June 16, 2024 – Father’s Day

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Okay? We came to worship Jesus today, so y’all gotta move around, make a little noise. I don’t care if you snort, fart, or whatever you got to do, at least do something.

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Then let’s. Don’t be quiet, all right? Hey, I, I don’t know about you, but I came to have a good time. I came to celebrate the Lord Jesus, to worship a risen Savior. And you say I had no preachers talk like that. You should watch the video for you came. Amen. Take your Bible and go to First Timothy.

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chapter one. And I have kind of wondered what I would preach, and I have to confess to you upfront, I’m normally not the God that good at preaching a sermon based on the day. In other words, I feel like I struggle around Easter to preach, you know, the best Easter sermon, or I struggle around Christmas to preach the best Christmas service.

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But it’s just not who I am. I just have to preach what the Holy Spirit gives me. And today, being Father’s Day, I have for many years been preaching and like, what am I going to speak on on Father’s Day? And it dawned on me the other day, I think the Holy Spirit just spoke to me and said, well, you are a father and you’ve been a father for a long time.

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And I look out a lot up across this congregation this morning. And while some of my daughters flesh and blood are here, also, you have to understand, I look among you and I see many of you as my spiritual sons and daughters, those who God has entrusted to me to be a spiritual father to you and to teach you, God’s Word and principles.

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So today I’m going to preach a little bit different sermon in a little bit different way than I normally do, but I’m going to share some things from God’s Word that have been taught to me by my own father and by my spiritual father, my father in the ministry, my pastor, and ultimately by my Heavenly Father because it’s from his word.

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And I think in this day and our what we’re lacking are not good mothers. We’re lacking good fathers. Most listen to me that way. Let me give you a disclaimer. This sermon probably will be offensive. So it’s not a Joe Biden rally. Okay. it’s going to probably be offensive. And it’s not offensive because I’m saying something bad or you’re taking it the wrong way.

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It’s going to be offensive because it’s going to be an affront to the culture that we live in, and an affront to what the woke media and the woke culture and the woke government. And do I need to say any more? We’ll try to tell you. You need to be, I believe, what our nation needs. Of course, first and foremost is the Lord Jesus.

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That is America’s hope. Okay, that’s the world’s hope. the Republicans aren’t going to fix it. The Democrats aren’t going to fix it. The independents aren’t going to fix it. What we need is Jesus. But second, what we need more than anything in this country is we need some godly men that will step up, be men, and lead and not listen to me.

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Let me say this very clearly and not be ashamed to be men. There’s nothing wrong with being a man, okay? The whole world may be confused, but God’s not confused. God’s word is not confused. And this preacher is not confused, I promise you. And I don’t think you are either. But listen to me. I want to say to the young men sitting here today, there is nothing wrong with being a man.

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God made a man to be a man, and that means you ought to get up every morning and have a little gunpowder on your cereal. You ought to have a little spunk to you. You ought to be about half cocked. Mean, I mean you. There’s nothing wrong with that. And it’s okay to be that against and for the right things.

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Okay, so Paul writes to Timothy in first Timothy chapter one. That’s what the whole book of Timothy is about, is the apostle Paul, who was a great apostle, he was a leader. He was a man who, had been entrusted by God not only to take the gospel to many people, but to be an apostle and overseer of many churches.

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He started a lot of churches. He would raise up someone within that church to pastor it, to lead it, and he would go on down the road, start another church. And so he also cared for those churches. And he didn’t just start them and leave them. He would start them, get them going, put someone there, and then he would come back later or right later to check on the pastor, to check on the congregation.

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When you read, for instance, first Corinthians and then second Corinthians, Paul had helped establish that church. He goes away. He hears of some crazy stuff going on in the church at Corinth. And so what Paul does is he writes to him and he says, look, guys, you don’t want me to come back there and set things in order in person.

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I’m going to write to you. Y’all can straighten some things out biblically here. Everything would be good. And they did. So. So he turns around and writes second Corinthians two. Well, first Timothy and there’s another book called Second Timothy. That was a young man that the apostle Paul had taken under his wing and had trained up in the ministry.

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He had given him a lot of training, spent time, mentored him, helped him come up in the ministry, and then entrusted to him to pastor the church which was at Ephesus. There was another young man, and you go in the new Testament you find a book of the Bible in the New Testament is a small book, but it’s Titus Titus, who was also another young preacher, that Paul had raised up one of his sons in the faith, and he had entrusted to him to pastor this little church on the island of Crete.

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That was a horrible place to be sent. He said to Christians. And you read in your Bible you can read this whole text. He says, the Christians are a bunch of fat, lazy slobs. Y’all think I’m bad the way I preach? You wouldn’t like the Apostle Paul. That’s what he said about it. He says, but Titus, I called you to stay there and preach the word to them, and so you can win them to Christ, and Jesus will change them.

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And so both Titus and Timothy are pastoring churches that are growing. But it’s tough. It’s like I call cowboy church. It’s loud and it’s Western at times. There was some really difficult things going on there along with the persecution that began to come against those men. And so Paul would write to them to encourage them. And so he does that to Timothy.

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And so we’re just going to read a few verses in to Timothy today. And I hope if you want to study a book of the Bible that is really rich and that were really bless you and help you go home this week and just read the book of First Timothy. It’s a really powerful book. When you get down there and go to Second Timothy.

