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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Good evening, welcome to Faith Word Baptist Church. Take your seats, we'll get started. Turn in your songbooks to song 164, Praise Him, Praise Him. Song 164. ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] Song 164. ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] ["Praise Him, Praise Him"] Father in Heaven, thank you for the gathering of believers here in your house today. I pray that you please bless all aspects of the service, including the song worship and the instruments being played. And please bless Pastor Anderson as well as he preaches your word. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Let's turn to the next song, song 158. O four thousand tongues to sing, song 158. Song 158. O four thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise. The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim. To spread through all the earth, the crop, the honors of my name. Jesus, the name that charms our fears, that bends our sorrows, steams. This music in the sinner's ears, this life and health and peace. He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the cleanser free. His blood can make the palace clean, His blood availed for me. Dear Him, ye death, His grace be come, your loosed tongues employ. Ye blind, behold, your Savior come, and He be laid for joy. Alright, this time we'll go through our announcements. If you don't have a bullet, then slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. Tonight we're in Psalm 65. We've got the soul winning times and salvation and baptisms down below there. Across the page is the Bible memory passage, Isaiah chapter 40. Just wrapping that up over the next few weeks. The portion there from verses 21 through 31. And then on the back we've got the singing classes on Sundays at 4.30. Keep praying for the pregnant ladies in the church. Thank you to those who prayed for the Yakima reservation soul winning. They had a great event up there. I think he gave me the number of how many soul winners. They had like 30 to 50 people up there soul winning. So it was a pretty good crew up there. And they had 115 people saved. And so praise the Lord for that success. Brother Russell will be back in a few days. And that's about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning for the past few days. Going back to Monday. Anything from Monday? Alright, anything else from Monday? How about Tuesday? Ford Surprise. Ford Surprise. Alright. Anything else from Tuesday? And then today, I know we had two for the van group outside the van. Alright, anything else from today? Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. And with that, let's sing our next song. Come lead us. Alright, we are going to do Rejoice in the Lord. It should be in your hymnal. It's a little sheet in your hymnal. Rejoice in the Lord. Please raise your hand if you don't have one. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Alright, let's do one more song in your hymnal. Song 153. Alfirma Foundation. Song 153. Song 153. Song 153. Song 153. Song 153. Song 153. Alright, this time we'll pass our offering plate. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Psalm 65. Psalm 65, as we always do. We'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1. Follow along silently with Brother Hester as he reads. Psalm 65, beginning in verse number 1. Psalm 65, and the Bible reads, Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion. And unto thee shall the vow be performed. O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come. Iniquities prevail against me, as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation, who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea, which by his strength seteth fast the mountains, being girded with power, which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people. They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens. Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it. Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water. Thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly. Thou settlest the furrows thereof. Thou makest it soft with showers. Thou blessest the springing thereof. Thou crownest the year with thy goodness, and thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks. The valleys also are covered over with corn. They shout for joy. They also sing. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this church. Lord, at this time, please fill Pastor Anderson with your spirit and allow us to be edified in order to better glorify you and become better Christians, and in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Psalm 65. Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. Now, Zion is just another name for Jerusalem. It's kind of a spiritual name for Jerusalem. So when we're reading about Zion in the Old Testament, we're talking about the city of Jerusalem. And then in the New Testament, it takes on a different significance because it's the heavenly Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem. And the Bible distinguishes between the Jerusalem that's on this earth that's in bondage that has rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and the Jerusalem that's in heaven. And many people get confused about that and they start pointing their tent toward the Jerusalem on this earth and thinking that that is somehow a blessed place. But honestly, the Bible says that place is in bondage and because of the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ, that place is not under the blessing of God. It's under the curse of God. When the Bible says, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him, you know, if you actually get the context of that passage, he's speaking to the Jews. And so if you think the Jews are exempt from that, they're the ones who had that verse initially spoken to them. And so if it's relevant for anybody, it's relevant for them. The Jews don't get some kind of a special pass for being Jewish that they are just somehow blessed by God no matter what. If you don't believe on Jesus Christ, the wrath of God is abiding on you. It doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile. The wrath of God is abiding on you. And then specifically in 1 Thessalonians 2, the Bible says that the wrath of God is abiding on them especially because it says, For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us. They please not God. They're contrary to all men. And then it rounds all that out by saying, For the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. The wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. So how could you say, well, they're still blessed by God? While experiencing the wrath of God, while abiding in the wrath of God, it doesn't make any sense, does it? But yet that's what most Christians believe. That's what I believed until I was 25 years old because I was taught that my whole life. And so it doesn't jive with scripture though. In the New Testament, we as Christians are the chosen people. In the Old Testament, Israel was the chosen people. In the New Testament, it's those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, red, yellow, black, and white. We are the elect. We are the chosen. And I'm going to talk a little bit about that word elect coming up here because the Bible says in verse 2, O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come. And there's a theme in this chapter about the whole world worshipping the Lord, the entire world, even under the uttermost parts of the earth, worshipping the Lord. Now we know right now, there's not a total fulfillment of that in the sense that obviously not everyone worships the Lord. But there is a partial fulfillment of this in the sense that in every corner of this world, there are people who do worship the Lord. Every nation, every tongue, all continents. It's not a religion that's limited to a certain group of people. It's not like Hinduism, or Judaism, or religions like Buddhism, or Sikhism, or Baha'i that are just