(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you so it sounds like it's a crazy a lot of craziness but um but she is receiving treatment now and thankfully that child is doing well and stable and healthy and yeah we'll add her to the to the list here and thank you for posting the update in that group and if you want to be added to our prayer group that there's a whatsapp group that we have for that you could you could let me know and we could add you to that group just to get some updates this is the main list here but but people will post updates and kind of let it inform us of things as they happen a little bit more closely so it's kind of first notice in that in that group all right that being said just just please continue to pray for everyone who's on our list bring these home with you I know it's not the prayer challenge anymore but I hope you didn't stop praying for the people on our list just because it's not the challenge month so the whole goal is to continue to pray for the people that we're praying for here at least and then on the next page we've got real exciting news wedding announcement we just announced this on Sunday and this the wedding is Saturday so the whole church is welcome to attend and love to see you there we've got some of the stuff already in here for decorating so anyone that wants to stick around for a little while tonight I know we end usually a little bit late but if you want to stick around we'll get some things set up I believe this would be more decorating going on Friday is that correct Friday at 1 30 so anyone else who wants to come back and and and help with some of the decorations there that is the time to do that and then Saturday will be the ceremony it's gonna be at 1 o'clock right here 1 o'clock sharp so please pay attention to that so we could we could keep everything orderly and if you know you're gonna be a little bit late or whatever just come in make sure you're trying to enter through the back entrance there and and yeah we're looking forward to that should be a lot of fun and and we're excited about that wedding with Andrew and Brittany on Saturday April challenge is the baptism challenge and these challenges just in case you're visiting our church you knew our church we we have challenges 11 months out of the year we're focused on different things spiritually spiritual activities you know praying Bible reading preaching the Gospel evangelism and this month is baptism so we kind of have a different focus and our mind is sort of set on these things not forsaking everything else but but these are like the what we're thinking about we're focused on and this month is a baptism challenge so it is very important after after you're saved to get baptized it's a commandment it's something that that Jesus commanded to be done and something that the Apostles did and something we practice as New Testament believers is baptism a full immersion baptism underwater after you've gotten saved very very significant event you only have to get baptized one time but it has to be done the right way and if it's you've been baptized as a baby even baptized maybe prior to salvation those don't count as biblical baptisms and I encourage you to get baptized and we're having some baptisms this evening so we're gonna have some baptisms tonight and we'll have everything set up out front here so please stick around after service we'll get that filled up real quickly be some nice warm water and anyone that wants to get baptized tonight there's a great time to do it we've got a clothing change for you got some robes you could put on and towels and everything else so stick around and get baptized knife and you get baptized and we have a gift for those that are getting baptized as well that are here with us today so it's a special because of the challenge we've got a little a little extra something for you today and then the new church plant in Greenville continue to pray for that I have I have yet to hear back on that my unfortunately my days have been crazy busy at work so I haven't even had time to squeeze in a phone call during business hours so I need to do that probably tomorrow and just get a hold of our contact and try to push a little bit more there but haven't found any other places yet and the one that we're interested in we're still we're still waiting on information on that one but just pray that things will work out there he was chapter 11 the deadline was Sunday so so hopefully you got that quoted and and you if you did you've earned a prize for that the first 20 verses so starting this Sunday we'll be finishing up chapter 11 so if you want to get a head start on that I encourage you to do so we do two verses a week and there'll be another ten weeks or whatever for the the latter portion of Hebrews 11 to get that quoted memorized word perfect we got the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries always got to check the date I've never had any idea what day it is oh today is a 17 so today is Abel Johnson's birthday are the Johnson's here today that Johnson family the other Johnson's are here there's not not not Abel so well happy birthday Abel if you're listening and then the rest of the birthdays are listed there upcoming events so the men's preaching and song leading class is a week from Saturday I did did everyone take one of those so I have to print more looks like maybe well that's a good sign we've got a lot of people interested in that if you didn't get one I get one of the instruction sheets for Saturday I'll print some more and I'll have them up here I'll do that right after the announcements and love to have you here for that we've got the the church camp of course May 13th through 18th and this is just in flux because there's people canceling and then there's people asking for campsites and stuff and I think right now we're at a still now at an availability of one campsite in one cottage so it's not too late if you know anybody if you have any friends that have been interested or shown interest in the camping let them know it's gonna be awesome we've got Pastor Anderson from Faith Ward Baptist Church is going to be there we've got Pastor Jimenez from Verity Baptist Church is going to be there we have Pastor Jared Pazarski from Holdfast Baptist Church in California is going to be there we have Pastor Jason Robinson from Mountain Baptist Church in West Virginia is going to be there and we have Pastor Aaron Thompson from Sure Foundation Baptist Church in Washington and Vancouver Washington so all those preachers are going to be there it's going to be a lot of fun and I believe they're all coming for the whole time for the whole week so it's a great opportunity to just kind of hang out and and and fellowship and just get to know maybe you know one of these guys your favorite preacher just just to spend a little bit of time with them and and hang out and maybe ask some questions but overall it's just a good time