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But first Timothy, chapter one, Paul writes like this. He says, Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus our hope. He says to Timothy, a true son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I’ll stop reading right there, and I want to just explain those verses to you.

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So when Paul writes to Timothy, he first establishes, this is who I am. You know who I am. I’m called by God to lead. And I’m an apostle, not by my choice, but by God’s choice, and by stating that he’s telling Timothy, I have wisdom from the Holy Spirit that I can impart to you and the next verses and the next chapters of that book are just that.

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They are. They are things that the Apostle Paul is about to pour into Timothy and share with him. That will be an encouragement to him, and that will be a help to him. And he tells him, he says, Timothy, you are a true son in the faith. You’re a true son in the faith. In other words, we don’t know, according to history that Paul was ever married.

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As a matter of fact, he mentions that he had been celibate, in other words, unmarried throughout his ministry. So he didn’t have any biological children. But he did have a lot of spiritual children, a lot of young men and young ladies that he had mentored, that he had poured into, that he had shared God’s Word with. And through that they had grown and become the believers that they were supposed to.

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And so he tells Timothy, he says, look, I’m going to give you three things. I’m going to pray these. I’m going to speak these things over you. And it’s this grace, mercy and peace. Can I just tell you, though, what you may you may take those words for granted. But in his world and in our world, those are much needed words.

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He knew that Timothy was going to need a lot of grace, a lot of grace, because the world is tough. He knew he was going to need some mercy and he knew he would need peace. Peace. You know, I look around today and one of the things I see lacking most in people’s lives is peace through genuine peace.

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But that’s what most people need, and that’s what Timothy needed. But this morning, and I wish I could just take time to go through the whole book of First Timothy. But I, instead of just picked a few things from the Bible, and I told you I’d preach a little different, a few things that I would like to share with you as a father in the ministry to sons and daughters in the ministry that I think would help you.

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And believe me, my list isn’t that long. It could be very long. It was hard to just think of a few things that if I had the chance to speak to all of you, that I would want to do that. I feel like would impact your life most. And so I want you if you just give me your attention for the next few moments and you’ll write down some of the things I’m about to tell you.

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I promise you they will radically change your life and will greatly bless your life throughout all of your life. In other words, what I’m about to give you is from the Bible, but they are keys and wisdom that God has given me that I promise you, he promises, will be a tremendous blessing in your life. If you were as one of my daughters, and then one of my daughters is sitting in here right now, and so she’s going to know some of the things I say.

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And if you doubt that, I taught them this. I have three daughters, by the way. But if you doubt that I didn’t say some of what I’m about to say to you, go to her later and ask her, did your dad really teach you that? Did your dad really say to you, say that to you, and she’s going to tell you?

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Yes. If you go to her and say, is your dad really crazy? She’s going to say a little bit, a little bit. Someone not long ago asked Emily about our dogs. And like most people, I was telling of this last night because we were talking to a waiter or waitress. When you’re a waitress at Cracker Barrel, you know that’s they’re going to serve that in heaven.

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I’m pretty sure, the mayor separate the lamb. but we were eating there, and so she, we had some leftovers in to ask for a carryout, you know, box. And my grandma used to call it a doggy bag, and she’s like, we’re going to take this home to our dog. And I snickered when she said that. I said, tell that girl the truth.

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We don’t have a dog. We have dogs, plural. Like if you come to my house, y’all have seen all the dogs. We have dogs. And that’s a very small number compared to what I used to have. I mean, Emily sitting right over there, she can tell you when dad’s coon dogs would start barking. Like, how many dogs? I mean, I live ten miles from between people.

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And Louise said we could hear your dogs last. Next. I had 180 of them at one time. Okay, that’s a lot of dogs to bark. My cousin Mike sitting back there, he can hear you. He’s shaking his head. He knows, I had a lot of dogs. So when I tell y’all stories and it may sound a little crazy, it’s not.

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I’ve got I’ve got evidence here. I mean, I’ve got family that can testify. I am crazy, but I’m going to give you some good wisdom here. And so I’m going to give you just a few things that I hope will help you. I want you to take your Bible and go into these verses. If you don’t have a Bible, look on with someone.

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And if you don’t have someone sitting next to you that has a Bible, pull it up on your phone. You can Google these verses. It’ll come up and you can read these verses in and mark them down and remember them. First of all, I want you to go to Ephesians chapter five. And the first piece of advice that I would like to give you this morning, the first biblical thing that I would say will bless your life tremendously is to seek wisdom.

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Now, I want you to I want you to read in Ephesians five verse 15 with me, Ephesians five, verse 15. It says, see then that you walk circumspectly not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. So Paul is first saying there to the church at Ephesus, which by the way, was the church that Timothy was pastoring.

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He’s saying, listen, you should seek wisdom, be wise and walk wisely. In other words, live your life in wisdom because so that you don’t do it. Number one, as a fool does it, but rather you do it wisely, redeeming the time. How many of you know that your life is like an hourglass? I mean, have you ever seen one of those little.

