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

You You You You You Good evening everyone welcome to steadfast baptist church if you can all find your seats. We'll go ahead and get started Once you found a seat go ahead and grab a hymnal we're starting song number 30 nothing, but the blood Song number 30 nothing, but the blood Song three zero nothing, but the blood sing it out together The blood of jesus One can make me hold again Nothing but the blood of jesus Oh precious is the hope That makes me white as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of jesus For my part in this I see Nothing but the blood of jesus For my cleansing this might be Nothing but the blood of jesus Oh precious is the hope That makes me white as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of jesus Nothing can force in a zone Nothing but the blood of jesus Not a good that I have done Nothing but the blood of jesus Oh precious is the hope That makes me white as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of jesus This is all my hope and peace Nothing but the blood of jesus This is all my righteousness Nothing but the blood of jesus Oh precious is the hope That makes me white as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of jesus 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 and all the people that are gathered here for your name. Lord God we ask that you bless Pastor Shelley to preach an edifying sermon unto us so that we can all grow and be better Christians and leave better than we came in for your honor and glory. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Alright next up we have song number 66 at Calvary. Song 66 at Calvary. Song 66. Sing it out. Years are spent in vanity and pride Caring not my Lord was crucified Knowing God it was for me he died On Calvary Mercy there was great and grace was free Heart and hair was multiplied to me There my burdened soul found liberty At Calvary By God's word and lust my sin I learned Then I trembled at the law I spurned Till my guilty soul and glory turned To Calvary Mercy there was great and grace was free Heart and hair was multiplied to me There my burdened soul found liberty At Calvary Oh the love that drew salvation's plan Oh the grace that brought it down to man Oh the mighty gold that God did spend At Calvary Mercy there was great and grace was free Heart and hair was multiplied to me There my burdened soul found liberty At Calvary Now I give a peace that's everything Now I'm glad we own him as my king Now my raptured soul can only sing At Calvary Mercy there was great and grace was free Heart and hair was multiplied to me There my burdened soul found liberty At Calvary Alright, thanks so much. And we'll have those prizes on Sunday. We are working on a new Bible memory passage. We're on Jonah chapter 2. So if you can quote the entire passage you can get a prize as well. Any of the kiddos that can quote the verse of the day or the verse of the week can get a prize after the service, an ice cream treat. On the inside we have our service times, soul winning times. Make sure you get those prizes. Make sure you turn in your soul winning statistics to your soul winning captains, maps, im hovering in the hallway on the right. We have some expecting ladies please be in prayer for them. Our prayer list we like to go over that on Wednesdays. On the back we have some upcoming events. We have the heritage of the Lord conference on the 4th-6th. on October 31st at 6 p.m. and then November 16th is the Miami Soul Waning Marathon. I updated the bulletin with a schedule for the conference and so I guess if you got a new bulletin you might see that there listed. If you didn't, if you have a sunday I don't think that it had that but I do kind of have a schedule. I'm not going to put that out online or anything but it's just for you guys so if you are interested in coming to any of those events we kind of have a schedule. It'll be in the bulletin sunday morning so you don't necessarily need to worry about that but just wanted to let you know on the inside again if you look at our prayer list we've been praying for the name's grandmother. We've been praying for Miss Carlson's mother as well and then Miss Miller her friend and mother friend's mother. Brother Scott had an update that his nephews actually doing better but we just pray for his parents as well for their health. Praying for Miss Garcia's daughter Krista. She is expecting and that's very exciting for them. Also we've been praying for brother Sam and his fiance. We've been praying for the Nichols for work. We've been praying for brother Guzman's father. Also brother Billy had a couple prayer requests here for several people that he works with and then we have brother Jimmy who we've been in prayer for his sister-in-law Tammy who's also going through cancer. So a lot of health requests and some other work and in favor so we'll just go ahead and make a quick word of prayer as a church family for them. Thank you heavenly father so much for our church and being able to be gathered here this evening. I thank you so much for all these ladies who are expecting. I pray that you please just help them during their pregnancies. I pray that you'd also be with these church members and our friends and family that are struggling with cancer and with sickness and with illness. I pray that if possible you could just grant them grace that you could just give them a full recovery. Please give them health. I pray that you could also just bless our church family that needs favor with their jobs or with their work or with travel. I pray that you would also continue to use us to be a great testimony to our family and friends and that you give us opportunities for those that need to hear the gospel. I pray that you would just bless our upcoming conference and that you would continue to use our church for your honor and glory. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. That's all I have as far as announcements. We'll go ahead and sing our third song which is in our handouts. It's holy, holy, holy. So it's in our announcements. I forgot I do have another announcement. Let me see. I want to make sure I get this accurate. So uh we actually have a congratulations to the villa reels on the birth of Adam Pablo. He was born on Tuesday the 10th at 301 am weighing seven pounds nine ounces 21 and three-quarter inches long. Congratulations to them. So we'll have that we'll have that in the bulletin on Sunday as well. So we'll go ahead and sing holy, holy, holy. Make sure to sing it out nice and loud. Holy, holy, holy. All right. Holy, holy, holy. Early in the morning, our star shall rise to thee. Holy, holy, holy. Merciful and mighty, God in three verses. Blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy. All the saints adore thee. Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea. Falling down before thee. Holy, holy, holy. Though the darkness hide thee. Only I of simple men thy glory may not speak. Holy thou art holy. There is none beside thee. Perfect in power, in love and purity. 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 verses. Blessed Trinity. Great singing everybody. While the offering plates are going around, would you turn your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter number five. Ecclesiastes chapter number five. God in three verses. Okay. Ecclesiastes chapter number five. The Bible reads keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evil be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God for God is in heaven and thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few for a dream cometh through the multitude of business and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words when thou vows to bow unto God defer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in fools pay that which thou has vowed better is it that thou shouldest not bow then that thou shouldest vow and not pay suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neither say thou before the angel that it was in error wherefore should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands for in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities but fear thou God if thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they moreover the prophet of the earth is for all the king himself is served by the field he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with increase this is also a vanity when goods increase they are increased that eat them and what good is there to the owners thereof saving the beholding of them with their eyes the sleep of a laboring man is sweet whether he eat little or much but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep there is a sore evil which i have seen under the sun namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt but those riches perish by evil travail and he beget at the sun and there is nothing in his hand and he came forth out of his mother's womb naked shall he return to go as he came and shall take nothing of his labor which he may carry away in his hand and this also is a sore evil that in all points as he came so shall he go and what profit hath he that hath labored for the wind all his days also he eateth in darkness and he hath much sorrow and wrath with the sickness behold that which i have seen it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life which god giveth him for it is his portion every man also to him god hath given riches and wealth and hath given him power to eat thereof and to take his portion to rejoice in his labor this is the gift of god for he shall not much remember the days of his life because god answereth him in the joy of his heart let's pray heavenly follow lord i pray that you'd be with pastor shelley uh fill him with your spirit lord that he would preach unto us your word help us to have soft hearts to receive your word and apply in our lives praise in jesus name amen amen ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 1 says keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of god and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evil this first phrase here that's mentioned keep thy foot is a little bit of an obscure phrase but there it is mentioned in other places in the text if you keep your finger here and go to proverbs chapter number three i think actually the reference there is a little bit clearer as far as the context of what we're kind of bringing up but it says in proverbs chapter 3 look at verse 25 be not afraid of sudden fear neither of the desolation of the wicked when it cometh for the lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep thy foot from being taken so here we have that exact same phrase of keep thy foot and i believe that it's just simply just trying to illustrate the idea of movement and so we're talking about your foot not being moved and and really that's for a couple different reasons the idea of being in