kind of restricted to Mormonism over white people. But things that are just restricted to a certain region, or ethnicity, or nation. And it is true that Mormonism, even though they send their missionaries all over the world, the vast majority of Mormons are pretty much concentrated in one place. And that one place is Utah and Arizona. So Utah and Arizona is the highest concentration rating out from there. I was there for a few hours a week for over two years in Illinois, and I only met one Mormon in all that time. Over two years, and I ran into a multitude of people of every other religion you can imagine. And it's ironic because, of course, you know, Joseph Smith's headquarters was in Illinois. And Brigham Young was the one who moved it to Salt Lake City. But the point is, you know, most places don't deal with as many Mormons as we do. They're like, what's a Mormon? They've never even run into one. We go soul-winning in Mesa, and it's just like Mormon after Mormon after Mormon. But here's the thing about biblical Christianity. It's everywhere. And you can't even really pick one place and say, this is the hub. Because if you were to say, the United States is the hub, or the south of the United States is the hub, we could point to places all over the world that have millions of Bible-believing Christians or even in China there are lots of people who are Christians. There are people all over Africa that are Christians. You know, there are a lot of saved people in this world. We just went soul-winning, and I literally probably ran into at least what? What did we run into? Like six people that were saved probably in an hour. I mean, just everybody was just giving us the right answers. Just saved, saved, saved. Because everywhere in this world there are millions of saved people in Africa, millions and millions of saved people in Asia, millions of saved in Europe. I mean, all over the world Christianity exists. Because God is the God of the whole earth. His house is a house of prayer for all nations. And it's not the white man's religion or the black man's religion or whatever. It's everybody's right religion. If you're not saved, you're doomed because Jesus is the only way to heaven. And so we see in this psalm it's emphasized that the whole world will believe on Christ and worship Christ. Now, like I said, at this time there's only a partial fulfillment of that because there are saved people in every corner of the globe. But in the future there will come a time when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Of course, I'm talking about the millennium because even beyond the millennium there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth. And God is going to be worshipped by every single person that exists at that time on this earth because everybody else will be gone. And so we see here that all flesh shall come unto the Lord, the Bible's saying. And again, that's referring to a future time when the whole earth is at peace and the Lord Jesus Christ is reigning and so forth. But at this time the fulfillment that we see in the world, and there are representatives in every nation that believe on Christ and many of them. So the Bible says in verse three, iniquities prevail against me. As for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. What does it mean to prevail? Of course, David uses a lot of military terminology in the book of Psalms talking about prevailing would be like an enemy that defeats you in battle. They prevailed. That's the way that word is typically used in the Bible. And so when it says iniquities prevail against me, that's present tense. It's just saying in general, iniquities prevail against me. What the Bible is saying is that sin will defeat us. If we decide to wage our own personal war on sin, we're going to lose. It's like the war on poverty. It's like the war on drugs, right? If you say, hey, I'm going to declare war on sin, you're going to lose. Because there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. And there's never been anybody in the history of mankind that decided, you know what, I am going to win the victory over sin. I am going to stop sinning. I'm going to reform myself and live a righteous life on my own. It's not possible. Sin prevails against us. Iniquities prevail against me. Now, if we're saved, though, God can purge us of our sins. The Bible says, iniquities prevail against me as for our transgressions, which here is being used parallel with iniquities. Thou shalt purge them away. It's the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, that cleanses us from sin. And so if we think we're going to win the victory over sin on our own, it's not going to happen. God purges us of our sins. And of course, this has a double meaning as well. One meaning is the fact that by believing on Jesus Christ, all of our sins are forgiven. Our record is expunged, and we are purged of the guilt of our sins. And so we get to go to heaven on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So that's one meaning. And then another meaning, when it talks about God purging us from our transgressions, is an ongoing continual process of God helping us actually clean up our lives on this earth so that we can become more conformed to human grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and live a more godly life, getting sin out of our lives through the help of the Holy Spirit and through God's purging. You know, the Bible talks about in John chapter 15 that Jesus is the true vine and we're the branches and if we abide in him, we'll bring forth much fruit. And the Bible says that if we bring forth fruit, he'll purge us so that we bring forth more fruit. So if you're a person who's not going to bring forth any fruit, you're probably also not going to be purged as much as the person who's bringing forth fruit. The one who brings forth fruit, they get purged, they bring forth more. What does it mean to be purged? Purge comes from the same root word as purify. Look at the first three letters, P-U-R. So purging is similar to purifying. And so purging is referring to cutting things out of our life that don't belong, they're junk. When you think of a branch, that's bringing forth fruit, purging would be called pruning, right? We'd be cutting off unfruitful things, just dead leaves and branches and things that don't belong there. God needs to cut some things out of our life that don't belong. Wrong things in our life, sinful practices, bad habits, bad practices and things that we do. If we bring forth fruit, God will remove those things from our life and help us to be a better Christian. What does it mean to bring forth fruit? Well, bringing forth fruit is reproduction. So if we go out and we're fruitful and we multiply, we go out and we win people onto Christ, we bring forth fruit, we evangelize, some 30, some 60, some 100, the person who goes out soul winning, God is gonna help them also clean up their life, purify their life, purge their life and live a better Christian life so they can be more effective at soul winning. Have you ever noticed that the churches that are the loosest churches, the ones that are really liberal in terms of how the Christian goes, you got people living in fornication, everybody thinks drinking's fine, everybody's super worldly and sin abounds. Have you noticed that they're not big on soul winning? Have you noticed that they're not winning a lot of people to Christ? And then you go to the red hot soul winning church that's knocking a ton of doors and you find people living a stricter lifestyle. You find people that are not okay with fornication, drunkenness, stealing. You find people that are living the way they should be and that's because God is purging and purifying those who bring forth fruit and then because they've been purged and purified they end up bringing forth more fruit and so these two things go together. You know a lot of people think if we got rid of the hard preaching on sin we could win more people to the Lord because they say hey you're turning people away from the gospel with that hard