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you you you you you you you you you you you you Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Stronghold Baptist Church. Grab your handles and open song 156 In Psalm 156, Jesus is the sweetest name I know. Psalm 156. Here have been names that I have loved to hear. But I never had there been a name so dear. So this heart of mine has the name divine. The precious, precious name of Jesus. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. And he's just the same as his lovely name. And that's the reason why I love him so. Oh, Jesus is the sweetest name I know. There is no name in heaven above. And we should give such honor and such love. As the blessed name let us all acclaim. That wondrous, glorious name of Jesus. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. And he's just the same as his lovely name. And that's the reason why I love him so. Oh, Jesus is the sweetest name I know. And someday I'll still see him face to face. To thank and praise his wondrous praise. Which he gave to me when he made me free. The blessed son of God called Jesus. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. And he's just the same as his lovely name. And that's the reason why I love him so. Oh, Jesus is the sweetest name I know. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. Christ returning. It's all number 74. Let's sing this one simple new song called the verse. It may be hard when the day is awakening. When sunlight through darkness and shadow is breaking. Jesus will come in the fullness of your wings. To see how the world is over. Oh, Lord Jesus, how long, how long, can we shout the glad song? Christ returning. Hallelujah, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, amen. It may be a midday, maybe at twilight. It may be her chance that the blackness of the night will burst into light in the blaze of his glory when Jesus receives his own. Oh, Lord Jesus, how long, how long, can we shout the glad song? Christ returning. Hallelujah, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, amen. On the last, oh joy, oh delight, shall we go without dying. No sickness, no sadness, no dread, no crying. Caught up through the clouds with our heart into glory when Jesus receives his own. Oh, Lord Jesus, how long, how long, can we shout the glad song? Christ returning. Hallelujah, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, amen. Man, all right. It's great to have you all here with us on a Wednesday night at Stronghold Baptist Church. This time we're gonna go through our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, just slip your hand up real high. We'll make sure that we get one out to you. If you open up to the first page, you'll see our service times listed there. Sunday morning at 1030. Sunday evening again at 5 p.m. Wednesday night at 7 is our Bible study. We've got the soul-winning opportunities listed there as well as the salvations and baptisms for the month of June as well as for the year. Let's go ahead and count up any salvations. If you have any salvations, report for the week. Just slip your hand up. Yes, sir? One on Monday? DJ? One on Monday as well. On Monday as well? Awesome. Anybody else that I miss? All right, very good. Keep up the good work preaching the gospel. Even in the rain, right, when it's not always easy, but if you're keeping up with that challenge, then try to find a covered area where you can find someone to talk to and complete that June challenge. Down there at the bottom of the page, we've got the offerings received through the month of June. Prayer request. Let's see. Does anyone have any updates for the people on the prayer request as it stands right now? All right, well, continue to pray for everyone who is on this list, of course. Lots of things are very important here and appreciate your prayers with all of that. And don't forget to pray for Shield of Faith Baptist Church, Pastor Joe Jones in Boise, Idaho. On the next page. Happy Father's Day. Well, that was Sunday, so just ignore that top part, but we had a good service. The dads who were here on Sunday received a gift. We have the five-year anniversary is coming up this weekend, so this is exciting. This is super exciting. Hopefully you're excited for it. We've got a whole bunch of stuff, so we're getting stocked up with beverages and just other things, and now I've got, like, big traffic cones and caution tape and all kinds of stuff to cordon off different sections. We'll be bringing a foosball table and possibly a ping-pong table. We'll see. DJ knows what I'm talking about. He knows why I'm saying possibly, too. But if you have any games you want to bring for that weekend and you'd like to play, we'll be bringing a cornhole that we've got, too. Just random stuff. Of course, Friday I'll be picking up the inflatables, so we'll have those all weekend here. It'll be a lot of fun. They're both water play types, so parents, if you want your kids, if you're going to allow your kids to get wet, then just be aware that both the inflatables are water play activities, so they're going to get wet. So if you want to bring a change of clothes or whatever for them, just be aware of that. And honestly, there's a big water slide. Adults can go on that as well, so as long as you're not too embarrassed to go ahead and have a little bit of fun and enjoy a water slide, you're welcome to participate with that as well. So I'm looking forward to it. It'll be a great time. We've got a lot of food. If you didn't sign up, there's a sign-up sheet over there for bringing sides because it is a potluck. But that's going to be on Sunday. Saturday, of course, is the soul winning. 930 to 1230, we'll have lunch, probably some pizza in the afternoon after the soul winning for everyone who goes soul winning. So if you're showing up to just play and have fun, that's fine, but I'm not buying extra food for you. I'm buying food based on the people who show up for the soul winning in the morning. So just plan on having lunch for yourself if you're coming to participate in other activities, which you're totally welcome to do because I will be setting up the inflatables and stuff on Saturday so you can have fun with that. And then Sunday, of course, we're going to have Pastor Mejia preaching for us in those services and all that fun in between the church services. So really looking forward to that. Invite people out to make a big day out of it. And yeah, it should be a really good time. And then the June challenge, as I was alluding to earlier, is the attempt to give the gospel to at least one person every single day of the month. So if you are participating in this, keep up the good work and stay