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Those sand hourglass is you turn up and while you may be young now and you’re thinking, well, you know, I can’t wait till I get to be 16, I can drive, I can’t wait till I’m 18 and I’ll graduate and I can officially leave home. That’s real smart, by the way. Yeah, try that one. Most, most people, by the time they’re in their 20s, they’re like, can I come back home?

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We had a really good mom and dad were paying all the bills. I mean, like, I didn’t know you had to pay rent, electricity and buy food. I mean, you have to buy it and all this other stuff that goes with it until you by the time you get to be 30, you’re like, mom, dad, can I please come back home and live on your stuff instead of mine?

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I would do that in a heartbeat, but you’re getting older and time will fly by very, very fast in your life. I remember when I was 15 that I was driving at 15. All right. I think the statute of limitations has run out for what I’m about to tell you, but I grew up in Boyd, Texas, when Boyd, Texas didn’t have paved roads and you only had one red light and it didn’t work half the time.

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If it did, I never saw it. But but I grew up there and it was dirt road, so I drove to school. By the time I was 14 and 15 years old, didn’t have a driver’s license, but by the time I was 16, it was really exciting because now I’m legal. I can drive legally. That was awesome. I couldn’t wait till I was going to be 18.

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I can graduate high school. I can go into PRCA and ride bulls and it was going to be great. Couldn’t wait till I was 21 so that I could do things. 21 year olds do it. But you know, I thought, man, that’s never going to get year. And till one day I wake up and I’m nearly 51 and I’m looking back going, where did the time go?

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And you know what? Every person in here my age or around my age can identify with what I’m about to tell you. And it’s this I look back at the things that I had a chance to do, and I’m grateful for all the things God has allowed me to do in my life and success that he’s given me in my life.

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But you know what? I look back and I think, man, I wasted a lot of good time. When you get older, your greatest regrets is going to be the time that you let slip by. And so how do you redeem the word redeem means to buy back. How do you how do you buy that time? That one thing you can, you’ll find out is you can always make more, more money.

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You might get sick and you can always get healing. But you know what? You can never get back. And by the way, God is fair with it in every person’s life. It’s that he gives us all the same amount of time. We got 24 hours in a day. And how you manage that time takes wisdom, and wisdom is something that you can’t get in college.

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I’m not belittling college. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not belittling school. Your education. But there is a difference in education, knowledge and wisdom. You I watched today in America how we will spend. Parents will go in debt or students will go in debt for a college education. They’ll be ten years in student loan debt to go learn how to smoke dope and protest at rallies.

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It’s like, are you kidding me? Come on. The truth is, the seminary or, our universities and some seminaries, there’s a lot of things they may teach. Knowledge and knowledge is good, but they don’t teach wisdom. The only place you’re ever going to learn wisdom is from God’s word. And by the way, take the book of Proverbs and read one chapter a day.

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There’s 31 books or 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs. It was written by the most wise man that ever lived on earth. You know what his name was? King Solomon. King Solomon was a young man when he came to the throne. Young man, some say, was maybe 19 or 20 years old. And so when he comes to the throne, his dad, David, has passed it on to him, and he’s he’s going to ascend the throne.

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He’s going to be the third king, the third king ever of the nation of Israel. And God says to him, he goes to the Lord in prayer. And the Lord says to him, this. He says, you can ask me for one thing, one thing that you want, and I promise I will give it to you. Now what do you think most 20 or 21 year old guys would pray for?

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Money, power, you know, power, wealth, money. There’s a lot of things I can think that day. You know what he prayed for? Wisdom. Wisdom. Because he had the wisdom to know that if he prayed for wisdom. See, there’s a lot of people who make a lot of money but can’t keep it. But wisdom is not only making a lot of money in life, but having the wisdom to keep it, to use it rightly to invest it or whatever the situation.

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So you understand wisdom is something you need. You need wisdom in this evil day. How many of you have come to realize we live in a day that is marked by deception? When you hear some, you know, it’s like somebody tell me your day. How do you know when a politician’s lying? I’m like, when they open your mouth.

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That’s pretty easy. Well, they’re they’re a Republican or a Democrat. They’re both messed up. They don’t know that. Matter of fact, you want my opinion? You didn’t ask, but I’ll give it to you. They’re the unit party anyway. I want to know the truth. I don’t want to hear what the government’s telling me. I don’t want to hear what culture telling me.

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I certainly don’t care what Hollywood is telling me. I want to know what God says about every situation. I don’t want to know someone else’s opinion when it comes to truth. It’s not my truth, your truth. It’s God’s truth. And that’s what I want to know. And the only way you can know that is through wisdom. So Paul tells the church at Ephesus and Timothy, he says, guys, you should seek wisdom.

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In other words, get wisdom, and that you may walk circumspectly you may walk rightly before God, not as a fool, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. By the way, let me just say this one of the ways people say, how do you know that we’re living in the end times when Jesus gave us a lot of stuff in Matthew 24 and 25, some, some clues, some things that would be precursors, that would be like birth pains that you would begin to see happening just before the end.

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And we were watching a number of those things. But can I tell you the one thing that Jesus and the Apostle Paul and in John he wrote the book of Revelation, can I tell you things that all three of them said? Jesus himself said, there’s one major characteristic, one major thing that will mark the time that we would call the end times, that I say we are living in today.