the same position not changing safety security a lot of these concepts are kind of being brought up and in this particular verse of course the the text is trying to imply that whenever evil people are destroyed or punished that we shouldn't necessarily be afraid that god's going to punish us with the wicked but rather he would keep our feet from being taken in a sense that we could still be delivered rescued saved you could look at one example i would think of is daniel himself because the babylonian kingdom is actually destroyed while he's still there in his old age and while his the son of of Nebuchadnezzar is destroyed and all of the babylonians daniel continues into the reign of king darius which is the medo-persian empire so you actually have an incomplete nation change uh basically overnight it's like basically the the writing on the wall and then by the end of the night the kingdom's basically been overthrown and taken over yet daniel ends up being delivered and goes through that and so he doesn't even lose his position he still is a high-ranking official in fact becomes the most high-ranking official he was third in the kingdom when in the context of specifically uh Nebuchadnezzar's promotion he promotes him and makes him third in the kingdom because he interprets the writing on the wall but then with king darius he basically becomes chief of all the all the rulers and the leaders and so i i think that that's trying to illustrate even if god allows the wicked to be destroyed your nation to change and all these things he can still deliver you and keep you safe you remain steadfast you remain unmovable now if we go back to ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 1 it's going to be a similar idea but in a slightly different context the same context of the idea of not being moved being steadfast right so it's saying when you're uh keep by foot when they'll go us to the house of god what would be an idea of this would be the idea of not changing how about like not changing the bible that you use you know there's a movement out there to transition away from the king james bible but such a foolish idea that people would decide to literally change from the king james bible to one of these modern versions yet virtually every church has done that because in times past the king james bible used to be known as the book you say which book the book because there is the book and it's the king james bible it was the bible and so at some point every church that's not using a king james bible transitioned away and they moved their little feet away from the king james bible and really just from the bible itself from the word of god itself and now they utter weird and strange things because they're not using the king james bible they're not using the word of god and we should be careful when we're going to church that we actually use the word of god the only thing that gives us authority in the church is the word of god the only thing we're authorized to preach is the word of god we're not allowed to diminish from it we're not allowed to add to it the preaching of god's word is why we're here we are here to hear what the word of god says and the bible says and we're supposed to be careful to keep our feet to not move to not change to not just go with the shifting sands of the world and the culture today but rather decide you know what i'm going to use the bible that is god's word period and if i don't understand it well then i need to change not the bible and if i don't like it well i need to change not the bible and we should do this the same way in every aspect of church hey we're not going to stop soul winning we're not going to stop singing the great hymns of the faith we're not going to change the program we're not going to change doctrine we're going to keep our feet exactly where they are we're going to be very careful in how we carry ourselves in the things of god and you know what we're going to take the things of god seriously that is the context of this passage that we should take the things of god very seriously and we should consider every step that we take and when we have the faith already established for us we have no reason to move off of that we're already standing on the solid rock so we just want to keep our feet on the solid rock keep our feet on the king james bible keep our feet on being a fundamental baptist keep our feet on being a soul-winning fundamental baptist keep our feet on being an independent separated king james only fundamental trinity believing baptist and we just say hey we're we're not moving we're not even trying to think about moving it's not even an option it's not even on the table and not only this we're also going to be in church we're also going to read our bible we're going to actually serve god and we're just going to keep our feet and we're not just going to church to just try new things or do what's cool or figure out what the culture thinks and we're going to be very careful about every move that we make we should as a church and as christians be very careful about the decisions that we make concerning the things of god because they are holy they are sacred they are reverent and we do not want to take the things of god lightly we can look at passages like first corinthians chapter number 11 when they were doing the passover i'm not the passover the lord's supper i'm sorry the lord's supper incorrectly the bible says that people are getting sick and dying as a result of not doing the lord's supper correctly the bible describes wicked people in the church committing sins like fornication and specifically that a little leaven leaven at the whole lump and if that church decides to start moving away from biblical standards church discipline what's going to happen to that church well the whole lump is going to be leavened and god is going to punish that church we look at the seven churches which are in asia which are not even removed from the apostles the seven churches which are in asia are founded by the apostles of jesus christ and many of them are already going bad having serious issues walking away they forgot their first love we see they're letting women preachers get up they're moving their feet off of that solid rock and now they're doing strange things they're teaching strange things they're saying strange things and so we as a church need to be very careful that we stay on the same path the same rock the same course and that we're not willing to just change willy nilly and as the bible says here that we're supposed to be ready to hear you know we should come to church with an attitude i'm ready to learn that should be the attitude when you show up i am here to learn and you know what's just a little bit disappointing as a preacher and as a pastor when people come to church and they don't even have a bible or when they come to church and they're sleeping during the service or when they come to church and they go find some area of the church where they can wander off to and just talk and be distracted and talk to other people and play games on their phone and just do whatever they want you know the point of coming to church is you're supposed to be ready to hear and i guarantee the stupid conversations that you're having off in the corner of the building weren't worth it anyways yeah it's really disrespectful and and frankly speaking it's unbiblical you know you should show up that you're i mean if you're going to talk with your friends don't come to church i'm not forcing you to be here god's not forcing you to be here hey i like talking with friends i love talking i love hanging out i love fellowship you know what not at church we should be careful we should come to church we should be ready to hear not what then to give the sacrifice of fools for they consider not to do evil do you really expect me to believe that god is pleased with you when you show up at church to just go off and just have some random vain conversation to go gossip about people or look at your phone that's the sacrifice of a fool because look coming to this church is sacrifice i mean almost nobody even lives close to this church i mean most of you have to sacrifice whether that be gas money driving a far a long ways bring your family getting dressed you might even have to alter your dinner plans you probably have to put your kids to bed later than you normally would i mean there's probably all kinds of things that you're doing that are a sacrifice but man what a sacrifice of fools to take all that effort and energy to show up and then not even pay attention to the preaching to not even have a bible in your lap and not even look at what the bible says and look i get it sometimes you have a kid you you're dealing with those situations where a family integrated church you know maybe you can't always pay as much attention as you would like to as you want to but you shouldn't have the opportunity to pay attention and you're not paying attention you shouldn't be making decisions that cause you to not really even look at the text or even can care or consider what's going on and you know maybe you're different than me but i'll just be honest with you i am a visual learner if i don't look at the text it will not resonate with me the same as if i just hear it sometimes it's just like just screaming again or something you know it's like for me looking at it just helps me so much i am the worst when people start spelling you know it's like when someone just starts trying to spell something to me i'm just thinking like i got the first two letters like i don't know like can you sign that again they're like acd fng i'm like i don't know what you said you know it's just like you know i get confused but you know when i look at something it sticks with me it's like it's a lot easier and i think that a lot of people are this way i think a lot of people are visual learners and of course you know the bible when it's saying hearing don't take that so literally like well i don't even have a bible in the lap because i'm just listening you know it's really about learning that's the point that it's trying to make it's making this point of of coming to church to hear the word of god on purpose so that you learn so that you're growing god is not pleased with you for just showing up at a building god's not pleased at you for going to a fake church how many people are making a sacrifice to go to a fake church or a bad church or a church where the pastor isn't even qualified or the program doesn't even believe in salvation by faith and this is literally the sacrifice of fools how many catholics and presbyterians and lutherans and episcopalians are just giving the sacrifices of fools and you know what they're not considering what rock they're standing on they're not considering what bible they're using they're not considering the doctrine that they have they're just well i'm just going and doing stuff i'm