get to relax and do kind of whatever you want to do and hear some really good preaching and have some good fellowship so hopefully you can make it to that and like I said there's one campsite and one cottage site still available so let me know immediately if you want to attend because I plan on dropping that extra cottage soon and for those of you I've got I still have to call the facility and see what we could do about making the payment arrangements for those of you that wanted cottages and I'll get that information to you as soon as possible so that's about it for announcements so I'll turn the service back over to brother Peter who's going to lead us in our next song here goes the song number 65 it's all over 65 just over in the glory land song number 65 yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah amen church once again that is psalm 100 100 the bible reads make a joyful noise unto the lord all ye lands serve the lord with gladness come before his presence with singing know ye that the lord he is god it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves we are his people and the sheep of his pasture enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful unto him and bless his name for the lord is good and his mercy ever is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations let's pray father god we thank you for the whole book of psalms we thank you for all the bible we thank you for the fact that we have the truth and that your mercy endures forever god we thank you for pastor burzins allow for our ears to be attended to the words that we've spoken tonight and give him boldness and allow for him to preach with clarity and fill in with your spirit god that we could be attended to your word we could take notes and meditate on the words that you have for us to take in we praise you and thank you say this in jesus name amen all right psalm 100 this is this is the last psalm for a while uh we're gonna close out psalm 101 through 150 at some point in the future so the way that we're doing our bible studies here just a real quick summary is of course we go through one chapter a week and we go through verse by verse so this is expository preaching every wednesday and the goal is to just get through the entire bible and then keep going through the bible so uh at this pace doing one chapter a week we i just did the math the other day i think it's somewhere around like 22 years to get through the entire bible every single chapter of the bible so i have been pastoring for 11 10 10 and a half years a little over 10 years so i'm almost halfway there we still got quite a ways to go so we decided because psalms 150 psalms is is a lot uh it's almost three years of being in the book of psalms so i decided to split it up and um we're at our second portion of of the psalms so broke it up into thirds and um tonight we're closing out this psalm 100 so um five verses but as i've mentioned many times before and as many of you already know that doesn't mean that it's going to be a really short sermon i always find ways of preaching a little bit but here but here's the thing see i make jokes about that i think i think it's kind of funny and you might not think it's that funny but i think it's kind of funny um but hopefully it's not it's not a dread thinking like oh man we gotta listen we gotta sit through a sermon for 10 minutes 20 minutes 30 minutes for like an hour are you kidding me now i was like that for a long time earlier on in my life just not really wanting to be in church at all you do it because you feel like you have to do it maybe there's some kids in church with us tonight you're here because your parents make you come to church and otherwise you wouldn't want to be here you'd rather be home you'd rather be doing something else but you know this is very applicable for the psalm that we're digging into tonight hopefully you're here because you want to be here whether you're a child or an adult and hopefully church isn't a dread right you shouldn't you shouldn't look at church as as negative thing like oh man we gotta go to church i don't want to go to church now look obviously sometimes we get in our flesh and you just you get tired or lazy or you just i just don't want to do anything right i get it we all have this flesh that might that might feel like that from time to time but i hope you don't view church as a drudgery as just as something i just have to do kind of like the Jehovah's Witnesses deal with with evangelism they like drag their feet and they're like oh man because because the Jehovah's Witnesses look they think that they have to do good works and they have to check these things off a box in order to be saved that's why i'm picking on them tonight because i mean it's foolish but people who think you just like you have to man i have to do this i have to do this i have to do this in order to be saved that's stressful right stressful because you know you're a sinner it's stressful because you got to be thinking like am i even doing enough good how can i possibly do enough good to make sure that i'm going to heaven i've already said i've seen you know this sin and that's it and i've seen today and i'll probably send tomorrow and and i mean how much good am i going to be able to do and and you're kind of you have to force yourself to just man i just i don't know i hope i hope i'm doing enough and and oftentimes you'd be so worried about that it's kind of like where's the joy there's no joy in serving it's it's it's all just fear now look hey we ought to fear the lord amen but you ought to have joy in your service to the lord and the bible says here look at verse number one make a joyful noise unto the lord all ye lands serve the lord with gladness come before his presence with singing and of course the book of psalms is a song book and it's it's it's primarily i would say the majority of the psalms are singing praise unto god proclaiming his goodness proclaiming his excellency and and also obviously filled with great doctrine um and so many times over and over and over again we see this theme of hey praise the lord make a joyful noise to the lord and here we see this serve the lord with gladness and i hope you view the christian life not just coming to church but every aspect of the christian life as something that brings you joy if it doesn't if you don't have that view then you're doing it wrong or you don't get it and i mean that like if if everything's just a drudgery you get a pit in your stomach anytime you ever have to do anything spiritual it's kind of like look you're either so wrapped up in your flesh that you need some significant changes in your life or you're just not you're not doing it right now look if people are newly saved i get it you're you know you're if you're born again you're used you're only used to the flesh so it it might seem a little odd or a little weird at first but but continue to strengthen the spirit and