It's called the overload principle. If you don't overload the system, it has no reason to grow. See, our bodies and even our minds in many ways are designed to do as little work as possible. You know, we're always looking for the path of least resistance as human beings, right? So whatever is the easiest, we'll do it. That's why, you know, sometimes it's so hard to memorize certain things. You're trying to memorize something, you just can't memorize it, can't memorize it. You know why? Because your brain's like, I don't need to know this. Why are you making me do that? I don't need this. But if you can convince your brain that you need that information, you'll remember it. Some things you hear once and you just remember it because your brain's like, this is important. Other things you're like, learn this. And your brain's just like, you expect me to believe I'm going to need this? You expect me to believe that this is ever going to come into play? So our bodies are the same way. You know, our bodies want to be lazy and take the easy way. And here's the thing, our body's only going to build muscle if we convince it, hey, there's some heavy loads coming that you can't handle. You better build some muscle to be able to handle this because it's coming. See, look, week after week, we keep adding more weight. You better keep up, buddy. So that's the way it is spiritually. You know, there's a little bit of an overload principle. And you wonder like, why would God make me go through all these hard things? Why would God push me to my limits? I mean, if God loves me, why doesn't God just let me live a peaceful, comfortable life? If he loves me, doesn't he want me to be happy? I mean, look, I love my children and I want my children to be happy. But you know what I'm not going to do? I'm not going to spoil my kids by giving them everything that they want. And sometimes we push our kids a little bit. Like let's say, you know, we take them hiking or we take them out and challenge them in some way and kind of push their limitations a little bit so that they can grow, so they can learn. And you know, when it comes to their homeschooling, you know, we're not just going to give them homework that's always easy for them. We might want to give them something hard, something a little bit overwhelming, the overload principle so that they can actually be forced to learn and grow and get better. So why is God putting us through hard times in our life? Why is God bringing us through trials and tribulations? It's because he's making us a better person. David said, it's good for me that I've been afflicted that I might keep thy word. And so the bad things that happen to us and when God just pushes us all the way to the brink, all the way to the breaking point, we just to the edge where we say, God, I'm overwhelmed. You know, that's where the gains happen. Okay, that is where the spiritual gains happen. And you know what? Bodily exercise profit a little. Exercise thyself rather unto godliness. That's the real workout that matters. So thank God this gym is not closed. You know, even if the gym is closed, the spiritual gym isn't closed right here. And you know what? We all have a spiritual home gym. Amen. The Bible. The spiritual home gym that we could turn to, even if the, uh, you know, the, the corporate gym here were closed down of the body of Christ, we could be at least, you know, making gains at home. Amen. So it says, and nobody says, amen, cause everybody hates the shutdown. We all hate it. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. So being overwhelmed, going through hard times is going to bring us closer to God. It's going to bring us to higher ground spiritually. It's going to cause us to make spiritual gains. And so therefore the Bible says, can it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations? Why would I count it all joy when I fall into diverse temptations? Because I know that the trying of my faith worketh patience and I want to let patience have a perfect work that I may be perfect and entire wanting nothing. Romans five said we glory in tribulations. Why? Because tribulation work of patience, patience, experience, experience, hope. You know, we grow through the hard times, you know, the easy times in our life. We don't really grow. We enjoy, it's nice, but sometimes we don't even enjoy it that much. You know, just as human beings, our sin nature, we just, sometimes we just take things for granted, you know, and, and it's the bad times that really make life. You know, I was just thinking about that verse recently. It's in Ecclesiastes. I don't know where it is. It just popped into my mind. Maybe if somebody knows, but you know, he talks about the, the days of darkness shall be many. Let me turn there real quick. I got to pull out the smartphone. You know where it is. You're just guessing. I, you don't sound confident. You can quote it, but we got to find the reference here. Oh man. There's just so much. The Bible is just filled with darkness. There's so many results. Just goes on and on 11, eight. Here we go. All right. But if a man lived many years and rejoice in them all yet let him remember the days of darkness for they shall be many, right? So here's the thing. You know, we rejoice, we live a happy life. Things go great, but he says, you know what? Remember the days of darkness and he said, they shall be many. Even if you live a happy life, you're going to have those days of darkness and you're going to have many days of darkness and in many ways, those are the ones that we remember and those are the ones that shape us and make us who we are. So we need to have a good attitude toward bad things and trials and tribulations, right? We have a good attitude that says, Hey, you know what? Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. This is making me a better person and I need to just push through, get through this and God's got a purpose here and not just every time bad things happen, we just start panicking and freaking out and getting upset. You know, yeah, cry out to God and pray and, and, uh, allow God though to lead you to the rock that is higher during those times of being overwhelmed. So it says in verse three, for thou has been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. So even in the worst times, God is our shield. He's there to protect us. We know that we're not going to crash and burn because God has got us covered. He's got us sheltered and in fact, even uses the word cover in the next verse. He says, I'll abide in thy tabernacle forever. I will trust in the covert of thy wings, Selah and you know, people talk about how the King James uses all these really archaic words and it's so hard to understand. I mean, can you figure out that word covert? Cause all you gotta do is do what? Just drop the T and you pretty much see what you've got there is the cover, right? The covert is the cover, right? He's saying here, I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Basically God's wings are a covering, a shield, a protection, and he says in verse four, I will abide in thy tabernacle forever. And remember the tabernacle is the house of God, the tabernacles church in the new Testament. Whenever we see old Testament references to the tabernacle, the church, or not the church, the congregation, I should say the house of God, right? The temple of God, when we see temple, tabernacle, congregation, think new Testament church because that is the equivalent today. The Bible says that the house of God is the church of God, the pillar and the ground of the truth, right? That thou mayest know how the oddest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So I will abide in the house of the Lord forever, Psalm 23 famously says. And then here it says, I will abide in thy tabernacle forever, okay? So you're going through hard times, you're going through trials, tribulations. That's not the time to get out of church. That's not the time to say, well, you know what? I'm just going through so many hard things right now, I just need to take a break from church because I have too much going on, I'm overwhelmed, let me just take a break from church. Look, there's 168 hours in the week. The three hours that you spend in church is not the extra time you need right now to get through whatever, because you know what? God can stretch out the other 165 hours by blessing you for being in the house of God. And you say, well, you don't understand the travel time. Okay, but you know, the six hours a week that it takes to go to church, or the seven hours if you live far away that it takes to go to church, hey, God can give you back more than seven hours because let's face it, sometimes in life we're super productive, other times we're spinning our wheels and wasting our time. And you know what? If you seek first the kingdom of God and you do the three hours or six hours or seven hours depending on travel time to go to church, and you know, of course, I'm preaching to the people that are here on Wednesday night, you know, but you know, if you take that time to go to church, God can multiply the rest of your time. Just like if you pay your tithe, God can multiply the rest of your money and cause you to have what you need and make it financially. He can do the same thing with your time if you're going to church. So look, now's not the time to get out of church because you're going through a hard time. Hey, that's the shelter. You know, that's the, don't, you know, not necessarily shelter in place, amen? You know, this is the spiritual shelter right here is to get in God's house. The tabernacle is the shelter. This is the covert. He said, look, I'm looking for a shelter, a strong tower in verse three. Do you see those two places? Shelter strong tower in verse three. What's the next word? Tabernacle. And then what's the next word that comes up covert. So notice it goes shelter, tower, tabernacle, covert. So the tabernacle is what? It's not like which of these does not belong. They all belong. The tabernacle is a place of what? Refuge. Just like the shelter's a refuge. The tower's a refuge. The covert is a refuge. The tabernacle, God's house, the church is a refuge. And this is symbolized all throughout the Bible. You know, people are looking for mercy in the eyes of the law. What do they do? They run to the tabernacle and they take hold of the horns of the altar. It's a picture of church being a place of refuge, a place of safety, a place of protection. And so when you're overwhelmed, when you're doing it, you say, well, you just understand I've got to catch up financially. Hey, God can help you catch up financially. Or God can cause you to put money into a bag with holes. That's what the Bible says in Haggai chapter one. You know, if you neglect God's house and you just worry about your own house and you just only worry about making money, hey, you could put that money into a bag with holes. Or God can multiply the seed zone and God can actually make you prosper and cause whatsoever you do to prosper. God's the one who gives you the power to get wealth. So if you're financially messed up, be in church. Relationship messed up, be in church. Your health is messed up, be in church if you're not contagious. But being in church is a place to be when you're going through a bad time. Don't come to church if you're contagious though. Verse five. So at the end of verse four, we have Selah. And what have we been learning about Selah over the last several weeks when we see the word Selah, even though we don't really know what it means, we theorize that it's a pause because poetry often has marks for pauses. Nobody knows 100% what it means, which is why it's untranslated. That's why the King James translators just left it as Selah without translating it. But what we know from just observing its use is that it's a gear change. It's some kind of a musical notation, but it is a gear change. So it kind of helps us to punctuate the psalm and kind of it provides a stopping point or a change of subject, change of direction. So when you're reading the Bible, just kind of watch for that. That's kind of a natural break or a