Curse God and Die

As you see, the sermon title today is Curse God and Die.

The last time I was here, we went into the amazing Psalm 145. I hope everybody remembers that. It's a Psalm about praising God. I'd like you to turn there, if you will. We'll start today where we finished. Psalm 145, verse 21. Psalm 145, verse 21. Read from the New King James Version. And it says, My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh shall bless his holy name, forever and... whatever. My mouth shall speak. Look on your page there at 146, verse 1. Praise the Lord, which actually means translated, hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live, I will praise the Lord. I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. I like the New Living Translation. It says, Let all that I am praise the Lord. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.

Remind you of anyone? Hopefully remind you of people in this room. Hopefully remind you of yourself.

Psalm 147, verse 1. Praise the Lord, for it is good to sing praises to our God, for it is pleasant and praise is beautiful.

148. Look at Psalm 148, verse 1. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise Him in the heights. Praise Him all His angels. Praise Him all His hosts. Praise Him, sun, moon. Praise Him, all you stars of the light. Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, and you waters above the heavens. Do you know there's waters above the heavens?

Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created.

We even have a song. Praise you, the Lord. I had it in my head when I was taking a shower this morning, because I was just reading this verse. Praise in the heavens. Praise in the heights. Praise you, angels. And I can't sing, but that was stuck in my head as I was singing. You know, everybody thinks they can sing when they're in the shower, you know? Everybody thinks they, you know, they sound like Ben Crosby or somebody when they're in the shower. But, like you go to Psalm 150. Psalm 152. Psalm 150, verse 1 says, Praise you, Lord, or hallelujah to the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty firmament. Praise Him for His mighty acts. Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with the lute, the harp. Praise Him with the timbre and dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes. Praise Him with loud cymbals. Praise Him with high sounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise Him. And then what does it say? Praise hallelujah, the Lord. That is such powerful instruction to us. I hope you were able to do that for His mighty works in your life this week. I couldn't thank Him enough for stepping in in my life this week. There's an airplane that landed Thursday morning at Fort Lauderdale Airport called Bahama Air. That flew at 8,000 feet and it landed safely and I stepped off that plane and I knew who to praise. There's a plane yesterday landed in or never got a chance to really land without crash landing in Russia. Killed all 62 people yesterday because of wind.

There is praise that comes because of the protection I had yesterday and the day before. There's also that praise that I'm thankful because there's a young man who is a millionaire who would have been an NFL player who happened to be riding a motorcycle who was killed last night in this area. 23 years old. Praise that I'm alive but I also praise God because the woman that hit him couldn't see him. He didn't have lights on a motorbike. I praise that I wasn't her thankful that because you've got to live with that even though it wasn't her fault. Carry that. There's so much that went on in my life this week that I just had to praise God for and spent time this morning and spent time this week. That's what David's trying to tell us is, let's get him involved more in our life. Let's get him involved more in our life. With him involved, with him over everything, how can we lose? We can't. We cannot lose. And as I asked you last time to read 2 Samuel 7, verses 18 through 29, it kind of gives you an insight into David's prayer to God. Anytime we're able to read those prayers of one of the righteous men, it's so empowering to all of us. So I bring that up today because praising God is easy in the good times. How about the bad? So easy this week, I mean, things went my way. Things happened. Things that I prayed about came about. Things were so good. And I could praise God, but can I do it when things go bad? You know, as many of you came up today or you were here earlier, there was a funeral here, a big funeral procession that had, must have been somebody, either a big one or somebody important for policemen out here and memos and stuff like that. You know, as I came in, I was smiling. I was happy this morning. You know, I also, because I've done quite a few funerals and know what happens, there was sadness in the air because of a funeral. And so people are going to be going through that in this nation all day today. And can we praise when things are going bad? You know, the true measure of a person is shown in the times of stress. The true measure of most people, they show through on times when they're not really good, when things are not really going well. How do people act? When there's a riot, you see people under stress. You see how people act.

I like to do that because, as Maurice already pointed out, I'd like you to go to Job, if you will. Job, you'll turn with me to Job. Job 2. Job 2, we see the story of Job. It's an incredible story. You can read about it in chapter 1, where Job is a very rich man. God's blessed him, worked with him, and he's held God way up here. He's always held him at the highest. There was never a problem with Job, giving praise to God. But then, all of a sudden, the Sabeans, Sabeans raided and stole all the oxen and all the donkeys. He was a very wealthy farmer, per se. And right after that, another man comes and says, fire or lightning came down from heaven and killed all the sheep, the lambs wiped him out. And as this man was finishing talking, another man runs up and said that raiders have killed your servants, and they've stolen all the camels. Can you imagine hearing that news? One right after another, and then all of a sudden, another one comes and says, you know, Lord Job, Master Job, I just have a sad story to tell you that all your kids were together and a great wind came and destroyed the house and it fell down on top of them, killed all of your kids, possibly even for your grandkids. Everyone wiped out. Can you imagine receiving that information, one right after the other, and turning around and praising God? Now you turn Job 1, verse 21, as I just told you that story. He said, Then Job arose in verse 20 and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell to the ground and worshipped God. And he said, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He's praising God. What an incredible example!

