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Assurance Blessed assurance Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine Heir of salvation Purchase of God Born of his spirit washed in his blood This is my story. This is my song Praising my Savior This is my story This is my song Praising my Savior All the day long Perfect submission Perfectly line Visions of rapture now burst on my side Angels descending bring from above Echoes of mercy Whispers of love This is my story This is my song Praising my Savior This is my story This is my song Praising my Savior all the day long Perfect submission All is at rest I in my Savior Am happy and blessed Watching and waiting Looking above Filled with his goodness Lost in his love This is my story This is my song Praising my Savior This is my story This is my song Praising my Savior all the day long Let's open up in a word of prayer Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this evening Thank you for this space to meet tonight, and thank you for all of our church members Pray that you please bless this service that we would just sing out Understanding the words that we're singing from our heart to you Lord. Please bless every aspect of this service We love you in Jesus name we pray amen All right for our second song. We'll go to song number 27 the old rugged cross Song number 27 the old rugged cross Oh Song to seven the old rugged cross On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross the emblem of suffering and shame And I love that old cross where the dearest and best For a world of lost sinners was slain So I'll cherish the old rugged cross Till my trophies at last I lay down I will cling to the old rugged cross And exchange it someday for a crown Oh that old rugged cross so despised By the world has a wondrous attraction for me For the dear Lamb of God left his glory above To bear it to dark Calvary So I'll cherish the old rugged cross Till my trophies at last I lay down I will cling to the old rugged cross And exchange it someday for a crown In the old rugged cross stained with blood so divine Oh Wondrous beauty I see For it was on that old cross Jesus suffered and died to pardon and sanctify me So I'll cherish the old rugged cross Till my trophies at last I lay down I will cling to the old rugged cross And exchange it someday for a crown nice and loud on the last to the old Rugged cross I will ever be true It's shame and reproach gladly bear Then he'll call me someday To my home far away where his glory forever So I'll cherish the old rugged cross Till my trophies at last I lay down I Will cling to the old rugged cross And exchange it someday for a crown Thank you so much for coming to say that's Baptist Church again, sorry We didn't have the bulletins this week, but we should get that for you next week Just as a reminder our church So winning times are going to still be meeting at the location that we have service for the church wide the regional are going to obviously meet in different parts of the city and We are on Psalm 146 verse 7 for this evening so any child that can quote verse 7 We do have some candy over here, so you can get two pieces of candy Immediately following the service you can quote that to one of the ushers Myself or brother Oz you can get a couple pieces of candy we also have The ladies so winning time just as a reminder has shifted from Tuesdays to Thursday So this Thursday at 1030 if you'd like to be a part of that You can just get in touch with my wife, and she can Text you I think she has a texting group that she sends out the different locations and where the ladies are meeting We have also had our church stats come in this year a hundred and I'm sorry 1765 salvations for the year and 35 baptisms for the year, and we did have our baptism contest It was for the first six months, and we kind of like all tied so we ended up doubling down for the last six months and The tribe that ended up winning was the West tribe so I don't know I don't know how that happened, but You know obviously you don't have to have a lot of hair in order to win so but they did win and so You know god willing we'll have those prizes for you guys on Sunday morning, so if you'd like to collect We should have that by that time And again Even if you were the worst tribe member if you're still part of our church You know what you get to collect on that price, so it's it's not just he that goes the battle But he that tarried by the stuff okay They all apart alike okay, and so that's why it's good to just come to step You could just show up and be on the tribe And you just win, and it's just like you're just winning in all kinds of different ways So I don't know exactly if we're gonna start and the exact same competition for this year Or not or if we might change that but I will update you Also expecting ladies continue to pray for them. We have our prayer list that I like to go over on Wednesdays Continue to pray for Miss McGara for her health. We're praying for Miss Lucy's mother We've been praying for brother Cameron Hall's leg been praying for brother Pendleton from faith word on his birthday Brain cancer we've been praying for brother Goodwin's brother-in-law David his salvation and cancer treatment. We've been praying for the Garcia's For their son-in-law the family that would be located God willing close by Also, we've been praying for brother Suhail on his travel back to the States, and we've been praying for brother Alex for a job We've been praying for the Wallach family for health. I think I had an update on that one yep His son-in-law Nicholas and his wife Hayley my brother Wallach's daughter. I guess they both have cotton ammonia and So he was asking for just prayer for them while they're sick. They've been up in North Carolina also, we've been praying for the Scott family and Praying specifically for brother Horace. I guess he's really struggling with Sickness I guess he got COVID and so it's definitely affecting him. Also his brother Michael. We've been praying for him and I think I also had in here from the Wallach's to pray for their friend Juan his cancer treatment And then we've been praying for the Zomino family due to the passing of his grandmother And so those are things to keep in your prayers this week We can go ahead and say a corporate prayer together as our church family Thank you Heavenly Father for this opportunity to have church this evening We just thank you for all the ladies that are expecting in our church it I pray that you'd be with them during their pregnancy. Please help them with their children's development. Give them a timely birth I pray that you would also Help our church family that has a lot of health concerns people have chronic issues or our struggles that they've been dealing with I pray that you just give them a recovery that you just Bless them with health right now that I pray you would just give them comfort during this tribulation and I pray that you would help us with our family and friends that need salvation that you would give us the opportunities you'd soften their Hearts, please be with our church family as they travel especially abroad that you bring them back safely. Please help our family and friends that need Help or favor with their jobs, and I thank you so much for our church I pray you'd help us this year to be a bright and shining light To be focused on soul winning to be focused on the gospel and to be focused on how to be better Christians And in Jesus name we pray. Amen I Think that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements just make sure to continue to pay attention to your email for updates Oh, I was gonna say I did make another video just about movie times we are planning on having our movie on January 30th at 7 p.m. And so we're trying to get all of that organized in order to Get everything booked and for it to be really successful. We need everyone that's planning on coming to RSVP Because that helps us because we already have we have to order Like food like we were gonna try and do like a popcorn and coke vouchers and stuff like that for everybody But in order to successfully order that correctly We kind of have to know ahead of time how many people were anticipating and everything like that, so please Email us if you're planning on coming to the theater showing I think we sent out an email to everybody But if you hadn't noticed that or if you didn't get the email Please see me or brother Oz and we'll make sure to at least get you that and and let us know also Somebody's asked me like hey, can I invite my brother cousin dad mother-in-law, whatever? I don't know you'd want to invite your mother-in-law, but you know, that's for you to decide The answer is yes, so that you know, there's not there's not any restriction As far as if you'd like to invite somebody you feel like would be interested in the film or you just want to encourage them To learn more about the King James Bible or the doctrine of preservation. Yeah, we'd love for you to be Have the opportunity to invite somebody that you think would like to see the film Also, we're gonna try and just send out an email to even people that still live in the area But maybe they're going to a different church They're still welcome to visit and come to the film. So We do want pretty much anybody that's just not a sodomite is welcome at the film. So that's pretty much like our criterion and So or that hates our church. I mean that's basically as long as you don't hate our church You're not a sodomite or sympathizer. You're pretty much welcome to come and see the film and so We're very excited about getting it done. Ben's gonna get it done, right? Okay, all