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And it was this deception, deception we live in that time. If you don’t think we live in that time, just look at the month that the world just celebrated Pride Month come. First of all, let me tell you about pride. Pride is an affront to God. It don’t matter who it is. God says he resists the proud. But we we spend an entire month as a nation celebrating what God calls sin and trying to normalize it and say, well, that’s okay.

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That’s acceptable. But it may be to sinners, but it’s not to a holy God that may fit well in culture, but it’s never fit well in God’s kingdom. And so what God calls evil, what God calls wrong. It takes a little bit of wisdom, because if you if you have an opinion like mine where you’re kind of hateful, where you’re kind of shameful, well, you’re kind of being mean, it has nothing to do with that.

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God loves all people. I love all people. But what I’m telling you is you have to have wisdom to know that what the world is feeding you, what Satan is feeding you is deception. And it’s deadly. It’s deadly. So wisdom. Secondly, I want you to get this. Take your Bible, go to Proverbs 22, and then we’re going to look at Psalms 51 or Psalms 15 rather, but Proverbs 22.

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The second thing, if I had a chance to tell you something, give you advice that I believe would make a profound difference in your life. It would be this to be a person of integrity, be a person of integrity. I’m not saying that you have to be a perfect person. No one is. No one is. But go to Proverbs 22 for a second.

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In my way. I told you Proverbs has a lot of wisdom. But look at Proverbs chapter 22 and we’re going to look at verse number one. And then I also want you to take your Bible and go over to Psalm 15. We’re going to look at verse four and five. Be a person of integrity. What is that important?

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Why is that important? To be a person of integrity means that, number one, you have a good name. And number two, by the way, having a good name means a good reputation, an honest person. But number two, it means that you’re a man or a woman of your word. See, when I was growing up, I remember when they didn’t have to kill a tree to sign a document.

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Let that sink in for just a minute. Think of what I just said. I grew up in a time, and some of you that are as old or older than I am can remember that if a man looked you in the eye and said something, made a deal, and shook hands on it, that that man or that woman would keep their word.

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They were people of integrity. People say things today and you don’t know if they’re going to keep their word or not. You don’t know if they have any commitment to their word or not. As a matter of fact, they may have a reputation for not being a person of integrity and keeping their word. So what’s the Bible say about it?

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Proverbs 22 and verse one. The Bible says a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches. In other words, from heaven’s view you having a good reputation as a person of integrity. The Bible says that should be chosen over the pursuit of riches.

00:25:41:05 – 00:26:05:04
How many of you know some rich people that are liars? I know a lot of them. How many of you know some rich people that probably got rich by being crooks? I know a lot of them. How many of you know that the Bible read that next part of that verse it says and loving favor rather than silver and gold.

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What’s that verse mean? It means that God says having a good name, a good reputation is to be. Wrath is to be desired or chosen over great riches. And having loving favor a loving favor with who? The loving favor of God. Parents, I want to say to you, and I want to say to every person in here, and I especially say to you that are teenagers and young adults, I want you to remember something that I’m about to tell you.

00:26:31:03 – 00:27:01:24
If you have a good reputation of being an honest person, of integrity, a person that keeps your word and keeps your commitments, you will invite the favor of God upon your life. And when you have favor the favor of God, you’ve got something money can’t buy. You’ve got a blessing. See, you live long enough to know that you may earn, or you may get a lot of money.

00:27:01:24 – 00:27:21:25
But listen to me carefully. Look at me. You can lose that overnight. You can. It can be gone. And if you don’t, and you in your life with a lot of money, can I just tell you what happens to you? They stuff you in a coffin, embalm you and put you in the ground, and you’re as dead as the poorest dude in that cemetery.

00:27:21:28 – 00:27:48:20
Yeah, Your money can’t buy you life. And you can leave a rotten memory of your name. Not saying that money’s wrong and not saying that pursuing money is wrong. The Bible has a lot to say about riches, and it’s the way that we pursue it. Do we pursue the favor of God, or do we pursue the carnal pleasures of life with the loving favor of God?

00:27:48:22 – 00:28:09:14
Abraham was one of the richest men in the Bible with the loving favor of God. I read of a number of men and women in the Bible who were blessed to find it. And Solomon wasn’t only the wisest man in the Bible, he was also one of the richest men in the Bible. Even the secular world recognizes Solomon’s Temple as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

00:28:09:22 – 00:28:34:19
How did that happen? How did a, a boy whose daddy had been a shepherd boy became a king because he killed a giant? How did for people it was the loving favor of God. It was the the blessings of God upon their life. So I’m saying to you, integrity, be a person of integrity. Be a person that is trustworthy, someone that can be counted on.

00:28:34:21 – 00:28:56:28
How do I get that from? Take your Bible now real quick, go back to Psalm 15. But this is a this is a verse that I think, I think is a very powerful verse. It means a lot. And I remember my dad teaching me this. I remember my pastor telling me this, and it’s an it’s a powerful verse that has stood the test of time.

00:28:57:01 – 00:29:29:28
Psalm chapter 15, verse four and five. It says. In whose eyes of all person is despised, but he honors those who fear the Lord. He who swears to his own hurt and does not change. He who does not put out his money as usury, nor does take a bribe against the innocent. So God’s talking about those who walk uprightly, justly, those who God blesses.