mindful. Be thinking about giving the gospel as much as possible to people you come into contact with and stay with it. We're already, what, more than halfway through the month, so just push to the end, and you will get a small prize for being able to do that, but greater riches by our Heavenly Father. So I encourage you to participate with that. We've got the Bible memory passage here, Hebrews 8. So we are on the third week of memorizing this entire chapter, doing two verses a week. And then down at the bottom of the page there, there's the birthdays and anniversaries for the month of June. And then on the back, the only other event that I didn't mention is Pastor Stephen Anderson is going to be preaching for us on July 5th, which is a Wednesday night service, so be sure to make it out here for that, and I'm sure you'll be blessed. And we'll probably, hopefully, be breaking a record on that Wednesday, which is going to mean ice cream after the service, so Pastor Anderson kind of has a way of getting people to come out of the woodworks and show up to a church service, so they tend to be record-breaking attendances, so looking forward to that. It should be a lot of fun. I'm happy because I actually get to be here for that. I'm going to be preaching at Faithful Word the following week, so I'm excited for that. And that is, I think that's about it for announcements. Don't forget, there's still, there's some items on that front table, not the stuff in the boxes. Okay, I just left, we ordered some stuff from Amazon 4 Church, that's for here. I'll probably just move those before the end of service, but there's a cooler and then some other clothing and stuff that was donated that's up for grabs, so it's not going to stick around very much longer because I'm going to be just moving the donation on down the line if people don't want what's given there. So you could help yourself to any of the clothing or the red cooler that's on that table if you would like it, and that's about it for our announcements. So I'm going to turn the service back over to Brother Peter, who can lead us in our next song. Yes, sir. Right, church? You can open up your hymn notes to song number 164. Song 164, raise him, raise him. Song 164. And church, let's sing the sound of the first. Raise him, raise him. Jesus, our blessed redeemer. Sing the word, his wonderful love proclaim. Hail him, hail him, highest archangels in glory. Strength and honor. If through his holy name, like a shepherd, Jesus will guard his children. In his arms he carries them all day long. Raise him, raise him. Tell of his excellent greatness. Raise him, raise him. Ever in joyful song. Raise him, raise him. Jesus, our blessed redeemer. For our sins he suffered and bled and died. We are loved, our hope of eternal salvation. Hail him, hail him. Jesus, our crucified. Sound his praises. Jesus, who bore our sorrows. Love unfound him. Wonderful, deep, and strong. Raise him, raise him. Tell of his excellent greatness. Raise him, raise him. Ever in joyful song. On the last. Raise him, raise him. Jesus, our blessed redeemer. And we mourn those lavatories in his dream. Jesus, Savior, created forever and ever. Round and round he. Prophet, priest, and king. Christ is coming. Over the world, in glorious power and glory. Unto the Lord we long. Raise him, raise him. Tell of his excellent greatness. Raise him, raise him. Ever in joyful song. Church, great singing this time. We're going to collect our Wednesday night offering. Set up to collect the offering for tonight. Church, while the offering plates are being cast around, open up your Bibles to the book of Psalms, chapter 61. Psalms, chapter 61. May I ask you to do customary here at the Stronghold Balance Church. And we'll read the entire chapter on this. Brother Michael Ricardo, will you please do that, sir? Amen. That is Psalm, chapter 61. Psalm, chapter 61. The Bible reads, Hear my cry, O God, and turn unto my prayer. For at the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower for my enemy. From the enemy, I will abide in thy tabernacle forever. I will trust in the covert of thy wings, Selah. For thou, O God, hast heard my vows. Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. Thou wilt prolong the king's life, and his years as many generations. He shall abide before God forever. O prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him. So will I sing praise unto the name forever, that I may daily perform my vows. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for being our foundation, for being our rock, and God allow for this church to have minimum distractions, but allow for Pastor Burns to speak with boldness, and preach your word, and let's receive your word in all truth and in all matter of faith and practice. We just love you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so Psalm 61, obviously it's only eight verses long, but I'm not making any promises on how long the sermon's gonna be, because sometimes the shortest chapters tend to be some of the longer sermons, but I don't expect this one to go real late, so don't worry about that. Like I said, I don't like making promises. We are still continuing with this theme. It's a great theme, and this is one of the reasons why so many people love the Psalms, is these songs that are seeking God's protection, defense, and just total trust in God in all of our hard times. Let's look down here, and there's a couple of main things I wanna talk about, and I'm gonna kinda teach a little bit on one thing that's brought up specifically in this Psalm, but let's look down there at the first verse. The Bible says, Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer. So we see in many of these Psalms a very similar beginning and opening of just petitioning the Lord and just seeking God's help and just pleading or asking God just to listen to the prayer. And obviously, you know, I've taught on this in the past. I'm not gonna go in depth tonight, but we want to always be in a place where God's gonna be open to hearing our prayers and one of the best ways to make sure that God is gonna be willing to listen to you is to make sure you're listening to Him. It's a very simple concept. We never know what day it may be where we are gonna face our own troubles. You know, things tend to get real easy. If you're in an easy part of your life and you get into routine and things are going pretty well, and then one day, you know, oftentimes with no warning, you're in trouble and you need help. So especially during those times where everything just seems to be okay, everything seems, you're kind of on autopilot and things are going pretty well, you want to make sure you're listening to God and not