So then we find out in chapter 2, verse 7, that then Job was struck with painful boils from the soul of his feet to the crown of his head. Boils. Don't know if you've ever had one or two in my entire life, but boy, they are sore. And one boil will make you miserable your entire day. People say, yeah, people say, yes, that's true. Had them. Can you imagine having them on the soul of your feet all the way up over your entire body, even places you don't even think about? Boils. And no matter what you do, how you turn, it's painful. This was Job.

And what did he do? Verse 8, he took for himself a potcher for which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of ashes. Then his wife said to him that helped meet an incredible wife that you marry for support.

Job was considered righteous, never said anything about his wife. His wife said to him, do you still hold on to your integrity? Curse God and die. She was upset at God, and she was upset at her husband for praising God and not cursing God. But he said to her, and it's interesting, a good lesson for most married men in here, he said, you speak as one of the foolish women speaks. You know what he didn't say? You foolish woman. But he said, you speak as one. Good lesson for all of us, because we all do things that it doesn't define us, but we sometimes say it and do it. But he said, you speak as one of the foolish women. Shall we indeed accept the good from God, and shall we not accept adversity? As the New Living Translation said, should we accept only good from the hand of God and never anything bad? Good thing to remember. Incredible words from an incredibly wise individual, incredibly religious person. It's interesting, he is such an example, and this is a totally different sermon down the road, that when God inspired and talked to Ezekiel in chapter 14, he listed three of the most righteous men that had ever lived, and one of those was Job.

I'd like you to turn over, if you will, now to 2 Timothy. As we talk about this, 2 Timothy 3, verse 12, everyone knows 2 Timothy, verse 3 covers at the very first, there will be perilous times at the last days, it also covers verse 16, about all scripture is given from the inspiration of God. But it says in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 12, this is us. He says, yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. So, it's not just the blessings that God pours on us, it's enduring the times that he's still with us when the day is darkest, and that because we follow him, and any of you do not believe this, you do not read the newspapers or watch the news. But those who follow Christ today if you have not been, you will be persecuted for what you believe. Because of this word, if you live by this Bible, you do it God's way, people are going to become upset with you. People are going to be upset because you're going to live by the truth, and the truth will set us free, as the scriptures say. Can we accept it? Can we accept persecution? You know, we talked about the other night in the Bible study as we went through Genesis 2. We saw that Jesus, I mean God, that's behind the word, that he actually blessed the Sabbath day and said he sanctified it. He set it apart. He made it holy. Interesting here. The Sabbath, brethren, sanctifies you. The Sabbath is not only set apart, when you keep the Sabbath, when you worship on the Sabbath, it sets you apart. It does make you different.

Crystal clear to people that you're not like them.

Not everyone likes that. Not everyone likes being different than the rest of the world. That's why God hasn't called everybody at this time. It's sometimes very hard to keep your faith and keep walking and being able to stand up when others will mock you. When others kind of snicker and laugh. Saturday? You wait, but Chuck, you're a pastor. What are you doing unloading boxes and frayed on Sunday? I'm a pastor. Saturday is my worship day. Really?

And then you can kind of see, well, I went down in their eyes by quite a bit. Because their grandma and their grandma's grandma and their grandma grandma, she kept Sunday and she was very holy. So it has to be right. Besides, man with a PhD in theology said, you were meeting on the Lord's day on Sunday. But that's not what the Bible says. And we live by the Bible. That's what you do. That's why you're called. That's what makes you a Christian. But it also, it sets you apart. It separates you because you are not like 99% of the world. And you got to be able to stand and there's not a lot of people that like being different. Wait a minute. Can I just blend in? Oh, I know. Why don't we just have services on Saturday evening like the Catholics? Then you don't have to have your day.

Yeah, you got your day Sunday free. Isn't it amazing when you go back there was no debate? There was no debate 100 years ago. Who changed the day from Saturday to Sunday? Not a bit.

