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Thanks for watching! Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. Thank you all for coming. Looks like we've already found our seats, so if you would find a hymnal, we're gonna go ahead and get started with song number 43. We're marching to Zion. It should be a familiar one for all of us. Song number 43. Sing it out all together, on the first. Come we, that of the Lord, and let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord. Join in a song with sweet accord. And thus surround the throne, and thus surround the throne. We're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. Let those refused to sing, who never knew, are God. But children of the heavenly King, we speak their joys abroad. We're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets. Before we reach the heavenly pit, before we reach the heavenly pit, walk the golden streets, or walk the golden streets. We're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. And let our songs abound, and every tear be dry. We're marching through Immanuel's crown. We're marching through Immanuel's crown. To fairer worlds on high. To fairer worlds on high. We're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. Great singing, everybody. Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church. We thank you for everyone that's gathered here. We thank you for all the people that are gone as well, that are visiting other churches. We ask that you keep them safe. And we ask that you help Pastor Shelley preach an edifying sermon unto us, that we can walk out better Christians. And we came in for your honor and glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Excuse me. All right, next up we have song number 229, Since I Have Been Redeemed. Two hundred and twenty nine. Song 229, Since I Have Been Redeemed, sing it out nice and loud. I have a song I love to sing, Since I Have Been Redeemed. Oh, my Redeemer, Savior, King, Since I Have Been Redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. I will glory in His name, Since I Have Been Redeemed. I will glory in my Savior's name. I have a price that satisfies, Since I Have Been Redeemed. To do is will my highest price, Since I Have Been Redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. I will glory in His name, Since I Have Been Redeemed. I will glory in my Savior's name. I have a whip that's bright and clear, Since I Have Been Redeemed. Dispelling every doubt and fear, Since I Have Been Redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. I will glory in His name, Since I Have Been Redeemed. I will glory in my Savior's name. I have a hope prepared for me, Since I Have Been Redeemed. Where I shall dwell eternally, Since I Have Been Redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. I will glory in His name, Since I Have Been Redeemed. I will glory in my Savior's name. If you can quote the entire chapter, you can get a special prize. On the inside is our service, soul winning times, our church stats. Make sure you're putting that in our soul winning group. Also on the right, we have a list of expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for all of our expecting ladies. We have our prayer list. I'm going to go to our upcoming events. We'll come back to that here in just a second. On the back, we have a note about the upcoming events. November 9th is going to be a soul winning seminar here at the church. It's going to be led by our soul winning captains. If you'd like some additional tips, some suggestions, some practice, we'd really encourage you to participate in our soul winning seminar. It's going to be here at the church. We have coffee and donuts. Then as well, we'll be having some tips and everything like that from some of our captains. Then they'll have soul winning after that. Immediately after, they'll have some soul winning opportunities. It's a great opportunity to come and learn. November 16th is our Miami soul winning marathon. There's a sign up sheet out here in the foyer. It's got the details as far as where we're going to be meeting and everything like that. November 24th is the ordination service for Brother Oz. Continue to pray that that will go well. December 6th is our ladies' Christmas party. That is going to be from 6 to 9. If you just put that on the calendar, we'll have some more details when we get closer. December 9th is our Christmas caroling as well. December 25th, Christmas cookie bake off. Then January 1st is going to be a men's preaching night and pizza night. As far as our prayer list, we'll go over that. We've been praying for the Naims for their grandmother. We've been praying for Ms. Carlson's mother. We've been praying for the Millers' friend. We've been praying for Brother Scott's parents. We've been praying for Ms. Garcia's daughter, Ms. Krista. We've been praying for Brother Foley. He has a couple prayer requests there for his fiance and also been praying for his co-worker's infant. There is an update, so they've been improving, but we just continue to pray that they'll have a full recovery. Also, praying for Brother Rich. Praying for Brother Alex for his work. We've been praying for Brother Roger, his mother, who's having surgery. I guess they had the surgery. I guess we need to get a follow-up on what happened. We'll just pray for a recovery, that everything went smoothly there. I'm praying for Ms. Warner's brother, who had a serious injury. I'm also praying for Ms. Hernandez, her grandmother, who's recovering from surgery, and then also pray for the Cooper family for their sickness. So we'll go ahead and say a quick word of prayer for our church family. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for those that were mentioned here. I pray that you just please bless these expecting ladies with their pregnancies. I pray that you please help those that are struggling with cancer and various illnesses. I pray, if possible, just give them a full recovery. Please give them health. Please help deliver them from this sickness and this illness. I pray that you would just help our church family with their work and with their jobs. Please also give us the opportunity to preach the gospel to these friends and family that we are very concerned for. I pray that you would also just help give favor to our church and that you would help to continue to use our church as a bright and shining light in such a dark world. It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. We're going to go ahead and sing our psalm of the week, Psalm 148. It's in our special handout, Psalm 148. There's a little bit of a change of plans on that. We're actually going to sing Holy, Holy, Holy. It should be in the same handout. That's Holy, Holy, Holy. It's one of our favorites. We should sing it out nice and loud on the first. Holy, Holy, Holy. Lord God Almighty. Early in the morning Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, holy, holy, all the saints adore thee, casting down their golden crowns above the glassy sea. Cherubim and Seraphim, falling down before thee, which word and art in evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, through the darkness by thee, though the eye of sinful men thy glory may not see. Holy, thou art holy, there is none beside thee, perfect in power, love and glorious be. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, all thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons, bless their Trinity. Great singing, everybody. As the offering plates are going around, would you please turn your Bibles to Ecclesiastes, chapter number 12, excuse me, Ecclesiastes, chapter number 12. God in three persons, bless their Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, all thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea. Ecclesiastes, chapter number 12, the Bible reads, remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come naught, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. While the sun or the light or the moon or the stars be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain. In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened. And the door shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low. Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fear shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail, because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets. Wherever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Vanity of vanity, saith the preacher, all is vanity. And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge, yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written was upright, even words of truth. The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. And further by these my son be admonished, of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Let us pray. Heavenly Father Lord, thank you for this church, and thank you for Ecclesiastes 12. I pray that you'd be with Pastor Shelley as he preaches unto us your word, and help us to have receptive hearts to accept your word and apply it to our lives. Praise in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. The Bible says here in verse one, remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. And we're finishing up the book of Ecclesiastes in this chapter, this is the concluding chapter, and again, he's still giving some general wisdom, some general advice here, but the Bible had said previously in the previous chapter, in chapter 11, notice what it said in verse number nine, rejoice, oh young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes, but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity. Then he continues here, remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. So verses nine and 10 really flow in from the previous chapter, really kind of flow into this same thought here of verse one, and this concept of taking your life very seriously, especially in the youth part of your life, and it's saying you don't wanna just only live it up, and only party, and only enjoy the aspects of being young, but also in verse one, remember now thy creator, and so it's important that even though you're young, and you have the ability to do a lot more, maybe you can play more athletics, you can go shopping, you can travel, you have more energy, you have more time, you have more freedom, all of these different aspects to the youth that are positive, he wants you to be careful though that you don't waste all of that on vanity, but you also still consider God, you're still remembering God, and what I think is important is there's a word here in verse one, the word now. Remember now thy creator, and it's giving a present tense application of we don't wanna think about, well later I'm gonna serve God, or later