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be removed, but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth. The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom, but the froward tongue shall be cut out. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness. Let's pray. Dear Lord, I thank you for every individual that came out on this snowy morning to hear your word preached, and now I pray for Pastor as he comes forward coming with your Holy Spirit as he preaches your word to us this morning. Amen. Amen. All right, amen. Happy New Year, everybody. So we're in Proverbs chapter number 10. If you would, look at verse number 22. It says, the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow to it. So the title of my sermon this morning is Happy New Year. Turn to Genesis chapter 12. So basically, this is a sermon that's bouncing off my Wednesday sermon, right? And the question I have for you is how do you want this new year to go? And I think that's a good question. Do you want it to go exactly like last year, or do you want it to go maybe just a little bit lower than last year, or do you want it to go better? I think everybody in here would probably say, I would like it to go better, right? And the reason why I started off this sermon with this verse here is because I'm talking about blessings, right? This is a sermon on how to get blessings from God. You know, but before we can even do that, you need to realize what real blessings are, and you'd be surprised at how little people really understand about this subject, because blessings aren't just riches as far as money goes, and as far as materialistic goods and things like that go. That's not what we're talking about here. If you look at the verse, it says, the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich. That means plenteous, right? Abundant. And then it says he addeth no sorrow to it. Why does he have to say he addeth no sorrow to it? Right, because some of the things that God considers blessings, we might not consider them blessings. That's why he has to say it that way. But I mean, think about it. How do you want this year to go? Do you want to improve? Hopefully you do want to improve as a Bible-believing Christian. Hopefully you want to gain some more knowledge. Hopefully you want to win some more souls. Hopefully you want to disciple some people, right? Hopefully you all want to see this church grow, right? We all want that. Not for financial gain, but because we have a mission. We have a vision, right? I would like it, one of these years, to be able to send multiple people to different cities in this state during the mega-marathon, right? We can't quite do that yet. Not because of anybody's fault here, but just because we're too young. We don't have the manpower for that yet, right? But let's get working towards a goal like that, right? Because you know what? What are some of the other big cities around here that we need to go to? What, Pocatello, right? Yeah, Twin Falls, right? I think Spokane's probably got Coeur d'Alene covered, but you know what, we could go up there and help them out. We need to go to Ontario. There's a lot of work to be done around here. Just yesterday while we were out soul-winning, I just found a whole new pocket of apartments and houses and things that we need to be able to reach, right? But we're not gonna do that if we don't understand what true blessings from God are, if we're not willing and able to grow, if we're not willing to honor God with our time. Look, I'll just tell you this right now. This is not a tithing or a time-type sermon, but it is true. Do you think God's gonna bless you if you don't honor him with your time? I mean, think about that. You parents, do you honor your kids? Do you give them extra blessings when they're disobedient, when they're not doing their chores, when they're not doing the things that they need to do? No, you don't. So why would God be any different? So you're there in Genesis chapter number 12. Look at verse number one. It says, now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. Verse two, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shall be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So you can leave your place there. Go to 1 Peter chapter three. So here we learn in the New Testament that God's preaching the gospel to all people based off this verse, because it says in Abraham, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. And how is that so? How can I be? Well, because when a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, they're blessed with the new man, with eternal life. That in and of itself is a blessing. So the Christian really has no reason ever to be sorrowful for an extended period of time, because you have everlasting life. Any pain or trial or tribulation that you're going through right now is only temporary. But the heathen man can't say that. The person that thinks that God's hid his word in the ground and that we don't have the Bible today, that man cannot, cannot have sorrow, because he can't trust what he's reading, right? But we can, because we serve a God who said, you know, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words will not pass away. So the reason why I read to you Genesis chapter 12, these first three verses, is because it does a very good job at explaining how God blesses people. First of all, what does God do? He communicates, right? He communicates. He tells you, hey, this is what you need to do. And then he commands. And then he commences based off of how you respond to those commands. You're either gonna get a blessing or you're gonna get a cursing, right? And you say, well, is this a sermon on how to avoid chastisement? Not really, maybe a little bit. The Bible says that God chasteneth every son whom he receiveth. So there's no getting out of it. We're all gonna get chastened because that's how we grow. That's how we learn. I mean, what mother and father doesn't chasten her children, right? A foolish one at that. You know, a foolish one does. And we know that God's definitely not foolish. So he's gonna chasten you. He's gonna put you through some things to teach you a lesson. You ought not to let that discourage you. So let's move on here. First Peter chapter three, look at verse number nine. So he says, not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrary wise, blessing, right? Knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a blessing. So go to 1 Kings chapter 19, 1 Kings chapter 19. So the reason why I had to read that is because, you know, it's important that we understand that we are blessed, that we are blessed. We have eternal life. We have God's word. We have the command to even bless each other. You study the Bible long enough and you'll see there is a huge emphasis placed on blessing the brethren. Did you know that? And it's kinda hard to bless the brethren when people decide, you know what, I'm gonna skip out on church because I'd rather watch hockey, football, baseball, whatever it is, right? That's selfish. That's you putting your wants above other people's needs. You know what? And when you make a habit of doing stuff like that, you're not gonna get blessings. We're very minimal. You see what I'm saying? Is that how you want this year to go? Is that how you want to start the year off? You know, there's a reason why we're doing this New Testament challenge is because it's supposed to put you in the mode of reading your Bible every single day. Now look, nobody expects you to read the nine chapters for the rest of the