preaching on sin. If you would just kind of lighten up, be positive, preach the nice messages you're gonna reach more people but you're not gonna reach more people. Here's how I'm gonna reach more people. Abiding in the vine, bringing forth fruit and then God purging me of my transgressions. Purging me of my sins so that I can bring forth more fruit. So I'm not gonna go with the worldly logic that says hey hard preaching offends people, hard preaching makes people uncomfortable. Well that's funny because I've made a lot of people uncomfortable. I've said a lot of hard things. I've been even shown publicly on the news and in the newspaper and on the internet and on TV. Look at this hateful preacher. Look at these mean things. Can you believe what he said? And yet how many people has our church wanted the Lord? So there you go folks. In spite of the offense under the world, the offense that hard preaching brings, we still end up getting more people saved. And you say well yeah but I think that we can have the best of both worlds. Doesn't work that way my friend. It doesn't work. Show me the example where it's working. You can't. Because these big mega churches, they might claim oh we're reaching tens of thousands of people except we knock on their door and ask them if they know they're going to heaven. They don't have a clue. We know folks, we're on the ground. We're not reading a statistic. We get out there, boots on the ground and what do we do? Every single week what do we do? We're talking to people. We're talking to you. And you'll notice a pattern. Everybody from that church gives the right answer and is saved and believes on Christ and knows that they're going to heaven and everybody from that church is giving me the wrong answer. And they all think salvation is by works and they have no clue if they're going to heaven. You pretty much figure out which churches are good churches and which ones aren't. You know what I'm talking about right? When you go over and over and over again and sometimes you can't always tell by what you're saying, you keep running into unsaved people from that church. And then another church doesn't have Baptists in the name but yet it's just saved, saved, saved, saved. And so you get to know each individual church by doing a little fruit inspection. You know, by talking to the fruit that that church has produced, you get a good idea, you get a better idea even than just looking at a doctrinal statement. By actually talking to the people that are listening to that preaching, that are a part of that body, that are listening, that are a part of that body and you test out that body and you find out that these big mega church fun centers usually, typically are filled with unsaved people. And I'm not speaking from theory, I'm speaking from my own experience. You probably had similar experience. Of course the exception proves the rule. Every once in a while you can get around a mega church where a lot of people end up being saved. But I'm telling you in general, these big wild rock and roll smoke and mirrors type churches, they don't have the gospel being proclaimed clearly. Isn't it interesting that they also haven't been purged? So you see how these two things go together. You know, if we want to be an effective soul winner, live a clean life. Right? We need to do right, live a clean life, try to get the sin out of our life. Obviously no one's perfect. And look, don't wait till you're perfect to go soul winning. Go soul winning and then get purged. You know, I just need, I just need to quit smoking first. Hey, just, just smoke one right before we go, my friend. And then let's go soul winning. And you know what? And then pray for God to help you overcome that addiction in your life. And when God sees you bringing forth fruit, He can purge you of that. You know, there's some people who they didn't really want to quit smoking, but they just kind of ended up quitting smoking because of something else that happened. Like for example, you know, some people, you know, they could smoke something and then they couldn't smoke or they couldn't enjoy it. And then that caused them not to do it for a few days. And then they're like, Hey, I'm through the worst part of it, you know, and they just kind of stayed with, you know, God could, God could do a work in your body. He'd make you sick. He can do stuff for you. But I'm just saying like, you know, he can do something or work something out or help you figure out that if you chew Wrigley's, you know, you're going to be okay without being perfect. You say, I don't know, pastor Anderson, you know, I, I'm just a brand new believer and I've got a lot of sin in my life. Are you sure I should be out representing the church? Hey, I'm not worried about the church's reputation. Amen. It doesn't have one. So, Hey, you know what? I don't care what you look like because some people have been offended because like I've taken some people that looked pretty wild out soul winning and I'm just like, I don't care what they look like. I'm just like, you know, I'm just looking at my soul. Let's do it. Amen. Who knows? You know, you never know who we're going to run into, who God can use. God's not looking for perfect people. And here's the thing. This is not a come as you are stay as you came kind of a church, but it is a come as you are church and then we'll get you out there soul winning. And next thing you know, God is doing a work in your life and purging and purifying come iniquities prevail against me as for our transgressions thou shalt purge them away again the double meaning blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts now let's just I really want to park it on this concept of choosing because it's a big subject in the Bible isn't it I mean if we were to look up the words choose chosen elect election we're gonna find those words a lot in the Bible this is a major concept in the Bible first of all there's the issue that we already dealt with of who are the chosen people and of course we know that it is believers and I could quote you a bunch of scriptures from the New Testament if you don't believe me on that but for sake of time I'm not going to at this time but you know watch our film marching design and we go through a lot of those scriptures but I'll just give you one who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect it is God that justifies those who are elect are those who are justified by God and they are blameless in their standing with God because their sins have been washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ that's what it means to be elect but but here's another interesting point about that is that it says blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee here's my question if the Jews are chosen how come God's not causing them to approach unto him can you explain that to me because I don't see them approaching God I don't see them approaching the Lord Jesus Christ I don't see them dwelling in his courts I don't see them entering his house with praise for God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I don't see them worshipping the God of the Bible because the Bible says if you don't have the Son you don't have the Father but whosoever acknowledge that the Son has the Father also so if they're the chosen why isn't God causing them to approach unto him we're the chosen and God is causing us to approach unto him that's why we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ because we are saved now another aspect of chosen that I want to talk about is the false doctrine that states that we don't choose whether or not we get saved God arbitrarily chooses who goes to heaven and who goes to hell and this is commonly referred to as Calvinism some people just call it predestination for short obviously we all believe in predestination but usually when you hear people say predestination in the context of Bible doctrine they're usually referring to this Calvinistic view that basically says we don't choose to come to Christ the choice is not ours but rather God made that choice in