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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to Faith Award Baptist Church. It's so nice to see you all here for our Sunday morning service. Find your seats now. Grab a hymn. We'll go to hymn 410. We'll begin this morning. Hymn 410. 410. faith is a victory. Hymn 410. Let's sing it out on that first verse now. Hymn 410. Faith is a victory. Sing it out. It's our magic song. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory of glorious victory that overcomes the world. His banner over us is love, our sword, the word of God. We tread the road that saves above, with shouts of triumph drawn. My faith may hide the whirlwind's breadth, swept under every field. The faith my rich become her death is still our shining shield. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory of glorious victory that overcomes the world. On every hand, the flow we find, drawn up in dread of rain. Let dents of ease be left behind and onward to the fray. Salvation's held, and on each end, with truth all girded about. The earth shall tremble in our tread, and echo with our shout. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory of glorious victory. Faith that overcomes the world, to him that overcomes the folk, wide reign it shall begin. Before the angels, he shall know his name confessed in heaven. Then onward from the hills of light, our hearts will love the flame, will languish all the hosts of night in Jesus' hungry name. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory of glorious victory that overcomes the world. Thank you, Lord, for singing this morning. We're going to ask Lord's blessing on the service, so I'll ask Brother Alexander to Lord's name, please. Father in Heaven, we pray, God, that you please bless all aspects of this service. Help us, God, to praise you, Lord, in singing hymns and psalms to you, Lord. And we pray, God, that you please bless Pastor Anderson with the Spirit as he preaches your word. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen, 364, number 364. Standing on the promises of God. Hymn number 364, we'll sing it out on that verse now. 364, standing on the promises of Christ my King. Let's sing it out, 364. Standing on the promises of Christ my King. Through eternal ages, let his praises ring. Glory in the highest time, shout and sing. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing. Standing on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing. I'm standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises that cannot fail. When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail. By the living Word of God, I shall prevail. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing. Standing on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing. I'm standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord. Bound to him eternally by love's strong core. Overcoming daily with the Spirit's sword. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing. Standing on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing. I'm standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot fall. Listening every moment to the Spirit's call. Resting in my Savior as my all in all. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing. Standing on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing. I'm standing on the promises of God. All right, at this time we'll go ahead and go through our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week we'll be in 2 Chronicles chapter number 24. We've got the so many times listed there below as well as salvation and baptisms. Congratulations to the Jeffrey family on the birth of baby Abigail Evelyn Jeffrey. Born October 14th, 2024 at 1006 a.m. Six pounds, six ounces, measuring 19.75 inches. Man, these are some really precise statistics today. Please pray for Mrs. Jeffrey's speedy recovery. And we'll be taking portraits for the yearbook every Sunday through November 3rd. That's getting pretty close here. So just a couple more weeks to go to get your yearbook picture taken. There's a sign up over here to my right. This is for everybody, singles, couples, families, whatever your situation. We want to make sure that everybody gets photographed. You get a beautiful portrait. You get the high quality electronic image sent to you. And then you're also in the yearbook. And then we all get to enjoy the yearbook when it comes out in a few months. All right, and then below that the annual chili cook-off is coming up on Thursday, October 31st. So next Thursday. And all chilis must be made from scratch. And they have to be entered, if you're planning on competing, by the 5 p.m. cutoff. If you're not competing with the chili cook-off, then if you have no family member or relative that has entered a chili, you can also put your name in to become one of the judges. So that's right here from 4.30 to 7.30 on October 31st. On the back we've got the detailed schedule for the missions conference. This is going to be awesome. I'm really looking forward to this. I love this thing every year. And so we're going to be emphasizing a lot of great countries. Samoa, Fiji, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Dominican Republic, Columbia, Germany, and Armenia. These are all places that we've done soul winning in the last 12 months. So we're not talking about the glory days. And we're not talking about some future that may or may not happen. We're talking about real life missions and soul winning that's current, that's fresh, that's from 2024. And so I'm looking forward to hearing a lot of great preaching and also going out and doing some fun activities. There's going to be soul winning. It's all right there. And so make plans accordingly. Or if you just want to go about your normal schedule as usual, our Wednesday and Sunday services will be the same. You can always pop in for an evening service or whatever you have time for. And then that's about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. All right, you should find the incident in front of your hymnal with Psalm 11. If you don't have an incident, you can raise your hand and we'll sing it on that first. Psalm 11, in the Lord put I my trust. In the Lord put I my trust. Now say ye to my soul. Cleanly as the birds to your fountain. For lo, the wicked bend their bone. They may ready their arrow up above the stream. That they may ready their arrow above the stream. That they may ready their arrow above the stream. That they may ready their arrow above the stream. That they may ready their arrow above the stream. The upright and hard in the foundation be destroyed. What did the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in them. children of man, the Lord tried the righteous, God the wicked, and him that bothered violence, his soul hated, his soul hated, upon the wicked. He shall withstand fire and ransom and implore a bolt and vest, this shall be the portion of their cup for the righteous Lord. Love and righteousness is countenance, doth behold, doth behold the upright, in the Lord would I my trust. Amen, good singing everybody. Go in your hymnals now to hymn 12, hymn number 12. Blessed Redeemer, hymn number 12. We'll sing it on that verse now. Hymn number 12, love Calvary's mountain, one dreadful morn, walk Christ my Savior. Hymn number 12, sing it out together now. Up Calvary's mountain, one dreadful morn, walk Christ my Savior, weary and worn, facing for sinners death on the cross, that he might save them from endless loss. Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer, sings how I see him on Calvary's tree, wounded and bleeding for sinners pleading, blind and unheeding, dying for me. Father forgive them, thus did he pray, in while his life loved and flowdressed away, praying for sinners whose qualities such woe, no one but Jesus ever loved so. Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer, sings how I see him on Calvary's tree, wounded and bleeding for sinners pleading, blind and unheeding, dying for me. Oh how I love him, sacred friend, how can my praises ever find them? Thirty years of comfort on heaven's shore, my tongue shall praise him forevermore. Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer, sings how I see him on Calvary's tree, wounded and bleeding for sinners pleading, blind and unheeding, dying for me. Man, good singing this morning. All right, it's time to pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter number 6, as we always do. We'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1. Follow along silently with Brother Corbin Brock as he reads Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse number 1. Matthew chapter 6. Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them, otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret. And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret. And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body more than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit under his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Lord, thank you for allowing us to gather here to hear your word today. And Lord, I ask that you would be with Pastor Anderson and fill him with the Holy Spirit that he may preach boldly things that we need to hear. And Lord, let it enter into our hearts and let us do what your will is. Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. This morning, we're continuing to talk about the Sermon on the Mount. And in chapter 6, there's kind of a theme that goes throughout this chapter about how some of the things that people care the most about in this life are the things that ultimately end up not mattering at all in the scheme of things. And the things that have no eternal value. The Bible says there in verse number 1, Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them, otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Now, alms has to do with giving unto the poor, right? This is not talking about coming to church and putting money in the offering plate, giving your tithes and offerings and things like that. Obviously, throughout history, churches have passed offering plates and people can see you throwing money in the plate or not throwing money in the plate. Nobody's looking around. Some people have misinterpreted this and said, Hey, we need to make sure that the offering's all done secretly and that we kind of put the box somewhere where nobody can see it and just kind of slip over and put it in. Obviously, in the Bible, we see them putting money and laying it down at the apostles' feet. Passing the offering plate is a normal practice. That is not alms. Tithing is not alms. Giving and offering is not alms. I've had some people say that they will not write a check to the church because they want it to be secret, you know, and so they'll basically just only give cash, make it all anonymous. And look, there's nothing wrong with doing that, but I just want to make sure that you understand the context here. We're talking about alms giving, which is talking about helping poor people. That is what it means to give alms. The Bible says in verse 2, Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet, before thee, as the hypocrites do, in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. Now, this sounds kind of extreme, doesn't it? Giving to the poor and literally sounding a trumpet. Doo-doo! Hey, look at me, everybody. I'm giving to the poor right now. But what's funny is that today, we have people doing something even more extreme than sounding a trumpet. We have people literally videoing themselves giving alms and then uploading it to the Internet so that it can be seen not by 15 people or 20 people or 50 people, but so that thousands of people can see them and say, hey, look at me, everybody. And there are YouTube channels and Facebook videos and things just of people giving money to the poor, not for the right reasons, but rather to be seen of men, to be glorified. And this is contrary to Scripture. It's unchristian. Right? When we help the poor, it needs to be something that we do privately, secretly. We don't brag about it. We don't talk about it. And in fact, the Bible says in verse 3, when thou doest thine alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. You know, make it so secret that your left hand doesn't even know what your right hand is doing. Obviously, that's an exaggeration, but the idea here is don't go around telling people about your charitable giving. Right? Do it for the poor. Don't do it to be seen of men. Do it for the Lord. The Bible says in verse 4 that thine alms may be in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men verily I say unto you, they have their reward. So we see this pattern here at the end of verse 2, the people who give their alms so that everybody can see them being charitable, it says they have their reward. And then when it talks about people praying publicly and making a big show about their prayer life, it says again, they have their reward. And the idea here is that if you go through this life doing righteousnesses to be seen of men, you have your reward right now. God's not going to reward you. Your reward is those accolades that you receive from other people. Now here's the thing about that. That is a very empty reward indeed to receive accolades from other people. One of the other themes in this passage is the temporary nature of things on this earth like money and the things that we care so much about amassing on this earth, the treasures that we lay up on this earth. And it's kind of interesting if you think about laying up treasures on this earth in the form of money, another thing that people like to rack up are accolades and getting people to like them and getting people to think that they're wonderful, not just money but also fame, prestige, and things like that. And if you stop and think about it, just like the money Jesus is going to later tell us is not permanent and that if you lay up your treasures on the earth, moth and rust will corrupt them and thieves will break through and steal. Let me tell you something. Having fame and popularity is just as temporary and just as impermanent as those things and it's just as insecure. What do I mean by that? I mean, think about how many people were super famous in their time or super famous when they were younger and then just nobody knows who they are now. Nobody cares. And I'm not even talking about a hundred years later, sometimes even just two years later, five years later, 10 years later, how many people have been that flash in the pan where they were just the big thing, super big thing, super popular, and then it's like, what, who? Nobody cares. Not only that, even if we step outside the realm of celebrity and just talk about normal people living their normal lives, how many people have you seen in your life go from being really popular to not being popular at all and having everybody like them to having everybody dislike them? I mean, you could even see this just in elementary school, junior high, or high school in your own lives. But let me tell you something. It's very fickle, this thing of popular opinion, right? How many presidents become the president of the United States with a super high approval rating, and then their approval rating just goes down and down and down. They go from being the most popular to the least popular, right? People's opinions of you are all over the place. They don't matter, okay? And especially as preachers of God's word, we cannot go through life wondering what people think about us or caring what people think about us. We have to preach the word of God and let the chips fall where they may. And it doesn't matter if people like it or they don't like it, if it's popular or not, because the Bible says to the preacher to be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. And so if you're going through life trying to just rack up accolades and praise and popularity and fame, it is a fool's errand because there are two reasons why. Number one, it's temporary. You're not gonna be able to hang on to it. You're not gonna be super popular forever, okay? That's number one. But number two, it's empty simply because it's just per se empty, right? Because if you've ever achieved anything in your life and if you've ever received those accolades and if you've ever received those praises, you know that you have kind of an empty feeling because it's never quite what it's cracked up to be. I guarantee you that a lot of Olympic athletes have felt this when they got that gold medal. That a lot of singers or actors and actresses, when they got that little golden idol handed onto them or whatever, that they probably got that and thought, oh, this is gonna be the greatest moment of my life and then they realized it doesn't really satisfy, okay? Praise from other people is vain. It's empty, okay? Fame, popularity, being loved by this world is empty. And so I would much rather receive the reward that God has for me because I guarantee you that whatever God rewards you with is gonna be something meaningful, something genuine, something that's gonna last. He's gonna give you real joy and real rewards that have eternal value and even the rewards he gives in this life are far more