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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Bible Believer's Baptist Church. Let's take our hymnals and turn to page 224. Two hundred and twenty-four. Nice to have some visitors with us this evening, Daniel and his family. Thank you so much for coming out to visit us tonight. Two twenty-four. I know not why God's wondrous grace to me he hath made known, Nor why unworthy Christ in love redeemed me for his own, But I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able To keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. On the second. I know not how this saving faith to me he did impart, Nor how believing in his word wrought peace within my heart, But I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able To keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. On the fourth. I know not what of good or ill may be reserved for me, Of weary waves or golden days before his face I see. Sing it out. But I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able To keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. On the last. I know not when my Lord may come at night or noonday fair, Nor if I walk the veil with him or meet him in the air. It's going to be in the air. But I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able To keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Amen. You know why this is such a great song? It's right from the Bible. How does the verse go? It's not exactly, but I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able To keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Well, I guess actually it is pretty much exact. It's fantastic. Okay, our next song is 218. 218. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Amen. And if you're saved and have any burdens tonight, you can get them lifted simply by asking the Lord. Days are filled with sorrow and care. Hearts are lonely and drear. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Burdens are lifted at Calvary, Calvary, Calvary. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Cast your care on Jesus today. Leave your worry and fear. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Burdens are lifted at Calvary, Calvary, Calvary. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Troubled soul on the third. Troubled soul the Savior can see. Every heartache and tear. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Burdens are lifted at Calvary, Calvary, Calvary. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. And now here comes our pastor. Give us some announcements. Alright, good evening everybody. Let's take our bulletins and go through some announcements real quick here. Does anybody need a bulletin? Do we have any left? Oh, here's one up here. I guess there was one up on the poll, but I just never know if that's actually true. Does anybody need one? I got one extra here. No? Yes? Okay, good. Alright, on the front cover we have our verse of the week. It's Psalm chapter 24 verse 1. It says, The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Amen. Great scripture there on our inside page there. It's a short message from me to any first time visitors. I'd love to be of service to you. I'm not sure. Do we have guest cards left right now? Do we have any guest cards? If not, we'd just like to have a record. Or if we do, if one of the ushers could get the visitors a guest card. It's not like we're going to be able to come visit them. They live in San Antonio. It's nice to have you here all the way from San Antonio. We appreciate you coming. But we do have some time left at the end of the service where I'd like to answer anybody's questions that they might have. Of course we always like to make sure people are saved that come to our church. So if you're not 100% sure that you're saved, then we like to show people from the Bible what it says it takes to be saved. I don't just assume that everybody is that walks through the door. If you have any questions for me, feel free to come talk to me after the service. We're a King James only independent fundamental Baptist church. We don't apologize for that. And we're soul winning and we're family integrated. And we do have a mom baby room where moms can take their children to the room and take them back there. They can nurse them or change their diaper or whatever. And we don't have air conditioning back there right now. So it's been a little tough. But that is going to be fixed this Sunday or probably this Saturday when we have brother Jason come back from Spokane. He's going to come and make sure that that's operating and all the air conditioning up top is going to be working again. Lord willing. And he's going to preach for us on Sunday morning. So let's see. We have in that little those little charts there we have our offering totals from this month. Our attendance from last week. And then our salvation's there in the other graph there on the right hand side there. And if there's anything we could do for you. Don't hesitate to ask one of the ushers after the service if you would please silence your cell phone at this time. And let's see what do we have coming up here. We have all our anniversary in Vancouver is coming up this weekend. So if you have a chance to make it down you're more than welcome to come on Friday. We have evangelists when Fisher preaching and he's the evangelist in Surrey B.C. He's that's also our first church plant. We have ever had and he's been with us for a long time. He's been leading the charge up there for a long time. And we're very thankful to have him come preach for us and spend the weekend with us. Saturday we're going to have us only time from 10 to 1 in Vancouver. And then we're going to have a barbecue afterwards. So at the church building we're going to have a bounce house for kids and we might play some cornhole. So that's where you throw bean bags in a hole or whatever I guess. So anyway I'm not very good at it so I might not play that but it's going to be a good time. And then Sunday I'm going to preach a sermon about our you know just kind of a pump up anniversary type sermon and then we're going to have a men's preaching night in the evening. So anybody is welcome to come preach. You just have to be a man wear a shirt and tie and preach from the King James. So that's and don't preach heresy. Yeah that's that's another. If you have a doctrine that you believe in only you believe it then you're probably wrong about that doctrine. Anyway so you might want to run that past me. Also the schedule let's see we have brother Paul. Let's see we're past that date aren't we. Let's see we got me tonight and then again brother Jason Graber will be preaching this a.m. service Sunday morning 10 30. And brother Larson for the p.m. 3 30 p.m. service then brother Noah Wednesday the 31st love a new schedule man. I can't believe that month went by that fast. OK so and then other stuff that we have coming up the Sure Foundation Baptist North anniversary their sixth anniversary. And we are going to have a special speaker on the Friday night. So it hasn't been locked in set in stone but we are going to have a Friday night service up there. That's in Surrey B.C. and then family and friends weekend in Vancouver. It's not B.C. but Vancouver Washington. We're going to have a 11 a.m. pumpkin patch. Every year we go to the pumpkin patch that's near our church and you can come if you want. It's free I pay for you but you just have to make sure to let us know that you're coming and you aren't going to want to miss that weekend. Because Pastor man is going to come and preach for us on Sunday night for the p.m. service of the 3 30 p.m. service. You don't want to miss that. So if you want to come down to visit you're more welcome to do that. And let's see we get the missions conference down to faithful or Baptist November 6 through 10. And then way off in the distance we have Dr. Phil Stringer preaching for us in the Vancouver location. So and then birthdays. Let's see we get Daniel coming up. So and then that's all I have for announcements. Let's go ahead and sing on one more song and then we'll take up the offering. What song 2 0 7 2 0 7. Him. Oh happy day. Two hundred seven. Oh happy day that fixed my choice on me my savior and my God. Well may this glowing heart rejoice and tell it's where she's all abroad. Happy day. Happy day. When Jesus was my sins away. He taught me how to watch and pray and live rejoicing every day. Happy day. Happy day. When Jesus was my sins away. Do you remember that day? It was a happy day on the third. Tis done the great transactions done. I am my Lord's and he is mine. He drew me and I followed on time to confess the voice divine. Happy day. Happy day. When Jesus was my sins away. He taught me how to watch and pray and live rejoicing every day. Happy day. Happy day. When Jesus was my sins away on the last. Now rest my long divided heart fixed on this blissful center rest. Nor ever from my Lord depart with him of every good possessed. Happy day. Happy day. When Jesus was my sins away. He taught me how to watch and pray and live rejoicing every day. Happy day. Happy day. When Jesus was my sins away. Amen. Amen. Come on. Take our offering tonight. Let us pray. Thank you, Lord, for this day, Father. Thank you. We can come meet at your house, Lord, and get to sing praises on to you, Father. Bless the preaching, Father. Bless the offering. Bless everything you do. Bless those that came, Father. Bless the visitors that came also, Father. In Jesus' precious mighty name I pray. Amen. Amen. Good evening, everybody. If you will, can you turn to 1 Corinthians, chapter number 6. 