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

Oh, say, but I'm glad. Oh, say, but I'm glad. I'm glad. Oh, say, but I'm glad. Jesus has come and my cup's overrun. Oh, say, but I'm glad. 206 on the second. Wonderful, marvelous love he brings into a heart that's sad. Through darkest tunnels the soul just sings. Oh, say, but I'm glad. Oh, say, but I'm glad. I'm glad. Oh, say, but I'm glad. Jesus has come and my cup's overrun. Oh, say, but I'm glad. We have a fellowship rich and sweet, tongues can never relay. Abiding in him the souls retreat. Oh, say, but I'm glad. Oh, say, but I'm glad. I'm glad. Oh, say, but I'm glad. Jesus has come and my cup's overrun. Oh, say, but I'm glad. Won't you come to him with all your care? Weary and worn and sad. You too will sing as his love you share. Oh, say, but I'm glad. Oh, say, but I'm glad. I'm glad. Oh, say, but I'm glad. Jesus has come and my cup's overrun. Oh, say, but I'm glad. Great singing. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and thank you for the opportunity to be gathered together as a church and to praise you and to hear God's word preached. Pray that we never take it for granted and pray that you'd bless every aspect of this service. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, let's go to our second song. 228, I love to tell the story. 228, I love to tell the story. 228, I love to tell the story. I love to tell the story of unseen things above. Of Jesus and his glory. Of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story because I notice true. It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do. I love to tell the story. It will be my theme and glory to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story, more wonderful it seems than all the golden fancies of all our golden dreams. I love to tell the story. It did so much for me. And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee. I love to tell the story. It will be my theme and glory to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story. It is pleasant to repeat. What seems each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet. I love to tell the story. For some have never heard the message of salvation from God's own Holy Word. I love to tell the story. It will be my theme and glory to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story. For those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest. In scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song. It will be the old, old story that I have loved so long. I love to tell the story. It will be my theme and glory to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. Good morning. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you don't already have a bulletin, you can lift up your hand nice and high and one of our ushers would love to get you a bulletin. There on the front, we have our Bible memory passage, John 1, verse 41. Any child able to quote that Wednesday can receive a special ice cream treat after the service. Also, we have our service times. Take note, we do have a Spanish service on Sundays at 4.30. It is definitely a blessing to put that information out there online and try to encourage people to come to the Spanish service if they primarily or prefer Spanish. Also, we have our soul winning times. The regional soul winning times meet in different parts of the city and we have a special soul winning time on the last Saturday of the month. We try to do a bigger push. We had one yesterday and who participated yesterday in the Saturday? Yeah, we had lots of people participate. I think you had 19 salvations for the day and so that was definitely a big blessing to go out there and have you guys come and join us for some extra soul winning. Also, the final Sunday of every Sunday, we're having a special thing. It's the Sunday Sundays for soul winners and that is today. So, you just have to show up right after the soul winning time and we won't even check if you went soul winning but God will know, okay? And that water could be turned into bitter water, you know what I mean? But we would love for you to participate in the soul winning with us this afternoon and come back and we're gonna have some Sundays and excited about that as well. Also, we have our church stats. We have on the right the list of our expecting ladies. We also have a prayer list. If you have any additional prayer requests you'd like for the church to be in prayer with you for, please email those or you could fill out a communication card, slip it into the offering plate. Communication cards, the ushers have those so if you need one, just ask one of the ushers. We have our upcoming events, the Shreveport Louisiana Soul Winning Marathon, also September 24th and so that's gonna be definitely something you want to participate in if you can just because it's a very receptive area. So, you know, sometimes we do soul winning marathons in all manner of area. We've gone to different places. I think the most recent one was Austin that we went to and it was weird. So, we were trying to make it more normal though, okay? And so, you know, obviously I think you should go everywhere to go soul winning but if you just really like going through receptive areas and seeing a lot of people saved, Shreveport is definitely a great one to try and go to. If you're a new soul winner, it's also a good one to go to because you'll just get to see a little more action, get to practice a little bit more, see more people, how they present the gospel and so I definitely highly encourage that kind of a trip. Also, September is probably one of the best times of the year in this part of the country. Fall is usually one of the nicer times. So, I think it's just, it's a jackpot winner, okay? And they have casinos there but we're not gonna go but I am saying, you know, hey, Shreveport Louisiana, it's a different kind of jackpot winner, right? And I think that's all I have for now. So, I do have one private announcement I want to make real quick. Again, that's 202, my redeemer. I will sing of my redeemer and his wondrous love to me. On the cruel cross he suffered from the curse to set me free. Sing O sing of my redeemer. With his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free. I will tell the wondrous story how my loss to stay to save. In his boundless love and mercy he the ransom freely gave. Sing O sing of my redeemer. On the cross he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free. I will praise my dear redeemer, his triumphant power I'll tell. How the victory he giveth over sin and death in hell. Sing O sing of my redeemer. With his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free. I will sing of my redeemer and his heavenly love to me. He from death to life hath bought me, son of God with him to be. Sing O sing of my redeemer. With his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free. There was a man in the land of us, whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels and five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she-asses and a very great household, so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. And his sons went and feasted in their houses every one his day and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and eschewish the evil? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, doth Job fear God for not? Hast not thou made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, behold all that he hath is in thy power. Only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And there came a messenger unto Job and said, the oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them. And the Sabians fell upon them and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, the fire of God has fallen from heaven and hath burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, the Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels and have carried them away. Yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young men and they are dead and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshiped and said, naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly. Let's fire our heads for a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you so much Lord for our church, for our pastor, for the congregation here and I just pray that you would fill the man of God with your spirit now and give him clarity of mind as he preaches to us. Help us to apply the message, Lord, so we can be more complete Christians and we love you. In Jesus name I pray, Amen. Amen. Amen. We're here in Job chapter one and look at verse number five again. The Bible says, and it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sinned and sanctified them, rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts, thus did Job continually. So in the book of Job, we see that Job is an upright man, one that feareth God and a shoe is evil as the Bible describes him. And one of the incredible things about Job is how he's not only concerned about himself, but actually he's concerned with his entire family and is such an extremity that he's willing to offer sacrifices for his own children every single day so as to not allow any evil to come upon his children. And it's very sad to think about probably the only person ever in the Bible, I mean maybe even in history, to offer a daily sacrifice for every single one of his children ends up losing his children. Isn't that incredible to think about? But the Lord gives him another 10 children and you know that's just how it is. That also tells me that it doesn't matter if you're literally the most righteous person on the planet and you do everything right, bad things could still happen to you. You could still even lose your child even if you absolutely did every single, I mean could you really find fault with Job here and what he did if he's offering a sacrifice for his children every single day just on their behalf? And I'm sure that Job instructed them well and loved them and taught them well. And also this tells me another thing about Job and his children is that even if you are raised in a godly Christian home, even if you have one of the greatest parents arguably in the Bible, that does not mean that you are absent from the idea or it's impossible for you to get to a place where you're cursing God in your heart. Because why would Job have such a worry or concern about this if it's just impossible for a godly Christian or for a child raised in a Christian home to end up cursing God in their heart? It's because it's a very real situation. It's a reality that could happen to any one of us at any point in time that we're cursing God in our heart. And in fact that's the title of the sermon this morning is Cursing