forgetting God and not forsaking God, not getting caught up with the cares and concerns of this world and just kind of going, oh, well, whatever, you know, everything's fine, and then all of a sudden trying to seek God when everything blows up in your face, right? We ought to be the child, the son of God or daughter of God that is mindful of the Lord every day of our life and that we're listening to Him. Now, how do we listen to God? Through His Word. He speaks. This is the Word of God, which means the words from God. These are God's words, His instruction for us, which is what we need to be taking heed to, and if we would take heed to God's Word, oftentimes we would avoid disasters altogether in our life because He's gonna lead us the right way. But sometimes we still do have troubles. We have trials. We have tribulations. We have persecutions. We have various things that could go wrong, and we need God's help, and we need God's defense, so we want to make sure that if we're gonna call out to God and be like, God, please hear my prayer, He's not gonna be like, I've been trying to talk to you this whole time. Now you've made your bed. You could lie in it. And that's not God leaving. You know, God's never gonna leave you or forsake you, but, you know, if you've been a bad, disobedient child going along the way, you might end up just reaping what you've sown. So be mindful of that on a daily basis. That's what's so important to be thinking that way so that we know. And there's many other aspects to try to get your prayers answered and make sure God's gonna hear you, but that is such a fundamental key principle to keep in mind every day of your life. Let's keep reading here. Verse number two. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. And this is the humility of, you know, it doesn't matter where you are. From the end of the earth, when my heart's overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that's higher than I. You know, just recognizing God is much higher, God is much greater, and I love that that rock that's higher, the rock that can lift you up onto that high ground safe from any of the dangers below and be lifted up to be put on that rock with God and putting your trust in that rock that is higher than I. I just love the way that's worded there. It's so comforting in just the language right there. Verse number three. For thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy tabernacle forever. I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah. And, you know, this is a common theme throughout these Psalms of just saying, look, I'm not going to look to anyone else. I'm going to trust in you, Lord, to be my defense, to be my strength, to be my helper, to be my rock, to be there for me, to be my defender. You know, you liken so many different ways using the rock, being a shelter, being a tower, where the towers were typically used when someone would come in battle and you'd get into the tower as a way to defend because you've got the advantage being in a high point and also abiding in God's house and God's tabernacle forever. And I want to just go over this quickly, but if you would, keep your place here in Psalm 61, flip back to Psalm 15. I talk on this way back however long ago it was since we've gone through Psalm 15, but Psalm 15 is all about abiding in God's tabernacle, abiding in the house of God. And there's some really great truths here. These are the same things that are going to help you get your prayers heard, right? Attend unto my prayer. Listen to what I have to say. I'm asking you for something, Lord. And if you're dwelling in the house of the God, if you're trusting in the covert of his wings, right? You're trusting in God to defend you. Well, how are we going to abide in God's house forever, though? Psalm 15 spells out how we can abide in the tabernacle forever. Look at verse number one. The Bible says, Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? And now it's going to list off the attribute to the characteristics of the person that is going to continue and abide in the house of God. And again, this has nothing to do with you being saved or not. This is being close to God, right? And if you remember, I taught on the inheritance on Sunday evening, and I brought up the parable of the prodigal son who he was not in his father's house, but he was still a son. He's still a son of the Father. You can be a son of God and not be dwelling in his house and be far removed from his house and be out in the world and out in the pig trough like the prodigal son was, right? Because you've decided to go the way of the world for a while. But this is going to tell you, well, how can we abide in God's house? I want to be close to God. I'll be living with God. I want to be right there in God's house where my father's right here, and I could just ask him for things as I need them as the good son in that story of the parable of the prodigal son that didn't leave, that was always there with his father and was easy to entreat every day of his life because he was right there with him. Verse number 2 of Psalm 15 says, He that walketh uprightly. You want to dwell in God's house? Stop walking uprightly. What does it mean to be upright just righteously? Just not in a sinful way. And worketh righteousness, kind of restating the same thing, and speaketh the truth in his heart. Not just speaking the truth out loud, but in your heart it's something that you care about. You care about the truth. It's something that you embrace and you endear, not just a façade or a show or something that you want other people to see. You actually genuinely care about the truth. You care about the truth. You're going to care about the Word of God because the Word of God is truth. You're going to care about Jesus because Jesus is the truth. Verse 3, He that backbideth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor. So now verse 3 is all about how you deal with other people. How do you treat other people? Are you backbiting against them? Are you spreading rumors or saying nasty things about people behind their back, which would be backbiting, stabbing people in the back, causing drama and doing all this, doing evil to your neighbor, taking up a reproach against your neighbor? No. It says he that doesn't do these things is going to abide in the house of God. In whose eyes, verse 4, a vile person is contented. Contemned there, that's hated. A vile person. A vile person that's hated, you don't want to have anything to do with the vile person. The disgusting, vile, base type of a person, you don't want to have anything to do with those people. Right? They're not going to dwell in my house, as Psalm 101 says. I'm not going to have