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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. Good evening, everyone. Welcome back to Faith Award Baptist Church. It's very nice to see you all here for our Sunday evening service. Find your seats, please, and we'll begin with our singing tonight. Go to Hymn 424 in your hymnals tonight. Number 424. O come, all ye faithful. Hymn number 424. We'll lift our voices together on that first now. Hymn number 424. O come, all ye faithful. Hymn number 424. O come, all ye faithful. Joyful and triumphant. Let's sing it out unto the Lord this evening. Hymn number 424. Please testify all through the church. O come, let us adore him. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. Christ the Lord. Sing, choirs of Angel, Sing, choirs of Angel, O come, let us adore Him. in Christ the Lord. Sing choirs of angels, sing in exultation, sing on the idols of heaven. Glory to God all, glory in the highest. O come, let us adore him. O come, let us adore him. O come, let us adore him. In Christ the Lord. Yea, for deeply deep, for this happy morning, Jesus to thee be all glory given. Word of the Father, now in flesh of hearing. O come, let us adore him. O come, let us adore him. O come, let us adore him. Christ the Lord. That's a good start for us to sing tonight. We want to go before the Lord and ask his blessing on the service. So I've asked for the Fidel Gonzalez to take you with his presence. Father in heaven, we thank you for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the opportunity to lift up our voices to you in praise this evening, Lord. We thank you for the beautiful weather, Father. We ask you to fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit, bless every aspect of his sermon, and let it be edifying to us all. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Right across page 423. 423, joy to the world. In number 423, lift your voice on that first sound. Number 423, joy to the world. The Lord has come. Sing it out now. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. The world, receive her King. Let every heart prepare him true. Let heaven and nature sing. Let heaven and nature sing. Let heaven, heaven, heaven and nature sing. Joy to the world, the Savior reigns. Let heaven, their songs employ. While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains Repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy. Repeat, repeat the sounding joy. No more are sins and sorrows wrong For forth to press the ground He comes to make his blessings known Far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found Far as, far as, the curse is found He rules the world with truth and grace And gains the nation's truth The glories of his righteousness And wonders of his love And wonders of his love And wonders, and wonders of his love Thank you so much. All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside, we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week we will be in 2 Chronicles chapter number 30. We've got the so many times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. And then we've got coming up this Thursday night, Christmas caroling. So this is something we do every year. We've done it for many years now. It's funny because we started it a really long time ago, like, I don't know, 16 years ago or something. And we actually had kind of a bad experience. And then we didn't do it for a long time. And I'm really glad that we resurrected this like 10 years ago or something, because for the last eight, nine years, it's been awesome. We learned from our mistakes the first time. And so this Thursday, we meet here at 5.30. We get organized. It's super easy. You get in a group of like 20, 30 people. So if you're not confident with your singing, just fade to the back. It's still gonna be a great time for you. We're singing easy songs. Oh, come all ye faithful, joy to the world. Keep it simple, piece of cake. Everybody loves it. And then afterward, we'll come back here for a time of fellowship with cookies and milk. You're providing the cookies, right? Because we're having the cookie potluck. We're providing the milk. And so that's gonna be this coming Thursday night. I hope you'll be there to celebrate with us starting at 5.30 right here. And then the bridal shower, that ship already sailed, but thank you to everyone who participated in that. We got three birth announcements. It was a fruitful week. We've got baby Priscilla. We got baby Liliana and baby Hannah. So be sure to congratulate all the families. We got some beautiful pictures here. We got all the stats, all the vitals there. So everything's looking good. Another thing that's not in the bulletin, but I'm gonna be preaching this coming Friday night in Spokane, Washington. So if you happen to know anybody in that Spokane region or any of the surrounding area, please let them know. Anybody out there watching that's from that area, please show up. But at Shure Foundation Baptist Church in Spokane, there's gonna be a dinner at five o'clock and then preaching at seven o'clock. So pray that that goes well. I'm going there this Friday. And I believe that that's about it for announcements. All right, let's go ahead and count up the soul winning for the past few days. Going back to Thursday. Anything to report from Thursday? Okay. Okay. Okay. All right, how about Friday? Okay. All right, and then Saturday. Okay. Okay. And then what about today? Does Brother Scott have a total for his group? Oh, you got it. Six for the main group with Brother Scott's normal crew. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. Got it. Got it. Anything else from today? All right, very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. With that, let's sing our next song. Come lead us. All right, you should find the insert in front of your hymnal with the two songs. We'll start with Go Tell It on the Mountain. If you don't have an insert, you can raise your hand if you receive one. Sing it on that verse together. Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is Lord. Watch at first death, they're watching, or silent once by night. Behold throughout the heavens, there show the holy light. Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is Lord. The shepherds fear their tremble, when loam above the earth, rang out the angels' chorus, that hailed the Savior's birth. Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is Lord. Down in the lonely manger, the humble Christ was born. And God sends us salvation, that blessed Christmas morn. Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born. Man, good thing everybody. Flip that sheet over, we'll sing together, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, let nothing give dismay. Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day, to save us all from Satan's fire when we were gone astray. O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy, from God our heavenly Father, a blessed angel came, and unto certain shepherds brought tidings of the same. Now that if Bethlehem was born, the Son of God by name, O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy, hear not that sadly angel, let nothing give a fright, this day is born a savior, am of your urgent pride, to free all those who trust in Him, from Satan's power and might. O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy, the shepherds at those tidings Rejoice as much in mind, and let their flocks of eating intend this storm and wind. And when to let the heavens stray, wave the Son of God to mine, O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy. Man, good singing tonight. Alright, this time we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Ecclesiastes chapter 7, 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 Ecclesiastes 7, beginning in verse number 1. Ecclesiastes chapter 7. A good name is better than a precious ointment and the day of death than the day of one's birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity. Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad, and a gift destroyeth the heart. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Say not thou what is the cause that the former days were better than these, for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. Wisdom is good with an inheritance, and by it there is a profit to them that see the sun. For wisdom is a defense, and money is a defense, but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them that have it. Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight which he hath made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider. God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him. All things have I seen in the days of my vanity. There is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness. Be not righteous over much, neither make thyself over wise. Why shouldest thou destroy thyself? Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish. Why shouldest thou die before thy time? It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this, yea, also from this withdraw not thine hand. For he that feareth God shall come forth of them all. Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city. For there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse thee. For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise has cursed others. All this have I proved by wisdom. I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me. That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out? I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness. And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands. Whoso pleases God shall escape from her, but the sinners shall be taken by her. Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account, which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not. One man among a thousand have I found, but a woman among all those have I not found. Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions. Thank you, Lord, for giving us the opportunity to be here today. I just pray that you could bless Pastor Anderson, fill him with your spirit as he preaches, and I pray that we can all be attentive tonight. I pray all these things in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. The title of my sermon this evening is Tips for a Happy and Healthy Life. Tips for a Happy and Healthy Life. I've got here an article from Gallup, the polling organization, called US Depression Rates Reach New Highs. So more people in the United States of America are depressed than ever before. And if you stop and think about it, we're actually experiencing more prosperity in the United States than any other previous generation, and yet people are more depressed than ever. This is like the most depressed generation. Why is that? I was looking through the article, and it had some specific things like saying that women and young adults are the ones who are really just increasing the most in depression. You're just seeing the numbers for young people just going through the roof for how many of them are depressed. And these are people with serious problems because these are the questions that they're asking. Has a doctor or nurse ever told you that you have depression, or do you currently have, or are you currently being treated for depression? That's the kind of stuff they're asking, but they're being treated if a doctor's telling them this. I'm 43 years old. I've never had a doctor or a nurse tell me that. I've never gone through that kind of treatment. Maybe you have, maybe you haven't, but obviously these people are pretty upset. I've been upset before, but not to that level. Later on, it talks about people who are experiencing loneliness and depression so that they can't function and do their normal duties in their life for over two weeks at a time. So, I mean, there's some serious, serious depression going on in our country. People are sad. People are unhappy. They're not mentally healthy. The rates for mental illness are really high. And so what I want to do tonight is preach from Ecclesiastes chapter 7 some tips for how to have a happy and healthy life. Because, look, if this is something that's happening all around us, you know, we want to make sure that we don't fall prey to this as well, right? We want to have the joy of the Lord. We want to be happy. We don't want to be depressed and so forth. I'm sure this is something that is affecting people in our church. And if it isn't now, it will in the future. It's something that we all want is to be happy in life, right? Nobody wants to be depressed. Nobody wants to be sad or down. And so I was preparing the sermon, and I was just making a list of things, and I was just kind of going all over the Bible, just looking for tips on having a happy, healthy life. And I was just putting together points, everything. But it seemed like I kept coming back to Ecclesiastes chapter 7, and I'm finding so many good points in Ecclesiastes 7 alone. I decided to just make the whole sermon just about Ecclesiastes 7, because this one chapter has so many great things for living a happy and healthy life. So point number one is kind of just the obvious no-brainer point, which is be right with God if you want to live a happy and healthy life. You want to know why a lot of people are depressed? It's because they're not right with God. Now, look, obviously there are lots of other reasons, which is why this is not a one-point sermon. Yeah, you could be totally right with God and still get depressed. But if you're not right with God, then trying to fix all the other things is a waste of time. The first thing you need to fix is you need to get right with God. Because, look, if you're depressed and you're not following Christ, the first thing I would say is, well, that's the problem. You need to get right with God, because how can you have real joy in your life? How can you have real happiness if you're not A, saved, and B, living for God? So you got to fix that before you fix anything else. Now, obviously I'm not going to spend a huge amount of time on this point, because we're at Sunday night church at Faithful Word Baptist Church. I'm not preaching to a bunch of backslidden, lame people. I'm preaching to people that virtually almost all are saved and are living for God and are serious about the things of God. But I still need to touch on this point. It says in Ecclesiastes, chapter 7, verse 1, a good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of one's birth. Now, if you think about it, the day of death is only better than the day of birth after a life that's been well lived. Okay? And the day of death is only better if you're saved and going to heaven. Right? So right away, you want to be saved and living for God. Now, you keep your finger in Ecclesiastes 7, because we're going to be there the entire time, but flip over, if you would, to 1 Peter, chapter 1 as well, if you want. 1 Peter, chapter 1. But the Bible said a good name is better than precious ointment. Well, what is a good name? Well, Ecclesiastes, chapter 10, verse 1 says, dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor. So does a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor. So according to the Bible, a good reputation is a reputation of wisdom and honor. Right? So a good name is when you are known for being wise and honorable. It's a life of integrity. Right? It's a life of doing the right thing, living for God. The Bible says in 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 6, wherein you greatly rejoice. Right? This is what we want. We want to be happy. We want to have joy so we don't get depressed and go to the doctor and tell the doctor we're depressed and have all these problems that disrupt our lives. You greatly rejoice though now for a season, if need be, you're in heaviness. Right? And so even God's people who are living right and serving God are going to go through sad times because that's what heaviness means. He says you're in heaviness through manifold temptations that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than that of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love, in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. And so what I want to show you from this passage is that when Christians, when you're saved and you're living for God, even when things are going badly, even when you're going through trials, tribulations, afflictions, and there are seasons where you're sad, you're down, you're upset, you still at least rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory because of the fact that you have Jesus Christ, you have salvation, and you know that you're living for God and that ultimately God's going to see you through in the long run. And so the first point, again I don't want to spend a lot of time, but get right with God because you know what, if you're out there as a backslidden Christian living a worldly sinful life, I'm not surprised at all if you're depressed. I'm not surprised at all if you're lonely because that is a recipe for depression and loneliness. Getting out of church and living some self-centered, drunken, partying, drug life, you are just virtually guaranteed to be depressed. So you don't even need, you need to just turn off the sermon right now and get right with God because the rest of this point is for people that are actually right with God. Okay, but number two, so number one, you said be right with God. Number two, and this is a saying that I often like to use and that I've said in a lot of sermons, schedule your suffering. Schedule your suffering, okay? Look what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7 verse 2. It's better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. You see, stupid people, they just want their life to be all fun and games and partying and it's just one feast, one party after another, but that doesn't make you happy. Okay, that's not going to give you real joy and it certainly doesn't make you a better person because the Bible says that sorrow makes a better person. You see, true lasting joy, real joy in our hearts, real happiness that will safeguard us against depression and being down in the dumps all the time, it's not an absence of sorrow or suffering, right? Peter talked about how even in the midst of trials, tribulations and sadness, we are still able to rejoice with joy unspeakable, okay? Absence of pain won't make you happy, absence of suffering, getting everything you want won't make you happy, I'll put it that way. Go if you would to Ecclesiastes chapter 2, just a couple pages to the left in your Bible because look, you know, this article from Gallup, it talks about how the depression rates are so high and everything and it kind of guesses at some of the reasons for that. I don't think that they really necessarily get the reasons right because you know what I've noticed is that people who get depressed, it's usually because they have everything given to them. Their life is too easy, it's too good, everything's handed to them and if you think about it, depression rates are not just going up in the US, they're actually going up worldwide and this article talks about that. Worldwide and you know what else is going up? Worldwide is prosperity. Now look, I want to be prosperous, I want our nation to be prosperous, I want our world to be prosperous, I don't want to see people in poverty and struggling to eat and going without things but at the same time, if we're going to live in a land of abundance and plenty, we need to know how to live in a land like that without getting depressed. Okay, because you know, you look at the countries that are the highest on the happiness index, right, the OECD happiness index, you know, of course it's like, oh Denmark, oh Sweden, all these stupid Scandinavian idiot places but sorry Scandinavians out there. But you know, those are always like, oh the happiness index, they're the highest. They're also the highest users of antidepressants in the world. It was like the same country that was the happiest popped the most happy pills. You know, what's up with that? You know, if they're so stinking happy, then why are they taking so many antidepressants? I'll tell you why. Because their happiness index is just really how good they have it but guess what, having it good doesn't make you happy. People are still depressed, the more of a spoiled brat you are, the more you'll probably tend to get depressed and I'm going to explain why. But look at Ecclesiastes chapter 2 verse 10. And whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy. So here's King Solomon, he has the ability to indulge in whatever he wants and that's exactly what he does. He just gets everything he wants. And it says in verse number 10, be there for my heart rejoiced in all my labor. This was the portion of all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought and on the labor that I had labored to do. And you'd expect them to be like God where God made everything and said, hey it's very good. But instead of saying it's very good, he looks at it and he says, it's all vanity