Three Words to Get You Through

Pastor Corey delivers his weekly message titled "Three Words to Get You Through"

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

So I want to give you three words to get you through. Before we do that, let's read this passage of scripture and let's stand together in honor of the reading of God's word, Psalm 119, verses 33 through 37. The Bible says here, teach me, Lord, the way of your decrees. Have you ever stopped and thought about it? That God teaches us his ways through circumstances? Everything in life as a Christian shouldn't be wasted. In other words, everything should be taken advantage of in a positive way, that you should glean something from it. You should milk that for all it's worth, be it a hardship or not. Teach me, Lord, the ways of your decrees that I may follow it to the end. To the end. All the days that I live, that I may follow it to the end. Give me understanding so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Again, going back to living our lives. Man, we could just devote ourselves to living life in a selfish way, me, myself, and I, or as Christians, we can decide to do it God's way, and we get what God can give us through that situation. Turn my eyes away from worthless things, preserve my life according to your word. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the truth of your word. And as I share the three things that help me, three truths, I pray that it would help our people, your people. And I prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. So notice in these verses that I gave you, it's all about God's word. So I want to give you three things. Here's the first word that helps me get through difficult times. Truth. A defining word. Three defining words I want to give you. One is truth. If you look at verses 33 through 37, it talks about decrees. It talks about statutes. The same thing in verses 1 through 16 that we read a few weeks ago. He says, direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. Turn my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gains. Preserve my life according to your word. So truth. The only way I can get through the nuttiness and the craziness of this life is to be grounded in truth. Listen, can I say this? Well, I'm going to. But I say this with all due respect, and you know me. You know I'm not one of these guys that that believes that everything that's not in the Bible is evil. You know, I don't believe that that what that that I believe that Facebook and communication and and the internet and modern technology can be used for good, right? But there's a lot of evil there too, correct? And let me just say to you, Facebook is not the place you go to find truth. Twitter's not the place you go to find truth. Now, is there truth sometimes being told there? Yes, because you're on it. We're on it. A lot of other people are on it who are truth tellers, but you don't always find it there. TikTok. TikTok reminds me of a game that my brother and I played, and I was always ticking and talking on him. TikTok. Um Snapchat, is that still a thing now? Okay. What else? What else they have? Uh uh Instagram, right? I mean, on and on and on. And then they got all kinds of all kinds of other stuff. I'm I I'll tell you. I here's a dirty little secret about me. Ready? I gotta watch it because I'm starting to get addicted to TikTok videos. Now, I don't I don't have a TikTok account, I wouldn't know where to go to find one. But on Facebook you can see those sometimes. Now here, but here's the negative. Let's say you see a TikTok video and you click on it and it's it's something funny. It's it's okay, you know. It's uh some of you have made TikTok videos, and uh, they they're hilarious sometimes. And and and so you look at one of those, and then you're like, well, I want more of that, and then you scroll. Well, then the next one can be a perverse TikTok. Right? So I'm watching some of these videos, and there are some people, there's some couples that make TikTok videos about marriage. Yeah. Please don't get your marriage advice from them. And I watch some of this stuff, and I'm like, nope, that's wrong. That's wrong, that's wrong. Look, have you ever listened to music? Do this as a Christian. Just do this. Listen to music. Doesn't matter what kind of music you're listening to, listen to it and just apply God's truth to it. And man, you can take apart a song in a second. Just quit. You know what I end up doing sometimes? About two years ago, I was listening to a country station while I was fishing by myself. And I just caught myself listening to the music and going, no, lie, lie, lie, oh, big fish, but that's a lie. I'm talking to myself and I'm listening to the song. Then the next song comes on. That's the good stuff. No, it ain't the good stuff. No, no, no, that's not the good stuff. Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. What am I trying to say today? What I'm trying to tell you is this is that the world is full of lies and it's everywhere. And if you base your life on that and you get your information about life from there, and if you let that influence what you believe, you're gonna believe a lie. And the only thing you can trust in this world is the truth of God's word. And so when so as times get crazy and get crazier, I just rely on the truth of God's word. Not political affiliation, not anything like that. Truth. Truth. Truth. Truth. Look, you know, I want to be careful not to criticize people who do good. And there are a lot of celebrities, Christian celebrities that we love and we appreciate. And they're Christians and they love the Lord and and they do good. But let me just tell you that, you know, just because Tim Tebow said it doesn't make it truth, just because Drew Brees said it doesn't make it truth, just because Bobby Bowden said it doesn't make it truth, just because Corey Sheremy said it doesn't make it truth. It's gotta be scrutinized what we say through the Word of God. It does. And it's God's truth that matters. Look at what John 17, 14 through 17 says. This is Jesus' high priestly prayer, and he's praying for those who are yet to be born. He's praying for you and me. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Then look at what Jesus says. He says this, he says, He's praying to the Father. It's the high priestly prayer of Jesus. Boy, go read John 17, and you want to see the heart of Jesus for his people, you'll see it. And he says, Sanctify them, cleanse them, set them apart by the truth. What is the truth? He tells us, your word is truth. Sanctify them, set them apart. Listen, if you live your life by the truth, you're not gonna be like everybody else. You're just not. It's not that you're better, but you follow the truth of God's word and you're gonna live your life differently. So truth. John 14, 6 says this. You know, it's a very, very familiar verse that I quote all the time. Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That's the truth. There aren't many ways to God, there's one way to God, and it's Jesus. And then Matthew 24, 35 says this heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. Never pass away. The philosophies of this world will come and go. The TikTokers of this world will come and go. The twits of this world will come and go. Those are people who tweet. They'll come and go, but God's word will last forever. A second word I want to give you. It goes along with that. When you follow truth, this is the natural progression. It's the word obey. It's the word obey. Isn't there an old gospel song we used to sing, an old hymn, trust and obey? For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. See, here's the thing. You can know truth in your head, and you can even know it in your heart. But man, it's got to get to your feet and to your hands. It's got to be something you practice. It's got to be something you live out. You can't have exceptions when it comes to the truth. In other words, you can't say, well, you know, I know that everybody should forgive, and I know people should forgive me, but you have no idea how bad I was wrong, and I have a right to hold it against you. It's amazing how we personalize our own sin and make it okay, right? So obey. You'll never regret in times of crisis, but even more so, I think, in times of plenty and when things are really going well, you'll never regret obeying God, doing what the truth says. Let me give you a few scriptures here. James 2.5, just to emphasize the point. Jesus' mother said, Mary said to the servants at the wedding of Cana, whatever he tells you to do, just do it. Just do it. I don't know if you remember years ago, Nike, their slogan was just do it. They didn't come up with that. Mary did. Whatever he tells you to do, you just do it. You do it. You know, people come and say, Pastor, you know, this is what God's leading me to do, and it's consistent with his word, and this is what I'm gonna do, should I do it? You know my answer to them is it's not a long counseling session, is do it. If he says do it, you do it. You say, Well, how do I know what he says? His word, his truth. You say, what are you talking about? Well, let me well let's go to 1 Samuel 15, 22. The story of Samuel, I mean, of Saul who was told to annihilate the Amalekites and not to take any spoils from them. In other words, to kill the oxen, to destroy everything. And Saul decided that he knew better than the prophet of God, and he knew better than God. And so he was going to keep some of the animals as plunder, as spoils to the to the winner of the little skirmish and war. And God sent Samuel, the prophet, to confront him about that. And he says here, well, and then Saul said said to Samuel, he saw Samuel, oh, the prophet of the Lord is here. Welcome, come on in. And Samuel said, You have disobeyed God. And Saul said, What are you talking about? He goes, I've done everything that God said to do. And he goes, No, you haven't. He goes, I hear the bleeding of the sheep. What's that that I hear back there? Oh, oh, Samuel, it's all right. We were gonna keep the sheep and and the oxen and all that. We're gonna have a great worship service where we're gonna sacrifice them to the Lord. Sounds good, right? But that's not what God told them to do. And then Samuel replied, Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and in sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. In other words, Samuel said, God doesn't need those animals, he doesn't need the fat of rams. He doesn't need what he needs, Saul, is your complete obedience. To obey is better than the sacrifice. Well, I'm just coming to church today because it's my duty, but yet you live ungodly all week long. What God wants for you is he wants, yes, yes, he wants you to come to church, but he wants you to obey him and to do what he says. That's what he wants from me. And then notice this James 4, 17. It's a passage of scripture that is often overlooked. But here's what it says if anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them. It is sin for them. In other words, we call it sins of commission, sins of omission. So sins are commission, things that you do, sins of omission or things that you should do, but you don't. And that's what the Bible is talking about here. If anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them. Y'all obedience is the way to go. I've never regretted obeying God. Ever. Man, the blessings that come, the peace that comes, the joy that comes with obedience. That's amazing. You know, let's just talk for a moment in obedience for something that we can all identify with. You've ever been in a situation as a Christian and you felt the need to give what you had in your purse or in your wallet? Does that ever happen to you where God said give everything you got? That's why I don't carry my wallet to church no more. Uh-uh.