anything to do with that. We're far removed from the vile person, but he on earth them that fear the Lord. Who are you lifting up? Who are you giving credit to? Who are you praising? Who do you seek after? Is it the people that love God and fear God? Are those your heroes? Are those the people that you're going to look up to? Are those the people you're going to spend your time with? Or is it going to be the vile people of the world? Are you caring so much about People magazine and all the Hollywood actors and actresses and everything about their life and all they're doing and that's what you care about and that's who you want to be around and that's who you want to spend your time with? Those people are vile. Look at how they live their lives. Or do you want to choose to spend your time around the righteous, around the people who love God, around the people that fear the Lord? If you fear God, you're not just going to be off in rampant sin, doing vile things. He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not, not given to change, not just wishy-washy or tossed about with every wind of doctrine and those types of things, you know, and if you're going to swear anything, you swear to your own hurt, not to someone else's. Take responsibility for your own actions and, you know, the truth is the truth. You're going to stand on that. Verse 5, he that putteth not out his money to usury nor taketh reward against the innocent. I think this is interesting, too, because it also shows us, hey, what does my money have to do with anything, right? Well, who cares what I do with my money? Well, apparently God does. God says, if you want to dwell in my house, you want to dwell in my tabernacle with me, you're not going to be getting unjust gas you're not going to be getting unjust gain. Well, it's just money. Everyone else is doing it. Do you think that's an excuse to sin? Everyone else is doing it? Not to God, not to our holy God. He doesn't care who's doing it. He doesn't want you doing it. And what is a usury? A usury is charging interest. It's as simple as that. A usury is where you go, okay, I'm going to lend you $100 and you're going to give me $110 back. I'm going to lend you $50, you're going to give me $60 back. Whatever it is. Whatever the interest rate, it doesn't matter. The Bible says, you know what, when we lend, if you lend your brother or sister in Christ, you better not be charging a fee. A service fee. Right? Or, you say, I'm not charging interest, I'm just charging a service fee. Don't charge anything. You don't charge. That's usury. Okay? Whether you want to call it interest or not, it doesn't matter. You're still collecting more money than your lending. We're supposed to be generous in lending to those in need, you know, hoping to not even receive again. Just giving and if you receive it, great. If not, whatever. Right? It's just money. The only exception to being able to give out money on usury, the Bible said, was to the heathen. So, like for the nation of Israel, for people of other nations, when it was just a foreign country, if you're going to lend to some foreign country, then yeah, you can charge usury on that lending. But among God's people, not at all. Not at all. It says, nor taketh reward against the innocent. So, we're talking about taking bribes and being, you know, having your judgment swayed against people because of a reward that you receive. He that doeth these things shall never be moved. This is what we need to do. If you want to abide in the tabernacle, just as David's saying here, Psalm 15, memorize this psalm. It's a great psalm to have known and have in your heart and be meditating on and thinking about these things. You know, even something as simple as, in whose eyes a vile person is condemned. And I bring that up again because this is something that, you know, the world's telling you, well, no one should hate anyone. Well, if you want to dwell in the house of God, the Bible says that a vile person is condemned. And it doesn't say a person who does vile things. It says a vile person. We're supposed to hate the sin and love the sinner. Well, here it says a vile person is condemned. It's what the Bible says. So whatever you think, if it doesn't line up with what Scripture says, you've got to correct what you think with what the Bible says. And, you know, just so you know, a vile person, the Bible's talking about here, this isn't just talking about every average, your average sinner on the street because not everything is considered vile. You can do your own word study on that and check out what the Bible talks about as being vile to learn more about that. But there are some very vile people in this world that hate all that's good. And you know what? I hate them. And it's important to have the proper love-hate relationship because if you truly love things, you have to truly hate others. Otherwise, your love isn't really that great. If your love is so cheap that it's just thrown around everywhere, no matter what on absolutely everything and everyone, it becomes meaningless. No, we're supposed to love those. We love our enemies, okay, but there's definitely still people that you hate. The vile person that hates God, no, they're condemned. And this is, at least if you want to stay in God's house, you want to abide in God's tabernacle, this is what you do. Let's flip back to Psalm 61. Verse 5, For thou, O God, hast heard my vows. Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. And I already talked about the heritage, the inheritance, of those that fear God. You've already given me the heritage. He's already received it. He's saved. And he says, you've heard my vows. I'm going to get into vows at the end of the sermon here because vows come up multiple times. But he's saying here, you've heard my vows. You've given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. Verse 6, Thou wilt prolong the king's life and his years as many generations. He shall abide before God forever. O prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him. So verses 6 and 7 are talking about the king, the king's life. Now, of course, David was a king of Israel and we also have teachings in the Bible just in general of kings, that kings are supposed to have righteous judgment and kings are supposed to be the arm of the Lord and all these other things. And it doesn't mean that every king is doing their job as a minister of the Lord, but that's what they are called to do. That's what they're supposed to do. In God's eyes, that's what a king does do. So the king that's righteous is going to be established and the king that's wicked is not... I'm not going to get into all the teaching about kings, but just as we