and vexation of spirit. Do you know what vexation of spirit is? It means something that just irritates you and bothers you. So having everything he wanted irritated him, bothered him, made him upset. And it was all empty, meaningless and a vexation to his spirit. Verse 11, it says there was no profit under the sun. And then if you jump down just a couple of verses later in the chapter, I forgot to put this in my notes, but he literally says like what, four verses later, therefore I hated life. So he gives himself everything he wants, ends up hating life. Why? Because getting everything you want doesn't make you happy. Now let me just give you like a little, go back to Ecclesiastes 7. I'm going to give you just a little science lesson, okay, that's going to help you understand why people who are super prosperous or people living in a prosperous country like America, young people growing up in this really prosperous generation where even like fast food places are begging you to work there for like $16, $17 an hour, okay? You know, why is it that prosperous people are depressed and down? Let me give you a little science lesson, okay? What goes up must come down, okay? Now, if we apply this to biology, okay, and look, obviously we already talked about getting right with God and the spiritual reasons, but you know what, a lot of our mood and happiness has to do with chemistry in our body as well. It's not all just spiritual. There's a physical component to being in a good mood or a bad mood as well. Now, from a biological standpoint, our bodies are constantly trying to reach homeostasis, right? Our bodies, basically if you put them in a cold environment, what's our body going to do? Our body's going to generate heat, right? If you put them in a hot environment, what's our body going to do? It's going to cool us down because our body is seeking equilibrium, all right? And it's the same thing with your moods. If you are constantly just hitting that reward center of your brain and just indulging in pleasure after pleasure after pleasure, your body chemistry will balance that out by bringing you down, okay? Whereas if you go through pain, if you go through suffering, your body will not want you to go too low, so it will actually release feel-good endorphins to make you feel good when you're going through pain and then you end up feeling bad when you're indulging in too much pleasure because your body's trying to bring you down. Your body's trying to keep you from getting too hot, too cold, right? Too happy, too sad. And so what happens is we have a generation today that's just constantly just tickling that reward center of their brain. It's just constant indulgence in ice cream and candy and whatever and it's just like bing, bing, bing, right? Now obviously, there are things that are even worse for just setting off that reward center of your brain like how about things like pornography, okay? That's going to just absolutely destroy your brain, okay? That's the stupidest thing you could be doing is looking at pornography, okay? But or how about this, another one, drugs. You know, you take drugs and you're just basically just lighting up that reward center like a Christmas tree. Oh, it feels so good but then isn't it interesting that after people get high, afterward, they feel like total crap. There's always going to be the low after the high. What goes up must come down. So just stop and think about this fact. Every time you enjoy pleasure, just realize that your body is going to compensate for that by bringing you down. And so if you overdo the pleasure, you're going to be having some serious lows and things like drugs and alcohol and pornography are obviously just taking this to extreme levels and they're going to make you super depressed, super low, super down in the dumps. But not only that, just even innocent things, if they're taken to an excess, can do the same thing. Like I said, even just ice cream and candy and you're just constantly just indulging in all these feel good things, then you wonder why you're sad and depressed because your body is bringing you down. This is chemistry, okay? This is biology. It's not even a spiritual thing. It's just a physical fact of the human body, okay? And so therefore, you can't just go through life being happy all the time, feeling good all day, every day. It doesn't exist. Feeling good all day, every day does not exist. And if you seek that and you're just like, oh, I just got to feel good every day, just more ice cream, more candy, more drugs and then video games, right? You're just having so much fun on the video game and then you're watching all these movies and just having all this fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. The people who are indulging in just so many sweets and so many games and so much entertainment and they end up being depressed, which is ironic. The more pleasure you indulge in, the more depressed you get because what goes up must come down. Now, the way to flip this over and use this principle to your advantage is to schedule your suffering, right? Go through pain on purpose, then you will feel good afterward. But you want to make it the good kind of pain. You see, here's the thing. If you are going through pleasure and then afterwards you're all down and sad and depressed, that doesn't help anybody. It doesn't do anything for anybody. You got to schedule some positive suffering in your life that's a good kind of pain, a good kind of suffering. Here's an idea. Work hard. If you go out and work hard, right, and you push yourself and work hard going to your job and working hard, guess what? That's going to make you feel better in the long run because any pain or suffering that you go through at your job, your body is going to compensate by making you feel good. That's the way our bodies are supposed to operate. We get hurt and our body makes us feel good to kind of help us get through it. We work hard and then we get the reward at the end of the day. But what we're trying to do in America in 2024 is cheat the system and just, here, let me just inject pleasure into my veins. Let me just drink a bottle of pleasure. Here, let me just pop these pills. Oh, I'll just watch this stuff on these devices all day and just feel good, feel good, feel good. You cannot beat the system. It's impossible to beat. You've got to live life the way life was intended to live where you work hard and then you feel good afterward. Okay? So, you know, work hard at your job or how about this? Go to the gym and work out, okay? Here's the thing. If you go to the gym and work out, newsflash, it hurts. Running hurts. Amen? Who agrees with me that running is painful? It happens all day long. Of course running is painful. Running is painful, okay? Jumping rope is even more painful. Lifting weights is painful. Lifting weights isn't that bad. But running and jumping rope is painful, okay? Whatever exercise you do, you're pushing your body. Afterward, you'll feel good. Some people have said that exercise or running, it's kind of like the opposite of getting drunk. Because getting drunk, people are like, yeah, they're feeling good and they feel horrible later. Exercise, you feel bad and you feel great later. Right? Have you ever noticed that after you do a hard workout or a hard day's work at your job, you're just kind of in a better mood? For the rest of the day or you're in a better mood the next day? Why? It's because of this idea of what goes up must come down. It's the same thing, okay? And so you've got to not allow yourself to just give in to this super comfortable society in America that just indulges in too much feasting, too much pleasure. You've got to every day do things that you don't like doing every day. Look, there should not be a day that goes by when you don't do something unpleasant. What do I mean by that? Either some kind of a workout where you push yourself and go through some pain, you eat some vegetables that you don't want to eat, okay? You know, you do a job, you do some errand that you don't like to do, right? We all have like chores and errands and jobs that we don't like doing. You know, whether it's a study that you need to do. And look, I hope that Bible reading and praying aren't painful for you, but you know what? If they are, then that's just even more reason to just do them. You're like, oh man, you know, reading my Bible is such a drag. Well then, read it twice as much then. Because not only are you getting the benefit of just reading the Bible for the sake of reading the Bible, at least you're also training your brain to not just be indulging in pleasure all day so that you become super depressed. Because you wore out the reward center of your brain. So you've got to schedule your suffering, right? Schedule yourself. Hey, if it's hard for you to go to church, good. Go to church. Do the hard thing. Go to church. Read the Bible. Pray. Soul winning's hard. Great. Do more soul winning. Oh, it's just so hard to get to the gym and work out. Good. Do it more. You'll be happier. I guarantee you, people who live a disciplined life and make themselves do hard things every day, difficult study, mental difficult tasks, physical difficult tasks, spiritually difficult tasks, those people are happier people. Guaranteed. Because when you just indulge in only fun, like, ah, I don't feel like doing that, and you only eat what you feel like, you only drink what you feel like, you only do what you feel like, you know what, you're going to be one of these statistics of people that's depressed because you have wired your brain the wrong way. Now, look down at your Bible. It says in Ecclesiastes 7.5, it's better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity. Now, in the previous few verses, he's been explaining, look, choose sorrow, not just continual feasting and partying and having fun. Okay? But here, he talks about the laughter of fools, the people who are just stupid and they're just always having fun, always partying, it's always ice cream, booze, drugs, porno, video games, movies, you know, just always out there just indulging. They're stupid people and here's the thing, their laughter is like the crackling of thorns under a pot. Now, what does this analogy mean here? The crackling of thorns under a pot. If you make a campfire and you throw thorns like thorn bush, briar type stuff, if you throw it into the fire, it's gonna crackle and pop and it'll flare up really bright and burn bright for a minute and make a lot of noise, but it's not really providing any