sure god's pleased you know the only thing god's pleased with is what he said and when you're not doing what he said he's not just magically pleased because you did something he's pleased because you did what he said that's why we should take church seriously you should take the word of god seriously why did you even show up this evening what's the point because notice what it says that they consider not that they do evil it's not even it's not even that what you did is vain because you know this book of the bible is emphasizing vanity saying things are meaningless or pointless it's saying you're going beyond doing something pointless so you're actually making god upset you're upsetting god by doing a dumb sacrifice you're making god upset by just blowing off your mouth saying dumb things by you know not taking things seriously you know don't come to church with the attitude of anything other than i'm here to learn and you know even if you uh we all understand that we're in a family integrated church and sometimes there's disruptions you know what you should be a little bit upset that you're disrupting other people you know you shouldn't be thinking that it's okay if you're disrupting other people you should try to fix that because those people are hopefully here to learn and you know i try to be really gracious with people but let's be honest if your kids are disrupting the service try to deal with them try to take them out don't have you know noises and and making your kids do weird things and throwing ice and you know doing all kinds of stuff that's a distraction and and causing your neighbor to not be able to pay attention to the sermon or to hear because you're just being too lazy to take care of your own children or your own situation you know we're here to learn the word of god we should take church seriously we should be an example of people that actually like church not just that we all showed up and i yelled everybody and y'all were kind of eating peanuts and laughing and doing your own thing you know it's not like a a party or something it's not just this isn't an entertainment show this isn't a comedy show where you just come and go and you're having your own conversations or doing whatever you know this is us to get together and to study the bible together and we don't want to just show up and be making god upset because man you know i could just stay home and eat a good meal and go to bed early or go have fun and not be pissing god off extra by showing up at church and then not even taking it seriously like what a waste what a waste to actually put all this effort energy all the preparation the musicians have put in all the money and the energy we do to have a property and have pay bills and do all this if we're just showing up we're not even taking the word of god seriously you know and how many churches they are just really just not even taking this book seriously they they don't even read all of it like there's huge sections of the bible that their church never teaches that they never even bring up there's there's huge sections of the bible that the pastor would be afraid to even say out loud let alone expand on and explain to the congregation you know we should be an example of people that say we actually care what this book says and you know why it's so important so that our kids won't think that we're hypocrites when they get old enough to understand what we're doing and think oh wow mom and dad would drag us to church but then they would they didn't pay attention they didn't even look at the text they don't even care you know or they take me to a church where there's a woman pastor and then the kid actually read first timothy or actually read what the bible says that you're not supposed to have a woman pastor and they just start noticing all these weird hypocrisies out there and they just think it's all a joke i mean why do you think it is that the old ifb has almost no youth in their churches anymore you want to know why it's because they're not really reaching the youth they're not preaching the whole council of god and they're not doing what the book says and so for a lot of those young people they just kind of see the hypocrisy it just became a show it just becomes kind of a vain repetition it's a sacrifice of fools and they just walk away we need to inspire people with the real word of god and we need to teach our children to actually pay attention and hear the word of god and listen and we need to teach them all the bible so they can have their own desire to serve god we need to be careful we need to keep our feet verse 2 says this be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before god for god is in heaven and thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few you know that's a that's a really tough verse the bible is making it clear that we should be very careful with how we use our mouths with how we use our tongues the words that we say um i want to go to a verse here keep your finger go to proverbs 10 i want to look at another verse here the bible actually emphasizes over and over the idea of being careful about the things that you say and you know this is a verse that really affects me because i'm not a shy person i'm i'm pretty naturally i like to talk i like to you know converse and have lots of conversations and there's nothing wrong with having lots of conversations but we should still be very careful because it's very easy when you're just talking a lot and having a lot of conversations to just say a lot of dumb things say a lot of really foolish things the bible says in proverbs chapter 10 verse 19 in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin but he that refraineth his lips is wise boy i'll tell you when i go out into the world today and i listen to what the world has to say it is just filled with lies foolishness vanity strange and weird ideas and you know it's it's unfortunate because when people just start talking a lot typically they're just saying a lot of dumb things and so that's why it's important to be careful that when we speak conversations that we have that we're not just blowing off our mouth not just saying dumb things not just saying whatever comes into your mind if you say everything comes in your mind you're going to say a lot of dumb things okay you should learn how to refrain from saying everything that you think and you know i had to learn this as a young man because i think growing up i typically really struggled in this area and i would say everything that came into my mind and i said a lot of dumb things and i guarantee and i was in some ways in some classes in some settings i was like the class clown why because you're not considered wise for always opening your mouth and saying stuff typically it's the guy that's it's the quiet asian guy in math class you're like that guy knows what he's doing right and so you know it's the guy that's usually the quiet one that you're kind of he's kind of mysterious you're kind of thinking like oh man what is this guy you know his guy must understand everything and it's really you just being smart just keep your mouth shut you know the more you talk the more you bring things up typically people aren't just like in awe of everything you say typically people are just like this guy's kind of dumb this guy doesn't really know what he's talking about you know just be careful if you don't know what you're talking about just say i don't know it's it's really it's revolutionary if someone says hey do you know about this and you don't know about it say i don't know boy how much would we be saved of foolishness online right now if someone said hey what do you know about the moon landing just say i don't know because i wasn't there i wasn't part of nasa's program i haven't read any books about it i haven't studied anything related to that subject i know nothing about science it's like why are you gonna i saw a youtube video let me tell you let me tell you everything i saw on youtube you're gonna say a lot of dumb things you know when you aren't an expert in stuff we should be really careful not to pretend like we're experts and not to pretend like we're know-it-alls and not to pretend like we know everything and of course in this context of verse two it's it's also in the context of church we need to be careful that we're not just making all these grandiose promises and statements to god and boy are the pentecostals and the charismatic maniacs just over the top on this stuff but let me explain another group that's actually over the top on this is a lot of fundamental baptists and you know what it is it's that good old-fashioned altar call where they basically just force the entire church to come down at every service and just make all kinds of promises and vows and ohs and you better get right with god now and you better promise god this you better say this and i mean i'm not against dedicating yourself to the lord i think that we should i think we should take the things of god seriously you know what i don't think we should do is just every service showing up and just making these over the top grandiose vows to god and trying to just dedicate ourselves because frankly speaking who knows and god actually is not pleased with you getting over here and just saying all right god i'm sorry i've been missing church i'm never going to miss church again and then you miss it's like that's way worse than having never said anything and then missing church and then they're like oh now i feel convicted i gotta go down there again go down to a good old-fashioned altar call and just say i'm not god i'm gonna get right now god i'm not gonna do this again god i'm not i'm gonna use that like that is not what god wants god does not want lip service god does not want us just constantly blowing off our mouth and constantly being hasty and rash to just say whatever and make all these promises and make all these vows and make all these oaths i'm gonna dedicate myself in fact that's what a lot of churches teach you have to do to be saved that's why they get the whole congregation saved every week because they dedicate themselves and then they sin like immediately after service the whole week and then they get back and they're like i gotta get saved again i mean the the church that i grew up in i kid you not when the pastor said oh i know my dad's in heaven because he raised his hand for salvation every single service and i was like wow that makes me nervous that makes me feel like your dad's not saved like you don't need to get saved every single service because if you think you do then you're not trusting in the finished work of christ because it was already paid for and if you put your faith in jesus christ you're saved okay it's that simple it's that easy so people that are constantly dedicating themselves you know that's a scary doctrine i don't see that in the bible i don't see this this constant weekly