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

Many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one member is one of another. Having been gifts, differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, or he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness, the love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good, be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love, in honor preferring one another, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality, bless them which persecute you, bless and curse not, rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep, be of the same mind one toward another, mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate, be not wise in your own conceits, recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord, therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him, if you thirst, give him drink, for in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Let's pray, Lord God, thank you for this church, thank you for our pastor, just ask that you would bless him with your Holy Spirit now as he preaches your word, in Jesus name we pray, amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Romans chapter 12 this morning, and today the title of my sermon this morning is Good, Acceptable, and Perfect. Good, Acceptable, and Perfect. And of course what I'm referring to is the will of God. It says in verse number two, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now what is this referring to? Well I'm going to give you two interpretations of this particular passage and the end of the sermon or the majority of the sermon I'm going to spend on what I believe the proper interpretation is, but the first by way of introduction I'm going to explain to you what in general people say this is referring to, and in fact I probably preach this, and I wouldn't even say this is a bad interpretation, in fact I believe it's scriptural, there's principles behind this, and that is that it's referring to God's plan A, B, and C. When the Bible says that we need to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, it's referring to God's plan A, B, and C. Now you say what is that referring to? What do you mean by that? Well you think about the fact that when you assess the will of God, we know that God has a perfect will for your life, and in some instances Christians can make really bad decisions, right? When they make bad decisions, they get out of God's will, they get involved in some sin that takes them out of the way, they live in rebellion against God, they essentially forfeit God's plan A, right? And then they got to settle for God's plan B, and so when you think about it you know God's will is always perfect, however there are instances where people can backslide, they get away from the Lord, and they don't really serve God, you know, they're just out of church kind of doing their own thing, well in that case obviously they forfeit God's will or certain blessings that they could have gotten in God's perfect will, and now they have to essentially, you know, be a part of God's acceptable will. And one way that we can illustrate this in the Bible, if you think about it, the children of Israel, God's perfect will for the children of Israel was to leave the land of Egypt and go straight into Canaan land, right? Go straight into the promised land, start serving God right away, doing that which is pleasing unto the Lord, and just kind of fulfill the promises that were given to their forefathers. But that didn't happen, you know, because of their rebellion, their disobedience, their lack of faith, they ended up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. It wasn't until 40 years thereafter that they were able to go into the promised land and fulfill God's plan for their lives, and we would say that that was acceptable. Why? Because even through the wilderness, God blessed them. Even when they're in the wilderness of sin, God used them, He showed Himself strong on their behalf, He provided manna, and wonderful biblical pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ were illustrated while the children of Israel were in the wilderness. So we're not saying that the acceptable will of God is somewhat inferior, you know, God's blessing is always good, God's will is always good. However, if someone forfeits the perfect will of God for their lives, there's always the acceptable will. In other words, it wasn't God's original plan, but it is God's plan now, right? And God can still bless a person when they backslide, they get out of church, maybe they do that which is displeasing unto the Lord, then in fact as a pastor, I've seen this multiple times throughout the years, where I see people get out of church, they stop serving God, and then they come back, they get right with the Lord, they start loving God again, they start reading the Bible, they start soul-winning, and God begins to bless them because of it. And we would say God's blessing, that maybe they missed out on God's perfect will, but there's still the acceptable will. Now you say, what is the goodwill? Well think about this, you know, sometimes you lead someone to Christ at the door, and they never come to church, you know, they don't come to church, they don't serve God, and think about this, maybe later on in their life, in their 50s, 60s, 70s, maybe, they start deciding, you know why I'm gonna start going to church, and I want to get right with God, I want to start seeking after the Lord, you know, that is still God's goodwill, because of the fact that God, no matter what stage of life you're in, no matter what age you're at, you should, and you should serve God, and God will bless you for it, His hand can be upon, He can bless your family, He can bless your marriage, He can bless your finances, He can bless your job, He can use you in a great way. And I've heard it this way by many preachers of times past, is that they'll say, you know, if you think about the perfect will of God being plan A, the acceptable will of God being plan B, and the goodwill of God being plan C, just know this, God's plan C is still better than the devil's plan A. So even though you have to settle for plan C, which is the goodwill of God, it's still far superior than what the devil has planned for you. So even if you've backslidden for 10 years, 20 years, whatever it may be, you know, you come back, you're like, look at everything that I missed out on. Well, here's the thing, though, is that Satan just wants to destroy you. Satan wants to just rob you of every blessing, and if it wasn't for God providing a plan C, His goodwill of God, you would have just came out losing on everything. And so the point of that particular interpretation is that often people have a tendency to think, well, you know, just throwing out the baby with the bathwater, I've already backslidden, and therefore what's the point of even coming back to church? And I think a lot of preachers will preach that interpretation, rightfully so, because they want to deter Christians from getting out of church. And that's a good motivation, amen? It's like, hey, stick with God's perfect will. Stick with God's perfect will, don't lose out on God's blessing. Stick it out when it's hard, make sure you're serving God, don't get out of church, don't get out of the Bible, don't get out of soul winning because you need to fulfill God's perfect will. But let's say a person gets out of church, let's say they backslide, well then preachers come back and say, hey, but you know what, there's still the acceptable will of God. You can still be restored, God can still bless your life, and God can still use you in a great way. He can bless you, you know, totally in your family, with your marriage, no matter what it is, because God's will is still good, and He can still enrich your life, even though you might have missed out on some things in those years that you were backslidden. And so I think that is a legitimate biblical principle. It may not be the primary interpretation of this verse, but it's a good scriptural principle nonetheless, because of the fact that, you know what, God does have a will for our lives, and in fact, the Bible says that we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. What