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

173, love lifted me. Watch me on that last part. We'll draw it out a little bit on that last part. 173, love lifted me. I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore. Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more. But the master of the sea heard my despairing cry, from the waters lifted me, now safe am I. Love lifted me, love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Love lifted me, love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Great singing song 173. All my heart to him I give. In his blessed presence live ever his praises sing. Love so mighty and so true merits my soul's best songs. Faithful loving service to to him belongs. Love lifted me, love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Love lifted me, love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Bowls in danger, look above. Jesus completely saves. He will lift you by his love out of the angry waves. He's the master of the sea, billows his will obey. He your Savior wants to be, be saved today. Love lifted me, love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Love lifted me, love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Great singing. Let's go ahead and open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day, and thank you for the opportunity to be gathered together as a church. Thank you for all our visitors and especially our distinguished visitor, Shelby Sharp, and his wife. Love them and appreciate them. Lord, pray that you bless this day. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, let's go to song 65, just over in the glory land. And, oh, never mind. I got one. 65, just over in the glory land. Song 65, just over in the glory land. I've a home prepared where the saints abide. Just over in the glory land. And I long to be by my Savior's side. Just over in the glory land. Just over in the glory land. I'll join the happy angel band. Just over in the glory land. Just over in the glory land. Therewith the mighty host I'll stand. Just over in the glory land. I am on my way to those mentions fair. Just over in the glory land. There to sing God's praise and his glory share. Just over in the glory land. Just over in the glory land. I'll join the happy angel band. Just over in the glory land. Just over in the glory land. Therewith the mighty host I'll stand. Just over in the glory land. What a joyful thought that my Lord I'll see. Just over in the glory land. And with kindred saved, there forever be. Just over in the glory land. Just over in the glory land. The happy angel band. Just over in the glory land. Just over in the glory land. Therewith the mighty host I'll stand. Just over in the glory land. Strong I will shout and sing. Just over in the glory land. Glad Hosannas to Christ the Lord and King. Just over in the glory land. Just over in the glory land. I'll join the happy angel band. Just over in the glory land. Just over in the glory land. Therewith the mighty host I'll stand. Just over in the glory land. Good morning. Thank you so much for coming to Stedfast Baptist Church. If you did not already get a bulletin, we'd love to get you a bulletin. Just slip your hand real quick and our usher is going to come down the aisles and hopefully get you a bulletin. On the front we have our Bible memory passage. We're memorizing John chapter 1 and as a special treat, if your child is 18 or under and they can quote the verse of the week, they can receive an ice cream treat at the midweek service. For those that memorize the entire passage, there will be a special prize. Obviously, it's a really big chapter, but that means it'll be an even bigger prize. Praise the Lord on that. Who's working on John chapter 1? The whole chapter. Okay, so we definitely got a lot of people working on it. That's great. Keep up the good work. Also, on the inside we have our service in so many times. We have our Spanish services at 4.30 today, evening service at 5.30, and our Bible study on Wednesdays at 7. We're going through 2 Samuel. If you'd like to join us, we'd love for you to come. Also, churchwide soul winning meets here at the building at all the respective times. We also have regional soul winning that meets in different parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. If you'd like to be a participant in the churchwide soul winning, all you have to do is show up at the time at the building. If you are a regional soul winner or interested in one of those times, you need to see the respective leaders. So we have there Goodwin in the Weatherford area. We have Brother Malton, Tuesdays and Fridays. He kind of meets more in the DFW area. Where have you been going lately? Irving and Crowley. Okay, so if you're kind of in that area or region. And then Brother Marcel is kind of the Azle-Rome-Justin area. And then also kind of just as a special soul winning push on the end Saturday or the final Saturday of every month, the West and the Lugo soul winning times kind of combine. So just take note that the churchwide soul winning for Saturday that does meet here, it doesn't meet here at the end of every month. So the end of every month, we meet at a different place. Yesterday, they met in Arlington, and I believe they had seven salvations. Is that correct? So praise the Lord on that. That's really great. And then we have our church stats. Please make sure to report all of your soul winning information to your soul winning captains. We do have a captain for our church. We have four different tribes as we describe them. And everyone's a part of a tribe. So if you've become a member of our church, we put you in a tribe, and we end up having special events. We have some tribe parties too. Two of our tribes I know have already had a party, and I think some people had like this the fear of missing out, okay? But here's the thing, your tribe party will happen and then we'll miss out, okay? So if you missed out on ours, sorry. If for some reason you join a tribe that already had a party, I don't know, come talk to me. We'll see what we can do. But we do have some other tribe parties scheduled coming up. On the right, we have the list of all of our expecting ladies. Continue to pray for all of them. We also have our prayer list. If you have any prayers that you would like public prayer for, please email them to the church email address, and we'll try to add that to the bulletin. We go over that on Wednesday nights. And then on the back we have upcoming events. There is a bridal shower for the cocktails on July 2nd. It's meeting here at the church. There's instructions down below, right below that. It says 1230 to 230, and she's registered at Target and Amazon. If you'd like to get a gift, you don't have to. All ladies are invited, and it is nursing's only preferred. We are doing a song leading and music class practice, July 3rd, 10th, 24th, and 31st. It's going to be early in that morning. This is for any skill level, so if you've never learned how to do song leading, this class is for you. If you're interested, this class is for you. If you do play an instrument and you'd like to practice with our orchestra, or to get more experience just playing some of the hymns, we'd love you to participate. And technically speaking, even if you just want to show up and just sing with the orchestra, you can do that as well. So it is open to all that want to participate. If your child wants to participate, you can obviously be here to support them or whatever you need to do. Any questions, just ask Brother Dylan. He has a lot of other information he can give you if you need it. There is a sign up sheet back here, but we would love it to have more people participate, get better at song leading and everything like that. And so also it's mentioned down here a lot of the information. We have a men's conference, August 18th through the 20th. So there is a sign up sheet on the back cabinet. Make sure to sign up for that event, because I have to pay in advance. Everything's always free, so we never charge anything. So of course the men's conference is completely free. We want all men to participate. It is, as far as ages are concerned, anyone of the age 18 and above is welcome to attend. If your son or if you have a child that's 16 or 17, so they still want to participate but they're not quite 18, you can still have them participate, but they need to sign a waiver. The parents need to sign a waiver and then they need to designate someone that's going to be a responsible party for them while they're on the trip. So that's just for your information. I don't know if we have that scenario, but if we do or if you have a friend or family member that wants to participate, those are just the requirements that the place that we go to would have of us. And so we want to make sure that we're protecting both them and us and everybody, okay? I do have a few... It's actually in our separate handouts. It's not in the hymnal book. It's in our separate handout, so if you can make sure to share that or pass that along if you have one. Psalm 67, you can share those with your neighbor. If not, you can open the King James Bible. Psalm 67. God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us that thy way may be known upon earth by saving health among all nations let the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee O let the nations be glad and sing for joy for thou shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations upon earth the nations upon earth see love let the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee O let the nations be glad and sing for joy and shall the earth yield her increase and God even our own God shall bless us God shall bless us in all the ends of the earth shall fear him let