1 Corinthians, chapter number 6. You guys are going to hear me read this again. I read it last Sunday night, so it's a little deja vu for me. All right, 1 Corinthians, chapter number 6. Oh, and if you will, if you can stand for the reading of God's word. Thank you. For any of you having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints. Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world and if the world shall be judged by you and ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. It is so that there is not a wise man among you. Know not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren, but, brother, go to law with brother and that before the unbelievers. Now, therefore, there is utterly a fault among you because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong and defraud in that your brethren. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor rivalers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. As such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Meats for the belly and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both in them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up by his own power. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? For to saith he shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication every sin that a man doeth is without the body. But he that commiteth fornication sinneth against his own body. What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. All right, may I have a word of prayer? Dear Lord, be with the pastor tonight, dear Heavenly Father, and thank you for everything you do, and thank you for this evening, and it's a blessing to have him here with us and preach your word. I pray you fill him with your spirit that we may be edified and be convicted, dear Heavenly Father. In Jesus' precious name, amen. All right. Well, this sermon is definitely a unique sermon, and normally I do some kind of Bible study, but I'm kind of preaching through some summer sermon-type series, and I started off with the different types of wine in the Bible. Two different types of wine are the, of course, sinful wine that you're not supposed to even look at. You're not supposed to drink because it's poison. That's the alcoholic type. And then, of course, there's the wine that's a blessing that's freshly squeezed out of a grape. So I preached about drunkenness and, you know, that we're not supposed to be drunkards, of course, as God's people. And this sermon is actually very specific, but if the specificness of this sermon doesn't apply to you, you can apply it to something else in your life that you're struggling with also. And the title of the sermon is, Is It Sinful for Christians to Smoke Cigarettes? Is it sinful for Christians to smoke cigarettes? And I don't know if anybody in this room smokes cigarettes or struggles with it or ever has or has ever smoked cigarettes in their life. Maybe you have and you've quit, and you're like, well, I didn't come to church to hear about is it sinful to smoke cigarettes. Well, here's the thing. A lot of people struggle with smoking cigarettes, and Christians are no stranger to that. You know, despite what a lot of grandstanding preachers like to get up and say is that as soon as they got saved, they never desired any sinful activity for the rest of their life. But when your body is addicted to doing something, your body is going to continue to want to do things whether you're saved or not. If it's a physical addiction that you have to something like, say you get saved and you're already hooked on heroin. Well, you're still going to be hooked on heroin as a saved person. You still have to get rid of that tendency. So as a former smoker, which I am a former smoker, I thought it would be good to preach a sermon about this topic to try to help those people that are still enslaved to this bad and harmful habit. Now, why do I say enslaved? Because you are enslaved to it, and if you smoke cigarettes, you better just admit that to yourself now because they tell you what to do. They tell you when to smoke one, and your whole life revolves around whether or not, you know, you're going to have time to get a cigarette in or whether you're going to have, if I go on this trip, am I going to be able to smoke? How am I going to do this? How am I going to pull this off? And if you're a Christian, there's a lot of guilt involved in smoking while you're a Christian. And many people that are saved and have never smoked in their lives, they don't understand what Christians that are addicted to cigarettes go through when it comes to trying to quit because it is very difficult. So I just, you know, the title of the sermon is, Is it Sinful for Christians to Smoke Cigarettes? But that really is just part of this sermon, and it's really pretty easily answered. And I just want to caveat this sermon by also saying that I'm preaching this from a place of love. I'm not preaching this from a place of condemnation where I just think that cigarettes are the most disgusting and vile sin that you could ever commit because I don't think that that's true at all. I went to a church where somebody was always saying, well, that person still smokes, so I don't think that they're really saved. And it's like, but there was a lot of people, that church was kind of nasty in the way that it treated people. It wouldn't say hi to visitors when they'd come to visit. They were rude to people that went to the church. I would rather hang out with someone that smoked three packs a day and was nice to people and kind and cared about people's souls and cared about people that went to the church than people, you know, that were rude and crude to people and didn't say hi to visitors. So, you know, I've conquered this particular bad habit. I haven't conquered every single bad habit. Nobody has. But I do have a specific background in this because I used to be a captive to smoke cigarettes myself. So now look at 1 Corinthians 612 where we were at here in the Bible reading. It says, All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. That word expedient means suitable or appropriate. Yeah, you might have the law. You know, we're not under the law as Christians. We don't have to keep the law to be saved. We never have had to keep the law to be saved. But we are not under the law. We are under grace. The Bible is very clear about that. But, you know, just because we can do something, it doesn't mean that we should do something. So even if you were to say, Well, I don't believe that cigarettes is sinful. It's not sinful to smoke cigarettes. Then it doesn't matter. Is it still, is it expedient though? Is it something you should be doing? It says, All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. So what is that saying? Well, I'm not going to be brought under the power of any. It's not expedient for me to do all things. Just because I can doesn't mean I should. And we should be able to make those judgment calls with anything in our Christian life. Keep your finger in 1 Corinthians 612 and flip over or bookmark or whatever or a ribbon and flip over to 1 John 3 verse 4. 1 John 3 verse 4. So I'll answer the question really quickly though about whether it's sinful for Christians to smoke cigarettes. 