does that mean? God has a plan for your life, and you know, you got a lot of, you know, liberals and non-denom type churches that will abuse that phrase. God has a plan for your life, but you know what, there is truth to it though. You know, God does have a plan for your life, He does have a will for your life, He does want to bless you, and you know what, if you forfeit some of those blessings, it doesn't mean you can't keep serving God in the long term. God can still use you in a great way, even when we make mistakes, because we're all going to sin, we're all going to make mistakes, and so there's always God's plan A, B, and C. Now I think that's a great interpretation, but I don't think it's the primary interpretation of this particular passage, because I don't really think this is referring to God's plan A, B, and C, describing God's will as God's plan A, B, and C, but rather it's just a way of, it's just three different ways of describing God's will, that it's good, it's acceptable, and it's perfect. The first interpretation is legitimate in a sense of we can find scriptural basis behind it throughout the Bible, however the primary one is the most important one, and that is that it's a description of what God's will is, and that is that it's good, acceptable, and yes it is perfect. Now before I get into that, let's talk about a couple things here that we see in these two verses, and that is before you could even discern, before you could even choose or know what is God's good, acceptable, and perfect will, you have to be able to discern these things and have the capability of viewing life through the lens of the Bible, and in fact look at Romans chapter 12 verse 1, it says, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, listen to this, the present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. So the first thing we see there is that in order for you to even know what is the good acceptable perfect will of God, you know you have to have the right living, so this means not just anybody knows to discern these things right, not just any Christian, you actually have to be a Christian who I don't know you know lives like a Christian, you know like you actually have to present your body a living sacrifice, what does that mean? Well a living sacrifice simply means that you are dying daily to self right, you know Jesus said if any man come after me let him take up his cross daily and follow me, what does that mean? You have to crucify the flesh on a daily basis, essentially use the members of your body to serve the Lord Jesus Christ okay, that's what a living sacrifice is, and you know here's the problem with the living sacrifice is it's always coming off the altar, so you can put yourself on the altar and say I'm going to serve the Lord today and today I'm going to obey the commands of God, I'm going to read the Bible, I'm going to go to church, but you know what you might get off the altar tomorrow though, so obviously this has to be a daily choice that we make to serve God, and this is why you know sometimes churches will promote this thing of hey surrender your life to God or whatever, you know and obviously there's a lot of problems with that, number one being that they often mix that with salvation okay, and let me just say this is that you don't get saved by surrendering your life to God okay, you get saved because of the fact that you believe on the Christ who literally laid down his life for you okay, that's what it is. Parents if your children are getting fussy like I mentioned in the announcements please make sure you utilize the mother baby room so that you're not being a distraction to the service okay, so present your bodies of living sacrifice means that you have to die to self, crucify the flesh on a daily basis, and it says holy, so you have to live a separated life right, and here's the thing here's the third one listen to this acceptable unto God, this means that you have to serve God on his terms not yours, so the life that you live has to be acceptable to God, it's not like well you know I just serve God the way I think it's you know, I worship, we worship God in our own ways you know, I have a relationship with God, yeah but is it acceptable unto God though, and you say well you know yeah I think it's acceptable you know I think I can, I think I believe in my heart that I'm doing right, I don't care what your heart says though, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who could know it okay, and so thankfully God gave us an entire Bible that you can see what is acceptable unto God and what isn't, so if you think to yourself well I think what I'm doing is acceptable okay prove all things hold fast that which is good, let's see if the Bible actually approves of your behavior, your thought process, your character, your practices, your form of worship, and if it doesn't then it needs to go out the window because that's not acceptable unto God, and so in order for us to even discern what is the good acceptable perfect will of God, we have to have the right living, you have to live a life that is pleasing unto the Lord, serving the Lord Jesus Christ, using your members as unto righteousness and not unto sin as the Bible says, likewise reckon yourselves also to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies that ye should obey in the lustre of, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God, essentially saying that you know use your body to serve the Lord okay use your body to get in your car on Sunday morning and drive yourself to church use those feet to go preach the gospel of Jesus Christ use your mouth to open your mouth boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel so on and so forth right and of course holy and you got to make sure it's acceptable unto God and we have an entire Bible that God gave to us to help us with that okay let me read to you a verse here Psalm 11 verse 10 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom listen to this a good understanding have all they that do his commandments his praise endureth forever what is that saying you know if you want proper understanding of the will of God you got to be able to make sure you're serving God doing his commandments okay but it's not enough that we have the right living according to the Bible we have to also have the right thinking too because look at Romans chapter 12 and verse 2 it says and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and so what is it telling us here it's saying that you know you can't have a worldly mindset in other words you can't allow the philosophies the political ideologies the interpretations of other Christians so called to influence you in your way of thinking this has to be the thing that renews your mind because it says be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind in other words let me put it to you in in the simplest terms you need to get brainwashed and people have to say oh you've been brainwashed and i always say yes i have my brain has been washed by the blood of the lamb by the washing of the water of the word and so and the Bible tells me in Ephesians chapter 2 that you know i walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience and the fact that our minds were subject to the lust of this world we have to have our minds washed by the Bible and make sure that we are thinking biblically right you say well how do you know if i'm thinking how do i know if i'm thinking biblically well if biblical preaching bothers you you have a worldly mind if you read the Bible and it's just like well i don't know about that then you're you're worldly people only think of a worldly person is someone who dresses like the world and obviously there's some truth to that but really at the end of the day it's someone who just thinks worldly someone who has a worldly mindset that is not subject to the law of God it's someone who's not conforming their ideologies to what the Bible says they're judging their Christian life based upon what everyone else outside of the Bible says okay and so we need to have renewed thinking so in order for us to discern these things you have to be a person who has the right living and renewed thinking the right