I'll think about all the things God's done for me, or later I'll consider the Lord, but it's like remember now, like right now is when we should be focused in on serving God, because we're not even promised a morrow, we're not even promised the next day, we're not promised another year, and so we should never delay serving God, we should never delay getting right with God, we should never delay doing something for God, it's remember now, it's like let's get right with God now, let's serve God now, let's do something for God now, and why, he's saying another reason is the fact that when you're young, you have more energy, you have more ability, there's gonna come a time when you can do less, now all of us as we're growing, there's kind of a climax to some point of our life, and I don't know what that is, I'm not gonna throw out even a number because I don't really know, but obviously as we grow and we get older and older, we're kind of getting more and more potential, more and more potential, and then eventually we're gonna kind of reach a peak physically of whatever that is, and then it's gonna kind of go downhill but there could be also on the same kind of a trajectory, a different timeline though mentally, you may be peaking physically at a different time when you're peaking mentally, and so there's different kinds of timelines, different types of things to be excited about in life, you're probably also not gonna peak the same time financially, right? So when you peak physically, when you peak mentally, when you peak financially, all of these are gonna have different kinds of timelines, different kinds of areas in life, but generally speaking there will be a high point in life and then it's gonna be downhill from there, eventually there is gonna be some kind of decline, and especially physically, especially the fact that we have our youth, we have our strength now, but eventually we'll be old people, eventually be an old man, an old woman, and we will at that point be able to accomplish less, and so it's important to serve God when you're in your peak, when you're in your youth, when you're in your prime, when you have a great opportunity to do something big for God, because later in life you may not have the same opportunity, and so we need to take advantage of the opportunities that we have, because he noticed, he says, while the evil days come not. There are days where you could have a potential attitude or a viewpoint where it says I have no pleasure in them, and I think that for some people in this world they're already there. You know, there's some people, older people, I know that my grandparents, there was days where it seemed like this is probably their life, you know, and I really empathize for my grandfather, he's passed away in the last few years, he passed away during COVID, but he was 90, I think, seven or 98 when he passed away, and his wife had passed away well before that, and I'm gonna get the timeline wrong, but it was at least a decade that he had to live without his wife, and so, you know, think about it, you're 80, 85, 90 years old, you don't have a wife, your kids don't live near you, you can't really move around that much, like it could be easy to just have an attitude of like, hey, I don't even have that much pleasure in the days, and especially if you have physical ailments. My grandfather had a lot of fun playing golf, but then he got gout in his feet, which is a kind of an interesting illness, I don't know exactly a lot about it, I think it's from eating too much protein, he pretty much only ate fried chicken and beans, so maybe he should have had some mixes up with some more vegetables or whatever, but I mean, when you're 85, 90 at that point, it's just kind of like, you know, whatever, but that kind of made him even more upset, because it's like he used to go play golf, and he had some joy in that, and now he can't even do that, now he's just stuck, and then eventually, he ended up having to go to an assisted living place, and I think for a lot of older people, when they have a physical ailment, they don't have much family, they're in assisted living, it would be pretty easy for them to say like, it's the evil days, and they don't even have much pleasure in the days that they have. People that are struggling with serious illnesses, cancer. My mother passed away with breast cancer, and you know, the last seven years was a fight, especially the last probably six months to a year, I mean, it did not seem like she had very many good days, I mean, most days were a fight, a lot of pain, a lot of discomfort, she couldn't do a lot of things, she was often just really embarrassed, I think that was probably the worst part for her, she was just always embarrassed, because she was a very independent woman, and so she liked always, she was a server, like she would always serve us and serve the family, and she just loved to just help others, and so just that last part of her life, having to constantly rely on other people, and she was always embarrassed about needing help, having to go to the bathroom, or get around the house, or people make her stuff, and she really just hated that burden, and she hated being a burden, and she hated being sick, and just not feeling good, and just not being there for her husband, and all the different things that were just a frustrating situation, and it's like, many of us may get to that point at some point in our lives where we have, we're older, we have illnesses, we have sicknesses, we have problems, and it's like, that's not the day to serve God, that's the day, I mean, I'm not saying don't serve God, but I'm just saying, you can't necessarily serve God the same in those days as you could right now when you're young, healthy, you've got opportunity, and so we need to consider, remember now, thy creator. It's like, hey, right now, we need to think about God, right now, we need to serve God, and we have no idea what's on the horizon. Now, I think that this verse is really primarily focusing in on the concepts of the evil days being related to, maybe it's just getting older, in general, and what the things that come with getting older, and life, and everything like that, but we could take another application of this, just in the sense that we don't know what the future beholds in general, and so it's always good to just take advantage of the opportunities that we have right now, period. You know, the Bible says redeeming the days, or redeeming the time, because the days are evil, and meaning that when we have opportunity to do something for God now, we need to take advantage of that. Go over to Psalm 77, Psalm 77. You know, I was thinking about, based on the news recently of our current election cycle, and it looks like Donald Trump has become the president-elect, you know, I was thinking about this, like, I think a lot of people in America are pretty excited about, you know, the prospect of Donald Trump being president again, and what that could mean for America, and I think a lot of people are very hopeful. They're hopeful for maybe some economic relief. They're hopeful for a little bit less draconian government oversight. Maybe they're looking for some positive changes. I think, for the most part, though, people are just hoping, you know, have less immigration issues, border issues, maybe economic issues, things like that, and maybe just overall prosperity for our nation, and I have no idea, I have no idea if he's gonna actually bring more prosperity to our nation or not. I think it's probably more likely than the communists that he was running against, but let's just say that that's true. Let's just say, hypothetically, that the next four years of Donald Trump's presidency, assuming they don't try to kill him again, you know, he survives, and he brings back some economic prosperity, and things get a little bit easier than they have been the last four years, there could be this temptation, there could be this attitude of, oh, things are going well, and we end up forgetting God. We end up getting too comfortable, or we start just enjoying life, instead of actually focusing in on the things of God, and for me, it's like, I hope that we have those things, I hope we have economic prosperity, I hope that we have some relief, so that we can accomplish even more for God, not so that I can party more, not so that I can go and live for my life more, but rather that we have more money to spend on missions trips, so that we have more freedom to put our message online, with less harassment, and less stalking, and less censorship. You know, some of the greatest preachers alive today, they're being censored so hard online, and it'd be amazing to see what would happen if that could be unthrottled. I mean, it'd be amazing to see if some of the great sermons and the great preachers again could just go unrestricted on the internet, and could just get out there and reach large audiences again, that would be amazing. Make free speech again, right, in America, and to not have all this lawfare, and not all have these psycho protesters, and all this junk that you have to constipate. It'd be nice to see what could happen if you had four years, but wouldn't it be a shame if you had four years of less harassment, four years of more money, four years of time, and you just didn't accomplish anything, and you didn't remember God, and you just thought about yourself, and you were selfish, and just what you could accomplish for you, that would be a shame. The Bible says in Psalm 77, look at verse number 11, I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God is our God. You know, we should constantly go to church to remind ourselves of how great a God we serve, and how long suffering he is. There is no way to interpret any of the events of America any other way than to understand that God is long suffering. I mean, the evils of our nation, and how many bad people are in America, you kind of wonder why hasn't God judged us so harshly, but it's just to show how gracious, and how long suffering God truly is. God really is a merciful God. He's a gracious God. He is long suffering, and he still reigns on the just and on the unjust. He still does good unto us, and we should constantly remember God. You know, if we go through a period of prosperity, it could be easy for us to forget all the evil that we've gone through the last four years too, and forget some of the hardships, and forget some of the difficulties, and then become complacent, have this attitude of contempt even. You see the children of Israel, they go through difficulty, and they're like, wow, we really need God, but then as soon as they get out of it, it's like, oh, let's just go back to Egypt, or they kind of forget, or they're not really