meaningful than just, oh, hey, I get my 15 minutes of fame because like I said, those things are temporary anyway. Just think of so many people who were so big and now nobody cares. You know, famously, John Lennon from the Beatles said, we're more popular than Jesus Christ right now. And he said, 50 years from now, people won't believe in Jesus anymore but they'll still be listening to the Beatles. And yet here we are in 2024 and if you talk to young people, they don't know who the Beatles are. They don't care who the Beatles are. And if you talk to young people, they say, yeah, I heard some Beatles songs and they were total trash and I don't even understand what all the hype is about. That's what I'm hearing from young people, okay? And yet churches are packed today across America. Churches are packed with people worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ and there are far more people in 2024 singing blessed assurance Jesus is mine than are singing I wanna hold your hand or something like that. Nobody cares. And by the way, every decade that goes by, the Beatles are gonna become less and less relevant. They're not gonna matter. And John Lennon is burning in hell right now a blasphemous, wicked sinner who did not put his faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's not popular down there. He's just burning. He's just suffering. And so do not go through life seeking to be popular or to be looked at as great by this world. And here's the thing. When you do good works, do them because they're the right thing to do. Do them because you love the Lord. And God will reward you for those things. And God's rewards, remember, they take place in this life and in the next life. Because Jesus said that whatever you give up for him in this life, if you give up houses, lands, if you give up brothers, sisters, you know, mothers, sons, daughters, whatever you give up for him, he says he'll give to you a hundredfold in this life with persecutions and in the life to come, everlasting life. And so you've got the rewards in the future, but even on this earth right now, God's going to give you meaningful rewards, meaningful blessings now that are far more meaningful than everybody liking you, everybody thinking that you're great, whatever that's even worth, which is very little and for a very short time. And so the Bible says in verse 5, When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward, but thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. The Bible here is telling us that prayer predominantly, primarily, is something that we do alone by ourselves when no one is looking. Now, this is not to say that public prayer is never appropriate. First Timothy chapter 2 says, I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. And so there's nothing wrong with praying anytime, anywhere. Being in a restaurant, praying for your food, praying in a group, whatever, praying in church, of course. But remember that the Bible warns about people who all their righteousnesses they do for to be seen of men. Matthew 23. And he talks about how they love to make long prayers. Now here's the thing, long prayers are something that you do by yourself alone. Public prayers should not be long and drawn out. That's just showy when you go publicly and you got to preach for, or excuse me, you can preach as long as you want, amen. You know, pray for five minutes straight, pray for ten minutes straight, pray for a half hour straight, 45 minutes straight. You know, obviously, that's not the point of prayer to put on a show for other people, right? God does want us to pray publicly, but mainly our praying is done privately, enter into the closet, shut the door, pray in secret, because if you're just praying publicly all the time, then you have your reward, because people are looking at you saying, oh man, look how super spiritual this guy is with his long prayers. And by the way, this is another reason why these people who have the pre-written prayers are not legit men of God. You know, they show up at some political event or some kind of a charity event or whatever, and they have like a speech that they pull out and read, they're praying off a teleprompter, they're praying off a piece of paper or something like that. You know, we need to pray from the heart. Praying is just speaking to God. Just talk to God. We don't need to have some kind of a scripted prayer, and we're going to get to that in a moment, because it says in verse 7, when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not you therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him. And so what the Bible is saying here is that it's not just about the quantity of time you spend praying that actually gets your prayers answered. It's not just about putting in minutes or hours or time and just saying things over and over again. Now, obviously we do, again, have examples in the Bible of people praying for a long time. Praying for hours, praying through the night. There's nothing to say that that doesn't take place, but if you are going to pray for a half hour, if you're going to pray for an hour, if you're going to pray through the night, you should be saying different things the whole time. Like, for example, if I stayed up late talking with my wife and we just talked for hours, you think I'm just like, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I just be like SHUT UP! But then we have people today praying for hours and it's, you know, Jesus Christ, Son of David, have mercy on me, the sinner. Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. Four hours of doing that in these Greek Orthodox monasteries, they'll chant something like that for four hours straight. This is not Christianity, my friend. This is more like Buddhism or Hinduism where it's some kind of a weird emptying of the mind and chanting and transcendental practice of meditation or something like that. That is not biblical Christianity. Biblical prayer has to do with talking to God, speaking to God just as Moses spoke to God as a man speaks to his friend. So you're talking to God. And so, look, yeah, I may talk to my wife for several hours, but we're going to be saying different things. I'm not going to be chanting. Chanting is irritating. I mean, think about how kids sometimes will chant to you. Does it make you want to give them what they want when they chant? Mom, can I have cereal? Mom, can I have cereal? Mom, can I have cereal? Mom, can I have cereal? Mom, can I have cereal? And that's how some people's praying is. Twenty Our Fathers and fifty Hail Marys and all these different, Hail Marys praying to the wrong person, of course. But just all of this chanting is irritating and it's not biblical. It's what the Bible calls a vain repetition. He says, look, you're not going to be heard because of your much speaking. You know, just because you talk to just because you ask 20 times doesn't mean I'm going to give you what you want. OK, the Heavenly Father knows what things you have need of before you ask him, the Bible says in verse eight. So he already knows what you need. So you don't need to sit there and go on and on and on and repeat the same thing over and over again and chant the same thing over and over again. You tell God what you want. You speak to God. You let your request be made known unto God. OK. And then the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Sometimes we have a lot to say to God. Sometimes we have a little to say to God. But at the end of the day, everything we say to God should have meaning and not be vain, not be empty, not be simply an exercise in letting words come out of our mouth. And this is what prayer is in heathen religions. That's why he says, be not like heathen. He says in verse seven, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do. They think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. That's what the Buddhist guy thinks. That's what the Hindu thinks, chanting. That's what the Muslims think with their chanting, with their five times a day vain repetition toward a God that doesn't even exist because it's not the God of the Bible because if you don't have the Son, you don't have the Father. And it's not the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. It's not the true God. And they sit there and they chant and the Roman Catholics will chant through their rosaries and chant through their prayers and they are using vain repetitions. They think that they'll be heard because they did it 20 times. Because they did it 50 times. That's what they think. When in reality, you do it one time and you mean it and it's from the heart and God