the past and there's nothing we can do to affect that choice okay now that is not what the Bible teaches the Bible clearly teaches over and over again that whosoever will may come and will means wants to whosoever wants to may come wouldn't it be disingenuous of God to say that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life notice he loved the world he didn't just love the ones who believed he loved the world he gave his only begotten Son for the world so that whichever ones of them believe all the ones among them who believe would have eternal life notice it doesn't say for God so loved the people who believe that he gave his only begotten Son for them so that they would no no he loved even the people who didn't believe he loved every single person in the entire world so that he gave his only begotten Son he sent the son the Bible says the father sent the son to be the Savior of the world okay so it would be very disingenuous of God to say come whosoever will may come and he's like just kidding because nobody can come unless I've already chosen them beforehand and there's nothing that you do or think or believe or that nothing can impact that decision it's just it's already been made now obviously every lie has a little bit of truth in it typically in order to be an effective lie I mean if you tell a lie that has no truth in it nobody's gonna believe it you pull out of monopoly money nobody's gonna take it that the best counterfeit is the one that resembles the real thing so obviously there's some truth to this thing of being chosen because there's a doctrine of predestination there's a doctrine of being chosen there's a doctrine of election in the Bible but what's happening is that this doctrine is being abused by the Calvinist position to the point where it negates free will and the Bible teaches that we have free will now some Calvinists kind of try to have it both ways I think it's cognitive dissonance to say well I believe in free will but I also believe God chooses who goes to heaven and hell and that it's just a set deal and there's nothing we can do to change it well we can pull people out of the fire amen that's why we're out that's why we're out doing it that's what motivates us now let me just debunk this Calvinist idea just with a single word and it's their favorite word I'm gonna use their favorite word to debunk their doctrine you know what their favorite word is elect right they love that word elect okay well let's talk about the word elect so aren't we gonna elect a president in November so basically that means I guess that we're just gonna choose him based on no discernible criteria stop and think about this what does it mean to elect what does it mean to seal put an S in front of it select what does it mean to choose okay let's say I have a bag of marbles up here right and that bag of marbles contains green marbles red marbles yellow marbles and blue marbles if I close my eyes reach behind my bag into reach by my back into that bag and pull out a marble did I choose a marble no did I elect a marble did I select a marble no because in order to choose something there must be criteria in order to select something think about everything you've ever chosen in your entire life you had criteria okay you chose who to marry right was it just like you know what it's just by the mystery of my grace I can't explain why I chose you honey but I did yeah what in the world no you chose your wife because you liked the way she talked with you and you liked being with her you liked her looks you liked her cooking whatever there must even if it was the wrong criteria you had a criteria for every what what makes you choose where you go to eat is it just the mystery of your will you choose based on quality price healthfulness you have criteria every choice and when people are gonna elect a president they don't just walk in and just check whatever the box and just it's just it's just by grace it's just and I'd look I did a sermon where I completely annihilated this this is their version of grace because sometimes they don't call it Calvinism they typically call it the doctrines of grace what was that sermon called somebody helped me out it had grace in the name the biblical doctrine of grace or so I don't know I did a sermon that had grace in the name go to faith for Baptist org type in the word grace and there's a really cool by the way the preaching calm let me just say that type in the preaching calm it takes you to our sermon page and it has a little search bar at the top a lot of people don't take advantage of that search bar you can type in any word and boom if it's in the title there's there's almost 2,000 sermons there and it'll it'll pop up and type in grace I did a sermon where I went through every mention of the word grace like all the way from Genesis to like Romans or something or even further and I showed that every single time God extended grace to someone there was a reason every single time and so you can't just say God chooses God elects God and then you say okay well who does he choose well it's just who he chooses it's just the mystery of his own I submit to you that God chooses based upon the heart of that person whether or not that person is going to receive the gift you know the Bible says we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God I mean think about it when God chose Abraham did he just pick somebody and he really just could have picked anybody or was his choice of Abraham based on something discernible something that we can actually articulate because didn't God even say to Abraham in Genesis 18 or he say to the angels that were with them he said I know Abraham he's gonna he's gonna teach his children he's gonna order his house all that so God foreknew what Abraham was gonna be like he foreknew what Isaac was gonna be like he foreknew what Jacob was gonna be like and you say what about Romans 9 Romans 9 isn't about salvation and I've done many sermons on that just go to the preaching calm and type in Romans 9 and I've gone through and proven up one side and down the other that that's talking about where he's choosing which nation is gonna be the chosen people it's not him choosing who goes to heaven and who goes to hell let me tell you something God predestinated those who he foreknew and the Bible says whom he did foreknew them also did he predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son okay now what's the destiny the destiny is not which people will go to heaven the destiny is where those people will go that he chooses does everybody understand what I'm saying you know what what does God choose does God choose I'm just I'm gonna send this person to heaven and this person to hell this person's gonna believe in me this person's not gonna believe on me and it's just based on nothing good or bad about that person that is it it'd be like if you just went to the hospital and there's just a whole bunch of babies lined up in the nursery you're just like die die die live die die live die live is that what God does no we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God so if you take away the foreknowledge then you have the Calvinist view that just says we're just elect based on nothing so when you confront Calvinist with this and say hey look every time there's a choice every time there's a selection every time there's an election there's a criteria what's the criteria when God chose who would go to heaven and who would go to hell what was the criteria for that choice because look we all believe that God chose for people to go to heaven and he chose for people to go to hell but what's the criteria we believe the criteria is he chose the people who believe on him to go to heaven now couldn't he have made a different choice he could have chosen hey everybody who does X amount of works is gonna be saved everybody who attends church this many times shall be saved everybody who abstains from these particular sins shall be saved no he chose to save those who believe on him and the criteria in his foreknowledge is he can look forward