substantial or long lasting heat. You know, whenever you make a campfire with children, children will bring you stuff and they'll be like, oh man, this stuff burns really well and it's like pine needles. You know what I'm talking about? I have like dry pine needles. Oh man, this is the stuff right here. Watch this. They throw it in, it's like boom, pop, you know, and it's popping and it's flaring up and they're like, watch this, they find some dead branch with just so many pine needles. They throw it in, they're like, yeah, that's what I'm talking about. But here's the thing, that lasts for like 10 seconds. That's not the stuff that you want to roast your marshmallows on, okay? Because, you know, you want to roast a hot dog, you want to roast the marshmallows, you're gonna need those mature coals that are glowing and warm and hot from a serious log. You know, there's been like an actual log that was actually good fuel for the fire. And here's the thing, you put a big log in the fire, that thing could burn for hours. Those pine needles are gonna burn for 30 seconds. And those little crackling and popping of thorns, you get these like really dry briars and thorns and all this stuff, you throw the thorns in, yeah, they're gonna flare up and they're gonna crackle and pop, but it's gonna last for 30 seconds. You know what that is? That's the pleasures of sin for a season. Just that little fun woohoo, you know, you're out there laughing and partying, the laughter of fools is like the crackling of thorns under a pot. You know, if I'm trying to cook goulash in the pot, I'm gonna need some real heat generated by real logs. And some of you, you know, the reason that your goulash isn't cooking is because you don't have a log under the fire. All you got is a bunch of thorns and crackling and popping of just your little yay fun, yay ice cream, you know, yay candy, yay drugs or whatever. Sorry to put those in the same category. I'm not saying ice cream is a sin, but you know what? If you're gonna over, look, I think ice cream is great in moderation. You know what I mean? Like entertainment is great in moderation. But we live in a day where people are overindulging in these things constantly and then they're not willing to go through any suffering. Anything is like, oh, I don't wanna do that. Oh, I don't feel like that. Oh, I don't wanna eat that. You know what I tell my kids too? When my kids don't wanna eat something on their plate that's a healthy, good thing for them to eat and they don't wanna eat that. I always tell them, I say, you know, you ever see people at the gym and they're lifting weights and they're like, they're like, you know, and they're like going through pain and pushing themselves to get that last rep? I always say to them, you know, why don't you bring that mentality, why don't you bring that mindset to the table and pick up that, you know, let's say it's Brussels sprout. I love Brussels sprouts. But like, let's say it's a Brussels sprout, you know, you're just like, oh, I want more rep. Because here's the thing, if you can scream and strain and go through pain to put up the barbell, why can't you just like scream and strain and put down that vegetable and put that broccoli in your mouth? Right? Because both of them are the same thing. Like you're suffering for your health. I mean, you're running that last mile and you're just like, oh man, you know, it's just kind of like, I gotta get through these last couple of cauliflower. Right? Because look, man, life is going to be doing stuff that you don't want to do. Eating stuff you don't want to eat, going places you don't want to go, doing jobs that you want to do. I mean, imagine if my wife and I decide we're never going to do anything we don't feel like doing again. Poopy diaper, don't feel like changing it. Don't feel like making food. Don't feel like going to work today. Don't feel like cleaning. Don't feel, no, you just do it. Well, guess what? When it comes to your meal, you do it. Right? And that's why I try to tell them, I say, this is your, this is your bench press right here. Eat your breakfast. But it's so funny how that, you know, people are like, well, I'll do that in the gym. You got to take that mentality everywhere. The whole life, the whole world is the gym. Okay? You're doing reps of diaper changes. You're doing reps with the dishwasher. You're doing reps with the laundry. Right? Get your work done. And look, I guarantee you that they're, you know, I hope not in our church, but you know, there could be some lazy housewives out there maybe listening at home. I know that there would never be any in our church, but you know, lazy housewives out there just letting the place turn into a pig's eye, letting it get all filthy and dirty because they just don't feel like getting up and doing the work. Right? And then they're just, they're just on their phone just looking for another endorphin hit, another endorphin hit, another endorphin, you know, reward centers going bing, bing, bing, bing. Right? That needs to be, that noise needs to be coming from the oven. It needs to be coming from the, the washing machine needs to be going bing, another load's done, bing. Right? But you're like ch-ching, online gambling, ch-ching, ch-ching, ch-ching. And by the way, why do you think people become online, why do you think people become gambling addicts? Because when they pull that slot machine, they're getting these little hits to their brain with a chemical. It's a reward center dopamine hit. That's what's going on. And so it could be the same thing with a lot of other things in our lives. We need to schedule our suffering. Okay? And we need to realize that the, the partying and fun is a short-lived happiness like the crackling of thorns under a pot. We need the big log of serving God, living an honorable and honest and righteous and wise life and having real achievements. Right? That's a real log that can go under the pot. I got to move on for sake of time. Point three is, uh, I already talked about it, but point three is don't overindulge. So point number one, be right with God. Point number two, schedule your suffering. Point number three, meaning do stuff you don't want to do. Point number three, do not overindulge. Okay? Has thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled there with and vomit it. The Bible's telling you, look, it's okay to eat honey, but don't eat too much or you're going to puke it up. And you know, those of us who have kids, we've all had that experience where our kid overdoes the candy, cake, soda, whatever, and pukes it all up. Who's had your kid puke just simply because they ate too many sweets? We're all terrible parents, but we've all done it. We've all seen it and we're like, yep, junior, that's what I told you. You know that that was going to happen. I told you not to overindulge. Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbor's house, lest he be weary of thee and so hate thee. Right? Don't overdo stuff. You know, you find a good, and humans are just greedy. It's like we find something good and then we just overdo it. Enjoy the honey in moderation. Enjoy all the good things in life in moderation. Don't go overboard on any pleasure. Okay? You've got to moderate yourself. Number four, you should always be working toward a goal and stay motivated. I'm trying to tell you how to live a happy, healthy life, right? Be right with God, schedule your suffering, don't overindulge, and always have a goal that you're working toward. Right? Have something that you're working toward. Have a purpose. Have meaning. Look at the Bible says in verse seven. We're in Ecclesiastes 7, it says, Surely oppression, making the wise man mad, and a gift destroyeth the heart. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. And so the idea here is staying with something and patiently having a goal, working toward a goal, and achieving something real. Instead of just hastening toward a cheap thrill or a shortcut to what you want, have an actual long-term goal and actually work on achieving something real. That's another way to be happy and healthy. Number five, focus on the positive and don't let negative things bother you. Right? Look, I'm trying to tell you how not to be depressed. Because look, we all have negative things in our life, we all have circumstances that are bad, and if we focus on those things and fixate on those things, then we're going to be unhappy people. If you want to be happy and healthy, you got to learn to focus on the positive. I just preached about this recently. Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. Don't let your mind constantly be on the negative. Think about all those good things and don't focus on negative things or let them bother you. Don't sweat the small stuff. Don't let negative things bug you. Verse nine is where I'm deriving this point. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Okay? Do not be a person who just gets mad about everything and you just get upset about everything. Right? Just think about the good things, focus on the good things and don't let every little thing bother you. And by the way, people that are soon angry, people that are hasty in their spirit to be angry, you know why? It's because they already have anger resting in their bosom. That's why the Bible says, be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Because people that just blow up at you in one second, they were already mad. Nobody goes from just being in a good mood, well-adjusted, happy, moderate person to just all of a sudden, you knock on their door, soul-winning, and they're just like blah. Or you cut them off in traffic and it's blah. You know, they tell you you're number one or whatever. That's something that's coming from somebody who was already mad. You know, people are just going through life just seething and they're just dwelling on all the negative things in their life and then they're just ready to blow up about everything. Every little thing bothers them. But you know what? If you're actually a joyful, happy person in general, and then somebody does something to make you mad, you're not going to be quickly angry. You're going to be like, eh, this guy cut me off, whatever. Who cares? Move on. The Bible says, a merry heart doeth good like medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bones. Right? Keep that merry heart. Focus on the positive. This is the day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. And in that, along those same lines, number six, don't be pessimistic. Don't