interested in the things of God, and so we should prepare ourselves mentally that, hey, even if I'm getting blessing in the future, I need to make sure I'm remembering God. I need to still discipline myself, and I still need to chastise myself, and I still need to humble myself, and constantly seeking God, and putting God first, and going to church, and reading my Bible, and going soul winning, even if everything's going great, even if I have more funds, even if everything is going wonderful, and making sure that I'm gonna still remember God the next four years. Go to Psalm 111, go to Psalm 111. It seems like when things are down, people consider God again. It's like, oh, I lost my job. Oh, I'm having financial difficulty. Oh, I have problems in this area of my life. Then it's like, I need to seek God, or they make a mistake, or they have a problem, and then we seek God again, and look, there's nothing wrong with seeking God in those times. We should, and that's the right attitude, but we also want to make sure that we're still seeking God in the good times too. We want to seek God all the time. Remember now, thy creator, and we want to take advantage of the opportunities that he's given us, and if God opens a door, what we don't want to do is become complacent again, and he says, oh, I need to afflict them to get their attention again. What we don't want to do is he opens a great window that goes from heaven unto us and pours out a blessing, and then we're selfish with it, or we don't take advantage of it, and then he says, well, I don't want to give that to you anymore. What we want to do is we want him to open up the window and take full advantage of it and say, oh, I'm going to open another window then, or I'm going to open another door, or now I'm going to pour out even more blessing or more grace, or now I'm going to give you even more than you have. You know, we need to take advantage of the things that we have so that God will bless us with more, and so he just doesn't even take it away. Maybe it's not even to have more, but just so he doesn't take away what we already have. Take advantage of the children that we have. Take advantage of the church that we have. Take advantage of the soul-winning opportunities that we have. Take advantage of the King James Bible that we have. Take advantage of the missions trips and all the different events and all the different things that God blesses us with. Take advantage of the wife that you have. Take advantage of the husband that you have. Take advantage of the job that you have. Take advantage of the economic opportunities that we have. You know, we should be focused in on what God has given us and making sure that we're exercising ourselves and the right attitude and mindset and making sure that we're really considering our Creator. Getting focused in on things of God. What does it say in verse one? Praise you the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. Did you notice that the Bible is putting praising God in a location? Did you notice it didn't just say like, well you know what, I'm just out by myself, I'm just going to praise the Lord. You know, we just all praise the Lord wherever we want. Now what does it say? I will praise the Lord in the assembly. So what is the assembly? That is the church. That is the congregation. He's saying when I praise God, I'm going to make sure I praise God at church. Not only at church, notice this, the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. So you know what, I'm not just going to go to church, I'm going to go to the church of the upright. I'm going to go to the best church and I'm going to go to the best assembly and that's where I'm going to praise God at. That's where I'm going to worship God at. That is the attitude of the psalmist. Verse two, the works of the Lord are great, sought out of all of them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious and his righteousness endureth forever. He hath made his wonderful works, notice this, to be remembered. What did he say? He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered. We need to remember. We need to remember the day we were saved. We need to remember the day we were baptized. We need to remember the day that we got plugged into church. We need to remember the day that we understood the great doctrines of the Bible. We need to remember the day that God delivered our church through so many adversarial situations, contentions. We need to remember what God has done. We need to remember where our church was started and where our church went and where our church grew. You need to remember the family decisions you made. You need to remember, hey, my family wasn't going down the right path and then I made this change and now it's going down the right path. You need to remember the birth dates of your children and the miracle that God gave you of those children. You need to remember the soul winning opportunities you've had. You need to remember the mission strips you've been on. You need to remember the people you got saved out soul We need to remember the wonderful works that God has bestowed upon us. You know, we need to remember the wonderful miracle of the 1611 King James Bible and realize the great blessing he gave. I mean, people were being burned at the stake for trying to memorize the scripture. People were being killed for wanting to have a Bible in their hands. And what a wonderful work that God did to open the eyes of the King of England and to grant permission for the King James Bible to be commissioned so we can have one in our hands. But we live in a day where it's such a plenteous book so many people don't even care. I mean, people are literally dying to give you a King James Bible and people don't even care about it. And this is what makes me really fired up about this is because of the voting that happened recently. And a lot of people were telling me this. They said, how dare you not vote and considering the sacrifice that veterans have made. And you know, I'm like, that's a fair point. It's a fair point to say, look, there's many people that have died for our country and died to give us freedom. And I'm not saying that voting is bad. And I've never said that. And I think that voting can make sense. That doesn't mean I think you should vote for every single person, right? And obviously there could be a situation where you're just like, hey, it's two women on the ballot. I'm just not going to vote in that particular election because I can't support either one, right? So I don't think that you can just say carte blanche, all voting is good, period. But I can understand how someone would be upset with the concept of the idea of like, hey, people maybe have died. People have made sacrifices to give us the country that we have. And then you don't even necessarily try to fight for the country that you have. But then those same people, I'm wondering, okay, well, how many people died and bled to give you this book right here in my hand and you're not even reading it every day? You know, voting is like one time a couple years or whatever. It's like this is every single day, you know, you want to sit here and lecture me about this. It's like, okay, which is more important anyways, the physical nation that God gave me or the spiritual nation that God gave me? And you want to sit here and lecture me on voting. How about you vote to read the King James Bible every single day? You want to know why America is being destroyed? It's not so much from physical voting, it's from the lack of spiritual voting that we have in our country where people are choosing to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and get saved, where people are refusing to go to a church that's using the King James Bible, where people are not going out and championing the things of faith. And you know what? God has done some miraculous things in this world and we should remember his works. We should remember what God has given us and what God has blessed us with and remember the sermons that God has blessed us with. You know, so many of us have been blessed greatly by a sermon. We should remember that. There's so many of us that have been blessed by a specific verse in the Bible. There's a verse in the Bible that altered our thinking, altered our behavior, altered our attitude. And you know what? We should give great heed under those verses and remember those verses. You know, we do memory verses for the church. You know, we should teach our kids. You should remember the Word of God. We should write it upon our hearts. And you know, again, it's so easy when things are good and fun and easy to not exercise good habits. But you know what? We need to make sure that we're remembering the things that God has given us. His works were done to be remembered. And when they would go through great trials and all kinds of different things, they would sometimes set up a memorial. When they went through the Red Sea, God's having them take stones and setting up, they're like even, they're setting up an altar. You know, they're setting up an altar to remember what happened. Hey, we came out of here. Hey, we crossed through the Red Sea. Hey, we went through the Jordan. Hey, we got these stones here to remember that we are the children of God, that God is our Lord, that we're going to serve God. We need to sometimes have a memorial in our minds and in our hearts that we are here to serve God and to not forget. Why would the Bible constantly tell us to remember and to not forget if we're just going to automatically do it? We're not. We're no different than the children of Israel. We're no different than anybody. And it can be so easy for any one of us to just forget why we're where we're at, forget why we have the kids that we have, forget why we have the spouse we have, forget why we go soul winning, forget why we have a King James Bible, forget why we even teach any of the doctrines that we teach. It's so easy to get complacent and to just basically give up, be kind of apathetic, and just focus in on ourselves. You know, we need to make sure that we're counting our blessings. What a great hymn. We're supposed to count our blessings and name them one by one. In a sense, what we're doing, we're remembering now thy creator and remembering what God has given us. Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Such an important point that's being drawn out of the text here in... we need to realize that we don't always have the morrow. We don't even have... we don't know what the future beholds. And, you know, I would love to think that, you know, I'm just going to live fifty, sixty years of just blessing and just fun and like America's going to have this huge revival and whatever, but I have no idea. I mean, it could be that we have four years of a decent, decent time, you know, things are okay, and then right after that it's just... it's over. I mean, we don't know. I mean, we saw things change so quick in 2020, and there's no... there's no reason why we couldn't have something like that happen again in the future. And it's like, hey, I want to make sure that if God gives me another good year, if God gives us more relief, that we take full opportunity of that. Let's take full advantage of whatever blessings God gives us from now on. Like, we should all just... we should never forget COVID. We should never forget 2020. We should never forget the endless protests. We should never forget hotel church. We should never forget just all the harassment and the weird stuff that's happened. We should never forget all the people trying to destroy and hack our church and do all kinds of weird stuff. Like, we should never forget that so that while right now we have opportunity to serve God, we're taking full advantage. We need to keep that zeal, and we need to sometimes remind ourselves, hey, this has happened. This is where I'm at, you know, and of course people are going to be added to our church, new people, they won't know these things. They won't necessarily have those same memories. But those of us that do know, those of us that have been through these difficulties, we need to say, wow, I need to make sure I'm constantly reminding myself of what God has done, how God has gotten me to this point, and why I'm making the decisions, and to keep serving Him, keep being faithful. We have to keep... we have to keep that red-hot fire inside of us. Because when you first get saved, sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's easy at first. You know, you're just kind of excited, everything's fun, but then you kind of lose that. You get apathetic. We can all get kind of, you know, weary. We can kind of faint in our minds. We can kind of just get complacent and just like, whatever. I'm not that into it anymore. And we have to remind ourselves, and we have to get that zeal again. We have to be careful to maintain good works, is what the Bible says. And so we have to think about where we're at. And, you know, there's never a bad time to get red-hot for Jesus Christ. There's never a time to get on fire again and get... you know, there's never a bad time to do this. And I think the Bible is even telling us that we need to kind of stir that up. You know, the Bible tells us, that tells Paul telling one of the young preachers, like, you need to stir up that gift that was in... that's inside thee. Okay? And we have that Holy Ghost. We can get that fire again. We can give that zeal again. And we need to do that sometimes by just remembering. What has happened? Now it says in verse two, it's kind of an elaboration of the point that was being made. It says, I have no pleasure in them while the sun or the light or the moon or the stars be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain. In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble and the strong men shall bow themselves and the grinders cease because they are few. And those that look out of the windows be darkened and the doors shall be shut in the streets. When the sound of the grinding is low and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird and all the daughters of music shall be brought low. Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high and fear shall be in the way and the almond tree shall flourish and the grasshopper shall be a burden and desire shall fail because man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets. Wherever the silver cord be loosed or the golden bull be broken or the pitcher be broken at the fountain or the wheel broken at the cistern then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. So the first part of verse one again is talking about the days being evil in a concept of growing old and just some of the difficulties that come with old age and not having the same youth. In verses two through seven it's mostly leaning towards and talking about that evil coming to its final conclusion which is death and at the point of death well now we don't have any thing else to do we can't we can't do anything else it's over we can't remember God anymore we don't have any more thoughts we've read a lot of passages and Ecclesiastes have talked about this there's no more praise there's no more thoughts there's no more desire there's no more hate hatred even there's no more envy there's no more anything it's just it's over and kind of also just alluding to the idea of just evil days you know it said the evil days come not nor then the years draw nigh so there could be years there could be cycles and I think that that's what he's trying to say is number one we need to serve God right now because you could get older and not be as effective number two you could have bad times and number three you're going to die eventually so he's kind of just alluding to all these different scenarios and we just don't know what the future beholds we just know there's a lot of things that could potentially keep us from being as effective and so we need to make sure that we're serving God right now and that we're taking advantage of our youth we're taking advantage of our strength we're taking advantage of our opportunities why well verse 2 again the sun the light the moon or the stars be not darkened that's just picturing and foreshadowing bad days and consistently throughout the bible when there's bad days bad things coming we see sun being darkened we see clouds coming we see just basically the sky changing its color and and that just kind of indicates trouble storms is kind of the storms of life in a sense is being described here dark days bad days the verse 3 the day when the keepers of the house still tremble tremble so people are afraid strong men shall bow themselves so instead of fighting they're just succumbing to whatever evil they're being taken advantage of the grinders cease because they're few people that are doing work no one's doing work anymore maybe you know communism or or perhaps just economic hardship those that look out of the windows be darkened they people love to look outside but there's nothing to look at anymore it's gloomy it's ugly it's it's destruction you know there's places like north carolina that had recently been havoced just havoc was wrecked upon that entire state through these massive hurricanes that are in some ways almost unprecedented i mean just just massive destruction i used to just look through the window in this beautiful nice little neighborhood and now it's just littered with trash just beams just thrown through cars and houses just destroyed and trailer park stuff just thrown everywhere and there's nothing to want to look at anymore it's not the same anymore they don't have power they don't have electricity the the democratic government doesn't want to give you any money doesn't even care about you insurance is like yeah everybody's calling we'll get you in a few months i mean some people's lives are just flipped upside down and they don't have anywhere to live they don't have any food they don't have any money everything's just they're they can't even go to work because their work is gone now what do they do dark days evil days that have come upon people out there when it says and the doors shall be shut in the streets no one wants to help you you know you even have this with lord jesus christ they're going in there's no one will take them in no one will take them they have to go to the manger when the sound of the grinding is low meaning there's low activity not not much economic activity he shall rise at the voice of the bird so you know they i don't know exactly what's the the perfect way to interpret that but i'm just thinking like you you light sleeping you know one it was one concept i could think of or or perhaps you know you're just out in the wilderness so then you're you're you're being woken up by animals or whatever now it says and all the daughters of music shall be brought low there's not any music there's there's no joy music is often a picture of joy and happiness and fellowship and festival and and activity and it's like now you know they're just playing some sad song while the ship is sinking it says also when they shall be afraid of that which is high the and fears shall be in the way everybody's just afraid no one knows what's happening just everybody's there's some kind of a fear now this is kind of interesting it says the almond tree shall flourish i i struggle with exactly how to look at that but i just kind of look at it as perhaps because if we keep reading it says in the grasshopper shall be a burden and desire shall fail because man go through his long home man going to his long home that is death that's what's being described as a euphemism because our long home is quote the grave you know we have to think about abraham and isaac and jacob they lived on this earth they sojourn a little bit but they've been that grave for a long time david they've been in the grave for a long time so it's in a sense man's going to his quote long home okay and so we have death well if you have death of man if man has been perished from the earth vegetation in a sense is going to flourish because there's no one to pluck there's no one to do anything with it so you're just going to have the almond tree the almond tree is flourishing because there's no one there to pluck the almonds and eat them or to enjoy them and i i'm guessing that's kind of what's being described here desire itself is going to fail because there's no one to have any desires anymore mourners go about the streets people mourning for the death sadness funerals ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden bowl be broken or the pitcher be broken at the fountain or the wheel broken at the cistern you know you could look at this in a lot of different ways you know you could look at someone just literally dying someone just dying and just they're holding something they're dying and just it breaks or they're at work and things are broken things are being destroyed the economy is is basically just at a low point we understand that ultimately though everything is going to be destroyed and says then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto god who gave it so why should i serve god in my youth well number one you only get youth once you know they say you only live once yolo but it's your only young ones too and why did god give us so much strength you gotta think about this like why is it that i have this peak strength in these ages well maybe it's one to have children so i'll tell you something