dedication and making all these promises and making all these oaths now here's the thing you can find plenty of stories and plenty examples of men making promises and oaths to god but you know a lot of times it ends poorly i mean think about Jephthah Jephthah promises whatever return when he returns from the the battle whatever is the first thing to meet him he's going to sacrifice unto the lord and it's a dollar i'm sure he was like wow that was a dumb decision that wasn't the right move and the same goes with us that we shouldn't be doing this look what it says in verses three and four for a dream coming through the multitude of business and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words when thou vows to vow unto god defer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in fools pay that which thou hast vowed verse five better is it that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay so according to the bible we are not supposed to make any promise any vow or any oath unto god that we are not fully intent on keeping exactly as we vow we should make zero vows zero promises zero oaths that we are not willing to say i am going to for sure do this with absolute certainty because the worst thing you can do is make a vow and then not do it it's better just just be a bad christian like think about it skipping church bad promising to go to church and then skipping church worse and god is really emphasizing this he's saying be careful with your tongue and you know why because then it means that you're actually taking it serious when you're afraid to say something you're actually saying like wow this is actually something difficult i mean i would never want to sit here and say like i will never miss a service ever again because that's probably not true number one nor would i ever want to put that kind of pressure on myself and i realized like that's a serious thing to say like i would want to say hey i'm going to do my best to always be in church i want to get there you know i'm not going to make some kind of a vow like that unto god or make some kind of an oath you know because frankly speaking you know what you're trying to do you're trying to convince god that you're not lying meaning you're not really taking it serious and it's actually brought up in the book of matthew go keep your finger go to matthew chapter number five this is brought up that would typically when people are constantly making a lot of promises a lot of oaths a lot of vows it's because they don't actually intend on keeping them and they're not actually sincere so you know a lot of people that constantly talk about how they're just so dedicated to jesus and they just love them they're making all these promises it's really coming from a place of insincerity and this is what the bible brings up in matthew chapter number five look at verse 33 again you have heard that have been said by them of old time thou shall not forswear thyself but thou shalt perform unto the lord thy nose but i say unto you swear not at all neither by heaven for it is god's throne nor by the earth for it is his footstool neither by jerusalem for it is the city of the great king neither shalt they'll swear by thy head because thou canst not make one hair white or black but let your communication be yay yay nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil so some people a lot of people just misinterpret this passage for some reason i think it's very clear when you read it in context here's a couple ways that people misinterpret this number one they attribute this to using colorful language or using strong but that's not that's not in view of this passage there are some passages in the bible that talk about us not using filthy language not using corrupt communication and there's a time and a place to talk about that subject but that's not what this passage is bringing up whatsoever when it says swear not at all typically we think of the word swearing in a modern context of like using four-letter words but what this is saying is making a promise making a promise but you also don't want to just stop reading right there where it says swear not at all and this is almost like what a lot of people do with matthew chapter seven where it says judge not it's like you don't want to stop reading there because the bible does not say never judge and the bible doesn't say never swear it's saying not to swear an oath with this over the top statement where you're promising to do something and you're making an oath on an authority above you and that's why he brings up those authorities specifically neither by heaven for it is god's throne okay um it's saying or it's uh or by the earth or by jerusalem or by your head he's just saying sometimes when people are trying to be convincing they say i promise on the bible i promise i promise to god or i swear to god what are they saying they're saying like i am putting this uh this oath even above me that i'm not it's not only that i wouldn't lie to you i wouldn't lie to god or i wouldn't lie to the bible or i i wouldn't lie and risk my mother's life like they'll say i'll swear on my mother's grave what does that mean that means that you're willing to risk the life of your mother that your mother would die and perish if you lied that's what that means when someone is saying that and it's saying this is something you should never do you should never make some kind of a statement where you're swearing in that pro in that kind of a context where you're saying i swear on my life i swear on my head i swear on my mother i swear on the bible i swear to god this is really illustrating what the bible says that you're doing something evil did you notice what it said in verse 37 for whatsoever is more than these come of evil so if someone says hey i want to meet you for lunch at 12 tomorrow will you be there say yes what you shouldn't say is i swear to god i'll be there that's what you just don't you don't do that okay and when someone does that it should almost indicate to you like they're they're not coming or there's something weird like why is that why is that the case okay it should just be yes or no if you can't make it no if you can yes now again when you don't make an oath that doesn't give you permission to not do it if you say yes you better do it if you say no you better not do it okay but we don't want to go over the top of our statements and then even add insult to injury by saying i swear to god too and then you screw up because if you just say yes and you screw up that's one level of god being upset if you swear to god and then you mess up it's even worse now here's the thing let's say you made that mistake let's say you literally promised someone and you swore in this over the top manner well then you really better do it obviously that wasn't right you shouldn't have done that but you know what you really need to make sure is that you perform your oath then okay and that is the context of what this passage is bringing up in verse 33 just just so you understand what all these words are meaning thou shalt not forswear thyself to forswear thyself means to go back on a swear meaning that you don't do what you promised to do so he's saying you used to hear don't break your oaths but make sure you do them but i'm saying don't even make these over the top oaths now you'll find it in the bible that people do this over and over they'll say this as the lord liveth and then they'll just insert whatever they're going to promise and they're just trying to be like over the top god's just saying i don't even want you to do that i for sure want you to keep your oaths but i also don't even want you to make these over the top statements i want you to just say yes or say no if you're gonna if it's a yes then just say yes if it's a no then say no that's why he says yay yay you don't say yes yes if the correct response was yay then you would say yay if the correct response was nay then you would say nay that's what the text is saying there it's a little dense to kind of understand go back if you would to ecclesiastes chapter number five so we should be very careful in any promise or any oath that we make i've heard some people say that we should never make any promises or any oaths or any swears ever and i don't i don't believe that's what the text is saying because number one i marry people and yes that is a marriage vow and yes that is a promise you can make promises but we should be very careful and we should be limited in the promises we make if you get a mortgage you know what you sign a promise note and that promise note is that you are going to pay back that loan on the terms and conditions of that particular mortgage note i'm not saying that's wrong but it would be wrong if you not only signed your name you said i swear to god and then signed your name don't do that okay and if you make a promise to pay a loan or to get married or whatever it is that you promised to do you better do it is what the bible is really emphasizing in this passage okay and we should be very careful then because if you say like well if i'm gonna have to do it well i don't want to just say things that i'm not sure i'm gonna do right that's the point like till death do us part i'm gonna get up and i'm gonna promise my allegiance to this person till death do us part but i don't even really know if i like them well then don't do it well then don't say it you know there's so many people getting married today but they're just like they're just like it's like enhanced dating to them or something you know we should look at a promise and an oath to get married as hey i am serious about this when i promise something i will do it i'm not gonna get divorced you know i'll kill you first no i'm just kidding it's till death do us part you know and take those vows seriously and mean it you know that's a special love it's a special love when people actually say hey till death do us part because they actually sincerely mean it and they understand what they're saying and they are true to what they're saying you know when i marry people i try to make it clear hey this is a lifelong decision you're making today and if this person is a terrible person you're still gonna love them and you're still gonna marry them and you're still gonna be the best spouse that you can be because it wasn't a decision of well we're gonna see how this works out well if you're good well if you stay in shape well if you make good food well if you make good money well if you never call me a name no it's just till death do us part for better for worse for richer for poorer in sickness and health forsaking all others that's the vows that we say at least we got married here and you know what we should take that seriously but so many people they're not taking marriage seriously whatsoever says in verse six suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neither say that before the angel