type of thinking so it's then and only then that you can prove what does that mean to prove means you can test you can discern what is that good acceptable and perfect will of God let me read to you from Isaiah 55 verse number eight God speaking here says for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither your ways my ways say it the Lord now i know a lot of churches and you know uh stores that sell signs you know Hobby Lobby or whatever they'll have that verse and they'll often think like you know my thoughts are not your thoughts and you know they try to romanticize this verse but what this is referring to is that God's saying you know you don't think like me that's what he's saying and obviously what he's implying is that our way of thinking is inferior and what he's saying is that you have a problem and your problem is that you don't think like God you don't think like the Lord Jesus Christ and in fact he says for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your way say the Lord is that we're so far apart removed that you could basically measure it the way heaven the distance from heaven to the earth itself and you know it would be a sad thing to say that about a Christian though because according to the bible we're supposed to be heavenly minded to set our affections on things above not on the things of this earth so it's not impossible to think like the Lord and in fact the bible says what we have the mind of Christ we possess the mind of the Lord and so it would be a shame for Christians not to know what the Lord thinks about a particular subject because they don't read the bible you understand have a renewed mind having the capability of understanding what the bible says and judge all things according to the bible don't compartmentalize christianity and say well religious things that's you know that's we got to judge the bible but everything else is just everything else no the bible says that god has everything that pertains to life and godliness the precious promises that are left in the bible are given to us so we can discern and prove and test things and live in accordance to god and his word okay the bible tells us he have not so learned christ if so be they have heard and heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in jesus that he put off the former conversation the old man and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind the bible tells us he put on the new man which after god is created in righteousness and true holiness so it's all contingent upon right living and right thinking making sure that you're conforming your mind to the bible and today this morning i'm trying to conform your mind to the bible i'm trying to change your mind to think biblically but you know what monday through saturday you're on your own buddy you know i can try to saturate your mind with bible for an entire hour two hours if you come back sunday night three hours if you come back thursday but other than that you're on your own which means that you have to be able to read the bible on your own and you know just you know just you guys ever seen that video of that chinese kid he's like trying to study for a test and he grabs the book and he's just like you know it's not gonna it doesn't work that way you got to actually open up the bible and read it and conform your mind to the word of god making sure that you're saturating your mind with the mind of christ because folks we have a lot of decisions to make every single day you got a lot of and there's a lot of there's there there are many voices in the world and none of them are without signification there's constantly people trying to grab your attention trying to distract you trying to change your mind about certain things and folks i'm just telling you the bible says keep thine heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life and so it's important that we constantly have the word of god right here constantly filtering through what we're listening to hearing seeing what people are telling us this is what it means to not be conformed to this world but be to be transformed by the renewing of our minds go to isaiah chapter 5 isaiah chapter 5 if you would hold your place there in romans chapter 12 so let me give you the three ways that the bible describes the will of god let's talk about these three descriptions here of course by way of introduction i gave you what a lot of people say that verse is referring to but again what i believe this is talking about is just three ways of describing god's will number one three ways to describe the will of god number one is that the will of god is good it's good god's will is always good you said what do you mean by that well it means that the will of the lord no matter how evil the world tries to portray it to be is always right the will of god is always correct it's always right and it should never be evil spoken of and you know that's important because you have a lot of people in the world today that will look at the beliefs of the bible and speak evil of them or you have christians that will try to make excuses for what the bible says if you've ever read the bible cover to cover you see how controversial it can be unless you've only stuck to like the book of john or proverbs or whatever but folks if you read it from genesis to revelation there's some crazy stuff in there and if you if you're not if you haven't been brainwashed by the bible it could rub you the wrong way you know it could it could bother you it could rub you the wrong way to the poor you're just like i can't take this preaching you know i can't handle what the bible says about this i'm going to a different church that's what that's what it does in real time amen folks this is this is how it happens folks the reason people can't handle biblical preaching is because their brain is not washed you know but folks let me just say this if you can't handle what i'm saying right now and i'm not even getting crazy then go to the liberal fund center go to the liberal fund center will help you with your you know problems and your depression and your effeminacy and you know whatever we help people with that here too but folks we need to preach the whole council of god and i'd even say fag in the sermon good night in the morning oh wait there it goes but folks that's proof right there that some people can't even handle the basics they can't handle the basics of just oh he's just raised his voice a little too high or something like that i mean good night in the morning talk about the filth of the mind can't handle the word of god you know his ways are higher than their ways apparently i mean not even as high as the heavens are from the earth it's like from the heavens to pluto or something and it's sad when christians can't handle that and i looked folks when i prepared the sermon i thought to myself this is a nice sermon you know it's just i just want to teach people just the basic truth here of the bible but it kind of goes to show you it goes to show you that you know some people it doesn't matter what the truth is they just can't handle it okay but hold on a second the will of god is always good though and this preaching is always good there's nothing perverse or angry or well i guess it is angry you know there's nothing perverse or evil about it okay and you know what the world's constantly saying well this kind of preaching is bad this kind of preaching doesn't help people you're going to scare people away yeah i'll scare people away who don't want to hear the bible if you don't hear the bible then why do you go to church i mean the reason you go to church is to hear me yell at you about the bible i mean does this say ted talk baptist church outside or something the last time i checked it says first works baptist church and we live in 2024 where you can literally look me up before you come to the church you can do your research beforehand and see if this is the kind of church you would want to attend so that you know you're not offended when you do come they weren't even here in june but let me just say this is that the will of the bible says that the will of god is just always good and you know what it is unsavory to the world sometimes sometimes the world just