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And he’s saying one of those types, one of those characteristics of someone who has the blessing or the favor of God upon their life is the person who swears or who makes a promise, who gives someone their word and keeps it even to their own hurt. Let me let me teach you a lesson in this. I remember my dad telling me that stuff.

00:29:57:18 – 00:30:20:19
I remember growing up in the ministry and being taught that like, no matter what you do, if you tell a man or a woman you’re going to do something, do it, but you get halfway into it is like, oh, this ain’t going to work out. Well, I had this come up or I had that come up or, this is costing me more than I thought it was going to cost me to do it.

00:30:20:26 – 00:30:47:05
And this is the difference. You can jump out and quit right there, and you’re at best a quitter at it. And a liar because you gave your word that you would do something. But if you do it even to your own hurt, it builds something called character. And the next time you’re a little more careful to step out and make a promise to do something with that, counting the cost of doing it.

00:30:47:07 – 00:31:10:18
Jesus taught that in the scriptures. He taught that in the New Testament he said, listen, what? What King goes out to build a kingdom? Or what person goes out to build a building without first counting the cost of it? The first time I ever remember this lesson, I had a neighbor man up the road and he had this little Welsh horse and he said, and I was I was going to break this horse for him.

00:31:10:18 – 00:31:31:24
And he asked me how much I would charge. And I told him, I think he’s like $200 a month. What I didn’t realize was that he was going up at that time. Feed was going up at that time, and this sucker bucked. And it was, I thought I was going to have an easy go at it, but I had told him I would ride him every day.

00:31:31:24 – 00:31:52:15
My dad made sure I got up and went out and rode him every day and every day I got backed off. And so that $200 a month suddenly became not much money. And really hard to earn. And I wanted to go back and say, I didn’t expect your horse to be that right. And I didn’t expect feeding hay to be that much.

00:31:52:15 – 00:32:12:09
But my dad would not let me charge that man more. He said, you made a commitment. Get that horse broke, do what you said you would do. The next time that somebody asked me to break a horse, I was calculating. I’m going to make sure we got money for feed for hay and doctor’s visits. If this. This thing bugs me.

00:32:12:12 – 00:32:35:22
I got my stuff together, but I thank God my dad did not let me get out of that deal. He made me keep my word. He taught me a lesson. But you know what? I also got a reputation around a little community I grew up in as being a kid. That would keep my word and do what I said I would do.

00:32:35:25 – 00:33:00:25
And that’s biblical. That’s godly. That’s the kind of person that God will bless. If you want your life to be blessed, be a person of integrity. Be a person who keeps your word. Be a person who could, who pursues a a good reputation. I’m not talking about being a people pleaser. I’m talking about being a man or a woman of integrity.

00:33:00:27 – 00:33:42:02
And then thirdly, this is a big one. This is going to fly really, in the face of our culture. And I’m probably going to say some things that may sound offensive. Honor all people, honor all people. First Timothy chapter two, I think verse 19, first to first Peter, chapter two, verse 19, Peter who was a pastor, an apostle, and was living under great persecution, says, honor all men and honor of the king.

00:33:42:04 – 00:34:04:16
And he wasn’t talking about just a, you know, a democracy. He was living, you know, he was living under King Nero, who would eventually have him crucified. But he says, honor all men. And I could give you a lot of other verses about that. But I remember something my dad used to teach me, and it was this he said, honor all people until they give you a reason not to.

00:34:04:19 – 00:34:37:00
And what did he mean by that? And this may sound old fashioned. There may be some folks from up north watching this that really think I’m nuts, but that means very simple. So. Yes, sir. No sir, yes ma’am, no ma’am. Thank you. And please to people. I get it. I was somewhere the other day and this person that was helping me, I didn’t know what they were.

00:34:37:02 – 00:35:28:13
I didn’t know if I should say yes sir or yes, ma’am. I was confused, so I just said yes and thank you. I wasn’t offensive, I wasn’t ugly, and I wasn’t. I was still confused, but I still honor them. What I’m telling you is that when you honor people, when you honor people, you’re honoring God. How? When the Bible tells me that God made every human being in his own image, when you look at another person, whether you like them or not, whether they’re the same color of skin issue or not, whether they’re the same sexual preference as you or not, you’re looking at someone who was still made in the image of Almighty God.

00:35:28:16 – 00:35:52:13
My grandfather used to teach me. He said, listen, you just remember, while that kid skin color may be different than yours, the same God made him, made you. And no matter who the person is, if you’ll honor them, honor them. Never think yourself above them, but honor them. You watch the blessing of God flow in your life.

00:35:52:16 – 00:36:09:09
And by the way, honoring them. Let me say to young men here today, young men, since this is Father’s Day, let me say something to you. I know it’s hot. Y’all just keep waving. I’m just keep fanning. Amen. We’ll start shouting in a minute. We’re sweating for Jesus. Go ahead, folks, drop him jelly roses. Put our hands now.

00:36:09:12 – 00:36:46:10
Y’all can’t tell me, young man. Listen to me. You want to be a real man? Listen carefully. What I’m about to say. Real men love, honor and protect women and children. You hear me? Anything short of that is a punk? I. Sir, I said it. I love you and Jesus. Listen to me, guys. Listen me carefully. It is never, ever, ever okay?