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You got me a few times, you didn't give me.

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No. No. Because then God will say, that's all right. I'm gonna take what you got and give it, you know. You He'll get it some kind of way. But no, but you haven't you ever been in that situation where, you know, you felt the need, man, I've got to give what I've got. And you give it. And then for maybe a second, somewhere you think, man, I needed that money. But then you realize, no, no, I obeyed. And you know what happens? You never miss it. You just never do. I've never missed it. When when I've given over and above, when the Lord's impressed upon me to do something like that. Never. Never missed a thing that we've given away. So obedience. That's just one small area. Obedience. It's just awesome. Let me give you one last word. So there's truth, there's obedience. But listen. Humility. It's tough for any human being to teach or preach on humility. Because it's not easy to accomplish, and when you do accomplish it, you can't tell anybody. Right? Coach, I just want you to know, man, I had a great week this week, man. I was so humble, I'm proud of it. Huh? What? No. But humility is the position of one's heart and spirit before God. You recognize who you are under him. And no matter how God may have blessed you on this earth, you're not better than anybody else. When it comes to the end of life, as we've been studying in our men's Bible study on Wednesday, lately we were talking about Ecclesiastes and Solomon and what Solomon learned. And he learned, you know, as the wealthiest man in the world at the time, and the wisest man. He had it all. He had all the pleasures. He had all the wisdom. He had it all. And outside of God, none of it made him happy. And he said, you know, in the end, it doesn't matter if you're Solomon the king and the wealthiest man on the face of the earth or the poorest man. When you die, you all are equal. Doesn't matter. Meaningless, meaningless, he said, life without God. And so I think you've got to start there. That your life without Christ is nothing. And say, well, I work for what I have. Sure, you did. Absolutely. But who gave you the health? Who gave you the contacts to be able to connect and get into that job that you're in? Well, I have a work ethic. Sure. That's great. And that's awesome. And God will honor that in your life. That's good. You work as unto the Lord. But you know what? It could all be taken away from you in a second. You're not the master of your universe. As Tony Evans says in his book, uh, on No More Excuses that we're studying with the men on Wednesday night, he says this. He goes, you know, people think we live in an open universe, but we don't. We live in a closed universe. You say, well, what does he mean by that? He means this. An open universe says, you are the author of your destiny, and that you have all the answers, and that, and that, you know, uh, you control it. But in a closed universe, you don't. Because none of us have control of the fact that we all are going to die. Well, that'll encourage you, right? We we're not in control of that. The Bible says it's appointed for men to die once, and after this the judgment. So we have an appointment day to go home, to be with the Lord as Christians. None of us know when that is. None of us know how it's gonna come. And a lot of us worry about how it's gonna happen. Why do you worry about it? I worry about it sometimes. Why do we worry about it? We shouldn't worry about it because we have no control over it. We're we live in a closed universe. There are laws, spiritual laws that are written out before us and that God has instituted, and they will come to pass. And so that ought to create in you, in me, a spirit of humility. I'm not in control of this thing. God is saying, Well, I'm in control of my house. You only think you are. Uh, you young couples. Hmm. Y'all were in you thought y'all were in control of your house, huh, Jacob and and Kaylee, you for a while. And then this little booger showed up, right? Now he's in control. And it don't stop. Same thing for you, right? And when I say that, I'm not being not trying to be negative. I'm just saying that you don't control anything. Miss Penny came to get in her car on Friday. We assume when we get in our car and we turn the key that it's gonna work, right? Well, her car is not working. We don't know what's wrong with it. We gotta take it to the shop tomorrow. Gotta get it towed. It's broke down. We're not in charge of anything. So that ought to create a spirit of humility within us. Say, you know what? The gift of eternal life is something that I had no control over. I couldn't earn it. I couldn't gain it. It was a free gift because of the unbelievable price that Jesus paid for me. Look at what James 4.10 says. Give you just a few passages here. James 4.10. Humble yourselves before the Lord. What happens when you humble yourself before the Lord? He will lift you up. And you know what happens when that? He lifts you up, not so that you can go, look at me, everybody, but you're constantly pointing it to him. You're saying, no, no, no, no. He deserves all the glory. Philippians 2, verses 3 and 4. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interest, but each of you to the interest of the others. And in Proverbs 11, 2 says this. But with humility comes wisdom. Humility comes wisdom. You know, I think there's not a day that goes by. You know, maybe here and there, but it seems like, because I've opened my mind to it, almost every day, if not every day, I'm learning something I never knew about. I'm learning something new all the time. I'll give you an example of something that happened a few years ago. Now, born and raised in the Southeast, particularly here and in Georgia, and maybe in Alabama and places like that, you know something that's called boiled peanuts. Right? How many of you love boiled peanuts? How many of you don't like boiled peanuts? Okay. What's wrong with us, huh? I was born and raised in Southeast Louisiana, Cajun culture, and that culture can be quite different. And in the time that I grew up, you know, you didn't have the internet, you didn't have all of that, and so, you know, you live in your bubble in your world, and that's all you know. I was in my mid-20s. Youth pastor in Georgia. When we went with some friends to north to the North Georgia mountains, and they about caused a major accident in the vehicle we were riding because they saw a sign that says, Boiled peanuts. Everybody stopping, throwing luggage everywhere. We're falling over the seat. I'm like, what in the world? And they're like, boiled peanuts, man. So everybody gets out of the car, they want to go get boiled peanuts. They're like, have you never? I said, I never heard of boiled peanuts. What is it? It's a peanut that's boiled. Really? Taste it, man. It's the best thing. Oh man, I spit that on, I couldn't stand it. And people love it. I was 24, 25 years old when I found out of a thing called boiled peanuts. And I realized that there was a culture, even growing up in the South, that I didn't even know about. I'll tell you something else. Every little area you live has a different way of eating fried fish. You may not realize that because you eat fried fish basically one way. And you know, everybody, fish and fries, okay, yeah, got it. Fish and chips, you know, that's universal. But I'm talking about something deeper, something more cultural than that. I'll be honest. I never heard, I was 30 years old when I heard of, hey, you want some grits with that fish? I went. Who eats grits with fish? We do, right? And I love grits, and now I eat grits and fish. I like it. In South Louisiana, it's white beans and rice and fish, or red beans and rice and fish. In other places, it's something else. Everybody's got their own little thing. The point that I'm making is that I embrace these things that I learned. I just learn stuff all the time. Things that I wasn't raised to do, things that I didn't know. Doesn't mean that I'm dumb. It just means that hey, I'm learning something new. And you've got to humble yourself to want to learn something new and accept something new. I never heard of swamp cabbage until I moved here. I just thought it was cabbage that was growing in the swamp. In essence, it is. Comes from a cabbage palm. So humility. You know, your life is a whole lot easier when you allow God to just strip away the pride from your mind and your heart and your guts. And he replaces it with humility. Some of us would have so much less stress if we quit taking ourselves so seriously. Right? So the Bible says to humble yourselves before the mighty hand of God, and he will lift you up. So these are three defining words that help me get through things. God's truth. Obey it, do what it says, and be humble about it. Don't be the guy or the woman that I'm I'm this great Christian.