1 John 3 verse 4, the Bible says, Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. So when we sin, there has to be a Bible verse that says what you're doing is sin, right? In the law, you know, God's law tells us what sin is. And so there is, you know, people will say, Well, there's no Bible verse that says thou shalt not smoke. There's also no Bible verse that says thou shalt not do heroin. Thou shalt not do cocaine. But do you think that that's right to do? Obviously not. The Bible says we're not supposed to be drunken. We're not supposed to do things in excess and so on and so forth. So there is no Bible verse I could point to that says thou shalt not smoke. But smoking isn't always, you know, when you think about smoke, what else smokes? Well, hell smokes, doesn't it? And when things are when God puts things a smoke, usually it's because of judgment or something like that. But so is is, you know, so the question is, are cigarettes smoking cigarettes? Is that sinful? There is no such commandment that actually says that. I'll give you that. But the principle of taking care of the body that God's given to you that he bought is found in scripture. If you look at First Corinthians, Chapter six back in our text, just flip back there where I had you hold your finger there. First Corinthians, Chapter six, verse 13. Now, the context of this is about fornication, but ultimately he is talking about what you do with your body. OK, now, so skip to. So verse 13 says, meats for the belly and belly for the beats, but God shall destroy both it and them. Now, the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. So he were indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. He does not dwell in temples made with hands. In the Old Testament, he dwelt in the tabernacle. He dwelt in the temple. He would come and meet with God's people. Now he meets with God's people in the church. And yeah, we don't have a lot of people here tonight, but anybody in here that's saved has the Holy Spirit. And when we all come together in a congregation, that is what the church is. It's not this building. It's not the, you know, all the stuff that you see in here. We are the church here gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So now skip to verse 19. The Bible says, what? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and you're not your own? So are you your own if you're saved? Yes or no? No. For you're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Now again, the context is talking about fornication. You shouldn't just be going out and fornicating with other people, obviously. But if you just apply this to anything that would harm your body, then this still applies, doesn't it? This principle still applies that we are to glorify our body as far as taking care of it, right? And so it says in your spirit, which are God's. So he bought us. We should glorify what God gave us. So there's also the fact that God's people, we're expected to serve him, aren't we? So now are we forced to serve him? I heard somebody recently say that we are God's slaves now. We're bond slaves to God. I don't believe that for one second. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible does not use that term in the King James. It uses the term servant. Now, some servants are bond servants in the Bible, but we are not bond servants. We are bought with a price and we are not our own. But he doesn't say, if you don't serve me, you know, that, you know, we're, we're, you know, he's going to, he will beat us if we don't do what's right. But as far as serving him, we do have a choice. We do have free will, is what I'm trying to say. But should we serve him? Absolutely. We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, the Bible says. So turn to Romans chapter 12, verse 1. Romans chapter 12, verse 1. And so I'm just kind of going along with this thinking, just trying to lay some of this out before us here. Romans chapter 12, verse 1, the Bible says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. So he says, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. He doesn't want us, you know, to kill animals and present them to God anymore. That is in the Old Testament. But he says, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. So if you're smoking cigarettes, everybody knows that it's harmful to your health. Everybody knows that smoking is bad for you. And so therefore, if you are smoking, then you know that you're damaging the thing that you're supposed to be using to serve God with. And which goes with anything that you're doing harmful to your body, right? So again, you can apply these principles to anything that you are having problems with when it comes to these types of things. So tonight I'm focusing just on the fact of smoking. Okay, so now look at verse 2, it says, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Do you think that Jesus smoked cigarettes? Do you think that Jesus smoked tobacco out of a pipe? Do you think Jesus smoked cigars? Do you think he would? I don't think he would. So do you think that it's God's good will for us to do that? Do you think it's acceptable for Christians to do that? Do you think it's the perfect will of God? Obviously not everybody lives in the perfect will of God all the time. We are sinful. We make mistakes. We all have blind spots. We all have points about us that are not perfect. But again, preaching is supposed to help us where we're having issues anyway. So if I just got up and said sin's bad, then that would be pretty ambiguous. Just be like, oh, hey, by the way, you guys, sin's bad. Sometimes you have to preach about specific things so that people know, hey, yeah, sin's bad, but specific sins need to get preached about. And again, I'm not saying that smoking is per se a sin, but if you are destroying the body that God gave you and you know that that's what you're doing, then it's something that we should try to overcome and get out of our lives, right? So look at Colossians chapter 3, verse 22. Colossians chapter 3, verse 22. Colossians 3, 22. The Bible says, Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. Who are we supposed to fear? We're supposed to fear God, aren't we? So it says, And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect of persons. If you just think that you're going to keep smoking and you're going to be that 90-year-old person that just dies of natural causes, you can puff two packs a day, and it's never going to affect you, in reality it's probably going to be the opposite of that. If you're one of God's people, he'll punish his children, and he's going to punish his children that knows that they're supposed to be doing something right and they're actually doing wrong. And whatsoever is not of faith is sin, the Bible says. So if you're not doing something in faith, it's sin. He that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. So is smoking sinful? Well, I would say it is if you're not doing it in faith, and if you know that it's not good to do it, and to you it is sin, right? So now, what are some of the things that are really difficult? Wait, where am I at here? Let's see, did I read all those verses? Where did I stop at, verse 23? Do it heartily as unto the Lord, knowing that of the Lord... Let's see, did I read all the verses? Yeah, no, I did, I did, I'm sorry. Okay, so if you die early, or get emphysema, COPD, heart disease, throat cancer, lung cancer, or some other smoking related issue that takes you out of the game, that is the Christian life, the Christian fight, it cuts your service short, right? So we're supposed to be serving God, so we don't want to cut the service short that we can do. We don't want to make ourselves unaffected or unable to serve the Lord, to the point that we're just totally dropped out. How effective is your soul-winning presentation going to be when you're pulling an oxygen tank behind you? I mean, think about that. How effective are you going to be at the door when you've got a voice box, you know, I just wanted to break the gospel, you know what I'm saying? And I'm not, that would be pretty embarrassing. Most people are probably not going to walk up to the door and try to preach with a voice box, but that's what happens. You get throat cancer, and they give you one of those little things, and you see those commercials or whatever, it says that you don't always die from tobacco, you know what I'm talking about? So, you know, it's not going to be, you know, even if you don't just