strengthen the things of god strengthen that aspect of your life that new man that new creature that's born again hey praise the lord when you get saved there's usually a great zeal there like right off the bat i know there was with me now look we can all quench the spirit we all have the ability to just put it out of our mind and just kind of not think about it and and i don't want to you know i don't want to deal with that i just like doing this anyone can do that but usually folks when you just get saved i like like i said for me the next morning after i got saved because i got saved i was in my in my room at college and and i called on the name of the lord and put my trust in jesus christ and got saved and then the next day i told my roommates i was living with a few guys in college hey guess what you know like i got saved last night and they're like what are you talking about because you know back then me and my my roommates were buddies and we hung out and we partied and we did all a bunch of things that you shouldn't do so to me just to bring this up they're like what are you talking about what do you mean you're saying you know and i wasn't good at explaining and i wasn't really uh uh able to to fully explain other than just yeah i mean jesus you know jesus is a savior just but i wanted to tell it was exciting and going going home to visit and visit family and visit friends and stuff it was it's exciting it's joyful but and you know i want to continue on with my story but of course i ended up quenching that spirit and and and still feeding my flesh and and never really got plugged into church never really got plugged into reading my bible never really got plugged into the things of god until a little bit later in my life in fact it wasn't until really when i got baptized so just a little plug for baptism there you know the the baptism was a for me absolutely a dying to the old man a dying to self a dying to the flesh and burying that flesh with christ and walking in newness of life in the spirit in the new man that was very instrumental in my personal life and i know for many others the same thing now obviously people ought to be getting baptized right after i got saved that didn't happen for me and of course everything that i did was my own decision it's not like it's not like i had to be baptized in order to start living right and start doing spiritual things but the two do oftentimes just go hand in hand now serving with gladness the bible says in psalm 122 you can keep your place in psalm 100 if you want to check out psalm 122 real quick verse number one i was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the lord i said this you know this is this ought to be a good thing for you ought to you ought to to be happy to come to church and i'll tell you what i'm happy to come to church i love coming to church and especially this church and and if you're visiting this church this church is special now don't don't worry we're not some cult we're not you know some a bunch of just just kool-aid drinking weirdos or something we're not we're not about to move and and go to uh jones town or called david town or something and and and get a whole uh a compound off somewhere in the middle of wilderness uh no why is this church awesome though why is it different because this is truly a church family you know churches have said that before i've been in a few where it really was that way but but this is something that i think a lot of churches strive for but it exists here uh we're brothers and sisters in christ we truly care about one another and we have a common goal and we strive together to serve jesus christ and to preach the gospel of jesus christ and that's a time a unifying bond that we have here we're unified in our bible we're unified in scripture we use the king james bible we all agree on that we're unified in the doctrine of salvation we don't have a whole bunch of people here believe in all kinds of different things we all believe that salvation is by grace through faith we all believe that it's not of works we all believe that it's eternal life that you could never lose that that it's something that lasts forever we're unified we're unified in spirit we're unified in our goal to make sure that we could get that message out that the that our life here as christians is not all about just how comfortable you could live and just putting on a happy face and making sure everybody sees you know how great you are kind of like the social media aspect of life these days where everyone wants to take pictures of like the the best thing and put out this facade of their life that's not what life's about it's about serving it's about ministering and ultimately it's about people it's not about things it's not about money it's about people loving people with the gospel loving god first and foremost right we're the two great commandments love god with all your heart mind soul body strength everything right love the lord your god and the second is love your brother as yourself love your neighbor as yourself right that's it and that's and that's you know encompasses all the law and the commandments and we're unified about that here this is what's awesome about this church we have that common goal we have that common zeal we have that common desire and i know that the vast majority of people i don't know about as much as about the children but i know at least the adults want to be here that's why you're here on a wednesday night you're like pastor it's not sunday why would we go to church don't you just go to church on sundays no hopefully you want to come to church you like hearing the word of god preached you like the fellowship you like the singing you like serving the lord you want to grow you want to improve you want to find the parts of your life that need fixing you want to be able to be encouraged because we live in a dark and twisted and perverted world and you want to at least hear the sound of truth you want to hear something sound and be like oh yeah that's good i've been hearing too much garbage i've been seeing too much garbage on the television i've been you know inundated with all kinds of lies and and and false doctrine and false just ways i want to hear the truth i want to be among god's people amen and that's what church is about and that's why we ought to be hey make a joyful noise unto the lord all you lands serve the lord with gladness come before his presence with singing hey i was glad when they said unto me let's go into the house of the lord hey we're going to church why don't you come with yeah amen let's go if that's not your heart well verse two almost i mean it kind of looks like a command to me serve the lord of gladness now if if you have to treat it as a command it's going to be really hard to do you know what i'm saying because being glad is kind of hard to force isn't it like i said be happy if i if i put my son up here and i'm just like man