God in Your Heart. Cursing God in Your Heart. And when you really kind of just think about Job, this book of the Bible, it's all about cursing God. Now let me point out a few more verses here. We're not going to read Job that much but I want to point out these verses. Look at verse 11. The Bible says, But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. Now this is the devil speaking to the Lord and Satan is trying to convince the Lord to hurt Job, do evil unto Job so as to cause Job to curse God. And really the whole book is dedicated to this one idea, this one thought of will Job curse God or not? Is Job going to curse the Lord or is he going to continue trusting the Lord no matter what happens to him? That is the whole setup, that is the whole essence of this book and what's constantly being described. And the devil's goal is to cause man to curse God. Why? Well, frankly speaking, the devil himself has cursed God, the devil has cursed the Lord in his heart, the devil is very wicked and people that do wickedness or the people that curse God, they don't want to do it alone, they want to encourage others to curse God with them. And so it gives more joy and pleasure to the devil to see more people turn on God, curse God in their hearts, rebel against the Lord, he doesn't want to be alone in that evil. And so he looks at Job and God's basically contrasting Job with other people. Like God's bringing up Job and saying, hey this guy's awesome, this guy's the best guy, have you considered my servant Job? And you know that just, he's just like rubbing it in the devil's face. He's like, hey remember Job? Because from the devil's perspective, the devil wants to just basically say no one can be perfect or no one's right or we're all bad and just come join me because God's this evil dictator and he's causing us to just be punished even though we can't help it and we're just evil by nature or something like that. He just wants everyone to basically have the same idea that God's bad or God's unfair or God's not righteous or just all these accusations that the devil would lay against the Lord. But then Job is the antithesis of that saying, hey the Lord's always right, the Lord is holy, the Lord no matter what he does to me I'm gonna trust him, I'm gonna believe in him, I'm gonna bless the Lord all the days of my life, it doesn't matter. Whereas it's funny because the devil, we don't have it recorded in scripture that God tested the devil or caused any evil to come upon the devil. The devil essentially rebelled even though he had no good reason. I mean he's the anointed cherub that covereth, he's walking into the garden of Eden, he's the most beautiful creation as described by God, he literally has instruments built into his own body. The Bible just talks about him being literally like one of the greatest creations ever and then he's still rebelled and the devil has this idea, well you know what, the only reason Job is blessing the Lord is because you're doing good unto him. Now there's some validity to this statement, there's some validity to this concept. While someone's doing good unto you or while someone's blessing you or helping you out, it's hard to want to bite the hand that feeds. It's hard to essentially want to go against the grain. It's hard to kick against the pricks. It's hard for anybody to have a bad feeling or a bad attitude towards someone that's constantly doing good unto them because obviously you would just think that's great, you think that's wonderful. I mean even the publicans, even the gentiles, they return blessing for blessing, right, as the Bible describes and so it's a very natural thing to be pleased with someone no matter what good happens to you. But if someone perhaps challenges you, rebukes you, punishes you, anything negative, that's where you really get tested as far as your feelings towards that individual, your feelings towards that particular person. And so the devil is suggesting to God, well here's the thing, if you lay your hand against Job, if you don't allow everything to work out in his favor, if he's not just the richest guy with the most blessed guy that has it all, he's going to turn on you Lord because everyone would turn on you. But as we read the chapter, we read the book, we realize that's not true, okay. Look what it says in chapter 2 verse 5. So the devil tried initially to get Job to curse him by taking all of his money, children, and goods. So then he says in verse number 5, but put forth thine hand now and touch his bone in his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face. Notice that the devil keeps bringing up the same thing. What is it that the devil wants so bad? He just wants Job to curse God. And here's the thing, why is it that we're talking about Job? Because those that are closest to you hurt you the most, right. Whenever someone I've never met in my entire life, I'm walking by going to church just trying to serve the Lord instantly and they just scream the weirdest thing at me, it's just water of a duck's back. In fact, most of the time there's so much screaming, I can't even discern anything. So it's just like, it's like, I don't know what they said, right. Whereas if my wife said something really mean to me, oh man, that would hurt like a dagger. That would be like the knife and then being twisted. And of course your spouse probably even has the daggers. They actually know stuff that would really hurt. They could say the things that you would just be like, oh, that hurt, right. Because the people that are closest to you matter the most, right. And so for the devil, the devil obviously wants everyone to curse God and we get that. But you know what, when Marilyn Manson curses God and blasphemes God, it's not as big a deal as when a godly Christian blasphemes God. It's not as big a deal as getting Job to curse God. And so you have to realize that the devil is working harder to get you to curse God in your heart than he is the world. He's going to put more pressure, more affliction, more evil, more effort, more energy to get you to hate God in your heart than the wicked because he's already accomplished his goal with them. They're done. He's going to go after the most godly people, the ones that are closer to the Lord, the ones that are doing the most for God. Those are going to be his primary assault, is who he wants to really go after. So if you go to a godly church and you're serving God, you know what, sometimes some really nasty things will happen to you. People will lie about you and slander you and all kinds of evil. And you say, why? It's just the devil is trying to get you to curse God. He's trying to get that anger inside of you to be misplaced and for you to kind of get mad at church or the Bible or a pastor or a child of God or just ultimately God. You basically displace your anger into the wrong place because of something negative that's happening to you and trying to get you to curse God in your heart. Look at verse number nine. Now if the devil strikes out twice, he brings in the heavy guns, the wife. All right. Verse nine, then said his wife unto him, dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. Now look, that's intense. I mean, when your wife turns on you and to such an extremity, she's wanting you to die. I mean, this is really a lot of pressure put on Job. Job's lost his money, his goods. Not only that, he's in extreme physical pain and anybody knows when you're under extreme physical pain, you kind of almost will say or do anything. I mean, that's why people will torture people to get a confession because it's like, it doesn't matter what the accusation is. You just, you'll, what do I have to say for the pain to stop? And a lot of times that will happen where you didn't do the crime. You don't even care. It's just that the pain is just so bad that the brain, all I can think about is just saying whatever words it is to just make the pain stop. Just make the thing end. And we see this consistently in the Bible, even Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they have to worship a false God or what? Face the fiery furnace. So the body's screaming inside like, say it, just worship, just bow down, just do whatever you want. Like, it doesn't want to go into that fiery furnace. It could probably just kind of feel the heat a little bit from, you know, standing even anywhere near that thing. And it's like, I'm sure every hair on the back of their neck standing up, I'm sure. I mean, look, your flesh is not safe. So all of the tricks that your flesh can pull on you, it'll pull, you know, headaches, stress, sweating. I mean, even Jesus Christ's body was sweating as it were great drops of blood whenever he was in the Garden of Gethsemane praying. Why? Because the flesh wants to avoid pain at all costs. I mean, the flesh is terrified of any kind of pain or evil. Whereas we have to say the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. And I guarantee the people that are coming in this room, unless you're an infiltrator, I mean, all of you in here have a desire to serve God. All of you in your spirit, man, want to serve the Lord, but here's a problem. You still have a heart of flesh in there, and it's very deceitful. And as the Bible describes it, you could get to a point where even you might start cursing God in your heart. And we want to avoid this. Now, go if you would to Exodus 22, because I wanted to lay down a few foundational elements, and then we're going to kind of, I have a few points that I want to explain this morning. But Exodus chapter 22 is going to give us a little idea of what the word curse means. Now, curse is a little bit of a broad word. It has many applications. It's versatile. You can use curse in a lot of different ways as far as from a biblical context. And the way I kind of think about it is just sometimes using the word curse is kind of, you're talking about a future promise or a future desire, and then other times cursing could just be describing something. So in essence, I could curse someone in an idea of like, I hope evil comes upon you, right? I'm wishing evil upon you. But another way you could curse someone is that you're just simply speaking derogatorily about them. You hate them, and you're basically expressing your hatred or contempt. Now, obviously, both of those are pretty similar, because if you're wishing evil upon someone, it kind of shows you probably have hatred in your heart. But you could technically curse someone, and it's not that you're necessarily wishing evil in the future. You're just saying evil things about them. So you're describing something about them, or you're wishing some kind of evil upon them. This is kind of the way the word curse is used. Look at Exodus 22, and look at verse number 28. Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people. Now, I use this verse because it kind of shows what's happening in the heart, right? To curse is similar to hate, because in verse 28, it says that you should not revile. Revile means hatred. That's a very synonymous word with hate, disgust, contempt. And cursing would then be the consequence of that hatred. Now, I think that both apply here in verse 28. Number one, you shouldn't be wishing evil upon the ruler. Also, you shouldn't just be speaking ill of the ruler just to speak ill of the ruler, okay? Now, again, I think every verse in the Bible always has caveats, and we have to understand that, right? Of course, the Bible says to love your enemies. We realize God's enemies and reprobates always are exceptions to that rule, right? We're supposed to love the brethren. Well, they're not brethren, you know. Or there's certain things that the Bible says that we're supposed to pray without ceasing, or we're supposed to pray for the brethren, but then it'll say if they sin a sin, which is unto death, I do not say you should pray for it. So there's always the caveats in the Bible. Even this is caveated. I don't think a psychopathic reprobate leader is in this category where we just, I can't say anything negative about them or not wish any evil upon them. But here's the thing. A really bad leader, a really corrupt leader, but it's not a reprobate, I think this does apply. So I'll contrast it. I don't think that you should technically wish evil upon Donald Trump if he was our leader or our ruler, because I don't necessarily think that he's a reprobate. Now, he could be. Maybe I'm wrong. But I'm just saying, like, I don't know that it's identifiable. Maybe he is. I know there's been people that said he's, like, taking pictures of Jeffrey Epstein. Maybe he's been on the plane. There's some weird stuff. I don't know. Obviously, if he was, then okay. But I'm just saying, me personally, I don't know that that's necessarily true. He is the most prideful person virtually on the planet, so that's scary for him. And I don't think he's saved at all, for sure. But someone that's, like, an obvious open sodomite or pedophile, like Barack Obama or something like that, I mean, at that point, yeah, okay, I'm not going to wish good for that man. I'm going to wish evil upon him. You know, the whole reason why you're not going to wish evil is because you'd hope they get saved. You know, the Bible talks about honoring the king and things like that, and that's because you want the king to be saved. And sometimes even pretty bad kings were saved or got saved in the Bible, did some really evil things. And so it's not impossible for a ruler or leader to get saved. And especially if you apply this outside of the United States, there's a lot of kings or rulers or presidents in this world that are either possibly saved or could get saved. I mean, you look at some of these nations in Africa and some of these countries in the Caribbean and places in South America and other parts of the world, yeah, there's some rulers, there's some leaders that you could definitely argue maybe this person has a chance to get saved or could be influenced by the Bible, and we wouldn't want to ignore scripture here. Obviously, when we get to the end times, there's going to be 10 kings that, yeah, I'm not going to bless because they're going to give all their power to the Antichrist, okay? Those people are obviously accepted, but that's a very special, unique time in human history. And of course, there's been a lot of evil rulers. No one was blessing Pharaoh, okay? Nobody was arguing to do good or wish good upon Pharaoh. They sang songs at his death, you know, they were happy that he was being plagued and everything like that, okay? So we do have to understand these verses. The point of this verse, though, is that curse is to wish evil or to just speak evil. Go to Leviticus 24. I want to show you another mention of this. So when we talk about someone cursing God in their heart, what is it that we're really saying, though? I don't really think that the first application is that realistic. I don't think that very many people are wishing evil onto the Lord necessarily, but it's more the second application that I really believe that the Bible is describing. It's more of just people speaking evil of the Lord. And sometimes cursing is synonymous with blasphemy or blaspheming. To blaspheme or to commit blasphemy is to speak irreverently about something that is holy, sacred, or set apart. And since the Lord is holy, the Lord is set apart because the Lord is righteous, it would be blasphemy to say anything about God that would basically tear him down from the throne that he is established on. He's perfect. So if I say anything about God not being perfect, that's a form of blasphemy. If I try to tear God down and say, I don't think he has good ideas or I don't believe that he has the right advice or I don't think X, Y, and Z about God, which is contrary to Scripture, which is tearing him down from his holiness and his righteousness, that would be considered blasphemy. This also extends beyond God himself as a person into things like, obviously the Scripture is synonymous with this person, but the Scripture, but then even just things like church, things that are related to God's will and his works, soul winning, praising the Lord, any of these concepts, ideals, or things that we're supposed to do, people that are tearing them down, attacking them, speaking evil of them, are actually cursing God in their heart because that's a form of blasphemy. They're doing evil unto the Lord. And so we have to be careful about the thoughts that we have. We have to be careful about the desires of our heart, that we're constantly trying to renew our minds and we're trying to purify our hearts and clean up our actions so as to not basically be cursing God in our heart. And in Leviticus chapter 24, the Bible says in verse number 11, And the Israelite, his woman's son, blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed, and they brought him unto Moses, and his mother's name was Shilomith, the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. Notice how the Bible talks about a man who blasphemes the name of the Lord, and notice this and curse, so it's kind of used in a similar fashion at the same time. People that are saying evil of God or the things of God are cursing and blasphemy. That's kind of a synonymous thing. You could think of it this way. Haven't you read where Peter is described as having denied Christ as cursing? And then it'll say like he cursed saying, so then it'll like bring up what he said that was a curse. You know you won't find four-letter words. You also don't find him wishing evil upon God, do you? Do you see him saying like, oh man, I hope something bad happens to God or something bad happens to Jesus. No. What was the thing that he said? I know not the man. Okay, so what is that picture though? Wouldn't it be blasphemy to be a Christian and then deny to be a Christian, or to deny that you know Christ, or here's another thing just to deny who he is or any aspects of you, because it's not like Peter's ignorant. Peter knows that it's the Son of God. Peter knows that it's God. Isn't it blasphemy to just say you don't know God? I mean the Bible says the fool has said in his heart there is no God, right? So saying that he doesn't know Jesus is this interesting form of blasphemy that Peter is basically involved in, and it's described as him cursing, and really what he's doing is cursing God in his heart because he doesn't want to say that he knows God. And you know what? It could get to a point where a Christian in his life is embarrassed or ashamed to say that he knows God, ashamed to say he knows something in the Bible, anything about the things of God, or that he goes to a particular church, or that he sings a particular hymn, or that he dresses a particular way. It doesn't really matter, but essentially by being embarrassed or ashamed of the things of God is to curse God in your heart. Wow. And we see that Peter, if Peter could be guilty of it, if the children of Job could be guilty of it, how much more could we be guilty of it? Are we really going to sit here and say, I'm better than Peter and Job's children? I'm not. I'm not going to say that about myself. It's very presumptuous even if you were to suggest such a thing, so I think it's pretty real that we too could fall victim of this wicked sin. Now, the wicked often say this stuff. Go to Psalms 12. Go to Psalms 12. I already quoted for you how the atheists, and it's only in practice, it's not in reality. If there is no God, why do you even have to make such a statement? Why are you so concerned with things that don't exist? You know, I don't go around walking around all day just saying things that don't exist. There is no Flying Spaghetti Monster. There is no Zeus. You know, there is no brain in Biden's head. I mean, it's just like, I don't have to just say things that don't exist because I don't care about those things. They don't bother me. You know, it bothers the atheists that God exists, so he has to constantly talk about how he does it, right? Just to try and put him down, just to try and curse him, just to try and blaspheme him, just to try and get at him. He's just constantly saying these evil things, and this is consistent in your Bible where the wicked and the evil are cursing God, and it's coming from their heart. Doesn't the mouth speak whatever is in the heart? Out of abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh as the Bible describes it. Look at Psalms 12, verse 4. Who hath said, so this is the wicked, with our tongue will we prevail, our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? Isn't that a blasphemous thing to say? There's no God. There's no ruler. There's no judgment. There's no heaven. There's no hell. Oh, that's your favorite song. What if there was no heaven? You wicked evil blasphemer. I'm not going to sing that song. Imagine. Well, you're going to imagine that all the while you're in hell, buddy. Wicked disgusting faggot. But here's the thing. When it comes to the word of God, you know what? All of it's true. All of it's righteous. We have a Lord. We have a God. And you know what? The evil and the wicked want to constantly blaspheme God and curse God in their heart all day long. I mean, if you just look at secular music, it is just cursing God in their heart every second. I mean, all of the songs and all of the music, it's just laden with sin and rebellion and cursing and blasphemy. And they just want the whole world to just