die from some kind of disease from smoking, it's still going to affect your Christian life in a negative way. And I feel like I serve God a lot better now that I don't smoke than I ever did when I did smoke. And I'll tell you, I was a Christian and smoked at the same time. And, you know, when you smoke, there's always just this constant anxiety wondering when you're ever going to get the next chance to smoke again. It's true. And I'm not going to ask for a show of hands of people that used to smoke or whatever, and you will not understand what people go through that smoke because it is a constant anxiety. You're truly a prisoner to it. You really are. And you start developing these reward systems for yourself, like, I've been a good boy, I deserve a cigarette. You know, you've worked for 15 minutes. Have you ever noticed, like, in the workplace, the people that smoke, they feel like they get a smoke break every 15 minutes, they deserve one or something? And they get more breaks than everybody else because they smoke. And so some people start smoking literally because that gets them more breaks or something. And that's a dumb reason to start smoking. So, it guides your thoughts, it guides your motives, your ability to serve to your fullest extent. It makes you feel guilty because deep down you know it's not pleasing the Lord. It's frowned upon highly in society now. You know, you grew up in the wrong era to smoke cigarettes. It used to be not a big deal, everybody did it or whatever, but it's not, it's not, it's frowned upon nowadays. You're like the leper colony now. If you smoke at a workplace, nobody wants to smell your cigarettes, and, you know, nobody wants you to, you basically when they outlawed it finally in the workplaces and in bars and restaurants and stuff, it wasn't really that long ago. It was like in the mid 2000s or something. They used to have break rooms for smokers and non-break rooms, you know, non-smoking break rooms, and they would actually let people smoke in bars and restaurants. They had a smoking side and a non-smoking side and what divided that? Nothing. Just one side said smoking, one side. You know, so all the people are breathing the smoke from the other area and that's just the way it was. Bars were fully smoking. Every bar was a smoking bar. It's just the way it was. But that changed and now it's never going back and all the wars were fought against tobacco companies and good. I mean, their product killed millions and millions of people because it's not just tobacco. It's all the stuff that they put inside it, all the different types of poisons and whatever they put in there to make it addictive, they, you know, they made it addictive. And they used to have the cigarettes would burn even when you would fall asleep with them in your hand and a lot of people's houses burned down and people died. And so they had to make it where if it wasn't, you know, after a while, they put some chemical in it to where they would go out if you didn't actively smoke them because so many people burnt up having a cigarette in their hand and falling asleep with it in their hand, which is just, you know, weird, but I mean, it's just the truth. So, but I'm not one of these Christians that, you know, put smoking, I don't put smoking up there with adultery. I don't think it's even close to the same level. And I've heard Christians say, you know, like I said earlier, you know, that they say, well, that person, how can that person be saved and they still smoke cigarettes? That's ridiculous, okay? If someone's smoking and you get them saved, bring them soul winning with you that day. Amen. I remember a missionary that, he was going to Scotland and he went to Hyles Anderson and one of the kids that lived through the Columbine massacre, he had gotten like a thousand people saved by the time this missionary preached his sermon that he was preaching at our church that we were at, he said he was like a little punk snowboarder that smoked cigarettes, but he was saved and he got people saved and he kept saying that through the whole sermon, this little punk kid that smoked cigarettes that he was a snowboarder or whatever. It's like, you can still get people, I mean, Jonah hated the Ninevites and got them saved, so I mean, can you still smoke cigarettes and get people saved? Yes, you can. So I'm not trying to say that's the worst sin, but I am saying that you're going to be more effective if you quit. There's a lot of advantages for you quitting and people can serve God and still smoke. I'm not saying you can't, but is it expedient? Is it good for you? Is it the perfect will of God? No, it's not, but it's definitely not the top 10 tier sinless. It didn't make the top 10, okay? It's not up there in the 10 Commandments. So I printed off this pamphlet from, King James wrote this in 1604, and I printed it off and I wanted to read some of it to you, and when I looked at it last night, it said there's racists and all kinds of stuff in here, and it's just people get their feelings hurt really easily. So hopefully this doesn't hurt your feelings, but this is what King James said. Now, King James is the one that authorized the King James Bible, right? So he had these sections. It's a very short little paper that he wrote, but it's called Tobacco Counterblast by King James I of England and VI of Scotland. It said the root, and this is 1604, the root of tobacco usage among the English. For tobacco being a common herb which grows almost everywhere was first found out by some of the barbarous Indians to be a preservative or antidote against the pox. So from then likewise was brought this use of tobacco as a stinking and unsavory antidote. Why do we not as well imitate them in walking naked as they do and preferring glasses, feathers, and such toys to gold and precious stones as they do? Yea, why do we not deny God and adore the devil as they do? So I think he's talking about, you know, in a general sense, but I don't find that Indians, as they call it, are not loving God. We've got several Indians that go to this church. So anyway, second is, and you know, in King James' defense, when he went over to Virginia, one of his reasons for going there was to give the gospel to the natives. So he wasn't all that bad. So anyway, section two, arguments against tobacco based on medical knowledge of the operations and functions of the body. And I'm not saying this, he was scientifically on top of everything, but this is 1604. It says first that the brains of all men be naturally cold and wet. I don't know what that means, but all dry and hot things should be good to them of which nature this stinking suffomigation is of this argument both of proposition and assumption are false. Anyway, four, as to the proposition that because the brains are cold and moist, therefore things that are hot and dry are best for them. It is an inept consequence. So I mean, I don't think he was a medical doctor, so I don't know that he knows what he's talking about here. But the second argument grounded on a show of reason is that this filthy smoke is able to fit and purge both the head and stomach of reams and distillations as experience teaches by the spitting and avoiding phlegm immediately after the taking of it. So he's saying that when you smoke tobacco that phlegm comes into your throat and stuff like that. That part is true. So this stinking smoke being sucked up the nose and imprisoned in the cold and moist brains is cast forth again in watery distillations and so are you made free and purged of nothing. Section three, the reason people really smoke tobacco is not to receive any benefit of their health, but instead because it is savory and good to them, quotation marks. The whole people would not have taken for general a good liking thereof if they had not experienced, found it very savory and good for them. Section four, the danger of adopting foreign practices. And so from hand to hand it spreads until it be practiced by all, not for any commodity that is in it, but because it has come to be the fashion. So he's basically saying that it's addictive. Section five, dismissing the use of tobacco as a folk remedy. It is a branch of the sin of drunkenness which is the root of all sins. It is not this very case of all the great takers of tobacco in which they themselves do attribute to a bewitching quality in it. Section seven, tobacco as frivolous expense, some of them bestowing three, some 400 pounds a year upon this