understand verses 6 and 7, this is talking about prolonging the king's life. God will prolong the king's life. It says, He shall abide before God forever. Talking about, again, abiding in the tabernacle, abiding before God. And then he says this, O prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him. So you want the king to be preserved. You want the man before God to be abiding there forever to be preserved. Well, you need to prepare mercy and truth. Mercy and truth. So the dictator that's just unmerciful is not going to be preserved. The king that doesn't care about the truth is not going to be preserved. Now turn, if you would, to Luke 6. Keep your place here, of course, in Psalm 61. Luke 6. This truth came to my mind when I'm thinking about a king or I'm thinking about a person, you know, that's abiding before God and that's going to be preserved of God that is preparing mercy and truth. Why would he be preserved if he's preparing mercy and truth? Well, why? It's because with the judgment that he gives for, if he has mercy, and if he's interested in the truth, that judgment is going to be the same on him which will preserve him then when he makes mistakes or whatever. He's done something wrong. Well, then he can get that mercy just as he's given mercy unto others, but also, you know, concerned about the truth. Well, if you're seeking the truth and you're not trying to hide things and be evil and wicked and do things in the dark, you do things on the up and up, then God will preserve you for that as well. Luke 6 verse number 35, the Bible says this, But love ye your enemies and do good and lend hoping for nothing again. There's that, you know, lending, hope for nothing again. That's not giving out unusually. He says, Do good, lend hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the highest, for he is kind unto the unthankful and of the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. God, the ultimate King, the King of kings and Lord of lords is a merciful God. So you want to be preserved by God, then be merciful and prepare for the truth as well. The verse 37 says, Judge not and ye shall not be judged. Condemn not and ye shall not be condemned. Forgive and ye shall be forgiven. Give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure pressed down and shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye meet, withal it shall be measured to you again. How you deal with people, how you measure, right? And measure here, it's all about measuring. It could be, you know, measuring anything. So if you're giving someone some grain or food or whatever, you'll be pouring out, you got to measure it. Are you going to, are you going to skim off the top and make sure you're just barely at that? You know, you give a little bit extra on top. Hey, whatever you do, that's what you can expect coming back, right? Which is another reason why God expects, hey, the more generous you are, you're going to find generosity back in your life as well. And the more of a stickler you are, then well, you know what? Don't be surprised when people are that way with you too. It's a sowing and reaping mentality. This is the way that God orders things in this world. And if you want to abide, like we saw there in verse seven of Psalm 61, He shall abide before God forever or prepare mercy and truth which may preserve Him. That's your preservation. Doing good is going to help to preserve you. Verse number eight, that in Psalm 61, I'm just going to have you turn to Leviticus 27 for the moment. I'm going to read the last verse of Psalm 61, verse eight, the Bible says, So will I sing praise unto thy name forever, that I may daily perform my vows? So twice we saw God has heard my vows, and then He says, daily perform my vows. That is an important thing. And He says, I'm going to praise your name forever. I'm going to be singing praise unto you. I'm going to be happy that I may perform my vows daily. That's going to help me perform my vows daily when I'm thinking about how great you are and I'm praising your name. It's going to help me to do what I said I was going to do in my vow to you, O Lord. Now I do want to teach just a little bit on vows in general since it's come up in this psalm and we see vows were something that was, there's a couple of aspects to this too, by the way. And we're going to start in Leviticus chapter 27 and I want to show you this just to help maybe give you a little bit better understanding. Vows were done I think a lot more frequently in the Old Testament where people would be making vows to God. People still make vows to God today. I mean, people do it all the time. But it was formalized more in the Old Testament about making it a big deal about making a vow. And I think, I wish more people would be reading the Old Testament because you're going to see the teaching on how important it is when you do make a vow to God. See people today often flippantly will make vows to God. And that is such a mistake. It's such a mistake. Now whether it's a vow, the word vow I think people take more seriously just like oh, that's a vow. But you know what a vow is also swearing. Swear with an oath. It's also considered a vow. So when people say I swear to God, you're swearing with an oath to God that usually what people are saying, what you're saying is true. That you're telling the truth. But here's the thing. A lot of times when people say that, they're actually lying. Believe it or not, that's actually one of the signs that detectives and other people who are good at discerning, people who tell the truth from those that don't, and even that's been studied by like the FBI and these interrogators and people who have studied out and done the polygraphs testing and really all the body language and everything else. When people just swear to God, they're usually lying. Now not always. Of course there's always going to be people that they're actually telling the truth. But it's funny that of one of the things that can be said that that's a sign, that's a tell that someone's probably lying just in that load. And that's also scary though. Because you're invoking God. Maybe for some of those people, they don't have any concept of God. They don't care about God. But that doesn't make God any less angry when His name is used in vain. If people are swearing to God, but they don't even mean it and they're not even thinking about God and they're just saying it because they're just words, that is using the Lord's name in vain. And people really need to take serious consideration to that. If you say, oh my God, and God isn't even in your thoughts, you're using His name in vain. If you're saying I swear to God and God's not a concern, you're not even