in time and know which people will receive Christ and which ones won't which people will believe the gospel and which ones won't which people love darkness rather than light which people are folks he chose us look does it feel good to be chosen by God I mean everybody wants to be chosen right everybody wants to be chosen but you know what it's kind of lame being chosen when God just picked you totally at random that's not cool like you know I chose you it's like wow really you chose me cool well I just pulled your name out of a hat and the the Calvinists are like well yeah you know that's keeps us humble we're trash we're scum and he just you know he chose us anyway for no reason it's great yeah except it has a kind of dark side like the majority of people not getting chosen and being damned and there's nothing they can do about it and then God's just giving lip service like well whosoever will they come suckers burn in hell that doesn't make any sense folks in order for God to be just he has to honor his word and he can't he wouldn't just get up and just give these disingenuous appeals to come to people who can't come what did he say the Pharisees but you can't come to me because you're not one of the chosen he said you will not come to me that you might have life if you came to me you'd have life but you don't want to you will what do the people say in the parable we will not have this man to rule over us whosoever will may come so remember being chosen amen amen we're chosen amen God chooses the same but guess what he chooses it based on a criteria and that's his for knowledge he knows our heart so look everybody who's saved obviously God already knows who's gonna be saved and who's not like it's not like God is up in heaven wondering you know which way this person is gonna go he knows the end from the beginning and he already knows which people are going to be saved and which ones aren't and before the world began he looked forward into time he saw all the people that would get saved and he predestined them to be glorified to be justified so he predestined the what not the who that's what predestination is and the criteria for being one of the chosen according to his foreknowledge is that you are one who believes on Jesus Christ now when I confront Calvinist with this they'll and say so what what's it based on every choice is based on something is it random no no it's not random well then what's the criteria how did he choose and here's they say it's a mystery the mystery of his will and here's my answer to that well you know what if it's such a mystery then why do you spend so much time talking about it since you don't know anything about it they just want to emphasize this is I mean this is for many people it's their cornerstone doctrine election predestination God choosing who goes to heaven who goes to hell but yet they can't tell you what it means they can't tell you what the criteria is they can't tell well it's just the fact so it's like let's all just get together and just talk about the fact hey guess what everybody we're saved everybody else is screwed and we don't even know why isn't it great isn't God good isn't he amazing what's the point of that doctrine it's a meaningless doctrine you know what all the doctrines that I believe in the Bible they have a point that's a pointless dot like even if you believe that let's just say that you bullet because I don't believe it for one second I believe we have free will and I believe that people who go I think I think Ruth Bader Ginsburg is in hell because it's her fault that she's in hell it's not God's fault it's not like God's just like RBG nope you're going to hell no you know God sent Jesus Christ to die for that evil God hating reprobate and there was a time when she was a little girl that God didn't hate her guts there was a time when God loved her and sent his son to die for her and offered salvation to her and she chose to reject and hate the Lord Jesus Christ and become an evil reprobate but you know what she could have gone the other way but it was her will that sent her to hell it was her choice to not follow whatever light she was given and so she has made her own bed and she is laying in it you say don't speak ill of the dead well you know what when somebody is responsible for murdering tens of millions of people you know what we should rejoice when they burn in hell she's not your garden variety sinner the Bible says the righteous shall rejoice when they see the vengeance they shall wash his feet he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked okay Ruth Bader Ginsburg who voted for abortion she was part of Roe vs. Wade and and and her her dying wish was that you know that we wait for the next president to appoint a Supreme Court justice because she's just scared that that somehow Roe vs. Wade could get overturned not that it probably ever will be overturned you know that's just kind of this little carrot that the Republicans are always like putting in front of our nose and then they just appoint complete idiots to the Supreme Court even the Republican nominees are complete idiots and it never gets overturned anyway but she just like with her dying breath is just like please let the slaughter of unborn babies continue she's of the devil evil satanic Antichrist Jew who hated God and was responsible for the murder of countless babies in the abortion Holocaust that's the real Holocaust you know you Jews and your Holocaust how about the abortion Holocaust what about that guess what when Gentiles die it matters to Gentile Lives Matter GLM man and so that was kind of a little bit of a rabbit trail but I wanted to just you know cover that about choices that you know what did Jesus die for Ruth Bader Ginsburg I say yes I think he so loved the world I think he died for the whole world I think there was a time when she could have been saved there was a time when God loved her and cared about her and convicted her and reproved her of sin but you know what now it's too late for her at some point it becomes too late no matter what your doctrine you'd have to agree if you're even halfway Baptist that at some point it becomes too late so let's jump back in here I just wanted to talk about that with choosing that you know what choosing is always based on some criteria the Calvinist can't tell you what that criteria is yet the Bible tells us over and over again what the criteria is if you believe you're elect if you believe you have eternal life well yeah but why does one believe and one doesn't it's the will the will to believe because of the fact that one person chooses not to believe you know we believe what we want have you ever noticed that people believe what they want you can try to convince someone of something but if they don't want to believe it they won't listen we've all had those frustrating type of experiences or maybe we were the one where they're just refused to believe something and people are just showing it does but we just don't want to believe it you know sometimes we really want to see the good in people and and people show us how bad they are and we're just like no don't show me that I can't I don't believe you I gotta hurry up here but it says blessed is the man whom thou choosest and cause us to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy temple and you know what we're not talking about some building that's going to be building Jerusalem where they can sacrifice animals we're talking about the house of God the local church by terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us O God of our salvation who art the confidence here's that theme again who are at the confidence of all the ends of the earth and of them that are afar off upon the sea isn't it interesting that we're reading a verse like that in the Old Testament when God supposedly only cared about Israel guess what even in the Old Testament God so loved the world and God's already thinking about the world and he's already foreshadowing the whole world being filled with the gospel and so he says that God is the confidence