children are tiring children take a lot of effort a lot of energy a lot of strength it makes sense that god didn't have the window for women to have children from 60 to 80 right it's like pretty much from 20 to 40 why do you think that is because that's when they have their strength that's when they and they need that strength in order to have children give birth raise them go through the heart plus raising children it's going to be the most strenuous physically when they're younger as they get older it's not going to be as much of a burden now it's going to be a burden financially it's going to be a burden mentally there's other aspects but physically it's not as much of a burden because you don't have to change all the diapers and hold them and the breastfeeding and you don't have to necessarily tie all their shoes and take care of everything for them and help them in the bathroom and all this different stuff so god is giving us strength to do things like having children you know once you get past that that frame though that timeline it's off the table you know once you pretty much once women get to about 45 you know mathematically speaking and statistically speaking it's pretty much over at that point there's no more and there's plenty of women that have wanted children you know 38 40 42 45 that wanted them and they just it just didn't happen and they'd wish that maybe it had they had more but the the door has closed or you know maybe you you've waited to get married and it's just like you know you're 23 then you're 25 and then you're 27 and then you're 30 and then you're 35 and then you're 40 and then you're i mean you know the longer you wait then you know you miss out on some of those opportunities that you had and the memories you could have had when you were married when you were younger you know starting a career late you're just like hey i eventually i'll get a job eventually i'll do something that's meaningful well you're going to miss out on things when you start late when you don't take advantage of your strength you don't take advantage of opportunities hey maybe eventually i'll start reading the bible maybe eventually i'll start reading maybe eventually i'll start soul winning you know there's people that i know they got saved later in life and didn't become a soul winner they're like 50 years old approximately well they're they're kind of like man i feel like i've missed out on a lot of years when it would have been easy for me to go soul winning when i had a lot more strength a lot more opportunity to go soul winning you know this is the time to serve god because we don't know what the future beholds we don't know what the economy is going to behold we don't know what opportunities are going to be out there and you know now is the time to strike while shreveport is hot now's the strike when the bahamas is hot what happens when they say hey americans can't travel outside the country anymore i mean could that ever happen i mean with covid it started getting dicey with all the vaccine requirements and the contact tracing and all the weird stuff i mean you know maybe god is thinking like hey why do i keep just allowing americans to go travel wherever they want when all they do is ever go on vacation when all they ever do is go on the cruise ship when all they ever do is go to the resort when all they ever do is just party and have fun and just do whatever they want well y'all don't need that opportunity anymore no i'd rather as a christian say like hey i'm gonna go out with my passport as an american and i'm actually gonna use it to get somebody saved to go visit a church to go start a church to go do missions work to go do something for the the kingdom and look i'm not saying don't have fun along the way let's have a little bit of fun but i'm saying let's not just only have fun let's do something that's meaningful and impactful because eventually we will die eventually we'll be dust eventually it could even be that we're not even dead physically but we're just kept back away from this because of hardship evil days darkness old age whatever it is and we just didn't take advantage of the opportunities we have we're not promised tomorrow we need to do the work that we can now now i want to look at a couple verses go to proverbs 29 go to proverbs 29 these are some important concepts especially for us and especially you know we like to think like oh great maybe a america is going to be rescued from communism maybe america won't go down as dark a path as it's been heading and you know what i hope so but i hope that america doesn't have a better future for the next four years and then we do less for god because of it i i sure hope that you don't get more money and then do less for god i sure hope that you don't have less harassment and do less for god i sure hope you take advantage of the strength and the youth and the good days and the things that god has given you and you don't just say i don't need church anymore because everything's great no you need church even more i don't need to read the bible things are going great for me no you need to read the bible no you still need to pray no there's still i mean our prayer list is long we people need prayer hey our expecting ladies list is is is mild okay we've had that thing up almost a 20 before all right you know this is the time and you know our church is young we need this message we're not we're not sitting here past the hill a lot of us are in our prime a lot of us have a lot of good days ahead of us we need to take advantage of that because we don't know what's on the future look what it says in verse number two proverbs 29 verse 2 when the righteous are in authority the people rejoice but when the wicked beareth rule the people mourn you know you could argue that a lot of people a lot of us especially would be pretty pretty upset if kamala harris is our president i'm just gonna be honest with you you know and i don't know if they're gonna just like kill biden just so she can for like a few days or something just just as that novelty but even those few days will be evil okay but i'm just saying like to have somebody like that i mean just having joe biden was a was a mournful thing was an evil thing having evil wicked people in control and in power it's an evil thing and you know what the more righteous the people are that are in authority the better our lives are going to be you know i hope that i've heard this rumor or i've seen this thing online that they might consider putting ron paul and and government and and give him some kind of position or government and i'm just thinking like please do you know wouldn't it be nice to get some some somewhat righteous people into authority and the positions of power where we can finally rejoice put in a good attorney general put in some like good people in political office i mean wouldn't it be nice if on the supreme court we had a fundamental baptist judge i mean man that would be nice it'd be nice if we could get some some more righteous people in authority but we don't know we could even have the opposite so we need to take advantage if god gives us some better leaders some better authorities we better take advantage of that because we might end up having bad again and what does the bible say about that we'll go to chapter 28 28 verse 28 right before this when the wicked rise men hide themselves but when they perish the righteous increase so you know what we need to do is if we're given a little bit of space here if we're given a little bit of opportunity if we're given a window here you know what we need to be doing we need to be increasing righteous people that is making disciples we need to we need to not only get people saved we need to get them baptized and not only baptized we need to get a king james bible in their hand and we need to come alongside them and encourage them to become a baptist and to become a fundamentalist and to become a soul winner and to become someone that goes to church three times a week and to become someone that raises a godly family you know what we need to increase righteousness when god gives us opportunity we need to be used by god to do so obviously peter was to be a fisher of men he was to draw men and you know what that's not limited to people that are a pastor or evangelist that is us as christians that is us as disciples that we can become fishers of men and we can bring men into church we can bring men into the fold we can disciple them we can train them we can help them come alongside them and you know what many people have influenced me to be where i'm at that weren't pastors and i'm sure people in here said hey a friend helped me a friend got me saved a friend got me in a church a friend did this and you know what we should be iron sharpening iron and helping one another because the days are evil we don't know what's going to happen go back to ecclesiastes chapter number 12 look at verse number eight says vanity of vanity say at the preacher all is vanity now i concluded in the idea that we're gonna all die eventually we're gonna all go back to the dust and and look most of our lives is vanity that's why it's important to take advantage of the spiritual things so that when we're old we say wow i'm glad i serve god a lot of my life and that it's not just all vanity that is not just all wood hay stubble what does it say in verse nine and moreover because the preacher was wise he still taught the people knowledge yet he gave good heat and sought out and said in order many proverbs i think this is an important verse especially the last part set in order many proverbs notice this the preacher is wise why so he can teach people teach people what knowledge and notice this he gave good heed and he sought out and set in order many proverbs you know what this tells me it tells me that you're not just going to randomly just understand everything in the bible you know this tells me this tells me that people can't just open the book of proverbs and just understand it you know this tells me there's there's something to listening to wise people there's something to someone studying the bible there's something to proverbs actually being set in order this also tells me there's probably some people that are teaching proverbs that are not right they're not being set in order they're not being used appropriately they're not being understood correctly and yet the wise preacher the wise person is studying and teaching people knowledge and he's seeking them out and he's trying to figure them out so that he can set them in order so that people can really understand the true wisdom and knowledge of god and admittedly understanding the bible is difficult and we should always approach it with that attitude not