right, he said he's gonna get done okay, so we believe him He might not sleep from now till then but he's gonna get it done. No, I'm just kidding It's it's it's shaping up. It's gonna be I think it's gonna be a really Educational film a lot of a lot of good stuff that we're gonna put out there We're also gonna be putting out a lot of other information about the King James Bible and and other Things that you can share. So if you want to help us with that, you know, I can't have you know Social media accounts and stuff like that. So you have to be my social media accounts. Okay, and you can share it and Although you might not put my name. Sometimes that's kind of dangerous You can just put you know, put with anybody's name, you know, but it doesn't matter but share as much as you can and we'd like to Publicize the film. I have thought about maybe even maybe we get another billboard or something just for the film We're gonna have a dedicated website for the film and everything like that And so I'm definitely excited about the project one other thing there's two Items that were left over and they're not mine, but I don't know who they are. It's like a red Bible Kind of it looks like a smaller Smaller Bible and some sunglasses and so if these are yours, I'm just gonna put them over here on this table You can collect them whenever you notice that they're missing. All right, let's go ahead and go to our third song for the evening We Go to 145 it is well with my soul 145 it is well with my soul You say well didn't we just sing this Sunday? Yeah, but we don't have our Psalm sheets and this is like one of the best songs ever. So we're just gonna sing it 145 it is well with my soul When peace, like a river, attendeth my way. When sorrows like sea billows roll, what else can I say? When peace, like a river, attendeth my way. When sorrows like sea billows roll, what else can I say? When sorrows like sea billows roll, what else can I say? Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded My helplessest day, and hath shed his own blood for my soul. Ladies, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. And Lord, hast the day when my faith shall be signed, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll, The troubles shall resound and the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. Hosea 3 Hosea 3 Hosea 3 Hosea 3 Hosea 3 Hosea 3 Hosea 3 Hosea 3 Hosea 3 Hosea 3 And for our church, I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit. Give him clarity of mind as he preaches your word to us and help us to remain attentive and apply the lessons that you have for us in this chapter to our lives. And I pray this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. So we have here Hosea chapter number three, and it's a really short chapter, but I think that what's important is just kind of get the essence of the chapter. There's a lot of good things that we can pick out. And then I think we can kind of focus on just the theme of this chapter a little bit and kind of expand. But it says in verse one, then said the Lord unto me, Go yet love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of God of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love flagons of wine. So according to the Bible, Hosea has to marry this woman that's considered an adulteress. And she's not an adulteress to the point of marrying her. She's just a whore. But then what's assumed is that she's going to continue being a whore. And she ends up having children with other men, the Bible described in chapter number two. And all of this physical reality, the fact that Hosea has this wife, is to illustrate spiritual truths of the Lord God and the children of Israel and how the Lord God is like a faithful husband that loves his wife and the children of Israel are like an adulteress, whorish wife who is constantly forsaking her husband, lying with other men, and cheating on him, going against him, whoring against him, as the Bible says. And this is just kind of a symbol or a metaphor for these truths that God is kind of illustrating. But there's even more layers to the Bible because it's incredible how God can use an earthly human example to illustrate examples for himself and then even go beyond that and talk about layers of prophecy and things that are going to happen in the future. But this woman ends up doing exactly as God had prescribed. She commits adultery and she goes against him. And God relates that to the children of Israel doing two things. Notice that they look to other gods and they love flagons of wine. And both of these cause the children of Israel to not serve the Lord. And of course, when the Bible uses the word wine, often what's thought of is alcohol or thinking of an intoxicating beverage, and of course that's going to take you away from God. But I believe what the Bible is really meaning here in wine is just the idea of luxury, riches, and the delicacies of life. Many times, wine in the Bible is not talking about an intoxicating beverage. It's often talking about wealth or it's talking about success or prosperity. If you keep your finger here and go to Proverbs, I just want to show you a verse on this. And I could show you a lot of verses. The Bible talks about a pastor being not given to wine. And then it brings up a deacon, how he's not supposed to be given to much wine. And some people would be like, oh, so that means a pastor drinks none and the deacon drinks a little. And that's kind of a weird doctrine if you think that that's talking about alcohol. It could mean alcohol in some sense, in the sense that obviously neither should be drinking at all, really. And when it says not to much wine, obviously it sounds like, oh, does that mean a little wine's okay? And my philosophy is that even if it was talking about alcohol, it still shouldn't be interpreted that even just a little bit's okay. Obviously, when you read the rest of Scripture, alcohol's always off the table. So really, I believe that the wine there's more likely talking about just luxury and the finer things of life and how the pastor shouldn't even be given to those things at all and that the deacons of the church should really try to keep them limited from exposing themselves to large quantities of luxury and the delicacies and the riches of this life. But Proverbs chapter 3, look at verse 9, the Bible says, Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. So the Bible talks about if you tithe the God, He's going to bless you financially. And that blessing financially is described as what? New wine. So the point of this verse, the reason why I point here is just to illustrate how God talks about riches or money as synonymous as wine. Okay, and so a lot of times wine is just simply in reference to money. Often, new wine is almost always talking about money or riches because it illustrates prosperity. It illustrates, you know, you got this bonus or you got a paycheck, because new wine means you just got a big harvest in from your crops and how do you get money? From working and you get the harvest, the yield of that reaping. And so go back to Hosea chapter number 3. When we look at the children of Israel, why is it that they forsook the Lord? Well, one of the reasons is because God had blessed them so much with all of that wine and with all of that goodness that it turned their heart away from God. And another thing is because of them turning away from God, they also looked to strange women, they made marriages with strange women as the Bible describes, and these strange women brought in a lot of false religion with them and it seduced the children of Israel to go after other gods and to go back to paganism or to false gods and it really took away God. False religion and riches and money is going to really take away the heart of people. And you know, to me it makes me think of America. When you look at America today, you know, we've been blessed by God, we've had a lot of riches, we've had a lot of success, and through that success it's allowed people to then turn to their successes and turn away from God and we've imported a lot of false religion into this country that had previously not existed. You know, with lies about what the First Amendment truly means, they've allowed, you know, Democrats and other liberals have allowed a lot of false religion to creep into America where it did not previously exist. It was not this way always where you had just Hinduism and Buddhism and Muslims and just all these different kinds of religion just being crept into America like it is today. That is a new thing. Even Catholicism to some degree because a lot of Catholicism has been brought in from the Hispanic community coming in from Mexico and coming in from South America and Latin America bringing in all of this idolatry and bringing in all of this false religion and fake religion and it's turning America, their heart, away from God. Look what it says in Hosea chapter 4 verse 11. And I'm getting a little ahead of myself in the book but, you know, this is an important verse to kind of illustrate things. It says, Horedom and wine, and notice this, and new wine take away the heart. So according to the Bible, there's some downfalls to you serving God. Horedom and luxury, alcohol, and new wine, which would be luxury. If you want to know what's going to destroy the young men in America today, it's horrors, it's drugs and alcohol, and it's money. That is what destroys young men in a society. And America needs their young men to have something to take them away from all the whoredom, all of the drugs and alcohol, and all of the money and the luxuries of this world. And, you know, the only substitute is the Lord Jesus Christ. And without the Lord Jesus Christ, men are going to fall victim to these three devices continually because the pressures and the temptations of this world are too strong to overcome on your own. You need the Holy Spirit of God. You need the Bible. You need the institution of a local church. You need this. You need a wife. You know what's going to help you with these issues is a wife and getting married young, as the Bible describes. But so many young men, they don't do that. They go to college, and what do they get in college? Whoredom, they get drugs and alcohol, and they get infected with the love of money because in college they're trying to entice you, saying like, oh, you can get all these fancy jobs and make all this money. And, you know, that's the whole point of even going to college, theoretically, is to get a really good job, not realizing that many times it's a failure, it's a fraud, it's not even true. But you know what it will infect you with is the love of money. College will infect you with the love of money. It will infect you with this idea that drugs and alcohol and partying is the best way to live your life. It will infect you with STDs from all your whoredom, and really it's just destroying our culture. It's destroying America, and it's no different right now than it was back then. Back then the children of Israel forsook God in the same way that America is forsaking God today. And we need to preach against alcohol, and we need to preach against drugs, and we need to preach against whores, and we need to preach against the love of money because it's destroying God's people. And a lot of people, they don't want to go to church and hear a message like this. They want to hear a message about how everything's good, and everything's wonderful, and let's love Satan, and let's just go out and have fun, and God would never condemn you. He's fine with whatever you do. He's fine with whoever you go with. We'll just love each other. And they just preach a Fox News, Republican, watered down message of just encouragement. But you know what? God doesn't have a lot of encouragement for the children of Israel in the book of Hosea. I would argue there's zero encouragement in many cases for those that are not of Judah or the remnant. I mean, there's zero encouragement for the people that He already said, like, Hey, you're going to be destroyed. I'm divorcing you. You're not my wife. I mean, we already saw, even later in the book of Hosea, He's going to say, I will love them no more. How encouraging is that message? You know, some people do not have an encouraging message from God because some message from God is you're a serpent of the devil. You're a seed of the serpent, and you're basically a serpent yourself. And He called the Pharisees vipers. How is that encouraging? He's saying you're twofold more the child of hell. OK, or you're making disciples twofold more the child of hell. But you know, how can you escape the damnation of hell? I mean, God is constantly bringing down condemnation and judgment onto people. And of course, if God were to get up and deliver a message today to America, it would not be an encouraging message. I personally believe America is doomed. Now, of course, there's a remnant of people that live in America, and they're not doomed. They're going to be saved. You're going to go through a fiery trial, but they're going to come out like shining brass. They're going to come out as shining gold through all of that. But we have to realize that America as a whole is destroying itself. But you don't have to destroy yourself with them. You don't have to go down with them. You can be different. You can separate yourself. Now, look at verse number two, Hosea chapter three, verse two. So I bought her to me for 15 pieces of silver and for a homer of barley and a half-homer of barley. And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days. Thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man. So will I also be for thee. So Hosea has to literally pay his own wife not to commit adultery against him. That's really, you know, mind-boggling when you think about it. You have to pay your wife just to stay faithful or to be living with you. And not only does he give her money, he has to give her food. And he says, look, I'll abide for you. I'll be your husband. I'll dwell with you. I'll do these things for you. But, you know, you're not supposed to be a harlot. That's basically the contract that he's making with his own wife. And it's sad today that, you know, there's a lot of women that that's probably even true for. That if their husband doesn't provide for them financially or isn't, you know, buying everything that they want, then they'll go just find another guy. And, you know, that's a wicked attitude. And I am a thousand percent against that, okay. Obviously women should never be like that. But I will say this. As a man, I would rather pay for my wife and not whore against me than just let her be a whore against me. And here's the thing. If you had a wife that was so weak that she needed that, I would still do it. You know, it's your responsibility to provide for the household, to provide for your wife. And while it's never justified for a wife to commit adultery or to go seek another man or do any of those kind of things, you know, that's never justified in any capacity, men not providing for their wife's needs or not providing what they want or not helping them or not fulfilling their role may drive them to that. And again, I'm not suggesting that a woman never do that. That's wicked. That's super evil. But you have to understand that sometimes people will do wicked things. We all have a sinful nature. We all have a backslid nature. And when you just push somebody to a limit of will you do this wicked thing if I test you, most of the time people fail. It's like, well, I don't think my wife would ever divorce me. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to be the crappiest husband possible and provide nothing good for her and just see how faithful she's going to be. That's a bad idea. That's a foolish idea to try and test your spouse and see how far you can push them to the edge or the limit and see if they'll still be faithful unto you. Can someone get me a water? I'm sorry. I just need something to drink. But at the end of the day, thank you. All right. I'm good. At the end of the day, you shouldn't have to pay your wife, folks. OK. And you shouldn't have to pay your husband. It should it should be a relationship that you're willing to serve in this capacity. But God is using this again, this earthly example to illustrate a bigger truth. What is the bigger truth? That God is providing for the children of Israel and he doesn't want them to whore against him. Right. He's going to give them all of their food, their money, their protection. He's going to be a husband unto them. And he's willing to pay for them to not be essentially whoring against him. He's willing to pay something. Now, of course, this story is illustrating a really great spiritual truth. What is that great spiritual truth? Well, if you think about it, mankind as a whole rejected God and hoard against God. And the only way for God to reconcile mankind back to himself was to pay a price, wasn't it? And how did he end up paying that price? He ended up paying that price with the with the shed blood of his own son. And you know what Jesus Christ price was? It was silver, wasn't it? Thirty pieces of silver. So is it any coincidence that Hosea had to literally pay silver to get his wife back, just like the Lord Jesus Christ had to be betrayed and the silver had to be bought for the blood of Jesus Christ for our redemption? But then when Jesus Christ has purchased us with his own blood, how dare us then go back and be a harlot again? And the Lord Jesus Christ makes it clear, hey, we were bought with a price. Therefore, we're supposed to honor and glorify God with our bodies. Just like this whorish woman, how reproachful would it be for your husband to literally pay you to not be a whore and then you whore again? Yet that's what the children of God do every single day in America. There are saved believers that have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ and then they go and whore themselves on a Monday. They go and whore themselves on a Tuesday. They go and whore themselves on a Wednesday. And you say, how shameful is it for someone to commit adultery, yet Christians will constantly turn their back on God and whore themselves out to the world every single day? And you look at this story and you say, oh, how shameful for a wife to commit adultery, yet Christians do it and no shame whatsoever. They have a hoarse forehead. They don't feel ashamed. They don't feel bad. They go out and just drink and do all kinds of wicked, evil things, commit fornication. I mean, how many Christians get saved and then they commit fornication? How many Christians get saved and then they just forsake church, forsake Bible reading, forsake all the things of God? They go out and just live for themselves. You say, how dare this woman go out and just live for herself and go seek another person to be with? Yet that's what so many Christians do today. They get saved at the door. They come to a church service and they get saved. They go to Easter service once a year and then 365 other days, it's a leap year, okay? They go and they basically just party with the world. They love the world and they don't think that's shameful. You know, that should be embarrassing. It should be embarrassing for you to say, you know what, I'm married to this person, but I'm with this other lady, like Bill Clinton. I mean, Bill Clinton has had so many women come out and just say like, well, I was his mistress for 10 years or 14 years or three months or whatever. It's just like so many different testimonies, so many different women. You really think just that many women are going to come out and publicly embarrass themselves and say they had an extramarital affair with Bill Clinton? In fact, one woman said that Bill Clinton had been with 2,000 other women. Now, obviously Hillary Clinton is not, you know, anything to be bragging about. But how shameful. How shameful. I mean, is that cool? Even Bill Clinton, even as wicked as the Clintons are, they still deny all that because they know how shameful and embarrassing that is. How embarrassing it is to be caught with Monica Lewinsky. How embarrassing it is to lie about it and then get caught and still be a liar. I mean, it's just a reproach on America. Yeah, and then how embarrassing for America to still accept that person to be your president. I mean, you have a guy committing an open adultery for your country, lying about it, and then America just still goes along with him as president. Still goes along with that embarrassing fraud of a man. And that is how so many Christians are today, where they just basically just keep whoring along and just keep doing wickedness and just live of themselves and they don't care about God. And you know what? It's just as embarrassing. I mean, you say, well, I'm not worshiping a false god. You know, what was the two things that she did? False god? Well, how about the other one? Flagons of wine. Now, what is a flagon? It's basically a pitcher or some kind of a large jar. So we're not even talking about just a cup. We're talking about a giant vessel of wine. And we're talking about major delicacies, major wealth, major luxuries of this life. And how many people are just living of the pleasures of this life rather than serving God? Go to James chapter number four, James chapter number four. I want to look at another verse. I want to look at a couple of verses to prove what the Bible is saying on this topic. But you know what? It's not a comfortable message because unfortunately most people are an adulterous person against God, spiritually speaking. Look at James chapter four, verse four. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. How is it, James, he's talking to say believers and yet he's calling them adulteresses and adulteurers? He's not saying physically. He's saying spiritually. And he's saying, hey, spiritually you care more about the world. You're more of a friend of the world. You're more involved in the things of this world than the things of God. And in fact, you're now an enemy of God. How many times do you go in a church, these liberal churches today, and they're getting up and screaming, hey, you're an enemy of God? They say God's not mad at you no matter what. What a lie. What a lie that is. The Bible says, hey, you could be saved and you could still be an adulterous spiritually. You could still be an enemy of God spiritually because you're not serving the Lord. Just like the Benjamites that sided with the Sodomites, they became the enemies of the Lord that day and the Lord destroyed them. You can become an enemy of God even if you're saved. Don't kid yourself. Even Saul. I mean, Saul became the enemy of David and Saul became the enemy of God because he turned his back on God and he became selfish and all he wanted was things for himself. And because of that, it destroyed him. It destroyed him. It destroyed his family. It destroyed his life. It destroyed his kingdom. It destroyed his name. I mean, everything about it was destroyed because he was a friend of the world. He's a friend of himself. He cares more about status. He cares more about wealth. He cares more about the things of this world. And what are the things of this world? What is the fashion of this world? Go to 1 John, chapter number 2. 1 John, chapter number 2. Just look to the right of here in your Bible and look at verse 15. 1 John 2, verse 15, the Bible says, Love not the world. What does that mean? Neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. What John is saying is, hey, you are not allowed to love the world. And what is the world? He gets specific. It's the lust of the eyes. It's what you see. The world is obsessed with what they see. The world is obsessed with fashion. The world is obsessed with vanity. The world is obsessed with beauty. That is what almost everything is about. When you go to junior high, you go to high school and the hormones start kicking in. What is the one thing that matters? Who is the best looking and the worst looking? The people that are the worst looking are the most made fun of and trashed in school. And those that are the best looking are flattered and just given all kinds of deceitful favor. And that's what the world cares about is being the prom king and the prom queen or being the homecoming king or being the homecoming queen. And you know they never nominate is someone ugly. You know they never nominate is the person that looks terrible. They always nominate the best looking people. They always nominate people that have all the lust of the eye. Oh, they're so handsome. They're so strong. They're so talented. Just all the things of the flesh. The lust of the flesh. All the desires of the flesh. And he's saying, you're not allowed to love that as a Christian. The whole world, I mean the world celebrates Hollywood today. And why is it that it celebrates Hollywood? Because it's typically, not always, typically the most attractive people in our society. I mean the men and the women in the Hollywood films and in the movies, they are some of the most attractive people that have ever graced our planet. And of course that is what everybody obsesses over. They obsess over all the celebrities and all the athletes. They obsess over the people that have all the money and they have the fancy car and they have the fancy clothes. And they have all the things that you can just look at and just ogle with your eyes and just like, oh, I just want to look at. You know, what is the point of a magazine? What is the point of People magazine? Other than to just ogle with your eyes, to just consume with your eyes just images that you want to look at. And just, just, oh, I can't, look at that dress. Look at that person in this pose. Look at, I mean, it is just pure vanity. It is pure world. It is pure trash, is really what it is. The lust of the flesh, the things that you just, you get to enjoy in this life. God's saying, hey, don't love these things. Don't set your heart on these things. You know, why is it that the children of Israel had turned away? Because they had flagons of wine. They had so much luxury and so much delicacy. You know, you look at some of the pictures of the 16 and 1700s. You know, they weren't this fashionable back then. Maybe that was a good thing for them. You know, we're all wearing a burlap sack. It's not going to be as cool. You know, and again, I'm not Amish, but you know, the Amish take this thing to an extreme. I mean, you have to wear the exact same color and the exact same everything. And of course, they're trying to abide by God's commandments without the Spirit of God. Okay, you can't force people to be spiritual. You can't force people to be righteous. And when you do, it doesn't work out. The Mormons are still wicked folks, okay, even though they try really hard. But a lot of their concepts are biblical in the sense that, you know what, they try to eradicate a lot of vanity in their lives. They try to eradicate a lot of the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and things like that in their society. And again, that is biblical. It's just the method upon which they're approaching it is not coming from a true and genuine heart. You know, Muslims, they try to cover up their women with all kinds of garments. I mean, I ran into some today, very nice women, but all I could see was the face. You know, I don't know what was going on. There were a lot of things they were wearing. It looked like a tent, you know, it's like a tent walking with a face on it, you know. And I'm like, that's obviously extreme, okay. I don't think that we need to go to such an extreme. But you know what, they realize how wicked a society gets when it's just so fixated on the flesh, and it's fixated on lust, and it's fixated on whoredom, and it's fixated on all these wicked things. And you know, how embarrassing is it to claim that you're a child of God and then go around dressing like a whore, and go around just being fixated with all the whores of Hollywood, and being fixated with the lust of the flesh today. You know what, but the children of Israel did it. Hey, Americans are doing it all day long. They'll even get the whores and they'll bring them up on the stage to sing their little songs, to sing their little specials. You know, showing off and flaunting their nakedness, being immodest. You know, as a fundamental Baptist church, we should dress modest. We should dress with shame-facedness, and women should be embarrassed to look like a whore. They should be embarrassed to look like the Hollywood celebrities and the freaks of the day. You know, if you've ever seen The Hunger Games, The Capitol, all those people look like freaks. And then you go to the fancy malls of the day and you're like, wow, that's what they look like. You look at the fashion runway shows today and that's what they look like. And it's like, what are you doing? They're just wearing clothing for one goal. Look at me. And look, I am not against you dressing well. Obviously, Proverbs 31, the Bible says that the proverbial woman, she was the best dressed, you know, and her husband was the best dressed. But you know what? They weren't wearing clothes as their only source of, you know, look at me. You know, they didn't care about that. They were wearing durable clothing that was well and skillfully prepared. You know, they're wearing practical clothing. A lot of this rich, fancy clothing is impractical. You know, I've seen some of these pants and stuff when I've walked through an apartment store. I'm not shopping there. I'm just walking there. And it's like the goal of men's pants when it gets more and more expensive is make it softer. Like it just gets softer and softer and softer to where it becomes like a cuddly blanket for pants. I'm like, I don't want to wear a cuddly blanket for my pants. And of course, you know, if you ever went and did any kind of work, that thing would snag really easy. I guarantee it would snag and it would unthread and it would get destroyed. And, you know, this material isn't, you know, jeans, you can spill stuff on it all the time, just wipe it off. And it's just like, you know, when you get some like durable man clothing, it can last for a while. Whereas you look at these clothing of these supermodels, these queer looking men, these effeminate looking dudes, whatever. That's not even practical. It doesn't even make sense. But that is what the world wants. The world wants to just dress to impress, put on all the fancy things, look at me. And the Bible is saying the exact opposite. We should dress with modesty. We should dress with shame-facedness. We should not just go around and carry ourselves and say, hey, look how fancy I can look. You know, the pastors of this world that do this, the Kenneth Copelands and the TD Jakes and the Joseph Princes. I mean, some of these guys are wearing $30,000 suits. $10,000 suits. Why do I need to wear a $10,000 suit to get up and preach? You know, and I would be nervous. If I literally had a $10,000 suit on, I would be incredibly anxious to go out soul winning. I mean, get that thing torn. I'd be incredibly anxious to eat a meal. I'd be incredibly anxious to touch my children because they are just like stain masters. I mean, if you want to, I mean, virtually this part of my suit always looks terrible. Any guy that has young children knows like this part. I mean, I'm always holding them and just you got snot and spit and food and just anything you can imagine. They draw on themselves and just transfer all the marker. I mean, it's an it's incredibly insane. Okay. I don't even want to spend like $1,000 on a suit just because I'd be so quick to ruin it probably through my children. But I mean, can you imagine a $10,000? What's the point of that? What's the point of it? Look at me. What's the point of it? Because you're just obsessed with riches, you're obsessed with money, you're obsessed with the things of this world. But you know what? That will destroy you. Go to 1 Timothy chapter six. You flip back a little bit before Hebrews and look at 1 Timothy, chapter number six. Yeah, it's really easy to talk about this whorish woman that you've never seen. But why don't we look at ourselves for a moment and why don't we see what the application is and notice, hey, we could also be like her and we could end up being a friend of the world and end up being like that that whorish woman, spiritually speaking, and God could look down at us and have the exact same feeling, the exact same feeling as a woman that literally committed adultery God can have towards his children for spiritually forsaking him, for spiritually being a friend of the world, for spiritually getting consumed and infected with the love of money and with just covetousness. Look what it says in 1 Timothy six, verse five. Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself. You know, you never want to be around people that are obsessed with money, obsessed with making money. They think that the more money you have, the more successful you're being or if somehow positively money comes in your life. They like that more. You know, the fancy building, the fancy car, the fancy shoes, the fancy clothes, the whatever luxuries they can afford now. You know what? That is not the person that you want to be. Well, I'm obviously more godly than those people. They don't even make very good money. They're just a plumber. You know, they're just an electrician. They're just, they just have a day job. They just do whatever. You know, it's like, okay, well, I'd rather hang out with every plumber that loves Jesus Christ than every rich guy that doesn't even care what the Bible says. You know, the person that thinks that because they're more godly, they have more money. You know, I guarantee there's a lot of churches out there today in this area that would look at our church and they would think they're more godly than us. Because they said, well, look how nice of a building we have and look at you guys just meeting out in the wilderness. But you know what? Withdraw yourself from that person. Because it says in verse six, but godliness with contentment is great gain. What is contentment? Being satisfied with what you already have. Let me explain contentment this way. Contentment is the idea. If you never got anything else, you would still be satisfied. You're currently satisfied with all of your clothing, your cars, your house, your children, your husband, your wife, your church, the area you live in. Like, even if all of it stayed the same or only got worse, you're still fine. That is true contentment. Whereas most people in America, they live in a state of uncontentment where they're always dissatisfied where they're at and they're only looking forward to the future. Well, I'll be happy once I get that new car. I'll be happy once I get that new job. I'll be happy when I get that new promotion. I'll be happy when I get another son, another daughter. I'll be happy when my spouse is a better person. Well, that's never going to happen. I'll be happy when, you know, whatever it is, that they're always looking to the future thinking, well, then I'll be satisfied. You know, if I could just get that matching purse, you won't be satisfied with that. Because then you'll need the matching earrings. And then you'll need the matching shoes. And then it'll be out of season. And then you'll have to get the new season dress. I mean, there's this attitude of just constant discontentment in America that just exudes our culture and exudes the minds of people where they're just not content with the things that they currently have. And you know what? That is a wicked attitude. It's not just that it's wrong, it's wicked. And the Bible says in verse 7, For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out, and having food and raiment, let us be there with content. I know every person in this room has so much more than what that list has said. We are so blessed as Americans today. We have so much more than the clothes on our back and just the necessary food. In fact, most of us never even have just necessary food. We have great food. I mean, you live in Texas. You have great food options. Now, if you eat bad food, that's your fault. Okay? Because you have a lot of great options here. Verse 9, But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition, for the love of money is the root of all evil. I mean, this verse cannot be preached hard enough. Which while some coveted after, they have erred, notice this, from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. What is the point? What is the context of this verse? The context of this verse is this. Some people will stop serving God. And what is the reason? The love of money. And you say, well, that's not always the case. It's always the case. That's what the Bible just said. The Bible literally just said the reason why everyone quit serving God is the love of money. It's the root. Now, of course, from that root, it'll grow a tree. And that tree has leaves and branches on it. Right? And a lot of people focus. Oh, well, if I trim this branch, then I'll be fine. But they don't realize that the root is the problem. It's the fact that they have a love of money is their real problem, and that's the reason why they're not serving God. That's the reason why they'll choose not to do the things of God, is because they ultimately have this root of the love of money deep down in their heart. And they have to get that root out, not the tree branches, not just the consequences of that root. And the love of money is one of the most evil things that can infect people. It'll cause you to do things that are insane, literally. Just the love of money. It strikes fear in the hearts of men. If you have a love of money, you are terrified to lose money. You are terrified to lose possession. You are terrified. You know, the person that is not having the love of money, they could lose every possession they have right now, and they're still going to continue to serve God the same as yesterday. Job. I mean, he just lost it all, and it's like, well, today I'm reading my Bible and serve God. You know? I lost all of it up, went up in smoke, and I'm going to church on Wednesday night. It all went up in smoke, I'm going to church on Sunday night. But you know, a lot of people, they're afraid to serve God because they are afraid of losing some possession. Whether that be their house, whether that be a job, whether that be their 401k, whether that be a relationship, whether it be anything, but it's ultimately coming from a covetous attitude with a love of money, which is infecting every single person. It's just causing people to just not serve God. Go if you would in the Bible to Proverbs 21. I want to go to Proverbs 21 for a moment. This whorish woman, you know, what is it that prevented her was getting money. You know, this isn't interesting. The money prevented her from being a whore. But if she wasn't getting money, she's going to go seek riches or goodness from someone else, right? Get some other guy to pay her bills. And of course, a lot of people, they forget or they don't realize that God is the one that's giving us all the things. He's giving us the job. He's the one that gave you the house. He's the one that gave you the relationships. He's the one that gave you all the things. And so when you forsake God, you're actually forsaking the person that gave you everything you wanted. And then you go and chase money, thinking it's going to somehow replace it. But you know what? The replacements that money get are terrible. If you get a wife from money or you get a wife from God, they're going to be way different. The wives you get because you had a lot of money are not the same wives you get because you loved God. The house you get because of money is not the same house you get that comes from God. The job you get that comes from God is not the same as the job you get from chasing money. The friends that you have because you love God and you serve God with them are not the same as the friends you would get from having lots of money. And yeah, of course, money will buy you friends, houses, women, and all the things that you think you want. But you know what? They're cheap substitutes. They're the GMO kind. They're going to bring a lot of aftertaste. They're going to bring some heartburn. They're going to bring a lot of indigestion. They're going to bring a lot of cramps. They're going to stab you in the back. At the last it biteth like a serpent and it stingeth like an adder. It's not the kind of friends you want. It's not the kind of spouse you want. It's not the kind of house you want. It's not the kind of life you want. The life you want is going to come from God. And when you think that chasing money or chasing the things of this world is going to bring that to you, you're just whoring against, in the metaphorical sense, the husband that gave you all the things that you needed. Proverbs 21. Look at verse 17. He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man. He that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich. Notice what the Bible clearly says. Hey, you love the things of this world. You're not even going to get them. And of course, those who are in this world fake rich. And what I mean by fake rich is they look rich on the outside, but they're actually not on paper. They're always chasing this dream and they're never going to get it and always catches up with them. And they end up failing. I've seen it time and time again. I remember there's I always think of this one example because it's just such a clear example of this. But there's this like frozen yogurt place that opened back home. It's called frazzleberry. And it was like this new fad. And this this this couple, they just you could just tell they just wanted to be rich. And the guy had a stable business. He was like a roofer or something. He had his own business. He had employees. It was going well. And yet the problem is he was never going to be rich with that business. He was never going to be filthy rich is never going to be a high status of society. Yeah, he's going to make plenty. I mean, and he's probably going to make two hundred thousand two hundred fifty thousand dollars a year, which to me is like that's tons of money. Right. Especially back then. This is like 10 years ago when two hundred fifty thousand dollars was a lot of money. Now it's like we're all making that working at McDonald's or something. So it's confusing. But back then it was a lot. It was good money. But you know what he did. He ended up selling the business because he wanted to get rich. And he started this new company, this frozen yogurt company, and he thought he was going to get like multimillionaire. And so he sold his business for like four or five hundred thousand dollars or something like that. Probably that wasn't a very good price, honestly. But he sold it for that. He put all of that money into this frazzleberry yogurt place. And like the first day it opened, it was in the summer. The first day it opened, he's like advertising everywhere, spending all this money advertising. I mean, the lines out the door. They make like one hundred thousand dollars in sales day one. And the guy is just thinking, like, I hit it rich. And he's like, he's like, come into the bank. And he's like, can I get three more store locations? And it's like, how about you wait a week? It's like, how about you just calm down, bro? Like, you're not going to you're going to oversaturate the market. It's summer. You haven't even experienced the winter. You know, why don't you calm down? And it was funny because I worked in the credit loan department as an analyst. And at the time, my my buddy, my friend, he was working the deal. And he's like, he's like, it looks terrible on paper. Don't do it. And he denied the request. Well, then they go and cry to some upper manager and the upper manager is like, sure, we'll do it. So they get their wish. They get three store locations. So they have they went from having this like roofing company to almost overnight, having three yogurt places in this like tiny market, like two hundred thousand people market. Well, you know, day two, they didn't sell one hundred thousand dollars worth of frozen yogurt. Sad to say, in less than six months, they were back down to one location. The other two had closed. And then in less than like a year or two, the entire business was gone. He'd lost all of his money. And now he has nothing. He doesn't have the old job that he had, the roofing business. He doesn't have the new frozen yogurt place. And you know why? Because he was infected with the love of money. And he was just this bug that got into his heart. He thought he was going to be this millionaire. You know, as soon as they got all this money, they went out, bought new cars and started going, you know, spending all this money. Hey, let's go to the bar. And I got the tab because I'm the new money or whatever. And it's a bunch of fake money because it's not real. And what did he love? He loved pleasure and he loved wine and he loved oil and he wasn't rich. Because you know what? There's two kinds of people. There's the fake rich people which burn out. And then there's the people that never spend a dollar of their abundance and they're called Jews. And you want to know who the only real rich people are in this world? Jews. And you want to know why Jews are rich? Because they don't spend any money. They are the stingiest people on the planet. They will find and pick up every penny on the sidewalk. There's a reason why they're rich, folks. Okay? And we want to be neither of these people. We don't want to be the stingy Jew that wouldn't ever give a nickel to someone. And we don't want to be the guy that's going around and spending 200% of our income. You know, we want to have somewhere in the middle. And look, there's nothing wrong with spending your money. You know, you get money, you got to spend it, we got to get things that we need. But you know what? The person that spends 100% of their abundance is never ever going to succeed in life. And the person that loves pleasure and loves wine, he's going to spend even above what he makes many times. Let alone all of his abundance. Let alone all the things that are above the things that he needs. Look in this chapter of verse 25. The desire of the sloth will kill them, for his hands refuse the labor. He coveteth greedy all the day long, but the righteous giveth and spareth not. So what's the wicked person? The wicked person is loving pleasure. Living it up. What is the righteous person doing? Giving his money to people. Supporting others that need. You say, how do I know which one of these people I am? Okay, well what do you do with your money? And specifically your abundance. Okay, because we all have to pay our bills. We all have to eat and we're all going to do the same things, generally speaking. But most of us have some level of abundance since we live in America. And here's the question. What do you do with that level of abundance that you have? Are you constantly spending it on your own pleasure? Or are you saving it up? Or are you giving it to others? And you can decide who you are. You're either a whore, a Jew, or a righteous person. I mean that's really the categories that we have in the Bible. And why did the children of Israel destroy themselves? Because they were whores! They took all of their abundance, all of the extra, and they just gorged themselves. And they just spent it on themselves. And they just, let's just get as much as we can. And let's build bigger boards. And let's see how much more we can get. It's nonsense. It'll destroy you. And what does he do? Even when he has all of it, he still covets greedily all the day long. Let me ask you, what is your life today? When you are just sitting and all of a sudden you get a chance to just think. You have a chance to breathe. Are you just spending all of that time thinking about getting more stuff? Oh, I just want another car. Oh, I just want another house. Oh, I just want another shirt. I just want another pair of shoes. I just want another this. Just all day just sitting there just like, I just want more. I just want more. What else can I buy? What else can I get? And you're just lazy because you're not even using the things that you have. Notice what it says. The lazy person is not laboring because all he can do is just think about the things that he doesn't have. It's like this hoarse woman, instead of fixating on the husband she has, she's coveting every day about the husband she doesn't have. And then what does that lead her to? To the other men. You know, instead of fixating on the things that you have, people will fixate on things they don't have. Well, I just want another child. Well, why don't you think about the kids you do have? I want a different spouse. Well, why don't you think about the spouse you do have? I want a different job. Well, why don't you think about the job you do have? Well, I want a different church. Well, why don't you think about the church you do have? You know, I want more and more and more instead of thinking about the things you actually have. You know, this is a wicked attitude and people do it all day long. They just sit and they just complain. And let me tell you something. The American woman today, instead of working all day, she covets all day typically. She just sits in her house and dreams up what she could have rather than working with the things that she does have. Sitting here and just, well, you know, I just, I need this and I need that and I need to get more. And I'd be happy if I had more rather than just being content with the things that she already has. Content with the appliances and content with the house and content with the car and content with the kids and content with the job and content with everything. She just has to sit here and covet all day long. And you know what? There's so many enablers to this. Because everything online is advertising. Why? Because women have more time to go online than men. Because men are working in a larger percentage than women. And if you look at statistics, you know who's on social media the most? Married women. Married women are on social media by and large because they don't have necessarily all the same demands as their husband. And so they can just sit and look online. Why do you think every third post is an advertisement? And why do you think it's behavioral advertising where as soon as you say something, search something, think something sometimes, it's like, well, here's that vacuum you just thought of. Here's that car you just thought of. Here's that pair of shoes you just thought of. And advertisers are like, act now. This is what advertisers do. Hey, let's mark it up to be $1,000 and then we'll put a 90% off. We'll put a 90% off on the ad and say it's $100. Act now. And what we'll do is if they don't buy it, we'll take it away for two weeks and then we'll bring it back. And then they'll think, well, I missed out on that one time. I got to get it now. And it cost them 10 cents to make. It cost them 50 cents to make. Look, the markup on clothing is insane, folks. I went to business school and my manager, that was the professor there, the management professor, he said, look, the only business that's worth being in is clothing. He said the markup is insane. And he's like, he said he'll just buy businesses. And his only goal is this. He would just buy a clothing store and just go out of business for two years. Because he said, when you go out of business, it appears like there's all these great deals and all these discounts. And he just said, you could just go out of business for as long as you want. You can just go out of business for like two years and you just keep just selling all this merch. He's like, you're just moving all this merchandise. And the markups are just so high. He's just raking in profit. So that's what he does on purpose, is he's just taking advantage of silly women who just sit around all day, who are just so covetous and they're just lazy. And instead of focusing on the things that they have, they just whore themselves to advertisers and consumerism and just like, me, me, me, buy, buy, buy, more, more, more, more. And then they mock the woman in Hosea that's a whore. And they give themselves over to covetousness. And look, the American women in this country are not going to serve God, by and large. I mean, look, the women in this room are, by and large, the exception to the rule. Because most women today, they will not have kids. And if they do, it's us two and no more. Us four, no more. We got one boy or one girl, we're done. Why? So that they can keep shopping online. So they can still look real slender and, you know, oh, I'm going to look so good or whatever. Why? Because they care about the lust of the eyes. Look, women will refuse to have kids because they're like, I don't want to be pregnant. I don't want to destroy my body or whatever. Well, time will do that for you anyways, baby. You know, good luck on that. Every one of these good looking celebrity women, they get old and then you're just like, you weren't pretty before? Okay. And look, older people can still be attractive folks, okay? I'm not dogging on you. But what I am saying is that it doesn't usually get better, folks. And they're just chasing this dream that they're never going to have, chasing this desire that they're never going to have. Just like this whorish woman just chasing the men that she can't have, that she shouldn't be having, instead of focusing on the things that she doesn't. You know, people can do that. They're not content with church. And what I mean by that is it's like I need more entertainment in my life. Why would I go to church on Wednesday night when I could be living it up, having fun, doing my own thing? You know, they're not content with the things of God. They're not content with the Bible. They're not content with books. I mean, it's like I can't even read anymore. I have to watch a 30-second TikTok video or I'm not giving my attention. I have to watch a five-second video or I can't even, I don't even care anymore. That is the attention span of people today. They need a five-second short film. And people are just so fixated on themselves and fixated on the luxuries of this world and they just love pleasure so much. What is the pleasure? You know, shopping all the time, traveling, trips, buying things you don't need. Here's an idea if you love pleasure, if you don't even look at prices. I mean, some people, they just buy stuff and they don't even look at the price. They don't even care. That's a bad steward. They're just constantly buying clothing, food, partying, drugs, activities about pleasure. You know, how about this? Selfies. You want to know if you're a friend of the world and if you're not right with God, you just take just constant selfies. I was out, you know, this holiday season and we were walking through a mall at one point. You know, I like to go to the Galleria Mall. As a kid, we always went to the Galleria Mall and you go ice skating. It's cool. They have the big Christmas tree. But you walk around and I kid you not, every little teeny girl is just walking around just with a phone like this. Like, no one cares that you're at the mall. I mean, I saw her. She's getting on an escalator and she's worried about taking selfies. She's all like, you know. And I'm like, you might just trip and break your neck and deserves you right. Like, why are you so obsessed with yourself? And you really think that any guy in their heart really wants that? What guy in their heart just wants to be around their lady and she's just sitting here just like taking pictures of herself, looking like an idiot. No one looks cool taking a selfie. But that's like the majority of pictures on the internet are selfies. And people, so people, and even most selfies they look so bad, people buy selfie sticks to carry. You're carrying a stick around not to beat off the dogs, not to beat off intruders. But simply just to hold your phone a little bit further away so that when you take a picture of yourself it just looks a little cooler. Even though it looks even dumber when you take it. You know, the world that we live in folks is just destroying itself. And I wonder how much China's afraid of our culture constantly taking selfies of themselves, you know, everywhere they go. And the constant shopping and the constant luxuries of this world. You know, it's all these women that want to talk about feminism and everything like that. Who's protecting you to keep taking all your stupid selfies at the mall? You really think that the Muslim countries over there wouldn't love to come over here and pillage? Take advantage of all that? Who's protecting you? It's like we don't need any real men anymore or men in charge. It's like if you get rid of all the men in charge, new men are going to come in charge. But let me tell you something, men will always be in charge whether you like it or not. You're just going to pick which men. And you know what, you shouldn't pick the Muslim men like Europe did. Ask Sweden how that's going. I mean women are getting just taken advantage of in the streets and no one will do anything about it. You're just like, well, we could call the cops. Oh, what do you think Paul Blart, the mall cop, is going to come do with his taser? They don't even care. In fact, I talked to somebody that was telling me that, you know, it's not this state, it was another state, but an entire county is dissolving all of its detective agencies because they can't hire anybody. I had someone tell me, hey, some of these detective agencies, they're not even working 50% of the cases. So that could mean you could literally have someone, you know, take advantage of you as a woman and kill you and no detective to even search about it. The guy just goes scot-free. No one cares. No one's going to do anything about it. Say, why would a situation get that bad? Because you've forsaken your husband. And just like God, if we forsake God, God will just say like, oh, okay, fine, here's Muslims. Why do you think London is so bad? Why do you think UK is so bad? Because they forsook God. I mean, the beacon of truth at one point in time, producing the King James Bible, men that are willing to die for the Bible to go forward, yet the whole country has forsaken that. Why? Because of riches, because of money, because they became a bunch of whores, and now who gets to rule their country? Muslims. And you know what? America is no different. We'll just let evil come in and take over. We'll just let Satan come in and rule our lives. You know, it's disgusting. And you know what? You can let Satan come in and just take over your own personal life. If you just let your daughters and your children go out and get infected with the love of money through public school, through the university, through the ways of this world, through the heathen, you could end up getting to a point where the devil is running your children's life and not you, where the devil's telling them what to do. And you say, what devil? The TikTok devil and the YouTube devil and the Reddit devil and all the liberalism devils that are coming in and just infecting the minds of youth today and telling them what to do. Why? Because you as a man were not willing to destroy covetousness in your house. Because you as a man were not willing to get rid of the covetousness in yourself. Because you as a family were not going to say, hey, we're going to go to church on Wednesday night. We're going to go to church on Sunday night. We're going to read the Bible as a family. We're not going to sit down and watch stupid TikTok videos as a family. We're going to open up Genesis chapter number one. We're going to open up Matthew chapter number one. And we're not going to whore ourselves of this world. You say, oh, well, I'm going to miss out on all the world. Well, you know what? The world can go to hell because it is. Why do I? The Bible says love, not the world. It didn't say, hey, let's party around with it. Let's mess around with it and see what happens. It says, you know what? No, separate yourself from the world. Be a fundamental Baptist. You know it's not going to change this world if we mix the world with church. Welcome to steadfast Baptist church. You get a Bible and that's it. We're not going to mix the world with church here. And you know what? We have so much more joy and fun than the world could even dream of anyways. It's so silly to chase all their fun because it's garbage anyways. They vomit in the morning anyways. And they have vain friends anyways. And no one likes it anyways. And they're never happy because they're always chasing the next high of consumerism, of whatever it is. You know what? God will only give you satisfaction. I remember whenever I started becoming more fundamental in my Christianity. And this is what people would tell me. It's like you hate everything. They're like, hey, you want to go drink? No. You want to go hang out here? No. Do you want to go do this? No. Do you like this? No. Did you watch this show? No. And it's like, you hate everything. And I'm like, well, I love the King James Bible. You want to talk about that? No. Well, I love church. Want to go to church with me? No. Well, you want to sing a hymn? No. Do you want to play a game? The board game? It's like, you want to play a game? And you know, it's like, Minecraft, you know. Or something. It's like, no. How about chess? That's too hard. There's rules and stuff. You know, it challenges you mentally. You know, you want to read a book? I mean, how many people want to read a book today? You want to go get some exercise? It's like, hey, you want to play basketball? And you're like, yeah. I got my gym shorts. And they're like, no, like, you know, 2K. Like, no, let's go play. It's like, hey, you want to watch the game? Let's play a game. Let's do something. Let's do something with our lives. Let's just not be zombies. Consumerism zombies. You know, go into a stadium filled with a bunch of drunk idiots and pay $10 for the crappy hot dog that's not even hot. I don't even know what's $10. Is it $20? I don't know what it is. That's not even that much fun. To go cheer for a bunch of overpaid drama queens? For a bunch of guys wearing a sodomite flag on their little jersey? To go watch a bunch of guys in tights go wrestle each other? I mean, look, I'm not against sports. I like sports. But, you know, when you think about it, it's kind of stupid. I love playing it. And I think, you know, it's a great exercise. But a lot of times watching it, it's just a vain exercise. You know, do it – you've got to do that in moderation. Go back and we'll finish our chapter, Hosea chapter 3. Hey, it's a short chapter. You know, the problem with a lot of Christianity today is they never make application to themselves. You know, the hard truths are found here in the Scripture. But it's kind of – it's funny. It's like sometimes you go soul winning. And you talk to somebody and you're like, so if someone believes in faith and works, where are they going? They're like, hell. And they're like, so you need to get saved. And they're like, no. You know, they can't apply it to themselves or something. It's like we need to learn how to apply the Bible to ourselves. We need to look at the Scripture and not just see Jesus. See, where do we fit in this picture? Because we found Jesus. Yeah, he's the one buying the whore back to himself. But you know who the whore is? It's us. And, you know, instead of continuing to be a whore – you know, 1 Peter chapter 4, I didn't have you turn there. But it's like our previous life should suffice us when we rot the will of the Gentiles. You know, all of the junk that we used to do should be enough. We don't need to do that anymore. We don't need to be a whore anymore. We need to be a faithful wife now. We need to be people that serve God. Look at verse 4. Now, of course, this is talking about the fact that at one point they're going to go into the Babylonian captivity. When they go into the Babylonian captivity, the priesthood is going to cease for 70 years. And, of course, that's what it's bringing up. It's bringing up the sacrifice, the image, the ephod, and the teraphim. But they will have their return. They're going to go back into the Promised Land. And they're going to have – you know, David is not necessarily physical David, but it's talking about his lineage. And we see the lineage of David continuing on the throne all the way to Jesus Christ. And, of course, that's foreshadowing us as well that we are going to rule and reign with the Lord Jesus Christ. And, you know, whether you are a faithful wife or not, if you're saved, you're going to dwell forever with David. You're going to dwell forever with Jesus Christ. And I don't want to be, you know, with Jesus Christ and forever it's remembered that I was this whorish, unfaithful steward of God's word. But rather I want to be the faithful Christian, the one that served him, that spent my life dedicated to him. You know, that's what's honorable as a wife that's dedicated to her husband, that's faithful to her husband, that serves her husband. Just in the same way that we, even if you're a man, we're supposed to act the same way to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to be a faithful servant dedicated to him, living our lives for him. We're not here for ourselves, folks. We're not here for our pleasure. We're not here to see how much money and how much clothes and how many houses and how much fun we can have. We're here to see how much we can serve God. And what we could do for the Lord. And how we could use our lives and our bodies and our minds and our money and our effort and our energy and everything that we've got. How much can we give it back to him? And let us be a church that doesn't get infected with the wickedness of covetousness, the wickedness of the love of money. But rather let us always be willing to just serve the Lord and say nuts to the things of this life. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us this group of people that love the Lord in their heart. I pray that you would just help us to rid ourselves of covetousness. That we would realize that the vanity of this world is not worth it. It's trash. That we should stop caring about this world. We should stop loving this world. We should stop loving money. We should stop loving the desires of covetousness, the things that we could possibly have. We're going to lose it all anyways. I pray that we would worry more about the things of God. I pray that we would have a deep burning desire to serve God and to use the things we already have. To be content with the things you've already blessed us with. I pray that we would just sacrifice of our lives and our minds and our energies for your glory and your honor. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Alright, we have a very fitting song to close the evening. 355, what a friend we have in Jesus. Rather than being a friend of the world, we have the best friend, the Lord Jesus Christ. 355, what a friend we have in Jesus. What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful? Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden? Cumbered with a load of care. Precious Savior, still our refuge. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer. In his arms he'll take and shield thee. Thou will find us, all us there. Thank you all so much for coming. God bless. You are dismissed.