be a pessimistic person always looking at the bad things and always thinking the worst about every situation. Look what the Bible says in verse 10, say not thou what is the cause that the former days were better than these, for thou does not inquire wisely concerning this. Now there are two reasons why you're not inquiring wisely if you ask why the former days were better than these. Number one, you're wrong. The former days were not better than these. That's number one, you're just wrong. And this is something that a lot of people in America think right now. They think that things used to be so much better in America and that we just have it so bad right now. And you know it's the biggest bunch of baloney ever. Because this is like the most prosperous America has ever been in history. And you know what? Especially these kids and young people try to tell us how easy it was in the 80s and 90s and everything. Folks, we were there. And it was not easier. It was harder than it is now. Okay? So this question is a stupid question about why things used to be so much better. They weren't. The olden days have been romanticized and the prosperity has been exaggerated. Okay? And then you're comparing it to reality. So you're comparing a fantasy about the 80s to a reality of now. It's funny. I saw a picture that said, oh, you grew up in the 80s and it showed like a bedroom that was all like pink and yellow and blue, neon, all this like neon stuff that you would think of for the 80s. And it's like, no, I grew up in the 80s and it was all like brown and olive green stuff. That's how it really was. Everybody's furniture was brown. I was there. Okay? It was just shades of brown, shades of dark green, shades of dark yellow, all this neon stuff. Yeah. Okay. Maybe at a skating rink. But you know what? The skating rink's more neon now than it was then. It's just a fact. You think everybody was just running down the street just wearing a bunch of like neon wristbands and neon headbands. Everybody's just doing aerobics and neon outfits. Folks, that's just on TV. That wasn't real life back then. We didn't know anybody who did aerobics. We didn't know a single person who did that stuff. Okay? But it's like, oh man, why did things used to be better? You know what? You're just whining and complaining and being a pessimist about your situation. You're not looking on the bright side of all the good things that are going on today and you're like, man, why were the former days so much better than these days? Number one, you're wrong. They weren't. And number two, even if they were, it's a dumb question to ask why because we can't go back in time. So you just got to deal with the world the way it is right now. What's the point of saying, oh man, what can it be like back then? Well, it just isn't. Deal with it. And by the way, this is especially true when it comes to spiritual things. We were lied to in the old IFB that in the past, you know, just America used to just be so super godly. And there were just so many great churches and so many great revivals and stuff. And oh, the Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening. Go back and look up those Great Awakenings and they're a bunch of crap. Seriously. It's just a bunch of Pentecostal dumb stuff. It'd be like saying today that like Billy Graham and Rick Warren is a Great Awakening. It's like saying Joel Osteen is a Great Awakening or something. I'm not kidding. You know, the past is glorified and exaggerated, how it's just, oh, so much revival. Hey, I think that some of the best soul winning ever is going on right now. You know, I don't sit around thinking about some church from the 60s or 70s and all the souls they got saved. I'm looking at Faithful Word Baptist Church in December of 2024 doing great works for God right now, getting people saved right now, doing worldwide missions right now. And look, I could pull out a book and read about some guy in the 1800s doing missions. I could read about a guy in the 1700s doing missions. Guess what? Our results are bigger and better. And that's just not us. Other fundamental Baptists all over the world are having bigger and better results. Not even just the new IFP. The old IFP is having great results compared to even some of the famous missionaries from 200 years ago. You know, the past is being overly glorified and romanticized. It's a dumb question to ask why it was better back then. It wasn't. Okay. And when it comes to prosperity, America is just objectively more prosperous right now than it's ever been. And by the way, so is the entire rest of the world. If you actually look at hard data and real numbers, the prosperity levels of the entire world have gone up over the last several decades. Why? Because of technology. Because of technology. So you can sit there and say like, oh man, you know, and you see this stuff online all the time. Don't fall for it. Oh man, it was so easy. This is the house that you'd live in, you know, one income. Back in the 60s, a guy could live in this house on one income and it was so easy and what happened to us and blah blah blah. And you know, our parents are just, no my friend, you're wrong. Because you know what? I'll prove it to you. Okay? Go and look at all the houses that were built in the 50s and 60s in Phoenix, Arizona. Somebody just said it. They're small. Did you notice that all the houses that are built in the 50s and 60s are all tiny? And usually they've been added onto and now they're way bigger because the original houses are tiny. They're like 800 square feet. Okay? And let me ask you this. Did the people in the 50s and 60s, did they have a smart phone, smart watch, laptop, internet, subscription here, subscription there? Look, we have all this technology. We got three vehicles in the driveway. We have a house that's twice as big and you could look at like, oh this is the house of the richest person in the whole area. And it's like a house that like tons of people live in now. I mean look at this house just a mile from here. The Peterson. Who's ever toured the Peterson house? Right on the street here. Right? So that's like a mansion from like one of the main citizens or whatever. Folks, there are a lot, there are probably tens of thousands of houses in this city that are way bigger than that Peterson house. Okay? So it's like, oh yeah, guess what? If you live the life, let's say you had no cell phone, right? No computer, no flat screen TV, no internet connection, no, get rid of everything that didn't exist in the 50s. Right? Go back to 50s level technology on everything. Right? 50s level technology on everything. Drive a car that did what that car did back then. Only one because people didn't have three cars back then, right? Nobody has two televisions, you know. You're not going to have all these different things that we have. Go back to those levels and live that way and live in your 800 square foot house or 1000 square foot house and you know what? You'll be able to afford it on one income. It's true. And in fact, the mansions that people are living in now, nobody was living in houses like that back then. And so yeah, obviously it was cheaper, but there's inflation, we're making more money, we have more opportunities, we have more technology, we have higher quality of life. We got the washing machine and the dryer, we got the dishwasher, we got the refrigerator, the freezer, we got, look at the, why don't you have a refrigerator and freezer from back then? You know, get all, just outfit yourself with all super old stuff and live at that level and you could also make it just as easily as they made it back then. And look, I remember when I was starting out, you know, and I'm not that old, but when I was 16 years old, okay, so that'd be like 1997, I turned 16 and I wanted to get a job. And I'm telling you, I applied at like every fast food place in the city and not even one of them even gave me a call back. Okay, you know, clean cut, sharp young man that I was and I went in there and just filling out application, after, I couldn't even get a fast food job. Finally, I got a job at Round Table Pizza because I kind of exaggerated on my resume about my work experience. Because I'd worked in the family business, so I kind of made it sound like I did a lot for the family business, which I did, but you know, I kind of polished the apple a little bit, spiced things up on that resume, and then got hired at Round Table Pizza making $5.15 an hour, okay. And here's the thing, I had to spend days and days and days applying at a bunch of places just to even get any job and everybody was like fighting for those minimum wage jobs to make five bucks in California. Okay, so it's not like, oh it was just so easy back then, it was so great. And then you'd be an electrician, you'd start out making $8 an hour as an electrician, you're going to make $8 an hour for years. You know, trying to build up to 10, 12, 14 or whatever. And it's in California! I'm telling you man, yeah things were cheaper, but you also made a lot less money. And so you can sit around and complain and whine and talk about how much easier it was back then. Number one, you're wrong. Number two, who cares? You're living now, make the best of your situation now, be an optimist, look on the bright side, quit thinking about what things used to be so much better, either spiritually or financially or whatever. You know, oh the food used to be so much more nutritious and stuff, a carrot used to have 100 times as much nutrition. You know what, that's a bunch of bologna. I don't believe that for one stinking second. That oh, one carrot back then used to be like 50 carrots now. One tomato back then is like 50, bologna. Because you know what, you got people, you could go buy heirloom tomatoes right now. You can go buy those heirloom tomatoes and you're not just going to become some superman overnight and look at me, I have a six pack because I ate a bunch of heirloom tomatoes. No. It's not the way life works. Yeah, maybe tomatoes are a little less healthy than they were back then or something. They're not 50 times depleted, that's absurd. You've been watching too many weird infomercials. I don't believe that stuff. Oh, the produce, it's all just a shell of its former self. Blah, blah, blah. You can buy all kinds of organic produce and heirloom produce and I don't see the people eating it just having superhuman strength and vitamin levels and just feeling great or something. You eat the heirloom tomatoes, you feel exactly the same. Okay, it's true. I mean I