natural punctuation mark. So he's talking about being overwhelmed. He's crying out to God, lead me to the rock that's higher than I, the strong tower, the shelter, et cetera, Selah. So now we enter the next phase of the psalm. Verse five says, for thou, oh God, hast heard my vows. So notice the gear change, right? So verses one through four, he's talking about how he needs help. He's crying unto God. He's overwhelmed. He knows God's the answer. Okay. But when we get to verse five, we get to the actual resolution, right? So verses one through four are all about the problem and the help that he needs. And then in verse five is basically just the guarantee that the help is there. Problem solved. Verse five, he says, past tense, right? Thou oh God, hast heard my vows. So in verses one through four, it's like, hear me. In verses five through eight, it's like, you've heard me. So he says, thou hast heard my vows. Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. Thou wilt prolong the king's life and his years as many generations. He shall abide before God forever. Oh, prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him. So will I sing praise unto thy name forever that I may daily perform my vows. Now he says in verse five, thou hast heard my vows, thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. What does it mean heritage? Well, heritage is another word for inheritance. You can see the similarity between heritage, inheritance. So a heritage is something that you inherit. And in Psalm 16, David said, the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage. Now what does he mean the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places? He's talking about the fact that when you have land, it's described. And there are lines that separate your land from somebody else's land. And the main thing that you inherit is land, right? In fact, in many ancient languages, the word for land and the word for inheritance are sometimes the same word or a word that's used interchangeably. Because land is what you inherit, you know, the family farm or what have you. And especially in Old Testament Israel, each tribe had an inheritance. They weren't supposed to sell the inheritance. They're supposed to pass it down to their children and their grandchildren. And it's supposed to stay in the family, stay in the tribe. So when he talks about in Psalm 16, the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, he's saying, look, I'm looking at what I've inherited and I like it. It's not like the lines drawn where all the good stuff is over at my neighbor's house. I've got this junky piece of property and he's got all this beautiful countryside. He's saying, no, the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. I like the way this looks. I like what I'm inheriting. I have a goodly heritage. But he's not talking about land. Again, it's poetry, right? So he's actually using this as symbolic. When he says I have a goodly heritage, he's talking about a spiritual heritage. He's talking about inheriting the Lord, okay? Because he says God is the portion of my inheritance in Psalm 16. God is the portion of my inheritance. I have a goodly heritage. Think about what a good heritage it is if you inherited Christianity from your parents, if you inherited being a Baptist from your parents, if you inherited salvation by grace through faith from your parents, you inherited a King James Bible from your parents. Hey, that's a lot better than some sum of money that you might waste or use or it could, you know, grow wings and fly away, the Bible says. Or moth and rust can corrupt, thieves can break through and steal. Hey, the real inheritance is the spiritual inheritance. Now I've never received any great inheritance before. You know, I've received some small inheritances from this relative or that relative that has passed away where I've received a small sum of money and that has happened to me before. I've never received like a massive inheritance. I don't know if I ever will. I don't care if I ever will. I don't really want one. I don't need one. You know what I mean? But you know what? I'm just glad I've already gotten a great inheritance from my mom and dad, from grandparents. I have received the inheritance of Christianity, godliness, spirit. spiritual wisdom is way more important than money. I mean, what would you rather have a million dollars or to understand everything about life and who we are, where we came from, where we're going to know all the answers. They're right here in this book. And if you inherit that book and if you inherit the Holy Spirit that teaches you that book by your parents teaching you how to be saved. And if you inherit the understanding and the doctrine and actually being able to explain this book and having someone explain this book to you, you know, you might just think, oh, well, whatever. Ho hum. You know what? There are people who would love to be sitting where you're sitting right now and hearing what you're hearing. You know, that's what Jesus said. He said many prophets and righteous men have desired to hear the things that you hear and have not heard them. I mean, think about people in the Old Testament would love to be sitting here and having stuff explained to them that was, that would have been over their head because they saw through a glass darkly, right? They would love to have someone explain to them just about Jesus dying on the cross and being buried and rising again and, you know, they would love to hear the details of the life of Christ. I mean, we take that for granted and you might take for granted that your parents bring you to church. You might just think, oh, everybody goes to church. No, they don't. You know, some people right now, some kids are growing up in a home where they're not going to church. You know, their parents are going to the bar, they're going to the casino, they're teaching them bad habits, wrong beliefs, a stupid way to live their life and they're going into life disadvantaged. They're going from a negative. They're starting at a negative value. They