this attitude of thinking this everything's super easy super surface level the bible is deep and has a lot of deep meaning a lot of deep wisdom and we should be careful when we approach the word of god to make sure that we're even in doing it right you know study to show thyself approved unto god a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth the bible does not say oh just hastily come to conclusions of the bible hastily interpret the scripture hastily come to understanding no it takes time the bible often categorizes or metaphor it uses a metaphor for preachers as a bull or an ox or a cow and you think about like what does this animal do well this animal chews grass and then spits it up and then chews it again and then spits it up and i think it goes like four times like approximately four times i think they have different divisions in their own stomachs and they go through all of this process so they can produce milk and that that wonder i love milk my family loves milk but you know in order to get milk you have to chew that grass just over and over and over and over and meditate upon it and you know this is the picture of a good preacher of a good pastor of a good christian is one who meditates on the word of god what does meditate mean it means that you're actually thinking about the same thing over and over and over you're not just just quick glance look at it and unfortunately a lot of devotionals today they just kind of like have one verse and then they just have all this text that's not the bible or something and it's like really what we should be doing is meditating on verses and really is thinking about verses and allowing the verses to sink in and a lot of times verses they aren't good the first time you go through it that's like the grass the grass the first time you eat it and then the first time if it came out of your mouth it's gross it wouldn't even be something you'd want and then it's like okay eat it again okay and then again and honestly that's how we should approach the bible and think like sometimes when i read it my first gut reaction or my first instinct or my first interpretation or my first idea it wasn't good and then i had to chew on it again and i had to chew on it again and i had to chew on it again and then eventually oh now it's milk now it's something that's digestible now it's something that's you know good and something that can be used and so we have to be careful that when we look at proverbs specifically that we're very careful with them because they're not the proverbs are meant to have difficulty that that's why it's that's inherent in the word proverb it's a dark saying it's something that you know isn't always easily grasped and so we want to make sure that we're really meditating and thinking on plus i find that a lot of proverbs a lot of parts of the bible for me they've taken a lot of time for me to understand them because i didn't have life experience it was like i just wasn't aware of certain things that happen in life so that proverb just didn't ever make sense to me until i went through a particular situation and it's almost as if god has hidden nuggets in the bible that will probably never even understand until we just get older or we have more life circumstance or we've gone through different situations and we should be careful to to recognize that there could be things in the bible we can't understand at this moment you know if you haven't gone through a particular situation you should always be careful very careful on how you judge that situation you know if you haven't been married you should be very careful on your opinions on marriage if you haven't had kids should be very careful on your opinions about kids if you haven't raised teenagers so be really careful on your opinions about raising teenagers you know even even grandchildren all these different areas of life we should be very careful you know if you haven't been a pastor you should be really careful how you judge pastors if you haven't been a soul winner just be really careful on how you judge soul winning if you haven't read the bible cover to cover you should be really careful on how you judge people's christianity isn't that frustrating when people think like oh you're really hateful and it's like but they've never even read the bible one time it doesn't seem like you're really being careful you know when you look at proverbs we should be really careful and think about it hey it it takes time effort energy to set and order many proverbs if you really want to understand the bible it's a deep book with deep meaning deep understanding it's going to take us time it's going to take years it's going to take decades it's going to take a lifetime to understand a lot of things in the bible and even then no one will have fully amassed the wisdom and knowledge that is contained in the scriptures we should be careful but what the preacher was wise so that's why he did it the wise man realizes hey this this is not something to take lightly don't take the bible lightly we need more pastors and preachers that approach the word of god with fear and trembling we need more preachers and pastors to to approach the scriptures and say i need to take time you know whenever i do bible studies i'll just be honest with you i'm just going to be really blunt with you guys every almost every single chapter that we've ever gone through on wednesday night the first time i read it through i feel like i have no idea what it's saying and i feel like i'm like i don't even know what i'm going to teach and i get really intimidated i'm just being honest i'm just thinking like well i can get up there and read the chapter to everybody but i'm thinking like i don't know and and for myself i know like i have to read this thing many times i'm gonna have to just read it and read it and read it and i even feel like many times every time i go through the next time i learn a little bit more i understand a little bit more and and then i also know hey there's probably still plenty of stuff on the bone that i'm leaving you know even though we go through a lot of these chapters and a lot of verse i mean there's plenty of other things people come up to me after the sermon they're like hey i thought of this when you're saying this i'm like yeah that's a good application yeah that's a great point because just because the passage or just because a verse can mean one thing doesn't mean it can't mean 10 other things too and doesn't mean it couldn't have other great applications and we all need to be sensitive to the holy spirit which will guide us into all truth and we need to be approaching the bible with a certain reverence and making sure though that we're understanding what the bible is really saying that we're not just quick to run with a verse or run with an idea without considering is this the context is this what the passage is saying what does the bible say in other passages that are related to this topic because i notice a lot of bad preaching comes from someone being too hasty with a verse they're too hasty and i have this idea and i think that's what it says so i'm just going to run with it instead of really meditating on it is that what the context is saying because if they just thought a little bit longer and thought about the context they'd realize oh wow that's actually contradictory what the passage is saying or they're too hasty in the sense that they don't think about what other verses say in the bible or they don't think about the other parts of the scripture in that subject matter and so they end up saying things that are contradicting other verses in the bible because they're unlearned they're ignorant they're foolish or they're hasty in their approach to the scripture and so we have to be very careful when we come to the bible that we're treating it with respect that we're treating it with the care that it needs and we're not just hasty to use it you know we shouldn't be hasty with things that are very dangerous the bible calls the word of god a two-edged sword you know we wouldn't want to just pull out a gun and just start slinging around our hand and just being willy-nilly with that because it's a it's an important tool that we want to use and handle with care and respect the same would be a sword you don't want to just me to pull out a sword just be like hey catch my sword or flinging it around or playing with it or watch this or making a joke with it or hey duck real quick and you just swing your sword at them you know we wouldn't want to do that anything we don't do that with the bible either we don't want to just sling out verses and sling out ideas and just treat it really willy-nilly we want to be careful with the word of god and use it skillfully and use it appropriately because you know what while the bible has life in it it also has death in it and people make life decisions based on what the bible says and you know when we preach the bible we want to make sure that we're using it carefully because it can affect people's lives permanently and we want to be very careful with the word of god and come to it with a lot of reverence and respect the bible says in verse 10 the preacher sought out to find out acceptable words and that which was written was upright even words of truth so we want to make sure that when we preach or the words that are being preached are acceptable words and what does that mean what's uh that it's upright that it's words of truth okay now here's the thing of course the bible itself is always upright and it's always the words of truth but we also want to make sure that what we're saying is also correct now keep your finger let's go to a couple different passages go to titus um in the new testament for a moment i was thinking about this phrase acceptable words you know this this could be misunderstood it's not saying that one particular english word is more acceptable than another english word and i know in our modern culture we kind of have this quote idea of bad words but that is not what the bible is saying that's not really a concept found in the bible when it means acceptable words it's talking about like a sentence it's talking about a phrase it's talking about a combination of words used to convey meaning what is a word it's a tool used to convey meaning and so what's acceptable is conveying a good meaning an upright meaning a meaning of truth that's what it matters not if it's mean or harsh or whatever and of course the bible does speak about this we don't want to offend people unnecessarily we don't want to tear down people unnecessarily so we should be careful with what words that we use you know a soft answer turn of the way wrath is what the bible clearly says but generally speaking you know a word