will hear you. I mean, think about Elijah. You know, Elijah gets up and prays and I think it's like 53 words or something that he prays and God sends fire down from heaven and consumes the sacrifices on Mount Carmel. Why? Because the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. You see, we know that we have the things that we asked of God because we love him. We keep his commandments. We do those things that are pleasing in his sight and so the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, right? If we pray passionately, fervently and we're praying from the heart and we are following God's commandments in our lives and we fear God and love God and we pray according to his will, you know, that's powerful and it could take just a couple minutes. It doesn't have to take hours. And again, I'm not against praying for hours. There are examples of that in Scripture but not chanting for hours. It would be an actual real pouring out of your heart to God for hours. That would actually make sense. And so the Bible says here, be not ye therefore like unto them verse 8, for your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Now of course, pay attention after this manner. Manner is style, fashion in this way. He's saying pray like this. After this manner therefore pray ye. And here's the thing about this, is that people will then take this exact prayer and chant it. He just said don't use vain repetitions. You're not going to be heard for your much speaking. Don't be like these heathen weirdos. Pray like this and then, oh, chant this prayer. Got it. I mean isn't it crazy that they literally chant the prayer that he gives them as an example when he just finished telling him not to chant. Okay. He says, after this manner therefore pray ye. And of course, it's not a super long prayer, is it? It's not a super long prayer, but it's a pattern prayer. It's the type of things that we should pray. It's the type of prayer that we should do. After this manner therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name. You know the first thing that we see here is that we're praying to God the Father. Okay. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray to the Father through the Son. And so we pray to God the Father and we speak to him respectfully. Right. Right. We should have respect and reverence for the God of the universe and we should not have this disrespectful casual attitude toward God. We should treat him with respect and what does that mean? It means not taking his name in vain. Not throwing his name around. Hallowed be his name. Amen. Not just throwing it around. And by the way, that's why I'm not for these cheesy t-shirts that basically make a mockery of the Lord, you know, this blood's for you or something like taking a beer slogan and turning it into a Christian thing like instead of this buds for you, it's this blood's for you or you know, he is risen. Riz. It's not, first of all, it's not funny. Number one, it's stupid. And number two, it's blasphemous and it's not respectful toward the Lord Jesus Christ when we're sitting there and saying you know, oh the Lord's gym, his pain, your gain and you got Jesus lifting weights or something. You know, again, this stuff is blasphemous. We need to be respectful in the way that we treat the name of the Lord and by the way, let's not have images of the Lord Jesus Christ since no one knows what he looked like and there's no physical description in the Bible and the long-haired hippie painted by the Renaissance painters is a figment of their own reprobate imagination. Bunch of sodomites. Seriously, I mean these Renaissance painters, a lot of them were homos. Let's face it. If you don't believe me, just look at some of their artwork. It's kind of faggoty stuff. But he says after this manner therefore pray, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. So we start out by acknowledging God's greatness. By acknowledging his lofty position, his magnificence. And again, if you want more teaching on how to pray, the Book of Psalms is replete with prayers unto God, right? And we see all kinds of examples of prayers. This is one example that Jesus gives us but it's not the only example because we can go back to the Book of Psalms and a lot of those psalms are prayers. They're obviously meant to be sung but many of them are in the form of prayers. The prayers of David. And so when we see these Old Testament psalms, what are they doing? They're talking about God's greatness. They're praising him for his magnificence. And often when I pray, I will talk about some of the great things that God has done in the Bible. And praise God for his wondrous works. And all the wonderful acts that he has done. Praise him for his power. Praise him for his greatness. That's what this first portion here represents. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And then verse 10 says this thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Now this is a very important component to our prayer life is that we should be praying according to the will of God. According to the will of God. You know, the Bible says you have not because you ask not. So first of all we need to be praying if we want to get blessings from God. He said you have not because you ask not. But then he said you ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts. So the best way to not get your prayers answered is just not to pray. Because then you just have not because you ask not. If you're not praying you're not getting anything. But he also says that some people are praying and they're not receiving because they're praying selfish prayers. They're praying for things to consume upon their own lust. So they're just praying for money and praying for possessions and praying for wealth and fame and all these things that are vain. And when they just pray those kind of prayers you know it's not going to do anything. God's not going to sit there and answer that. The Bible says if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desire to him. But what about the previous verse? He said if we ask anything according to his will he heareth us. And if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desire to him. So if we're praying things that are contrary to the will of God, God's not up in heaven just saying oh well I got to do this because you asked me to do it. Not if it goes against his will. Okay? You have to pray according to God's will if you want your prayers to be answered. Now some people will twist this concept and get kind of a Calvinist fatalistic kind of a point of view that says oh well if we're just praying according to God's will anyway then what's even the point of praying? Praying doesn't really change anything because God's going to do his will no matter what and us praying isn't going to change anything. Wrong. That is false. Because here's the fallacy of what I just said. The fallacy is the belief that God's will is always taking place. God's will is not always taking place. All throughout this world we have people living and things taking place that are contrary to the will of God. This is not all God's will unless you're some kind of a Calvinist that just believes everything's predetermined and whatever. Well then you're in the wrong church. This is a Baptist church. This is not a Presbyterian church. And so the point is that no we do not believe that everything that happens is God's will because guess what? The Bible says God's not willing that any should perish. But that all should come to repentance and yet we see people perishing all day long. The Bible says that God will have all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth. Do we see all men being saved and coming to the knowledge of the truth? No. God's will is constantly not happening because God desires all kinds of good things and nice things and wonderful things and humans are carrying out all kinds of sinful, ungodly, wicked things contrary to the will of God. This is the will of God. Even your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication. Does that mean every Christian abstains from fornication? But yet it's God's will that every Christian abstains from fornication and yet Christians partake of that. Why? Because they're not doing God's will. Because God's will is constantly not happening. What God wants doesn't automatically happen. If you believe that it does, then you believe God wants some weird stuff because there's some weird stuff going on in this world all the time. And again, that's why a lot of Calvinists who take this really all the way and the people who are really extreme in their Calvinism, they