the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee O let the nations be glad and sing for joy the offering plates are passed around please turn in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 6 you're gonna read the whole chapter before the sermon you can follow along silently starting at verse number 1 Galatians chapter 6 the Bible reads in Galatians chapter 6 brethren the man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such in one in the spirit of meekness considering thyself lest thou also be tempted dare ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ for if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself but let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another for every man shall bear his own burden let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth and all good things he not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting and let us not be weary and well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not as we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all men especially unto them who are of the household of faith you see how large a letter I have written unto you with my own hand as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh they constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ for neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law but desire to have you circumcised that they make glory in your flesh but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision but a new creature and as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy upon the Israel of God from henceforth let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus brethren the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit amen let's bow our heads for a word of prayer father we thank you for our church and I just pray that you would protect us and guide us and fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit now and give him the boldness to preach the message you've laid on his heart in Jesus name I pray amen and I want to look back at verse number seven where the Bible reads be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap for he that soweth to his flesh shall the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting and let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not and there's a really important principle being taught here in Galatians chapter 6 of the reality that you're going to reap what you sow and the reaping and sowing principle that's found in the Bible is irregardless of what you're sowing it's irregardless of if you're saved or if you're unsaved this is just the reality of the life that we have here on this earth is that you will inevitably reap whatever you sow period now the title of my sermon is YOLO okay who knows what I'm talking about YOLO okay it's this weird phrase that came into popular culture in about 2012 and it wasn't popular in 2013 so me still using it I guess I'm outdated already but the reason why I'm using this phrase is because I don't believe that the philosophy attached to this YOLO phrase matches with Scripture because that phrase is just a simple acronym for you only live once there's a problem with that philosophy because that is really in context of this life it's really like you're only gonna live once and then you're gonna die but here's the thing whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die so really you're gonna live forever if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you're gonna live in heaven you're gonna inherit the earth you're going to live with Christ for all of eternity so you only live once is really negating the afterlife additionally it negates the fact that those that don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are gonna spend eternity in hell so there's a major consequence and a major reward attached to how you live this life and really what I think that YOLO if you were going to take that acronym and turn it into the real point of this sermon it would be you only labor once you only labor once and really when it comes to earning rewards when it comes to being pleasing unto the Lord we have our work to do now and really the Bible describes heaven as being peace rest where we get to reap where we're going to enjoy and so it's important to make sure that you realize our lives are not to enjoy now it's to enjoy later because we're going to reap what we sow whereas this YOLO philosophy that permeates our culture whether they use that acronym or not is let's just enjoy now pleasure now I just want to have you know my gratification now it's called instant gratification and really instant gratification ruins everything it ruins food nobody prefers food cooked in a microwave you only cook food in the microwave out of convenience but nobody says man I just really like brisket cooked in a microwave now they want brisket cooked in a slow cooker don't they you know you don't want to stay cooked in a microwave you don't want I mean there's virtually nothing that you could argue I mean maybe maybe popcorn does okay but but at the end of the day like there's really nothing when you make it quick is it going to be better you know the things that are truly of value the things that are truly worth their weight often take time they take effort they take labor they take thinking they take planning all of these different steps involved and in fact even God himself being all-powerful he did not create everything in an instant but rather he took seven days to create everything that exists and he had a very detailed plan he gave us all the different environments and organisms and ecosystems and everything that we needed and built them one upon one and not only that he then systematically created humans to permeate this culture and to be fruitful multiply and to fill the earth replenish the earth then slowly I mean we're talking about thousands of thousands of years then Jesus Christ entered his own creation and then after entering his own creation he's given us another couple thousand years to permeate the earth with the gospel so we see that God takes his sweet time and God is going to reap his servants in due time and from an eternal perspective seven thousand years or six thousand years is not that much but to us that's a long time and to God 70 years is not very much time but to us it feels like a lot of time but that's really our one opportunity to work and serve the master and the reality is you're going to reap from your life your life is one giant job it's one giant task and we will stand before Christ if you're saved you will stand before Christ and you will have to give an account of your works now you won't have to give an account for your sins because they're separated from you as far as these from the West and praise God I don't have to sit there and hear all the sins that I've committed I have the blood of Jesus Christ that's going to cover me and cleanse me from every single one of those sins but let me tell you something all of your works will be judged and the wood hay and stubble that you did in this life is just gonna burn up and the Bible says that that person will suffer loss it's important to make sure that you're laboring for the Lord Jesus Christ because you only labor once you only labor once and this philosophy of this YOLO philosophy runs everything about your life and of course we could look at this from an eternal perspective and I brought that up go if you would to 1st Corinthians 15 1st Corinthians 15 and that's the most important point but I want to also take this principle and help you realize that people are are incorrectly identifying how you should live they think that they should just live in this instant gratification culture give it to me now enjoy now pleasure now rather than laboring and working first and then enjoying later I'll quote for you from Matthew it says in Matthew 6 lay not up yourselves treasures upon earth where most and rough doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lay up yourselves treasure in heaven where my their moth or rust up corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal for where your treasure is there will your heart be also now in Galatians chapter number six the Bible said that if you would sow to your flesh you are going to reap corruption what is corruption well the Bible tells us about the Lord Jesus Christ that while his soul is in hell his flesh did not see corruption so what is that corruption that corruption is a rotting it's a decomposing of his flesh it's basically a deterioration of his flesh so what the Bible is saying is if I sow to my flesh eventually that's gonna break down decompose I'm basically gonna lose out on what I've built think of it this way if you go and you go to the gym and you work out and you get super buff you get super strong you get to the point where you can run a four-minute mile you know you could you're just a super athlete well guess what time and chance happen to them all and eventually you can't run a four-minute mile and eventually can't lift all the same weight that you could you're gonna see that corruption you're gonna see that deterioration of your body eventually and all that labor all that work that you invested in your physical body will eventually be worthless there'll be no benefit to it whatsoever additionally when it comes to just the works in this life you know eventually things break down you build a really nice house you know when is the the absolute best year of that house is life the first year is then the next year it's gonna be a little bit less it's gonna be worse a little bit now it may increase in value but that's because of the Jewish inflation game that is not because it's actually a better product just like a vehicle when you buy a car the best year of that car's