is a word but we want to make sure that when we combine these words into sentences and the things that we say that what we're saying is things that are upright what we're saying are things that are true what we're saying is sound doctrine that's what it says in titus chapter 1 verse 9 holding fast the faithful word as he had been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers we should make sure that our doctrine is sound that's what the bible teaches that it's logical that it makes sense that it can't be refuted that it's sound that it's foundational that it's fundamental and we use that to convince people chapter 2 verse 1 but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine notice he wants you to when you explain something explain something that now becomes sound doctrine now this is a great advice we're having an upcoming soul-winning tips and seminar and i guarantee that these soul-winning captains are going to give you examples they're going to give you tips of things that they've already gone out there they've already tried they've already tested and it's become sound doctrine hey use this analogy hey use this example hey use this phrase even though it may not be a direct quote of the bible it's sound doctrine because it matches what the bible teaches it's been effectively tested it's been effectively used they've been successful in getting people saved and now they're speaking the things which have become sound doctrine it's not something that they just randomly thought of today hey i just randomly had this thought why don't you just do this no it's things they've gone out that they've tested that they've tried that they've proved that they've used that they've been successful with and they're trying to help others and they're trying to edify others and they're saying hey use this this is sound doctrine whereas people that go out soul-winning and they don't have much instruction the first time sometimes we say things that are awkward i've heard weird things when people are going out soul-winning people are i've heard people say things like you know when you change on your when you change your mind or something that's like how some people change genders and i was like i wouldn't use that to explain repentance you know i just wouldn't change i wouldn't use that as an example you know or or when people are trying to explain like you can't lose your salvation they'll use some extreme serial killer nightmare scenario and i'm thinking like that's just not a good way to explain how you can't lose your salvation you know and i'm thinking like you know the the best examples are usually ones that are analogies found in the text themselves like the idea of becoming a child you know that's a good analogy sometimes people use all kinds of examples and ideas and concepts and the ones that are good are the ones that have been tested tried proven and matched with the bible says and we need to speak to things which become sound doctrine don't we hey this is good advice look at verse seven in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works and doctrine showing uncorruptness gravity sincerity notice this sound speech that cannot be condemned that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you meaning hey we want to say things that are right that are biblical and they cannot attack us for our doctrine when we look at people like daniel in the bible they're like we cannot find any accusation against this guy except for how he worships his god and you know what a wonderful testimony that he had now most of us probably don't have that testimony probably nobody almost nobody has that kind of a testimony but you know that's what we should strive for is a testimony like daniel and a testimony that the words that we speak well there's not really much we could say against what he said what he is saying is what the bible says second timothy go back to second timothy chapter one and look at verse number 13 the bible says hold fast the form of sound words which thou has heard of me in faith and love which is in christ jesus so again we kind of have this passing down from paul to timothy and passing down to titus these sound words sound speech sound doctrine things that are good things to say and we should be careful that we embrace the teachings that have been handed down to us and that we make sure that what we communicate and what we said have been tested this is how you get this is how you get away from heresy is that you make sure that the things that you've been teaching are things that hey this has already been tested this has already been proven this is something that we already know this is something that's been handed down and i'm going to preach what's been handed down go back to ecclesiastes but you know it may not be cool you may not get that variance that your flesh wants of like oh i'm so different well you know i'm not looking to be different i'm looking to to teach what has been passed down the sound words that have been passed down and the sound doctrine that's been passed down and the things that i already know to be true i don't necessarily need to find all these cute new doctrines or these cute new ideas you know we need to make sure that we're seeking out the acceptable words the words of truth whatever is true and let's be honest people have already existed before us they already know what's true it's already been proven it's already been figured out we just need to accept them we need to find the acceptable words we need to teach and preach that verse 11 the words are the wiser as goads and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies which are given from one shepherd notice again these words they fasten things down they they don't cause things to be loose they cause things to be secure good preaching answers questions bad preaching ministers questions if you don't know what was communicated it was bad preaching if you know exactly what's communicated it's good preaching and again this is when we go soul winning we're going to cut through 20 years of garbage on how to get saved in about 10 minutes and they're going to know exactly what we're saying you have to do to be saved and that's what we need to communicate when we go soul winning we preach the bible notice it's also given from one shepherd we could look at this in two different ways number one of course all wisdom all instruction is coming from the one shepherd which is the lord jesus christ which is the word of god that's how we get it secondly though we could look at it from a human perspective that hey many churches many places are going to have that one shepherd and it's his responsibility to pass this down onto the sheep and to make things secure many times carnally when we think about this you have a giant flock out and you have one shepherd out there guarding that entire shop that entire flock and you know as a man you may have a wife several children you're that one shepherd of your household you're that one guardian of your household and you need to make sure that you're you're checking that entire flock you know in many cases you might be that one guy the one watchman the one shepherd the one guy you need to make sure that you take that job seriously because it's not your wife's job it's not your children's job no one else is going to protect your family no one else is shepherding your family it's up to you you need to be that one shepherd you need to be fastening things down you need to be taking care of business not just carnally but spiritually hey you want to make sure you have a good roof over your head physically because you don't want rain coming in but you also need to make sure that you have a good roof on your house spiritually so you don't have the storms of life coming in so you don't have the storms of false doctrine and drama and all kinds of other issues that you have that sound roof and you are that one shepherd verse 12 and further by these my son be admonished of making many books there is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh don't think that studying the bible reading the bible is easy it takes work verse 13 let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear god and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man for god shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil what is the conclusion of the book of ecclesiastes all is vanity except for fearing god and keep his commandments we need to make sure that we're fearing god and keeping his commandments and we will be rewarded according to our works let's go to two more places we'll finish go to first corinthians chapter number three every work will be brought into judgment this is something that should actually haunt us a little bit and the bible even says so every work now here's the thing we don't have to stand before god and account for every sin praise god for that one we don't have to stand there and be ashamed on judgment day because our sins are separated from us from as far as the east is from the west but the bible says even for christians though there is a judgment and that judgment is where every work will be scrutinized whether it be good or bad now first corinthians chapter 3 verse 13 says this every man's work shall be made manifest now i want you to understand another thing about judgment not only will your work be between you and jesus it'll be between all of us every man's work will be made manifest we will find out who really served god someday we will figure out who really did suffer the lord jesus christ you will every single work that you've ever done good or bad it will be manifest at some point and we'll see oh wow i thought that guy did a lot for god nope and then oh that guy i thought he was a bozo he did a lot for god there will be a lot of surprises i guarantee you in heaven now i'm hoping and i'm hoping for all of us that we'll all be pleasantly surprised we'll be like wow we did better than we thought right but i certainly don't want to go up to heaven here's another thing though is i don't think that very many people are going to have that opinion i think most people are going to be surprised that they didn't do much for god i think very few people are going to be like wow i served god a lot and i didn't even know it i don't think that's going to be most people i think it is possible that some people could forget all the good things that they did and all the works that they did and so they're like wow i did a lot more than i realized but i think for most people it's going to be the exact opposite where they're going to be like wow i did nothing wow that was disappointing every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is what's the sort just like it said in ecclesiastes