year, although I think you probably should. I don't think it's that hard. I mean, I think you could easily read 10 chapters a day all year, five in the morning and five at night. I mean, if you're not writing three sermons a week, you have that time. You may think you don't, but you do. You really do. You just need to audit yourself, audit your life, and say, what can I maybe push aside? What can I cut out so that I can do that? And then you should always pray this prayer. You know, Lord, open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law, because that is a blessing. Did you know that? We're gonna see that here in a minute. So 1 Kings chapter 19, 1 Kings chapter 19. I'll just give you the backstory on this here real quick. It's talking about Elijah the prophet. So in chapter 18 is a famous story where Elijah calls fire down from heaven. Basically, God soaks up the offering that was wet and the sight of all the people. And you remember the Baalimites, the people that were worshiping Baal, they were there, they were calling on Baal. He didn't show up. They're cutting themselves. They're throwing their typical Baal worshiping, satanic heathen temper tantrum, right? And, you know, so after God, you know, consumes the offering that Elijah has the people do, the people see that and they say, okay, the Lord, he is God. And then what happens is he kills 450 prophets of Baal. So why in the world would he do that? Well, we've talked about this before. He does that because children of Satan can't be saved, right? Once you're a child of God, you're always a child of God. Well, once you're the child of the devil, you're always a child of the devil. Now, after the children of the devil saw that God was clearly God, that he licked up that offering, did they want anything to do with God? No, they wanted to kill Elijah. Why? Because they realized they were gonna lose that influence that they had over the people that hadn't made up their minds yet, right? And so Elijah, after that, he leaves for a little while. Ahab, he goes back, he tells his wife Jezebel, you're never gonna guess what Elijah did. He killed 450 prophets. So she sends messengers to Elijah and says, well, I'm gonna kill you about the same time. So Elijah's like, well, I guess I better go. I guess I better leave because my life's about to end. So Elijah, what he does is he runs away, he leaves the servant behind. He goes out to the wilderness. He goes and finds a juniper tree, sits under the juniper tree, he falls asleep. An angel bakes him some food, sets a little bit of water next to him. And then he wakes up and God's like, hey, you need to go to Mount Horeb. You remember Mount Horeb where Moses received the commandments, right? So he's like, okay, so the Bible says he goes in the strength of that food 40 days and 49. So he gets to Mount Horeb, and that's where we're gonna pick up this story here. First Kings chapter 19, look at verse number nine. It says, and he, talking about Elijah, and he came thither unto a cave and lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, what doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword. And I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away. You gotta understand that, you know, Elijah just had this great victory, right, where he saw fire come down from heaven to consume the offering that they soaked in water. And now all of a sudden he's running from a woman that's angry, that says she's gonna kill him. You know, where's the blessing in that? There's no blessing in fear. The Bible says that the fear of man is a snare, right? So we should never fear what man is going to do unto us, but you know, Elijah's just like us, he's human, right? These things are written, so as you can see, hey, a mighty man, a mighty warrior of God, like Elijah, if he could fall, then so can you, because there ain't nobody in here like Elijah. Elijah didn't even see death. He gets taken up by a whirlwind. I mean, think about that. So verse 11, it says, and he said, go forth and stand upon the mountain before the Lord, and behold, the Lord passed by, and a great strong wind rent the mountains. It means it tore the mountains. It's starting to break the rocks apart. It says, and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still, small voice. So here you have it. You have Elijah, he's on the run, right? He's at Mount Horeb, where he obviously knows that's where Moses got the commandments. What happened when Moses was at Mount Horeb? There was wind, there was earthquakes, there was all sorts of stuff. Remember God told Moses, hey, don't even let the people come near this mountain, set bounds, lest they die, right? So he's probably thinking, all right, you know, I'm gonna get these great signs, right? But the Bible's very careful to tell us here that God wasn't in the wind at this time. That doesn't mean he doesn't control the weather. You know, he has set the weather up to its own circuits, and it does what it wants, and he can choose when he wants to manipulate it or not, right? But it says he wasn't in the wind, he wasn't in the earthquake, and he wasn't in the fire. And then if you look at verse 12, it says, and after the fire, a still, small voice. Look at verse 13. And it was so when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering of the cave, and behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, what doest thou hear, Elijah? And the reason why I brought this up is because what this is teaching us here is that God doesn't always speak, he doesn't always show blessings in an extraordinary way. Right, sometimes he does. Sometimes you're gonna get this big blessing. Sometimes you're gonna get this big, just revelation as you're reading the Bible. Other times, you just have to listen to the still, small voice. How does that apply to us today? Well, we don't need to always look for blessings, like I said, in the extraordinary, in the big things. You know, like, oh, it's only a blessing if I get this great job that pays me 100K a year. Oh, it's only a blessing if it's in miracle status, right? Sometimes blessings just come in the ordinary. You know, and that still, small voice, you know how you get that still, small voice today? By hiding God's word in your heart, by memorizing it, by reading it. You can leave your place there in Kings and go to Matthew chapter 16. I'll just tell you a story here real quick. It was about, probably three weeks ago, I was at somebody's house fixing a dryer, you know, like usual, and the guy was complaining about the price, and whatever, you know, some people do that, and I get it. So I'm walking outside to get his part, you know, and he's in there, he's all mad, and he's like, ah, just do it anyways, I don't care. Which I think is kind of weird, because the guy has like a five-car garage, and just all the stuff you can imagine. You know, he's got like two Lexuses in the driveway, and it's like, you're mad about 200 bucks, but whatever. So I walk outside, and on his property, almost to the sidewalk, is a $20 bill, you know? And I was looking at that $20 bill, and I thought, man, it'd be good to take this, and you know, give myself a little tip, but obviously, I heard a still small voice, you know? No, just give it to the guy, because it's his property, you know? It's the flesh of the old man, who likes to just take a little off that guy, right? But I'm like, nah, I'm not gonna do that. So I grab the money, I put his part on, I said, hey, at least your bill's 20 bucks cheaper now, you know, I found this outside. And he's like, ah, who cares? You