doesn't like the truth it doesn't like biblical preaching it doesn't like what the bible says about a role of a man and the role of a woman it doesn't like you know when you tear down its golden calves of false teachings and false ideologies it doesn't like when it uses certain terms and teaches certain doctrines it doesn't like it but at the end of the day don't capitulate to the pressures of this world that tries to demonize the bible the will of god is always good and when you come across verses in the bible that seem a little crass little coarse you know just and it bothers you what you need to do is just ask the lord help me to have a greater appetite for righteousness because at the end of the day that's what it is help me to love the bible more because it is offending me well you know the bible says great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them and so in order to not be offended by the bible you actually have to love the law of god and i'm not saying anything unbiblical here i mean we've literally i've literally got past my introduction and i've read a ton of verses that's it the world will always view the ways of the lord as being perverse but let me read you from psalm 19 verse 9 it says the fear the lord is clean enduring forever the judgments of the lord are true listen to this and righteous all together we're not the kind of churches like well this you know the book of john is really nice but you know you kind of want to stay away from the other parts again they're not you know it's it's it's wrong to like use a wrong cultural context you know we got to be able to explain no it's all good the book of leviticus is great the laws are great the imprecatory psalms are wonderful they should be sung in church all of the bible's good all of god's judgments are great and in fact it says that they're righteous all together and the point that i'm making is you should never be ashamed of the bible okay look at isaiah chapter 5 verse 20 look what the world does here isaiah 5 20 says woe to them to call evil good and good evil they put darkness for light and light for darkness they put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter woe to them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight the bible says so the bible prophesies of this and tells us that there's going to be people who look at good people good churches good doctrine a good god and say that's evil right they'll look at you you know they'll look at you with your with your wife with your husband and your kids and your modest dress and you know you're righteous living and say that's evil you're trying to impose that upon me and you're trying to change the way we live here that's evil that's wicked that's old fashion but you know what the bible tells us that that's what the world's going to do and you can't allow yourself to try to make excuses for that either like well i can see why they say that you know i'm you know i get it though i don't get it i don't get it at all you know sometimes my my family and i will go out to a restaurant or something like that and or go you know to the grocery store or something and i have five kids i know that's not a lot compared to some of you guys in here you know but you know it's it's five kids and it's a sight to behold you know and it's it's five kids seven and under so it's just like all these little people you know and so often what people do is we'll walk to certain places and they'll look at my kids and they'll kind of count and literally they will count someone some people have even counted out loud they'll go one two one then they'll look at my wife and then they'll look at me you know obviously if looks can kill it's just like these people are like this poor woman typical mexican doing this to this woman that's what they're thinking yeah you it's like it's like yeah you would be a mexican wouldn't you i mean for sure that's what they're thinking you know what i mean because they look at my wife with such like compassion because they're thinking like this poor woman bore like five children and then they look at me and they're just like and you know you know they're probably thinking he probably makes her stay at home yeah i do he probably doesn't even let her work well no no she works at home yeah but she's just saying she's a keeper of the house she teaches my kids she's a keeper at home you know well what does she do at home well aside from everything then she's got my operation going she's cleaning she's cooking she's keeping my operation going she's keeping me happy because she's my help me and the world was looking at said that's evil no the bible says that that's good this is good and acceptable in the sight of god for that to take place he said well you know i really think you should give her a choice yeah i give her a choice laundry or dishes first which one you want and sometimes when we have kids i give her a choice what do you want to name them but sometimes i don't i'm like i'm i'm naming your child you know i give her choices amen you know you you pick what chores you want to do first i mean come on i'm a very gracious boss amen you say oh you're just a male chauvinist oh you sound like someone who's in the world who's speaking evil of the ways of god because you know from what the bible says is a man is supposed to provide for his household and the woman's supposed to be a keeper at home to raise the children guide the house and not be given over to just feminism and the evils of this world that tries to pervert and break up the biblical home amen that's god's will and you know what you say well you know i just think sarah should just really be out there you know doing her thing or whatever she is doing her thing it's just inside the house she's doing her thing and you know what you have a conversation with my wife she's happy with what she's doing it's these liberal feminist blue-haired freaks out there they try to make themselves portray as though they're happy but they're actually miserable you know i don't buy into these videos this is supposed to be a nice sermon but hey we're talking about god's will is being good amen i don't buy into these videos of these women you know they're in like their 40s or whatever and they're like no children no husband and i'm super happy then why are you making a video about it why are you making a video you know most people do videos like that because they're overcompensating because they're trying to convince themselves but really they're weird cat ladies is what they are i know we got cat lovers in here but hey the truth hurts sometimes god's will you know obviously it's not god's will for everyone to get married and some people are content being at home or excuse me being alone and not marrying and just serving god and they're content with that and amen to that okay but the majority of people are meant to get married okay and you know what when you get married this is the biblical model is the man goes to work he puts bread on the table he pays the bills he guides his wife and the wife guides the home that's just how it works that is the biblical model and you say well how are we supposed to live in california that way well how about you just don't buy a bunch of toys that's a good way to do it you know how about the man puts away the xbox and the video games that's a couple hundred bucks right there and i don't know what women buy you know whatever you know stop making so many amazon prime purchases and you'll be good to go amen and you know i'm never going to be able to convince the world that this is the right way to do things i'm just reinforcing to myself and to our church what the bible says and i don't want the world to ever convince my children my wife and the members of my church that what we're doing is evil it's so bitter it's wrong no it's good it's good inside of the lord the will of god is good but you know what i don't expect you to know that if you don't read the bible i don't expect you to know that if your number one priority is not to serve the lord jesus christ but if you're serving god you're reading the bible you view what i have you view what the men in our church have and say i want that that's good the bible says in ezekiel 18 25 you