whether it be good or whether it be bad go to second corinthians chapter five second corinthians chapter five i mean who in here saved and if you believe you're saved let me tell you something as much as you believe you're saved you have to believe that you will stand before the lord jesus christ and you will give an account of every single work how much of a vanity of our life is going to matter in that moment how much is the vanity of what kind of clothes you wore and what kind of house you had i mean are you going to really be oh man i had a two-car garage i had a five-car garage i had a ferrari man i had a nice suit you won't care about any of that in fact if anything you'll be more embarrassed by that then you will be proud of it you know what you'll be proud of is the works you did for god in that day not the vanity of life you'll be remembering that thing oh yeah vanity of vanity is all is vanity there's going to be a lot of people that verse is going to finally make sense they're going to be like oh wow i did nothing yeah that was a lot of vanity you lived but i but i won a trophy but i had a big house but i went to joe holstein church you know but i gave money to the poor and told everybody about it but you know i i read the niv one time i handed out a track you know it's like how many people are going to stand there and it's just going to be like wow i accomplished literally nothing and what does the bible say 2nd grinthians chapter 5 verse 10 for we must all appear before the judgment seat of christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he had done whether it be good or bad so people don't get confused with this this is not saying your sins though we're not we're not standing for god and having to talk about every time you lied and stole and all that which praise god we don't but we're saying what the works were that you accomplished and whether it was a a good work or not what did you do now of course all of your sin work it was meaningless too on top of that but there's a lot of things you didn't you did you've done that were not sin that are also bad that are just meaningless that have no real value what is the next verse knowing therefore the terror of the lord we persuade men you should be terrified about having to stand before jesus christ and give an account of the works that you've done and it will happen and how many christians today have just they have like no fear of this and you can evidence it by their life yeah i don't go to church i don't read the bible i don't go soul winning yeah you do not fear the lord jesus christ hey you like that free gift hey you're saved hey we'll see you in heaven but boy you're going to be nervous on that day boy there's a lot of terror to stand before the lord jesus christ and to be exposed to everyone what kind of works that you did and what was really in your heart and what you're really like and what your eternal destiny is going to be like because you think like oh well that's just a moment no no you're going to live in all of eternity based on that moment that moment will set up your forever will forever know you by that moment and what you did who were you what kind of house you have how bright you shine in glory what kind of job you have in all of eternity and you know it won't matter if you were a pastor not a pastor married not married male female tall young old you you were athletic not athletic good looking not good looking had money didn't have money none of that matters zero what did you do for christ therefore knowing the terror of the lord we persuade men hey i'm trying to convince you this is serious folks we're so focused on donald trump and kamala harris and 401k and while in there it's like vanity of vanity say at the preacher all is vanity it doesn't even matter but did i voted for trump i did i'm just i'm just messing with you but someone's like what does jesus care about that it's not like i voted for kamala okay folks don't get too nervous all right i'm just telling you you know this is serious you say like oh why do i get a church on Wednesday night well you know what someday you're going to stand before the lord jesus christ and you know what you're going to wish you had done more not less and you're probably going to do a little bit more if every once in a while you have someone yelling at you to do more you're not going to you're not going to do less by coming to church but you might do less by going out and just hanging out with the world watching the world stuff thinking about the world stuff not really caring about the things i've got you know we need to go to church to be reminded of what we're what the real goal is in life you know i don't i don't know that you necessarily get like an extra special badge for every time you attend a service or anything like that but it just there's a direct correlation to the people that are serving god and going to have great rewards and their attendance in church and the bible made it abundantly clear to remember god was to praise him in the congregation to praise him in the assembly for his wondrous works and i i just i know i'm gonna stand before jesus and i know y'all are gonna stand before jesus and you know i have to give an account too and i'm i'm not gonna be guilty of not having warned y'all i'm not gonna say jesus is gonna be like man you never told them this day was coming he's like man you told those people let's bring one of them over here you know and you know what he says that i hope that y'all do it so that i don't have to stand there and and be kind of sad that y'all didn't do it i can actually be glad like yeah yeah he was there yeah we were there yeah i told him i'm gonna be i'm you know when you get greatly rewarded i hope you get way more awards than me i'm gonna be like that's awesome i'm so glad that guy came to my church i'm so glad i know him so that i can go to your house and hang out with you at your awesome house you know what i mean like i hope you get greatly rewarded so i can go hang out with you so that if you're my boss you'll be nice to me in heaven okay whatever like hey come here pastor shelley thanks so much man you know thanks for being you know thanks for encouraging me again you know i don't want us to all be hanging out in lower heaven and my wife's like waving at us from upper heaven i want us to be hanging out in the cool parts of the the earth right the meek shall inherit the earth we're going to rule and reign with christ it's going to be forever you know like why do you go to church why read the bible i go so many well you know what number one i want the most people there as possible and then number two i don't want god to be looking at me and you know judgment day and just being like what'd you do with the talent i gave you i want them to say well done thou good and faithful servant and you know for all those niv and and holman christian standard bible people are going to be disappointed because they're hoping you would say well done the good and faithful slave but you know us king james only i'm i'm looking forward to him saying well done now good and faithful servant yeah king james yeah all right look it's it's ecclesiastes is a book of wisdom folks what is the ultimate wisdom fear god and keep his commandments and we need to take that seriously we remember the lord we need to work hard we will be judged according to our works praise god our sins have been covered but our works will be made manifest let us take that seriously let us be an example to the world that we believe that that we actually think that that's real you know they're like i get this question a lot oh well if salvation's free then why do you go soul winning because i'm afraid of the judgment seat of christ what's that well you got to get saved first because otherwise you're going to the great white throne judgment you don't want to go there you don't want to be at that one you want to be at the judgment of christ but then you also want to have worked really hard and not be ashamed before him at his coming all right let's close in prayer thank you heavenly father so much for giving us free salvation thank you that we don't have to give an account of our sins but i pray that you would help give us a healthy fear of the lord that we realize that we will stand before the judgment seat of christ that our works will be judged whether they're good or bad i pray that you would help remind us of the wonderful works you've done that we reminded right now of why we're here and that we would take advantage of the opportunities we have i pray that you would just give steadfast baptist church a great opportunity that you would open the windows of heaven that you would pour out a blessing on our church in these upcoming years i pray that you could bring revival in this nation i pray that you would allow us to be greatly used of you and i pray that all the opportunities you open to us that we would take advantage of them spiritually that we wouldn't become selfish that we wouldn't become complacent i pray that you would just help turn back people's hearts to the lord that you'd help us to increase the righteous that you would give us free course that you would deliver us from unreasonable and wicked men i pray that you could just help bless our church carnally and spiritually and that we would give you all the honor and glory and in jesus name we pray amen all right for our last song we're going to go to song number 215 heaven came down and glory filled my soul song 215 song 215 sing it out in darkness we met the need of my arm shadows dispelling with joy i am telling he made all the darkness my sins were washed away and my night was turned to day Heaven came down, and holy filled my soul. Lord of the Spirit, with life above, Into God's family divine, Just divine, holy through Calvary's love, Oh, what ascending is mine! And the transgressions so grimly lost me, When, as a sinner, I came, To the offer of grace he did offer, He sent me all praises near days. Heaven came down, and holy filled my soul. When, at the cross, the Savior made me holy, My sins were washed away, And my knife was turned to pain. Heaven came down, and holy filled my soul. Now the hope that most surely endured, After the passing of time, My own future in heaven foreshore, There have those vengeance of mine, And it's because of that wonderful day, When at the cross I believe, Which is eternal and blessed to burn, Oh, from his precious hand I receive. Heaven came down, and holy filled my soul. When, at the cross, the Savior made me holy, My sins were washed away, And my knife was turned to pain. Heaven came down, and holy filled my soul. Heaven came down, and holy filled my soul. Great singing, everybody. You are all dismissed.