you bet you better sit straight where it is and be happy like he's gonna go like you know the joy has got to be there but but look if it's if it's not if it's not in your heart right you're gonna want to work on the aspects of we'll say how can how can i get that joy how can i get that joy god clearly wants us to serve him in gladness so if i'm not really that happy if i'm not that excited if i'm not if i'm not that glad about it why not why not and and give that some thought for yourself and the answer could be different for a bunch of different people but but but think like what what is it that i don't really like about church what is it that's not making me happy what is it that i'd rather be doing and then maybe think about those things what would i rather be doing and we'd rather be going out to the bar and having a drink you'd rather be watching some sports events you'd rather be you know it's kind of like what kind of value does that hold and maybe maybe it's time to reevaluate your own priorities and your own values in your life i don't know i mean that those are just just some things that that come to mind you know if you don't have that gladness and i'll tell you this much the bible is is true of course as a day is long and when the bible says it's it's much more blessed to give than to receive i mean hey amen that's a true statement any people understand this the most are the ones that usually are the most generous the ones that are willing to give the most understand the blessing of giving this the blessing of ministry and look we already passed the plate i'm not looking trying to get you to give money in the offering plate i'm talking about just giving of yourself and giving to help others right because that's what matters it's not the amount of money you drop in a plate it's it's how much you care about people and invest in other people i mean when you when you can actually have an impact in somebody's life for the good for the better whether someone's down they're depressed they're in a bad way and you can help that person and you take your time and you make the sacrifices in your life to help someone else hey that's a blessing that brings joy and gladness that makes you happy if you've never gone out and witnessed to someone and brought the gospel of jesus christ and explain to someone explain to some sinner that's bound for hell because they're trusting in how good they are to get to heaven but then you show them the gospel you show them god's word you show them how they can have eternal life and and you see the person and you see them understand and you see them get it and you see wow wow you mean wait you mean it's it's it's just a gift you mean you mean it's free you mean you mean i don't have to do this or do that yes and then they call on the lord jesus save me i'm trusting you lord please save me please give me eternal life hey that brings joy my friends and if you haven't done that i encourage you to be a part of that you'll see what it's like to serve god because it that that's one you know it's a little bit of work for us but it means a world of difference to those that you're reaching it's an eternal difference it's the difference between heaven and hell literally there's reasons to be glad and to serve with joy there's a lot of reasons too that should bring that joy step out in a little faith and see it for yourself test the lord test the things of god and you'll see when you walk in the spirit you know what the fruits of the spirit are the fruit of the spirit so you've got the works of the flesh the bible says which are manifest which is your adultery fornication drunkenness covetousness all these things that bring misery and ultimately death to your life they make your life miserable those are the works of the flesh but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace gentleness goodness faith long suffering think about those things those that's a pretty good life to live full of love full of joy full of peace now we're not always walking in the spirit but when you are that's the fruit of the spirit that's what you get so all of a sudden looking to serve the lord with gladness well yeah if i'm walking in the spirit i should be serving the lord with gladness and that's what it's going to bring you know we're not we're not making promises of wealth untold in this lifetime and in that everything that you do will just you know turn to gold and and you won't have any problems and you won't have any trials and you won't have any tribulations no you will have those things as jesus said yea and all that will live godly in christ jesus shall suffer persecution it's not all easy being a christian you do have to make tough choices you do have to stand on the word of god if you're going to be walking in the spirit and doing what's right if you have that boldness to stand up and say you know thus saith the lord but even though you may face conflict when you're in the spirit the spirit still yields the joy which is the whole reason why as you read the book of acts you can look at the crazy disciples the crazy apostles that could leave a place where they had just gotten beaten and were just arrested and leap for joy and say praise god that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name the world looks at that as being insanity like you guys are nuts you're off the reservation here why are you happy because they're serving the lord of gladness and when you understand what they did to christ who is the best person to ever live who is our lord and savior and then people start treating you like that because you are following christ because you're doing things like christ did right not because you're sinning not because you're doing something wicked but because you're doing right because you're following christ hey you're walking in his footsteps then and you know what that's going to bring you joy serve the lord with gladness amen let's continue on here psalm 100 verse number three the bible says know ye that the lord he is god it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves we are his people and the sheep of his pasture there's a couple things i want to cover in this verse here uh the first and obvious one is hey look the lord's god he made us we didn't make ourselves so this should be a humbling statement for us to remember who god is he's the creator he's in charge he's the boss he's god we didn't make ourselves god made us the bible says this and turn if you would to daniel chapter four keep your place on 100 turn to daniel chapter four i'll read from hebrews 11 verse three the bible says through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of god so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear the fact that god made everything should be self-evident because otherwise you're just believing that the things that are seen were made of themselves like of things that appear which is really ironic because this is