end up with a really weird, sick, and twisted view of God like he's behind every weird thing in this world. And he just isn't. God has made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions. You know, it's man's sin. The foolishness of man perverted his prey and he fretted against the Lord. Can't blame God for the wicked things that are going on in this world. Those are due to the sinful humanity that dwells in the world. And so the point here is that when we pray, we pray according to God's will. Okay, this does not mean that prayer is a useless exercise. Let me give you an example, okay? Let's say that it's God's will for us to do a certain missions program or a certain, you know, small town soul winning trip and we need to reach these people on the Indian reservations or take a mission trip over and let's say we just don't have the money to do it, right? And then I prayed and said, Dear God, please help us to have the money to do this trip. I know you want these people to be saved. We want to get them saved. Please provide, if it's your will that we do this, provide what we need to get there. If it's not your will, then we'll just do something else. We'll just keep soul winning here in Phoenix or whatever. But if it's your will that we do X, Y, and Z, give us the funds to do it. And here's the thing, God would then bless with the funds to do what we need because we're praying according to God's will. Okay. Whereas, let's say I just never prayed that prayer, then the funds just don't show up and the work just doesn't get done because we just didn't even think about it or talk about it or even ask God for help. Do you understand what I'm saying? I mean think about, what about, even you think about like imprecatory prayers or imprecatory psalms or something and you know, obviously God is willing to destroy some super wicked people and so if we prayed those psalms and then God carried that out, it's because we prayed. It's not like, oh that was just going to happen anyway. And you know, it's so irritating to get around Christians where you tell them, hey we prayed for X, Y, and Z and it happened or hey I prayed for this blessing in my personal life and God blessed me in this way. And then, oh that was just going to happen anyway. And you know what that is, it's not giving God the glory for things and just thinking that we achieved everything. You know, look it's God's will that you be able to feed your family. And that you be able to feed yourself. It's God's will that you have what you need, your daily bread, and that you can provide for the people in your home. Right? I mean God wants you to be able to provide for the people in your home. Right? Does that mean it's meaningless to pray and say, God please help me to provide this week. Please help me to make the money I need to pay my bills this week. No. Because here's the thing, let's say you're not praying at all and you don't have what you need, you have not because you ask not. But you're not praying to consume it upon your lust. You're not saying, oh God give me steak and lobster every day. You're praying give us this day our daily t-bone steak. No. You're saying give us this day our daily bread. And so if you're praying, God I don't have the money to pay my bills. I don't have the money to feed my family. I don't have the money to do what I need to do. Please God give us this day our daily bread. Help me out God. I'm working for you. I'm working hard and I want you to help me provide for my family. You're praying according to the will of God. God wants you to be fed. God wants your family to be fed. That's a legitimate prayer. You're not saying, oh God give me a new Corvette. But you might be saying, oh God give me transportation to work. Give me transportation to church. Well look it's God's will that you go to work. It's God's will that you go to church. Those are the kind of prayers that God's going to help you out with, right? Giving you the transportation that you need. Giving you the food and clothing and housing that you need. There's nothing wrong with praying things for yourself. Okay? But not to just consume upon your lusts with excess and extravagant things. But praying according to the will of God. And of course it's God's will that we have what we need and it's God's will that we do his work and that we provide for our families. And by the way I don't think that God wants us to live in poverty either. You know I think that what the Bible teaches is that we should strive to be neither poor nor rich. And that that middle way of finances is what God would have for most of us. Obviously some people he's going to bless with riches for whatever reason. Other people he's going to make go through poverty and difficult times for a season in order to try them and test them. But of course in Proverbs chapter 30 he said give me neither poverty nor riches. Lest I be poor, lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain. So what is he praying? We know he's praying according to the will of God because it's in the Bible. It's a spirit filled proverb, Proverbs chapter 30. It's a prayer from the man of God to God saying give me neither poverty nor riches. This guy's not trying to just consume it upon his lust. He's not trying to have a Lamborghini in a circular driveway with a big fountain in the front. He's he's just trying to not be poor and struggling to feed himself. And he also is not trying to be rich and he just wants to have what he needs. Feed me with food convenient for me. Neither poverty nor riches. That's God's will. So there's nothing wrong with praying for yourself but we don't want to pray for things that are just excessive or selfish or self-serving. So he says thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. You know we should want what God wants. And here's the thing. Let's say we want to pray something that's not according to God's will. You say well I want God to answer me anyway even though it's not God's will. This is what I want. But here's the thing. You know what you're basically saying is that my agenda is more important than God's agenda. And that's never true. At the end of the day God's agenda is the most important thing about our lives. And sometimes our agenda has to suffer. Sometimes our agenda has to go on the back burner so that Christ's agenda can go forward. Because at the end of the day it's God's kingdom and the gospel of Christ that is the most important. He must increase and I must decrease. Right. And so that's why we want our prayers to all be according to the will of God. And so let's say we pray something that's not according to the will of God. Well then the Bible says the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us. He knows the mind of God. And so when we pray the Holy Spirit will take our prayer and sort of translate it. So let's say and this is why it's better to pray something stupid than to not pray at all. It's better to pray wrong than not to pray at all. Because a lot of times, what does the Bible say in Romans chapter 8? We know not how to pray as we ought. We've all prayed stupid things. We've all been at a loss. And sometimes we just go to pray and we're just like ah! Because we don't even know what to say. Because our situation's so messed up or someone else's situation is so messed up we don't even know what to pray. And so we don't know. And so then the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us. And he takes our little our groans and our weeping and our crying and he translates it into something intelligible for God. Or if we pray something stupid like how about this, Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. You know that's not really exactly what this guy wanted. This guy doesn't actually want God to go ahead and just let him die, let him go to hell and then when he comes into his kingdom he'll be like, man I remember that guy. I remember that guy. The guy that was crucified with me, he spoke up for me. No, here's what he really meant. Jesus saved me. Jesus give me eternal life. You know and this is why when it comes to getting saved it's not praying some magical word that saves you. Right? It's not saying this thing or not saying this thing. What it really comes down to is believing in your heart and then you express that with your mouth. It's not like, oh you didn't say it right. You're not saying, you know, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom, you know, isn't necessarily literally what this guy was after. But you know what? Jesus gives him an answer different from what he asked because he says remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. That's