life is its first year when has the new car smell everybody knows what I'm talking about I mean everybody desires that new car smell and it's euphoric I'll admit it like man it I love the smell of a new car you know what the smell of a car with five kids that you've had for ten years is different it's seen corruption and what I'm telling you is in this life the things of the flesh I don't care what building you build I don't care what business you have I don't care what works or accolades you do in this life it's all gonna see corruption and eventually it'll all be forgotten nobody cares if we go back 50 years in history ninety nine point nine nine percent of people know nothing about 50 years ago they know nothing about any of the works or anything that anybody's ever done and of course most history books are revisionist history so all the history read about it's not even real anyways it's fake they make stuff up or they they claim all kinds of things that aren't even true about history and they change the names they change the facts they change the circumstances everything gets perverted to their agenda and so the works of this flesh really are worthless they are meaningless they're gonna eventually run out and and you're basically putting money into a bag with holes in it young people they don't get this because when you're young you've only you had a limited amount of life experience and you kind of have this idea like you're gonna be young forever the circumstances you find yourself in are gonna be permanent you know they think their friends are gonna be their friends forever their high schools is how their life is gonna be forever look as soon as high school is over as soon as you're done it is over forever and it has no impact on your life it's so meaningless it really you people that they're thinking like everything in my life is so important because of high school it's like as soon as you get out of that culture it's all gone and it's meaningless and nobody cares all the people that were cool are usually losers after high school and all the people that got made fun of for being dorks and geeks are the ones that actually have a good job and make money and society actually likes in the future and frankly speaking if you're loved of this world you're usually just very ungodly anyways so it's a it's a vain exercise and just trying to build up things that are gonna eventually be destroyed anyway that's what our world does our world's laying up for themselves treasure on earth treasures all kinds of money accolades names cars all this stuff and it's just all meaningless but you know what there is an investment you can make there is a job you can have where your wages will never be diminished where your awards will never be you know eaten by moss or rust or someone won't come and steal it you know it's it's it's frustrating when you think like you know what I'm smart enough to maintain my money and my finances and make good investments you know you use a lot of diligence you have a lot of planning you know you can never plan for someone just stealing it because then when someone just kills it all it's just like wow all that work and effort and energy is just completely wasted or someone ruins it or something destroys it and you never you know there was a church pastor Dean Miller and in Colorado Springs they had been saving up for a building for like years and years and they finally got this beautiful property over like a cliff that looked over the whole skyline of the whole city and it was like the most desired coveted piece of property and he has this beautiful church well the like one week into their church's existence overnight a bunch of Satanists come and they literally just destroyed the entire building destroyed every good they had in the entire church wrote all kinds of satanic messages all over the church and because you know there's so many facets to you know building instruction and moving and all this kind of stuff pastor Miller had not secured insurance for the property yet and so it's just a complete loss I mean they had to start having church in a church that had been destroyed with all kinds of instruments they're sitting on chairs that have been permanently ruined you know what they still had a King James Bible and they still had hymns and they still sang to the Lord Jesus Christ why because even the most beautiful things can see corruption and who cares about that kind of stuff you know we should care about the spiritual things like souls and people's souls going to hell and going out and reaching the lost and preaching the gospel and getting our children safe you know these are the things that have eternal value that have eternal consequence and that's what this fight is really about it's not about carnal things and many men of God lost carnal things that's okay because God has a cat on a thousand hills and in fact God doesn't care about this stuff so much he's gonna literally burn it all one day if God cared so much about all the buildings and the grass and all this stuff why is he gonna just put it in the oven one day and just torch it and just destroy it all and then make it over again you know all this stuff is corrupted anyways he's gonna have to purge it with fire he's gonna renew the earth with fire and we're gonna inherit a new heaven and a new earth and so it's kind of just meaningless to put all this investment into this life when it comes to the flesh you know our investment should be a spiritual investment and we don't want to have this short-sighted mentality that says oh well I only live once so I might as well enjoy as much of this earth as possible you know the only people that would make sense for the people that are destined to hell already and don't want to believe in Jesus at all of course then soak it in because hell is not gonna be any better now it doesn't make any sense to go stand on the hot sun to try and warm up for that but you know I guess some people they just don't they just love the heat 1st Corinthians chapter 15 look at verse 33 the Bible says this be not deceived evil communications corrupt good manners now I kind of briefly touched on this on one of my Wednesday sermons but I want to bring it up again is 1st Corinthians chapter 15 is about the resurrection and the Apostle Paul is happening to address a church that has a lot of heresy a lot of false doctrine in it and specifically in the 1st Corinthians Church there's a there's a group of people that don't even believe in the resurrection which is kind of mind-blowing when you think about it but it doesn't really surprise me that much in today's America because there's a ton of churches a day where half the congregation is not even saved or there's actually plenty of congregations where none of them are saved but you know even of the ones that do have a pastor that's saved or they do have ministers there's tons of churches where they have not even been preaching the gospel you know I've ran into people out soul winning that said they go to church and you start bringing up the resurrection and they're actually clueless they never really even heard it they don't even understand it and you think like that's the only message they ever preach and they still don't get it through you know so it's crazy that there's so many people they're just literally ignorant of the gospel they're literally ignorant of the death and resurrection many of them don't understand the physical resurrection they only they're like oh yeah you just kind of came back in a spiritual or something it's like no no it was a bodily resurrection and you have to believe in the bodily resurrection to be saved okay but the point of verse 33 is the fact that because people were denying the resurrection it was causing some people's faith to be overthrown it was causing some people do not really want to serve the Lord because think about it if there is no resurrection then what philosophy becomes true Yolo is you only live once and so of course if there was no resurrection if Christianity was not true then why wouldn't you have as much gratification because you're not promised tomorrow that's why the Bible often bring up this kind of phrase this cutesy phrase of let's eat drink and be merry because tomorrow we die meaning you technically never know where you're gonna go might as well just soak it in enjoy as much as you possibly can but knowing that that's not true knowing that there is a resurrection knowing that there is eternal consequences to our actions we don't just self indulge every single moment we don't want to live an instant gratification type lifestyle but rather we want to plan for the future we want to invest in the future we want to labor for the future and specifically spiritually speaking notice he says be not as evil communications cup good manners this stupid Yolo life has inspired our youth has inspired a generation of children to live the most selfish self gratifying type lifestyles imaginable where they go to college and they simply just get drunk and they just waste away their lifestyle there's so many college degrees that are completely meaningless in this country there's so many people that get meaningless jobs they have no skills all they do is play video games get drunk they smoke pot they smoke all kinds of other drugs they get involved in all kinds of nefarious activities there's just so many games I mean games are just exploding in our culture sports are exploding in our culture today and it's all vanity it's all just an instant gratification it's this Yolo type mentality that's ruining our culture because the children are not investing in the next stages of life they're not getting any kind of real life skills they're not thinking about the consequences of their actions and we as God's people