thinking about God, you're using His name in vain. It's one of the Ten Commandments. It's a big deal. They don't do that. Don't do it. And these euphemisms and everything else, stay away from it. Have enough reverence for the name of God. And yes, God itself can be a name. You don't talk about your Creator, your Heavenly Father, your Savior. Are you going to throw those names around? Or do you think we ought to use a little bit of reverence and a little bit of respect when we even talk about God? And not allow for His name just to be cast out or tossed around. Even when people are talking about God, be reverent in speaking about God. But making a vow, we see rules. We see the law talking about vows in the Bible quite a bit, actually. Because when you speak and you put forth your word, especially before God, it's a big deal. And you ought to treat it as such. So if you're going to make a vow, you want to perform it. And in the psalm there, you say, look, daily I need to perform my vows. I need to keep my vows. Now, there's actually a couple of things that are associated with making a vow. At the end of the day, it's all still an oath or a promise. But what we see in the Old Testament is many times it's referring to the performing of the vow, the completing of a vow is going to include an actual payment or a sacrifice given at the end of the vow. One example of this that you may be familiar with is the Nazarite vow. When someone makes a vow of a Nazarite, there's a few things that they follow. They're not going to drink any grape juice or have anything of the vine. They're going to withhold from anything that comes from the vine, any of the juice, whether eating grapes or they're drinking any liquid, anything like that, they abstain from that. And they don't cut their hair. They let the locks of the hair grow until the completion of their vow. And then at the completion of their vow, they're supposed to shave their head. They go in and offer up their offering to the God and they make that payment then at the end for their vow when they've kept it all together. It's a big deal. It's serious. Now, I'm not going to go in depth on the Nazarite vow. I'm just showing you just as an example that a lot of people know because you think of famous people like Samson had the vow of a Nazarite from the birth. I believe John the Baptist also had that Nazarite vow from birth. Samuel was another one that seems to have had that Nazarite vow from a childhood. So we've had some great men of God that have had this vow on them and have abstained from those things. But look at Leviticus 27 verse 2. The Bible says, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the Lord by thy estimation. Now, a singular vow, it's not just like one vow. I mean, it is one vow, but using that word singular, it's like a special vow. There's something very unique and set apart about this vow. So it's very specific. It's not anything one in particular that everybody would do, but before that person, it's something that's a really big deal. Okay? It's a singular vow that someone is taking on, which would be similar to the vow of a Nazarite. Like I said, it's very important. It's something that they're putting out there. And with this vow, it says if we keep reading, like verse number 3, it says, And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old. Even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver after the shekel of the sanctuary. And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels. So it goes on and on, talking about different age groups and types of people, that here's the price that you pay at the end of their vow to complete this singular vow. And verse number 8 even says, But if he be poorer than thy estimation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him according to his ability that vowed shall the priest value him. So it's talking about all these values on people and then paying that. So when we read here, you know, pay what you vow, pay your vows, especially in the Old Testament, we're going to see people literally paying with their sacrifice or with their, you know, even in this case, a singular vow with some shekels going back to the house of God. It is a big deal. It's something that was set apart and dealt with appropriately making these vows. Now turn if you would to Psalm 66. I'm just going to give you some more scripture on paying these vows. Psalm 66 verse 13 about says, I will go into thy house with burnt offerings. I will pay thee my vows. So again, it's all about paying his vows here. This isn't just keeping his oath. This is actually now, he's already kept the oath, the promise, and now he's going to pay his vows because this is what's due at the end of his oath, at the end of his vow. I will go into the house with burnt offerings. I will pay thee my vows, which my lips have buttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble. And that's another time where people often vow to the Lord. They're going to say, you know, I'm in trouble. God, you help me here and I'll do this for you. Now, who's ever done that? Because I have. Who's ever done this in their life? Has anyone ever done this? God, if you do this for me, don't be embarrassed. If you do this for me, I will, you know, I don't even remember what I said. Usually it was a long time ago. I was younger, right? Before I was even saved, I would just be like, man, God, you help me out with this. I'll go to church or something stupid, right? God's like, get your butt in church anyways. You can go to church. Wow, great sacrifice there. But that's how people think. And this isn't uncommon at all. I mean, this is common among men that when people are in trouble and we see this, we saw Jacob. And think about this. You know, why do you think about this? Because how much of this is tied to giving and offering? When Jacob was heading over, when he was fleeing from Esau and going where his mom and dad sent him, what happened? He had his dream and he vowed to God, OK, well, if you're going to help me, God, you'll be my God and I'll give you the 10th. Remember, he said, I'll pay you the 10th. Jacob made that vow. You think of Jephthah in the Judges. God, if you'll deliver these people into my hand, because he was being called on to lead the children of Israel in the battle, he says, OK, God, if you do this, then here's the vow that I'm going to make for you. When I come back home, whatever meets me, I'll offer that up as a sacrifice for you, a burnt sacrifice, whatever comes to meet me. Now, of course, that was a bad vow because his only daughter came out and met him when he came home. He was expecting an animal to come meet him and it ended up being his daughter. So, you