It's written in all the books for the last 300 or 400 years until about 60, 70 years ago. Even later, 40 years in the last 40 years, there's been such a transition of that. Because as more and more people dug into more and more of the works of writers, they began to theologians who didn't necessarily have a bent on what day to worship. They basically just wanted to go into that word and take it apart and really see what it really says. They came up with, wow, Jesus Christ did keep the Sabbath. The first century church did keep the Sabbath, the holy days and this. Okay, well we really can't. And yeah, the mother church Catholic, they changed that. They said they changed it and everybody just adapted. But then it got to where, wow, we're not Catholics. So how do we get around this? And you see the theological world changed about 40 or 50 years ago to, well, not Sunday. Well, we are, you become so holy when God calls you that you can worship on any day. That all days are the same and they even try to pull out scriptures to make that work. So now we can worship, we worship every day, but you can choose whatever day you like.

And that works for most religions out there, but it's amazing that 99% of them say, oh well, then I choose to worship on Sunday because, why? Because everybody else is and it's handy to do that, you know? So it does set you apart. Can we stand being different from most of the known world?

Praise. Can we praise when we don't feel like it? Because I really felt good this morning. I felt on top of the world for a long time. I've been bogged down. Mary and I actually took, we were supposed to have a couple of days. We were over in Bahamas. We were actually going to get a couple of days off. It turned only half a day. But we went to this beautiful beach, secluded, and it was just beautiful. I got some of the rest I needed, and she did. And it was, you know, and so everything went easy to praise God. I get back here because I look forward to seeing all of you every Sabbath, and you know, so it was easy for me to praise this morning. But can I do it when things are not that good, when I'm being beaten up by the world? Like you turn to 1st Thessalonians with me. I'm going to go to the New Living Translation now, 1st Thessalonians, because I'm sure I'm not the only one. 1st Thessalonians 2, if you will, 1st Thessalonians 2, and verse 14, says, And then, dear brothers and sisters, you suffer pure persecution from your own countrymen. In this way, you imitated the believers in God's church in Judea, who, because of their belief in Christ Jesus, suffered from their own people, the Jews.

These were Gentiles. They suffered. This was one of his favorite churches. I mean, Thessalonians were a very spiritual church. I could go to 1st Thessalonians 3, just a chapter over. Chapter 3 and verse 2. And we sent Timothy to visit you. He is our brother and God's co-worker in proclaiming the good news of Christ. We sent him to, what? Strengthen you, to encourage you in your faith and to keep you from being shaken by the troubles you were going through. Well, guess what? We all go through things, and we need to be there to strengthen and encourage each other. That's why I'm here. I have people call me sometimes just to talk, because they've had some issues or problems, and that's good. I mean, that's why I'm there. I'm here to, you know, help you in any way that I can, and you're there to help each other. I know there's people in here. Somebody will miss from church, and they'll go and call and just encourage those people.

But you know that we are destined for such troubles. It's going to come. It's part of the calling, and that's why He wants everybody to make it into His kingdom, but He wants to call you at the best time that He believes you can make it. And so there's something unique about people that He calls who are called first fruits. There's a tenacity. There is an inner strength there that He knows you can stand outside the circle and still walk forward.

Verse 4, Even while we were with you, we warned you that troubles would soon come, and they did, as you well know. That is why when I could bear it no longer, I sent Timothy to find out whether your faith was strong. Whether your faith was strong. I was afraid that the tempter had gotten the best of you and that our work had been useless. He knew Satan was going to be working on that church because they were so strong. They were so dedicated.

I'd like you to go to 2 Corinthians, another church. 2 Corinthians 6, if you will. 2 Corinthians 6, from the New Living Translation. 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 4.

In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. That's what he told the church of Corinth. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. We have been beaten, put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights and gone without food. We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness by the Holy Spirit within us and by our true sincere love.

We faithfully preach the truth. God's power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left for defense. We serve God. Isn't that interesting? That Paul would even bring that up because they knew what boxing was then. Because most of the time, one left hand, as typical boxers do, one is always kept in to protect and the other is what you fight with. This one is to protect. He's showing that to us. He says the use of weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack. We attack something with righteousness and we have the left hand for defense.

We have the word of God for defense. So when we say something, when you say something, when somebody asks you about same-sex marriage, guess what? You need to proclaim the righteousness of God. And when they come back at you, you homophobe, you bigots, you worse names, you have the defense here. They may not live by these words, but we do. It makes us different. It's what makes us strong. That's what gives us our credibility for what we believe. Verse 8, we serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us.