know, it's probably my stupid kid, he's always dropping stuff, you know? I'm just like, man, this guy's miserable, look. The Bible tells you that the rich have no, you know, that they are full of sorrow, you know? It's true. They're never satisfied with anything, it seems like. So I give that to him, I just don't think anything about it. I go to my next job, I give Lady real bad news. Your bill's gonna be $700, to fix your double wall oven, right? And she's like, oh, man, and it's Christmas, this is terrible. She's like, okay, well, I just wanna think about it, say, hey, I understand, no problem, right? She pulls out 20 bucks and gives it to me. I'm like, no, you don't have to do that, I don't want it. And she's like, no, I really want you to take it, I don't know why, but I just feel like you should have it. I'm like, wow, okay, that's kinda weird, because I just gave this other guy 20 bucks. And so I came here, it was a Wednesday, I put him in the offering plate. I go back, she decides that they wanna do the repair, they give me another 20 bucks. So I'm like, man, you know, what's going on here? But God rewards his people through obedience, is what I'm trying to say. But you know what, if I hadn't been studying my Bible, if I'd been backslidden, been having my conversation with the old man, I probably would have been like, I'm gonna stick it to this guy and keep that $20 bill. And some of you would have done the same thing, don't even lie, you know what I mean? This ain't a Catholic church, we confess our faults once in a while. But I just thought that was neat, and that was kind of applicable. There was no voice that came down from heaven and said, Joseph, you must give that $20 bill, and I will bless you. It wasn't like that. It was just a simple act of obedience, and God blessed me. And I just got, I had to go back there for something else on Friday, and he tried to give me even more money. I was like, look, no more, okay? And finally, like she stuffed a little bit of money in my tool bag, and I'm not saying it, taking no for an answer. I'm like, all right, all right, fine. Some people are pretty cool, you know, some people are pretty nice, but who do you think put that on her heart? It was obviously God, right? And so just remember that, right? Listen for that still small voice that you have inside of you that comes from hiding God's word in your heart, from studying and from meditating on his precepts and the statutes. Look, they're here for a reason. It does work. How do you want your year to go, okay? And so with all of that, I've just got a few points for you this morning, not a super long sermon, but you're there in Matthew chapter number 16. Here's the first point. Is the Christian is blessed when God reveals truth to him. The Christian is blessed when God reveals truth to him. You say, well, what in the world, how is that a blessing? Remember that still small voice that I talked about, that story in Kings, right? If God is gonna bless you, would you even really know? Would you, do you really understand what blessings are? Because it's easy to say, look, I've got kids, you know, I'm warm, I've got clothing, I've got money, I'm blessed. But is that all that the Bible teaches about blessings or is it deeper than that? Is there more than that? And I'll be honest with you, there's a lot more than that, right? There's a lot more to it than that and that's why we have to study these things and that's why I said at the beginning, there's a lot of people out there that they don't understand this type of stuff. You know, when God reveals truth to you, that is a blessing. When you read the Bible and you get a sermon idea or you get something to help you out in soul winning, that is a blessing and we're gonna see that here in a moment, all right? Look at verse number 13, Matthew chapter 16, verse 13. It says, when Jesus came into the coast of Cassaree of Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, whom do men say that I the son of man am? And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias and others, Jeremiah, are one of the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And look at verse 16, and Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Verse 17, and Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father, which is in heaven. Now who's talking here? This is Jesus Christ. What did he tell Peter for his answer? He said, blessed art thou. Do you believe that? Do you see what's going on here? When God reveals truth to you, that is a blessing. When a believer gets backslidden and they get into the world, they don't get God's truths revealed to them like they would if you're studying and you're reading every single day. And you say, well, that's not really a blessing. That is a blessing according to Jesus. According to the Bible, it is, right? So every Christian needs to make it a point to study and read and understand these presets. So that you can get truth revealed to you. This is the only way you're gonna do it. When God's word makes sense, that is a blessing. But you say, no, a blessing is when my football team wins the Super Bowl. That's not a blessing. They're not paying you. They're not giving you any money. They don't even care about you. Those people wouldn't even talk to you if they were to come around. I mean, people bum rush these athletes all the time and they just like, get out of here. I don't want anything to do with you, right? A lot of them just wanna live normal lives. They don't wanna be bombarded with all the paparazzi and all the fame and garbage. You think they care about you? They don't care about you, especially when they find out you're an independent fundamental Baptist, right? Because that goes against everything that they're taught in college, everything that they're taught in the world, right? But no, the Bible says the Christian is blessed when God reveals truth to them. Go to Luke chapter number six. Luke chapter number six. You say, well, that's not a very extraordinary type thing. Well, no, it's not. You know, it was that still small voice that told Peter that and that came from God. That came from him being around Jesus Christ, right? And you need to be around Jesus Christ by reading and studying his words and doing the commandments. So number two, the Christian is blessed when the world openly rejects you. The Christian is blessed when the world openly rejects you. You say, well, that's not a blessing, that hurts. Yeah, it hurts, but the Bible says that's a blessing. You see, that's why God said in Proverbs chapter 10 that the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow to it. So you shouldn't let the rejection of your family and your friends bring you sorrow. You should leap for joy. You should rejoice. You know, when I have this happen to me all the time, people will say, just last Friday, I was at a schoolteacher's house and she's like, well, where do you kids go to school? I probably teach them. I was like, you probably don't because they're homeschooled. And she's like, oh, okay. Well, how are they gonna get a diploma? How are they gonna get this? How are they gonna interact with people? You know, and I was like, do you really wanna know? She's like, well, yeah. And I started to tell her, well, I mean, they go to church. They see all different types of people. They get to talk to adults. They get to talk to a wide variety of age groups. You know, I mean, think about how's that for social interaction. You know, when you're stuck at the same grade for years and years and you only talk to kids your