do not live like the world we are supposed to be separate from the world we're supposed to be different than the world we're supposed to renew our minds and we're supposed to realize it's important how you live it's important what you do today so that you can reap tomorrow that's a little point of sowing and reaping you know if no one's sowed seeds tomorrow or today we would have no food tomorrow we are sell we are dependent on farmers and all kinds of ranchers in this world planning for the future what if you know and this is happening but what if Bill Gates since he's buying all the farmland in America what if he just decides to stop planting crops I mean what happens if every single farmer I mean who in here who in here is completely self-sufficient you grow all of your food all of it 100% no one yeah okay so you depend on other people to grow you what if all the farmers just said Yolo because let me tell you something about farmland it's the most expensive land there is when it comes to you know acreage like irrigated farmland obviously if you have a house on it and you're in prime real estate that can be more expensive we're just saying land like raw undeveloped land is not worth that much but when you have really prime irrigated land it is worth a lot of money I don't even know what it would go for today but back when I used to be in banking I mean some of these things would be $1,500 an acre whereas raw undeveloped land goes for like 50 or 80 bucks an acre who knows today obviously you buy a lot and it's a lot of money but that's because it's a residential area but here's the thing what if every farmer just went ahead and cashed out because a lot of them are a lot of them are just cashing out what if every farmer just cashed out next year and said you know what I am frustrated growing crops I'm frustrated with all the government mandates there's a lot on farmers and ranchers I'm frustrated with Monsanto and what they're doing to our industry I'm frustrated by the GMOs and all this other stuff what if they just decided that no one's gonna grow any crops anymore what would happen we would all die we are dependent on people literally sewing so that we can reap food and we need that we have to have people doing that and you have to realize this is in every area of your life you have to start sewing so that you can reap go to Proverbs chapter number six go to Proverbs chapter number six in the Bible you know my mom and dad taught me this philosophy and I praise the Lord that they did that you you work first you sacrifice first and then you enjoy later it you know my parents gave me money as a child when I was very little when I was five years old I started getting allowance when I was five years old my when I was very young I can't remember my mom took me to the bank we open a bank account and anytime I got money from family relatives birthdays working mowing someone's lawn doing all these kind of stuff he's like you need to put that money in the bank and she said one day you'll want to have a car you'll want to get married you want to buy a house you do all these kind of things and so instead of taking that $10 and going buying a plastic sword at the flea market or whatever I would give my money to my mom and she would deposit in the bank for me and my mom would often offer me opportunities to work my mom had her own business and I would work for her sometimes and she would pay me money but every time she paid me just went into the account I didn't see a dime I didn't never really get any that money I didn't really spend any money and I just saved up year after year after year after year and guess what I eventually got married and I bought a house and you know what I use the money that I had been saving my entire life it really helped me get to that point and it helped me learn an important principle that it's better to save than it is to just spend and you know most people have a bad philosophy where as soon as they get their paycheck they've already spent it before they got it all credit cards you know and I'm not trying to get down on people but what I'm saying is this you know you need to learn principles of sacrificing first so that you can reap later in your life because if you don't have this philosophy life's gonna catch you and people that live paycheck to paycheck they're really not understanding that you will have something bad happen like you will eventually your car will break your AC will break your fence will break no sometimes it all happens like I remember when we we had our my first house and I'm married it was like within one week our garage broke so I had to get a new garage door and garage opener my fence literally blew over and at the time I had a dog so I had to fix it because you know if we didn't we didn't fix the fence we let the dog out and just go wherever and then I like my AC unit break to on the house and but here's the thing I have been saving up money systematically I'd saved up like five six thousand dollars in my savings account that I was trying to make sure and then guess what six thousand dollars eviscerated like that but what I have done if I hadn't saved up that money I don't know I would have gone into more debt and then what comes debt comes interest and then what comes interest is a punch in the face basically because that's what I mean interest is a wicked device that's not biblical it's actually a sin to charge interest or charge usury on someone and of course it's an evil that happens upon us because of the culture that we live in where we're constantly getting charged with all this interest and all this extra fees and all this other kind of stuff but we have to learn that you know insects are smarter than a vast majority of Americans today first of all they know that men are men and women are women okay I've never seen you know they talk about these drag queens you know what the queen bee knows that she's a queen bee and she's the one that lays the eggs but even when it comes to ants you know ants are smarter than many people look what it says in Proverbs 6 verse 6 go to the ant thou sluggard consider her ways and be wise which having no guide overseer ruler provide of their meat in the summer and gather their food in the harvest according the Bible he's saying look you guys you lazy people you're not even as smart as an ant think about the site I mean I don't know what the anatomy of the ant is exactly but even if its brain was the entire size of its head that's not a big brain in comparison to ours yet the ant has more wisdom than many of our youth today who is providing for the future who's laying up for the future who's sacrificing and look it says he's doing it in the summer when it's hot you know it's not like insects and animals don't feel heat or don't feel cold or don't feel the elements they do no one likes to necessarily work in the Sun but notice he's saying hey this ant is not lazy and look I don't know that I've ever really seen a lazy ant because every time I've ever seen an ant it's moving you know there's a lot of there's a lot of bugs and insects that'll stop you know spiders just kind of hang out in their web all day they'll just kind of sit it's really easy to kill a spider flies usually even though they're buzzing they'll usually kind of just sit but man ants they're just always moving have you ever noticed that I mean if you if you just hit an ant then it just start going in another direction and if you knock him he'll just go like he's just always moving it's just like whatever direction I mean the ant is just always going somewhere he's always got something to do and you know what that should be the life of a Christian that you're always moving you're always doing something you're always working and even if some mean guy comes along and knocks you over tosses you in a pool or does whatever he wants to you just keep moving you just keep going and you're not a lazy person that's just wasting their life wasting their future destroying all the potential that they have go to Psalms 126 go backwards to Psalm 126 look you only labor once you've only got one opportunity to lay up all the treasure you're gonna have in heaven now of course the Bible teaches we're gonna serve Christ in heaven and I get that obviously there's the work to do but in essence of your status in essence of your mansion in essence of the rewards that you're going to receive at the judgment seat of Christ but there's only one judgment seat of Christ there's one time to get that paycheck there's one time to get that bonus there's this one opportunity and you're in smack dab in the middle of it you're on the clock you know the question is what are you doing but look at Psalms 126 look at verse 5 a that so in tears shall reap enjoy either go forth and weep with bearing precious each of doubtless come again with rejoicing bring you sees with them now we often think about this verse and this is just me personally maybe it's you out there every time I've read this verse I kind of think of it in a carnal way and what I mean by that is I think like okay I go out soul-winning and I get someone saved and then I'm gonna bring them to church who's thought that okay now I'm not saying that's not right what it's saying but what if we look at this is a little bit broader scope of time right soul-winning is kind of an exercise that's gonna bring a lot of just tribulation turmoil frustration in the sense that think about the Apostle Paul I mean this guy is getting stoned and thrown in prison he's shipwrecked a day and a night and the deep so going out and laboring it's gonna bring tears in the sense that there's going to be sorrow that comes with being a consistent soul winner there is going to be grief that comes there's going to be tribulation there's going to