a future time. And what does he answer? Today. Today. He answers him differently than what he asked. He said remember me when you come into your kingdom and he said no, no, no. Today you'll be with me in paradise. Today. And so you see how when we pray even if we don't pray exactly right we get the right answer because God knows our heart. He knows the heart of God. And he knows what we really need. So sometimes we might pray and say something stupid like, oh you know give me, well I feel like if it's too stupid though you might just not get anything. You know like if you say like give me the Lamborghini he's probably just going to be like you ask and receive not because you ask him is that you may consume it upon your lust. But let's say something a little bit less extreme. Let's say that you're praying, oh God give me this motorcycle so I can get to work. And then God says well I'm actually going to give you a car instead of a motorcycle or something. You know what I mean? Like he kind of knows what you need. Or you might think like, oh God please do this for me. And he's like okay I'm going to do that for you but I'm not going to do it for you now. I'm going to do it for you two years from now. And he's got a reason why you need to be without those things for the next two years. Learn some lessons. Go through some things. And he's going to give it to you maybe later. Even though you're saying do it in the next six months. He's like I'll do it in the next six years. Or you might even say do it by the end of the year and he says I'll do it today. You don't know right? But at the end of the day we should want what God wants and we should strive to pray for things that are according to God's will. And at the end of the day I'm constantly saying when I pray I'm constantly just saying Lord let your will be done in this situation. Whatever it is that's your will I just want you God to get involved in this situation. And again don't get mixed up by this foolish Calvinistic notion that says oh whatever's going to happen is going to happen anyway. Praying is just an exercise. Praying is not an exercise. Prayer changes things. And so therefore what you want to do is you want to pray and say God get involved in my situation. I don't even know what to say. I don't even know how to explain it but just get involved in this situation. Just act. Just show up. Just do something and God will know what to do. That's better than not praying at all. And it will change the outcome. If I didn't think praying changed the outcome I would stop praying. If I didn't think soul winning changed the outcome I would stop soul winning. Just being honest. But I do believe that soul winning changes the outcome. Praying changes the outcome. Everything that we do in our lives is changing the outcome for ourselves and others. Our lives matter. Our actions matter. The things that we say and do matter. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Verse 11. Give us this day our daily bread. And again the idea here is that we don't know what the future is. We don't know what the future holds. Later in the same chapter I'm going to say sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Take no thought for the morrow. And sometimes our lives can be overwhelming. Sometimes they can be overwhelmingly difficult. And sometimes we might look at the next week or the next month or the next year and think like I don't think I can get through I can't do this for another six months or year or decade. But here's what God's asking us to do just one more day. Can you do it today? I've talked to people who said oh I'm at the end of my rope in my marriage. Okay stay married for one more day. And then another day. And you know don't try to think about the next five years of marriage. Get through one more day. But constantly when people are making bad decisions this is the kind of stuff they're saying. I can't live the rest of my life like this. But you don't know what the rest of your life is going to be like. Think about when David makes a bad decision to leave Israel and go hook up with the Philistines. What does he say? What does David say? He says well you know what someday someday I'm going to perish at the hand of Saul. I need to just go hook up with the Philistines. But again instead of David thinking about someday he should have just thought well God kept me safe today. God kept me safe every single time. I'm safe now. That's all you know tomorrow we'll figure it out. Tomorrow we'll keep moving forward. Instead of this attitude that tries to look at your whole life and plan your whole life. No. We may not know what we're going to eat tomorrow but do we have food today? We got food today we're going to make it. We're going to get through. You got to hang in there. Weeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in the morning. And think about how the children of Israel they're out in the wilderness and they're not having food and not having water and they don't have what they need and they're starving and thirsty but then they murmur they complain they get in trouble with God and then just literally right after that they show up and there's this huge oasis with a bunch of palm trees and springs of water and if they would have just hung in there for literally less than one day they would have gotten there and God would have provided for them. So we need to just kind of hang in there another day that's why he says give us this day our daily bread. We're not necessarily going to have our retirement plan all planned out for the rest of our lives and financially secure forever with no question but God will give us our daily bread. And he said I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. God will provide. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Okay now debts here we're talking about probably more like sins right debt here is is just what we incur we owe and so I think that probably obviously this could be like a financial debt as well I'm not saying that that's not an application because it is. You know there are examples in the Bible where people fall on hard times they can't pay back and you're supposed to be merciful unto them right and so I get that but in general if we jump down to verse 14 it says if you forgive men their trespasses right what is a trespass it's when someone you know literally someone crosses you okay it's when someone sins against you it's when someone does you wrong okay I always jokingly say whenever we're soul winning in an apartment complex and they kick us out and say we're trespassing I always just say hey forgive us our trespasses you know but the point is that when people trespass against us when people sin against us the Bible says if we forgive them then our heavenly father will also forgive us verse 15 but if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses now in order to be able to say forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors you'd have to be a good forgiving person because imagine if you're the unforgiving type and then you prayed to God God please forgive me my debts the way I forgive other people their debts you'd basically be saying God please kick my butt God please punish me severely for every little thing that I do wrong because that's how I treat other people in Jesus name amen I mean it'd be a stupid thing to pray if you're sitting there just raking everybody over the coals for every little mistake and you're bringing up stuff from five years ago ten years ago then God's like well I got something on you from ten years ago that I could do for you oh you want to talk about fifteen years ago well I got something on you from fifteen years ago buddy if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you now just to be clear this is not talking about salvation salvation's a one-time thing you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you're saved you're passed from death to life you become a child of God you have eternal life that's a done deal but here's the thing my children will always be my children my parents will always be my parents right but here's the thing about that though okay is that when we have children in our home that disobey we can either come down on them pretty hard or we could show mercy okay and here's the thing about that if we see our children forgiving one another and being kind to one another right then we're probably going to be more forgiving and kind with them whereas if they are vindictive and spiteful toward one another well then we might come down on them much harder because of the fact that if you are merciful you will receive