go with them and just sing filth and smut and just sit there and just curse God in their heart all day. And when I think about a heart, I really think about music because music is different than anything else. Music hits you to your core. It affects your whole being. It affects your mood. It affects everything about you. And when we talk about something in your heart, I mean, how about when we say sing with all your heart? What are we saying? We're saying what you really mean, what you really desire. And when people go and they basically have a tribute to anything, it's through what? Concert. I mean, what do people go to and they act different than any other venue? Isn't it a concert? I mean, they are using their voice as loud as they can. They are often animated with their body. I made it a concert. People are jumping up and down. They're screaming. They're waving. They're dancing. They're juking. They're driving. I mean, they're using their whole physical being to essentially worship some concept. But here's the thing. Most music, it's a worship of self. And it's a worship of sin and rebellion to God. And how do you think God feels to just look down from heaven and just see His creation just sitting here, just cursing God in their hearts over and over and over again, repeating that and doing that? You know what? That's a dangerous thing to let your kids just sit here and just curse God in their heart all day long. And I'm telling you, I'm not saying that all secular music is evil, but the vast majority of it is. The vast majority of it is just blaspheming God. It's just wickedness. It's just spreading filth and smut. And it'll change you as a person. Anybody can admit this. If you're a man and you put on some hardcore rock or some kind of music, you might start driving a little faster. You might take a couple turns a little bit differently, right? You're thinking, this is just riding with Pastor Shelley. He doesn't need music. Yeah, don't put on that kind of music with me in the car. No, I'm just kidding. I mean, I remember one of my family members, I would ride with them, and they listened to this kind of like the worst music, but boy does it cause you want to drive fast, I guess. He drove like a demon. I mean, it was intense. I remember especially living here because this person lives here and I would ride with them sometimes. And I kid you not, it seemed like the cars on the highway were standing still as we drove by them. But I thought about it and I was like, it is actually kind of true. Because isn't it when you're driving like 70 miles an hour down the highway, doesn't it seem like all the objects on the side of the road are standing still and you're just flying by them, right? So if they're driving 70 and you're driving 140, it actually feels the exact same way. I'm not recommending this, okay? No one tried this, but I'm telling you, it is an intense, scary feeling. Cars driving 70 look like they're standing still on the highway and you're just like, and it's just like, you think you're going to die? And I did, like a lot of times. Fortunately, I didn't actually die, okay? Praise the Lord. I had some guardian angels that were there or something. I don't know. But what I am saying is this, I don't want to just start cursing God in my heart because it changes my attitude, changes my affections when I listen to this type of music, when I'm singing it, when I'm meditating upon it, when I'm thinking about it. And that's what the devil's agenda is, is to just take a godly Christian, take one of your children and just start infecting their ears with John Lennon, just infecting their ears with the Beach Boys. What caused the 60s? It was the music. It was the Elvis Presley precursor, and then it was the Beach Boys, and it was just the Beatles. The Beatles are saying they're more famous than Jesus Christ. Oh, yeah, buddy? How about now? How you doing now? Not looking so hot. I wonder how many people who walked up and down these streets know Jesus over the Beatles. Or I said, hey, name all of the Beatles. They'd be like, I don't know. Have you heard of Jesus? Yes, everybody has. You know how many people I've walked up to and said, hey, have you heard about Jesus? Like, who's that? Never even heard that name. Sometimes they're literally named Jesus, okay? They're Hispanic. Jesus, right? I don't even know. Ringo Starr? I've never met someone named Ringo. Sounds like a loser queer anyways, okay? But you know what? If you look at history in the 60s and the 70s, I mean, our country just went to hell in a hand basket overnight. And it was through music, through concerts, through Woodstock, through the hippies, through the free love. Why? Because you just got a whole generation of people that started cursing God in their heart, and it just changed everything. And you know what? You look at other churches today, you look at other fundamental Baptist churches today, and what happens? The youth and the young people, they live a worldly life, they listen to the world's felt and the world's stuff, and you know what? They're cursing God in their heart, and as soon as they turn 18, they leave the church and never come back. I'm telling you, you know, you want your children to be a fundamentalist too? You can't just let them curse God all day in their hearts and then think that they're going to turn out like you. Now, sometimes it happens, and sometimes there's exception to the rule. A lot of us in this room are the exception to that rule. A lot of us overcame that evil. You know, we shouldn't just tempt fate and allow our children to go down that road and just do whatever they want. And really, what the devil appeals to is your pride. If you don't like what I'm saying this morning, if you don't like this church this morning, if you don't like hearing the Bible being read today this morning, let me tell you something about you. You are a prideful person. It is your pride that is causing you to do that. Why is it that the atheist is saying there's no God? Because he's a prideful punk. That's why. These people in Psalms chapter 12, what a bunch of prideful punks. Oh man, who's Lord over us? I mean, can you imagine walking into the job and your boss says, hey, why are you late? Who's the boss around here? Nobody's my boss. I'll do whatever I want. And he's like, he might just pick you up and throw you out. Have you talked that presumptuously to your boss? I mean, security, you know, they're going to come and pick you up and throw you out and show you who's the boss. You know, you don't go to surround. Gangs members wouldn't try this with their gang leader. Oh, who's the boss around here? It's like, they'll show you who the boss is, right? And you know what? God is no different. They'll go around saying who's the boss. We already know who the boss is. It's God. Period. I don't care who you are, where you're from, what you think. I don't care if you believe in God or not. He's your boss. I don't care if you believe in the CEO of your company or not. He's the boss. I don't care if you believe that your husband's the boss. He's the boss. Period. Who's the boss around here? Your husband. That's who. You know what? And the Bible is the boss in this room too. This is our, but it's like, who's the boss around here? Is it Pastor Shelley? No, it's this. I'm just here to try and do what this said. Okay. Just like in a company, most of you probably don't work with the CEO. You work with a manager. Okay. I'm not the CEO. This is the CEO here. All right. I'm just the manager. Okay. And if I'm out of line, you know, I have to basically answer the CEO too. We're all on the same team. We're all in the same program here. Okay. We do have authority and leadership, but at the end of the day, you know, the reason why people start cursing God in their heart is they're so prideful. They don't like the leadership. They don't like the leader. Look at Psalms chapter eight, flip back and look at Psalms chapter number eight. Look at verse one. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth who has set thy glory above the heavens out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained strength because of thine enemies that thou might is still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visits him. That is the right mentality. Look, the atheist has no excuse to deny the reality of God. I mean, to deny God is to deny the very reality that you're living in right now. It is to deny the eyes on your face. It is to deny the people in this room. It is to deny the oxygen that you're breathing. It is to deny the heart that is beating. It is to deny the brain in your head to even come up with stupid ideas. You know, the only reason you can have stupid ideas is because God gave you a brain and free will to think stupid things and to say stupid things. But you know what? To deny that God exists. I mean, where do you think this physical reality even came from? You idiot, you moron, to deny, hey, there's trees and creatures and beasts. And why would we sit here and think that if we exist, I mean, we realize we exist, we have consciousness to sit here and not realize that something more powerful created us? And how does it not just make perfect sense that if we're the apex of creation, which I think every prideful even atheist would agree with that. I mean, no one's looking at the dog thinking like you're in charge. No one's looking at the kangaroo and is like, he can jump pretty high. You know, man is obviously the supreme creation. Man is the last thing created. We understand that man's at the pinnacle. Why would we not think then that the God of the universe created us in his image? If God's going to create something, why wouldn't he create something that's like him or similar to him or going to have a relationship with him? I mean, just everything about logic, everything about reality, everything about truth. I mean, all the experiences you have right now are real. And you say, well, I just, I don't like God because I don't like hell. Okay, but can't you just at least admit that there's pain on earth? I think everybody says that there's pain, especially the people that don't like hell. And I'm thinking like, well, if there's pain now, what is leading to the concept that there might not be pain later? There's pain now. Well, I don't think that's fair. It doesn't matter what you think about God or who you even think God is. Do you not even realize that pain exists right now? So whatever caused pain to exist, why am I going to believe that pain might not exist in the future then? That's again, to deny the reality that pain exists. And then you say, well, what's the worst pain? How about fire? How about burning? And it's like, well, I