be persecution that arises but let me tell you something when you get into heaven there's going to be no more tears there's gonna only be joy and every person you got saved you will bring with you to heaven it doesn't matter if they showed up at this church in fact I would say the vast majority if not 90 some percent of the people we've gotten saved will probably never darken the doors of our church but let me say you something that'll never stop them from going into heaven we will bring them with us we will reap we will have a giant harvest steadfast Baptist Church should be harvest Baptist Church of all the souls that are gonna come with us into heaven because it doesn't matter if you show up at church it matters if you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and you got saved you know what you have to believe this verse by faith because you'll never see it until it happens you're not gonna see all the people that you preach the gospel to show up at church on Sunday morning it's not gonna happen you say well then how do you know what's gonna happen I believe it by faith I walk by faith not by sight and I only labor once and think about it this way if God wanted the whole world to hear the gospel and to get saved of course he had to make it where it was to be a short presentation that you could do tons of times over and over otherwise it wouldn't make any sense and it also makes sense that you have parables when Jesus is saying where is the nine that we're gonna see that in reality where you go out and get a bunch of people saved and only one one of the ten is even thankful for it only one even shows up afterwards and let me tell you something why would Jesus say the harvest truly is plenty us but the laborers be few if everyone that got saved showed up we wouldn't think that I mean if everybody that got saved went out you know got into church and got baptized and started going soul winning and doing all the works for God then you know a lot of verses when he makes sense of the Bible think about the parable of the sower he's so seed into the stony ground that guy gets saved but guess what he's so easily offended he's not gonna drive through that train wreck out there to come to church I mean that is hit that is so awful out there that is horrible that is horrendous you know you have to basically almost be like a disciple already to want to show up at a church like you pretty much already have to believe a lot of Bible problems and you know that's frustrating to us in the sense that we'd like to have more newer visitors and we'd like to bring in people that are a little bit weaker Christians and everything like that but you know what that's not our mission right now there was times in the Bible where Christian Christianity wasn't like that the only thing about some of the the books when they're rebuilding the temple you got Ezra and Nehemiah they have to build the house of God with a weapon on the other side of the paddle I mean they have night watches they're having to constantly watch for the enemy to come and strike at any moment they have enemies on every side they have people constantly sending them letters legal letters trying to get them in trouble with the authorities and trying to get them in trouble with everything and they have to build you know while also defending themselves simultaneously you know that wasn't as welcoming as an environment as it could have been you know when Solomon is raining and it's peace everywhere and it's all this prosperity people are coming in droves to see Solomon you know what people weren't coming in droves to see Nehemiah build the temple again the second time that was a little bit more tumultuous that was a lot more you know steadfast okay style church and we might live in a culture where we have to build with a paddle and a weapon on both sides and that's okay as long as we're still working as long as we're still laboring as long as we're still doing what God would have us to do you know it's not my decision what kind of culture we live in I didn't pick America 2022 nobody in this room did nobody did ten years ago you wouldn't even believe the culture that we live in if I had said ten years ago to any one of you that there will be a man wearing a dress and he's going to be in charge of the health of America on national television you wouldn't believe me and you're like wait a minute people know and it's like yes everyone knows everyone is aware of this psycho everyone is aware of the the bizarreness I mean the fact that they literally are allowing children to go into bars where they have these quote drag queens dancing provocatively and stuffing money into the you know clothing or whatever if there is any clothing on these individuals and cops are going to stand outside the door and defend them I mean in 2008 and 2009 the cops arrested homosexuals but then they were fired for it so now we know why they don't do it anymore because they would get fired we know obviously in 2003 Lawrence versus Texas that happened you know it we understand that the government is just constantly deteriorating because of Judaism because of the Judaic you know false religion that spread into our culture you know when you have like a handful of Jews and Catholics deciding the morality of your country good luck good luck you know that's that's that's bizarre but even though we have wicked men in high positions of authority even though there's spiritual wickedness in high places that can still do crazy things because if you had ever asked me hey will Roe v. Wade ever be overturned I would have said no I didn't believe that so just even the fact you know the fact that we have constitutional carry in the state of Texas praise God for that and you know I don't even believe most of the people that passes legislation agree with those things or even righteous people I think they just got a lot of pressure from some good people to end up making good judgments or righteous judgments or perhaps God I don't know why they made the decision they did I'm just praising God that happened and and why stop you know let's keep it going I mean do you really think it's a coincidence that these are major issues that churches are finally speaking out about and then God gives us grace on these issues you know what if every church was a willing to preach with the Bible said on these issues you know it would change the culture like that everything would change so fast you know if arch if our country would just simply humble itself God could do a mighty work because let me tell you something we can't do anything on our own we're nothing we're weak you know what God loves weakness because it gets to show how strong he is he gets to show how mighty he is and the works that he can do on our behalf and you know me going out and trying to get people saved it's amazing if you truly think about it isn't it just truly amazing that someone can go to a Catholic Church for 40 years of their life and you could show up and in 15 or 20 minutes with the King James Bible completely changed their mind they believe in Jesus Christ and get saved or a complete false religion or something else you know that's the power of God because you know I hate door-to-door salesman and anybody that comes to me and tries to sell me something it's like I'm not interested there was nothing you could do to change my mind probably think about it that's not really different with religion for a lot of people but somehow the Bible it just it makes sense it's the truth it's so powerful it has so much might you know I've done sales in my life and I wasn't that successful in it because I wasn't selling the got you know I wasn't selling something that was true I was going around trying to sell Wells Fargo banking accounts and boy is that hard it's like it's like okay why should why should we bank with you do you have better interest rates we have the worst what about your fees we have the highest well do I get any bonuses for doing it no like where do you where do I sign you know it's like people don't want to sign up for that kind of stuff you know the one they like one month they'll do this thing they'd like plush ponies they may know what I'm talking about anybody a Wells Fargo plush pony okay somebody hey I got a witness all right that was like the one time if you signed up for a checking account in this one month you'd get a pony you know a little cute little pony or something like that's what we have to offer people this is our gimmick and I was like yeah that's our gimmick it wasn't that much fun it wasn't that exciting you know going out and preaching the gospel to someone and getting someone saved there's nothing like it and we will reap those souls with us in heaven that's why we do what we do that's why we go out and so on that's why you look at the bulletin it's so many time and so many time and so many time and so many time and so many time and you say hey what do you think about that let's have more not less let's do more soul winning and more evangelism and more trips because you know what that is why we're here that's the whole point of the church is to go out and to preach the gospel preach the gospel to every creature is what God said that's the most important then we get them baptized then we teach them all things whatsoever Christ commanded you know we got to do all of it but let me tell you something if we're not reaching people we're not getting them saved they're not gonna get baptized if we're not if we're not preaching the gospel to people they're not gonna even want to get to hear any they won't hear anything in the Bible you know they don't want to hear the gospel they're not interested in the other parts of the Bible that's why it's frustrating you know a little bit obviously we put our sermons