of all the ends of the earth and them that are a far off upon the sea even on islands and distant lands it says which by his strength set us fast the mountains fast means that they're firm they're like fastened being girded with power which still at the noise of the seas the noise of their waves and the tumult of the people they also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice so again the gospel goes to the whole world everybody has a chance to be saved everybody has the chance to respond to the gospel the whole world hears of the Lord and if they respond to the little light that they have they get a little more light and they get a little more light and eventually they come to Christ I like that word token so I just looked it up in the dictionary I'm pulling out my phone because I wanted to read this to you the dictionary definition I didn't write it down so I got to type it in here for token I love this definition why are you not cooperating with me all right here we go listen to this because look what the Bible says it says they also the dwell on the uttermost parts of are afraid of thy tokens and and and what's the context of the tokens well he talks about him stilling the sea and he talks about him doing terrible things and the rivers and rain and weather and there are other scriptures and Psalms that talk about him sending storms and lightning and and doing all these things well listen to what a token is definition number one something serving to represent or indicate some fact so something that represents or indicates a fact number two a characteristic indication or mark of something but listen to number four something used to indicate authenticity authority and that's the definition that I really like something that shows authenticity or authority you know God shows his power through the natural world God has shown his magnificence through his creation the heavens declare the glory of God the earth showeth forth his handiwork and so God through the natural world shows his greatness his power it's a token of his authority it's a token of his authenticity and it represents a fact that God is the god of the whole earth and that God is in control and that God has power let's read about this token or these tokens it says in verse number nine thou visitest the earth and water ist it thou greatly and richest it with the water with the river of God which is full of water thou preparest them corn when thou is so provided for it thou water is the ridges thereof abundantly thou settle ist the furrows thereof thou makest it soft with showers thou blesses the sprinkling thereof or the springing thereof so basically here's what's going on when we plant a field we plow furrows into the ground right we dig a row in the earth and then we plant the seed and then we water it so we dig the furrows we water and there's a lot of work that goes into farming farming is a hard job people throughout history who owned their own land and farmed and grew their own food without modern tools and equipment you know they lived as very poor people subsistence farming doesn't make you rich the only way people would get rich is by having a bunch of servants and other people doing the work and just managing like a gigantic farm but if somebody just works their own farm where they're the one who does everything one man show or maybe just them and their kids they can just barely produce enough food to live you know it's not it's not cutting a fat hog you know when you're just subsistence farming and so it's big why because it's very hard work you go out there and you break your back to get the earth to produce some food obviously now we have machines and silver but even now it's not like farmers are super wealthy even right now ok so what the Bible saying is it's comparing God to the farmer and basically instead of a field where you're digging little rows it's basically talking about the ridges of the earth you know if you look at the earth obviously there are parts of the earth that are ridges there's mountains there's valleys and it's basically saying like this is God's great big farm and he digs these furrows and he waters it and the watering it is just the rain and you say okay well what's what's the big deal about that what's so interesting about that well here's the thing about that you know when you do some gardening isn't it hard now I'm terrible at gardening every time I garden I fail and when I was a kid I successfully made a couple things grow but I've had a lot more casualties than successes and you know what maybe you're good at gardening and maybe you're out there and you've got a green thumb and it's easy for you to make things grow but you know what who here struggles to garden who here it just everything dies yeah that that's me and here's the thing about that have you ever stopped and I know I thought this a lot have you ever thought about the fact there's all these plants growing by themselves you know I mean like even in Arizona and I'm thinking like nobody waters them they never get water nobody prunes them nobody takes care of them and they just grow by themselves and they're just doing great you can carve your name in the side of them and they're still alive but yet you can sit there and take care of everything make it perfect water it you feed it just dies you all I forgot to water for two days dies water too much it dies has anybody ever thought about that like what what in the world you know why cuz God's just really good at gardening I'm serious God when God does something he makes it look easy he just makes things grow and every he just makes things grow no problem we try to make things grow we really have to use our brains you know we have to be smart we have to be skilled we have to know what we're doing and it's a lot of hard work God just makes it happen piece of cake easy happens on its own no work and look it's not like there are just huge parts of the earth that just things don't grow there are a few places like that but think about it we could go all over America and it's all different climate different types of plants everything but things are just growing everywhere things are growing things are all the wonders of evolution yeah right it's a design and God when he does things he does them perfect and you know what this is why it's so scary when man tries to tamper with the ecosystem because of the fact that as soon as man gets involved now we're in gardening mode and I don't care how good you are gardening when you try to garden like a whole state or garden a whole continent you're gonna mess it up and how many times have we seen people tamper with the environment they release some genetically modified plant into the environment genetically modified organisms genetically modified insects or whatever oh this is going to solve this problem and then it creates another problem you know it's like oh well we're going to introduce this new breed of fish into these waters or whatever and then it's like they have no natural predators next thing you know there's way too many of them and they just start taking over and then it's like okay now we have to tamper more oh hey maybe if we change the pH of the water we can kill those fish and then you end up killing everything you know killing us I mean there are so many things that can go wrong look though there's two there are just too many variables when it comes to the ecosystem now obviously like I said people that are good at it can garden a little controlled area certain climate certain plants they know what they're doing but trying to affect the climate on the whole planet is a fool's errand now look can we screw up the climate on this planet sure could we screw up the ecosystem could we pump a bunch of junk into the air and can we can we pump a bunch of junk into a lake and make everything die yeah I mean we're pretty good at killing things and wiping things out and I could do that in my own garden too by the way with the best of them you know we can mess things up but as far as making it work right only God can do that so