mercy does everybody understand what I'm saying the point is that when we have children we discipline them and we forgive them and we let things go but here's the thing about that though is that God also disciplines us and he also can either give us the maximum punishment or he can forgive us and again we're not talking about salvation when it comes to salvation all our sins are forgiven from you know in the eyes of God as far as the sins as far as the east is from the west so far as God separated us from our sins and so forth we're we're fully forgiven when it comes to like an eschatological view you know we're totally forgiven when it comes to our salvation okay you know when it comes to like heaven and hell okay you know we're going to be saved from wrath through him but when it comes to what about the fact that God is constantly chasing and chastising us we want God to go easy on us then we better go easy on other people everybody understand what I'm saying that's what he means when he says if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you it means that if somebody does something wrong to you and you're just like hey man no big deal no problem it's okay and you let it go then when God sees you messing up he'll be more likely to let things go whereas if you're super strict on other people God's going to be super strict on you and I guarantee you that this exact analog does take place in people's homes when you see one kid really raking another kid over the coals for a mistake that they make you're probably not going to be overlooking that kid's mistakes because you want to show him what that's like to be super critical and super picky about other people's behavior also it's very hypocritical to be not forgiving others and then expecting God to forgive you and by the way just while I'm on this point let me just go off on a little tangent here and say this okay bringing stuff up from a long time ago is garbage okay and let me tell you why first of all the Christian virtue of forgiveness involves forgiving and forgetting okay forgiving and forgetting is what the Bible teaches you say well where do you get that well how about the book of Hebrews their sins and iniquities will I remember no more I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more the Bible says that God has cast all of our sins behind his back he's not thinking about it he's not dwelling on it he forgives and forgets okay but you have people that hang on to bitterness and grudges for years and years and years and let me tell you why it is unfair to bring up something from years and years ago because it is impossible to defend yourself against accusations years later this is why in the criminal justice system you have the statute of limitations you can't just be like oh well this guy stole from me 20 years ago and then it's like okay well where were you on the night of February 23rd 2008 and you're like what the heck like how do I know I mean think about like if somebody asks me hey where were you last Tuesday night then I could probably figure that out you know might not be easy it might take a minute and you know I have to look at my calendar or look at things and you know look at stuff on my look at text messages or emails or whatever try to piece it together but you know what I'd probably be able to piece together stuff from this month last month or whatever or if somebody brings up some incident that took place three months ago I can be like okay I remember that and here's what actually went down but when someone pulls out some story from 10 years ago or 15 years ago and you're like what in the world like how can you even defend yourself against that because it's impossible for anyone to produce the evidence years later you know and let me just bring up one specific accusation that's been made against me recently and just how stupid this is to be bringing this up 18 years later this stupid foolish accusation that I was never sent here to start this church right this is the new accusation is that is that Pastor Nichols and Regency Baptist Church never send me here to start this church and then I'm a self-proclaimed pastor you know what but here's the funny thing about that is that I already dealt with this lie this stupidity back in 2015 and I produced physical evidence and I gave all the details and just completely destroyed this stupid lying false narrative and even at the time Pastor Nichols himself even texted me and I have that text message where he says well yeah that is what happened but and admitted that he was not telling the truth about the way things went down okay but that it was just that after the fact he regretted sending me to start this church because I preached against his precious little pre-trib rapture okay that's what actually went down but here's the thing back then it was a lot easier to defend myself back then first of all it would have been easiest to defend myself you know 16, 17 18 years ago but it was easier to defend myself in 2015 than it is in 2024 and in 2034 it's going to probably be even more difficult why? because there were about 150 people there when he got up in front of the church and said we're sending Pastor he didn't say Pastor we're sending Stephen Anderson to go start this church in Phoenix and then he said we're also going to find a way we're struggling financially right now but we're going to find a way to support him financially okay and there were 150 people there to hear him talk about how he's sending me to start a church in Phoenix and that we're going to find a way to support him financially but now he has this lying story of oh I told him not to start the church and he just wanted to do it anyway and just kind of went rogue and went on his own but yet I produced in the video that I made in 2015 the bulletin where I where he prints my words where he prints my letter saying thank you for your godly counsel I went to Phoenix and started the church and here's all the success the letters that he wrote to me and all these different just all this actual physical evidence plus 150 eye witnesses okay and you know thankfully I even had that stuff 10 years after the fact but here's the thing I guarantee you that if I were to ask people 10 years ago or 15 years ago hey do you remember being there that Sunday morning when that happened they'd be like oh yeah of course I was there and a bunch of people in 2015 were like yep I was there I remember it but you know in 2024 I wonder how many people even remember and it's kind of a stupid example but the point is that the longer that goes by these false accusations become more and more difficult to defend against when people are bringing up crap from 15 10 five years ago how do you even defend yourself against that you know what I mean it's and look now let's make application for you that was from my personal life okay how about you you know when you're bringing up stuff that your wife did 10 years ago or your husband did five years ago you know first of all what is wrong with you move on okay do not live life carrying around this bitterness and grudges from your childhood from when you were a teenager from five years ago from when you first got married oh remember when we first got married and you did this jerk move it's like what we've been married for 20 years we've been married for 30 years and you're still talking about the things that went wrong on our honeymoon let it go it's stupid and it's un-Christian and it's the best way to get God to come down on you like a ton of bricks every time you make a mistake when you want to just harbor all this bitterness against other people and be all mad at other people and bringing up and look accusing people of something oh you know I got raped 25 years ago shut your mouth because you know what you should have been screaming and yelling the day it happened that's what the Bible says and if you weren't screaming and yelling the day that it happened then shut up but you bring out these false accusations and you bring out this crap years later it's impossible for people to defend themselves against and just to be clear I've never been accused of raping anyone because I've been accused of everything else under the sun but that's not one of them because I've only had sex with my wife and it's impossible to rape your wife idiots out there online you can't rape your wife that's not even possible because she belongs to you amen? anybody who didn't say amen is suspect because that's what the Bible says I'm just saying it's what the Bible says the woman hath not power over her own body but the man the husband has no power over his own body