precious stink, which I am sure might be bestowed upon many far better uses. That's a good point. So he's basically saying that people are spending 400 pounds, that's $300 or $400 a year in 1604. That's a lot of money. I think a pound is $2.20. Well, it's twice that. Yeah. So it's a lot of money. And he taxed it like 5,000% because he hated it so much and people still bought it. So section eight, the uncleanness of tobacco use. He says herein is not only a great vanity but a great contempt for God's good gifts that sweeten a man's breath, being a good gift of God should be willfully corrupted by this stinking smoke. It custom loathes them to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless. So apparently he didn't like smoking very much. And so, you know, King James was before his time. I mean, how long did it take for medical doctors to figure out how bad cigarettes were for you? But he had it figured out well before then and maybe some of his science was, you know, I don't know about, you know, the wet brains and all that stuff, but the wet, cold brain stuff. But he definitely knew before it, you know. And what do we know about it now? It does stink. That's the biggest problem. He kept saying how much it stinks. And anybody that thinks it smells good is crazy. Now, I will admit this though. The fresh, lit cigarette I still think smells good when I smell it. But after that, no. I don't like the smell of it on people's clothes, people's hands, anywhere near me. I, you know, I don't miss smoking at all. I mean, I'm glad I'm free of it. It's, you know, it is very, you know, it's, some people, there's some people that can just smoke every once in a while and then they're good. They can just put it down whenever they want. That's not me. If I smoked one cigarette, I'd be back on them again just as quick as I was off. It's way harder to quit than it is to start. I mean, it's way harder to quit than it is to just start again. I mean, that's for sure. So I would never smoke again. I always joke about if I had two weeks left to live and I would go buy a pack of camels or whatever, but I probably really wouldn't, but that just tells you how addictive they are. If I like knew for sure, there's no doubt, like God told me in a dream or something that you're going to die in two weeks, I'd probably buy a pack, but I probably really wouldn't. I probably really wouldn't, but that's just how, my grandpa said when, so he quit smoking when he was like in his early 40s, and he said for years he would walk into places and he would always think I need a pack of marble reds and a book of matches. Like for years he walked in and still wanted to buy cigarettes. So they're really hard to quit. Now, it does make your clothes stink. It makes your house stink if you smoke in your house. It makes your car stink. Anything you have, it ruins. You can't go and you can't smoke in anything without it smelling like cigarettes forever. Your breath, your skin, your hands, you can't cover it with toothpaste. You can't cover it by washing your hands. If you smoke, people know that you just smoked. You can't really cover it up. Job chapter 19 verse 7, Job said, My breath is strange to my wife. You don't want your breath to be strange to anybody, but what's strange is the way cigarettes smell on your breath. So when we get saved, we're supposed to be set apart. We're made holy. We're sanctified. That happens instantaneously when we get saved because we're saved and forgiven for all of our sins, right? Sanctification though, as a saved person, you know, our body is not redeemable. Our body is not perfectly able to, we're not able to get all sin out of our life. It's just, it's not possible. So, but as much as we can, we should get as much sin out of our life as we can until the day we die or until the day Christ comes back. So, that is called sanctification. So getting the sin out of our lives or, you know, I don't believe you have to repent of your sins to be saved, but I think once you are saved, then you should start to repent of the sins. And as you learn the Bible, as you learn what's acceptable to God and what's not, then you should change according to what the Bible says. Some things are harder to do than others. Hey, if you're a man and you have long hair, it's real easy to just cut that off. That's easy. And then make sure you're cut regular. And if you're going bald, it's even easier, right? So, you know, easy fix. For a woman, if she has short hair, all she has to do is just make sure she keeps growing along. You know, I mean, those are easy fixes, but, you know, stopping something that you're addicted to is definitely a lot harder. Look at Philippians chapter 1, verse 6. Philippians chapter 1, verse 6. So like I said, the moment we get saved, we are set apart. We are sanctified. But again, the process of getting sin out of our life, you know, we do have the Holy Spirit now. We do have help. We have the Father that we can go to through Jesus Christ and ask Him anything. But just because, you know, we can pray and say, please make me never quit smoking again, but there is certain things that are within our will that we do have to put some effort into some things. You do have to want it. He's not going to just take away the addiction, you know, just magically just suck the addiction out of you. It doesn't work like that. He might help ease the pain, but you still have to go through the pain and the withdrawal process. It's going to happen. So it says, being confident, verse 6, being confident in this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. So when we are in church, we're in our Bibles, we're spiritual, you know, God's going to start this process of helping us to get sin out of our lives. And, of course, I don't commit the same sins that I did when I first got saved, but it was a process. And I didn't know what sins were even sins until I started reading the Bible and started going to church and listening to pastors preach about these things. And some things I just honestly didn't know. I'm sure a lot of you have the same experience. So what are some of the other problems with cigarettes? Well, again, they're highly addictive. Rats would rather have cigarettes than food. They've done studies on this, and when they give them nicotine or tobacco versus food, they'll start hitting that feeder button for the nicotine, and they'd rather starve themselves to death than to not have that cigarette high. So they're more addictive, they say, than heroin. I've never done heroin, so I don't know, but I know that they're very addictive. I know that they're very addictive. So they also give you major health problems, major health problems. It leads to early death. Smoking can cause many health hazards, including cancer, heart disease, and respiratory problems. So cancer, smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer and can cause cancer in almost any part of the body, including the esophagus, larynx, mouth, throat, kidney, bladder, liver, pancreas, stomach, cervix, colon, and rectum. Heart disease, smoking can cause heart disease, stroke, coronary heart disease, and aortic aneurysms. Smokers are also twice as likely to have a heart attack. Respiratory problems, smoking can cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Smokers are also at higher risk of developing pneumonia, tuberculosis, and other airway infections. If you are a smoker, you already know this and don't care because you're so addicted. You can read these things. I mean, I could just pull out all kinds of stats and people that smoke were like, uh-huh, yeah, heard that before. They don't really care. The only time they're gonna really care, I think they're gonna care more about what God thinks, honestly, than what these statistics say. Now, some people might care, but all in all, people know that smoke, you think that they don't know. Oh, really? I thought that this was like organic food or something. I had no idea that cigarettes were bad for you. People aren't gonna say that. They know exactly that they're bad for you. You could make the whole package a warning label with a big skull and crossbones on the front of it and people would still buy them. They'd probably buy them more. Like, those are cool, man. These are the collector's items. People would still buy them. And again, if you're not a smoker, you will never understand the hold it has on people. You just won't understand. But anybody that's listening to me, anybody