have to swim upstream and fight this uphill battle just to live a normal, basic Christian life, just to even get saved and just live something of a decent life. You know, and here we have kids growing up in our church and they're being just handed everything. Everything's just handed to them. Just King James, the gospel, the gospel is not clear anywhere else, folks. I mean, nobody in our church is confused about how to get saved. I'll tell you that right now. You walk around and ask people in this church how to get saved. You're not going to get a hundred different answers and people are going to be firm. They're going to be clear. They're going to know, you know, what is that worth? What is that worth? I mean, people are growing up in India right now. They're, they're, they're pouring milk over the head of an idol right now chanting in a language that they don't understand, okay? People are growing up in the Islamic world right now and they have no clue about the things of God. They're being indoctrinated into garbage, okay? People are growing up in a Roman Catholic family and sure they got the name of Jesus Christ. They got some Bible verses coming at them and they're getting a lot more light than people in the Muslim world or the Hindu world. At least they're getting Bible verses and an inkling of Jesus, but you know what? They're being taught paganism. It's being mixed with paganism and idolatry and they're being taught work salvation. You know, we, I mean, we just knocked on the door this afternoon of a, of an Irish Catholic and you know what? He doesn't know if he's going to heaven. He hopes so. He's trying, he's doing the work, but let me tell you something broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be which go in there, but it's because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leads on the light and few there be that find it. And you know what? Blessed are your ears that hear these things. Blessed are your eyes that see these things. Many people would love to see and hear what you're hearing and seeing. Growing up in a Christian home, you kids, it God help you if you grow up complacent and apathetic and about the things of God, shame on you. You know what you're like? You're like these billionaire rich kids who don't even appreciate money and they just flush money down the toilet and then maybe they, they grow up just and they just own a company by default. Their dad dies and they own the company and then they just run the company into the ground cause they're such an idiot and they don't know what to do with it and they waste all their money and they don't even care about money. They don't even appreciate anything. They don't care about anyone but themselves. They're just these narcissistic fools. And you know what? What's the difference? You're handed a spiritual heritage worth millions spiritually and you're just like, so what? Who cares? Goof off. Sad. Some people fought to be here. Some people that are sitting in this auditorium right now, they fought to be here. They fought drug addiction, they fought alcohol, they fought an atheistic brainwashing in their home where they're raised not to believe in this or they're raised a hardcore Catholic or orthodox or whatever the religion and you know, they had to, they had to overcome the world to believe in Jesus Christ and then they had to overcome a bad upbringing in order to live a clean life and to live the Christian life. You know, it's been an uphill battle for them and then there's the ones who is just handed to them and they don't do anything with it. Shame on you. And you know what? The first generation Christians, the third generation Christians, the fourth generation, that's what often happens. They flush it down the toilet, you know, and look, you know, thank God I'm a third generation Christian, but you know what? I had to decide for myself to hit the reboot. You know what I mean? And be like a first generation Christian, even though I'm a third generation because I had to hit the reset button and on some branches of my family, I'm even like a six, seven or eight generation Christian. But you know what? I had to, I had to, I had to make that decision for myself to follow the Lord because you know what? I, if I look back at the youth group that I grew up in, if I look back at the Christian schools that I went to, hey, all the kids around me, they're doing what? Hearing the same preaching that I heard. They're going to the same Bible classes that I went to. Their parents are taking them to the exact same church, but yet it's only a small minority that are still living for God right now. Isn't that sad? You know, I look back at my old church, my old youth group, my old school. I run into friends, oh, how's this person, how's this person? You know, multitudes of them not living for God and just a handful serving God. You know what? That shows that a lot of second generation, third generation Christians are taking their spiritual heritage and they're like Esau where they just are willing to sell their birthright and they don't even care about their inheritance. And I don't care about money. I care about the spiritual inheritance. The Bible says a just man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. And I thank God that I've received a spiritual heritage. Thou has given me, in verse 5 there, thou has given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. That's the heritage, right? You want to inherit that heritage of those that fear thy name. And by the way, let me just stop and say this. You should never stop appreciating the people who gave you that heritage. You know, I think about so many idiots in this world that claim that I won them to Christ as they're bitter and attack me and fight me and spend their lives talking trash about me. Now either one of two things is true. Either number one, they're a liar and they're a hater pretending to have been won to Christ. Or I actually did win them to Christ and that makes them even more scum. Why would you be bitter and hateful toward the person that won