own age, you're not gonna really sharpen yourselves up that much. Look, I'm a public school kid. I know that. It wasn't until after I graduated school that I learned truth and I had to basically reeducate myself but she's like, okay, I get it. You know, I explained to her a little bit about soul winning because she asked, you know? You know, these kids learn a lot out soul winning and that's a blessing. I mean, they get to see. They get to see how the rich are. They get to see how the middle class are. They get to see how the poor are, right? And they get to see the ghettos. They get to see all this stuff. They get to see people that are caught up in drugs and you know what? They know that's bad. I don't want anything to do with that and that, my friend, is a blessing. That is truth being revealed to your children and so I begin to tell her these things. She's like, oh, okay, I guess that makes sense and the reason why I kinda felt comfortable telling her this stuff is because somebody told her that I was a pastor and she had mentioned it and she's got the Bible verses on the wall and the vodka over here, you know? So obviously, she's not Mormon. She's a Christian around here somewhere and she's like, okay, well, that's pretty neat. I've never heard any of that stuff before. But I just realized I'm dealing with somebody here who's not rejected by the world, who probably gets no truth revealed to her and she's really not blessed at all. Even though she has this big house and has a lot of money, that's not being blessed. People think, oh, because I go to this mega church and we only have one service a week and it's just this feel good thing. I'm so blessed by that. You're not blessed. You're not getting anything. You're getting anything from that. But I started to talk to her about this. I was like, you know, because she's like, well, I just, I couldn't handle homeschooling my kids. I couldn't handle doing something like that. And I was like, how do you handle 30 kids that rotate and are disobedient that you can't even discipline? She's like, yeah, that's a good point. You can't handle the two kids you have, but you can handle 30 other kids that have problems. You know, and again to explain, I was like, remember the sorrow that Eli got? Who remembers Eli? You know, 1 Samuel, right? He was a judge. You remember what the Bible says about his children? There was a son's abelial. They were devils. It says they knew not the Lord, right? That's what it says. And you say, well, that just means that they didn't know who he was. That's ridiculous because they worked in the temple, okay? They knew who God was. They didn't know him. They never put their trust in him. They rejected him, right? And so the Bible says that God gave them over to a reprobate mind, more or less. You can make that connection. And they were the sons of devil and they were a grief unto Eli. Where did Eli go wrong? He lost his blessing because he neglected the weightier matters of the law, right? He missed details in God's law. He decided, you know what? I'm not gonna discipline my children. And by the way, the Bible says that that's a good way to bring a curse upon yourself. Don't discipline your children. You don't teach them right from wrong. You will have sorrow. You're gonna have all kinds of problems because there's gonna come a point to where it's too late and you're not gonna be able to wring them in, to be able to manage them, right? So I was telling her about that and she was like, wow, I never heard of that. You just talk about Elijah? No, I'm talking about Eli. It's sad today, the state that Christianity is in where people don't even know these stories in the Bible. They don't even know who Eli is. They don't know who Elijah was. I'll get Elijah and Elias sometimes mixed up as I'm talking because they will start with me. I'm just too many vaccines when I was in the military, I guess. But I at least know who they are, okay? Elisha, who comes after in 1 Kings 19. But anyways, I'm rambling on here. Let's move on here. Luke chapter six, look at verse 22. It said, blessed are ye when men shall hate you and when they separate you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake. So look, you go home and you tell people, hey, look, I just learned that salvation's a free gift. You don't have to repent of your sins for it. That's good news. You know what? And your family says, nope, you gotta work for it. If you're really saved, you'll do the works. And even though they're not doing any of the works, they don't even know what the works are. They don't even know what chapter or the word works is in in the Bible, right? But they're gonna tell you that and they're gonna begin to quarrel with you and fight with you. And you tell them other truths in the Bible. You know what? The Bible says, hey, you're blessed at that point. Remember, Jesus said, I came not to bring peace, but a sword because God's word is sharper than any two-edged sword and it is for dividing. That's what it does. You wanna get blessings, you need to learn how to use this sword and learn how to cut some people in half with it. And you'll be blessed. You're gonna be hated, but you're gonna be blessed. That's what I said. If you're really blessed right now, would you even understand that? Do you even really understand what a blessing is? Right, it does make you rich. It makes you plenty, it's abundant. Because the more you serve God, the more you use this word, you're gonna get rich. You're gonna get rich in thought, in wisdom, in knowledge, and in understanding, in doctrine, in reproof, in corrections, and all that stuff is going to be abundant to you. It's gonna, and he adds no sorrow to it. So when you understand that, then it's like, okay, now I know how I can live that blessed life that God wants us to live. And I said, number one, the Christian's blessed when God reveals truth to him. And number two, the Christian is blessed when the world openly rejects you. Verse 22 is very clear. Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the Son of Man's sake. Look at verse 23. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy. For behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the like manner did their fathers also unto the prophets. And I like to hammer this home, because it's something that we just neglect as people. We're always focused on the here and now, because this is what we can see. This is what we can taste. This is what we can feel. And it's easy to pay lip service to, yeah, I understand I'm gonna be in eternity. I understand all that. Yeah, there's rewards, right? But what we just often really neglect, and it shows in our actions, is the fact that you will spend more time in eternity than you ever will on this planet here. In what you do, your works do follow you, the Bible says. You don't need works to get saved, but the works that you do after you get saved, they do follow you, right? But the Bible says, hey, you can do these works now. God's not gonna add sorrow unto it. It's gonna bring you blessings, blessings the way that he's designed them, right? Blessings the way that he has designed them, and you're gonna get blessed now, and even more in the latter end. I think it's a fair trade. I think it's worth it to give up the world in exchange for an eternity with great rewards and riches that we don't even fully comprehend yet. But look, people think, oh, I'm just gonna get the same rewards as everybody. That's like some commie-type attitude. It's not gonna be like that. It's not. When you get to heaven, you will be able to