know, it's a tragic story. But he made the vow to do what? To pay God, to give him an offering, to give him a sacrifice, to do something because God helped him. God is there for him, he's saying, this is what I'll do for you. And in fact, one of the vows that I made, I have kept until this day, and that was the last time I ever had a drink of alcohol. I made a vow. I got pulled over by the police and I made a vow unto God that night. I said, God, I will never drink. Now, I wasn't even necessarily asking for anything. I was like, hey, it'd be nice to get out of this, but you know what, God, I'm done. The bigger point was I was done. I'm done. God, I vowed I would never get a drink again. No matter what happens here, God, I'm never going to drink again. And I haven't had a drop, a sip, a taste, a smell of alcohol. Well, maybe an inadvertent smell, but not an intentional one since that day. And I'm never going to. You know what? Because a vow is a big deal. A vow is a very big deal. And we need to keep the vows that we make. But what I'm drawing attention to, like we saw in Psalm 66, and you can turn if you go to Ecclesiastes 5, paying vows because oftentimes the vow is a promise to do something. Let's say, okay, God, if you do this, I'll do this for you. I will do something. Otherwise, if you're just asking God for help, you're just praying. But if you're asking God for help and then saying, I'll do this, that's a vow. You're saying, well, I'm going to do this in return. So you pay your vow. You do what you say you're going to do. Verse 4, Ecclesiastes 5, the Bible says, well, now vow is to vow unto God. Defer not to pay it. Don't put it off and don't wait to pay your vow. For he hath no pleasure in fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed. Pay up. You make the vow, you pay. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. And this is a teaching that continues on in the New Testament. We'll get to this at the end. We'll see that this is pretty much, and this is why I think hopefully most people just aren't really involved in vowing as much anymore because it's a wise thing to just say, you know what, I'm not sure if I'm going to pay this or not, so I'd just rather not vow. Because the Bible says it's better. It's way better, just don't even bother vowing if you're not sure that you're going to pay it up because God has no pleasure in fools. The fool doesn't pay what he vows. Verse 6, suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin. Neither say thou before the angel that it was an error. Oops, I didn't really mean to vow that, God. Don't say it was a mistake, it was an error. Oops, I was dumb, I made a mistake. Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice? God doesn't want to hear that. Look, you open up your mouth and you make a vow. God's not going, oh, yeah, well, that's okay. No, He's just going to be angry if you start saying, oops, sorry, I made a mistake. No, I didn't mean to make that vow. No, you made that vow. Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice? And destroy the work of thine hands. Destroying the work of your hands is showing, hey, you have a vow to pay and now maybe, hey, God came through for you and now you're like, well, I mean, I really don't want to have to part with my best ox or whatever it was that you're offering up to pay. I really don't want to do that. Well, you know what, God's going to make sure you pay because that's how He's going to destroy the work of your hands and say, okay, well, then now you're just going to, it's just going to go wasted. And don't think that God's not capable of doing that or doesn't do that. You make a promise unto God and you say you're going to pay Him. Well, it's going to come out one way or another, so you better just pay Him. You better, you pay up what you vowed. Don't go back on your word. And your word, I mean, that's like your life. God's word is life. God's word, I mean, that's how important the word of God is. It's something that you just can't mess with at all. It's holy, right, sanctified. And we ought to treat our word. Obviously, it's not the word of God. We're not perfect. But you really, if you want people to listen and believe, you know, you ought to be speaking truth. Your word ought to be like gold, right? You've heard that expression is words like gold. What does that mean? It's valuable. If He says something, you ought to be the person that's known. Hey, if that person said it, I could take that to the bank. I know that that person will do whatever it is that they said. And you know what that means, though? It means you've got to limit your words and limit the things that you say because if you say too much, there's no way you're going to be able to complete everything that you say. So you want to be careful with the things that you actually say you're going to do, which is why when I started the sermon, I said, I'm not making any promises about how long the sermon's going to be, even though it's only eight verses. Right? Because you don't want, because if I was, oh yeah, we're going to be out of here in 30 years. If I just said that every time, you guys wouldn't, no one would believe me ever when I said that, you know, we're going to be out of here at a certain time. No one would ever believe me. But I think I've proven when I usually say something about this, usually it's going to go longer anyways. But I'm not making any promises. I'm not making a vow. This isn't an oath. I'm not swearing to you on any time. I'll make this swear that we'll be done before midnight. I'm comfortable with that one. Now God's going to send the spirit of prophecy down and I'm going to be... Like, oh no, what was I thinking? Don't swear at all. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 23. There's a few verses left I want to look at tonight. Just all regarding paying a vow. First number 18 of Deuteronomy 23, the Bible says, Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore or the price of a dog, the dog's a sodomite there, into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow. So again, talking about paying a vow, this is talking about bringing that estimation. Maybe you made a singular vow. Don't be bringing the price of a whore or the price of a dog or the hire of a whore in that that's how you got your money, this vile means to getting the money to pay up or whatever to pay your vow. Don't do that. The means matters. Don't go selling yourself to pay God. Don't get involved in some lewdness and wickedness just to pay God your vow. No, you better make sure you've got that established beforehand and don't do anything. Why? For even both these are abomination unto the Lord thy God. God's not going to accept that payment. It's abominable. Verse 19 says, Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother, usury of money, usury of vittles, usury of anything that is lent upon usury. It doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be money. It can be anything. You're expecting to get more in return than what you gave. Don't do that. Which goes back to Psalm 15 by abiding in his tabernacle, right? Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury, but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury, that the Lord thy God may bless thee, and all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whether thou goest to possess it. When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it, for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee, and it would be sin in thee. You say you're going to do something. You say you're going to pay. You don't do it. It's a sin. And God will require it anyways. God's going to make sure it comes out in the end. Verse 22, But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee. It's like what we just read in Ecclesiastes. It's better to not vow than to vow and to not pay. And He's saying here, hey, if you vow, pay it, but if you don't vow, no sin. No sin. If you don't make a vow to God, that's not a sin. And God's never going to command you to make a vow ever. He never commands you to make a vow. See, God made a vow to us. He made a covenant, a vow that He's never going to leave us or forsake us. He's a vow, the covenant, the new covenant, and the blood of Christ, right? All we have to do is believe. But see, once you do that, you can never break that vow. You're secure, and God's never going to turn His back on that vow either. He's faithful and true. Verse 23, That which is gone out of thy lips, thou shalt keep and perform, even a freewill offering, according as thou hast vowed unto the Lord thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth. It's freewill. It's your choice. You're going to do it. You're going to give the freewill offering? Well, you make sure you pay it. Turn, if you would, to Matthew 5, Numbers 30, verse 2, the Bible says, If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth. So, you know, sometimes people make a vow and it has nothing to do with making a payment, but maybe you've got to do something. You know, you promise to do something, you know, whatever it is, you've got to do it. You've got to keep your word. Matthew 5, verse 33, we're going to see this teaching from Jesus. He says in Matthew 5, 33, Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thy notes. So not for swearing yourself is like, you know, it's vowing and not paying, is what that is. He says, but you need to do, you need to perform unto the Lord thy notes. Right? And that's what we just read. And we saw all the teaching about that in the Old Testament. He says, But I say unto you, Swear not at all. So just don't do it. Swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool. Neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. Now, you know, remember I brought up not swearing to God? Of course we shouldn't do that, but you know what Jesus is saying here? Well, don't, don't swear at all. Don't even swear by heaven. Don't swear by the earth. Don't swear by yourself. Just don't swear. It's not cussing. It's swearing. Swearing as in stating you're going to do something or whatever as an oath or a vow and then putting something else on top of that. I swear on my mama's grave, right? I swear on my firstborn son. Just don't do that. Don't do that. He says this in verse 37, But let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Just say yes or no. And just let that be it. Say yes. Somebody asks you a question. I swear to God, yes. Just say yes. No, man, I wasn't there. I swear on my mama. I wasn't there. Just say no. Don't go through all the theatrics and try to do all these swearings. Just say yes or no. James 5 verse 12 of the Bible says, But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other earth, but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay, lest ye fall into condemnation. Now, a godly person, you make a vow, you're going to keep it. Is that meant to go? I've made a vow on a god, one that I remember. I've made other vows. I don't remember those vows. Those have long passed because I don't even know what I might have been thinking when I was younger. I know I made them. They were stupid, but hopefully I kept them, and I mean that. Hopefully I kept them. I don't know, but there's one vow that I still remember that I made that was very serious. That was a vow to God. I've kept that, and I have to keep that to the day I die. Now, it's good in the sense that, hey, it's something to follow the word of God. Would have been better not to vow just in case, but I did it, and I'd be a fool to go back. I mean a fool for more than one reason, but on top of then any sin that I would, if I were to be guilty of drinking now, I've added on more guilt if I were to do that. But it is what it is, right, and people make vows unto the Lord. I'm not saying vows are bad. The vowels don't say they're bad. It's just wise not to get yourself involved in a vow. God knows your heart, and He can see your sincerity. Okay, if you call on the Lord, and you let your yea be yea and your nay be nay, that's enough for God. He doesn't need your vow. He just wants you to be obedient. He wants you to listen. He wants you to see and do what He'd have you to do, and then He's there to hear. You're biding a tabernacle, and, you know, if you make the vow, pay Him. Sparrowheads, have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for your word, for the instruction, for all that we can do. Thank you for being there for us as our defender, as our shield, as the rock that's higher than us to lift us up, to keep us covered in your wings. Dear Lord, that strong tower, I pray that you would please help us every day, even, you know, especially when we're not going through hard times, to be walking closely with you, so that way we know when we do fall into hard times, and we're seeking you, as is stated in this psalm, that you'll hear us. You can attend unto our prayer, and, Lord, just help us to do what's right, and we love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. We're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed. Brother Peter, will you please lead us? All right, church. You can open up your hymnals. The psalm number 165. The psalm 165, by the worship of the king. The psalm 165. All right, let's sing the psalm first. The psalm 165. The psalm 165. The psalm 165. Amen, church. Great singing. Thank you so much for coming, you guys. Amen.