here's the thing when you when you have an environmental agenda that crosses over into saying well you know what we're gonna actually actively step in and start fixing the environment that's a scary thought because there could be so many unintended consequences that they haven't thought of because they're just too many variables it's it's the same thing like when countries try to have a planned economy you know the communists take over and then the communists are like hey we're gonna plan this economy five-year plan everybody's starving five years later why but when you kind of just let the economy go right then it does better when you tamper with it that's the way nature is God's got it all dialed in a certain way and when you tamper with nature you end up making things worse even if you think you're doing something better for it you're gonna end up making it worse so look I'm all for taking care of the environment in the sense of I don't want people polluting where I live I don't want I don't want some factory just pumping out some giant black cloud or something that's just gonna mess everything up I don't want some nuclear power plant that's just dumping like radioactive waste or something into some body of water you know so yeah okay I think we could all agree that we don't want to walk outside and not be able to breathe and we don't want to be able to to we don't want to have to you know reverse osmosis every drop of water in order to get something clean we don't want our shower to be like burning us with like not the temperature being wrong but just you know burning us with just acidic water or something you know I think we can all agree on that but here's the thing when they start talking about hey we're gonna you know spray this stuff in the sky or something it's gonna block the sun's rays or it's like whoa do not tamper with it you know there's certain damage that's already been done to our planet you know I just try not to do any more damage amen but you can't sit there and try to undo it by tampering more and hey we're gonna release these genetically modified mosquitoes and they're gonna bite everybody and give them vitamins and minerals or it's like whoa they're gonna vaccinate you you know here's how we get the vaccine out send it out in genetically modified mosquitoes and when they bite you you're vaccinated it's like you don't even have to it's like whoa because once you let that genie out of the bottle you can't put it back once you allow genetically modified organisms into the environment you can't get them back and they're already out there folks all the GMO foods you're eating at the grocery store they're growing in fields and then the wind comes and it blows that over into the next field and so now even when you're buying organic even when you're buying the stuff that's non-gmo a lot of it's getting contaminated because it's breeding with the GMO stuff and it's it's gonna get harder hard to find good clean food so the point is I love this chapter just because it's describing God just the ultimate gardener you know everything just works he's got his furrows he waters it everything works and and the only reason it has problems is is man messing with it or tampering with it but God's created some beautiful places in this world hasn't he and his trees grow well it says in verse 11 now crown us the year with thy goodness and thy paths drop fatness they drop upon the pasture of the wilderness and the little hills rejoice on every side the pastures are clothed with flocks the valleys also are covered over with corn they shout for joy they also sing so the whole earth is praising God the plants and the animals are all glorifying God in their own way and so at the end of the day what the Bible saying is rely on God fear his terrible tokens fear the Lord glorify the God of the earth bless him worship him and understand that he controls your destiny you know what I don't believe that our planet is going to die while we're living on it you know a lot of people they predict this doom because the Bible tells us in Genesis chapter 8 that as long as the earth remaineth that summer and winter and seed time and harvest will not cease day and night will not cease so as long as this world's gonna be run see here's the thing guess what we're not gonna be here for 4 billion years folks the problem is that people who don't believe in the Bible don't believe in God they think we're gonna be here for another four and a half billion years well you know then it's like well yeah I don't know if this thing's gonna last at the rate we're going I don't think we're gonna make it but but here's the thing we're not trying to be here for four and a half billion years and again I'm totally against pollution but my point is I'm not gonna dedicate my life to stop the planet from dying and turning into Venus or something with a runaway greenhouse effect I'm not gonna devote my life to that because the fact that I know that ultimately it's in God's hands God knows the end from the beginning this earth has an expiration date on it God knows how long it needs to last and it's gonna last that long now I do believe that God's gonna allow all environmental hell to break loose in the book of Revelation because I think some of the things we see in Revelation are obviously supernatural and then I think he's also gonna use a lot of natural things and so there is gonna be some runaway greenhouse effect in the book of Revelation there's gonna be some hardcore global warming when people are being scorched with heat but but thank God we're gonna be gone before that before God pours out his wrath we're going to be removed pre-wrath and so we don't have to worry about that and look like I said I'm not for dumping toxic waste and ruining the environment but at the same time I have bigger fish to fry I'm not gonna dedicate my life to serving the creature I'm gonna dedicate my life to serving the Creator and the Bible warns us what happens when you serve the creature rather than the Creator you know what your foolish heart gets darkened and that's why we see so many people that are the most radical environmentalists are they Bible believing Christians are the radical environmentalists of this world typically haters of God if you think about it I mean if you if we were to examine that I think that that's not a hard case to make that typically Bible believing Christians aren't that worried about it because this world's not our home and we know that God's ultimately in control of it so here's the thing you know people you have people looking at what's going on in California and elsewhere which by the way a lot of that could be due to arson you know a lot of these wildfires there there is you know who benefits you could see an agenda for why someone would want to start those fires to further their environmental agenda and they don't mind killing people to do it or whatever now I'm not saying it's arson I'm just saying that it's probable it's likely to be arson we don't know I has anyone been caught lighting fires well there you go so there have been some that have even been caught lighting the fires but but here's the thing let's just take that out of the equation for a moment okay let's just say for a minute okay it's getting hotter in California which I don't think there's any question about that when it was a hundred and twenty one degrees Fahrenheit in Woodland Hills California that's never happened before I mean that's unbelievable in the West in the valley you know in LA in the valley to hit 121 that's not normal okay but here's the thing about that okay so California is getting really hot and that's making the wildfire season worse and then what do fires produce what are the the the products of that combustion well they are h2o and co2 going into the atmosphere and what are those greenhouse gases and then it gets hotter and then there's more fire and then there's more greenhouse gas now this is the stuff that's gonna give little Greta Thurnberg nightmares but you know what ought to give her nightmares is the fires of hell not