literally what the big bang teaches that everything that we see today and everything that exists was made of things which do appear everything had to come from somewhere creation didn't create itself god made creation well then who made god well god always has existed nobody made god god is god is the i am i am that i am it's everlasting god is everlasting so there's no conundrum it may be difficult to perceive that completely in our in our human minds but that kind of makes sense too that a god that is capable of creating everything everything that exists a god that's created capable of creating sentient life and such a life as human beings with the ability to think and reason and everything that we're capable to do a god that's able to make our human bodies and our anatomy and everything so brilliantly so robustly to be able to get through so many different types of hardships a god that was able to create an ecosystem that that works off of each other uh uh plants and and and vegetation that seed is contained in itself and is just able to self-replicate and in all these various amazing amazing fantastic ways god has shown wisdom and brilliance and excellence through his own creation yeah a god that's able to just create that should be way above that so it's no surprise that we are not even close to having the understanding of the almighty but the fact that he exists should be self-evident through his creation so know ye the lord he is god it is he that made us and not we ourselves and oftentimes so obviously there's creation in that just just the the the everything that exists but not just that how about making us like like who we are and where we're at in life too let's not forget who god is and that god is the one that exalts and that god is the one that brings people down too and and don't forget the the elements that god serves the the the place that he has in this life in his ability to lift up in his ability to bring down daniel chapter 4 look at verse number 29 the bible reads at the end of 12 months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of babylon this is Nebuchadnezzar walking in his palace walking through his kingdom and the king spake and said is not this great babylon that i have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty he's just he's so full of himself is look at this great kingdom that i did by my power and my majesty it's a worldwide empire at that point well look at verse 31 while the word was in the king's mouth so he's like he's like just finishing saying this and honor my majesty and then there fell a voice from heaven saying oh king Nebuchadnezzar to thee it is spoken the kingdom is departed from thee guess what gone and they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen and seven times shall pass over thee until thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will so hold on a minute there buddy you think you did this you think it's your might you think it's your majesty you think it's your power uh-uh nope nope no you wicked king god exalted you for his own purpose god exalted you to bring punishment on these other people god lifted you up just to be able to make sure that his will was done the same hour was this thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar and he was driven from men and did eat grass as oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hairs were grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's claws he's left out to the elements like an animal and he basically starts to look like i mean he's got this real matted hair and his fingernails are all grown he's not taking care of himself whatsoever and he's literally out eating grass i mean i've seen some pretty crazy people in my life just in general here and there out in the streets but like i've never seen anyone just on their hands and knees or whatever just eating grass in a field maybe you have i don't know but that's pretty bad because because god just just had to humble them so low to like the the point of an animal verse 34 says and at the end of the days i and look this was what says seven times that's seven years and i'm not going to prove that tonight that goes beyond the scope of the sermon tonight you can you can figure it out for yourself or ask me later and i'll show you why i believe that but um it's not that hard to see and at the end of the days i Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven and mine understanding returned unto me and was the first thing he does and i blessed the most high and i praise and honored him that liveth forever whose dominion is an everlasting dominion his kingdom is from generation to generation and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him what doest thou and you know being humbled is good for us because notice when when Nebuchadnezzar is humbled boom recognizing lord and we see that oftentimes with with people in general and this is why when we go out and preach the gospel we like to target people who are already abased a little bit they've been brought low so we like to talk to people first that have already been humbled whether it's you know primarily we target people in a lower income that that are struggling a little bit more because they already know they're not lifted up in themselves thinking like wow look at how great i am right it's not as hard to say look i need god i need a savior i'm going to turn to the lord for my help for my savior for my salvation because people that are already a little bit lower are going to be more receptive to and open to hearing the word of god and to seek god but people who have it all figured out and look we preach the gospel to them too we're going to preach the gospel to everybody every creature we're commanded to but the priority goes to the poor but everyone's going to hear the gospel but here's the thing when we go into the really nice neighborhoods and everyone that's got you know multiple cars and boats and their houses and everything's just perfect and it's all great well the vast majority of those people they don't want to hear anything from the bible they don't need god they feel like they don't need god in their life of course they need god everybody needs god in their life but they just have this attitude in his mind of hey look at what i built what do i need god for look at what i did with the works of my hands instead of recognizing and honoring god and who god is and how they're even able to get the things that they have the bible teaches us for for certain in james chapter one i'll read this for you turn if you would to galatians chapter two james one verse 17 the bible says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures i mean just as much as we don't we don't deserve our eternal life we don't deserve salvation he did that for us he did the work for us he's giving it to us as a free gift right he'll bless us with that he's also when he blesses we have to recognize that and