just don't think there's hell, but people burn already. People have already suffered greatly already. What is to say that there is no suffering in the future? I mean, look, the atheist position is not one of just really ignorance. It's willful ignorance. The Bible doesn't say that it's just being dumb. It's being dumb on purpose because you're literally just denying everything. And why is it that people are cursing God? It's because they have pride in their hearts. They think that their creation would be better. Oh, well, if there was a God, then I would have created it this way. That's what they typically say. Oh, it doesn't make sense. Or the human body's flawed. We have to fix it, right? Men trying to become women. Women trying to become men. It used to be at one point mankind was so stupid they were trying to remove vestigial organs or what they would call leftovers from evolution, not realizing that there's nothing vestigial about your body. God didn't just give you a bunch of spare parts. You know, when you get that thing in the mail and you put it together and you have all these spare parts, you did something wrong. Because companies like money, they're not just like, you know what, just throw a couple extra bolts and nuts and screws, put an extra panel in here, just see what happens. They're like, they barely give you enough. In fact, it's typical, more typical that you don't have all the parts. Then you have these extra parts, right? They forgot to put a couple of extra screws in there, bolts or a panel or something like that, or a stripped version of it or a faulty version. They're not giving you just all these extra bonus parts or something. Okay. Or they, the atheist used to suggest mankind used to have a tail. No, we didn't. You're a weirdo. Okay. You're a pervert. Probably look at chapter 10 and look at verse number four. This is why they don't have the answers. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. Why is it that people are not coming to church? Because they're prideful. Why is it that people aren't reading the Bible? Because they're prideful. Why is it that people aren't following God's commandment? It's because they're prideful. Go to Romans one, go to Romans chapter number one. And when we think about cursing God in your heart, obviously the atheist is kind of our apex person. He's the person at the top. He is the epitome of cursing God in your heart. And the Bible describes him as a fool. It also says in Romans one, similarly, it says in verse 22, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Now, where is this cursing coming from? It's when the word of God is presented to you and you think you have a better idea. You think you're smarter than God. You think you are more wise than the Lord. You have better ideas, better rules, better concepts. I mean, what caused Eve to fall is the desire to be wise. She thought that the eating of this fruit on the tree in the midst of the garden was going to cause her to be like God or wiser than God or have more understanding and more knowledge or more information. And look, that is the stumbling block of mankind is this pursuit of knowledge, this pursuit of wisdom that is not coming from God. And where it's coming from is the pride of man's heart. Man is thinking in his heart that he's smarter than God or he's better than God or he knows more than God. And if we were going to pick an institution that really personifies or not necessarily personifies, but really just epitomizes this particular concept, how about the university? I mean, isn't college basically like the antithesis in many ways to what the Bible teaches? I mean, the Bible says to flee fornication, whereas college, it's like rampant fornication. And any person that is just not lying to you will admit sending your kids to college increases their chances of fornication exponentially. Fleeing fornication and going to a dorm and going to college away from your parents is like the exact opposite. I mean, it is an institution of fornication outside of just a brothel. I mean, I don't know what could be more trying to commit fornication than most of these university campuses, isn't it? I mean, the Bible is teaching for this cause shall man leave father and mother and she'll be joined into his wife, right? Whereas the college is like, let's just steal them away and put them with all these young people. It's like the exact opposite. And then what do they teach them? Evolution. Go to Proverbs 10 for a moment. Keep your finger on Romans. I want to come right back. Go to Proverbs 10 for a second. Whereas the Bible says for in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in the midst. Oh, done. I don't have to learn about monkeys and apes and how dinosaurs turned into chickens and all of that. You laugh. That's being taught. Sorry. You didn't go to college and get a college degree and learn that the Tyrannosaurus rex is actually the family that goes down into chickens. Have you not seen the wings? You know, there's little arms when wings, you know, so brilliant. You're so ignorant. You Bible thumping Christians. You don't believe that everything came from a rock and turned into a dinosaur that turned into a chicken that turned into a chicken nugget. Now we all know that the McDonald's chicken nuggets didn't come from chickens though. Okay. Tyrannosaurus rex may have turned into a chicken, but the chicken didn't turn into a chicken nugget. It was like plastic and glue and some other concoction and a laboratory by Bill Gates or something, right? It was a 3d printer. They probably have 3d printers in there making chicken nuggets more likely. Look, you, you take them to this institution of learning of wisdom and not, and it's like the exact opposite in so many different ways. What is the whole point of college? Learn how to make money, isn't it? I mean, isn't that the whole reason that you're dragging your kids to college or forcing your kids to go to college or why you go to college, get a job, get a good job, get a good job, get money, make money. You know, people that go to college make more money than people that don't go to college. And there's just all these statistics and there's a, it's a big, just push to make money. But you know, the Bible says for it is he that giveth the power to get wealth. So we actually want to get money. If we actually want wealth, according to the scripture, it's actually coming from God. You know why? Because he owns everything. You want assets. Talk to the guy that owns all of the assets. Okay. Now look at Proverbs chapter 10. Look at verse 22, the blessing of the Lord. It maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it. Hey, I'll tell you what college will give you a lot of money, but you know, it's attached to that sorrow, right? Student loans, STDs, regrets, bastard children, all kinds of drugs, drug addiction, alcohol addiction, criminal record, all kinds of cool things that come with college. But you know what? Whenever you seek the Lord and you have his blessing, it's way better. You know, you can make tons of money with God's favor on you. You don't have to go to college. You don't have to go learn the wisdom of the Chaldeans. Now look, I'm not saying that college is just an inherently evil institution. I'm not saying that people that go to college are bad or wicked, but college has been perverted from what it used to be. College used to be, if you want to become a doctor or a lawyer, and it was simply you had to go to a particular institution to learn those skills or trades, and there's nothing even wrong with trade school. But college has turned into a joke where they literally have gender study degrees. They have history degrees, but they don't actually teach any history. They have all these different educational resources, but they don't actually educate that much anymore, and it's just turned into a big rum spring, a basic party fest to allow children to just go into the ways of the world to learn debauchery and fill. Almost no one goes from their parents' home into college and becomes more moral. They do less sin. They curse God less in their heart. No, no, no. They're going to curse God more in their heart because they're going to an institution of pride. The colleges are so prideful. The professors are so prideful. It makes me think of Romans 1. Professing themselves would be wise. They became fools. And look, the college is not really producing the cream of the crop when it comes to society. When we think of the crop of society, I'm not thinking of these Harvard grads. I'm not thinking of these Ivy League schools. I think of those as the predators in our society. People that are corrupt, they don't even know how to work hard. I mean, the politicians and these people that go to these schools, they don't even know how to work hard. Go back to Romans 1. I don't know if I said that out loud. I was thinking it. Okay. Romans 1 and verse 22. Professing themselves would be wise. They became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like the corruptible man and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore, God also gave them up to the uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves who changed the truth of God into a lion, worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator is blessed forever. Amen." Now, of course, the biggest worship is of the self. These people love to worship man. They love to worship mankind, and it's all a big worship of man. I mean, it's funny. These feminists don't even realize that their ideology is still worshiping man because what do they do? They try to take women, and they try to make them manly. It's the most confusing term because they're not actually feminizing anyone. They don't even believe in the feminine quality. They're not saying, like, we want women to dress more feminine and act more feminine and stay home and raise children and do the things that only females can even do, which is produce children and give them nourishment and all the other stuff that's actually attached to being feminine. Really, they're just masculizing women. They're telling them to get a job, get a dyke haircut, get the pants, go to work, talk rough, talk mean, share your opinions, be loud, let your voice be heard. It's like turning to a man. And then they still don't pay them as much because they're not as good at working. And then on top of that, then they say, like, let's put man in your sports. How is that part of the feminist movement? I mean, there's nothing about this that really glorifies it. Here you have to understand, the Sodomite agenda is one to worship man and specifically males. It's their agenda, and they worship that. That is what they