like heirloom tomatoes, they're good. I kind of think it's cool how they look like little pumpkins or something. But hey, they're fun. They're fun to chop up and put in your food and make it look weird. But, you know, I don't believe this stuff for one second that, oh, you know, the soil and that's why you need to buy our vitamin shake or whatever to fix it. Don't be pessimistic, be optimistic. Why don't you just think, hey, you know what, we have a better soul winning opportunity than anybody has ever had in the history of mankind. That's what I think. We have a better soul winning. I mean, you got these guys over here, they're going on the internet and getting people saved on Omi TV. Were they doing that in the 60s? Right? Hey, we're hopping on an airplane, going to Jamaica, going to Bahamas, going to these places, Guyana, Trinidad. We're going to these places. We hop on a plane, boom, we're over there. We win scores of people to the Lord and fly home and call it a week. Were they doing that in the 60s? No. And so we have the internet to reach literally millions of people with the gospel through the internet. Millions of people, right? I would say YouTube, but we don't have that anymore, but we did and it was cool. And we reached hundreds of millions of people with the gospel on YouTube while we could. Did they do that in the 60s? You know, we have all kinds of transportation, computers, internet. We have all these abilities. We have free reign. It's totally legal. We can march up and down the street. We can knock doors. We can go to Mission Field. We can go to the Indian Reservation. We can go to all these places. Every door is open. We can do so much soul winning. I don't want to hear about something from 50 years ago. Let's do it now. Show, don't tell. Right? And so don't be pessimistic spiritually. Don't be pessimistic financially. You know what? Go out, work hard. You can succeed in America in 2024. And by the way, yeah, you know, in the 50s and 60s, California was really prosperous for like 20 years. There was kind of a special boom or something. Post-war boom. Okay, that was an artificial post-war boom. It wasn't happening all over the country, number one. And number two, it was just a short-lived thing. And number three, we still probably have a better quality of life because we have a bigger house, better appliances, better electronics. I mean, look, we hop in our cars and we can just drive all over the country and it's just no issue. It was probably a lot harder to get across the country in a car back then. I don't think the cars were as reliable. I don't think they're as good as they are now or get as good a gas mileage as they are now. Oh, but everything was so cheap. Yeah, but you also got paid little. You know, and you didn't have the amenities that we have. So you can always find, and look, there are going to be people that don't agree with me. Be a pessimist then. I'm going to be an optimist and think about how I'm so happy to be living in 2024. But number seven, don't worry about things that you have no control over. Right? Look at verse 13. Consider the work of God for who can make that straight, which he had made crooked, right? I mean, look, there are certain things that you just have no control over. If you want to be a happy person, don't spend time stressing and worrying about things that are out of your hands. Only think about things that you can actually control. And, you know, as the saying goes, have the serenity to accept the things that you cannot change. Right? You've got to be able to do that. Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? And taking thought in that context is worrying. Number eight, realize that life is a series of good and bad days. No one has all good days. No one. Look what the Bible says in verse 14. In the day of prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider God also set the one over against the other to the end that man should find nothing after. So God has put the day of prosperity and the day of adversity one against the other, back to back. And you know what? I've noticed some days I'll just be having a really bad day and I'm just like, man, this is a bad day. And I'm just like, I'm just going to go to bed early before any more damage happens. Because this is a bad day. I just want this day to be over. But you know what? I always know, hey, tomorrow is going to be a good day. Right? Because when you have those bad days, usually it's a good day after. And you know what? Whenever I have a great day and some huge victory, I kind of brace myself, there's probably a bad day coming. Whenever I fix one thing in my life, I'm always just ready for a big problem to pop up. Always happens. 100%. Why? That's the way life is. God has set the one against the other, the day of adversity and the day of prosperity. But there's this fiction, there's this myth that you're going to live happily ever after and just be happy all the time, all good. I think I even saw a sticker that said like, no bad days. Are you nuts? Who's, is there, am I making that up or is there a sticker like that? Yeah, yeah. No bad days. You know what? If that's your philosophy, you're going to be a real disappointed person. Because you're going to have bad days. And again, this kind of no bad days mentality is the same mentality that says, oh, I'm feeling sad. Better indulge. Better eat, drink, party. Better get myself up, up, up. Here, let me just inject this, pop this, make myself feel good. Because I want to feel good, good, good every day. It's impossible. You are going to go through pain. You say, oh, I don't want to run because running hurts too much. You know what? I run because not running hurts too much. It hurts too much. Oh, being on a diet hurts too much. It hurts too much not to be on a diet. Let me ask this. You think people that are 200 pounds overweight are experiencing pain? Okay. Do you think people that are the ideal weight are experiencing pain? Yeah, in the gym. Right? And here's the thing. You say, oh, I can't afford to eat healthy. You can't afford not to eat healthy. Because you can't afford the doctor bills, the hospital bills. You know what I mean? Like, it's all going to happen to you one way or another. Right? You're going to suffer. Choose your suffering. You know, you want to suffer by going to the gym or you want to suffer because you have all these health problems from being idle and overweight and everything like that. You know, one way or the other, it's going to hurt. And here's the thing. You're going to be sad. And if you say, no, no, I'm not going to be sad because I'm going to take this pill. It's going to make me happy. Well, then you're just going to be sad as soon as the pill wears off and you're going to be even worse. And here's the thing. These people who take drugs, man, they're super depressed. Why? Because they got super high. They probably got higher than we've ever been. They probably tagged these mountain peaks of joy that we'll never experience. The very first time they shot a heroin or something. And then now they're in these depths of hell that we can't even imagine. Except the problem is that the low is a lot worse than the high is good. It's never worth it. And so you got to realize that life is a series of good and bad days. If you think that there's anybody in this world who just everything is good in their life, it's a facade. It's not real. Everybody, it goes through pain and suffering. The people who are rich and have all their dreams come true are miserable people. They're just, you know, it's the first world problems that'll get you. Number nine. So we said number eight, realize that life is a series of good and bad days, except both receive the good and evil from the hand of the Lord. Number nine, don't respond to every negative thing that is said to you or about you. Look, you want to be a happy person. You got to learn to just let things just bounce right off you. Look what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7 verse 21. Remember, all 10 of these points are from Ecclesiastes 7. I was all over the Bible when I was writing the sermon, but then I went to Ecclesiastes 7 and I was like, it's all right here. It says in verse 21, also take no heed unto all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse thee, for oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise has cursed others. So the Bible is saying don't take heed to every bad thing that everyone says about you. Somebody says something bad about you or to you, let it go. Don't worry about it. You'll be much happier. Look, if I wanted to, I could just go every day. This is what I could do if I wanted to be a miserable person. I could go online. I could go to Google. I could type in Pastor Steven Anderson and just choose like last 24 hours or this week or something. This week. And find all the junk that people are saying about me this week. Right? And here's the thing. There are so many people talking so much smack about me online all the time. And then you want to talk about, most of it's not on Google. You go to places like Facebook or like other social media sites and it says, right? And so here's what I do. Whenever I see people on my Facebook feed or other social media talking crap about me, you know what I do? I just block this person. Now why do I block this person? It's because I'm scared. I'm really not scared. It's because I don't want that kind of negativity in my life. Amen? Why would I want to go on Facebook every day and see people talking bad about me? And then I'm going to feel like, oh, I got to defend myself. Oh, I got to prove these people wrong. Or, oh man, I'm going to sit around and think about it. It's going to bother me. So it's just so much easier to just block that person. Block that person. If you go to my Facebook account and look how many people have been blocked, it's hundreds. Like, I probably have more people blocked on Facebook than almost any Facebook account. I probably have some kind of a record because I've probably blocked like hundreds and hundreds of people because I'm just like anybody who is railing on me and lying about me, slandering me, criticizing me, attacking me. They just get blocked. I just block hundreds of people. Is it because I just don't want them to be able to say what they have? No, it's because I don't want to see it because guess what? What I don't know can't hurt me. What I don't know can't hurt me. Right? So how would I even know? If people are talking bad about me and I don't know about