don't have to turn there but go to proverbs 26 if you would proverbs 26 i'm going to read to you from ezekiel 18 25 you can write that passage down and read it later i'm going to quote it to you ezekiel 18 25 says yet you say the way of the lord is not equal here now oh house of israel is not my way equal are not your ways unequal so he's basically saying you know the children of israel are looking at the judgments of god and saying that's not fair it's not fair it's unequal and god is saying of course i'm fair you know look folks to a certain extent to a certain degree god isn't fair actually if you think about it because if he was fair we'd just all be in hell fact if you want to say god's unfair i agree to a certain extent because what we deserve is hell fire and no mercy no grace that's what we deserve and so he's given us abundantly above all that we can ask or think the bible tells us and so when people look at guys oh that's that's unequal he's like i'm equal you're unequal you're the one who is involved in abominable things and idolatry after all the goodness that god has poured upon the nation of israel they turn their back on god they're serving false gods they're supposed to be the nation from which salvation comes from unto them were committed to the oracles of god and yet they're serving false gods that's unequal but you know what you know people today will do the same they'll look at churches like ours beliefs like ours what the bible says and say well that's not fair it's not fair that you're making your wife stay at home it's not fair they you know your children should be in the public schools and you know if your kids are in public schools god bless you but obviously the biblical stance is homeschool well you should let them go to a public school so they can why so they can what want to be you know so the boys can want to be girls and the girls want to be boys so they can you know become gay communists is that what i want that's unequal well you should you know they're not going to have a social life yeah i really want my son to go to a public school so they he can dye his hair blue you know and want to be castrated i mean it's nonsense my friends that's unequal but the world's like no the way you're doing it is unequal no my son is getting homeschooled in fact he has one teacher all to himself all to himself teaching him and you know some moms they get kind of overwhelmed with that and they think well you know that's just hard that's a lot it's okay you just need a little more than your p-body you know so just be a little bit ahead of them okay but you know i don't expect a world who hates the lord jesus christ or doesn't ascribe to biblical teachings to understand how equal god is you say why well because look at proverbs 26 verse 7 the legs of the lame are not equal so is a parable in the mouth of fools you put a verse in the mouth of these god-hating reprobates they might as well just be spiritually handicapped they're not equal they're disabled they can't tell you what the bible says they can't interpret the word of god for you and they will not appreciate the blessings and the unsearchable riches of christ of the word of god because they're already unequal themselves they're unrighteous what am i saying the point that i'm making here is don't allow yourself to be pressured or to capitulate to the criticisms of this world or other christians who have already capitulated to this world trying to get you to tone it down a little bit trying to get you to not be as zealous trying to get you to change your belief systems oh you're just a little too radical you know you're just getting a little too overly zealous about your religion you're overly zealous about your beliefs and you know what this comes from not just the world but sometimes it could come from your own family let's just be honest everyone in here could attest to family members that they have and they might even be christians who look at us and it's just like that's just too much you know i i'm really happy that you're going down that you found the lord you know it's great that you found the lord and i'm just so happy about that but you know you worry me a little bit you just concern me a little bit because of your you just have some weird beliefs you know and it's just like you show them in the bible and they're just like i know it says that but and so the the response should be you have weird beliefs your beliefs are weird because you say you're a christian you know it's more embarrassing than an unsafe person some blue-haired liberal communist hating or criticizing the bible is when a christian said starts criticizing the bible yeah that's weird why because god's will is always good you should be able to read the bible and not flinch at anything and just rejoice in the testimonies of the lord that is always good and you think to yourself well you know i have read some passages that kind of bother me a little bit and you know it just kind of leaves me unsettled because it's just requiring like a certain standard that i should live by okay then ask god to to renew your mind and say lord i know this is right but i don't think it's right but it's because i've had bad philosophies vain deceits false doctrine and i need to change the way i think then you say well how do i know that i'm interpreting it right well if it says it plainly in the text you don't have to do a whole lot of interpretation the bible is not like an obscure just an entire book of obscurity some things are just clearly plainly stated in the bible and if someone just says well you're just taking that out of context you ask them well give me the context then first of all tell me where that verse is located in the bible if you're talking because if someone says you know you're taking out of context they must know what's the book chapter and verse that it's founded if it's in the old or new testament but if they can't even tell you that then they don't know what they're talking about folks the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of god neither can he know them for their spiritual discern but unfortunately you know some christians can act like natural people too and not know what the bible says the will of god is always good never be ashamed of the bible okay and obviously you know there could be instances where christians can get overly zealous and they just for the sake of controversy just want to tell like their family members like every controversial belief that they have you know obviously you got you should have some wisdom about yourself and not be obnoxious there's a lot of obnoxious christians out there you're just you're just looking for a fight let me just say this all that will live godly in christ jesus shall suffer persecution if you believe right you do right you don't have to say anything the trouble just comes to you okay but never be ashamed of the bible when people speak evil of that way don't capitulate to the pressures of this world to make you think well you guys are just like a minority group the majority of christians believe this well that makes me think that i'm in the right group then because don't follow a multitude to do evil and the bible tells us that there are few that find the right way you understand and so you know if the majority of christians out there and let me just say this when people say the majority of christians just know this they're adding catholics to that so i you know case closed when they say the majority of christians are referring to the majority of unsaved people who claim or ascribe to christianity so i don't ascribe to that because you know i got people telling me all the time well you know you have all these people out here that believe in it and i'm just like so what they're all wrong next question so what you know jesus had 12 disciples who followed him and he's god he didn't have like he didn't have multitudes and multitudes following him for the for the entire length of his ministry and in fact a lot of his disciples forsook him because he couldn't handle the truth so numbers doesn't necessarily equal what is right you understand and you never want to fall into this trap that just because all christians are doing it all christians believe