that it was an error wherefore should god be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands you know this is what happens when people just take all these promises say all these things and they go back on it what would be an example here of neither say thou before the angel that it was an error because that again some of this language can be a little bit confusing well an angel can be simply a messenger and who would be a messenger well i use the context of marriage for a reason because it's a great example here after i sit here and i pronounce you husband and wife you may kiss the bride and you get married you don't come back to me and say hey messenger hey angel that was an error no you promised you vowed don't say something that you didn't mean don't come back to me and say like well i don't know if that was a good idea i don't know if i like that i don't know if i meant that sorry you you said that you meant that and you know what god's going to be really mad at you when you're just making these vows and making these promises and making these o's and you don't actually mean them we should take the promises that we make seriously and only make them when we're a hundred percent dedicated to making them and again this is why i emphasize the idea that the altar call at a lot of churches today i don't think that they're really emphasizing this message before they then say all right who's ready to come down here and start making promises then because i would be really nervous to go down and just start making o's before god in the house of god that i'm not a hundred percent sure i'm going to definitely keep and look i'm not trying to say that we shouldn't take sin seriously or making changes or improving ourselves we should but you know we need to be very careful that we're not just blowing our mouth off about it or acting like hey i'm definitely gonna do it you know one reason i think this is my personal opinion here or speculation but one application of this in my mind would be the fact that when you screw up god doesn't want you to be so discouraged that you just quit it's like maybe you're struggling in some area and by just recognizing that this is difficult for you when you screw up you may not be motivated necessarily just give up and quit whereas when you make some grand oath or promise and then you screw up it could maybe be even more discouraging more detrimental to your your mentality and cause you to just feel like well now i just really don't want to even try you know we should just take our lives seriously take our foot seriously take our mouth seriously and just strive to be the best that we can be and it's more about what we do than just saying grandiose things anyways god's not that interested in hearing all these promises god rather see some action you know that's what god wants is he wants you to just show up at church not talk about going to church he wants you to just read the bible not talk about how you're going to read the bible he wants you to just love your wife not talk about how much you love your wife just love your wife he doesn't want you to talk about how you might get someone saved or talk about how people get saved he wants you to just go and knock on doors and get people saved i mean think about how many people are arguing about how people get saved as opposed to just going out and getting people saved i mean all the calvinists and all these different people are just arguing about how people even get saved and it's just like come with me and i'll show you okay i'll show you exactly how it works it's just like we need to stop just worrying about what we say and just making these promises making these random o's and and you know what god was very angry when you say you're going to do something you don't do it he'd rather you wait and figure out what you're going to do first and just do it as opposed to making some promise or making some decision that you're not going to do and you know this is just in general this advice applies outside of the context of what we're saying in scripture that you know if you're at the workplace don't walk up to your boss and make some promise that you're not going to deliver on hey if you own a business it's always this under promise and over deliver under promise and over deliver and you know that's a christian principle that's what we're literally reading here in the text that we should under promise to god and we should over deliver but we don't want to do is over promise and under deliver that is the worst thing that you can possibly do and god is really warning us to make sure that we're not doing it that's the main essence of what we've been reading here verse seven kind of concludes that for the multitude of dreams and many words there are also diverse vanities but fear thou god uh keep your finger here go to proverbs chapter 14 so we're supposed to fear god how is fearing god saying i'm not going to promise god anything that i'm not sure i'm going to do that's the fear whereas the fool will promise god everything i've surrendered my life i mean i've heard so many of these charismatic they tell you that in order to get saved you have to surrender it all you have to just give it all you have to make all these promises and i gave my life to the lord and it's just like you were drinking at the bar the other night like what do you mean you gave it all like what are you what are you talking about now look we sing i surrender all and i'm not against singing that song i'm not against that idea i'm not against that concept you know what i'm not going to do is i'm not going to get on my knees and and plead to god and say i promise i'm going to give it all and i'm never going to make a mistake again i'm never going to sin again i'm turning away from everything you know that's just that's not what god really wants god would just want you to give up sin he doesn't want you to tell him that you're going to give up sin he just wants you to give it up he doesn't want you to tell him that you're going to serve him for the rest of your life he just wants you to serve him for the rest of your life and just like a relationship if you are interested in someone and or you're married or any of these contexts they don't want you to tell you like hey i'm going to love you just love them they don't want to say i'm going to be sweet to you they want you to be sweet they don't want to to say, I'm going to do stuff for you, they just want you to do stuff for you. Think about how pleasing it would be to your wife if you said, here's all the honey do list items I'm going to do this weekend, and then you didn't do any of them. As opposed to saying, I don't know if I'm going to do anything, and then you do a couple. That's the mentality. Under promise, over deliver. Proverbs chapter 14, look at verse 23. In all labor there is profit, but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. You know, you don't really accomplish much by talking. We really need to just get to work. We really just need to do stuff. And we can always make this mistake. It's very easy because I love talking, we all love talking. But at the end of the day, we need to sometimes just shut up and just start working. And you know, at work, it's really important, you know a lot of people like to just sit around and talk. Especially women, they're very guilty of this at the workplace, that's why they shouldn't be in the workplace, and they just sit around and talk and accomplish almost nothing that day. It's like, hey, just shut up and just work. Stop making stupid TikTok videos and posting them, okay? Nobody wants to see that anymore. Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 5. There was one thing that I kind of just skipped over, but I'll just explain it quickly. In verse 3 it says for a dream, coming through the multitude of business and a fool's voice is known by a multitude of words. I think that first part, the dream coming through the multitude of business, well first of all, if you look up the word business in the Bible, it consistently means work. It just means work over and over and over. So it's saying, what you want to happen, or what you envision, or what you hope for, will come to pass by work. But it's not going to happen through the multitude of words. It's not going to happen by just talking about it, like hey, I have this great idea. Well you know how that idea is going to come to fruition? By working, not by talking about it. And look, sometimes we have to have a planning phase, we have to talk things out. Of course that's the initial concept of anything, but without a vision the people perish. I get it. We need a vision, we need the idea, we need to think of stuff. Sometimes we need to talk it out, we need a plan, but at the end of the day, the only way that plan is going to ever have any meaning is if you actually just get to work and you start doing stuff. That's how dreams become fulfilled. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. What was that dream? That young black men and young black women will be judged by the content of their character. That's a great dream, but you know the way that comes accomplished? By work. By fathers actually staying in the home. By fathers actually taking their children to church. By kids actually having good moral conduct and good moral character. That's how that dream is accomplished. Not through reparations. Not through just making them permanent victims and excusing their behavior. Not by just saying poor little person, you're special now because you're a victim. It actually comes by working hard and dedicating yourself and doing something, well then that dream could come a reality. If a bunch of young black people would say, you know what, we're going to raise the next generation and we're going to teach them how to be sophisticated and respect people and have good moral character and integrity, then maybe you could raise a generation where you'd say, hey, I'm so glad that now we have a group of people that are characterized by their character and not by their skin color. But you know what, when you're a statistic in the police report, well you're going to start getting judged by your skin color. And there's racial profiling for a reason. It's because the fathers in the home didn't raise their children. And you know, again, it's not because black people are different than white people, it's because dads not being in the home is bad. And it doesn't matter what you think, the only way you're going to have a dream come true is by doing it. Hey, I want to have good children. Okay, well you better work really hard at that. It's not, again, I'm not trying to pick on other churches, but let's just be honest, some practices they do aren't very good. What is one of these? How about baby dedications? Who's ever been in a church where they do baby dedications? You know what's better than a baby dedication? Raising