look at somebody and clearly understand how serious they took the word of God, how much they honored God with their time, how much they honored God with their resources. And look, I'm not a Pentecostal up here today. I don't preach a lot about money, but I'm just simply saying, in times of my life as a believer, when I neglected to give to the church, guess what? All my stuff would break, the bills would pop up, and it was just miserable. And it makes sense, because that's taught in the Bible. Right, true blessing comes from obedience. God commands, he communicates, and he commences based off of how you and I respond to his word. You don't have to turn there, but Psalm chapter 40, verse four says, Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. So here's another little quick tidbit on how to get blessings, is when you don't hearken to the people on TV. Yeah. I have yet to understand how a Christian who understands a little bit of truth, who would even come to this church, would say, you know what? I'm gonna go ahead and go to the movie theater and pay Walt Disney, who hates God. That organization hates Christ. I'm gonna go ahead and pay them to teach my children. You know what you're doing here? You're violating the Psalms. You're violating this verse, where it says, Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud. So every church that goes around and raises the pride flag, and says, you know, all the fags are welcome here, you know what? They're not blessed, because they're respecting the proud. Pride month? Yeah. Right? Pride month? What do they always, oh, we're proud to be this way. Of course you're proud, because you blaspheme God's name openly every single time you do that. You're disgusting. And you know what? Taking that stance, you know what that's gonna do? That's gonna cause the world to reject you. That's gonna cause your family to turn on you. Right? But it's up to you whether or not you're gonna let that take your joy. Remember, no one takes your joy. You willingly give it to them. And respecteth not the proud. So when the Christian says, I'm not gonna respect that crap, I'm not gonna respect that trash, you know what, God says you're blessed. That's a blessing. I'm not gonna respect pedophiles. And guess what? The Bible says that sodomites are filled with all unrighteousness. So that means every single one of them is capable of being a pedophile. Say, well, I know one that's not. You don't follow them around 24 hours a day. You know, obviously there was a time in this country where even the police knew that. Because you can go back and watch those black and white videos where the police and the FBI are saying, hey, these homosexuals, they will molest your kids. You can't trust them. You know, it talks about them being sick in the head. You know where they got that wisdom from? They got that from the Bible. Because that's what it teaches. And the Bible says, hey, you wanna be blessed? Reject the proud. That's what it says. And it says, nor such as turn aside to lies. So when the Bible believe in Christians says, you know what, I'm gonna turn aside to Walt Disney for some truth. And God says, there goes your blessing, pal. You know, I'm gonna go ahead and turn aside to Jerry Seinfeld, or whatever is on the radio. You know what, God says, hey, there goes your blessing, pal. How's that? But you know what, you're not gonna get that still, small voice in your head to tell you that if you're not reading the Bible, if you don't even believe that we have God's word today. Right? If you're just sucked up and just backslidden is all get out. You're not gonna get that kind of a blessing. And that's why I said, do you really even understand how do you want this year to go for you, Christian? How do you want it to go? Do you want it to improve? I sure hope you do. You know what, we need to work on not turning aside to lies. Turning aside to Hollywood, turning aside to the media, turning aside to all these things that all they do is destroy God's people and respect the proud. Luke chapter seven, you're there in Luke chapter six, go to Luke chapter seven. So I said point number one, the Christian is blessed when God reveals truth to him. Point number two, the Christian is blessed when the world openly rejects you. The Bible says, hey, you're blessed, leap for joy. That's a good thing. When he will reject you for the right reasons. Now, if you're just being a jerk and trying to cause trouble that's a little bit of a different story and that's a different sermon for another day. Point number three, the Christian is blessed when they don't get offended at the truths in the Bible. I said the Christian is blessed when they don't get offended at the truths in the Bible. Look at verse number 20. Luke chapter seven, look at verse 20. It says, when the men were come unto him, they said, John, sorry, hold on here, I think my printer messed up. Let me turn to Luke chapter seven here. I got something wrong with this printer. I think we need to change the ink. We need to change the ink in this guy. Luke chapter seven, verse number 20. Let's see what the Bible says here. Ah, it says, wait, wrong page, sorry. All right, here we go. And when the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, art thou he that should come or look we for another? And then my printer picked back up again. So verse 21, it says, and in that same hour, he cured many of their infirmities and plagues and of evil spirits and unto many that were blind. He gave sight. Verse 22, then Jesus answering said unto them, go your way and tell John what things you have seen and heard, how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised. To the poor, the gospel is preached. And look at what he says here in verse 23. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. So here, John the Baptist, the greatest man born among women. Jesus said that about him. He was the greatest man born among women. And here he is struggling a little bit. He's in prison, why? For preaching the truth. Why? Because God revealed truth to him. And he used a little bit of that truth to offend Herod. Right? And he got locked up for it, for preaching against sin, for calling a spade a spade. He got locked up and he's like, hey, I thought you were gonna spring me out of here. You know, and Jesus is like, John, do you really understand what a blessing is? See John at that moment in time, he didn't really understand that that's a blessing. You know, someday you and I may get locked up for what we believe. And for preaching the truth in the Bible. And you have a choice in that moment to either look at it as a blessing or look at it as a cursing. You need to understand that if you ever get in that situation, the Bible says that's a blessing. And that's what Jesus is saying here. Hey, right now, John, it may not seem like it, but this is a blessing to you. People are gonna read about this for thousands of years after you do this. And people are gonna get comfort and be able to rejoice from these things. And you're gonna bless millions and millions of people. In verse 23, it says, and blesses he whosoever shall not be offended in me. You know that one thing that we all have in common here today is that when I read Romans chapter one, I talk about the Sodomites and I tell you, you know, they're given up by God. They're horrible people. We don't get offended in that. You know what? Why? Because we understand, well, that's what the Bible teaches. It's clear by looking at them. If you ever go to a protest, if they ever decide to protest this church, it