it all christians ascribe to it that somehow that makes it permissible or right because people tell me oh you're going to tell me that you know you're right and 1.5 billion catholics are wrong yes correct i know more than those 1.5 billion catholics correct why because the will of god is good and if they don't believe what the bible says then you have no credibility with me i don't care how many disciplines you have how much of the eucharist you take how many masses you go to i don't care the length of the dress on your priest how many followers they got or whatever it is it means nothing to me it means dung is what it means go back to roman chapter 12 so when you're living a life of sacrifice unto the lord you are reading the bible you begin to see the world through a different lens you start realizing man god is good the will of god is good being in church on sunday is good reading my bible is good hard preaching is good abstaining from fornication is good faithfulness in marriage is good serving god is good you know being a blessing to others is good loving the things that god loves and hating the things that god hates is good that's the conclusion you come to but it's not only good the bible also says that it's acceptable the bible tells us in roman chapter 12 in verse number two again it says be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of god now what is that referring to when it says that it's acceptable well look at romans 11 if you would romans 11 we're going to work our way backwards a little bit here romans 11 go to verse 33 verse 33 says oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of god how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out for who hath known the mind of the lord who hath been his counselor who hath first given to him and it shall be recompense to him again for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever amen now verse number one of romans 12 i beseech you therefore brethren listen to this by the mercies of god so everything that he's saying up until this point or after this he's saying do it because god has been merciful to you right and of course in romans 11 he says you know that his wisdom the depth of his wisdom and knowledge their past finding out who hath first given to him and it should be recommended to him again verse 1 of romans 12 says that when we do these things that at the latter and it says it's our reasonable service so what does it mean when the when the will of god is acceptable means it's reasonable you know when god asks us to serve him commands us to serve him he's not given us some crazy task to do and in fact to you it should be reasonable why because he's been merciful to you it's not like oh man so i gotta serve you now does this mean i gotta go to church every sunday it's reasonable folks the things that god asks of us to do it's acceptable it's not like oh man he's he says that we all gotta climb mount everest that's unreasonable that's unacceptable so you know what you said what does he have what does he require of me well you know let's just be practical and coming to church is one of them and i'm obviously looking at a group of people that realize that coming to church is reasonable it's not a chore and in fact it's not even that hard you say well you know it's hard for me and you know i have to drive no the car drove you rode in the car you told the car where to go you exercise your achilles to press down on the gas to come and i get it you know some people drive i mean i think the furthest is like three hours are you guys three hours or two and a half four oh three okay three hours but you know what even then you know the car the car is the one who's getting them here but you know you say and let me just say this they go to they come to all three services so obviously it's acceptable to them it's like well that's just reasonable but folks sometimes you have christians who live like right around the corner they live like right around the corner and it just seems unreasonable to come back on a sunday night or something like that but you know what that's a person who obviously is not reading the bible they're not living the life and i'm not saying that you can't serve god if you only go to one service okay so don't misunderstand what i'm saying what i'm telling you right now obviously you could serve god if you come to one service obviously but hold on a second i thought we're supposed to like you know go the second mile isn't that a principle in the bible and why would we want to go to church less isn't that what the liberals do aren't liberal church is all about going to church less just have one service you know and you know don't don't pressure people and you know just one big service or whatever a 15-20 minute sermon sermonette or whatever and that's it folks it's reasonable and you know what fundamental baptists in general have just had three services and we don't even have sunday school classes so it's reasonable amen hey when god says to read the bible that's reasonable that's not hard he's like well you know i just never read like a book before and i'm not accustomed to reading you've read enough facebook and twitter and instagram posts to make up an entire bible what are you talking about you've watched enough reels to make up both old and new testament and commentaries on top of that let's just be honest it's reasonable for god to command you to read the bible and thankfully he doesn't say read the bible by tomorrow he just says read all the days of your life you know god commands us to love him with all our heart soul mind and strength that's reasonable and he said well why you say it's accepted why are you saying it's reasonable by the mercies of god you know the apostle paul is essentially saying you know god's been so good to you he's been so gracious to you he's been merciful to you he gave you salvation and thankfully you know god doesn't promote a workspace salvation and so if you choose not to serve god if you choose not to go to church if you choose not to read the bible if you choose not to go so and if you choose not to do anything with your christian life you are still saved and you know what that tells me serving god is acceptable for sure then it's reasonable because he doesn't even he doesn't even do anything to my salvation if i don't do those things he just commanded me to do it because guess what he wants to reward you he's telling you though if you do these things uh i'll bless you in your current state your current condition i will improve your quality of life now and i got a fat paycheck waiting for you when you get to heaven but some Christians are like well that's just unreasonable though no it's not that's like more than what we deserve and so don't allow people christians other people tell you oh you're just doing too much no i'm doing what is reasonable you go sowing on sundays you go sowing throughout the week you go to church on bios yeah because it's reasonable i'm getting paid for this i mean not like at the moment but you know in in the millennial reign you do get paid for this god blesses a family now god blesses a man now he blesses a woman now for the labors that they put in this side of eternity the bible tells us be not deceived god is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap the bible tells us that let us not be weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not what is it telling us it's reasonable you know it's reasonable to give the gospel to other people to get them saved it's reasonable to raise your family for christ oh man but you know to raise my kids and lead my wife and nurture in the admonition of the lord and that just sounds like a whole you're just asking a whole lot oh i'm sorry that god wants to bless your marriage i'm not sorry but you know it's just like oh you you say we should have like a biblical home that's just a lot of work yeah but it's reasonable though god's not trying to impose something upon you that is to your detriment he's not trying to make your life a living hell he's not trying to make you a miserable christian he's actually trying to like make you happy because when you serve god you actually the result of that is happiness and i'm not saying that's