really desire. And that's what they put on a pedestal. And it's gross. It's disgusting. It's filthy. We're supposed to worship God, not man. Man is not to be worshiped, lifted up, put on a pedestal. And in fact, the Bible instructs us as men to put our wives on a pedestal and give honor under the weaker vessel. Not the opposite, to put man. Why would I want to replace a woman on my pedestal with a man? That's gross. Now, we all realize that this talks about Sodomites. It says in verse 26, for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections, for even their women did change the natural use unto that which is against nature, and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burning their lusts one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving themselves that recumbence of their error which was mean. So he's basically saying that these people have already gotten punished. And when you curse God in your heart, God can punish you for that. First of all, hell is always the consequence of never getting saved. But even while on earth, God can punish you. And what's the worst punishment? Having vile affections, desiring something that you don't want. And anybody that's ever had an affection towards something that they don't actually like can realize how infuriating this could be. People that are a slave to the bottle, people that don't like alcohol, they don't like the effects of alcohol, but they just are drawn to it, and it's frustrating to them. Or people that are addicted to drugs. There's a lot of people that are addicted to drugs. They don't like the drugs. They don't really want the drug per se, but they just can't help themselves. They do it. This could be in all areas of gluttony or just areas where you have no self-control, no temperance, just things you just like, I really know I don't want to do that or shouldn't do that, but I just find myself doing it. Well, the worse it is, the more disgusting it is. It'd be one thing to be addicted to cigarettes. It's another thing to be addicted to LSD. It's a lot more shameful to be addicted to LSD than it is cigarettes, isn't it? I mean, if I had to press the button, I'd be like, I'm going to smoke a pack a day. I don't want to be addicted to hardcore drugs, okay? So then the Bible's saying, like, what about if you're addicted to the worst things, like eating vomit? You know, what's worse than that? Being a sodomite. And that's a punishment. It's a punishment to basically desire the most disgusting, filthy, worst things imaginable, and the things they do to each other hurt. Like, they hurt each other. It's physical abuse, what they're doing to each other. They just destroy their bodies. I mean, monkey pox and STDs, and that's just the surface, okay? That's just the tip of that iceberg out in the ocean. But you know what? Titanic sinks hardcore from that lifestyle. That's why it's a death style, okay? And they do all kinds of stuff with them. And notice that the Bible describes these people in verse 28, and even as they do not like to retain God in their knowledge, it sounds like they're cursing God in their heart, God gave them over to a reprobate mind of those things which are not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, this will beat into parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. So not only do they like to do this stuff, they like other people doing it. Sounds like the devil, remember? The devil doesn't just like cursing God, he likes it when other people curse God with him. These people don't like just murder, they like it when other people murder, they like it when other people hate God, they like it when other people are prideful, they like it when other people are backbiters, they like other people that are whisperers. You know, it's always funny to me when we have bad people get thrown out of our church, and I'm not talking like they sinned, I'm talking like they're wicked, I'm talking like they're an evil person, and then all of a sudden they just side with all these other evil people, and you're thinking like, I thought you guys didn't even like each other. But you know what? They just like other people doing evil. So they end up forming this unnatural bond where they love each other, just simply from the fact that they're both doing wickedness together. It's like Herod and Pilate uniting, and the fact that they hate Jesus so much. It's like you have nothing in common with this group, except for you both just love evil. And it's like buddies, you know, same discord server. You know, they just, they hang out and chat for five hours together on the phone, okay? Now, this is the point of why I brought this passage up, though. Chapter two, look at verse one. Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judges, for wherein thou judges another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judges doest the same thing. You know, what the author of Romans is explaining is he's saying, yeah, the saved by faith, they're manifested by their faith, and the reprobates, they're manifested by being reprobate. But there's another group of people, those are all the people up for grabs, and he's saying, hey, if you think that this list was bad, guess what? You're probably guilty too, though, because is there stuff on this list that everybody does? I mean, disobedient to parents. Hasn't everyone done that? I mean, if we look at this list, this list is not exclusive to the wicked. It's not exclusive to the reprobate. It's really just a list of everything bad. But even unsaved people and Christians commit sins on this list. And he's saying if you realize that that reprobate got punished for being wicked, for doing evil, for doing what you saw on that list, then why do you think that you're going to escape when you do evil? Why do you think there'll be no punishment to you when you do this stuff? You know, it's like, oh, man, the reprobates are being punished by God. I mean, is anybody even questioning that in this room? Are you really questioning that God is going to punish people? Are you really questioning that there's a punishment? But it's like, but then you sin, you do wickedness, you curse God in your heart. Oh, you just think God's not going to punish you, though? You're a fool. You're a fool to think that when you do wickedness, that when you sin, that when you commit the same atrocities, that somehow God's going to look the other way. You know what? How much sore punishment is that the Bible describes about us? Go, if you would, to Jeremiah chapter 17. Go to Jeremiah chapter number 17. You know what? God is going to punish sin. And when we think about cursing God in our hearts, the number one reason why people curse God in their heart is because of pride. They think they're better than God. They think they're smarter than God. They know more. And number two, though, is why people curse God is because of the punishment that they receive, right? Obviously, when you get punished for your sin, it could cause you to lash out and curse at God. Isn't that what we see in Revelation, when the wicked, they're not repenting of their idolatry and their fornication and all their sins, but they still curse God for all the hillstones? They're just mad about the punishment that's coming down the pike? And really, the other point that I had was persecution we had from Job, OK? I'm not going to develop all those points. I don't have enough time. But the reason why people are constantly cursing God in their heart is because of either pride, because of punishment, or because of persecution. We don't want to be that type of person that's cursing God in our heart for any reason. But pride is a big deal. Pride is a big reason why people do this while people will curse God in their heart. And, you know, it's not just the people walking up and down the streets with a pride banner that are the only prideful people. Donald Trump's prideful, and he's not dancing around with a flag. And you know what? Godly people can even be very prideful. There's many pastors that can be very prideful. Churches could be prideful. I mean, we see a church in the Book of Revelation that's pretty much known for its pride because they have a name that they live, but they're dead. They think they're so wonderful, but they don't realize that they're poor, miserable, blind, and naked, as the Bible describes them. And we, as a church, we also don't want to have this attitude. I think it could be really easy for a church like ours to think that we're a lot better than we really are, or for you to think you're a lot better than you are, or for you to think you know better than God. And, you know, we really elevate knowledge in this church. We really elevate wisdom, but knowledge puffs it up. And you can start thinking, like, I've changed my mind about a lot of stuff. I've got a lot of wisdom lately, you know, and then you start kind of bucking at the things of God. You start bucking at certain elements that have been laid down. Well, do I really have to go to church, though? Will I really have to memorize Scripture? Do I really have to go soul winning? You know, what if I just do a YouTube soul winning ministry? Yeah, it didn't turn out like a bozo like all the other ones did. Show me the guy that we've seen just do it only YouTube ministry, not going to church, and still today is good. They always turn out bad. They always turn out like a bozo or believing weird stuff or that they're Jesus or something. You know, it's like, what kind of weird, bizarre stuff happens to these people? It's because they got more, they got prideful. They think they're smarter than God. And so I don't need institutions like the church. I don't need an institution like a family. You know, I don't need to submit to my husband. I don't need to love my wife and not be bitter against her. I don't need to sit down and teach and train my children. I don't need to do these different things that the Bible's instructing me. And then, you know what's going to bite them hard is the reality of Romans chapter number two, that you're inexcusable, too. And God will punish you. And God will still bring the hammer down on you. And yeah, obviously, Romans two, it's mostly about getting saved, but it can extend its application to the sense that we can't just sit here and look at people that are worse than us and think, well, I won't get punished because that person's worse than me. That's not how God works. God doesn't just sit here and think like, oh, well, he's not the worst person, so I won't punish him. No, he punishes every sin. Look at chapter 17, verse one, Jeremiah 17, verse one. The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond. It is graven upon the table of their heart and upon the horns of your altars. Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills, oh, my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil and thy high places for sin throughout all thy borders. And thou, even thyself, shall discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee. And I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not, for you have kindled the fire in mine anger, which shall burn forever. Thus saith the Lord, cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and his heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heathen in the desert and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by rivers, by the waters. Sorry, I was quoting from Psalm one. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaves shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought. Neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the rains even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. So God is saying, I am going to test your heart and here's a problem. Your heart's wicked. Your heart wants to run to evil. Your heart wants to sin. Your heart wants to be in rebellion. Why? Because you're a prideful person. We're all prideful and we have to try to humble ourselves. We have to try and lower ourselves and submit to the word of God. That's what it means to trust in him. You know, trusting in God sounds easy. It sounds nice. It sounds cool, but what it means in practicality is that you're not trusting in yourself and it's actually one of the most difficult things you could possibly do because you have in your mind, you think that you're right. You know that you're right. You believe that you're right, but the Bible is different. It's not saying like, I agree with the Bible. It makes sense to me. I understand it and I'm going to do it. It's saying I don't agree. I don't like it. I don't want to. I'm going to do it anyways. That's what it really means to trust in the Lord. Just like Job. It's not like Job's like, I really love that I lost my children and lost all my money and I'm just scraping myself with these swords. This is so much fun. No, he's saying like, despite all of that, it doesn't make sense. It's frustrating. It seems like God's mad at me, but I'm going to trust in Him. Excuse me. Go if you would to 1 Timothy chapter 2. Go to 1 Timothy chapter number 2. Let me give you one application. There's a lot of applications already made this morning, but it's really, really easy to agree with things you agree with. That's not trusting in the Lord. Trusting in the Lord is things that you don't agree with. Let me tell you something. If there is a group of people that are really, really affected by pride, it's honestly women. Because women's biggest struggle is beauty. Women are beautiful, just inherently. But then, because of that, and because that's what men are attracted to is beauty, they have to have this competition where they can edge each other out and be the most beautiful. But it doesn't matter, really, because if you think about it, men are just attracted to women. It wasn't like only the top one or the one at the very, it's like all of them. Have you ever read the Bible? Solomon had a thousand wives. It's not like the men in the Bible were struggling to find an attractive woman. If you're struggling to find an attractive woman, I'm afraid of you. You've got problems, seriously. No godly man in the Bible ever struggled with being attracted to women. Now, obviously, you're supposed to suppress that, and you're supposed to take up the cross daily, and you're supposed to only have affections for your spouse, and you're supposed to keep your eyes only under your spouse. You're supposed to flee fornication and flee adultery and flee all these different things. So you have to put boundaries in your life. But the point that I'm making here is that women are attractive. But they know that they're attractive, and they try to be as attractive as humanly possible. Now, here's the thing. What is the most attractive thing is their body, right? So what do women do? They flaunt their body. They show off their body. I mean, and again, it'll make heads turn. You know, a woman dressed immodestly or showing off her nakedness is absolutely going to attract the attention of normal men, okay? It's not even a question if it will or not. It will. Every advertiser from the beginning of creation until now knows that this works. That's why every advertisement has attractive women in it. And we even know what attractive women look like because look at all the people. They look the same. It's like mostly, you know, and I'm going to be really offensive, okay? Buckle up, okay? It's like white women with long blonde hair and a dress or a skirt that's immodest. I mean, I'm just telling you, it's like, why do you think there's all these things like, ah, they're so misogynist and they have all these different people and these things? Because that's really attractive. Now, obviously, there's attractive women of all shades and colors, okay? We get that. But not all shapes and sizes, all right? Let's at least get some facts, okay? Queen Latifah is not attractive, okay? And it doesn't matter how much of her body she's showing off. It's still, it's like it's worse. It doesn't get better. I'm not like, ah, you know. But because most women don't look like Queen Latifah, you know, showing off their body appeals to men. And so women like to do this. But you know what? To me, it's cursing God in your heart to violate his commandments and to go against what he said and to just dress how you want because that's what the world says. And the reason why I bring this one up is because I think it's one where most women don't agree in the flesh. Like, most women, they're just like, oh, you bunch of fuddy duddies. It's like, we're not asking you to wear a burka here, okay? But could you dress modest? I mean, look at 1 Timothy 2, verse 9, and like men are also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame, face, and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which become as women professing godliness with good works. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor do you serve authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding, she should be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness and sobriety. Now, this passage is so important for this point because for a woman to make all of these decisions, she has to completely destroy the pride in her heart. Why? Because here's another just fact. Getting pregnant does not make you look more physically attractive. And it's really hard to recover from getting pregnant because you won't ever look the same. There are so many women in Hollywood and fashion and even in our world and in our society that refuse to get pregnant for one reason, and it's because they want to be attractive physically. And here's the thing. As a man, let me tell you something. I don't look at my wife and think she's unattractive because she's had children any more than if she did. It's like no impact to me. It's actually a boogeyman that most women even think of, this phantom, that they think that they are going to be less attractive to their husband because they get pregnant or they've been pregnant or their body changes or whatever. That's really a foolish idea. And I look at my wife as being a more beautiful person because of the sacrifices she's made and giving of her body and giving me children and all the blessings. I mean, why do you think Solomon's praising his wife for the heap of wheat? Now, some people suggest it's because he's giant. I think it's because she's pregnant. You can believe whatever you want. But here's the thing. He liked her heap of wheat belly, didn't he? He didn't sit here and think like, oh, you heifer. Arguably, the thing about this, Samson called his wife a heifer, and we don't know she got pregnant. So you can get cold fat when you're not. But here's the thing. When it comes to pride as a woman to give of your body, to have children is trusting in the Lord, not trusting this world. This world is telling you, don't have kids, get a job, don't have kids, look more attractive, don't have children, and basically preserve all of these vanity factors, all of these pride related factors. Hey, don't dress like a modest woman dressed like a whore. And you know what? Our society is turning into a nation of whores. You look at the school, you look at the university, you look at the grocery store, you look at church today, and there are women walking into church that look like a $2 whore. And they're cursing God in their heart. You know, it used to be that they were more nervous than a whore in church was a phrase. Why? Because you shouldn't just be looking like a whore and dressing like a whore and walking around and acting like a whore. You know what? You know why you're doing that? Because Hollywood is pumping it into your ears through the music every single day. And you know what? You monkey see, monkey do. You go to most clothing retail places and it's just only whore outfits. I mean, there are whole stores that it's like, I don't think my wife or daughters could ever buy anything in there because it's all bad, it's all inappropriate, it's all wrong. You know what? There's two factors when it comes to dressing, covering your nakedness and modesty. You know, nakedness is exposing any part of your body between the loins to the knee. You know, you're supposed to have your clothing go down to the knee to cover just nakedness. This isn't even modesty we're talking about. Modesty then extends above that because obviously I could not be wearing a shirt right now and I wouldn't be naked in the context of the Bible. I would be naked in the context you'd see my skin. I wouldn't be naked in the context of being sinning in the Bible, but I'd be immodest. I'd be immodest, not very appropriate, so I might cover that to be more modest. Women could certainly wear clothing that's not necessarily causing them to be naked, but just being kind of immodest, flaunting off other parts of their body. But if they're exposing their legs above their knee in a provocative way, that's not just immodest, that's being naked. Showing off their buttocks. I mean, I kid you not, you can go downtown, you can go to places that are populated. Women are literally exposing their buttocks. I'm just thinking like, but you know, of course Christians would never do that unless they're at a pool. They would never do that unless it's at the lake because as soon as you see a body of water, it says strip naked, right? And then post pictures on the internet of that. That's the dumbest thing you could do. And how is that not