00:36:46:12 – 00:37:06:21
For a man, a man to hit a woman ever, ever. And if you do, we have a ministry for helping men who hurt women and children. Here. It’s out that back door. And I got a couple of big guys here that are minister to you. They can cure you of that. Amen. We will heal you in Jesus name, right?

00:37:06:23 – 00:37:45:10
It’s never okay. It’s not real. Men love, honor and protect women and children. Look at me, guys. I’m going to be real. Hey, I know, I know how we guys talk. I know how we talk, where guys. But it’s not okay to talk disrespectfully in the presence of women or children. That’s not honor. That’s disrespectful. That’s wrong. As men, we’re supposed to love, honor, and cherish women and children and protect them and be good to them.

00:37:45:13 – 00:38:12:27
Your to honor. I’m about to get in my point. Whatever. I’m almost done. Y’all hang with me. So the Bible tells us to honor all people, no matter who they are. Fourthly, know your purpose. Micah chapter six, verse eight. I’m going to go real fast. Just write this down Micah chapter six, verse eight. It tells us that we’re if you want to know what man’s duty, purpose, calling in this life is, what is your purpose?

00:38:13:00 – 00:38:46:07
It is to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before your God. What are those three things right there? I mean, what’s the purpose of doing those three things? To act justly means to live and pursue righteousness and holiness of God to to love mercy means that you are a person of meekness. What is meekness? I mean, did you ever read in the Bible what the Bible said, that Jesus was a meek man.

00:38:46:12 – 00:39:19:04
Don’t ever, don’t, don’t ever confuse meekness and weakness. A weakness is someone who loses control. There’s a lot of that in our world today. But meekness is power under control. Jesus wasn’t a weak man. He was a meek man. He could have a any moment, took himself off the cross and destroyed humanity. But as a meek man, he had the power under control to be obedient to the will of the father and to go to the cross and lay down his life for us.

00:39:19:06 – 00:39:43:28
Jesus was a meek man, so I would encourage you in your life, don’t. Don’t forget your purpose. And if you’ve never discovered your purpose, that’s something you need to be doing now, every one of us in here, we’re not created to be aimless. If you’re aimless in your life, I mean, I love you, but it’s just because you’re lazy.

00:39:44:00 – 00:40:08:10
It’s because you’re lazy. It’s because you’re not actively pursuing. What is your purpose? Let me just say this while I’m at it. Your purpose is not to sleep in all day and play video games. You’ll never become the man of God or woman of God that you’re supposed to be, Paul said, when I became a man, I put away childish things my daddy used to tell me.

00:40:08:10 – 00:40:33:27
He said, son, if you don’t get up earlier, work harder and work longer than most people. You’ll never be what most people are. In other words, if you want to get ahead in life, pursue it. Get up, know your purpose, and I’m done right here. This is the last one. Walk and live in your identity. Here’s the problem most people don’t know who they are.

00:40:34:00 – 00:41:01:16
They don’t know their purpose, but they don’t know their purpose because they don’t know their identity. Our world, the world that you and I live in today, wants you to define who you are, and it wants to define who you are by your past mistakes, your present circumstance. But that’s not how God defines you, and it’s not how God identifies you.

00:41:01:19 – 00:41:41:05
You’ve you’ve been around here long enough. You’ve heard me say this, and I greatly. And I don’t want any confusion concerning this. I greatly appreciate any program that helps somebody to get through and delivered from any kind of addiction. There’s some great programs out there that, that are awesome in helping people get past addiction. My one complaint that I hear so often in our culture is someone will say, my name’s Jeff.

00:41:41:05 – 00:42:09:26
I’m an addict. No, no, I’m not. My name’s Jeff. I may have been an addict, but I’m delivered. I, I’m a child of God. Let me give you something. Your identity. Is it based on how you see yourself? Your identity is based on who God says you are. This is my daughter, Emily, right here. And she’s not an addict, and she don’t have any vices that I know of or that I’m going to tell you about.

00:42:09:29 – 00:42:33:15
But if she did, I would not introduce her or my other two daughters as, hey, this is my daughter, the addict. What I would do, what parent would do that? This is my this is my kid, the goof up. This wouldn’t do that either. No, this is my daughter, who I love and cherish. She’s the apple of my eye.

00:42:33:17 – 00:42:58:19
That’s who you are to God. God does introduce you by your past or your sins or your struggles. I’m a child and a son of the Most High. I may struggle with some things, but the things I struggle have not overtaken me. The things I struggle with do not define me. The things that I, I struggle through are not my future.

00:42:58:23 – 00:43:25:17
I’m being changed. I’m being made to be more and more like Jesus every day. I always say, if you don’t like who I am, don’t worry, I’m a work in progress. Come back tomorrow. God’s still working on me and that’s true with you. Don’t let your past be your identity. It is not. It is not who God says you are is your identity.

00:43:25:19 – 00:43:47:02
And I can tell you who he says you are. You can go to Ephesians chapter one. It says you were chosen. You were redeemed. You are love. You are freed. You are accepted. You are holy. You are righteous, and you’ve been given an inheritance. You are a son and a daughter of God. And let me close with this.