online and there's some pros and cons right the pro is reaching people the con is unsaved people don't understand the Bible so then they twist everything and they take things we say out of context and they try to slander us and lie about us and sensationalize everything that we believe to try and use against us you know what it's no different because they did all the prophets in the Bible they did it John the Baptist they did it Jesus Christ they did it to the Apostles you know they always falsely accusing them you can't you're not supposed to hide the truth we're supposed to you know let it shine we're not putting it under a bushel you know Jesus said what I tell you in in the ear whisper in the ear you know we're supposed to preach upon the house tops and so I don't want to shy away from preaching anything that we believe in this dirt regardless of the consequence because you know what we're not going to shut up that sounds like a good sermon title you should search that okay see if there's any good sermons out there with that title go to Proverbs chapter 22 go to Proverbs chapter 22 you know there's so many applications I could make in this in this sermon this morning because you're because your life your life it's so important to realize there's just principle and implement it in every area of your life you know young people you children you need to learn the importance of education and you need to start investing in your education now and learning now because I guarantee your parents are not learning right now I guarantee none of these parents in here unless you're homeschooling mom are going and reading English literature books right now are studying math books right now are studying science books right now because pretty much once you get in the workforce most people just quit education most people just completely stop educating themselves I'm not saying it's right I'm not saying that's the right philosophy I'm saying that's what is reality most people stop investing in their education so you might as well invest in your education now and start learning now and and putting a lot of effort and energy into your schooling and learning how to communicate learning the English language learning pronouns like he she and they and their proper usage which is not based on feelings it's based on fact learning how how to study history correctly learning about primary sources learning about eyewitness testimony learning the history of the Bible learning religion learning about other religions learning about you know you'll learn so much about other religions by doing this one thing soul-winning you know why people are confused about Christianity they don't go sewing because if you go soul-winning you'll run into the Catholic and you learn every Catholic believes the work salvation you'll go to the Methodist and you'll learn they all believe you can lose your salvation and it's work salvation you'll go to the Presbyterian and you'll learn you don't even have to believe to be safe you did nothing you're just you're just this non playable character you're just a zombie to God's will okay and you're just like this is this is the most confusing conversation I've ever had with anybody they're so confused okay you'll go to the Mormons and you'll learn about Kolob and eternal pregnancy and you'll learn about how the Jesus and the devil are brothers I wonder came up with that doctrine you'll learn that that the devil is a son of God I wonder who would come up with a doctrine that the devil is a son of God hmm maybe the devil you know you'll learn that that religion is a demonic religion you know you'll learn what Islam believes and you'll learn what the atheists believe and you you know what you learn that every single person that is not saved says the same thing be good I don't care if it's an atheist I don't care if it's a Presbyterian I don't care if it's non-denominational I don't care if it's a Muslim I don't care what religion you call yourself when I knock on their door and I say what do you have to do to heaven this is what they say be good sorry that's not what the gospel says are the gospel says there's none good no not one the gospel says you have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and I'll tell you there's even Baptist that don't believe that there's a lot of Baptist today who are Baptist in name only they are not saved they don't believe any of the doctrine they really are just a fraud it's just a fake and you know we need to get back to where our church it's not the pastor that knows the doctrine is the church knows the doctrine everybody knows what the Bible says everybody's reading the Bible everybody's teaching their children you know now is the time for children to learn children should be busy learning and if you go to the public fool system you're probably not gonna be learning much or a much of the stuff you learn you have to relearn it's sad I went to public school and I'll admit that I didn't learn much mostly because they don't challenge people that have any level of intelligence people that have any kind of you know average thinking or above average thinking it's a joke it's a babysitting course it's a propaganda test on people you know most of the work that could be done at school could be done in probably an hour that's why homeschooling so superior is because you realize most of the curriculum that you get through it could be done in a few hours at home and it's like what are they doing for eight hours at school now sometimes you do weird cool things I mean I remember when I was in school in science class one of my teachers he made us watch a documentary on why the moon landing was fake and I was just like in hindsight I'm thinking like that's bizarre that guy would get fired or something you know I heard I was looking and doing some research there was a teacher that let their entire school or made their entire class watch loose change which is a documentary exposing why 9-11 is an inside job and highly recommended watch that watch that movie building 7 ok but but here's the thing those teachers would be fired probably today well hey you know and you know despite public school a lot of people can still you know work hard because even if your teachers want to educate you could still read the books you could still learn on your own you can still challenge yourself so it's not that you can't learn in that environment it's that no one's gonna really pressure you or a really challenge you typically in those environments most of the time public school is just an exercise in how to cheat not get caught most of the kids that did good on tests cheated and when you get in college worse a lot of cheating a lot of just getting through and then of course then they get in the real world and you know what they learned how to do eat so you say well how do you cheat in the real world I don't know you become a politician and you do insider trading why do you think that the majority of our politicians have multi-million dollar net worth they didn't get that from their salary I mean in fact I think the highest paid salary is like dr. Fauci it's like four hundred and forty thousand dollars or something like that a year which is a good salary I mean that's a decent amount of money and I think that our government officials should be paid good money in fact I would say they probably need to be paid more just so they're less tempted to take all the bribes and the lobbying and all the other nonsense is going on in our country but the point that I'm making is this that you need to invest in your future now you children need to learn now you need to educate yourself now and you young adults you need to learn now and let me tell you something if you're 25 30 35 40 45 and you're looking at your current job you're looking at your current life situation you say I'm really displeased with where I'm at I guarantee you're pretty lazy in your past I guarantee you didn't put a lot of effort and energy into your education you didn't put a lot of effort and energy into your job you didn't put a lot of effort and energy into getting any kind of skill you didn't work really hard so you have nothing to reap you're reaping the benefits of getting drunk in college you're reaping the benefits of getting a worthless education you're reaping the benefits of not getting an education you're reaping the benefits of being lazy on the job you're reaping the benefits of just wasting time and wasting effort and wasting energy and making bad decisions why because the principle of the fact that you're gonna reap what you sow is true every man in this room that has revived for his family is currently reaping what they've sown I'm just giving you the facts and if you realize that or you don't like that or you're displeased with where you're at don't let your children go down the same path and don't let them live this yolo stupid philosophy of let's just waste our youth you think youth is vanity out there and youth is vanity you know when I became a man I put away childish things is what the Bible says and we need to learn how to grow up and have this reality of you only labor once you know it's time to get to work it's time to do some laboring it's time to put in some effort and energy you know and the reason why you do this is because then you can read you know if you put a lot of effort energy and you're you you educate yourself well you work really hard at the beginning of your career the latter portion of your life is gonna be a lot easier you're gonna just end up reaping a ton from all that effort and energy and that labor that you put in but if you just party and have fun then the latter portion of your life is it's gonna be hard it's gonna be a lot of frustrating consequences it's gonna be so much more difficult and you're gonna end up reaping all the negative things look what it says in Proverbs 22 verse 8 he that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity yeah you want to drink a lot of beer and your youth what are you gonna reap nothing as a result of that you know what does you know what's benefited no one being a party animal in college no one's like man I'm just so glad I got drunk a hundred times in college that really benefited me you know it's gonna do you're gonna reap kidney problems you're gonna reap alcoholism you're gonna reap the STDs that you got from whoring around in college I mean you're gonna reap all kinds of horrible negative consequences and notice at the end of the day sin never brings any benefit that's what it's saying when you sow sin when you sow iniquity when you do something wrong no positive result comes from that there is no oh wow I'm so glad I lied and stole and cheated and got drunk and was a whore like there is no positive benefit from it it's saying you're gonna you're gonna reap vanity there's nothing to benefit and some people they just live their life soiling their wild oats that's how they spend their youth but then what happens when they stop doing it they reap they reap nothing you know what I've noticed in our culture there's a lot of a grown adults that didn't stop soiling the wild oats there are 35 year old 40 45 year old men do they spend the majority of their time getting drunk throwing parties house parties playing video games and it's like you're you're no different than the college kids because they just never stopped the college ride because they never wanted to grow up and their life is gonna be meaningless and and it's vanity it's pointless they're destroying their life and it's just they have this stupid yolo philosophy instead of having the only labor once I realize they're gonna reap what they sow you know when it comes to children you only have one opportunity one window of time to have as many children as God is gonna bless you with and let me tell you something once that door closes it's closed he got exceptions like Abraham and Sarah but you know that's an exception the Bible don't bank on getting pregnant at age 90 okay ladies I mean you obviously got open and close of the womb but you know why would I want to close it on the one opportunity the one window that God gives us and you see a lot of youth a lot of young people a lot of women they're not even getting married until 30 35 and then they'll even get on birth control which is you know murdering children to praise God there's some states that are even gonna ban contraceptives or at least that's that's a thought that's even being proposed I hope it does you know there used to be a time when the president would get up and condemn birth control in this in this country if you could believe that you wouldn't even believe I mean Democrats 20 years ago would sound so much more conservative than any conservative today it's crazy what they would say I mean Barack Obama himself his campaign promises it was against same-sex marriage Republicans aren't even against that in America today now some are praise God but I'm just saying there's a lot of it there's a lot of Republicans that are pro same-sex marriage today when Barack Obama himself wasn't not that long ago in my lifetime I mean the shifting sands of our culture that's because those people have no principles and they're just liars most of them what I'm telling you is that you need to invest now you know having children but here's another thing once you actually get those children there's another really important window and go to Proverbs chapter 19 go to Proverbs chapter 19 it's an important point that I want to finish on again there's so many other ones I could make about gossip when you so gossip you know you reap no friends you ladies want to have a lot of friends you want to enjoy church don't gossip because when you start gossiping you just keep burning bridges and burning relationships and you'll get to the point where no lady wants to be your friend anymore because all you ever do is just gossip and lie about everybody you know you should just keep your mouth shut and be friendly that way you can have a lot of friends you're gonna reap what you sow and you know if you gossip a lot of people a lot of people probably gossip back at you is the people that receive gossip they'll probably gossip about you later you know the person that shuts you down if you ever try to gossip to a lady and she shuts you down you know you should realize this is a person that would never gossip about me that's a friend that I want the lady that will listen to gossip is not really your friend because that lady will gossip about you it sounds contradictory and it's probably frustrating to start saying things that you shouldn't say and someone call you out on it but let me tell you something faithful are the wounds of a friend and you know you eliminate gossip in a church is when no one will gossip with you but if you have children you have a small window to discipline those children properly in their youth and the Bible gives a strong warning look at Proverbs 19 verse 18 Jason my son while there is hope let not thy soul spare for his crying no there is a window in children where they are more receptive to instruction and you do not want to waste that window of opportunity because if you waste and if you waste that window as the Bible says train up a child the way you should go when he's old will not depart from it I believe that is a two-edged sword if you train your child to be wicked if you train your child to do evil he will not depart from that evil as well and you know you say well we go to we go to steadfast Baptist Church our children could never be bad okay well have you ever read the Bible have ever read out Adam and Eve had a son named Cain have you ever read about Noah one of the greatest men I mean he's the only guy that God deems worth saving in the entire planet arguably the greatest man on the planet considering the fact he's the only one God wants to save of course he still saved him by grace because no one deserved it but even Noah himself had a wicked reprobate son David himself the man after God's own heart he didn't have one reprobate son he had multiple Amnon was a rapist his son his first-born son and then Absalom Absalom is a pervert committing incest in the sense of he's lying with his father's wives Absalom it takes over the entire kingdom Absalom is arguably one of the clearest pictures of the Antichrist in the Bible usurping David his father as Christ and then Christ as a return and you get that whole diatribe which pictures the end times I mean who else how about Samuel Samuel sons are wicked I mean you just see good men of God great men of God making mistakes having bad children at times and let me tell you why because they didn't take opportunity in this window because God gives us a promise that if you train up a child the way you should go when he's older not apart from it Bible also gives us another promise go good to chapter 13 Proverbs chapter 13 you know what I don't want to see I don't want to see a child raised in my church that goes bad and I'm gonna preach as hard as I possibly can to motivate you to do it but let me tell you something I can't raise your child for you and I can't do everything for them you have to raise your child you have to get them saved you have to you have to take them home and teach them the Bible you have to model for them a Christianity that's not full of hypocrisy because let me tell you a group of people that usually end up turning bad is they took him to a good church but the parents were hypocrites the parents didn't actually love the Lord they weren't sincere or the parents were wicked Proverbs chapter 13 look at verse 24 he that spared his rod hated his son he that love of them chasing him but times you know the Bible says if you love your children you will physically discipline them and of course this is no permanent injury of course the Bible never says that we're gonna hurt our child in any kind of permanent way it is a very temporal punishment a corporal punishment that is going to bring out a good behavior in that child go to Proverbs 23 but let me tell you something foolishness is bound in the heart of a child if you don't discipline your child physically you hate them you hate them the celebrities of this world the cultures of this world that only ever put their children in timeout that only tell their children nay nay my sons nay the the parents that instead of disciplining their child they put an iPad in front of them they put a phone in front of them they put a magazine in front of them or they put food in front of them you hate your son I didn't say that God said that don't get mad at me you know you should be mad at yourself you better discipline your children physically look what it says in Proverbs 23 look at verse 13 withhold not correction from the child does that say hey it's okay to have an alternate type of punishment no you are not allowed to not correct your child and notice this for if thou beatest them with the rod he shall not die so notice whatever physical punishment you ever implemented a child has no danger of ever taking their life or hurting them in a permanent way would never want to do that but look what it says thou shalt beat him with the rod and shout the liver his soul from health now why would God put this verse in here if it wasn't true it is true you want your children to be saved and go to heaven let me tell you something you must use the rod of correction you must physically discipline them you know our modern vernacular the spanking to give a spanking to your children and let me tell you something every child in this