but his wife does but let me tell you something the best way to not get accused of raping somebody is to not commit fornication you know you got a bunch of guys today saying oh man we're constantly being accused of rape by feminists well here's the thing quit fornicating with feminists quit fornicating period and then you can't get accused of rape except by retards like Tommy McMurtry and Dave Berzins and Jason Robinson they're the only morons that will ever accuse you of that the idea here is that you cannot bring up stuff 5, 10, 15, 20 years later and expect to be taken seriously you got a problem with somebody bring it up now because you know what the human memory is so fallible the human memory is so unreliable even a week later even a month later people remember things totally wrong and then you're bringing up stuff from 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago it's impossible to prove I mean Pastor Nichols said that when he met my wife she could barely speak English here's the funny thing about that my wife taught English in his Christian school within a month of showing up I'm not kidding she literally was at his Christian school literally tutoring English to native speakers correcting their English a month after showing up but then you know decades later oh yeah she barely even spoke English you can say whatever you want 20 years later because nobody even knows or remembers nobody can fact check you it's garbage my friend you need to forgive and forget and if something wicked happens if something bad happens if there's a problem you know what you better call it out right now instead of saying oh I'll wait 7 years let me wait 10 years just kind of pull this out 12 years later when it's impossible to defend and by the way let me just go off a little bit here on something unrelated this is why these traffic cameras are such baloney the ones that give you the ticket let me tell you why because if I supposedly broke a traffic law and the cop pulls me over it just happened 2 minutes ago I know exactly what happened I can defend myself and say well here's what here's where I was here's how fast I was going here's what happened here's what I did how can I defend myself when something shows up in the mail 2 months later 2 months later it's like you were speeding at this time and then they're like oh you can go to court and fight this well I'm gonna go to court and be like well you know I just I remember at 5 36 pm driving down that road and here's how fast I was actually going and here's what I was actually doing it'd be literally impossible to defend does everybody understand what I'm saying? who's ever been pulled over in your entire life for doing something wrong and you were actually not at fault put up your hand if you feel like you've been pulled over and given a ticket and you weren't at fault no no you're all lying because the police never make a mistake and everything's always yeah the point is though that I hope you're getting the concept how it's literally impossible to defend yourself about things way later and that's why things need to be dealt with right away which is why the Constitution of the United States actually guarantees us a speedy trial a speedy trial right? because of the fact that the longer that goes by the less likely you are to get justice because everybody's memories are fading evidence is going away things are being deleted things are being forgotten and so trying to bring up something that somebody did 10, 15 20 years ago is ungodly because of the fact that you're not practicing the Christian virtue of forgiveness it's also unbiblical because you're supposed to bring up crimes right away and you can't just pull things out way later and also it's just not fair to the defendant to be you know tried for something that they can't really effectively defend themselves and by the way this is why the statute of limitations exist some people they get upset and be like man why does this crime have a statute of limitations and you know what a lot of crimes statute of limitations is one year right? I mean who knows a lot about law that could tell me some crimes and some statutes of limitations anybody have any examples just right off the top of their head anybody got something nobody, nobody cares alright wait we got something you have to file a wrongful death within one year of the date of death okay so you have to file a wrongful death lawsuit within one year of the date of death right wrongful death lawsuit you got one year to file that thing and I guarantee there are a ton of other things like that and that's pretty serious right I mean wrongful death is a big deal guess what the smaller the crime the shorter that statute of limitations tends to be you know typically only things like murder or something first degree murder might have no statute of limitations or something like that okay but the vast majority of things they have that one year two years whatever so that you can't just be bringing stuff up years later that's impossible to defend impossible to prove it just makes it too difficult and so there are a lot of good reasons not to bring up the past okay because our memories get distorted we tell ourselves these stories in our mind we exaggerate things in our mind we beef things up in our mind we talk to other people and mix their stories with our stories and at the end of the day you need to just stop bringing up stuff that your wife did or that your husband did or that your kids did or that your parents did or that your friends did or that so and so did or you know oh well you know 15 years ago I saw something what the heck and you're bringing it up now because you're a slanderer that's why the bottom line is you speak now or you forever hold your peace you know and people who actually have a real crime to report they actually report it people who don't they just sit on it and get all sour and bitter and gall inside of them and then want to bring it up years and years later well if you want God to forgive you you better forgive other people and we need to get back to the Christian virtue of forgiveness letting things go and especially if people tell you that they're sorry you have to forgive them it's not even an option if somebody comes to you and apologizes you have to forgive them the Bible demands it and so if you're going to be able to pray the Lord's prayer or something like the Lord's prayer you're going to have to be able to pray forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and it would take a forgiving person to be able to pray that prayer we'll just quickly finish these last couple verses of the Lord's prayer here it says lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen notice bookending this prayer with great respect for God's magnificence praise for God and then in between ask him for what we need our daily bread forgiveness we want things to go according to God's will we don't want to be led into temptation and we want to be delivered from evil these are the type of things that we should be praying and where do we do that praying in secret right most of our praying is just between us and God not for show let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer Father we thank you so much for your word thank you so much for this great passage of scripture the Sermon on the Mount Lord please just bless us as we go our separate ways now Lord and in Jesus name we pray amen let's take our hymnals together go to hymn number one hymn number one Jesus I my cross have taken hymn number one we'll sing it out on that first verse now hymn number one Jesus I my cross have taken all to leave and follow thee destined to despise for saving thou from hence nigh all shall be ever every bond and mission all I sought and hope and know yet how rich is my condition God and heaven are still my own there the world despise and leave me they have left my Savior too human hearts and looks deceive me thou art not like man untrue and while thou shalt smile upon me God of wisdom love and life foes may hate and friends may shudder me show thy face and all is right that they trouble and distress me will but drive me to that rest my first trials hard they press me and will bring me to rest oh does God agree to heart me while my love is glad to me those were God in joy to charm me were that joy unmixed with me a sea of praise to glory armed by faith and winged by prayer and eternal days before thee God's own hand shall guide me there soon shall quote thy earthly mission which shall pass thy pilgrim days gold shall change to glad fruition made to sigh and prayer praise Thank you for watching!