that listens to this sermon knows exactly what I mean. It has a hold on you. So when you come at people with these stats or constantly bring up quitting to them or you constantly tell them how bad it is for them, all you're doing is annoying them. Honestly. And you might love them and tell them that because you love them, but really it's just like, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. It really, I mean, unless someone wants to quit, they're just not gonna quit. And if you just pester people about stopping smoking constantly, they're just gonna not want to be around you because that's their best friend you're talking about. You're gonna talk about my cigarettes? You know? They're ready to go. They might just say, okay, yeah, yeah, uh-huh. You know what I mean? You just keep telling people something they already know. And especially about something that they don't want to give up, they're not gonna listen to you. So, I mean, the best thing is to just pray for them, maybe bring it up once, but maybe every once in a while. But if you want someone to quit smoking, they're gonna have to just want it. They're gonna have to want to quit. And people go too far with it, and especially doctors go too far with the whole smoking thing. Smoking became like the boogeyman for every ailment on the planet, basically. When they went against all the tobacco companies, the pendulums swung so far this way that every problem in the world became smoking. You know, like, hey, your stomach, you know, your stomach, oh, you're having stomach problems? Oh, do you smoke cigarettes? Oh, that must be it. I mean, seriously. Like, if you tell the doctor, like, when I smoked and I went to the doctor for anything, I'm like, oh, do you smoke cigarettes? He's like, yeah. Oh, that's probably it. It's like, yeah, my stomach problems are for me smoking cigarettes? Like, come on. Get real. And like I told you, smokers became the modern day lepers. They're like, you know, go out to the nether regions of the parking lot, away from where people can see you and yell out unclean as you light up. So I've had a lot of family members die of complications to smoking. I've had an uncle that died from emphysema. My grandma had emphysema. I've had, I know people in my family that have permanent problems, the OCD. Not OCD. What was it? COPD. Good night. OCD too. But anyway, but the other problem with it is it's expensive. You know, in King James Day it was expensive, and it's expensive now. And I'm not going to have you turn there, but 1 Corinthians 4, 2 says, Moreover, it's required in stewards that a man be found faithful. You know, the Lord wants us to give a portion of what He's already given us and to tithe. But, you know, a lot of people, they say, well, I can't afford to tithe, but can you afford to buy your cigarettes every day? I mean, there are people that don't tithe, but they still can buy their cigarettes, so tell me how that works. And I'm not like, again, I don't like to preach about money a lot, and I don't like to preach about tithing a lot, but it is something to think about. Like, are you giving to the Lord's ministry, or are you wasting your money that you could be buying gas and having your car worked on and clothing for your family or putting food on the table? Because from what I've heard, cigarettes are $10 a pack now. Is that true? Does anybody know? Can I get a witness in here? Is that true? Is that actually true? That's crazy. I mean, if you smoke a pack a day, I mean, do the math on that. That's a lot of money. I mean, there were like three bucks a pack or something when I smoked or something like that, so that's been a lot of increases. You know, I heard that there's a cigarette-making company in Wapato. Is this true also? Can I get a native witness in here? Is this true? Yeah, yeah, but you know about it, right? Do they still make cigarettes there? Two dollars? No wonder why people are still smoking. But natives are ruining it forever. No, I'm just kidding. Well, I remember when people like the people, it's like the people that eat organic food only, but the people that smoke would only have like the American spirit ones. You know what I'm talking about? Like, oh, these are the organic ones. It's like, whatever. They're made of natural products. You know, okay. But anyway, turn to Ephesians 5, 15, 5, 15. So I mean, I would just recommend like if you're a smoker, you know, save yourself some money. Save your family some money. Quit smoking and save yourself some health. Quit smoking. You know, the best time to quit is now. And, you know, quit smoking and give honor unto the Lord. Smoking is a time waster also. Ephesians 5, 15 says, see that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. What does that mean? That like when you look at things, you look at it like the big picture. You're looking at what's going to happen in the future. And so when you're smoking cigarettes, you know, people that smoke and just be like, well, I just, you know, I just can't quit or, you know, they don't think about what the future is going to hold. You don't think about it now, but 20 years from now, when you're dying of throat cancer or dying of some kind of cancer or you're on, you know, oxygen tanks or something, you know, you should have walked circumspectly. You should have thought about those things. And so the Bible is warning people here that you walk circumspectly not as fools. See, a fool means someone that's stupid. A lot of people don't like that word, but that's what it means. Don't be stupid. But as wise. Be smart. Right? And it says redeeming the time because the days are evil. The days are evil because every day we go by is another day closer to our death, isn't it? And so when we redeem the time, that means that you're, you know, quit doing the things that are wasting your time or causing your death to come earlier when you're applying this to smoking, then you're helping redeem that time because you're going to die not as soon as you would have if you would have kept smoking, and also you're redeeming the time because cigarettes is a big time waster. Remember when I said that people think that they need a break every 15 minutes? Well, it takes about six to seven minutes to smoke a cigarette. All right? The average, if you just sit there and just smoke a cigarette, it's five, six, seven minutes. And then you put it out. And how many, if you're smoking, what is it, 20 cigarettes in a pack or something like that? So that's 20 times five, or, you know, 20 times, you know, just think about all that time that you're wasting doing nothing while you're smoking cigarettes. You know, it's a waste of time, and so we need to redeem the time. So quitting smoking is the Lord's will, no doubt, because you're going to be getting back some time that you were wasting smoking cigarettes. It's also a bad testimony. The Bible says in Colossians 4, 5, walk in wisdom towards them that are without. You know, be wise. You know, those that are without are those people that are not saved, that are outside of the walls of this church. Or, you know, I mean, obviously there's saved people outside the walls of this church, but I'm just saying, we walk with those that are without, those that are without Christ, that we redeem the time. We walk in wisdom towards them. Because it does hurt your testimony when you have some open sin that, you know, they're like, well, I thought Christians didn't smoke cigarettes. Even, you know, even unbelievers, like, when it comes to, like, cussing, you know, most people, you know, cuss like sailors outside, you know, at the workplace. They will say anything. Nothing's off limits. But if they hear a Christian say something like that, well, I thought you were a Christian. So what do you think that they think when they see you smoking a cigarette? Well, I thought you were a Christian. I'm a Christian smoker. I'm not a Christian smoker. I mean, come on. You know what they think. It also holds back, holds you back from serving God to the fullest. Look at Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3 verse 12. It says, Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I followed after, if that I may apprehend that which also I am apprehended of Christ. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And the prize of the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus is not reaching forth to that next cigarette. It's reaching forth to greater things. You want to forget that pack of cigarettes. You want to forget the fact that you ever smoked and reach forward onto better and greater things. Now look up Matthew chapter 5 verse 13. Matthew chapter 5 verse 13. I'm starting to wind this down here. Matthew 5 verse 13. The Bible says, Ye are the salt of the earth. So what's he talking about? Jesus said we are the ye. He's talking about Christians are the salt of the earth. We're the ones that preserve people by preaching the gospel to them. You know, salt is good, the Bible says. And we're supposed to have salt within us. We're supposed to, you know, because salt preserves people. You know, I mean, salt preserves food. Salt preserves all kinds of different things, but it also irritates a little bit, doesn't it? It irritates you if it gets in your eyes, doesn't it? So Christians can irritate people, but we're not necessarily trying to do that, but sometimes we do, you know. When I speak there for war, David said. You know, I'm for peace, but when I speak there for war. So, you know, we can be irritating, but we can also be preservatives. But it says, Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt hath lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? If we're no earthly good down here, if our testimony's so ruined that we can't do any good on this earth, it says it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot of men. Ye are the light of the world. So we're the salt of the earth, we're the light of the world. Jesus isn't here anymore. Jesus went up to heaven, and he's at the right hand of God the Father, he's preparing a place for us, and he left us here to be the light. It says a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Look, you can try to pretend you're not a Christian all you want, but people are going to find you out. Somehow they always figure it out. But then, you know, if you're the one, if they figure it out, and you're the one that's the most raunchy person at work, or you're the one that's, you know, smoking or whatever, and they discover all these things, you know, it's going to hurt your testimony. It says, Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. So we want to be a light, we want to be salt, we're preserving, we're showing people who Jesus is, we're showing, you know, we want to make sure that God the Father is being glorified. You don't want to be known for being a different light, for a different reason. You know, a city on the hill, you know, we don't want to be, you know, known for the, you know, hey, he's lighting another bushel, but it's a different kind of bushel. You know what I'm saying? So, don't put that fag in your mouth. In England, they call cigarettes fags. Did you know that? That's what they call them. So like every time, just think about this, if you're saved and you're like, you're smoking cigarettes, just think of what the people in England called it, and then you put it in your mouth, you're putting a fag in your mouth. That's gross. Right? So, you know, John 15 once says, I am the true vine, and my Father is the husband, and every branch in me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away every branch and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit. See, God wants to purge the things in our life that are useless, you know, just like you're pruning up like a rose bush or some kind of a tree, so that you do that so that the tree will grow right or the bush will grow right and it won't have these limbs flopping over here and there and hindering what you're trying to do. You want to be able to thrive and bring forth more fruit. And what is that talking about? Well, get more salvations. And, you know, smoking cigarettes is going to be a hindrance to that. And so how do you quit? Well, let me just help you with that. Pray to God for mercy and strength. That's number one. You need God's help. You really do. And people quit smoking without God's help all the time. But people are like, well, you need God as a crutch. Yeah, I do. I actually do need him as a crutch. And I'm not too proud to admit that. I can't be saved without him. Of course he's a crutch. Of course he's a crutch to me. I couldn't do a lot of things without him. I couldn't get all this sin out of my life that I've gotten without him. And I'm not saying I'm the best person in the world either. I'm not the most sinless person in the world either. But he has helped me get a lot of sin out of my life. I'm still not perfect. I'm still, you know, I've got a ways to go. And I think everybody in here probably has issues as well. But how do you quit? Ask for God's mercy. Ask for God's strength. Memorize some scripture to give you strength. You know, thy word have I hid my heart that I might not sin against thee. That's a good one. What's the best result? Quitting cold turkey. Just stop smoking. Just stop. And you're like, and people tell, this is what people will say to people that smoke all the time. They'll go, why don't you just quit? I mean, just quit. But again, people that have never smoked, they don't understand it's not that easy. It really isn't. If it controls every aspect of your life, do you think it's that easy to quit? It's not. It's like, well, why don't you just quit drinking water? Like, do you guys just want to quit drinking water? Because that's kind of what, I mean, why don't you just quit eating food? Just don't eat food anymore. That's kind of what you're asking. Because that's kind of what it's like. That's the hold that it has on you. So if that could put it into any perspective. So cold turkey is the best way, though. But you can ease yourself into it with cessation devices such as the patch, a vape, or nicotine gum or lozenges or whatever. They have this kind of stuff. I don't recommend hypnotism. I don't recommend mind-altering drugs, any kind of depression-type drugs. I don't recommend that kind of stuff. And it's not easy. But the Bible says, go ahead and read 2 Timothy 2, verse 1. And the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2, verse 1, it says, Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. So, look, hey, you know, it's not going to be easy. But God expects us to be strong. You know, if you're a man of God, if you're a woman of God, be strong. It says, And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who should be able to teach others also. Thou, therefore, endure hardness. Hey, some things we do in life are going to be hard. Yeah, is quitting smoking hard? It is. Is quitting any habit that you have hard? It is. But we do still have to endure hardness sometimes. It says, As a good soldier of Jesus Christ. You say, well, I didn't know I was a soldier. Well, now you do. You read that verse, so now you know. No man that warth entangled himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him. Who are you supposed to be pleasing him? Please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. Who chose you? Jesus chose you to be a soldier. You just didn't know that. I mean, when someone, whoever got you saved, they probably didn't tell you that part. I don't think they were intentionally leaving it out. But he did choose you to be a soldier the moment you got saved. The average person that tries to quit smoking tries to quit seven times before they're successful. Seven times, that's the average. So sometimes people try to quit more times. Sometimes people can do it earlier. But here's a really great verse to help you. This is one of the greatest verses in the whole Bible to help you and give you confidence that you can do things. Philippians 4, verse 13. It says, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. So whatever you think that you can't do, no, you can do it. God says you can through Christ Jesus. You can do anything. You can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. That's like the verse that you want to use right there. I mean, it's not hard to memorize either. It's the first verse I actually ever memorized. So it's very easy. Pick a date and stick to it a point a time. This is good advice here. Pick a date. Just walk up and go, why don't you just quit today? Again, it's just not that easy, folks. It's not. You can say that all you want, but why don't you just quit breathing air today? How about that? Just stop breathing. You might as well just be saying that to someone that smokes. Seriously. But if you pick a day, then you know when you're going to quit. You can prepare yourself mentally. You can prepare yourself physically for it. You can have your last hurrah, smoke your brains out, whatever you've got to do to get it all out of your system, and then just know this is the last one. And then you stop. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3, 1, to everything there's a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. So to every purpose there's a season. To every purpose there's a time. There's a time to quit smoking. There's a time to die, time to love, time to hate, time to quit smoking too, right? In Matthew 5, 37 it says, but let your communication be yay, yay, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more of these cometh of evil. Stick to what you say you're going to do. Once you've committed to that, don't make an oath, don't make a vow, don't promise to God that you're going to do it, because if you fail, then you're going to get punished for that. Jesus said, swear not at all. So in the New Testament he said, just say yes, I'm going to do it, or no, I'm not going to do it. But the best thing to do is just, you commit to it, but don't just be, I'm quitting smoking tomorrow, and then like 24 hours later you're like, you just look like a fool. So just don't go around telling everybody what you're going to do, just do it, okay? That's some good advice there. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 9 10, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. So when you quit, quit with all your might, for there's no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whether thou goest. And this verse is kind of like, yeah, you're going to go to the grave, and you're going to go to an early grave if you don't find, you know, if you don't do it with your might. So it's pretty important. So what's a good date to pick? Well, every third Thursday in November is called the Great American Smokeout. That's when people just, all people all around the world, I think that they just say, well, today's going to be the day we all quit together or whatever. And so that's a good day to pick, I think. I'm not saying like get involved with all their little stuff or whatever, but, you know, it's just, I'm just saying pick a date. Pick a date. You know, maybe it's a few months out, you know. It's like Jephthah's daughter, like she bewailed her virginity for three months or whatever. Bewail your cigarettes for three months. You know, smoke your American, whatever brand is your favorite brand, and then after that three months, you're sticking to it, and quit smoking. So try doing it in a spiritual setting where you're less tempted and more spirit-filled like you're at like a church camp or, you know, you're around other believers. You're on a missions trip. It's a lot harder to smoke when you're just around and doing a bunch of spiritual things. It's easier when you're spirit-filled, when you're doing spirit-filled things. It's a lot easier to just forget about, you know, the things of the flesh. And, you know, when you do it, get rid of all your remaining cigarettes. When your last cigarette's smoked, crush the pack and stomp on it. Stamp the residue thereof. Make a little broth and don't drink it. Just pour it out. Don't drink it like the false statues or whatever. But get rid of all your lighters. Get rid of all your ashtrays. Get rid of all your matches. Anything that will remind you or trigger you to go back to it, get that stuff out of your house. Get that stuff out of your life. Stay away from old haunts that might trigger you to want one. Pick up a new good habit to pick up new hobbies to take up the time to replace the old ones. So you're going to have more time. Remember I said redeeming the time? Well, now that you have all this extra time, take that time and find something better to do with that time. And use a toothpick. Put your, you know, use something to replace putting the cigarette in your mouth, okay? That's helpful. And, you know, all this goes for what... And again, this goes for whatever you're smoking. I'm focusing mainly on cigarettes, but people smoke pipes. People smoke cigars. People vape. People dip snuff and chew tobacco and all that stuff, which is disgusting. But, you know, or they smoke weed or other stuff. But any smoke that you take in your lungs, anything that you take in your lungs is going to be harmful to your lungs. You can fool yourself all you want. You can think, oh, it's just not as bad as this. It's not as bad as that. It's all harmful. Your lungs were meant to breathe in air, not smoke. Okay? So all that stuff is not something that you want to be breathing in. Any foreign substance is harmful in your lungs. So the positives of quitting are numerous. Your health is going to get better. Your life is going to be longer, more than likely. And you're going to smell better. You're going to look better. You're going to, you know, it's going to free up your time. All the things that I listed in the sermon and the negatives are pretty much zero. So it might make food taste better, though. And then you're going to want to eat more food. So that might be something to be on guard for. But other than that, I mean, that's the best advice that I could give. And I think that, well, hopefully, this sermon helps somebody quit smoking. Because I've never heard anybody preach a cigarette smoking, quitting smoking cigarette sermon before. So and I thought, well, I do have experience where I used to smoke. And so I thought that I might be able to give some good advice on how to do that. So my methods, you know, what I did to quit smoking was, you know, I tried multiple different things. But ultimately, you know, I just, I think what the last thing I did was I quit. And then I vape for like a couple of weeks, you know, the vaporizer cigarettes or whatever. But then I went to work and I left it at home. And I thought, well, if I'd forgot it and went to work without it, like I got to work. I was like, oh, man, I left it at home. I was like, well, apparently I didn't need it that much because if I still smoked, I would have never forgotten my cigarettes ever. That would be never something I would do. So I thought, well, if I don't eat them, I don't eat them. And I just never smoked a cigarette again. So and, you know, it's definitely been a great change in my life. But I was a bit I'd be a bear when I quit, like, you know, really angry. It's it has a it has a hard effect on me when I quit. So I never want to start again ever, no matter what. So anyway, hopefully that's helpful to people. And if nobody in here smokes, well, maybe you can just point someone to the sermon that smokes and you can help them with it. So and whatever you have in your life, you know, you can still apply a lot of these principles to anything that you're having struggles with in your life. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for the word of God and Lord, for the mercy that you show us. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to get any evil that we have in our life out of our life, Lord. And if there's anybody that listens to this sermon and follows the principles, Lord, I pray that you just help them give them the victory over smoking, cigarettes. And Lord, I just pray that you just give them strength, give them mercy, give them grace and give them strength for the for the hard time that it's going to be. Lord, I just pray that you just bless this church and that you'd help it continue to grow. And we thank you for the visitors that came tonight. Thank you for the souls that get saved here. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, what a great sermon. I never heard a sermon specifically on quitting smoking either. I think that was great. We need to hear it. We need to hear it. OK. 470 is our final song tonight. 470. OK. Let's just sing the first and the last on this one. Jesus is all the world to me. My life, my joy, my all. He is my strength from day to day. Without Him I would fall. When I am sad to Him I go. No other one can cheer me so. When I am sad, He makes me glad. He's my friend. How many of you don't know this song? OK. Those of you who don't know it, we're just singing one more verse. But don't worry. On the last, a beautiful song. Jesus is all the world to me. I want no better friend. I trust Him now. I'll trust Him when life's fleeting days shall end. Beautiful life with such a friend. Beautiful life that has no end. Eternal life, eternal joy. He's my friend. And you're dismissed to go. God bless you.