it, then I could be happy. But if I'm just listening to people talk bad about me all day, then that would be vexing, wouldn't it? So here's the thing about that. What does the Bible say? Take no heed unto all words that are spoken. You don't have to acknowledge everything that is said about you negatively or to you negatively. You can ignore it. And sometimes you just need to block people, unfriend, block, just or physically stay away from people that vex you. And that's my final point actually. Number 10, cut toxic people out of your life. Okay. And so blocking them on social media is just one way that you do this. But look, again, that way you don't have to take heed. Well, I got to know what everybody's saying about me so I can respond to it all. Look, if I responded to every negative thing that was said about me over the years, it would be a literal full time 40 hour a week job just responding to the criticisms. And it would be a foolish use of my time and a waste of my life. So therefore I'm just not going to take heed to all words that are spoken. Sometimes I'll defend myself. Sometimes I'll address things if I feel like I need to. And sometimes I might do it even when I don't need to and maybe I'm wrong or right about when I do and when I don't. But at the end of the day, I'm not going to take heed to all words that are spoken because it's just going to make me unhappy. And I want to live a happy and healthy life. I don't want to be this, I don't want to be this chick on this article who's like curled up in the fetal position because she's so depressed on this Gallup article. I don't want to be all fetal position on the bed, sad, depressed because I'm just taking heed to all words that are spoken. I don't care. Okay? People can say whatever they want about me and as long as I don't hear about it, I can be happy. And I can just read my Bible and I can pray and I can go to church and I can go soul winning and I can preach the Word of God and I can serve God and do great things for God in 2025. Or I can just sit around thinking about all the people that are mad at me and all the bad friends that I've had or people that have stabbed me in the back. What's the point? I want to think about things that are true, honest, just, pure lovely. I'm not going to take heed to every bad thing that's said about me. And also, what does the Bible say? Take no heed unto all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse thee. For oftentimes also, die known heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise is cursed others. Look, we've all sometimes even said things that we shouldn't have said or been negative when we shouldn't have been negative. And so not only should we ignore a lot of the bad things people say about us, but sometimes we should also realize, hey, forgive them, they know not what they do. Sometimes it's just people having a bad day or whatever and we need to just drop it and let it go. It's going to make you a lot happier than fixating on the bad things people say about unto you. Lastly, I said this, point 10, cut toxic people out of your life. Verse 26 says this, and I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and her hands is bands. Whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken from her. Boy, she sounds like a real peach, doesn't she? Whoever this woman is, cut her out of your life. She's more bitter than death. She's all snares and nets and if you please God, you'll escape from her. Look, there are some dudes like that too, though. There are women like that and there are men like that. Cut them out of your life. Cut toxic people out of your life. Go if you would to Proverbs 25. Proverbs 25. You know, it's funny, I was criticized a few times recently for just being so quick to just cut people out of my life. That's what somebody said about me, like, yeah, he's just so quick to just cut people out of his life and to just be done with people. And you know what, I was thinking about that. Because, you know, when I do hear criticisms, I try to think about, you know, the validity of them or is that true or are these people right? You know, I'm always kind of examining myself and I was thinking about, I was thinking about it over the years, all the people that I cut out of my life for being malicious or toxic, backstabbers, railers, people like that. And I went back and I thought about the people that I cut out of my life and I stopped thinking about it. Did I cut any of them out too soon? And I thought about it and every single instance I thought of, I thought, man, I should have cut that person out sooner. Everyone. I'm looking at 19 years of pastoring. I'm looking at 19 years of pastoring. The people that I have said, that's it, I am through with this person. I'm done with this toxic person. I do not need this fake friend in my life, this frenemy, get this person out of my life. Every single instance I look back and I'm just like, man, I should have done that so much sooner. Never am I like, oh, I was a little too hasty there. Not even once. Can't even think of a single example. And here's the thing about that, part of the reason why I've not been hasty to do that is because of the fact that I'm always giving people the benefit of the doubt. Even to a fault where people have to take me aside a lot and be like, Pastor Anderson, can you wake up and smell the coffee? This person is your enemy. This person hates you. No, no, I think he's a good guy. No. People have to like, you know, try to get through to me on this because I see the world through rosy colored glasses. I am optimistic to a fault. Anybody who actually knows me in real life knows that this is true. Just ask my wife if this is true. She'll be like, yeah, he's ridiculously optimistic. You know, and so my wife has to try to like, you know, bring me to reality sometimes on these things because I'm always just like giving everybody the benefit of the doubt, so much benefit of the doubt. But here's the thing, but then once somebody crosses that line where I know that they're a rotten person, I know that they're a fake friend, I know that they're a backstabbing jerk, then I'm just done with that person. Because I've already been patient. I've already given the benefit of the doubt. But the point is, am I hasty to get toxic people out of my life? Absolutely. As soon as I know that someone's toxic, I'm done with that person and it's like a light switch. And I don't regret any person that I've cut out of my life. I look back at the people that I've cut out of my life, people that I've said, I'm not going to be your friend anymore. I'm done with you. I don't want to have anything to do with you again. People that I've just said lose my number and I don't regret any of it. I'm just like, man, I should have done that like six months earlier. Okay? And so, yeah, cut toxic people out of your life. Why? Because life is too short to be surrounded by wicked people, to be surrounded by backstabbers. Or how about this? Just to be surrounded by people who don't love you. You know, it's like I only have so much friendship to go around, I'm only going to use it on people who actually love me. So that my love is reciprocated. You know, I don't want to sit here and have friends that I'm treating as a friend and loving them and then they're conniving and backstabbing and talk about it. It's like I don't have time for people like that. Life's too short to mess with people like that and we only have so much friendship to go around. We only have so much time to deal with people. Might as well spend our time with people that actually love us and care about us and that are actually adding value to our lives and adding spiritual value to our lives than tearing us down and dragging us down. Okay. Look at what the Bible says in Proverbs 25 verse 18. A man that beareth false witness against his neighbor is a maul and a sword and a sharp arrow. Get rid of these people. You don't want these people around. They're not helping you. They're not adding value to your life. And then look at verse 19, the next verse. Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint. Right? That's your fake friend that's not there for you when you need them. They're like a broken tooth or a foot out of joint. When you put your confidence in an unfaithful person in the time of trouble, and guess what? A friend in need is a friend indeed. A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity. If you have friends that are only your friends when you're an asset unto them, when things are going good in your life, that's not a real friend. You're wasting your time investing in that friendship. Right? Because a real friend is there for you when you're a liability. When you're going through bad times, when you're going through hard times, that's when you need the friend to be there. And, you know, you'll find that you're there for someone, you're there for someone, you're there for someone, and then all of a sudden you're like, okay, now I need help. And they're like, sorry, see ya, sucka. You kind of realize, like, okay, I see how that friendship was. And at that point you move on. You know, you just, you don't need false witnesses in your life. You don't need railers, backstabbers, gossips in your life. You don't need people where you're going to put your confidence in them in a time of trouble and they're going to let you down. You know, you don't need those kind of people in your life. You say, well, how do I know, how do I know if my friends are like that? Well, here's a tip. Here's one way that you can identify gossiping backstabbers. Is that if people are gossiping about other people to you, and backstabbing others to you, they're probably doing the same thing about you to other people. So when people are coming up to you and talking trash about, and giving you all this personal stuff about other people that you didn't ask to hear, you could just probably bet they're taking your personal stuff and taking it to somebody else. And telling somebody else all of your negative things. What does the Bible say? Proverbs 14 7. Go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. Get away from idiots. Get away from bozos. Get away from railers. Get away from false witnesses. Don't surround yourself with unfaithful friends. What does the Bible say? Make no friendship with an angry man. With a furious man thou shalt not go, lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul. Hey, you have these people that are just super negative, super angry, super pessimistic. They're always dragging you down. Just move on from those kind of people. Don't be friends with those people. Don't make friends with those kind of negative, down people. Okay? So look, obviously friendship is a two-way street. I'm not saying, I don't want you to misunderstand this point, I'm not saying, hey, only have friends that can do stuff for you. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, be friends with people that are not toxic users. That's what I'm saying. Right? Look, obviously you could have a friend that you're constantly doing stuff for and they don't do anything for you, but that's okay because maybe you don't need anything and you're blessing them and helping them, but they appreciate it and they love you and there's a real friendship there. There's a real relationship there. You know? But then there's people that are just toxic people where they'll lie about you, they'll slander you, they'll throw you under the bus for their own advantage. Cut them out of your life. People that every time you hang around with them, you feel farther from God and they're leading you into sin, right? And you walk away from them feeling unspiritual and worldly and, you know, just, you don't need those people in your life. Find friends where iron sharpens iron. Find friends where you're both a positive, you know, influence on one another. You know, find friends where you edify one another. Look, I'll be honest with you, I come to church here at Faithful Word Baptist Church, I don't think I ever go home after fellowshipping and just be like, oh man, you know, that really dragged me down. Seriously. I mean, look, when I come here, I get in conversations after the service and talk to people and maybe I'm talking for a half hour, 45 minutes, you know, having conversations with different people. I usually go home in a great mood refreshed. I get in the car and drive home after fellowshipping at Faithful Word and I feel good and I'm not feeling sinful, worldly, unspiritual, carnal. I go out of here feeling recharged, wanting to read my Bible, wanting to go and do missions, wanting to do soul winning, wanting to live for God. I walk out of here having my batteries spiritually recharged. That's how I feel. And there are some times when I come in here and my battery's drained. Sometimes I show up to church and I'm feeling down and I'm upset and I'm not feeling close to God or whatever and church fills my spiritual battery. Hanging around with God's people fills my spiritual battery. But you know what? That's because of the fact that we got the right kind of people around here, okay? The problem is though when you get around people that drag you down because I can think of certain people in my life where I spend time with that person and it's just, it's all negative and it's all sinful or it's talking crap about, you know, people and just giving you too much information and you're like, I don't need to hear that or whatever. And I understand people are going through problems and going through stuff, but you know what? You don't need people in your life that are leading you into sin. You want people that are edifying you and building you up. Making you a better Christian, not a worse Christian, right? And you get around bitter, angry, pessimistic, negative people, you're going to start being the same way. And then you're not going to be happy. So look, you know, I hope that the sermon helped you. Maybe the whole sermon helped you or maybe you could just latch on to like one point, okay? Quick review of the points because even if you just latch on to one or two of these things, I don't want you to end up being this person, right? I don't want you to be on the bed in the fetal position. I can't go to work because I'm too depressed. And I'm not making fun of this person because you know what? We've all been, and it's just a model anyway, but the point is we've all been super sad. I've been super sad. I've been super, you know, depressed, quote, unquote, you know, not to the point where it was clinical or something, but I'm saying, you know, we've all gone through heaviness. We've been angry. We've been sad. We've been upset. And sometimes I've been to a point where it's hard to function. Hey, we need to know how to avoid that, right? We want to be happy because the joy of the Lord is our strength. How are you going to have joy in your life? Pay close attention to the review and then we'll be done because I want you to at least grab hold of one or two of these things and work on it. Maybe there's one thing on this list that you need to work on. Number one, get right with God. Hopefully we're already kind of in that ballpark because it's Sunday night at Faithful Word, amen? Hopefully we're there, at least close. Number two, schedule your suffering. Quit going through life thinking every day is fun, every day is Disneyland. No, it isn't. You need to schedule some hard things every day. No pain, no gain. What goes up must come down. Number three, don't overindulge, okay? If you have a cookie or an ice cream or a cake or whatever, don't overdo it, right? Do it in moderation. You know, and if you're going to play a video game or something, do it in moderation. And then there are, of course, certain things that you should never touch like the gambling, the porno, the drugs, that stuff's never touched. But even wholesome things that could be good in moderation, don't overindulge in the sweets or the games or the fun or partying or whatever. Number four, have a purpose, have goals. Have Bible reading goals, soul winning goals, work goals, right? You know, have productive hobbies that you're working on and trying to achieve things and do stuff and have some purpose and goals and achieve things. And then I'm going to squeeze six through nine, point six through nine all into one point. Focus on positive things, right? Don't let everything bother you. Don't listen to every negative thing that's said about you. Don't be a pessimist. You know, I'm just kind of smashing that all in to just focus on the positive things. We all need to just count our blessings and focus on the positive and move forward. And then last, cut rotten people out of your life. You do not have to be friends with everyone. Friends and family that are wicked, cut them loose. And you know what, it's like there's this, there's this like, sometimes obsession with like, oh well, you know, family is everything and blood's thicker than water and all that, right? It's not really what the Bible teaches. I'm sorry, it just isn't. I mean the Bible is like, he the loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He the loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. You know, a man's foes will be there of his own household. They'll be in a household split three to two, two to three. The Bible does not teach this thing of just, well, family is family and it's all about family. Nah, it really isn't. And you know what, if your brother's a queer, to hell with him. Your uncle's a queer, nuts to him, right? Your Siamese twins are queer, kill them anyway, okay? The point is, you know, you don't need to just say, well, we gotta have our sodomy, it's family. You know what, rotten, toxic family members, I don't care if they're siblings, cousins, whatever. If they're rotten, now look, obviously you gotta honor your father and mother, right? So you gotta do the best you can to always do that in whatever way possible. But you know what, the Bible doesn't say honor your cousin, honor your sibling, honor your child. You know, people that are toxic, rotten people that are dragging you down spiritually, don't spend time with them. Because you know what, at the end of the day, physical family's great. I'm super blessed to have two wonderful godly parents and I've got a lot of other godly family that I can enjoy and spend time with. But you know what, the family members that are not a blessing to me, I don't want to ever see them again. Because you know what, I don't just, well, they're family. Well, you know what, who cares? Life isn't biology, my friend. At the end of the day, who is my mother and my brethren? Behold my mother and my brethren. That's what Jesus said. Or did Jesus say, hey, family's everything, blood's thicker than water. No, he said, behold my mother and my brother, whoever does the will of my father which is in heaven, the same as my mother and sister and brother. That's the Bible. That's what Jesus said. And so, there are certain people in your life, cut them loose. If they're dragging you down spiritually, because you know what, you need to live for God, you need to be happy, you need to be healthy. If they're messing you up, cut them loose. If there's anything in your life that's messing you up, you know, sometimes you just have to get rid of things. And it's kind of a good sermon, I think, for the new year, right? Because everybody's kind of thinking about their life. Evaluating. New year, new me, and all that. Well, you know what, maybe you should evaluate some of the things that I talked about tonight. And maybe schedule some suffering for the new year. Don't overindulge in the new year. Maybe decide that there are certain family members and friends that you just really don't need to have in your life. And like I said, oh, you're so hasty to cut people out of your life. My new year's resolution is to be hastier in the future. To cut rotten people out. Because you know what, I'm on a mission. I'm not playing games, man. I got stuff to do. There's work to be done. I'm serving God. I don't have time to drag a bunch of wicked, railing bozos along with me, cutting them loose, and I'm going full speed ahead. And sometimes that's what you gotta do. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. Thank you so much for Ecclesiastes 7. It's amazing that so much truth is packed into one chapter. Kind of not even a super famous chapter, but there's a lot of great truth here on how to live a happy and healthy life, Lord. Help us not to become a statistic of people that are crippled by depression. And Lord, we all want to be happy, Lord. Help us to be blessed because we follow your word and put these principles into practice. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. All right, ladies and gentlemen, please take your hymnals. Go to hymn 420, number 420. There's a song in the air. Hymn number 420. Get on that first verse together now. Hymn number 420. There's a song in the air. Sing it out now. Sing it out now. Sing it out now. Sing it out now. Sing it out now. Sing it out now.