you to Christ, you idiot? Would you rather be on your way to hell, you moron? It doesn't even make sense. That's so stupid. How could you ever be bitter and hateful toward the person who won you to Christ? Folks, I don't care how bad your life is, you're going to heaven if you're saved. And I don't care how good your life is, you're going to hell if you're not saved. Being saved is everything. Being saved is everything. Somebody got you saved and then you're just like, yeah, running your stupid fool mouth. And you know what? The tree is known by his fruit. If I'm such a wicked bad person, then how come I got so many people saved? That's what I'd like to know. You know, recently, because I was thinking about this godly heritage, right? And look, the things that I have, most of it, I didn't come up with it on my own. You know what? Most of it was handed to me by my parents, by pastors, Bible teachers. Look, I owe a great debt to a lot of people. I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for mom, if it weren't for dad, if it weren't for Pastor Nichols, if it weren't for other pastors that I grew up under. I would not be where I am today, period. When I was 17, even, I was like a sheep with no shepherd. I was wandering in the wilderness. I got into Regency Baptist Church and it was like, boom, it was a game changer for me. Okay. Where would I be if I hadn't have gotten into Regency Baptist Church? I don't know, but I certainly wouldn't be here doing and saying what I'm doing right now. So how could I ever, how could I ever hate or be bitter toward Pastor Nichols? How could I become an enemy or a hater of Pastor Nichols? It would be unthinkable. And you know what? Pastor Nichols didn't win me to Christ. But you know what? He's someone that God used in my life at a time in my life that was a profound time in my life because you know when you're 17, 18, 19, I mean that's a transformative time in your life. And you know, if you're that age right now, if you're 17, 18, 19, you're at the crossroads, buddy. You are at the stuff that you do right now. The stuff you do when you're 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, that's going to determine the course of your life for the next 10 years, the next 20 years. I kid you not. Right now, the decisions you make are vital, they're crucial. And you say, oh, you mean, you know, for my job, it's, hey, the spiritual is the most important. And yeah, obviously those things matter too. You know that your work is going to matter too. But let me tell you something, spiritually is the most important thing. You get everything right spiritually, everything else in your life is going to fall into place anyway because if you seek first the kingdom of God, all these other things will be added under you. That's what the Bible says. You get the spiritual right, everything else flows from that, okay. But imagine me hating and lashing out against a church and a pastor that God used in my life to teach me and, and give me growth and, and give me direction in my life. You know what? It would be so wicked. And that's why I've never done that. Even if they have, uh, you know, at times said negative things about me, Hey, you know what? I've always and always will love Pastor Nichols. Nothing could ever change that. And by the way, I don't just lie and say, oh, I love him, but here, let me attack him. These people claim, oh, I love Pastor Anderson, but here, let me just stick another knife in his back here. Let me just lie and attack and slander and spend my whole life on a mission to fight him. That's stupid and ridiculous. And you know what? Pat, but you know, I, pastor Jimenez came out of that same church and you know what? He feels exactly the same way I do where we love and respect and have a warmth in our heart for people that contributed to our lives. You know, and by the way, a lot of us, that's mom and dad need to love mom and dad, respect mom and dad were quite our parents because you know what? My mom and dad did more for me spiritually, even than pastor Nichols or anyone else. How could you be bitter and hateful toward the person who won you to Christ? You're wicked person when that's where you got your heritage. You don't even appreciate it. Esau. Okay. And so if these people are truly saved and they're scum, if they're not saved, well, who cares? They're going to hell anyway. So whatever happens to them in this life is totally meaningless. I mean, once you've been in hell for about 10,000 years, I don't, what does anything about your life even matter at that point? I wonder how long you have to be in hell before your life loses all significance. You know, maybe a mathematician could graph that. You know, like when you first get to hell, you're kind of like, yeah, but it was a good run though. It was a good, we partied hard. Yeah. And then it's like, how, and then the graph, you know, I'm thinking that the graph is going to show some exponential decay. And I think if we take a limit of that function, it's going to approach zero. Nobody knows what I'm talking about. But the point is, you know what, after you've been in hell for awhile, nothing in your life's going to matter anymore. You're not going to care how much money you had. You're not going to care the fun you had. You're not going to care the party. It's going to all stop mattering. And after you've been in heaven, the Bible says the sufferings that we go through in this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that should be, shall be revealed in us. So keep that in mind and think about how important it is to have a good spiritual heritage. You know, and I was thinking about this as well because of the fact that I just went to the memorial service for Pastor Roland Rasmussen last weekend in Canoga Park, California. You know, that's someone that had an impact on my life primarily because he personally won my dad to the Lord and he personally won my grandfather to the Lord. So again, would I be here if I weren't for that? No way. Because that's what got my dad saved. And my mom got saved at that