god blesses us in many ways you know whatever abilities you have you are formed in fashion in the womb you're curiously and wonderfully wrought and everybody's different i say praise god for that everybody's got different skills everybody's got different abilities everyone is different from each other and people excel in different areas of their life and gods bless you in different ways but no matter what skill what ability whatever it is that that you're good at hey praise god for that praise god for give god the credit oh you're really smart you're genius you you're this you're that so i could get a job anywhere and i could do anything you know what praise god for that and humble yourself a little bit and if you are that smart if you are brilliant if you are a genius and if you are capable of doing many things or whatever hey just praise the lord for that and be humble and just still serve god work hard and if you're blessed great great if god's blessed you financially amen hey praise god but don't allow that to lift yourself up and to start looking down on everyone else and being like oh no no no i'm just so awesome and i'm so great and i don't know what you guys are you start treating people poorly because you're lifted up and full of yourself now the king Nebuchadnezzar when he's looking at this great kingdom you know who he's forgetting everybody he didn't get to that position by himself what like what if none of his soldiers fought for him when he's going to battle like okay Nebuchadnezzar yeah go ahead you go out and fight you're so great right you're not the one carrying the sword and in so many other capacities right but he's just like he's just all full of himself and this is how oftentimes people can forget how they even get to where they're at anything that you have ever learned you learn from someone else someone has given you that knowledge i mean you're you're you're picking up things as you go but you've got a lot to be thankful for and we ought to give a lot of recognition to the lord because every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above galatians chapter 2 look at verse number 20 ralph says i am crucified with christ nevertheless i live look at this yet not i but christ liveth in me and the life which i now live in the flesh i live by the faith of the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me even the good that we do we should give glory and honor unto god right because pleasing god it's impossible without faith it's impossible to please please god the bible says so when we're pleasing god we're walking in the spirit well who gave us the spirit he did who's instructing us in the right ways god is so when we're actually doing right is it just like well i'm just so awesome and i'm so good and i'm so righteous no give god the credit for that of course there's a will present with us and and and and we also know that god will give rewards at the judgment seat of christ for those that yield themselves to the word of god and to into living the life that we ought to live right but but still at the end of the day you have to give credit where it's due because none of it would be possible or capable without the lord none of it would which is why even after the the rewards are doled out you see the the four and twenty elders in revelation casting their crowns before the sun saying hey you're worthy god gave them rewards but they're saying like no like you deserve this not us it's it's a mindset of humility and honestly the mindset of humility is a joy in itself you stop caring so much what people might think of you what people will say about you whatever go ahead you can say whatever you want to me it's not going to bother me if i'm not full of pride okay you call me a piece of dirt call me some names whatever whatever the more proud you are the more it might sting the more it might hurt and the more miserable you're going to be i'm go ahead say whatever you want the other thing i want to bring up from this passage here in this verse in psalm 100 and turn if you would to uh well let's see where john chapter 10 turn to john chapter 10 i'll reread psalm 100 verse number three the bible says know you that the lord he is god is he that made us and not we ourselves we are his people and the sheep of his pasture i just want to point out it's not a bad thing to be called the sheep of his pasture and i say that now because you know there's the phrase sheeple has been around for quite a while now it's been around for at least a decade and it's a derogatory comment and and i understand that and and you know there definitely is um a little a little bit of deservedness when people just blindly follow whatever in this world right just just go along with with anything that anyone says it claims to be an expert or whatever right we don't want to just be uh blind and ignorant of the truth and just willing to just follow anything that people say okay so of course those are not good attributes but but when it comes to the lord and when it comes to the bible when it comes to the things of god we ought to be like sheep that just hear the word of the master hear the great shepherd and follow his voice oh you're telling me to go here okay lord i'll go here you want me to do this yes lord i'll do that so in that regard 100 we absolutely ought to be that way with the things of god and and if people want to make fun of me for that go ahead go ahead i have no problem with you mocking me for being a sheep for jesus you know why because i'd rather be a sheep than a goat and that's right because there are sheep and there are goats and in fact keep your place there where do i have you turn in uh uh john 10 because we're gonna go back to that i was gonna i was gonna do this a little bit later but turn to matthew 25 and while you're turning there i'll just read a little bit about about sheep in other passages second samuel 24 17 the bible says and david spake unto the lord when he saw that the angel that smote the people and said lo i have sinned and i have done wickedly but these sheep what have they done let thine hand i pray thee be against me and against my father's house so david saying look don't hurt the sheep hurt me i'm the one that sinned jeremiah 23 verse 1 says woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture saith the lord again god's people being referred to as sheep and the pastors are supposed to be watching over the sheep but hey woe unto them that destroy and scatter the false prophets the wicked people out there that don't care about the sheep they only care about themselves they preach because they love money they preach because they love themselves they preach for all their own motivations except for the people that they're supposed to be pastoring shepherding woe unto them jeremiah 50 verse 6 says my people have been lost sheep their shepherds have caused them to go astray they have turned away turned them away on the mountains they