the end all for man i'm just saying the natural byproduct of serving god is happiness i'm happy i know i look mad when i'm up here sometimes but believe it or not i'm still happy even when i'm mad go to first john chapter five if you would first john chapter five now why why is that point important about the will of god being acceptable you know because there's a lot of christians out there that want to do the least amount as possible and they look at us and they look at us as like being like oh you guys are just legalists you know you guys are just legalists look at your services with your ties and your suits well look at you with your skinny jeans your your caesar borgia haircut look at first john chapter five verse three for this is the love of god that we keep his commandments listen to this and his commandments are not grievous you know what that means when we keep god's commandments it's acceptable it's joyous it rejoices our heart don't we gotta sing the hymns i mean seriously can we you know now we're like in 2024 we should you know bring some other type of music oh you mean you mean the faculty ccm is what you're talking about that's is that just that's what you're talking about that's unreasonable you say why because it's unreasonable to sing the same chorus seven times we sing choruses like three times with verses in between in order to provide structure to a song but to sing one verse seven to nine times is unreasonable we heard it the first time and it's even more unreasonable when you realize how shallow those verses are or choruses are here i am to worship here i am to worship here i am to work no you're not you're being a hypocrite when are you going to bring him the smoke and purple lights that would be unreasonable why are we going to bring purple lights if that's like a rock concert this is god's house and why are we going to bring smoke if you won't be able to see me this is like it's unreasonable you know it's reasonable tearing down that wall is reasonable so why because we got to make more space amen because the house of god is growing oh man he's here we're just we're gonna we're gonna invest all that money into that wall yeah i'm sorry take a little bit of money from your uh xbox account your video games just take you know take a couple hundred bucks you spend on a sword that's not even real take a couple like i don't know the least amount you spend on your video games i don't know like 500 bucks or something like that and invest it into actually something that's worthwhile something that's reasonable something that is acceptable you know and that's an important point because i'm sure people are like oh man an offering we gotta take don't we take enough offering no we don't we just literally take one offering every service and it's not like hey i need an offering because i'm going on vacation i'm looking to buy a jet soon for the glory of god of course for missions of course you know it's a reasonable request because the church is growing but people will think that that's unreasonable because of the fact that they're not conformed to the the mind of christ that realizes that teaches us that ministries grow ministries grow we need more space and i know you don't like sitting next to that person you're sitting next next to right now yes even some of you couples uh no i'm just kidding you know we need space and so we need to grow what i'm saying is this is that the will of god is acceptable don't see it as grievous don't see it as a chore don't see coming to church and singing the hymns and going to prayer meeting and you know going soul winning and being a part of the activities of the church and being blessed in others as a grief it's not a grief it's reasonable it's acceptable and you know what if all those things were taken away from you if your health was completely destroyed and you couldn't even get out of your house you would miss you wouldn't you would beg god that you can make it to at least one prayer meeting you would beg god that you can make it to at least one service if your voice box was destroyed today you would beg god in a year span that you wish you can sing a hymn you don't know what you got until it's gone amen if you were just left as like a as a vegetable you couldn't move you couldn't speak you couldn't even preach the gospel you would beg god to at least be able to preach the gospel to one person why because at the end of the day you would realize that it was just a reasonable thing it's acceptable in the sight of god and it is and so you know as you live your christian life realize you know if you ever get this attitude like oh man you're you know you need to kind of step back a little bit and say you know what what i'm doing is acceptable you know if you're complaining about your husband and oh man i gotta do all these things for my husband you know it's reasonable what you have to do for your husband it's acceptable actually you got a husband how about that got yourself a husband that provides for you that loves you he's not perfect you know and he's doing everything he can you know it's reasonable for you to do those things it's acceptable in the sight of god oh man my wife she's just not on board all the time and she just struggles or whatever just kind of annoyed i wish i would have just you know been in a different relationship i wish i would have made better choices before no what you have is acceptable it's reasonable to love your wife as christ also love the church that's reasonable that's acceptable in the sight of god it's the acceptable will of god and in fact it's far beyond what we deserve first sam you don't have to turn to 1224 says only fear the lord serve him in truth with all your heart for consider how great things he had done for you consider that every once in a while we all just need to step back a little bit and just think just think about what you got oh man the wall's coming down we gotta pay all this money at least you got a church at least you got a growing church from what i remember everyone was praying for a new ip church in this area not only do you have a fundamental baptist church to go to you got a new ip church to go to praise god oh man we gotta go like go solely and preach the gospel yeah and you know you get to be rewarded for it and you know at least you know how to go so at least you're in a church where they teach you how to go so oh man i gotta go fellowship after church and talk to people and be a blessing to people yeah hey hey at least you have people here that like you there's people here that want to talk to you and like they think you're okay you know at least you have a church family you know there's a lot of people out there that don't have church families there's people in other countries they don't have fundamental baptist churches they don't have new ip churches they don't have anything they got like a lutheran church with a woman pastor or something i mean that sucks they got like a roman it's like where do i go the roman catholic church where the dude dresses like a like a woman or go to a lutheran church where a woman dresses like a woman but thinks she's a man it's like they have zero options at least you got a church at least you got somewhere people to talk to you at least you have people to fellowship with at least you have people that love you take advantage of it it's reasonable it's acceptable inside of god and then lastly the will of god is perfect now what does it mean by perfect when it says that you may prove what is that good acceptable and perfect will of god it means it's complete it's not just one-sided and people need to understand that when it comes to serving god or fulfilling the will of god it's not just sowing it's serving your husband it's serving your wife it's serving your children serving your church it's well it's a well-rounded will of god and it's important for us to master certain things to a certain degree you know preaching the gospel reading our bibles but at the end of the day we need to view the will of god as being perfect entire meaning we serve god in at in all facets of life meaning that you know what you're just not a christian when you come to church you're supposed to be a christian when you go to work too