church. She wasn't personally won to the Lord by Pastor Rasmussen, but she got saved in that church. She rode the bus to that church. That's where my parents spent their teenage years. They grew up, they learned the Bible, they became lifelong independent fundamental Baptist at that church, Faith Baptist Church in Canoga Park. Pastor Roland Rasmussen was instrumental in their lives and so therefore that's instrumental in my life. And then, you know, I, of course, I didn't even meet him until I was an adult, but he and I actually became pretty good friends several years ago and we talk on the phone all the time and I really got to know him well, thank God, over the last several years and we talked a lot about the Bible, but here's the thing. I was so inspired at that memorial service. It was an excellent memorial service. First of all, I made a decision many years ago. When Roland Rasmussen dies, I'm going to be at his funeral because I want to give honor to whom honor is due. And so I made that decision many years ago that if it was at all humanly possible, I want to be there to honor him. And so, you know, he just passed away recently and I went out there and, you know, I wanted to go no matter what, but actually the service ended up being an excellent service and I was very moved and inspired listening to the testimonies of people whose lives have been impacted by Brother Rasmussen and the thing is, you know, there were certain themes that just kept coming up over and over again at this memorial service. You know, and you're hearing from all different types of, you're hearing from his children, a lot of his children were getting up and giving the eulogies. You're hearing from, you know, his preaching peers, you're hearing from deacons and longtime church members that are getting up and giving the eulogy, but there were certain common denominators that everybody sang, you know, that every, I mean, it's all, it was all consistent and one of them was just, man, he did soul winning, lots of, and they said there are people all over the country that are constantly saying, hey, your dad got me saved. You know, this is what his kids were saying, just all over the country, people that have been personally won to Christ by him all over the place. You know, that's the kind of heritage you want to leave behind. That's the inheritance. You know, people that are, that are saved because you won them to Christ. And then another, besides the personal soul winning, another thing that kept coming up was knowing the Bible. They all talked about how he loved to memorize the Bible. And they talked about how he was using flashcards constantly, Bible memory flashcards. And in fact, there was even a video uploaded a few months ago of him at 91 years old sitting at the kitchen table and he's doing Bible memory as a 91 year old man. He's still studying his verses and they talked about how even they, you know, they didn't get too nervous when he would drive the car and be, you know, he'd have like a flashcard on the steering wheel while he's driving. And they said, you know, we're okay with that. We knew, you know, he knows what he's doing. He's a good driver. But then they said that he, he, uh, he learned how to fly a plane and they said it was nerve wracking when he pulled out the flashcards while flying a plane. That's when they got scared, you know, but they're just talking about, you know, yeah, he's constantly reading the Bible and they talked about just constantly getting home late at night and seeing him just reading his Bible, reading his Bible re and look, like I said, I've spent hours and hours and hours and hours talking to him. He knew the Bible, you know, he was someone that we could talk to the Bible about and he knew what he's, he's very intelligent. And so, you know, it was good to be there and, and, and, and, and remember him and be thankful for, uh, the influence. Now here's the thing. You know, a lot of people at the funeral even got up and said, especially like his preaching peers, cause he wasn't pre-trib. You know, obviously most of the preaching peers are going to be pre-trib. So they all kind of gave a disclaimer, you know, Hey, we didn't agree with him on everything. But here's the thing. I could say the same thing. You know, I didn't agree with him on everything. Even, even his post-trib view is a little bit different than my post-trib view as far as the timeline and everything, you know, cause Bible prophecy is a complicated subject. And so his view is a little different. And you know, there are other doctrines where, you know, where that I think he was on the wrong side of over the years and different things and stuff. But here's the thing. Overall, you know, the tree is known by his fruit, good fruit, great man of God, greatly influential in my life. You know, would I pick him apart for some fault that I would find in him, right? But what do we see people doing all the time, right? Claiming, Oh, Pastor Anderson changed my whole life. But then they want to pick me apart, right? Is that what I do? Should I get up and pick apart my parents right now and talk about all the things that I don't agree with? Should I pick apart Pastor Nichols? Should I pick apart, uh, Roland Rasmussen, should I get, you know, to me, those people greatly influenced me. I'm so thankful to them. It's hard to feel anything but love for people like that, that did something for you so profound, so profound, so transformative. How could you have ill feeling toward those people? It's it, you know, it's wickedness. That's all I can say. So we need to make sure that we respect and love those who've invested in us, whoever those people are, you know, and look, maybe you even, maybe you even, you used to go to church somewhere and maybe things got weird at that church because you know what? A great church can go downhill. A great pastor can go downhill. A great man of God can go downhill. No one's immune from deteriorating or going downhill. I could go downhill. Now I don't believe I'm going downhill yet, thank God I'm pressing on the upper way. But here's the thing, you know, hey, there's no guarantee that five years from now, 10 years from now, 15 years from now, any of us will ever be serving God. We have to do that every day. We have to put on the new man every day. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. But let me say this. Let's say your church back home got to the point where you had to leave because maybe false doctrine came in, maybe, maybe, you know, something bad happened or maybe, you know, there was a legitimate reason where you're like, I got to leave. Or maybe you just felt like, you know, your family would be better fed by God here or whatever. You know, whatever the reason, if that's the church that reached you with the Gospel or if that church even, you know, got you from first base to second base or if that church, you know, blessed you spiritually, don't be this guy that just turns around now and just says, oh, that church, you know, why don't you be thankful for what you got out of that church? Be thankful if they got you saved or if they, whatever they taught you, why don't you focus on the good things that you got from that church and not be hateful and bitter toward that church? Now obviously if you used to go to a church as a false religion or preaching a false God, I'm not saying, you know, thank God for that Catholic priest, you know, that's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying, oh, thank God for that charismatic holy roller church where they, you know, rolled in the aisles and told me I could lose my salvation. Hey, nuts to them. That place was a negative in your life. Okay. I'm saying, you know, the Baptist church that you went to that didn't cross every T and dot every I and let's say you feel that you upgraded to faithful word. Hey, there's nothing wrong with making an upgrade. You know, I would, I would always want to go to the best church I could possibly go to for my family. You know, if I felt like my family would be better off at a different church, then I would upgrade. I do that upgrade. But you know what I'm not going to do is talk smack about people who contributed to my life spiritually. You know, I look back and look, I've even, I've even, you know, tried to seek out Bible teachers and pastors from my past just so that I could tell them, hey, I want you to know I'm in the ministry right now and I'm serving God because I want you to know that your Bible lessons paid off because I was a kid that you taught and now here I am passing a church, winning souls. I want you to know that I'm thankful for the part that you played in my life and I'm not going to be like, well, where are you at now, buddy? Let me make sure you're crossing every T and dotting every I because maybe I can straighten you out. No, it's just like, thank you for what you did for me because I'm telling you the spiritual heritage, the spiritual inheritance is gold, is gold. And when you see people who just want to talk trash about the person who won them to Christ, you're either looking at a lying infiltrator or a complete idiot, right? Because if they're actually saved, they're being a complete idiot. And if they're not saved, then are they, what are they, reprobate if Christ be not in them and they're going through the motions and pretending? So either way, these people are so far from being right with God, it's not even funny. Okay? It don't be that guy. You know, I one time I kid you not, I actually had someone from my past actually say I wish you would attack me so people would know that I'm not with you. And I said, I would never attack you. I said, I will never. I said, I don't care what you say or do. I will never attack you because I love you and you have contributed my life. You know, I'm only thankful to you. How could I lash out at you after what you've done for me? Okay. Because it's, it's, it's, it's so wrong to bite the hand that has fed you so much. Okay. And so that's how I feel. And so that's why, you know, I was, I was really happy to be at that memorial service. Even if I didn't, even if I'd never even met him, I would have just loved the service because it was a great service and it was, I was inspired. I was, I was challenged. I was edified. I was humbled to be honest because I'm hearing people talk about, you know, all the, you know, all the, the great attributes and I'm thinking to myself, like, I need to step up my game, you know, so that I can finish well and so that I can have some of these things be said about me someday. You know what I mean? And that I would be able to live up to this and that standard. Okay. But, but, but the thing is though, it's also, so not only was it just a great memorial service in its own right, I was also there to give honor unto whom honor is due. And, and, and, you know, um, the Bible talks about, you know, people who, who live a great life, but then they have no burial and how an untimely birth is better than them. You know, God, there's something to be said for when somebody passes away to honor them, don't cremate them, bury them and have a service for crying out loud. You know, I sure hope that when I die, people aren't like, well, you know, we got a lot going on right now. I think we're just going to just skip the memorial service for pastor Anderson and just cremate the sucker and just go on with our lives. Now hopefully COVID will be over by the time I die. You know, I'm going to live to be 90 and we're still going to be, you know, social distancing or whatever I'm going to be laying in the casket. They're going to make a rule that I have to wear a mask in the casket. You know, you know, because you know, sometimes when bodies are dead, they like expel a little more air. Where is it that Paul, didn't you tell me that you'd seen that before? Like a, uh, uh, where, where, uh, you, you dealt with a dead body and it had been dead for like four hours and then they, they, they rolled over the dead body and then it like, what did it do? It's like gas. Can you act it out? This is your last service, man, do it again. It was like, so that's why you got