00:43:47:05 – 00:44:17:25
Do not let the world deceive you. Remember who I started this. The world is full of deception. Don’t buy into the lie. Especially you young, younger ones here. Don’t buy into the lie that this culture has sold. Of walking around your whole life claiming to be the victim. Well, you know how I grew up. You don’t know what I’ve gone through.

00:44:17:25 – 00:44:39:25
You don’t know what my mama did. My daddy did, or they said or just. No, I don’t. But let me say something to you in love, Sparky. The world is fair. It’s cruel to everybody. And you can live your life being the victim. Or you can choose to be the victor. Amen. And you’re going to live 1 or 2 ways.

00:44:39:28 – 00:45:16:07
You really will. You know, some of the most powerful advocates I ever heard speak for pro-life were young ladies who long ago made a choice for abortion, but later regretted it. But they didn’t let that be their define. They didn’t let that define them. And they chose not to be the victim, but rather the victor. You know, some the strongest advocates I’ve ever heard for helping people get past addictions or former addicts themselves who have been delivered, set free and no longer allow the victim mentality to overtake them, but rather they become a force for the kingdom and the good of God.

00:45:16:14 – 00:45:40:14
In sharing by faith to others, you can overcome the lie of this world is be a victim, lay down and take it. But the message of the gospel is no, I have. Thanks be to God, who always calls his me to be victorious. Thanks be to God who has made me more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ, my Lord.

00:45:40:19 – 00:46:14:11
Those are things that I share with you today, that I promise you that if you will let the Holy Spirit embed those in your life, God will bless your life immensely and are not things you’re going to hear from Hollywood. They’re not things you’re going to hear in the world, but they are things you hear right now. The Word of God and God promises that those who walk in, those those who look for those, those who pursue that good name, wisdom, integrity, the person that seeks to honor other people, honor all people.

00:46:14:16 – 00:46:41:29
Whenever you do that, you become the person that God looks at and says, that is my son. That is my daughter, and I want to pour out my loving favor on them. If you don’t, thank, the favor of God means something. I’m closing with this. I’ll be 51 in August.

00:46:42:02 – 00:47:15:15
I have had the privilege over 30 years to speak to crowd. I’ve spoken to congregations of 5000 a times. It’s a lot. Not as many as some others. But that is a lot for me, especially when I’m about to tell you I. I was the kid in school, and by the way, I speak all the time, I’m I’m actually doing a little less than I’ve done in other points in my life, but I’m still preaching and teaching every week.

00:47:15:17 – 00:47:41:04
But let me tell you the loving favor of that. When I was in school, I didn’t know it, but I was dyslexic. Still at I read backwards so well. When you hear me say, son, sometimes you’re like, what is this made perfect sense to me. It made my brains backwards. Okay, I read backwards. I didn’t know it, I thought, I still think I’m the normal one.

00:47:41:04 – 00:47:59:07
Like when we get to heaven and find out, you know, that the dyslexic people, we actually had it right in the rest of you were the weird ones. But, I, I had that that handicap, if you would. And I could have let that define my life in my ministry, and I could have let that be an excuse.

00:47:59:09 – 00:48:31:04
But more so than that, I literally took a test one time called the Burkeman. It’s something that a lot of corporations and ministries, they will use it as sort of a way to determine people’s gifts and their, their aptitude and some other things. I don’t know what all they figure out. So it’s some weird questions on it, but I agreed to take it and it helps them place people in areas according to their natural gifting.

00:48:31:07 – 00:48:53:03
And so I take this. This is probably 2014, 2015. So I’m I’m already a pretty older guy by the time I take this thing and, and I always knew that I’m very shy like in nature. I’m not I’m not this extrovert, outgoing guy. Do you like you seem to be up there with this. This is the part I want you to get.

00:48:53:06 – 00:49:11:18
So I take this test and they’re reading to me and. And lady goes, okay, now this is the last one. Whether you’re an introvert, meaning very shy, don’t want to be around people kind of person or a real extrovert, you know, like swinging from the chandelier every time we, you know, go to Denny’s or something. I mean, that’s not me.

00:49:11:24 – 00:49:33:14
So I take this test and I it comes back and she goes, now, I’ve been doing these test for a long time. She was I’d be evidence to hundreds of people. And your score on this is like unusual. And I’m like, really? What is is it good or bad? She goes, well, there’s no bad. Here. She goes, you scored and I’ve never seen this before.

00:49:33:16 – 00:49:51:21
A 99 out of a hundred as an introvert. And I’m like, okay, what’s an introvert again? She goes, it means you’re a very shy person and not a really outgoing guy, am I? Is that thing for real? She goes, yeah, I like I always knew I didn’t like people. I’d rather go to the mountains and just not see people for a week.

00:49:51:23 – 00:50:25:16
I’m good with that. No, I love people. I’m just like, I’m not the guy to get up in front of people and talk. Except, God, he taught me a long time ago. Don’t be the victim. Be a victor. My victory is it on my own. My victory has come. Fully trusting him, but fully trust in him. So no matter what it is that you think will hold you back in this life, entrust that to the Lord.