like behave as a christian when you go to work too have a good testimony when you go to work why because the will of god is perfect it's entire you know when the bible says that the will of god is perfect you know serve the lord with your spouse talk to your spouse about the word of god talk to your children about the bible talk to strangers about the word of god realize that the presence of god is in all places at all times and he's beholding the good and the bad the good and the evil the will of god is perfect its entire we should not want to compartmentalize god and think well i'm gonna put my best foot forward when i'm around other christians but when i'm outside of these walls you know it's just you switch take off the hat or something like that put on the new hat you know it reminds me of like um how many guys ever watch the andy griffith show okay we got a couple christians in here all right good so you know there's this one you know it's a he's a sheriff of a small town called mayberry okay and you know he gives this speeding ticket to this woman and she's just like i'm not gonna pay it i want to see your judge and he's like well you know you can go see the judge if you'd like she's like yeah go take me to the judge so they go to the courthouse he sits down and you know she's like let me see the judge and he's like all right he grabs his sign he turns it around he says justice of the peace you know he just like switches it around or something like that but you know what in a spiritual sense sometimes christians do that where it's just like christian at first works baptist church worldly person at my job christian at first works baptist church you know just carnal when i'm around my friends you just switch that over but folks that's not god's perfect will for your life god's perfect will is that you're just a christian all the time stop being ashamed of the bible when you're around your family you know you go to a party let me just say this you go to a party of your family and they have beer you know you should just leave why because you're a christian that's why well you know if i leave it's gonna offend some people yeah christianity offends people sometimes what kind of example are you setting forth for your family what kind of convictions do you have as a christian when you just tolerate the presence of sin you wouldn't tolerate beer here so why should you tolerate anywhere else right and obviously i'm referring to you're at some get together and they start pulling out the beers they start pulling out the worldly music and all the worldly activities folks are you a christian or you're not a christian well i you know i i see it i just don't drink it so do you fellowship with other people who are drinking though i mean folks we're supposed to be god's chosen people and i'm not saying to be a holier than now i'm not saying you should be a person who just looks down on people but there is there is this you know principle of separation the bible talks about and here's the thing folks is that in my experience the way you can avoid being around people like that is make friends with people who aren't like that like if your closest friends are just drunkards and weed smokers and just worldly carnal people people who are not saved or just worldly people worldly christians that don't go to church you know you probably should find yourself some some better friends i know okay now it's getting quiet so now i gotta spend more time on this if the only people you hang around with the most are people who are just godless don't esteem the bible and obviously when we're at work we just have to be around certain people right but the bible already tells us gives us that caveat by the way okay but if you willingly though go to places where they're serving alcohol people are drinking before you they are mocking the things of god or principles of god you know what you're being a bad testimony especially if they know you're a christian you know worldly people are always trying to get christians to just compromise on their convictions just little by little and if you're the christian is just you have no problem sitting at a table with other people that are knocking some beers or whatever they've already got you in that point i'm sure a lot of them are just like see he's not really serious about the things of god and you know what that leads to you picking up a beer yourself and eventually drinking yourself that's how it always works be a christian in all places why are you saying i gotta walk around with a shirt and a tie everywhere i go no but you know what you do have to be an ambassador for christ everywhere you go though you do realize you're a representative of the lord jesus christ everywhere you do realize you're an ambassador for christ on the freeway right so no flipping people off when they cut you off you know and you know no you know just reviling them out loud to them that they can hear you okay if you feel like you got to kind of do it on your own roll up the windows at least or something get it out of your system i'm just saying be conscious of the fact that the will of god is perfect you serve god in all places do not compartmentalize god and this is why it's important to have not just a prayer time but a prayer life because we have a prayer life you pray all places at all times and i'm not saying you get on your knees just anywhere you just pray into the lord in all places you understand what i'm saying the point that i'm making this morning is the fact that god's will is good don't let people speak evil of it don't capitulate to the narrative that people promote when it comes to god's will but it's not only good it's also acceptable don't allow the commandments of god to be grievous unto you and look for the for you new christians out there right now the will of god is just honey it's like t-bone steak it is delicious it's gracious but let me just warn you okay let me just warn you about something because it will happen it happens to all of us the newness does wear off it does wear off you're gonna get bored with my sermons i'm glad no one said amen everyone's all that was good that was good i i saw some of you kind of you will get bored with the things of god sometimes it will become a chore sometimes it can be grievous sometimes so don't have this unrealistic expectation that it's just always going to be roses and daisies from here on out but let me just say this if you do it right though if you do it right it's roses and daisies the majority of the time well how so i've been here for going on 18 years i'm still excited about the things of god i'm still on fire for god i still the love lord the lord jesus christ i'm still zealous for the things of god and you know what i still rejoice in the word of god when i read it it still burns in my heart i still love souls i love my church i'm still excited about the things of god but that's because i'm constantly renewing my mind making sure that i'm conforming it so that i always view the will of god as being good acceptable and perfect let's pray father we thank you so much for your will we're thankful for your word that displays your will for us lord help us as your people to continuously renew our minds lord that we may not fall into the pitfalls of the philosophies the vain deceits the rudiments of this world that seek to undermine the bible water down the principles of the word of god and help us and they try to get us to become lukewarm lord uh help us to keep our guard up lord and lord some of us in here just need to pray for sometimes we just need to pray for zeal just pray lord make me a zealous christian again help me to be zealous for the things of god not to be uh apathetic towards the service to the lord towards the bible help me to love the lord jesus christ with all my heart soul mind and strength and i pray lord that you'd help us to be a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto you and that we would not conform to this world but that we would continuously renew our minds that we can prove these things throughout our christian life we love you we thank you pray these things in jesus name amen please turn your song books to song number 145 song number 145 it is well with my soul