to mask the corpse, you know, so that they don't go like, you know, but anyway, that's a joke, but anyway, the point is, you know, we need to stop and maybe there's something that you need to do. Maybe you should get on your knees tonight and actually think back and maybe, maybe you might think back even 15 years, 10 years, you know, think back even before you even came to faithful word and, and why don't you just start thanking God for some of the people in your life that got you where you are right now. Now I know some people got saved through my ministry or got saved at our church or whatever. And here, and here's the thing, you know, you may not have to go back as far, but I'm saying like a lot of people here though were already saved when they found out about our church or started hearing my preaching. A lot of people were already saved. And you know, why don't you go back and think about the person that won you to Christ. Think about people that gave you the gospel, even leading up to that. Think about other Baptist churches that you went to and the good things that you learned. And why don't you get on your knees tonight and thank God for that pastor. Thank God for mom and dad. Thank God for the different people that invest in your life up to this point and not just act like, well, life began at faithful word. Now look, for some of you, that could be true if, if you know, if you, and I thank God that our church does reach a lot of people like that just from scratch who got saved through my preaching or through this church, put up your hand. Yeah. People in the building, but who got saved before you ever even heard that Steven Anderson even existed. And again, it's the other half. And so what about those people? You know, who's not saved. So the point is, the point is that the half of people who, who say, yeah, I got saved through your ministry. There still might be somebody who planted a seed that you could think about, but the people who got saved before they even got here or heard my preaching, you know what? Think about the people who want you to Christ, your previous church, your previous experience, and you know what? Thank God for those people. And don't lash out at those people because they're not perfect. And even let's say they've gotten backslidden. Be thankful for what they did when they were right with God to get you where you're at. Because even if they're backslidden now, you know, pray that they'll get right with God and pray that God will be and pray for God to go easy on them and be merciful because of the great investment that they made in your life. Be thankful for the people that invested in you that have contributed to your spiritual growth, especially if it's your Christian parents. Be thankful to them. If you have a godly heritage, David said, that was given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. And what's the next verse after he says, you've given me the heritage of those that fear the name, that will prolong the king's life and his years as many generations. Well, how do you have a long life according to the Bible? What does the Bible say is the secret to a long life? Honor thy father and mother that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth. So I've been here, I've been talking about, hey, think about that heritage, be thankful for mom, be thankful for dad. Think about your spiritual mother or father that won you to Christ, think about the churches that discipled you, the Bible classes, the sermons that were transformative. And then he says, hey, you're going to prolong the king's life. Why? Because he's honoring his parents. He's honoring his heritage. He's thankful for what's been handed to him. He shall abide before God forever, oh prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him. So will I sing praise unto thy name forever that I may daily perform my vows inspired and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for our church, Lord, Lord, and I thank you for so many pastors and preachers that contributed to my spiritual life. And Lord, I don't even remember the pastors that preached to me when I was two, three, four, five, six, seven. I was too young to even know or appreciate what I was hearing, Lord, but I guarantee that some of that stuff went into my heart, whether I know it or not, and made me who I am, Lord. And so I thank you for those pastors. I thank you for those preachers, Lord. Thank you for my Christian mom and dad and all the wonderful things that they taught me, Lord. I thank you for Pastor Nichols and his impact on my life. I thank you for Pastor Roland Rasmussen. I thank you, Lord, for the men and women that you've used over the years to teach me the Bible. Thank you for Godly friends that have influenced me and helped me, Lord. And I pray that all of us would always appreciate the spiritual inheritance, the spiritual heritage that we've received. It's so valuable. It's more valuable than a check that would show up in the mail with some financial inheritance. It's meaningless in comparison. Lord, thank you, of course, for the Word of God and the salvation that we've inherited through Christ. And it's in his name we pray. Amen. Let's turn to our song book. Song number 117, Safe in the Arms of Jesus. Song number 117. Song 117. Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe on his gentle breast. Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe in the arms of Jesus. Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe on his gentle breast. Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe in the arms of Jesus. Safe on his gentle breast. There by his love for shame, Sweetly my soul shall rest. Jesus, my heart's dear brand new, Jesus will die for me. For once a rock of angels, Ever much love shall be. Here let me paint their faces, Pray till the night is o'er, Pray till I see the morning, Pray come the golden shore. Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe on his gentle breast. There by his love for shame, Sweetly my soul shall rest. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.