have gone from mountain to hill they have forgotten the resting place and then ezekiel 34 11 says this for thus saith the lord god behold i even i will both search my sheep and seek them out multiple i'm just bringing this up because multiple times in the bible god's people are referred to as a sheep but like i said you want to be a sheep and not a goat matthew 25 verse 31 says this when the son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory look this is a real event and people are going to see the son of god sitting on the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all nations everyone's going to stand before god and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats and he shall set the sheep on his right hand but the goats on the left so there's the separation sheep over here goats over here verse 34 then shall the king say unto them on his right hand who's on the right hand the sheep come ye blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world oh yeah you sheep yeah you're going to inherit the kingdom of god amen and then those on the left the goats that are making the sheep your sheep then shall he say unto them in the left hand in verse 41 depart from me ye cursed in everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels yeah i'd rather be a sheep than a goat someone you know mocks your your christianity and you're you're following the bible and calling you a sheep you say yeah but you're a goat if i'm a sheep you're a goat it's a big deal john 10 though look at john chapter 10 one of the one of the best passages on being a sheep verse 11 jesus saying this i am the good shepherd the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep doesn't seem so bad to be a sheep now does it jesus is a good shepherd he's gonna lay down his life for you he loves you he's willing to die for you but he that is in hireling and not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not seeth the wolf coming and leave it the sheep and flee it and the wolf catch at them and scatter at the sheep the hireling fleeth because he's in hireling and careth not for the sheep i am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine as the father knoweth me even so know i the father and i lay down my life for the sheep and other sheep i have which are not of this fold them also i must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd hey there's other there's sheep all over the world but at the end of the day it's one fold and there's one shepherd it's one god of the whole world it doesn't matter what country you're born in what color your skin is there's one god overall there's one shepherd and we're all sheep and you know there's a little bit of comfort in that too you think about sheep sheep aren't the most vicious animals right sheep kind of need to be protected because sheep are the prey right the predators go in and they're gonna feel like oh man some sheep yeah let's go get some sheep that's some that's an easy meal right let's pick off some sheep and we'll eat sheep tonight that's what that's the mindset of the prey the predators excuse me predators are the wolves right mountain lions they're out there looking at the sheep going yeah let's let's get let's get me some of that because they're not going to put up much much of a defense but you know what if you got a shepherd out there you can the sheep can trust safely in the shepherd and you know we may be sheep we may be harmless as doves in this world but we've got a shepherd to watch over us and that should bring a lot of comfort and that's the reason why we don't have to to war and wrestle against flesh and blood and we don't have to just make sure I'm armed to the teeth and that I can kill someone with my bare hands and and all this other stuff and look I'm all for defending yourself and and whatever and I I've got a a nice little collection of firearms myself okay I think it's fun but the point isn't to trust in an arm of flesh the point isn't oh man I need to be able to just like hurt and kill as many people as possible or something like that like a predator would no we're harmless right and and and the warfare that we're engaged in is a spiritual warfare we're not just called to arms and to and to have this great uprising and insurrection and like establish some some you know our own government or whatever that's not what we're called to do we've got a spiritual battle we've got to serve god and and we have a shepherd that looks out for us so we can do that endeavor we don't have to worry about heaven security and bodyguards we've got a bodyguard we've got a great shepherd jump down to verse number 25 the bible says jesus answered them i told you and you believed not the works that i do in my father's name they bear witness of me but ye believe not because you're not in my sheep as i said unto you my sheep hear my voice and i know them and they follow me and i give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand amen safety in in the shepherd no man can pluck you out of the shepherd's hand praise the lord and hey you know church is full of sheep as it should be jesus said to uh peter after the resurrection at the end of the book of john uh when when after you know he'd met them on the shore and everything and he said this in verse 16 of john 21 he saith to him again the second time simon son of jonas lovest thou me he saith unto him ye lord thou knowest i love thee he saith unto him feed my sheep so peter you need to be you need to be watching over the flock now jesus is resurrected jesus has gone up in heaven it doesn't mean he's not still there to protect us but but physically speaking on this earth he's left he's left the job up to shepherds under shepherds pastors to help and guard and watch and feed and protect the sheep and that's the way a good church is going to function as well by the way you ought to have a man of god that watches out for the predators and and i mean quite literally which is exactly why in this church we don't welcome perverts i we don't you notice when you come up there's not a big banner that just says everybody is welcome you know why because everybody's not welcome not welcome now overall generally speaking you know it's not like we're just trying to to have some little tiny club here or something of course we want visitors and people to come in and visit us and hopefully get on board with what we're doing here and love god and be saved and and serve the lord absolutely but i'll tell you what there's a lot of wolves out there and there's predators out there and there are evil wicked people that are not allowed in this church and i'm not going to trust them for a second that that whole alphabet movement is based on predators they go after your kids this has been a known fact for for generations generations for generations generations and now in our great enlightenment people are trying to say like oh no they're they're great there's nothing