your kid to love God and not just coming down in front of everybody and saying, we're going to dedicate this baby. I've been to baby dedications, they're the weirdest thing I've ever seen. I was at a Southern Baptist church and they bring their baby down and the minister literally, I'm not going to get your baby, okay, so don't worry about this, he would take the baby from the parents and then he would lift it up like this and then he would twirl it as we sang and talked about this baby or something in this dramatic little show, vain show. And I'm thinking, you know, that's all great and dandy and I'm so glad that you're so excited about this. Let's actually teach that kid the word of God. Let's actually get a King James Bible and make them read it. Let's actually have them memorize a verse of the Bible every single week. Let's actually drag them to a good church and go Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. Let's actually drag them out, soul winning. Hey, let's teach them how to read. Hey, let's teach them mathematics. Hey, let's teach them how to have good moral character. Let's teach them how to share. Let's teach them how to sit and be quiet. Let's teach them how to not punch everybody when they get mad. Let's teach them how to not scream and run and yell in the house of God. How about that? Instead of just, oh, I'm just dedicating my kid to the Lord. What does that even mean? Why don't you just do it instead of telling everybody how special you are and I just love God so much that you see the minister twirled my baby around in front of everybody. You know, what did God do? We'd have people that actually raised their children to love God instead of just telling everybody how much they love God and they love Jesus and I just pray that God will raise my kid right. He's saying, get to work. I mean, how many people are just praying, I hope my kids turn out right. Well, you can hope that all you want, but hope will only come reality by you working. You got to put effort and energy into those kids and put all kinds of time and focus and attention and love and care and you just have to do the work. Train up a child the way you should go. When he's old, he will not depart from it, is what the Bible says. It's not going to happen magically and, you know, I'm a product of being raised where, you know, my parents, I love my parents, they're very good parents, they gave me a lot of opportunities but, you know, they didn't necessarily spend a lot of time dedicated to me and I think in a lot of ways I was probably going to be a product of my environment just like my siblings and, you know, my siblings didn't necessarily choose a lot of the same paths that I did but, you know, I credit my wife because if it wasn't for my wife, I'd probably been a much worse person. I'm just going to be honest with you. She kind of anchored me in my life and gave me a sense of needing to be mature and making better decisions. There were so many times where I was going to make a bad decision in my life but it was only because of her in my mind that I decided not to because I just thought I might lose this person and I don't want to lose this person and not only that, she had a higher moral character than I did and she, you know, kept me from probably going down a lot of bad paths and then eventually when I started reading the Bible, that also had a big impact in my life. So, you know, I feel very fortunate, I feel very blessed that God allowed me to have some of those anchors. You know what? I think that my parents were playing, you know, with fire when it came to how I was raised. Frankly speaking, my parents, they gave me pretty much unlimited money, unlimited time. I could go wherever, whenever I wanted, however I wanted. I had unlimited access to the internet, however I wanted, whenever I wanted. I had money to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. And you know what, frankly speaking, that is not how I'm going to raise my kids, okay? And if you do that, you better be praying that they're the exception and not the rule. Because most persons put in that kind of a situation will probably go down a very, very bad path. And even myself, I made many mistakes and, you know, I think that we need to be careful and recognize, hey, if I want my kids to be good kids, if I want my family to be a good family, if I want to be a good person, I better make sure that I'm putting in the effort and energy not just saying, well, it's going to happen or making some kind of promise or making some kind of oath or making some kind of a swear or something like that because we don't know. We don't know what's going to happen. We don't know what's going to happen with our church even. You know, we'd love to say, like, I hope Steadfast Baptist Church is here tomorrow, but we have no idea. We have no idea what's on tomorrow. And instead of just making promises and making those, we need to just get to work. Stop talking about what you're going to do and do it. Hey, I can't wait to the next missions trip. Okay, great, but let's do it. You know how many people have told me they're going to go on the next Bahamas missions trip? You wouldn't believe me if I told you. And look, I'm excited if we take a lot of people. But don't tell me you're going to go, just go. Don't tell me you're going to come to church, just show up. I use this example a lot. You've probably heard me say it before, but I'll say it again because it's just so funny to me. When I started Pure Words Baptist Church, the first service, some guy came up to me and said, I'm so excited about this church. I've been wanting this for so long. I'm going to be here to every single service. I'm never going to miss a service, and I never saw him again. I've never had anybody promise that to me. Like he didn't even come to Sunday night. I'm just thinking like, this is what I thought. This guy might burn out after a while, right? But boy, I just never saw him again. And it's like he was the embodiment of Matthew, chapter number five. And I'm just trying to tell you, we should be careful with what we say. Don't just worry, don't say stuff, just do it. Okay, Nike, there it's been spotted. This message is brought to you by Nike, okay? Just do it. Look what it says in verse number eight, if thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter. For he that is higher than the highest regardeth, and there be higher than they. This verse is just kind of just put in here. It's a little bit different than I think than the beginning and the ending of this chapter. But this is kind of what I draw from this particular point. He's just trying to say like, don't focus on things that you don't really have any control over. And it really fits with the first part of the context if you think of it this way. I can't control the future. I don't know for sure what's gonna happen in the future. So I don't really wanna make some promise that I can't even control the future on. I need to just say, you know what, I'm just gonna do my best, right? I'm gonna do my best. And then when you see things that you can't control, when you see the oppression, don't worry about all that stuff. And I think that as America, as a nation, I wish that we would take this philosophy instead of intermeddling in every single foreign war and trying to act like we're these humanitarian saviors and crusaders. And that we're always just liberating people. We need to bring democracy to this area. You know, the Bible is saying as a nation, instead of trying to bring democracy to the Middle East, we should just let them figure it out. That's what our policy should be. And you know, as humans and as people, we should just let everybody else figure out their own problems and not meddle with strife not belonging unto us. And almost every single situation where you observe something from afar, that there's oppression or a perverting of judgment or something that doesn't seem right. You're not very well equipped to actually judge that, because you probably don't have all the facts. And so the reality is, is you just reserve judgment for things that don't pertain to you. Because most of the time, you have no idea what the real truth is. You don't even know what the facts are. And we should just always give other people the benefit of the doubt. And we should always give God the benefit of the doubt, that he's gonna take care of things correctly. And his timing, however he sees fit, and not feel like we have to always intrude in everybody's matters, in everybody's situation, everything that's going on. If you hear something about somebody else, or you think somebody else is doing something bad, you don't need to go rescue them. You don't need to be the judge either. Well, I just can't believe this person's doing this bad thing and they're gonna get away with it. They're not gonna get away with it. But leave it alone. Stop worrying about righting every wrong and trying to figure out what's going on with every other person and all the other injustices in the world. Well, how dare this person exist or do this? You don't even know. Just leave it alone. You've got enough to worry about. Stop worrying about all the inequities in the world. You know, it's so frustrating how many of these atheists and agnostics, they're always so worried about all the other inequities in the world. It's like, well, what about the guy in the jungle that's never heard of Jesus? Well, you're not that guy. Show me that guy. And as soon as you show me that guy, I'm gonna tell him about Jesus and then he won't exist. And then you have to go find me another one. But you know, let's go to Africa. Let's try to go to Africa and find somewhere where they don't have churches and the Bibles or anything. I mean, just don't kid yourself. And even the most remote, weirdest tribes that I've never heard of. I have people just shoving in my church saying I'm a missionary there. I'm just like, wow. Somebody's like, hey, I'm a missionary to the Ashinaka tribe. The what? The Ashinaka tribe. Who's heard of the Ashinaka tribe? Yeah, exactly. It's like this atheist and agnostic wants to tell me about the proverbial Ashinaka that he doesn't know about, yet there's missionaries literally there giving them the gospel. And he's so worried about all the oppressions and inequities and injustices over there that he has nothing to do with. He doesn't even know what's really going on. And yet he's just disguising the fact that he doesn't want to believe in Jesus Christ because he loves sin. And because he loves evil. And frankly speaking, we should be more concerned with ourselves and what we can control than all the other injustices in the world. Verse nine. Moreover, the prophet of the earth is for all. The king himself is served by the field. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase. This is also vanity. So we're all dependent upon the earth for food. And frankly speaking, when it comes to money, we're not gonna ever be satisfied with money. And that's really what the last part of this chapter emphasizes. He's also saying that even if you're the richest person in the world, we all depend on that poor little farmer out there to grow some crop and get it and ship it to us. And if it wasn't for him, we would all starve, even the rich guy. The rich guy's having it imported to him. And if somebody wasn't importing it to him, well, then he's gonna die. So we're all dependent upon that food, and you know what? We're dependent on that food, we're dependent on rain, and we're dependent on the agriculture, and we're dependent on the soil. And all these things that are actually out of our control, and it's God that's the one that gives us all of this food and sustains us anyways. We could die so easily. If evolution were true, we would have already died. We've already ceased to exist. God is sustaining everything. Yet people are trying to heap up riches to have a sense of security that they won't perish, or they won't be without, or they won't have food. But really, it's kind of a fool's errand, because we all depend on the exact same thing to actually eat. And that one thing is sustained by God. God is the one that's making sure that we either have food or we have famine. He's in control of all that. And whether you have riches or you don't have riches, well, even the people that had riches were starving many times in the famines. And then God was blessing the poor people by performing miracles for them, multiplying their oil. Or, I mean, think about the prophet of God having birds literally deliver food for him by their mouth, just ravens just dropping off food. That's weird. I mean, I've never heard of that. I've never seen a carrier pigeon bringing food. A raven just coming and just dropping off food for you. Talk about air delivery. Talk about groceries. This is like Uber Eats, you know? That was the first Uber Eats, basically. Birds just coming out of nowhere, dropping off chilis in your lap or something, right? So, but this is what people think, oh, if I have a lot of money, then I'll be safe. You're not safe by having money. You know what's your safe? If you're actually serving God and you're right with God. That's the only thing that's gonna make you safe. The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safe is of the Lord. The only thing that makes you safe is that. But we just desire all these riches. You say, well, I need riches to be safe. No. Well, I need riches to enjoy life. Well, let's keep reading. When goods increase, they are increased that eat them. And what good is there to the owners thereof, saving to be holding them, then with your eyes. You know, what's the benefit of having $10,000 when you log into your bank account, or having $10 trillion in your bank account if you never spend any of it? It's just a number on the page. What if you just racked all this gold up that you have, and I'm not gonna spend any of it, but I just wanna look at it. You're saying like, what's the point of having excess money that you never spend? Just look at it. Just look at them. Money doesn't, money's kind of gross looking. You know, I don't even like money. It's kind of gross and, you know, looks like the twin towers falling if you fold it right, I mean, it's got some weird eye of Horus on it or something. It's got all these weird guys in wigs on it, you know, it's just like, I'm not that, I'm not that into just staring at paper currency. And he's just saying like, what's the point? Well, but you know, if I had all that extra money, then my life would just be smoother, it'd be cooler, I would enjoy it more. Let's keep reading. Says, verse 12, the sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. You know, your life could actually be better with less money. And I know this is not a Joel Osteen approved sermon, but sorry, your best life now might actually be with less money, if you could believe that. Say, what is gonna help me sleep really good at night? Working hard. You know what could cause you to lose sleep? Having too much money. Because when you have too much money, you're concerned, you're thinking about it, you're wondering what you're gonna buy, what you're gonna do. You know, when you don't have money, you're not wondering what you're gonna buy or do. You, you can't. You know, I, I personally hate going to the mall, okay? I'm not gonna get a raise of hands, but I can see all your guys' hands up, right? I just don't like going shopping and going to the mall. You know, it's a little bit more enjoyable when it's like, we go and we both already kind of have the expectation that we're not gonna buy anything, cuz we're poor at the moment. And we're just gonna kind of walk around and look. But I feel so stressed when it's on the table that we're gonna buy stuff. Because it's just like, look at this, and what about this? And you're just like, oh man, that's so much money. And it's all, it's, you're all freaking out, and you're just like, concerned. You're just like, what's going on? You know, there's just so many more problems. More money, more problems, folks. And you're worried about someone breaking in, and stealing, and taking stuff. And, you know, praise God, I have two different vans. One van, I'm never worried about it being stolen, okay? I'll just be honest with you. It just, it doesn't even make me feel nervous. You know, cuz sometimes where I live, you go to a grocery store and it's a little sketch, okay? You take the one van, you're like, whatever, have it, you know? It's just like, it's, I'll get more money on the insurance than I would keeping this thing around, right? But you have a nice car, you don't necessarily wanna go where we go soul winning, okay? You don't wanna necessarily go in certain areas, you don't wanna go to California. I mean, if you live in California, just think about how much stress you have about people breaking into your car and stealing stuff all the time. People are so stressed over there, they literally unlock the back of their car and leave it open, and leave the windows rolled down because they're so afraid of people just breaking through and busting out their doors. You know, I'm in a bad habit in Texas not even locking my car door, just cuz it just seems so safe many times. And that's a bad habit, I don't recommend that whatsoever. But I'm just saying like, I feel good, I'm not even worried about it. Boy, I go to California, I'm nervous. I've actually had stuff stolen. I've only been there a few times and I've never had stuff stolen. And I remember, I went back to this restaurant where I had my car broken into. I pull in the parking lot, and literally, just the whole parking lot's just filled glass everywhere. Just glass that's been shattered and I'm just thinking like, oh man. I was nervous about this car that I've rented or take it with me, getting broken into or destroyed. And it's like, but California, it's richer here. It's more money. It's more lavish. Yeah, but there's more problems. And having more money can cause you to just have all kinds of issues, all kinds of stress, all kinds of problems. Working hard is better for you, for your health. Stress will cause you problems. We need less stress in our life. And sometimes having less money makes you less stressed. It's weird. Now again, give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me. Having no money can be very stressful too. Being broke and poor is not fun. But being rich can also have its downfalls. And so the cure is just work hard and don't worry about just laying up all this excess money. Because a lot of times, it's not even gonna help you. It makes your life worse. Verse 13, there's a sore evil which I have seen under the sun. Namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. Did you notice what the Bible says? That you can actually be hurt by the excess money that you have. You wanna know why excess money can hurt you? Because you're now a target. Rich people are a target. People want to steal from them. People want to stab them. People wanna rip them off. People wanna break into their houses, break into their cars, break into their stuff, and steal and take and rip them off. You can have excess goods. You know, having fancy clothing on, having fancy jewelry on can make you a literal target. If you travel to areas like California, like New York. In fact, if you do any traveling, this is my recommendation. Do not wear fat, flashy stuff. You know, you don't have this fancy, beautiful necklace on that you're carrying around in New York City. Someone might literally just come and rip that thing off and hurt you in the process. You may literally die for your necklace. And he's saying, there are people that have money and it actually hurts them. Or they have all this excess money and they're trying to figure out what to do with it. And they spend it on bad things. Or they get involved with bad people. Or they make bad investments. And you know, having excess money doesn't necessarily make your life better. I'm not saying that you're bad for having excess money. But I'm just saying you should be careful. Verse 14, but those riches perish by evil travail. And he begeteth the sun and there is nothing in his hand. Some people have a lot of money and they get ripped off and they don't even have anything to give to their kids. Verse 15 is, he came forth out of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labor, which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go. And what profit hath he that hath labored for the win? You know, this is reminiscent of what Job says. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Talks about naked came out of this womb, naked shall I return thither. We have the same concept being brought up here. You can't take it with you, so what's the point of excess money anyways? And you know, he said in previous chapters, you have all this excess money and give it to your kids, sometimes it could ruin your kids. Spoil your kids. Your kids could ruin all that money. You know, I think that this world, this world's focused on just getting more money, money, money, money, money. And it's like, what's the number one reason why I want to vote for Trump? More money. But is more money going to be good for everybody? I mean, are more people going to get saved if the economy is better for the next four years? Answer this question. Will more people get saved in America if we have a better economic four years or a worse economic four years? What do you think? I mean, who likes going into the poor neighborhood soul winning? Interesting. That's interesting. So, so what's actually better for our country? I mean, from the long term picture, and from a soul winning perspective, and from an eternal perspective, is it better for more Americans to have more money? Or would it be better for more Americans to have actually less money? Well, if they have less money, they're going to have to work harder. Well, maybe they'll sleep harder. You know, I've been having to work harder. Well, maybe your life's actually been better, maybe you've been healthier. You don't even know, like we have sometimes just the worst perspective on life, and the Bible is really challenging like every mindset that we have. Now again, if Kamala Harris is our president, we're obviously cursed as a nation. Don't hear me wrong, okay? That is a curse on our nation. But even if our nation is cursed, I don't have to be cursed. I can still be blessed. I can still live in Goshen, while everybody else is being plagued in Egypt. And you know what? Maybe God wants to literally curse Egypt. But you know what? Sometimes when Egypt gets cursed, those Egyptians say, I kind of like those people in Goshen. I want to hang out with those people in Goshen. I want to walk with them to the Red Sea. I want to escape Egypt. And maybe some Americans need the plagues of Egypt to come upon them so that they'll come to the light of Goshen. And they'll actually get saved with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And maybe what this country actually needs is the cursing of God, not the blessing of God, and a fake Zionist shill. I'm going to vote for Trump anyways. Go for it. I'm not fighting you. I'm just saying, maybe that's not the best course of action. Maybe God has a better plan than you even thought. Go to says in verse number 17, all his days also eateth in darkness. And he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness. I believe to understand this, darkness can sometimes be in reference to evil. The Bible says like in the whole world, life and darkness. It's talking about evil. So in one sense, it's saying, hey, this guy owes money, but his whole life was just filled with evil, with sorrow, and with sickness. What was the point? What's the point of having a bunch of money if your whole life is just filled with evil, sorrow, and sickness? I mean, it doesn't really matter, right? Verse 18, but that which I have seen, it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, that he taketh unto the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth them, for it is his portion. Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor, this is the gift of God, for he shall not much remember the days of his life, because God answereth him in the joy of his heart. Here's the thing, we in America are arguably a little bit wealthier, having a little bit more blessing than the rest of the world, and it is a gift. And we should look at it as a blessing, and we should thank God for the meals that we have. We should thank God for the houses we get to live in. We should thank God for the church building that we get to meet in. We should thank God for the blessings that we have, and we should enjoy them. There's nothing wrong. If God gives you a high paying job, praise God, spend that money, eat a good steak, have a nice house. If God gives you something nice, enjoy it. Hey, if God gives you some nice money, buy some nice clothes. There's nothing wrong with enjoying the stuff that God gives you. Hey, if God blesses you with good things, take them and say thank you God, and enjoy the blessing. Hey, if God blesses our church with this nice building, we should say thank you God that we have a nice building. Thank you God for the nice car I have. Thank you God for the nice things that I have and that I've blessed with. He's saying, hey, that's your portion. God gave it to you. Look at it as a gift, and just thank God that you got that gift. Thank God for the good things you have. Why? Because you're not going to remember much of your life anyways. Most of your life you've already forgotten. And the second point is that God answerth them in the joy of his heart. I believe that he's saying he will give us the desires of our heart. He'll give us joy. So we should then be appreciative and enjoy that. God gives you joy, embrace the joy. I kind of liken to this, this is a rude thing. If someone offers you a gift and you refuse it, it's rude. If someone wants to do something nice to you and you don't allow them, it's rude. Like you deserving hell and God offering you free salvation, you refuse that, it's rude. And you know how God treats you? He throws you in hell for that. And if someone comes up to you and says, hey, I want to do something nice to you, and they offer you a gift, and it's not like a trick or something like that, it's not a bribe, you say thank you and you take it. And you use it if you can, if it's appropriate. Hey children, if someone offers you a gift, you say thank you and you take it. Okay? And you use it if you can. You appreciate it. This is what God is saying. If God gives you money, take it and appreciate it and use it. If God gives you a wife, take it, use it, and appreciate it. If God gives you the gospel, take it, use it, and appreciate it. If God gives you the King James Bible, take it, use it, and appreciate it. If God gives you good looks, if God gives you athletic ability, if God gives you all the things and the blessings that you have, intelligence, wisdom, he gives you multiple languages that you can use, say thank you God and I'm going to use it for your glory. This is your portion. This is what God is giving. If God gives you ten talents, put ten talents to use. If God gives you five talents, put five talents to use. But you know what's a jerk? It's someone that gets one talent and bares it in the ground and just does nothing with it. If God gives you stuff, use it. And he's saying, what's the point of having all this excess and you don't use it? If God gave you ten talents, you say, well, I'm going to put one talent to use. No, put all ten talents to use. And he's saying, hey, you get a bunch of money, put it to use. What's the point of just saying, hey, I'm a multi-millionaire? Well, what are you doing with that? Put it to use. You're not going to take it with you to heaven. And hey, if God gives you a good day, enjoy the day. If God gives you a good meal, enjoy the meal. If someone, you go out to a restaurant and someone says, hey, I'm going to buy your meal, be sweet and just be like, thank you, and enjoy it. You know what you're supposed to do? Just enjoy the moments that we have. What is the Bible emphasizing in this chapter? It's really just to live in the moment. We need to live in the moment. Think about it. What have we really learned today? We've learned, number one, we need to live in the moment of church and take things seriously and not worry about making these grandiose promises and o's and saying all these things about the future. Just live in the moment and be the best that you can and take church seriously. When you see oppressions afar, don't worry about that. Just live in your own world, just focus on you, just live in the moment. And hey, when God gives you good things, just live in that moment and just enjoy it. And stop worrying about having riches, stop worrying about future judgments, stop worrying about making all these promises and o's. Hey, we need to live in the present. We need to be focused in on what's going on right now and taking it seriously and stop worrying about the future. Because you don't even know if you're going to have a future. You don't even know if there's going to be a tomorrow. We don't even know if there's going to be an America. We don't even know if there's going to be an election. We don't even know if there's not going to be a world war. We don't even know if they won't censor everything on the Internet. We don't even know if we're going to have an ex-church service. We don't know anything. Some of you, you just show up, well, I'm just showing up at church. I'm not paying that much attention. But what if you knew this is the last church service we'll ever have? Wouldn't you pay attention? Wouldn't you show up? Wouldn't you open your Bible? Wouldn't you take it seriously? You know, that's what God's trying to emphasize. Let's take right now seriously. Let's live in the moment. Let's enjoy the meals that we have. Let's enjoy the conversations we have. Let's enjoy our children. Let's enjoy these moments. And I'm all for looking towards the future and making plans and being diligent. You know, we don't know what's going to happen. What you have now, take advantage of it. If you've got resources, you've got time, you've got stuff, put it to use. And thank God for the things that we have. Let's be appreciative of what we have. And let's not make sure, let's just make sure we're not making any promises that we're not willing to keep. This goes to prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this church. Thank you so much for the King James Bible. Thank you for the gospel that you've given us. Thank you for all the blessings that we have and the riches and the opportunities we have here in America. I pray that you would just help us to have the right mindset. We'd have the right attitude. That instead of just making some great promise this evening, we would rather just in our hearts have a desire to serve you better. And that we'd have a greater appreciation for the things that you have. And that we would try our best. And if we do make a promise, if we do make an oath, that we'd be careful, make sure that we honor that promise and honor that decision that we've made. And I pray that you would just help our church to be a bright and shining light in such a dark world. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. All right, for our last song, we're going to turn to song number 130, Yesterday, Today, and Forever. Song 130. Song 130. Oh, how sweet the glorious message simple faith may bring. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. Still he loves to save the sinful, heal the sick, and reign. Cheer the border, still the temp is glory to his name. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. He who art in airing, Peter never needs now fear. He that came to faithless Thomas, all the doubt will clear. He who let the love disciple on his bosom rest, fits thee still with love as tender lean upon his breast. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. All right, on this next verse, we're going to speed it up a little bit, sing real nice and loud. Let's do it all together. He who in the raging billows walked upon the sea, still can hush on while his temp is dead on Galilee. He who wept and prayed in anguish in Gethsemane, drinks with us each cup of trembling in our agony. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. Good, on the last. As the bold he walked to Emmaus with them to abide. So through all lives, may he walk, if ever near our side. Soon again shall we behold him, hasten, Lord, today. But will still be the same Jesus as he went away. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. Great singing everybody. You are all dismissed.