the fires of California because I'm going to tell you something God can bless California whenever he wants to and God can send a cold front in whenever he wants to do you think that God's incapable of cooling down the weather in California if he wants to or cooling down the weather in Arizona if he wants to ultimately it comes down to this do we respect God and understand that he is the one who ultimately controls nature and he's the god of nature and he's the one who ultimately has the power to fix things or are we gonna say no we got to do it on our own because this earth is just a big accident it's a cosmic accident and and we got to make this sucker last for four billion years and then we got to go find a new planet I mean think about it folks ultimately what we ought to be doing when we see natural disasters happening is repenting and turning to the Lord and saying you know what God is allowing bad things to happen in 2020 because he is angry with America that's what I believe and you know what that's what I've been saying all along you know I you know go back to you know I I actually preached a sermon about coronavirus on March 1st 2020 March 1st it wasn't even a thing yet nobody knew how big it was gonna be in fact I remember the day before I remember on Saturday the day before so I guess that would have been what February 29th or whatever I remember saying to my wife in the kitchen I said to her I said you know what I said I'm not even sure if I should even preach a sermon on this coronavirus thing because I don't even know if it's even gonna be a thing or if it's just like a China thing or something I don't even know if it's gonna be big here if it's gonna be a thing but I said you know what I think it's just a good opportunity to lay down some biblical principles that are true no matter what and so that's why at the beginning of that sermon I even say hey I don't know if this is gonna be a big thing or not but let's just lay down some biblical principles anyway because this is just some stuff that the Bible says it's always good to learn the Bible and I laid that down and one of the things that I laid down in that original sermon that I did back on March 1st was I said hey God sends a pestilence as a punishment pestilence is one of his major punishments that he sends and guess what here I am in September and I feel the same way and I think God's punishing us in other ways as well and you know a lot of people are complaining about how bad 2020 is because of the fact that I think anyone would agree it's not been a picnic I think you know no matter where you fall on these various complicated issues everybody agrees it's bad bad year now you can say it's bad because the virus made it bad it's bad because the reaction to the virus made it bad it's both it's every it's all of the above but here's the thing it's just bad on bad with a little more bad added but guess what if we were right with God we wouldn't be suffering like this as a nation God is is allowing these things to happen okay and you say well it's arson it's man-made hey God is allowing those people to light those fires that look at it that way God and by the way they're not just lighting fires in the forest they're burning the city's down in Portland and Seattle and different places even they did it here for a little while thankfully it was short-lived but folks the day is is our country turning to God yet has anybody felt like a movement of like things are bad 2020s hard let's let's get back to our Christian roots as a nation I mean is anybody feeling that at all is that is the is the right wing doing that is the left wing doing that I mean is because I don't think CNN and MSNBC are doing that but is Fox News doing that is that what they're saying is Fox News saying hey look folks the reason that things are going so bad in our country is because we're not honoring Jesus Christ that's why this is happening I mean I don't know I don't follow the news I don't listen to it but did Donald Trump get up and say hey everybody 2020 is a bad year because we've been spitting in the face of God did he say anything like that or anything okay well then you know what I think God needs to turn up the heat a little more because apparently his message isn't getting through I mean think about it if I'm trying to send somebody message and they're not getting the message I might start talking a little louder or I might start making the message a little clearer and you know I wonder how loud is God gonna have to get and how bad is it gonna have to get and how much heat is he gonna have to turn up before Christians in this country start waking up you know I mentioned I mentioned earlier that I went soul-winding and Randall like six people that were already saved just in the space of like an hour knocking doors in Scottsdale just saved saved saved saved okay well when are those millions and millions and millions of saved people in America gonna get off their butts and start doing something for God you know of course they're they're always ready to tell us to vote for Trump you know where I was not I was out soul-wining hey you guys she's like yes I'm saved I know I'm going to heaven and you better be voting for Trump and and this and that and I'm and I'm it's just like and she said we're gonna overturn Roe vs. Wade you know what I've heard that one before I've been hearing about overturning Roe vs. Wade my whole life and Reagan has appointed justices and Bush has appointed justices and here we are folks and still we have no overturning of Roe vs. Wade I'll believe it when I see it and you know what I'd much rather do the sure thing winning people to Christ preaching the gospel and you know what here's my message for America be afraid be very afraid fear God's tokens because that forest fire is a token the heat wave is a token the rioting looting is a token showing you God's angry and you need to repent that's the message that America needs to hear right now and you know what you I don't care if you solve the conspiracy and you unmask the people behind the conspiracy you know what it doesn't matter because God will just use something different to punish you because if you're not right with God you get punished period by hook or by crook you can escape a bear and then you run into the house and shut the door and you're safe and you put your hand on the door and a snake bites you that's what it's like when God wants to punish you and you're running away let's buy odds and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for the fact that even in a time of turmoil even when this world's being punished even when our state or city could even be punished Lord that we live in the land of Goshen and that there's always light in our dwellings even when this world's in darkness there's always light in our dwellings thank you so much Lord for blessing us and and taking care of us and allowing our church to continue to thrive and win people to Christ and and thank you so much Lord for allowing us to to just enjoy in our personal lives Lord all the blessings you give us Lord I'm thinking of my soul-wining partner this afternoon that said hey I'm just excited about the future Lord there's so much that you have in store for us so many good things that we can't even imagine Lord help us not to get down help us not to get discouraged help us to fear you and love you and worship you and Lord help us to do great things for you even in a troubling time and in Jesus name we pray amen for 72 this is my father's world I rest me in the thine of rocks and trees of skies and seas his hand the wonders wrought this is my father's world the birds their carols raise the morning light the lily white declare their maker's praise this is my father's world he shines in all that's rare in the broad swing grass I hear him pass he speaks to me everywhere this is my father's world oh let me there forget that though the rocks he tops so strong God is the ruler yet this is my father's world the battle is not done Jesus who died shall be satisfied when earth and heaven be won you