different about them let's let two dads and two moms raise children are you out of your mind amen yes they're out of their mind who is it that are the ones defiling children they're the ones that are so messed up in their heads and so vile and perverted that they can do such a thing and i'll tell you what people who can lie a man that lies with a man and a woman that lies with a woman are just as perverted they've they've they've just quashed that that part that the conscience in their body that the repulsion that's naturally there when god created us and that's out the window so yeah no there the predators aren't allowed here because we love the kids and that's the job of of the of the shepherd is to watch over the flock and keep the predators at bay let's go back to psalm 100 verse number four enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful unto him and bless his name amen thanksgiving being thankful to the lord praising god giving thanks blessing his name for the lord is good his mercy is everlasting that's why we believe in everlasting life because his mercy is everlasting we need that mercy to be everlasting because we're not perfect because we're sinners we need god's mercy to last forever and look at that last phrase and his truth endureth to all generations and that's another promise of god and that's the goodness of god that god has kept his truth to go forward through all generations that's that's an amazing thing you know what he's given us his word we have the word of god we have the bible you know what the bible has been around from the moment it was delivered through all generations it hasn't been lost it hasn't been buried under a rock it wasn't waiting to be discovered in the 1800s it wasn't oh now of a sudden we have new discoveries and we got changed the word of god because you know there it is it's been preserved there where no one could see it for all these years now we finally have it that's not the way it works his truth endureth to all generations the truth has been around through all generations it's been found it's been available just as jesus said in matthew 24 verse 35 heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away his word his truth all generations and one of my favorite passages on preservation isaiah 59 verse number 21 and again this is why we believe in the king james bible because god decided to preserve his word he's preserved his word of course in the languages in which he gave them in hebrew and in greek and and those have been preserved and of course translations as well faithful translations of the word of god are still the word of god and we speak english and and we believe that god has continued to uh keep his word through more than just two languages and we have that today it's been in use for 400 years and um over 400 years and has brought a lot of fruit as a result uh isaiah 59 verse 21 the bible reads this as for me this is my covenant with them saith the lord my spirit that is upon thee and my words which i have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seed seed saith the lord from henceforth and forever what are you saying the word the word that i put in your mouth this is this is god delivering his word to the prophet isaiah i put my word in your mouth and you've delivered my word to the people and this word that you have this word that i gave you it's not going to depart out of your mouth and it's not going to depart out of the mouth of your children or of their children from this generation forever it's going to be around it's not going to depart it's going to continue through all generations god made the promise to preserve his word and god has kept true on that promise amen and we need it to be that way we can't rely on man we have to rely on the faithfulness of the lord to preserve his word so that everybody can know god and know who he is and know the truth and if god is willing to give that great information of who he is unto man and willing to let man know about the lord and about the truth and about the ways of life it makes sense if he loved the generations that received it firsthand why wouldn't he love the generations to come and maintain that word through all generations and he did and he does he promised it and god is faithful and true and we have many witnesses to the fact that god is true and jesus christ our savior who died on the cross for us and and amen and you know we ought to be thankful we ought to be glad we ought to praise the name of the lord he is good one day he's going to separate the sheep from the goats it's going to happen it's a day of judgment coming but hey god is merciful his mercy is everlasting praise the lord for that so let's let's serve the lord with gladness and go out and preach the gospel every creature as he commanded us to do and let's do it with joy let's be happy about it we should be happy about it all right let's have a word of prayer dear heavenly father thank you so much for uh for preserving your word for us we thank you for loving us we thank you for shepherding us i pray that you would please help us to increase in our knowledge and our wisdom our understanding of the word god i pray that you would please uh keep our church family especially safe from predators safe from evil dear lord i pray that you please help me to do my best to to keep the predators at bay and that uh the flock can be uh gathered here together safely i pray that you would help us to reach as many people as possible with the truth with your word and um god we love you and and i can't speak for anyone else but lord i'm happy to be here tonight and and i'm thrilled that that you saved me and i pray for for those that aren't saved that you'd help them to understand the gospel and help us dear lord that are saved to to recognize those that aren't and be able to to to help them to come to understanding of saving faith dear lord and um pray that you please keep everyone safe as we we go our separate ways this evening we love you it's in jesus name we pray amen all right i'm gonna turn the service back over brother peter is gonna lead us in our last song and don't forget we've got some baptisms after service so if you want to get baptized just see me uh after after the last song uh back over here and we'll get you set up with some uh with some gear and what you need for the baptism all right brother peter all right church we're gonna close our service with a song some 100 you all should have that song song 100 i want to say something really quick on this i usually don't make it up with some stuff before i start meeting i'm very uh grateful to have such a great team of musicians who do such a good job and really make an effort to put the songs to music so i'm really thankful for what they do keep up the good work team all right song 100 so make sure to sing this together on the first me he is on the last is amen church great singing thank you so much for coming you guys me