just like cursing God in your heart to just basically just sit here and just, you know, I don't care what the Bible says, I'm gonna do these things, I'm gonna dress this way. You know what? As a godly Christian, you should dress modest, period. It's not a question of if or I, really you're just showing you don't trust God. Because didn't he say, I mean, I'm just reading this in like manner also that women adorn themselves in Milesboro. Is that a commandment or not? So which commandments do you like? Well, I don't like that one. Okay, we'll do it anyways. I didn't, I'm not asking for a volunteer or hands to say like who loves this commandment because I don't really care if you like it or not. It's my job to preach the Bible. And you know what? It's not for my job to convince my wife to like God's commandments just to do them. And here's the thing, when you do God's commandments, often it'll change your heart to like them. But first, you have to just do it. Because a lot of times, we in our flesh don't like, we're prideful, we think we're better than God, we're smarter than God, and we're just embarrassed, right? You have this stupid idea that going out in the world dressed like a modest Christian is embarrassing. No, it's embarrassing to be naked. No, it's embarrassing to look like a whore. No, it's embarrassing when some guy walks up to you and says, how much for the night? You know that, you know who doesn't do that? Men asking women that are dressed godly. Well, you're dressed like a whore, and it's like, why do guys always treat me like a whore? Well, how do you dress? You know, and of course, this applies to every person. Obviously, we're isolating this to women, but I'm telling you, they're just not trusting. Go to 1 Peter 3. I want to look at one more section on this just because of the wording. But we as God's people, and you know, I'm picking on the women, but you know, men, I really personally, when I see a woman dressed inappropriately, I blame her husband or father. So you can get all mad at me, women, but realize that I'm way more upset with the men than I am the women. I'm just thinking like, how did he let her wear that? Why did he, why is he okay with that? You know, it makes no sense to me. It's bizarre. And really, it shows that you're cursing God in your heart, too. And why do you want to flaunt your wife off or your daughters off in front of other men? Like that is the last thing I want. Adultery to me is like the worst sin. Why would I want to then have guys committing adultery with my wife in their heart all day long? Why is that bad? I mean, it's technically not nearly as egregious as sin. I get that. But you know what? It's still the same type of sin. Why would I want that, too? Now again, I'm not a Muslim here. My wife is not wearing a hijab. You can see more than her eye slits or whatever, okay? And I get that, and you know what? I'm not against my wife dressing attractively, but you know what? She needs to be dressed modestly, too. It needs to be a nice balance. And if I have to err, I'd rather her dress ugly and modest than attractive and slutty, than attractive and whorish. Oh, I'm so offended. Well, be offended, okay? How dare you say that about me? I'm a good father. Why are you letting your daughters dress like whores? And we know it's the guy's problem. I mean, why do you think every TV show, sorry, I'm going on a rant. Every TV show in the 90s had a dad arguing with his teenage daughter about what they could wear because they knew that was the person really holding them back. And you know who's holding back every teenager? Their dad or no one. There is one person in this world that can hold back their daughters from dressing like a whore, and it is the dad. And it is the dad's job to do it. You know, the dad is commanded in the Old Testament not to allow thy daughters to become prostitutes in the land, not to prostitute thy daughter. Why? Because it's his job. He is the good man in the house. He is the guardian of this world. And you know what? We need some dads today. We need some men today to actually guard their families and guard their women and actually trust in the Lord and realize this is right. You know, our society can never go back to normal when we just have whores walking up and down everywhere because you know what it's doing is it's causing all the men in our country to not be godly because they're just only obsessed with whores. They're only obsessed with fornication. They just hear fornication and see fornication and it's just a fornication fest in our country and in our nation. And you know what? It affects God's people too. And I see a lot of people just start cursing God in their heart and then pretty soon they're just by the wayside. First Peter chapter three, look at verse three. Who's adorning? Let it not be that outward adorning of the plating of hair or of wearing of a gold or of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner and the old time, the holy women also who trusted in God adorn themselves, being in subjection to their own husband. So notice that there's a contrast. Dressing appropriately is showing that you trust in God, which also shows me you probably wouldn't have done it without the Bible. Why do you, why do you preach on this Pastor Shelley? Because you won't do it if I don't preach it. And then even after I preach it, a lot of people still won't do it. And you know what, then I'll preach it again and you'll be like, you're preaching about me. I don't know. I don't care about, you know, you, you're too prideful because you think I care about you that much. It's so funny to me when people come up to me and they're like, did you preach about me? It makes me feel like they're narcissistic or something like everything's about them or that I care so much about them or whatever. And it's like, sometimes I like, I wrote the sermon like five minutes before the service and I'm thinking like, I didn't even, I'm barely even knowing what I'm saying when I got up here. How do you think it's about you? I don't know anything about you. You know, here's my goal. What is right? But you know, it tells me that I'm preaching a lot of Bible when people are always, you know, like hurting. They're like, oh man, that, that would hurt, you know, or that was afflicting, you know, because the Bible is supposed to prick you into doing right. Stop cursing God in your heart and just praise Lord. You know, the Bible's common commandment bless the Lord. And again, remember curse is not like a wish of future thing in the context of in preaching. It's just like talking the same as a blessing. We typically think of blessing as wishing good upon someone. We don't have to wish good upon the Lord because good's going to happen no matter what. You know what we're saying? When we're saying bless the Lord, we're saying you're worthy of honor. We're glorifying him. We come to church to bless the Lord, to change our hearts so that we realize we need to serve God. We need to dress right. We need to not go to the institutions of fool and idiocracy, but rather we need to go to the institution of wisdom as the local church. Oh, I don't care if my kids go to church or not. I want them to go to college. You fool. I would rather my kids go to church and never touch a school ever. And that's the plan. Okay. Now I'm not saying that school is inherently sinful, but what I am saying is that most of the school out there today is antithesis of the Bible, is the antithesis of God's word, is the antithesis of what you should be doing. And you know what? As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. We're not going to just curse God in our hearts all day long. We're not going to sing the filth and watch the filth and hear the filth and send our kids to the filth. You know what? We're going to fill our house with songs and spiritual songs and the word of God and church. And it's like, you're a fuddy-duddy. No, no, no. I just don't want to curse God in my heart, buddy. You don't have any fun. We have fun all the time. You can't stop me. My kids love church. But you know what would cause my kids to start hating church? Nine Inch Nails, Led Zeppelin, Disney Channel. Why do you think it is that a really worldly person walks in, they hate our church the first time they come? They're like, ah. But then people that have been, that turned all that junk off and then only turned church on, that's great. You can change your affections, but you know what? Do them before you believe, before you understand them, before you even realize why it's right, just do it and realize it's right. And then later you'll be like, I'm so glad I follow God's commands. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this opportunity to hear the word of God being preached. I pray that we would just bless the Lord in our hearts, that we wouldn't fall victim of the curse of the Lord, that we wouldn't let the devil cause the pride in our heart or the punishment or the persecution that comes in our lives to cause us to be mad at God or or get mad about the Bible or get mad about preaching or get mad about soul winning or mad about whatever happens to us. But rather, we would just bless the Lord no matter what. Blessed to be the name of the Lord. And I pray that we would realize that the snares out there that are constantly trying to change our affections and our hearts and our minds and that we would stay away from them so that we could be steadfast and that we could always serve God. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. For our last song, we'll go to 205, He Keeps Me Singing. 205, He Keeps Me Singing. 205, He Keeps Me Singing. There's within my heart a melody, Jesus whispers sweet and low, Fear not, I am with thee, peace be still, In all of life's ebb and flow. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go. All my life was wrecked by sin and strife, Discord filled my heart with pain, Jesus swept across the broken strings, Stirred the slumbering cords again. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, Fills my every longing, keeps me singing. Keeps me singing as I go, Feasting on the riches of His grace, Resting neath His sheltering wing, Always looking on His smiling face, That is why I shout and sing. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go. Though sometimes He leads through waters deep, Trials fall across the way, Though sometimes the path seems rough and steep, See His footprints all the way. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go. Soon He's coming back to welcome me, Far beyond the starry sky. I shall wing my flight to worlds unknown, I shall reign with Him on high. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go.