will be crystal clear to you that they fulfill every single verse in the Bible. And it will be crystal clear to you why God destroyed them in Genesis chapter 19. It'll be crystal clear to you why in Jude it says that those things are an example for us today. An example. And Jesus says, and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. The people that get offended at the truths in the Bible, they don't really have a blessing. They're not really blessed by God. Listen to this. Psalm 119 verse 165 says this. Great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. So when I see people getting offended at the truths in the Bible, I just know there's somebody who doesn't love God's law. There's somebody who maybe they think that God's law just doesn't even really exist. Maybe they think, oh, well, the first letter that Paul ever wrote, that was the only inspired thing. You know, the first book that Peter wrote, that was inspired, but the rest, eh, who knows? You know, that's what a lot of Christians believe today, and you know what? That's what the college professors teach. That's what the atheists believe too. You know why I preach that sermon? Things that are different sometimes are the same. That would fit right into that. The Christian who believes that God's word today is lost, that we don't have it, he's no different than the heathen downtown that tells us the same thing. You see, but people that don't go soul winning, that don't preach the word of God to people, they don't get that wisdom. Right, you're not gonna, atheist's door that goes down to BSU, that's what he's gonna tell you, but he's gonna be more polite. You don't knock on someone's door that goes to Life.Church, you know what they're gonna tell you? Well, you know, they start dialoguing with you, they start giving you a little bit of what they believe, and you start countering it with what God's word really says You know, hey, you don't have to work for your salvation. Guess what, they get offended in that. They do, they take great offense to that. Why is that? Because they don't love God's law. And they'll say, well, when they realize that you're too smart for them, right? You know what they'll do? They'll say, oh, well, you know, only in the Greek. Right, only in the Hebrew. Well, here's the thing, pal, you don't speak Greek. You don't speak Hebrew. So now what? Now the authority is the pastor who's telling you that. Now the authority is the man that wrote the concordance and how he interprets that. You see, how is that any different than being a Catholic and subscribing to the Pope? There's no different. How is that any different than being a Mormon and saying, well, whatever Russell Nelson says that trumps the Book of Mormon and it trumps the Bible? I've heard it several times out here. How is that any different than being a Jehovah Witness that says, well, whatever the Watchtower Society says, that is truth. You're no different than any one of those people. You're no different than a Catholic. Look, I used to have a pastor down in Louisiana, Baptist guy, and he would always be trying to correct the Bible. It pissed me off like you wouldn't believe. Always correcting the Bible. Well, this shouldn't say that here. You know, it shouldn't say stripes. It should say stripe, you know, in Isaiah when it talks about that. And he'd always be trying to correct it, you know, but one of his big pet peeves is the Catholic church and he's always preaching against the Catholic church and you know, amen, praise God for that. You know, but at the end of the day, he's really no different than a Catholic because the Catholic doesn't believe that what we have written today is preserved. He doesn't believe it has power. He believes whatever the Pope says is the final authority and so does that pastor. He believes that whatever he, however he interprets his concordance, that is what truth is. And so therefore, now you have a congregation full of people that are following that man that are not blessed. And if you talk to these people and ask them, what does it mean to be blessed? You know what they're gonna tell you? It's my car. It's my truck. It's my boat. It's the, it's the Boise, the Broncos, right? They will tell you that. They will tell you that. I talk to people, you know, when I know I'm gonna be preaching these sermons, a lot of times I'll just try to feel random people out while I'm in their houses and I'll ask them, you know, what are you thankful for this year? Or, you know, I'll say something like that and they'll tell me straight up. Oh, you know, a blessing, you know, is my job. I got a great job and you can, and a lot of times they'll tell me, you know. I'm sure you can tell by looking at what I have. Look, people, these rich people, they love talking about their riches, man. They just love it. And look, there ain't nothing wrong with being rich. Think about it. Abraham obeyed and God added all those riches and cattle and money. Look, he lacked nothing. He lacked nothing. You know what? Solomon, he definitely lacked nothing, right? He definitely. The Bible says, seek ye the kingdom of God first and all these things shall be added unto you. So look, if you want all that stuff, I mean, that's great, but just don't make it a priority. Seek the kingdom of God first. Right, you know how you do that? You do that by reading, by meditating, by praying, by sharpening the brethren up, by soul winning, right? That's seeking the kingdom of God. That's seeking to grow it and being obedient. And God says, okay, you're doing that. Now I'm gonna start to raise up all of this other stuff for you. And that is blessing. That's how we get to the state of blessing. So where are we at here? All right, you go to Psalm chapter 40. I'm sorry, go to Psalm chapter 41. So point number three is the Christian is blessed when they don't get offended at the truths in the Bible. I said, great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. And while you're turning to Psalm 41, I'll read for you a couple other verses here. So Psalm 94, 12 says this. Blessed is the man whom thou chasteness, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law. You know, if you're doing this New Testament challenge and hopefully everybody is, you're gonna read some stuff in there that smites your conscience, right? That's chastening from the Lord. Look, not all chastening is the same. And we're gonna talk about this in the next few weeks because we're gonna start preaching about the family. We're gonna do sermon on husbands and wives, on children, teens, singles, all of that stuff. Which is really why I'm also preaching this to kind of prime your heart and your minds for that. But not all chastening is the same. God does, look, I don't spank my kids for every little infraction that they do. And I save that for the bigger things. And God's the same way. Not all sin in the Bible had the same punishment. You see what I'm saying? So when you get chastened during your Bible reading, don't take that the wrong way. Oh, God's, you know, he's after me. He's trying to grow you. He's helping you out. That's what he's doing. Now listen to this. You don't have to turn there, but Psalm 119, one says this. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek him with the whole heart. You say, I wanna be blessed by God. Well, good, why don't you read his word and seek him with your whole heart. Not one foot in, one foot out, right? But with your whole heart. That's what the Bible says. So let's move on here. You're there in Psalm 41. Point number four is this. The Christian is blessed when they take care of the poor. The Christian is blessed when they take care of the poor. And you say, well, see, this is why we need to go downtown and give ham sandwiches to everybody. No, that's not what I'm talking about. Because most of those people down there are physically capable of getting a job and working. Right? But you know what? There are some of the brethren that are poor from time to time that need help. And you know what? You will get a blessing from God when you help them out. As long as you're not on Facebook bragging about it. You know, as long as you're not like on Twitter and making videos about it and like, oh, I just wanna let you guys know today that so-and-so needed a car and I gave him a car. When you do stuff like that, Jesus said, hey, you have your reward right now, which is your temporary glory that you get when you post that stuff on Facebook, right? So just bear with me. Psalm 41, look at verse one. It says in Psalm of David, blessed is he that considerth the poor. The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. Look, when you go around and you're helping people out, especially when a brother or sister, they need something and you give that to them, not only does that keep you humble, but it's pleasing to God because we're all the body of Christ, right? And we need to take care of that body, right? And God may have given you extra so that you could help somebody else out, right? And that's something that's lacking today in the Christian culture as well. The Bible says that in the last days, you can read about this in Matthew 24 and you should have already read this, says in the last days that iniquity shall bound and the love of many will wax cold. Look, I'm in the service industry and I could see that. And I struggle with customer service to begin with. I've told you guys this, right? But I've noticed this, the love of many has waxed cold. You make one mistake to these people and they want your life. There are people out there that would wanna take your soul for making one mistake if they could do it. I don't know what it is, but it's different this year than it was two years ago. People are getting worse. Why? Because of our leadership in this world, all they're doing is promoting iniquity at every corner. Iniquity, right? They're trying to force vaccinate. They're trying to take our rights. They're trying to promote these pedophiles. They're trying to make that seem normal. I mean, all this stuff, right? They're allowing iniquity to abound. And so the result as the love of many grows cold, right? And we need to understand that. And we need to not be like that at all. God's people should never be like that. And one thing that I remember from being in these liberal churches is that people were just so fake. And I'm not saying we don't have fake people here because from time to time we do and we've all been through it and seen it. I don't want to get off on that again. But where did the genuine type person go? It seems like it's just hard to find them. I mean, look around. There's a reason why we don't have 10,000 people here because the people that we do have are real and want to seek God's truths and want to seek to be blessed by him and want to learn the hardcore things that the Bible has to offer. See, the person that goes to the journey, they don't care about you. They don't care about each other. You know, you ever been to church where they'll sing maybe two songs and have everybody get up and shake hands? And like, I'm not 100% against that. But I'm saying one thing that I've noticed that promotes is that promotes like this superficial, just like, oh, I have to say hi to this person type stuff. That's why I don't do that here. And we don't have a problem with fellowship, right? I mean, there's people sometimes here at 10 o'clock at night still talking. And that's great. That's the culture that we want. That's what Christ would want. You know, and by fellowshiping with people, you know, you're helping the poor. You know, being poor isn't always just lacking money or resources. A lot of times it could be lacking company. It could be lacking, you know, friends, all different sorts of things. You know, wisdom, whatever it is, help the poor. You see something who has a need or someone who has a need, and if you have the ability to fulfill that, you should fulfill that. You see somebody stumbling in their way, somebody erring in the way, you know, you should be able to go rescue that person. Say, hey, brother, what you're doing right now is not smart, it's not wise. And that's not popular today because we live in a society that says, don't offend, give everyone a trophy, right? Everybody's a winner. Well, know what? Not everybody's a winner, especially when you read the Bible. There are losers out there, and I'm trying to prevent us from becoming a loser-type church. So number four, I said the Christian is blessed when they take care of the poor. Look at verse two. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he shall be blessed upon the earth. And thou will not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. Now how's that for a blessing? Because look, we have no shortage of enemies in this church. Verse three, the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing. Thou will make all his bed in his sickness. Go to James chapter one. We're almost done, James chapter one. So look, if you have the ability to help somebody out, you should, and by doing so, God's saying that is being blessed. Have you not read in the Bible where it says it's better to give than to receive? We need to have that giving-type attitude. And look, I don't have anything wrong with helping somebody in need who doesn't go to this church or who's not saved, right? But I'll tell you what, I'm gonna help a brother or a sister first before I go help the world, right? What good does it do? You know, all these churches, they like to brag, oh, we give all these shoes and ham sandwiches to these people, and we send Maltomeo to Africa. She never tell them the gospel. You know, what shall a prophet demand to gain the whole world but to lose his very own soul? What prophet does that do? Nothing. Your works are garbage, pal. They're nothing. They're not doing any good. And the reason why they aren't preaching the gospel is because they don't know the gospel. They don't know the good news. It's not good news. Turn from your sins and you'll be saved. Yeah, okay. The Bible says a foolish thought is sin. Who in here has turned from all their foolish thoughts? Nobody, nobody at all. So while you're turning to James, I'm just gonna read for you one more Psalm, 106.3, which says, blessed are they that keep judgment in he that doeth righteousness at all times. There's another one that's not popular today, judgment. But the Bible says blessed are you when you keep judgment. The spiritual judgeth all things. All things, the Bible says. You wanna know why most Christians today aren't blessed? Because they don't know how to judge. They have no idea. They don't wanna tell somebody they're wrong because that might offend them. And there goes your blessing, right? Once you start removing all of these things, guess what you're left with? Materialistic riches, fame, glory, just all the stuff that's in the world. Go watch a Christian rock video. That's what they promote. Go watch a Christian rock video. That's what they promote. All of those things, why? Because they don't have the wisdom that comes from above, which is first pure and then peaceable. And we've already talked about that. So I've got one thing that I wanna leave you with. I've purposely made this sermon short just because I just want this to all sit with you. One thing, how to receive blessings from God. We've been talking about that all morning. I just want you to remember this one point here. Endure temptation, don't cave into temptation. Look at James chapter one, look at verse 12. You see, just give it to me. Tell me how I can be blessed, here you go. James chapter one, look at verse 12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation. For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. I want you to focus on that phrase. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation. What happens today is people say, the heck with it, I'll just cave to that temptation. I'm just gonna get that remote control out and turn on some blasphemous show, some show that's blaspheming Christ, right? That's not enduring temptation. All of us have temptations. As long as you are wearing this old man, as long as you have the two natures, you're always gonna have to endure it. But you need a purpose in your heart. You know what, I need to endure this stuff, and it's hard. Because that old man wants to really have this conversation with you. And he's there when your alarm clock goes off in the morning. And he's there when I'm preaching against your sins and my sins. Right, that's what the Bible's teaching us here. But you know what, when you endure that temptation, Bible says, hey, now you're gonna get a blessing. Jump down to verse 25, it says, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man, don't miss this, shall be blessed in his deed. You wanna be blessed in your job? You wanna be blessed as a wife? You wanna be blessed as a husband? You wanna be blessed as a child? You wanna be blessed as a teen? Do you wanna have a blessed family? Whatever your deed is, how do you get blessed? By reading this verse here, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty. What has the Lord commanded? What has the Lord communicated? And what is he gonna commence? It's based off of how you respond to that. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, so no quitting, right? You look into these things and you purpose in your heart, I will not quit. I will keep going on. I'm going to endure temptation. Look, I don't get up every single day, and I'm like, I'm super excited to preach, right? I wanna preach on my favorite stuff all the time, man. It's hard, you know? But I've gotta do it. I gotta preach the whole counsel of God. Look, there's not a single person in here that probably wakes up every single Sunday and Wednesday, like, yeah, you know, going to church. Sometimes you're tired, sometimes things are going on, and they wanna pull you away from what God wants you to do, but you know what, you gotta endure that. Why, because you'll be blessed in your deed when you do. That's the point of the sermon. How do you want this year to go? Do you wanna be blessed in your deeds? Look, I know everybody in here does. Well, here's how you do it. Don't be a forgetful hearer. You hear these things, you need to apply them to your life. You need to be a doer of the work. You can't be a doer of the work if you don't know what the work is to do. And you get that from the perfect law of liberty. Go to Revelation chapter one. Revelation chapter one, verse three says, "'Blessed is he that readeth "'and they that hear the words of the prophecy, "'and keep those things which are written therein, "'for the time is at hand.'" Say, I wanna be blessed in all that I do. You know how you're gonna get that? You're not gonna get that by yoking up with the world. You're gonna do it by not forgetting these things. You know, the Bible or the Book of Revelation is very clear here. There's a blessing for understanding these things and reading them. Because look, there are horrible times that are gonna come upon this earth. And the better you understand those things, the less it's gonna bother you. You know how distraught people are right now because Donald Trump bombed some Iranian general? Look, there's people that are just like on either side and they're just like really ramped up. That's not living a blessed life. You're gonna get an ulcer worrying about this stuff. Look, you can't control it. The Bible says there's gonna be wars and rumors of war. Who cares what they do? We can't stop it. But you know what? We can actually slow it down. We can. You know, it's the pulpits of America that have failed this country. I've said this before, it's not Trump's fault, it's not Bush's fault, it's not Obama's fault. It's our fault. It's the people that call themselves the men of God. They get up behind a pulpit and preach the Bible. They're the ones that failed us a long time ago. Because why? They decided, you know what? It's better just to go down the middle of the road and preach these soft messages that everybody wants to hear. And then all of a sudden, nobody knew what sin was anymore. Nobody knew the whole counsel of God anymore. And people just went out and did whatever they want. And guess what? Now we're stuck in a crooked and perverse nation. You know what? So when we go out and we knock on somebody's door, you know what, that's a witness to this city. That's a witness to this nation. And you should have read that by now too in your Bible reading, right? You know, soul winning is also soul warning. So we go knock out a big apartment complex, nobody gets saved, amen. We did what we were supposed to do. And by that, you will be blessed in your deed. And you know what? Jesus said, hey, this gospel must be preached to all the nations of the earth as a witness and a testimony against them. You know, we need to help that out. And you know what? Every soul that you win, they're not gonna go off and become a reprobate. They may never come to church, right? Because you don't have to come to church to stay saved or to get saved. A lot of them won't come to church. But you know what? They're not gonna be super deceived. They're gonna be able to receive God's word, right? You can change America that way. You're not gonna do it at the ballot box. That does nothing. Oh, what am I gonna do? Vote for the lesser of two evils? You're still voting for evil. That's still wrong. The way to do it is God's way. And to do the work and not be a forgetful here. Go to Revelation 14 real quick. Last verse. Revelation 14. Look at verse 13. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them. I said this before and I'll say it again. The works that you do, they do follow you. So don't think that, oh, you know, I went to this house or this neighborhood and everybody rejected the gospel. That work will follow you. That's why Daniel, it does say that those that turn many to righteousness will shine as a brightness of the stars forever and ever. We don't really understand what that means, but it sounds pretty good to me. And it sounds like a goal that we all need to have. Amen? So let's remember that. And let's remember how we want this year to go. You want to be blessed in our deed. You're going to do it by not being a forgetful hearer. You're going to do it by continuing to do the work that God has set out for us to do. Let's pray. Thank you so much, Lord, for this church. I thank you for this valley and this area that you've given us. I just pray that you would bless our church, Lord, send more laborers into your harvest and that you would bless the fellowship after the service. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen.