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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 We have a list of several expecting ladies. Please continue to pray for all of them. We also have our prayer list, which we like to update weekly. Please add Malcolm Holden, his family's health. They were asking for prayer for that. And we have several others that are mentioned there. Please try to pray for our church family through the week. Also on the back, we have church reminders. And again, this is just something that we want everybody to try and make sure to pay attention to and follow as best as possible. That's putting no children up here on the stage. So after services, before services, and during services, let's not have the children on the stage. And also not in the kitchen area. It gets a little tight and claustrophobic in there. We've got a bunch of kids running around in there and everything like that. Or in the mother-baby rooms, unattended. So the children should not be in any of these areas unattended. And especially not in the mother-baby room. Children in the mother-baby room should always be with their mother. Also, both mother-baby rooms are available for children to and under, is what it's designed for. And that's just so they can have a safe place to let their toddlers and babies to just kind of crawl around, walk around, things like that. Because sometimes, especially between the ages of 12 months and maybe about two years, it's hard for some of them to sit for an hour. Or if I'm preaching, you know, two hours or whatever. And so we understand that and we want to accommodate that. But you know, if you have children three and up, you should be trying to get them to sit with you in the service if possible. And if not, they should be sitting in these mother-baby rooms as well. Because we don't want, you know, the three-year-olds running around and stomping on babies and stuff like that, that can get a little bit hectic. So if you do decide that you need to take another child with you in the room, please make them sit and pay attention to the service. Also, the mother-baby rooms are to pay attention to the service. So please, please do just listen and, you know, take a Bible in there. Follow along with the service. We don't want you, I know you're right over there. You're not that far, okay? But it's not like a hangout space. It's not like, hey, I don't like church, so I just want to go and do my own thing. It is still supposed to be, you're paying attention to the service. You're singing. You're reading the Bible with us. You know, you're trying to do as best you can. And again, a lot of ladies go in there, and it can be distracting for the other ladies that do want to pay attention to the service if you're not trying to pay attention. So please, please do that for us. Also, if you do bring some toys or things for your children to be used, please only use those like in-between services, not like, you know, immediately following or immediately before, just because we don't want to cause any kind of issues. Please also don't share them. Try to encourage your children. You know, I want your kids to learn how to share. It's just not here, okay? So just because we don't want to give another child a choking hazard or something that they're going to break, and then everybody's upset with each other about these things. And I know my children, they will break your toys, okay? We bought James a new toy yesterday, and I think it was less than two minutes. It was already broken. So, you know, it's a reality, folks, okay? And I already warned you. So if you're like, Pastor Shelley, your kid broke my toy, and I'm going to be like, I'm not paying for it, because I already told you, all right? So that was, you're bringing your toys here at your own risk, all right? And again, please don't do this. I'm not encouraging children to break toys, though, okay, folks? All right? Don't hear me wrong. The church building also is trying to do a quiet time on Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m. And we'll try to do a little bit better of just making it clear what we're doing here, but we'll probably just dim, like, some lights in the sanctuary, but we'll leave at least one on so it's not completely dark in here. And that's just if people want to just kind of relax, or, you know, if you have a toddler that is going to fall asleep no matter what, you know, they can just sit in here or sit in their car seat or whatever, just so people can have that. And it's not going to necessarily be perfect, but it's kind of like the library where you kind of have to, you know, police yourself a little bit. And, you know, we also have the fellowship room that's over here. So during that time, if you want to just have light conversation or anything like that, try to use the fellowship room area for that, or you can be in a mother-baby room area. But if you're wanting to just kind of be a little bit quieter and letting kids take a nap or something, use the sanctuary area. And we'll dim, like, a few lights, but we'll leave a few on too, just for safety and everything like that. But we're just basically trying to be accommodating because I know a lot of people might travel a little bit further to come to church, and they may not be able to go home or whatever, and we want to still be able to give them an option to where their kids could take a nap or they could just rest or if they want to read or whatever it is, just to make it a little bit more accommodating. So if you do have kids here, please don't let them. Just run around or scream or do any of those things. Kind of try to make sure that they're being well behaved. If you have questions about this, you can ask me about it, and I will help you. So I'm the person to ask, okay? Also, upcoming events, July 13th, Pastor Steven Anderson is going to be preaching for us. That is a Wednesday service. He's actually going to be preaching for Pure Words Baptist Church the Sunday before, and he's going to be preaching at Oklahoma City the Thursday after. So if you would like to hear him preach, those are going to be all of your opportunities. Also, August 17th through the 19th is our Mighty Men's Conference, and I'm really looking forward to doing this. Who's planning on going? What men are already planning on trying to go to our Mighty Men's Conference? Great. It's going to be a Thursday morning that we'll kind of head out there and then probably be done maybe Saturday morning again. I might change that a little bit, but we have a special guest that's going to come and preach for us. On Friday night, it's Pastor Bruce Mejia from First Works Baptist Church, and so it's a great treat to have him come out and preach for us. We've got different guys every single year, and I don't think he's ever preached for us out there, but it's exciting to have him come out here and preach for us for that conference. Even if you can't make the Thursday or anything like that, and you still want to just come out Friday night, if you're a man and you want to come and hear the preaching, you can still join and partake at least in the preaching. October 12th through the 15th is our Firebreathing Baptist Fellowship, and so it's exciting to be able to do this again. I think I made a video I misspoke. It's not a semi-annual conference, okay folks? It's a biennial conference, all right? So far, it may change. It could become annual or never again. You never know, but you don't want to miss this one, all right? So this one, we've got a lot of great preachers coming in. Pastor Thompson, Pastor Mejia, Pastor Jimenez, Pastor Anderson, Pastor Berzins is coming, and so we've got a lot of great preachers already lined up, and we'll have a lot of fun events and everything like that, and so please, please, if you can, mark that down, and we'd love for you to be a part of our fellowship. Also, great news here. Congratulations on the birth of Ana Luisa Noguera. She was born on June 6th at 2.31 a.m., weighing nine pounds and measuring 19 inches long. Y'all were already so excited. I couldn't even get through the stats yet, so man, that's great. So congratulations to them, and that's really, really exciting to see our church growing. If you have any other questions, concerns, you can always email me or talk to me. We're going to go to our third song for this morning, Psalm 126. I will say this. We have gone public on our church stuff. I don't know if I've said that or anything like that, so you don't have to ask me permission to tell someone where our church is or if you want to invite somebody. Obviously, invite saved people or people that want to get saved, but of course, you can invite whoever you want. So just for clarification, if you are going soul winning and you're using our material, I think most of our material does not have an address on it. So what you can do, though, is our pamphlets have the address, or I'm sorry, the web address, and so do our cards have the web address, but the address of the church is just on the bottom of the website. So I just say, hey, if you want to know the address, you can just type in our website. It's on the bottom of the website. We've got the address right there. If you want to just tell them, obviously you can too, but usually they'll forget, so that's kind of just what I said. Also, we're ordering some more cards. It'll have the exact address on there too, so you can use those in the future if you would like them, but that's just kind of an update there. Psalm 126. All right, Psalm 126 in your white handouts. You can turn your King James Bible. Psalm 126. When the Lord turned again, the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them, the Lord had done great things for us, whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them, the Lord had done great things for us, whereof we are glad. He that goeth forth in weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them, the Lord had done great things for us, whereof we are glad. As the offering plates are being passed around, please turn your Bibles to Haggai chapter 1. Haggai chapter 1. Haggai chapter 1. Haggai chapter 1. Haggai chapter 1. Haggai chapter 1. Haggai chapter 1. Haggai chapter 1. Haggai chapter 1. Thank you, Lord, for Pastor Shelley and his family. And I pray that you fill in with your spirit now. And, Lord, I pray also that you would help us to listen closely to the message and that it would sink down into the hearts of those that are in the room this morning. And, Lord, that you would enable us to make the necessary changes for us to be more complete Christians. We love you. And in Jesus' name I pray, amen. One other quick announcement. I forgot. So we made some, like, little backpack pouches, Velcro pouches, with PreserveBible.com and SodomiteDeception.com. And I have a limited amount, but if you want one, see Brother Dylan, and then if we run out, we'll just take a list of however many more you want ordered, all right? So there you go. Haggai chapter 1. Haggai chapter 1. Look at verse 14. The Bible says, And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God. I really love this verse because we see the work of God is very important at this time, considering the fact that they're returning back to the Promised Land, they're returning back to Israel, they're returning back to Jerusalem, and specifically, one of the tasks is to rebuild the house of the Lord. And the house of the Lord has laid waste for over 70 years, and they had started the work, but they've run into problems, they've had difficulty, the work has been going slowly. Also, just frankly speaking, a lot of times, it's just motivation. People maybe aren't necessarily as motivated or they're as excited, there's a lot of problems associated with building the house of the Lord, a lot of people are against the work of them building the house of the Lord. At times, they have to use a shovel and a weapon, they can't even use both hands to build the house of the Lord, they have to kind of hold a weapon while they're also kind of holding the tools and necessary instruments to build, all simultaneously. And I think the weariness of the conflict, the weariness of the tribulation, the weariness of society as a whole being against you and attacking you can cause a lot of people to be discouraged, not very motivated, get tired. And so Haggai is a short book of the Bible, but he's here telling us about how God wanted to stir up the spirit of the people. And he wants to stir them up, the governor, he wants to stir up the priest, and as the Bible describes, all the remnant of the people. And sometimes we're gonna have moments in our life, or we may have seasons of our life, where we're just not that interested in serving God, where we just maybe aren't feeling it. And this is just life in general. There's gonna be always times when things are easier than other times. When you first started dating your spouse, that was probably the easiest time you've ever been around that person. Because it's just fun, it's exciting, it's not even hard to be around them. And in fact, almost all of their imperfections, you enjoy. You're not even like mad about their imperfections or the problems that they have, just because it's so much fun. And then, you know, if you date for a long time, it can start to wear off. But maybe you get that back again once you get married, and you can go through the what's called honeymoon phase. And of course, the honeymoon phase is an arbitrary description of how the initial portion of a marriage is gonna be fun and easy. And there's no deciding fact of how long the honeymoon is, right? The honeymoon phase could be five minutes, it could be five hours, it could be five weeks, it could be a year. It could possibly even be longer than that. But it's essentially the period of time upon which marriage isn't hard at all. Where marriage is only just fun, easy, exciting, there's not really much conflict, and whatever conflict may arise, you're not even really worried about it, it doesn't really cause any issue. You say, well, we started fighting like five minutes in. Well, you never went through the honeymoon phase then, apparently, okay? But I'm just saying, like, most couples go through, you kinda have this, like, honeymoon phase, where being with that other person, it's not work, you enjoy it, okay? But in a good marriage, you have to understand that you're not gonna just always enjoy it, you're not gonna always feel it, and it's not always gonna be the honeymoon phase. And what's important, though, is that you keep doing the right thing, and then you try to stir up yourself in your marriage, you try to stir up those same feelings, and get back to the right kind of motivation. The same can happen with work. Sometimes when you go to work, there's days where you have a mind to work, and you just get a lot of stuff done, you're kind of excited, you like the tasks you're working on, and then there's other days, you show up on Monday, and you're like, I don't wanna be here, and I don't wanna do this work, and I'm sick and tired of my boss and all this, and you just kinda have a lack of motivation to work hard. This is the same thing with Christianity. Christianity can be the exact same way where there could be points in your life where you're just kinda like, I don't even really wanna go to church right now, I don't really wanna read the book of Haggai right now, I don't wanna read through Second Chronicles, or I don't wanna read this portion of scripture, maybe even the exciting parts, you're like, I don't even wanna read John right now, I'm sick of John, or maybe you're like, I don't wanna go soul winning today. It's hot, it's hot in the summer, right? Who thinks it's hot here in the summer? Okay, yeah, a lot of you. Who likes the heat? Okay, alright, I'm not crazy. I like the heat, okay? But apparently a lot of people complain about this. But you know, that could be, I hate the cold, alright? Who would say I'd rather go soul winning in the summer than the winter? Okay, alright, praise God, there's a lot of saved people here, alright? So, if you like the winter, you're weird, alright? But some people love that. Some people love the cold and they hate the heat. Some people love the heat and they love the cold. But it's like, no matter what season, you're supposed to stir yourself up to go out and preach the gospel and to get excited to give someone the gospel and to do the work of God. And sometimes we have to realize we need God to stir us up. We need God to stir us up because you may not have the right emotion starting the day. You may not have the right emotion this month. You might not have the right emotion this year. And we need God to stir us up. And of course, God wants to stir us up. Why? So that we can build the house of God. So that we can do the work of God. Look at chapter two, verse nine. Now, here's what's important. The task that they have before them, it's not a remedial task. It's not a meaningless task. It's not a vain task. It's the most important thing that they could do. And sometimes people would be discouraged by the idea of, well, it would have been nice to serve God back with the first temple. Right? It would have been great if we had been in our former days and we had the older temple and we didn't have to rebuild it and just think about all the cool work or the things we could do if we had Solomon or if we had David or we had... So you could have this attitude of like, well, what I'm doing is not as important as what could have done in the past or I'd be doing more in the past. But that's a bad attitude because, number one, we shouldn't worry about things that we can't change anyways. Okay? If God really wanted you at the time of Solomon, he would have put you in the time of Solomon. You know what? God wants you here right now. God wants you here right now. And look at Haggai chapter two, verse nine. The Bible says this. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord above. He says, hey, you know the task that you have? It's more important than the previous one. And in fact, it's gonna have more glory than the former one. So why would you then be discouraged to do the work of God now when it's more important today than it's ever been before? And I would argue that today we have the opportunity before us to have more glory for the Lord Jesus Christ than ever before, than ever before. It's not even close, and I'll explain this in a minute, but we have an opportunity to build one of the greatest churches that has ever existed on this planet. And I think that some people have this attitude of church history that it was already perfected in the past, and we can only ever get close to what it used to be like. But I have an exact opposite opinion, okay? And a lot of people have weird church history views, and I say they're weird because I just don't believe them, I guess. But when it comes to history, it's everybody's imagination, apparently. But I look at church history as a little bit different than most people, I feel like. And again, the facts are the facts, okay? I think that some people's church history ignores a lot of facts, so therefore I don't really like their theory or their ideas of church history. But let's be real, let's be honest. No one knows for sure. No one knows for sure. But there's some things that I do know for sure because the Bible says there's no new thing under the sun, okay? I already know that for a fact. I already know that there were saved people in the past, fact. And I also know that when you study the history of the Bible that it's going to be similar to the history that we know very little about because there's no new thing under the sun. Now, of course, when you look at the history of the Bible, it goes through ebbs and flows. There's different things that are going on. There's high points, low points, midpoints, there's all kinds of stuff going on. And I guarantee when we go back through history to the 1700s, 1600s, back into the Dark Ages, before the Dark Ages, there was highs, lows, and everything in between, okay? But I do not believe that the church that we have right now has peaked or reached its climax, nor do I think that there's some great church in the past that we can never achieve their glory. I believe that we can have the greatest glory as a church today in 2023 America, and in the future we can make it even greater and even better. And that that should be our goal. And we have a great work before us, and we need God to stir up our spirits for us to accomplish this work. We can't do it by human means. We can't do it by the flesh. We can't do it by our intelligence. We need to submit ourselves to the Bible and to God's Word, and He can stir us up and help us to do this great task. You know, but it takes the whole team. Did you notice that it was the governor and the priest and all the people? You know, if I stir myself up, but no one else is willing to do the work, we're not going to be able to do that much. I can only do so much, and anybody that's worked with me realizes that sometimes it's hard for me to get everything done in the timeline that I even want because I'm trying to juggle like a million different things. And so, you know, when other people don't step in and help out, usually tasks get on the shelf for a while. They take a really long time. Whereas when other people jump in and start doing the work, then things can go really quickly. So it's not about just the pastor being stirred up. It's not just about the staff being stirred up. It's about the whole church being stirred up. It's not just the men. It's the women. It's the children. It's everybody being stirred up. But the devil would love to whisper in your ear, go to Malachi chapter 1, go to Malachi chapter 1, and plant these evil thoughts into your brain. But I'm telling you today that we need to stir up our spirits so that we can do a great work for God. Just to give you an idea about church history, again, my view of church history is essentially that as time has gone on, church has slowly gotten better and that there's been highs and lows, of course. You know, some people would say that from a historical perspective that the church came out of the Catholic church. And I understand why they say that from a historical perspective. And I kind of agree and I kind of disagree in the sense that there was definitely portions of our history as a human population where parts of Europe, if you lived in Europe, you could only go to the Catholic church. That's the only allowed church. Okay, so it doesn't like shock me that a lot of people are going there since that's your option, right? And I guarantee a lot of saved people were probably going to the Catholic church not because they loved the Catholic church, not because the leadership was good, not because the Catholic church itself was good, but because that's where they were forced to go. And it's not much different than the Old Testament because there's plenty of times where they would go to the temple or they would go somewhere to serve the Lord and the priests were bad. And the leadership was bad. And they're like making people abhor the sacrifice of the Lord. You got Hophni and Phinehas. I mean, you got all kinds of crazy things going on. The sons of Eli were very wicked and they made a lot of people despise these things. So obviously there's going to be highs and lows at times. How about 70 years where the temple's gone? Where do you go for church during that period of time? I mean, Daniel's just praying in his room because it's just like there's not a good option, right? And frankly speaking, to have this weird view of church history is to kind of ignore the rest of the world because right now if you lived in Cambodia or you lived in North Korea or you lived in the inner part of China, where are you going to church? And yet isn't there plenty of saved people all over the world in all kinds of parts of the country and they don't have a great church option? Does that mean that they're not saved or anything like that? So it doesn't surprise me to also think that throughout history and in Europe that a lot of people were forced to go to the Catholic church and that's where they went, but it wasn't because they just loved the Catholic church. They weren't even Catholic in their heart. Frankly, there's a lot of people that go to Catholic churches today that aren't even Catholic, okay? Does that make them a Catholic just because they walked in? You know, if I walk into the garage, am I now a car because I'm in the garage? You know, if I walk in the kitchen, no, no, okay? If I make a sandwich, am I a wife? No, okay? So just because you do something or you go somewhere doesn't necessarily... Hey, there's a lot of people that live in Texas and they're not a Texan, you know what I mean? Hey, there's a lot of people that are in a Baptist church this morning and they're not a Baptist, okay? So don't get this idea of like, oh, well, you know, we're all Catholic or we're Catholic-like. No, I'm not Catholic and even if I walked into a Catholic church, which I visited one, one time, I didn't become Catholic because I walked in there. Also, there's plenty of people in this room that used to be Catholic. Are you still Catholic? No, okay? So when it comes to church history, even if you trace some of that back to the Catholic church, it's not like we're coming from the Catholic church or I love the Catholic church or anything great. But you have to admit if you study history and facts that when you start tracing our lineage, you say, okay, Pastor Romero started this church and Pastor Anderson sent him out and Pastor Anderson was ordained by an independent fundamental Baptist. Pastor Anderson went to Jack Hyles College. He went to the Hyles Anderson College. Jack Hyles was ordained by Southern Baptist Convention, okay, folks? He was an ordained Southern Baptist pastor, but he left that, okay? So he was no longer Southern Baptist. The Southern Baptist Convention came out of the general Baptists that were in America based on the issue of slavery. Now, if you look at the Baptists, they were planted by Baptists that came from Europe. Those Baptists that were in Europe came from the Church of England. The Church of England came from the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation came from the Catholic church, okay? Those are just facts. Whether you like those facts or love those facts, it doesn't change the fact that they're facts, okay? Now, when you understand these facts, you can notice something. Didn't you notice things getting a little bit better? Protestant Reformation, Baptists, Southern Baptists, independent fundamental Baptists, Pastor Anderson, new IFB, right? I mean, we see, like, don't we see just a general, just kind of slowly getting better over time? In my opinion, I don't look at past history and say, you know, I wish I could be part of the Church of England. No, I'm thinking, like, I love Steadfast Baptist Church. I love being a part of this church. I love Faith Ward Baptist Church. Hey, I love a lot of the churches today. I love Verity Baptist Church. I love all of our friends' churches. They're great, and I guarantee they're better than any of those churches in the 1600s, okay? I'm not afraid to say that, if the temple was better with more glory, I believe that we, too, could have a church that's better and with more glory. You know what the devil wants to come and whisper in your ear? Look at verse 11. Malachi chapter 1, verse 11. And the fruit thereof, even his meat is contemptible. He said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! And ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts, and ye have brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick. Thus ye brought an offering. Should I accept this of your hand, saith the Lord? But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrifices unto the Lord a corrupt thing. I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen. He's saying, as God is trying to say, he's saying, hey, in the future, in the future, the heathen are going to worship me. And notice what it says about it. It says that it's going to be great. My name shall be great among the Gentiles. That's not like, you know what, you Jews did really good, and the Gentiles, they're just kind of plan B. The Gentiles, they're going to worship me, but it's not going to be that wonderful. No, no, no. It says it's going to be great. And let me tell you something. We are the Gentiles, and we can worship God, and we can make his name great. And that's what we should do. But the Jews got complacent, and the Jews got to a place where, you know, serving God doesn't really benefit me anymore, and it's weary. Notice what he says in verse number 13. Behold, what a weariness is it. What a weariness it is to come to church on Sunday morning. Oh. And then he wants us to come back Sunday night and go sowing in between. So, it's just hot out there. And he preaches for so long. You know? He wants us to sing songs, and oh, man, I don't have a nursery, so I actually have to let my kids sit in the room, and it's so weary. I wish we could just let some pedophile watch them in the nursery or something, you know? That would be better, right? I wish that we could just drop them off with people that don't care about them and don't go to church. Hey, I've worked in the church nursery, and you know what I knew about all the people that I worked with? They didn't go to church. Because you know what? They're not in the church service. Did you ever realize that? I remember talking to these people, and they say, like, hey, we don't go to church, and we get high afterwards, and you watch kids. You know? But think about it. They already decided that watching the kids was more important to them than coming to church. That's the only people that are willing to do it. Just like the people that are working on Sunday already decided that working was more important than going to church. You know, that's why the cops on Sunday are usually not the best and brightest folks. Sometimes they're forced to do this, and I get that, but a lot of them will choose Sunday to go to. Not your best folks, folks. Okay? And when it comes to the work of the Lord, yeah, is it gonna take some effort, some energy? Yes, but you know what I know about work and effort and energy? It's only up here. Because when you're doing something that's a lot of work, but you enjoy it, it's not even work to you. Whereas if you're doing something very easy and light, but you hate it, it just becomes so burdensome. And you know what? That you can get into the bad mental state where you're just thinking like, oh, serving God is so weary. I have to read the Bible, and I have to go to church, and I have to try to follow His commandments, and there's no point. It's not benefiting me anything. And if I have to make a sacrifice for church, I'll give God my worst. Notice what he says in verse 14. But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrifice unto the Lord a corrupt thing. There's people out there that'll promise that they're gonna make a great offering unto the Lord. They'll vow that they're gonna serve God in some way. They'll vow, hey, I'm gonna give you the best of my flock. But then, whenever push comes to shove, they offer, oh, well, you can have this one. You know, it's kind of retarded, but you know. Just have this sheep, right? It's not necessarily my best sheep. And think about it. God wanted them to sacrifice their absolute best. Their absolute best. They're looking at their entire flock. They're looking at all the sheep, all of the cows, and they're saying, this is the best looking cow. It's the fattest. It's my prized possession. The meat is gonna be, it's the wagyu beef, right? I mean, it's gonna be marbled with fat. And look, wagyu beef is expensive. Who knows what I'm talking about? Oh, man. You go to the store, if you buy a brisket, it's anywhere from like two to four dollars a pound. Can I get a witness, Ryan? Where is he? No, I'm just kidding. It's like two to four dollars a pound, depending on the cut. But you wanna get wagyu beef, and it's just like exponentially higher. You know, you could buy a brisket, it's like 50, 60, 80 dollars. It's like wagyu beef, 300 dollars. And you're just like, what in the world? 300 dollars? You could go to a restaurant, and they have steak on the menu. And I remember I made this mistake one time, okay? It was a bad mistake. But I was like, hey, instead of getting a filet, I'll just get this like wagyu, bone-in, like tomahawk steak or something. I was like, they didn't have the price on the menu for a reason, folks. I was thinking like, I don't know how much this is. It was like 10 times more expensive than the filet. And I was just like, what did I do? I could have ordered 10 filets. But it was still good. I mean, the meat was good, but it was just like, it was expensive, right? But it's like, for God, you're not supposed to then pull out the round-eye steak that's on the discount shelf that's already turned brown, and you're just like, here you go. No, you offer him the wagyu. You offer him the best of the best, and he's saying, woe unto the guy, cursed be the guy that would tell the Lord, hey, I'll give you this, and then he doesn't. You know who should have read that verse? Ananias and Sapphira, who made a vow that they're gonna give all of their money, and then they held back part of the price, didn't they? And you know what, woe unto us if we say we're gonna serve God with our lives, and then we hold back some of it. We need to allow the Lord to stir us up and have the right attitude. Look at chapter three, verse seven. Even from the days of your fathers, you're gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts, that ye said, wherein shall we return? Well, may it rob God, yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes in the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts, and all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. Notice that God is saying, hey, put me first, bring the tithes into my house first, and then I will bless you so much, you can't even contain all the blessing and the wealth that I'm gonna give you. And the whole world will look at you and say, wow, what a delightsome land. And I'll tell you what, I think that is why America became the nation that it did. America became the nation that it did because there was many saved people creating a lot of good churches, not every church here is good, but throughout history, lots of good churches, and in fact, Jack Hyles, in the 90s, in the 90s, was the largest church in America with his Sunday school. Isn't that crazy to think about? An independent, fundamental Baptist was the largest church in America. And you know what, throughout the 1800s and 1900s, there's been a lot of great Christians doing a lot of great works. Who's the one sending out the most missionaries and doing the most things for God? And look, America has brought in all the wealth, hasn't it? America started off really humble in the 1600s, 1700s. How could you just start a nation out of scratch from a bunch of people that were basically rejected from society and then in only a few centuries end up becoming more powerful than all the other nations in the world combined? Because let's be honest, if we didn't have Joe Biden as a president and we didn't have the corrupt deep state, if our government was actually just really well-educated, smart individuals, we could possibly go to war with the entire world and win. I mean, we are that blessed and we have that much money and intelligence and everything. We already got a military base basically everywhere in the whole world. And in some ways you could almost claim that it's conquered in some ways, okay? Now, why did that happen? Because people were putting God first in this country, at least in comparison to the rest of the world. I mean, what other nation are you gonna say is really putting God first? North Korea, not really doing so hot, right? I mean, there's not really a lot of nations as a whole where you have a lot more saved people than America and yet wouldn't everybody in the world look at America and say, what a delightsome land? Maybe not in the last few years, but I'm just saying like in general, everybody still looks at America as the nicest place to live, the most freedoms, the most luxuries, the best streets, the best everything, okay? And for the most part, it still is. Obviously, we're a collapsing empire and we've got problems and if you watch media, you'll think America is 10 times worse than it really is, but even living here, it's still a delightsome land and it's wonderful and that's just the remnant of what we did in the past, okay? But what could be the attitude? Well, it's vain to serve God. Like, we keep trying to serve God and then people just keep attacking us or we keep having to rebuild the house of God. I mean, that gets frustrating, doesn't it? I mean, you build a nice building, you put a lot of effort and energy. I mean, I sanded wood for so long in Hearst. Oh, man, I was like eating it, okay? I felt like the serpent of the field eating the dust and it was just like, oh, man. But it's like, oh, it's worth it because we'll have it for a long time. Oh, okay, oops. And then it's like you move on to another building, you put more money into it and then you just move on and it could get to a point where you're just like, what's the point? Well, you know what? People get saved every single time we go out and preach in the gospel. People are still coming to church, people are still getting baptized. Hey, we still have a great group of people here. Our church is even growing, surprisingly enough. We're going through all that difficulty. But you could say, well, yeah, but Biden and elections are now rigged. They were always rigged. You just didn't know. Honestly, things have gotten better because you just know that you know a lot more about the problems that we've had. You know, Jew awareness has increased a lot. You know, even by people like Kanye West. You know, that's a positive move for America. You know, it's like, oh, well, but now they're in charge. They were always in charge, okay? You just now realize it, okay? There's a lot of things that are going on in America. And you know, I've just been praying for the last few years that God would just expose all the things that are going on in the world. And boy, has he been, you know, doing that. Oh, but they're getting away with evil and sin. They were getting away with it. Have you ever heard of 9-11? And you know, it's crazy. It's 9-11 really hasn't had the lid blown off that jar yet. A lot of people know the truth, but like, as a whole, as America as a whole, for some reason, it's like that one, people still are kind of like confused on or something. It's like, we need everybody to realize that one too. It's like, if the government can pull off 9-11, what else do you think they can pull off? A lot. Okay, and they pulled off a lot of stunts. COVID was bad, but you know, what was good about COVID is I think a lot of people at this point have seen through it and it would be harder for them to do it again. I think it would be a lot more people that are like, I'm not wearing your stupid mask. And hopefully, God willing, a lot of people wouldn't take poison jab, you know, or get shot up with that disease, you know, that's going to kill a lot of people and it has killed a lot of people. And you know, I used to be ridiculed by my family for being anti-vaccine, but now all of a sudden, they're like, well, I kind of see your point. And even, you know, I don't like the Westboro Baptist Church, but I saw this meme and it was kind of funny, but it's like Westboro Baptist and they have their signs like God hates fags. And there's this guy, he's like looking at him like a Chad and he's just kind of looking at him and he's just like, y'all are weird. And it says, 2012. And then it says, 2023. And it says, the guy holding the same sign, we hate fags. And the other guy's like, how do I join? I was like, hey, you know, obviously, don't join Westboro Baptist because they're like Calvinist and they don't believe the gospel. But you know what, at least there's an appetite for that viewpoint because hey, they're right on that issue. You know, it's so funny though, they're still not even right on it because they think they can get saved or something stupid, okay. But at least, you know, some people are starting to wake up about the things that are going on. You could have this attitude of like, oh, everything's getting worse and it's terrible and why serve God and why have the sodomite deception, you know, badge or sticker or DVD. But I'm just thinking like, hey, this is great. I'm glad that I have this. I'm glad I can go and hand this out. And our film just gets better and better every day. Every day people are just like more ready for this kind of material and more ready for this type of information. And we need to wake people up because we have a great work to do. We need to be stirred up and we need to not be discouraged by the world that we live in. Don't be discouraged by America collapsing. That's a great opportunity for us to get a lot of people saved. Don't get discouraged about inflation. There's going to be more poor people that want to get saved. Go to 2 Peter chapter 1, go to 2 Peter chapter 1. I have just three points I want to get to. I kind of built up a long foundation here, but we need to stir ourselves up. And obviously we can't do it by ourselves. We need the Lord. But there's things that the Lord has given us, tools that the Lord has given us so that we can be stirred up. And yet the Lord is the only one that's going to truly stir us up. A lot of churches today, they try to stir themselves up through emotionalism where they try to get really excited, but the emotionalism doesn't really last. It kind of only, it's kind of like sugar where you only really enjoy sugar while you're eating it. You know, I've never like had ice cream and then when I'm done eating, I'm still enjoying it. It's like, have you ever noticed this? This is why people get really fat is because you only get to enjoy the food while you're eating it. So it's like you eat a little bit of ice cream, you're like, that was good. And you're like, but I want that feeling again. So it's just like, okay. So then you just, you have to keep eating it in order to keep getting that feeling, right? So of course that's where that plays in and foods today, they know this so they try to make them really highly addictive and taste really good and that's how you gain a lot of weight. It's really easy for me to gain weight because I love food and I love eating and I feel like I'm never satisfied of the junk, right? I mean the ice cream, the candy, any kind of pastry, oh man. You know, I just love, I love cinnamon bread. I love cinnamon rolls. I love, you know, the chocolate croissants. Those are so good. My wife buys these things from Costco. I don't know what they're called. They're like rolled pastries with chocolate in it. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Okay, I see, God bless that hand. Those are so good. I don't know what it is, but it's just like, I mean, and here's the best. A fresh chocolate glazed donut. Oh man, if it's a 6 a.m. chocolate glazed donut fresh off the breast, I feel like I could never stop eating those. Like I would eat, I like eat it and I'm just like I want more than I did before I ate that. I'm like I could just eat chocolate glazed donuts until they ran out. And so it's just, it's crazy how you have that kind of a feeling. But you know, as soon as you're done eating, you don't have any more enjoyment from it. You don't have any more satisfaction from it. That's like emotionalism where you go to these churches and while you're there and they're singing the music and it's loud and it's fun or whatever, you get that feeling, but as soon as it's over, it's over. And then what do people need now? Well, I gotta plug in, you know, music or I gotta plug in Hollywood or I gotta plug in sports. I just gotta get that high again and they're just chasing an emotional high and they're just emotionally obese because they don't have any real spiritual nutrition and they don't have something that's lasting. You know, when I eat carrots or vegetables, sometimes I eat vegetables and I'm so glad that I'm done with them. You know, you know what I'm talking about. Especially mixed veggies, I hate peas so much and if I ever have peas on the plate, I just wanna eat them as fast as possible so I can enjoy the rest of the meal because I just hate them. They're like urine balls or something. They're like urine balls or something. It's like, what is this? They taste so bad. I mean, I don't like peas at all. You know, they're just so gross. But it's like, if I have to eat them, I will, okay? And I do. But you know, I don't get any enjoyment from it. But you know, you eat a lot of meat and vegetables and you can be sustained for a while. You actually can actually be sustained because you get those nutrients. So it's like sometimes you read the Bible and you get to sections like this is peas. You know, I just gotta eat them. You know, I'm just gonna eat the peas and I'm just gonna get through them. You know, it's like when he's saying I'm gonna spread dung in your face. You're like, here's the peas, all right? You know, but you just get through it and you just eat them and you don't be a child. Okay, children, sometimes you eat things you don't like. If mom makes you dinner, you eat it, right? If she makes you peas for dinner tonight, you're like, Pastor Shelley said to eat them. You know, I'm gonna eat them fast. That's what I'm gonna do, okay? Don't wait till the last. Kids always make this mistake. They eat all the stuff. They eat the roll first, you know, because that's delicious, and they eat the meat, and then they're just staring at a plate of vegetables and it's just like, oh, man. And then it's a standoff between you and the kids for like an hour. And you're like, dude, just eat the veggies first. Just get it out of the way and then we can have some fun, okay? But, you know, when it comes to our spiritual life, you know, we also need the spiritual veggies. And we need something that's gonna actually last. And what can happen, though, is after eating those veggies, now I'm stirred up to eat the rest of the meal because I'm all excited, all right? And God wants to stir us up. What stirs us up? Scripture. Look at 2 Peter chapter number one. Look at verse 13. Yeah, I think it is meat as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this, my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me. So he's gonna put them in remembrance. Well, how do you put someone in remembrance? They had to learn something before. What is he putting them in remembrance of? The Scripture. Just like the Holy Ghost. What does the Holy Ghost do? He brings all things to your what? To your remembrance that Christ had commanded, that Christ had said. So sometimes we need things to be told us again. We need to just remember. You know, sometimes you come to church and it's like, well, I didn't learn anything new, but do you remember? Maybe it's a remember sermon. It's not so much a brand new sermon, you know, and sometimes those brand new sermons are weird because they teach you the earth's flat and you didn't need that, okay? You certainly didn't remember that because you never learned that, all right? But sometimes we need just a sermon to remember, okay? Look at 2 Peter chapter three, verse one. This second epistle, beloved, I now write on you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this verse that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise that is coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. Notice that the Bible is saying you need to be stirred up. Why? Because you're gonna have scoffers. What does the scoffer do? The scoffer tries to demotivate you to serve God. The scoffer gets you to try and think that church doesn't matter. Why go to church? Why serve God? Why to try to build the house of God? Why try to do any of these things? It's all in vain. Hey, Noah, why build an ark, bro? It's never rained. Hey, Noah, your ark's on the land. Hey, Noah, how are you gonna get a trailer hitch to take that to the water? You don't think they made fun of Noah? You don't think they made fun of the men of God? How about when Jesus Christ is hanging on the cross and people are walking by, wagging their heads, saying, oh, he trusted in God that he would deliver him. That's pretty intense. The type of scoffing and mocking and ridicule. People can ridicule us today and say, oh, look, they moved to another space, you know, Steadfast Baptist Church, but it's in vain. No, you're in vain. No, you know what? Hey, God's trying to remind me of what people were like in the past, of the stories in the Bible in the past, to stir me up, to realize, hey, we win. Have you ever read a Bible story and we didn't win? Every single story, we always win. Every single Bible story. There wasn't that time where it's like, well, Daniel got thrown in the lion's den and the lion's got him and all the bad people won. The end. No. It's like they get the victory in the end of the day. Of course, there's some martyrs here and there, but even the martyrs end up stirring somebody else up and then they have great victory and we see the hand of God working in that person's life and that person gets great honor and glory for dying for Christ. So you know what? Every single story, every single example, every single person in the Bible is winning. So why would I think, oh, well, y'all are gonna lose, though? No, no, no, we're gonna win. No, we're gonna be victorious and we're supposed to be stirred up and reminded of what was already spoken of, of what the holy prophet said before because they're written for our admonition. They're written unto us so that we would know. Do you really think for one second that your life is as hard as the children of Israel and Egypt with Pharaoh? And do you think that there seemed like there was more hope back then? None of those people believed that they could get out of the hand of Pharaoh. None of those people believed that there was any, I mean, how about economic issues? The entire land was destroyed. Everything was destroyed, everything was wiped out. I mean, they were just doomed from a carnal perspective. But you know what? God still took them out of there, didn't he? God still delivered them. God still fed them in the wilderness. God still was willing to bring them into the promised land. And you know what? God is still willing to help us and provide for us no matter what obstacles go on in the future. In fact, it just makes it cooler whenever God rescues us, however he does it. It's not some lame salvation. It's gonna be a great salvation to give him more honor and glory because God likes to do it with more glory. It's just like someone that's gonna, you know, Eva Knievel wants to get on his motorcycle and go off a huge ramp, spinning through a hoop, and he's like, put the hoop on fire. Right? And he's like, hey, I did it 50 miles an hour last time, 75 miles an hour, right? And you know what? Instead of just going through the hoop, I'm gonna go through the hoop with a back flip, right? They just keep escalating it to make it seem cooler. And you know what? God, up in heaven, sometimes he's just like, yeah, let's do it this way too. Let's up the ante again. Let's turn the furnace seven times hotter. Hey, let's get every single prince and every single captain in the whole world to all worship the devil in front of them and to put all kinds of pressure on them and let's see what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are gonna do. I mean, think about Job. It's like, oh, you lost all your kids and all your flock and all your sheep? Well, let's see what happens when you give me boils all over your body too. I mean, just keep escalating, and then we'll have your wife come and nag you, right? Oh, you think you can handle the boils? Just wait about her, you know? And you know, some men would choose the boils, all right? Go if you would to 2 Kings chapter. Well, go to 2 Chronicles first. Go to 2 Chronicles first. But here's the thing. We need the Bible to remind us of our real situation because we can always look at the past through rosy-colored glasses and try to think, oh, man, I wish it was the 50s. It was great in the 50s or something. It's like they didn't have as great of air conditioning. Their transportation wasn't as good. Their food wasn't necessarily as good as it is today. I mean, there's a lot of things that they don't have that we have today. They didn't have computers. You know, they didn't have a lot of cool technology and things. They couldn't travel as much as we get to travel today. You know, going to the Bahamas probably would have been a lot harder in the 50s than it would be today. Praise God that you can just hop on a plane and go to the Bahamas like that. Nonstop. Oh, man, I love nonstop flights. I mean, do you realize how hard it was to travel across the country before nonstop flights? I mean, do you really think that it was easy for Paul to travel the world? Paul's getting on boats, and there's ships and sea wrecks. I mean, when there's a storm, you just fly above it, and sometimes you have a little bit of a tourist that's like, okay, that was me going through the storm on the plane, right? I mean, they're giving you a glass. Think about it. You're getting on a plane, and they can give you an open glass of liquid, and they're not even afraid you're going to spill that. I mean, I look at my kids, and I'm like, I'm terrified, but I'm just saying, like, how stable is that? Do you really think you're on that boat with, you know, them? It's just like, you're not going to have a glass, open container glass of any beverage. That thing's going to slosh everywhere. You're going to get sea water in there to drink. Okay, so when it comes to the world that we live in today, it's easy to look at the past and think it's better, but most of the time it's worse, and reminding yourself, oh, I wish we lived then. How about in Egypt? Do you really want to go back to that? I mean, that's silly to think that we have it harder than the people of the past, when the people of the past had it infinitely harder. I mean, you women, you don't even know what hard work is like in comparison to the women of the past. You have no idea. You had to wash everything by hand. Let me just give you a dishwasher, washing machine, a vacuum that's a robot. What in the world? Right? I mean, there's just all kinds of air conditioning, you know, instant rising yeast, a mixer, an oven, two ovens, a stove. I mean, like all of the electric stove, you just, I mean, you know, women had to actually go and get the chicken, wring its neck, cut off its head, defether it, actually, you know, get all the parts out. Then they had to start a fire. Then they had to try and cook it. And, you know, you know what's so great about an oven? You just say 300 degrees, and you know what it is? It's going to be 300 degrees. Try and cook a bird on a fire. You can burn that thing super fast, super easy. Talk about tough meals. I mean, some of you men are spoiled because your wife makes excellent meals. But, you know, if you cook food wrong, it tastes weird, okay? It can taste like jerky. Can you imagine, you go out, and you spend all your money to get this steak, and then you bring it home, and your wife burns it. She makes it meaty, it's like well done. You're like, what did you do? You know, what is happening? And there's no going back. Think about now, today, if you're hungry, you know, and you didn't make meals, or maybe your wife has a hard day, it's like, okay, we'll just get McDonald's, or we'll just get Chili's, or we'll just get Outback, or something like that. You know, back then, it was like, oh, you just won't eat. There's some berries that, you know, there may be poisonous, but they're over here. There's a cricket over here, I haven't killed it yet. You know, it's like, I mean, you don't even realize the luxuries that you have today, and all the clothes you had, you had to make. You had to make the clothes for everybody, okay? Today, it's just like, you can just have everything delivered to you. You can have everything made for you. In fact, the skill level is so low now, because every job, like everything that a wife was supposed to do has been replaced by a machine or service. Have you realized that? And I'm not saying that every wife does this, but I'm just saying, like, everything you could ever think of a wife doing has now an option to be replaced by either a service or a machine, so that women can do nothing. You know, it's like, they're just like, how can I take away all of my job duties and all of my tasks, right? But, oh, I wish we would go back in the past. No, you don't. You don't even realize how easy everything is. How about just watching children? Do you think it's hard to watch children? Today, how many parents use a tablet or a computer screen or a phone to entertain their children at times? And that's the easiest thing ever. I'm not saying you should do this. I'm not recommending it. But how many women do this today? And it just made life so much easier for them. And sometimes it cripples us, right? It cripples us when we use too much technology and we don't do our jobs and we become lazy. But when it comes to Christianity, a lot of our work has already been taken from us in some cases, right? I mean, we don't even have to wonder what the scripture is. We have the King James Bible just handed to us. You can just drive to church in a luxury vehicle with air conditioning. You're not even having to travel there. Tithing, you can just pay it online or something like that. You don't have to actually go and pick out the flock and bring it in and get it weighed. In order to pay your tithes back in the old days, you had to literally travel with all of your goods. Travel with all your herd and all your flock and then get ripped off by Jews. I guess nothing's new. While you paid your tithes or whatever. And in today's world, it's so much easier to serve God. But we need to try and stir ourselves up so they'll actually do some real work. Because we still have a great opportunity to do great work. Just like, look, there's nothing wrong with a wife using all these tools. But you know what, she should do that to become a better wife, not a worse wife. And when we have more tools to our disposal, we shouldn't become worse Christians, we should become better Christians. Because soul winning in the past would have been harder. They didn't have the cars and the technology and the maps. They couldn't travel to the Bahamas like this. We should be doing more missions trips than they've done in the past. We should do more soul winning than they did in the past. We should do everything better. If they had church once a week because it was harder on them, let's have it even more because it's easier on us. Whatever we can do, let's improve it to make it even better. Music. I mean, you can listen to some of the greatest music ever just on the drop of a hat. Before technology to record things, the only way to actually hear music was to get a bunch of people together that know how to play and they could play and you could only enjoy it while it was being played. Right now, you could just listen to the greatest music at the drop of a hat on repeat for as long as you want. You know, why not then us make great music that people could listen? Why not, hey, you could watch a preaching. You could watch a film. Why not do the best that we possibly can? Think about it, these people, what stirred them up? 2 Chronicles chapter 29, look at verse number 1. Hezekiah began to reign when he was 5 years old and 20 years old and he reigned 9 and 20 years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that David his father had done. So we're talking about Hezekiah. Just flip the page or go to chapter 30 and look at verse 1. And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover under the Lord God of Israel. For the king had taken counsel and his princes and all the congregation in Jerusalem to keep the Passover in the second month but they could not keep it at that time because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently neither the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem. And the thing pleased the king and all the congregation. So Hezekiah is coming to power. He's trying to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord and according to the Bible he's trying to get a Passover done. He can't even do the Passover exactly as he wants to because they're wrong on the timing. They're not going to be able to do it in the first month so they have to do it in the second month because everything wasn't even ready yet. So they get delayed, they have some problems but skip down to verse 21 for a moment. Look what the Bible says about what he did though. Verse 21 the Bible says, And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness. And the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day singing with loud instruments unto the Lord. And Hezekiah spake comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord. And they did eat throughout the feast seven days offering peace offerings and making confession of the Lord God of their fathers. And the whole assembly took counsel to keep other seven days and they kept other seven days of gladness. For Hezekiah king of Judah did give the congregation a thousand bullocks and seven thousand sheep and princes gave to the congregation a thousand bullocks and ten thousand sheep and a great number of priests sanctified themselves. And all the congregation of Judah with the priests and the Levites and all the congregation that came out of Israel and the strangers that came out of the land of Israel and that dwell in Judah rejoiced. So there was great joy in Jerusalem. For since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem. So notice what it says. For a very long period of time they had not had a great Passover but then Hezekiah restored back the Passover they had the great feast of the Lord and they observe it better than it's been done in such a long time. Now Hezekiah is before Josiah and I want to go to one more place. Go to 2 Kings 22. So if you get a timeline and you think about the timeline of the kings Hezekiah is a king of Judah but you have Solomon, then you have several kings, you have Hezekiah and then later, towards the very end of the kingdom before that 70 year Babylonian captivity you have a guy named Josiah. Josiah came into power and he was very young. Now this is kind of crazy to think of because my son is 9 years old. So I can think about this. But think about this verse. Josiah was 8 years old when it began to rain. I can't even imagine Clayton being in charge of our entire country. I know he would do better than Biden. But even then, can you imagine? And he's 9. He's not even 8. 8 years old, ruling the kingdom of Jerusalem. Do you know what I like about this 8 year old? He obviously likes God. And you know what? Children can be saved at a young age and they can want to serve God and they can do great things for God even at 8 years old. Think about this. When it began to rain and he rained 31 years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Vadiah of Boscab. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father. So this is another guy that's doing that which is right. It says, And turn not aside to the right hand or to the left and it came to pass in the 18th year of king Josiah that the king sent Shaban the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshulam, the scribe, to the house of the Lord, saying. So he's 8 years old when it begins to rain. He's only doing that which is right. He's really doing a great job. When he finally turns 18, it's time for him. He wants to clean the house of God up. I'm just skipping around. Look at verse 7. Howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered in their hand because they dealt faithfully. So it's talking about how he's trying to repair the breaches of the house of God. Verse 8, And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I found the book of the law in the house of the Lord and Shaphan gave the book to Shaphan and he read it. So he's trying to put money back in the house of God, restore the things of God, and they end up finding a book. Well, they end up reading this book. Look at verse 21. You know, I'm sorry. I'm wanting to go to chapter 23 for a second. I'm in 23. Look at verse 21 of chapter 23. And the king commanded all the people saying, Keep the Passover unto the Lord your God as it is written in the book of this covenant. So Josiah was so moved and motivated and he asked, Hey, what does this even mean? What is going on with the law? And they ended up wanting to perform the Passover. So they're doing the Passover. This kid's really young. 18 years old, mind you. Look at verse 22. Surely there was not holding such a Passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah, but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, wherein this Passover was holding unto the Lord and Jerusalem. You know what we just read? The greatest Passover ever held was with Josiah. And, think about this. Number one, it was at the end of the kingdom of Jerusalem, basically, of Judah, because the next kids that come in are going to be, you know, Bozos and the Nebuchadnezzars are going to come and take over. So Josiah is kind of their last hurrah. But, think about it. It's in the midst of all kinds of corruption and societal decay and decay of the nation as a whole. So it's like, okay, America. Decay of the nation as a whole. You know what we could have? We could have a Josiah Baptist Church, even at the very end. And, notice, it was better than Solomon. Do you remember Solomon? How he offered so many offerings unto the Lord that God literally showed up in person to Solomon and said, hey, just ask and I'll give you whatever you want. That's how great his Passover was. And it says Josiah's was better. Josiah's was better! And I'm telling you, we can stir ourselves up with the word of God and we can do better things, greater things, if we would just allow the Lord to motivate us. If we would allow the Lord to use us. We could do great exploits in the last days. But we need people to get stirred up. Look at Ephesians 5. We need scripture to stir us up. We need to read the Bible and study the word of God. And let me tell you something. God blesses what's biblical the best. God blesses what's biblical the best. You know, point one, you can remember this sermon, is we need scripture to stir us up. Point two, Ephesians chapter 5, look at verse 17. Wherefore be ye not unwise, and be not drunk with wine where it is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. If you want to stir up your spirit, number one, you need scripture. Number two, you need to sing. You need to sing unto the Lord. And notice what it says in verse 19. Speaking to yourselves. Speaking to yourselves. You know what, you're doing yourself a disservice when you don't sing unto the Lord. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. Notice a word in there. I, I have decided to follow Jesus. Why? Because I'm speaking to myself and I'm singing unto myself to stir myself up in the Lord. And you know what, when you sing the Bible, when you sing the words of God, sometimes there's nothing that can stir you up more than that. Go to Psalm 150 for a second, go to Psalm 150. I mean, I just woke up this morning and I was like singing this song. I don't, I think it's like the Brook, the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir or something. Maybe, maybe, I don't know who made it. I can't figure out who made it, but I think they may have been the ones that made it. But it's, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I mean, it's just a great song and they sing it over and over. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it just, I just sing it over and over and it just, it just resonates with my heart. You know what, it stirs me up to want to serve God in 2023. You know when I see the stupid Sodomite pride flag, I'm just singing, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Hey, I'm still not ashamed of the gospel. You know what, when I go out and preach the gospel, when we go out soul winning and someone slams the door in my face, I'm not thinking like, oh man, what am I doing? I'm thinking, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Hey, I'm not afraid of what this world has to do. You know, I don't care about Biden and this government and all these pedophiles and the disgusting corruption going on in our government. I don't care when the cops come and harass us because I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you know, I need to stir up my spirit by singing unto the Lord. And you know what, not just me, you. You know, we have music here and I want to do it even better. You know, hopefully our music program keeps getting better. And we need people that are willing to commit themselves and dedicate themselves to music because there's something about music. And look at Psalm 150 verse 6. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Look what the Bible is saying. Hey, everything that has breath. You are commanded to sing unto God and that is going to stir you up. And you all know it and I know it. Secular music will stir you up to do sin. Secular music will stir you up to get all angry or mad or sad or whatever feeling you want to have. You want to feel like a loser? Listen to country music. You want to feel like a criminal? Listen to rap music. Hey, you want to be stirred up to serve God? You know what, sing the psalms and hymns and the spiritual songs. And be stirred up to serve the God of the universe. You know what, if you're not going to sing, you're doing yourself a disservice because that's how you're going to stir yourself up. Go to Isaiah chapter 42. I want to show you another verse here. Isaiah chapter number 42. You know what, we need more people to get plugged into church. Why? Because we could have a better music program. Better song leading. Better instruments. Hey, we've got all these instruments up here. We need someone to play them. And every service, every single opportunity. You know what, God willing, maybe we'll get a bigger church. We could have choir someday. We could have better music. You know, I'm not looking to say, you know, we just sing a song because we have to. No, no, no. We should actually stir ourselves up by singing and making melody in our heart unto the Lord. And saying, hey, I'm here to be used by God. And shame on you if you can play an instrument and you don't. Shame on you if you're not willing to get involved in the music program. Shame on you if you're not willing to sing unto God when you have a voice and breath. Why is God even giving you breath if you're not going to use it to praise the Lord? You know, we need to sing unto the Lord. And He is worthy of our praise. You know what, the only way He's going to get praise is if you do it. No one's going to force you. And you know, I like to listen to music too. But you know what God wants us to do? Sing that music. God wants us to sing the music. And you know, you by yourself don't even sound that good. But when you blend with everybody else, it somehow sounds good. Okay? And it's a weird, you know, phenomena. But it's like, you sound tone deaf, but with everybody else I can't tell. Alright? Isaiah 42, look at verse 10. Sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise from the end of the earth. E that go down to the sea and all that is therein, the isles and the inhabitants thereof. Hey, you're supposed to sing a new song unto the Lord. Go back to chapter 38 and look at verse 18. Just flip back. Chapter 38, look at verse 18. For the grave cannot praise thee. What a profound statement. It almost seems a little too simple. Hey, people that are dead aren't singing. People that are dead spiritually aren't singing either. Don't be like a dead person because then God might say, Why am I keeping you alive? For the grave cannot praise thee. Death cannot celebrate thee. The dead that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. Hey, that's telling you you're damned when you go to hell. It's over. The living, the living, he shall praise thee. As I do this day, the father to the children shall make known thy truth. The Lord is ready to save me, therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. You know what? All the days of my life I want to be in the house of God singing the praise unto God and to never allow that to escape why I want to be stirred up to serve God. And you know what? You're going to stir yourself up by singing unto the Lord. When do you get to be that loud in church for anything else? The loudest you're ever going to be is singing. And you know what? You ladies who say like, I don't get to preach. You know you get to preach while you're singing. So if you are so hard up for preaching that I better hear you belting the music. Okay? And you get some hard preaching. Psalm 139, I better hear that belted. Okay? Do not, I hate them. Right? I mean, preach it. Sing it. Go to one more place and we'll finish. All right? Acts chapter 17. Point one is we need the scripture to stir us up. Point two is we need singing to stir us up. And I got one more here, one more S for you, all right? Acts chapter number 17. This is the Apostle Paul. Look at verse 16. Now while Paul waited for them it happened. So Paul's been kicked out of all these cities. He's tired. He's been traveling. You know, he's been beaten up every time he preaches the gospel. But in verse 16, now while Paul waited for them it happened. So he's just on the run. He's just been kicked out. He can't preach the gospel anywhere. No one likes him. But while he's waiting, his spirit was stirred in him. Why? When he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. It's like I'm just sick and tired of seeing people in false religion. And you know what Paul had? He had sympathy for the lost. Paul had sympathy for the lost and it stirred him up to preach them the gospel, to get them saved, to endure all things for the elect's sake. Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake that they might be saved. You know, we should look at the city and look at them going to Kenneth Copeland's church and have sympathy on them. And look at them going to this wicked Friendship West church and have sympathy on all the black people that are getting sucked into this race baiting. And all the black people getting sucked into the missionary Baptist churches lying to them. And all the people that are getting sucked into T.D. Jakes church and having them lie to them. And all the people in this area that don't know any better. And they're just sinning and destroying their lives and have no motivation for life. I mean suicide is so much higher today than it's been in a while. And I can see why people would be so upset. I mean the world is just puking the six colored rainbow, not the real rainbow, the sodomite rainbow on everybody. And if I didn't have church or the Bible I would be thinking like there's no point in being here anymore. We're doomed. Society is just embracing this filth. Why even be here anymore? It's just so awful. You know what? I have hope in Jesus Christ. You know what? I have a joy in my life because of Jesus Christ. I get to come to church which is one of the greatest things ever in my life. I mean the days are hard, the weeks are hard, but you know what? Church is fun. I love church. I love seeing you guys. I love being around you. And I love getting my spirit stirred up. And you know what will stir your spirit up? Having sympathy for the lost when you go out there and you look at the guy in the eye and you can tell he's on his way to hell. And you have the opportunity to get him saved. And when you preach someone the gospel, you know and it doesn't happen every time. But there's a lot of times that they look at you and they're just like, thank you so much. You've made so many things so clear to me. I was worried about going to hell. I was thinking about this. I was praying about this. You know what? You're going to go through a lot of hardships in your life. You're going to go through a lot of difficulty in your life. But you know what? Let us have sympathy on the lost because they're going to go to hell. You're not going to hell. Whatever difficulties we have can't even be compared to the evils of hell. And we need to stir ourselves up so we can do great things in this church. And I'm telling you, we have great days ahead of us. I don't look at the future as negative. I look at it as, wow, it's going to be amazing. All the videos, all the music, all the preaching, all the conferences, all the things that we have, all the missions trips. I mean, it's just so incredible. Everybody's telling me, when can we go back to the Bahamas? This is like the greatest thing ever. When can we go back to Mexico? When can we go back to Shreveport? When can we, you know, I can't wait for the next conference. Why? Because, you know what? There's great things ahead of us. Let us not get discouraged by what the world's doing. Let us be stirred up by God's Spirit to do a great work now. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us the Word of God to comfort us, to strengthen us. I pray that we would stir ourselves up by reading the Bible. We would allow the Scriptures to just resonate in our hearts and our minds. To understand the importance of the job and the work that we have to do. I pray that you would motivate us to sing with all of our hearts and with our minds. And that we would pay attention to the lyrics that we sing. That we'd speak to ourselves. That we'd stir ourselves up to be motivated to serve you. And I pray that we'd have sympathy for the lost. That we would see them, a lost and dying world, going to hell. And we'd want them to be saved. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us the Word of God to comfort us. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us the Word of God to serve you. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us the Word of God to serve you. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us the Word of God to serve you. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us the Word of God to serve you. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us the Word of God to serve you. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us the Word of God to serve you. I will sing of my Redeemer, And His violence is tough to me. On the cruel thorns He suffered, From the curse to set me free. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer, With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon, Made the dead and the angry free. I will tell the wondrous story, How my loss to stay to stay. In His boundless love and mercy, He the ransom freely gave. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer, With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon, Made the dead and made me free. I will praise my dear Redeemer, His target, His power I'll tell, How the victory He giveth, Over sin and death and hell. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer, With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon, Made the dead and made me free. I will sing of my Redeemer, And His help He loved to me. He from death to life hath brought me, Son of God, with Him to me. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer, With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon, Made the dead and made me free. Thank you all for coming. God bless. You are dismissed. You are dismissed.