We are honest, but they call us what? Impostors. They call us impostors. You fakes! You act like that I've seen you. I've seen you honking somebody just because they wouldn't go on. 1. We ignored, even though we are still known. We live close to death, but we are still alive. We have been beaten, but we have not been killed. Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything. We have what matters most, because Jesus constantly kept telling us about that prize at the end, the Kingdom of God and how great He is.

Yet, so many have a struggle. Well, yeah, but you really don't know God is there. You don't know, you know, how do I know? I don't have the faith. I don't know this. Yeah, I remember when, what is it? Thomas came in and said, no, I won't believe it till I touch him. And then he actually said, well, blessed are those who have not seen, but they still believe. There would be more people in this world today who would give everything they own at a very young age if they borrowed $100,000.

And they give that money to Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway, a company he owned. If he said, just give me that $100,000 and 30 years from now, you will be a multi-millionaire. And they give it to them. God says, don't worry about what you have now, because I'm not calling any millionaires. I'm calling billion zillionaires, because I own it all, and I want to give it to my children. It's your inheritance, he says.

How powerful is that? Jesus Christ on that last night, Passover talking to his disciples. He said, in me, you have peace. Here on earth, you will have tribulation. You're going to have trials, you're going to have sufferings. But you keep me, you'll have peace. Without me, you're not going to have peace, because you're going to have to go through these things. And you know, we're all going to find out someday, and it's going to be this amazing epiphany that guess what?

It was all worth it. It was all so worth it. It's like those people that I read about in Berkshire Hathaway when I read some of Warren Buffett, who 40, 50 years ago gave him, I think, at the time, if I remember the story, like $20,000, which was a lot of money back in the 60s. Now, it's the same. It's like five, six million dollars, because of his investment.

So, there's people who had that, haven't made it retirement. You know how long your retirement is? Eternity! Eternity is our retirement to where we live with God, with everything for eternity. Only God can provide you with all the blessings and everything you could ever dream of for eternity. Like you turn to 1 Peter with me. 1 Peter. 1 Peter 4. Peter understood a little bit about what we go through. 1 Peter 4.

And verse 12. He said, Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. It's like, wait a minute, I'm a Christian, why should this happen? Wait a minute, I just got baptized! What's...

I can't walk on water. Instead, be very glad, for these trials make you partners with Christ in his sufferings. You think he didn't go through things? When he walked the earth, had to... couldn't... always had to tell the truth. Could not not tell the truth. People probably didn't want to ask him, what do you think of this? Because they wouldn't like his answer.

So you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when he is revealed to all the world. So be happy when you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you. If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, prying into other people's affairs. But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by His name. That is powerful. That is so powerful.

1 Peter 2. Go back on page. 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2 and verse 21. A little short thing. Peter always had a bad problem of opening up in his mouth. And it got him in a lot of trouble. It got him in trouble when Jesus Christ was here. But Jesus Christ knew, the Spirit in him, we're going to work out those rough kinks. We're going to work out those things. And he's going to be such a powerful force that even when he walks by, his shadow heals people. That's a pretty powerful man. That's powerful. But he says in verse 21, For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering. Just as Christ suffered for you, He is your example, and you must follow His steps. We're going down that same step.

Next to the last scripture, I'd like you to go through today. I'd like you to turn over with me in Matthew. Scripture that sometimes, I must say, can be considered a difficult scripture, unless you understand. Because it sounds a little peculiar, in a way. I think you turn to Matthew 11. Matthew 11, I'll read from the New Kingdom. Matthew 11, I'll read from the New King James. Matthew 11 and verse 12. And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. And the violent take it by force. I'm like, what? Kingdom of heaven suffers violence? And it just didn't, the structure of the sentence and everything in how it fit in the words, the context and everything else, because I'm reading before and after. I'm just trying to say, how in the world did that? Does He say that? And the violent take it by force. Violent don't, they don't take the kingdom of God by force. Then I had to go back to the original translation. Because any time something doesn't fit, as Johnnie Cochran says, then yeah, it must have quit. Okay? Well, so I had to look at this.

And I went and looked in the original, pulled it from my, from the original Greek. But then I found that actually the New Living Translation translated it, just like the Greek, from the original Greek. So I want to read from you here, so you can understand what the Scripture means in the violent, what He's talking about the violent take it by force. It says in verse 12, in Matthew 11 and verse 12, it's the New Living Translation, and from the time John the Baptist began preaching until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing. The kingdom of God is going to go. It's going to take place. It's marching forward. The kingdom of God will be here on this earth when Jesus Christ returned. Nobody can stop it. Millions have tried to kill it. Stomp it out, but it's going to happen. And it says, and violent people are attacking it. So I hope you understand that people are hostile. What do you say in Romans 8? The carnal mind is enmity, hostility towards God. And if you're God's, guess what? If you say you're God's people, you follow this book, and you follow Him, and you put your trust, and you cannot help but praise Him when things go bad, it's going to take a lot of people off. Brethren, we live in a hostile territory.