00:50:25:19 – 00:50:52:05
Ask him to take charge, and he can give you loving favor to overcome anything in this life that you may face. Let’s bow our heads together. Lord, we love you today. We thank you for your word. I thank you all over this building for men that are with us who are fathers. I thank you for my own father, who has been a tremendous example to me in my life.

00:50:52:05 – 00:51:12:04
I thank you for my spiritual father, my pastor, who taught me so many things in the ministry. And Lord, I pray first and foremost today for every father in this building and that are listening online, that you just pour out your blessings in your favor. I pray for young men here today that are not yet fathers, but someday will be.

00:51:12:04 – 00:51:46:10
I pray that the words and advice that I give them from your Word today will be meaningful and impact to them, and Lord, that it will help change and direct their life in a way that they will live with your favor and your blessing upon them. I pray that also for the young ladies here. Lord, I pray today that you help us to realize who you say we are, not who the world says we are, not even who we think we are, but who you say we are.

00:51:46:12 – 00:52:08:06
And Lord that we never forget you. Don’t define us by our past or our struggles. You define us by who Jesus said we were and for what he did for us on the cross. And if there’s anybody here today, Lord, that has never put their trust, their faith in Jesus, I pray they will before this day’s over. We love you.

00:52:08:07 – 00:52:27:14
We thank you. We honor you, Jesus. Thank you for the privilege to worship you today. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. Y’all, I’m I know it’s hot in here. Y’all think it’s hot back there? You’ll be up here. It’s really I try. I kept coming down here to y’all. I’ll give you two reasons for that. One, it’s hot outside, too.

00:52:27:14 – 00:52:42:16
If you look at those air conditioner ducts right there. When we added this part of the building on, we forgot to extend the air conditioner. And then thirdly, one of the air conditioners broke and they’re coming in to fix that on Tuesday. Tuesday. So maybe next week could be a little cooler. But, thank you all for being here.

00:52:42:19 – 00:52:59:23
We got a baptism this morning. This is going to be exciting. By the way, while she’s getting ready, let me say a couple of things. this evening, bull riding at five. Now, this may be the last Sunday we do a bull riding at five. We may have to move it to six. That’s to be determined and be announced.

00:52:59:25 – 00:53:17:18
Stay tuned. You know, it’s just getting hotter. And if it’s it’s a struggle. So we don’t know. We’re just we’re trying to deal with it and get as many rides. And I think last week we had close to 60 outs and it was great. But it was a long time. So it’s just bear with us. But here’s the good news.

00:53:17:18 – 00:53:43:15
I think I have three baptisms this afternoon in the arena at 5:00. Okay. Four. They’re saying four. We got four this this evening in the arena. So that’s going to be five people that are going to be baptized today. And that’s let’s listen to me church. There’s a lot of churches that don’t see that in a year. They don’t see it in a year.

00:53:43:18 – 00:54:00:25
And yet, we’re seeing it in a day. That’s the favor and blessing of God on this church. And just don’t take that for granted. Be sure and praise him for it. So come back to this evening. you say, well, it’s going to be hot. You sit in your car and watch those baptisms, okay? And then we’ll bulls.

00:54:00:25 – 00:54:22:09
It’s going to be great. Bible study bull riders will have a Bible study at the arena at 6:00 on Wednesday. And then also at 6:00. there’s adult Bible study at gate gateway to me, where Nicole? At their house in Crum. Almost. The crime is going to be crime in Decatur at 6:00 on Wednesday. Also, am I right?

00:54:22:14 – 00:54:44:00
Okay, so mark that down, either one. If you’re a bull rider and you want to come, to the arena for Bull rider Bible study Wednesday night, if you’re adults, you want to go to an adult Bible. See there’s this awesome. You’ll enjoy it, but we’ll have a good time. And either one. It’s a great time midweek to plug in to the Bible, study with some brothers and sisters in Christ, and grow in your faith.

00:54:44:00 – 00:54:52:28
Okay, Caitlin, you ready? All right.

00:54:53:00 – 00:55:15:05
it’s not. Yeah. It was so hot in here. I decided not to turn the heater on in boiling. All right. Hey, y’all, this is Caitlin. How old are you? 11. 11? If y’all haven’t been around, Caitlin, she acts much older than 11 years old. and you’re going to be a teacher one day, right? Yes. Yep. She’s already.

00:55:15:05 – 00:55:35:26
She already knows what she’s going to be a teacher. That this is a good, godly young lady. And, it’s my privilege today to baptize you, our privilege to baptize you. So, Caitlin, how do you know the Lord Jesus as your savior and you’ve committed your life to follow him? Yes, sir. Okay, then, upon your profession of faith, it’s our privilege to baptize you, our sister.

00:55:36:04 – 00:56:07:10
In the name of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit buried in the likeness of Jesus death. And raised to walk in newness of life. Correct. By the way, that’s dad helping her and big brother over here. That’s awesome. All right. Okay. What a good day. Hey, thank you for being here next Sunday. I hope it’ll be a lot cooler in here, but, we don’t pass an offering plate.

00:56:07:10 – 00:56:26:04
If you want to give an offering to the Lord, there’s a milk can in the back. if you’re visiting with us today, I look around, see a few visitors. We’re glad you’re here. Thank you for worshiping with us today. Hope you’ll come back and worship again. God bless you. You’re dismissed.