room needs more spanking probably I'm just gonna say I'm gonna get rid of the problem every child in this room needs more spanking why because they all need discipline we're not supposed to withhold correction and children are still gonna screw up no child in here is arrived especially not yours especially not mine they all need that physical discipline and if you're constantly saying I need to discipline them or not it's because you hate them you need to tell your wife you need to have your entire family on board with this where you and your wife are both physically disciplined children and it's not enough for just one parent both parents need to be doing it because I see it it's out there where only one parent will do this and it's wrong the wife needs to be doing it at home when you're not there and you know what you need to be doing it as a man as much as possible as much as necessary why because if you don't drive out that foolishness pretty soon they'll be outside here protesting our church you know how many people have made videos and all these things I was raised an independent fundamental Baptist Church and Derek oh you know whatever I you know what happened that child was never was never instructed correctly never discipline wasn't in an actual loving home you know they say oh I wasn't in a loving home well here's how here's my test if you're in a loving home or not did they spank you regularly because if you weren't you were in a hateful home you know the people that don't discipline their children physically hate them they despise them this is what the Bible clearly teaches and and I'll tell you something if you want to have a model family you have to get this issue correct and our church needs to be an example to the world because everyone is looking at us with a magnifying glass everyone and they just want anything to go wrong they want to attack everyone in here and let me tell you something if you physically discipline your children they're gonna be so dumbfounded because they'd be like how do you have such happy children how do your children obey so well how can they sit through a church service and not scream and cry the whole time you know you just take a hundred people off the street and bring them in here with their kids it would be a zoo for an hour unless they had all the phones and tablets and the food and whatever other kind of contraptions to try and distract them for a few minutes I'm telling you you need to invest in your children and you have a small window and if you don't do it now it can get to a point where there's no hope you can have a child who's 16 17 18 19 20 and it doesn't matter what you try at that point they're already gone to the world they've already gone to the devil they've already gone to the ways of the world now I'm not saying you should give up on your child I'm not saying that you shouldn't still even if you had a wayward child try to reach out to them and try to love them you know there's pictures like the prodigal son I would always try to you know help my child a wayward child you know I'd always want them to come back unless they just became an obvious reprobate or something but I'm just saying you know even if they're a little wayward I would always try to get them back but at the end of the day it could be that it's just it's just actually no hope though that's just a reality you have to face and I don't want you to be in that situation I don't want you to come up to me and say hey pastor Shelley I don't know what to do about my seventeen-year-old they hate church they're lazy they don't want to do anything you know and I say they say what should I do and it's like okay well how many times did you spank them as kids like never how many times you have private Bible study at home never how many times you take them out soul winning never well I know why you're in the predicament you're in you know it's not I don't want to go around and just judge people I don't want to just rain on people's parade but you know there are certain situations you could be in where there's no good option people are just doomed and you know even Noah had to face the consequences that his son was a reprobate and cursed to be Canaan when ham came in and spied on him like you're done David had to face the consequences that Absalom was wicked and it died you know it's hard sometimes parents can't do it David couldn't face the consequences with Amnon you know you kind of wonder if David had killed Amnon because he had raped his sister which would have been the right thing to do if it would have driven Absalom to the wicked sins that he committed you know maybe it'd be an exercise and just obviously David struggled in the discipline category since he can't discipline his son and if you can't even give him a spanking how are you gonna discipline him when it gets harder I'm gonna discipline him when they have a car when they have more freedom when they have more things that they could ruin and destroy in their life you know if you can't even discipline a little toddler how are you going to discipline your teenagers and you children if your parents discipline you you should be thankful for them and you should love them and you should respect them and you should realize that they truly love and care for you because I went to school and and all of us knew that all the kids that their parents didn't discipline them this is what they would say my parents don't care about me you know oh I can do whatever one it's like hey what time yet what's curfew or when you have to go home or what whatever and they feel like oh my parents don't care about me as they know no rules means they don't care about you rules means they care about you that's also helps me know that God really cares about me because he has a lot of inspections doesn't he he has a lot of rules and I'm glad he gave me a lot of rules I'm glad he told me what to do I'm glad that my life has purpose I'm glad that he told me hey you can have great rewards in heaven that won't end up becoming worthless at the end of the day because you know it would be depressing and he said pastor Shelley you only live once and every work that you have is an eventually gonna just rot and decay into nothing that would be me that would just be so depressing that's why the world's so depressed is because they feel like their life is meaningless and has no value and really it has no value unless they get saved but we that are saved our life is hidden Christ Christ is our life is what the Bible says and we need the labor for the master we need to get to work we need to teach our children how to work and you know what they look to their father as their example of how hard they're supposed to work you know we need men to work hard and discipline their children and to lead their families and realize you only labor once you will stand before Christ don't fall victim of this world with all the instant gratification no you lay up treasures in heaven closing prayer thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church thank you for the men and women and the children in this room thank you for giving us the most important job that we could ever have going out and preaching the gospel I pray that we'd never lose sight of the things that truly matter we'd never get confused with all the carnal distractions of this world we would realize the vanity of it all we'd realize that they're all gonna see corruption all the works of the flesh we know that our spiritual works we're going to reap one day and I pray that you would just instill an importance and urgency in every person's heart in this room that they need to work hard that they need to learn they need to educate themselves they need to read the Bible they need to have a knowledge of God for themselves they need to grow a fear of the Lord through through reading the scripture they need to see the importance of going out and preaching the gospel they need to see the importance of working hard now so that they can reap benefits of that later I pray that you'd bless all the families in this room I bless I pray that you bless the children that parents would love them and discipline them appropriately that they wouldn't just despise their children they wouldn't despise the burden and the responsibility they've been given but rather they take it seriously and I pray that our church could just be a model be used for your glory and for your honor even though we're weak you could just use us to to show the world of what Christianity actually looks like and I just pray for everyone in this room in Jesus name we pray amen our last song this morning we'll go to song 64 shall we gather at the river 64 shall we gather at the river song number six for shall we gather at the river how we gather at the river where bright angel feet have trod with its crystal tide forever flowing by the throne of God yes we'll gather at the river the beautiful the beautiful river gather with the Saints at the river that flows by the throne of God on the bosom of the river where the Savior King we shall meet and sorrow never meet the glory of the throne yes we'll gather at the river the beautiful the beautiful river gather with the Saints at the river that flows by the throne of God air we reach the shining river hey we every burden down grace our spirits will deliver and provide a robe and crown yes we'll gather at the river the beautiful the beautiful river gather with the Saints at the river that flows by the throne of God soon we'll reach the shining river soon our pilgrimage will cease soon our happy hearts will quiver with the melody of peace yes we'll gather at the river the beautiful the beautiful river gather with the Saints at the river that flows by the throne of God great singing God bless you are dismissed