We, as you want to look at it, we live behind enemy lines because this nation is getting rid of Christianity and those who truly want to follow Christ. It's happening. And anyone who is 50 years or older, sitting out there today, realizes what it was like 30, 40 years ago. In the newspapers, in conversation, the Bible was referenced so often. It was a part. Your family, even TV shows, I mean, you would have this stuff.

Look what's happening. They don't want you to say it because it can make people feel uncomfortable, right? Uncomfortable.

You know, only the Spirit of God can impart to the human Spirit the knowledge of the holiness, the mercy, and the kindness of God. Can we understand that? That is why so many do not understand it. Can we see? Only the Spirit of God can impart to the human Spirit the knowledge of not only the holiness, but the mercy and the kindness and the grace of God. And that's how we can praise Him because it's not in us naturally to do that. It's in us naturally just to take care of ourselves and think about ourselves where Christ came and set the example that we think about others.

How wonderful is that?

You know, praising God requires faith. You must realize that. Praising God, brethren, is faith. Praising God is faith. Do we understand that? But people mock it. Supposedly, the intelligent people on this planet, they don't need God and they don't recognize God. And in their mind, they just evolve from the scum of the water.

That requires a lot more faith than mine in scum of water than a great creator who not only told us about himself, he actually told us who he was and how to worship him and how to live. That's why many of you have heard the little story about the little boy sitting there on the park bench, a little boy about eight or nine years old, and he's reading the Bible. And there's an older man, a very educated, sitting at the other end of the bench. And the little boy goes, praise, hallelujah, hallelujah! God is so great. And he looks over and he says, what's wrong with you? And he said, I was just reading in his book how the Israelites were slaves and Moses brought them through the desert and took them to the Red Sea, and God parted the Red Sea, and they were able to escape and survive.

And God saved them. Hallelujah, praise God. And he goes, son, young man, I've been over there and looked at the Red Sea. He said, you can't believe that Bible's not correct. He said, because there are places where the Red Sea, where they cross, it was only six inches deep. And you believe he parted the Red Sea. He said, doesn't make sense, does it? The boy looks back, he should be quiet, goes back to opening up the Bible. Starts reading it again, and all of a sudden, he gets praise, hallelujah! And he said, what's that? He goes, God drowned the whole army in six inches of water.

Brethren, faith, faith helps erase fear, doesn't it? Faith helps erase fear. But godly faith displaces fear. Can we understand? Godly fear displaces. It doesn't erase, it comes back, it takes its place. WD-40. Water displacement. You spray WD-40, guess what? Water does.

When you put godly faith into your life, it displaces that fear. It takes away fear because somebody's in jail. Perfect love.

Last verse, if you will, turn with me. Before we end today, I'd like you to turn to Acts 14. As we end the sermon today, very powerful instruction to the church. Acts 14, verse 21 and 22. And this is talking about Paul as they were making the travel there. And verse 21. And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith. Faith. And saying to them, what? We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. And if I can say anything, praise God.

Praise God that we will enter the kingdom of God.

Is untested faith really faith? See, David knew God through thick and through thin. He not only knew God, he praised God. Can we have that same mindset even when things aren't going too well? Rather than we will face persecution, you will face opposition. You will be mocked. You will be made fun of because you are different because you follow God. That's the facts.

But on the other side, the rewards are out of this world. Literally out of this world.

To what degree we will face persecution? That's out of our hands. It's in the hands of your Father and your loving Savior and brother, Jesus Christ. Like Christ, we will be tested and we will be tempted.

But a faith that can't be tested, brethren, can be trusted. If you get nothing else from this sermon, a faith that can't be tested can't be trusted. We need that. There is an African proverb, and so fits, been around for thousands of years. And I like it because it said, Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.

God's called in this room spiritual sailors, and He doesn't always give us smooth seas. Okay?

But all He asks us to do is forge a hit. And go through it with Him because He will never leave us nor forsake us. He's there every step of the way when it's good, when it's bad, when people love you, when people hate you. He is the reason you're here. He is the reason that we do what we do. There's good days ahead, brethren. There's dark days ahead. There's some rough seas. We have the opportunity to be like Job's wife and curse God and die. Or we can channel King David and say, My mouth will praise my God forever and ever and ever. Hallelujah.

Thank you.