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Look at how I obey God's word. I can't believe they live in that way.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

God forgive me, but I had to grow through that in my life. And I had to learn that we serve a gracious and merciful God. And that no matter how horrendous someone's decisions may have been, how egregiously terrible they are. May have even committed a crime. And they may pay for the rest of their life in jail. And we need to have a little bit of humility to realize, a lot of humility, that for one reason or another, that thing didn't happen to us. I'll give you one one thing, case in point here, and then I'm then that's it. You hear the music playing, right? Case in point. Have you ever heard of someone driving drunk and killing somebody? Obviously you have, right? And there are few things in life that I despise and hate more than drunk driving. But I did it when I was 17 years old. On at least two occasions. Why didn't I end up dead in the bayou of fouche? You know, because you don't have a shoulder there, right, Larry? You go right in the water. Thank God, but why why wasn't me? Why wasn't I the one who maybe injured somebody else and spent the rest of my life in jail? I don't know the answer to that. All I know is that Jesus changed my life. And from that day forward, I had a new purpose and a new way to live. And I'm not going to allow this world and this culture to pull me away from the truth of God's word, from obeying what he says, and from walking in this life hopefully with a humble spirit. There it is. See, our culture thinks that they can stamp racism out of people's lives through laws, but you can't. It's a heart issue. I've always said this, I believe that when you get saved, if you were racist at all, if you were, if you looked at somebody else based on where they were from or the color of their skin, or the lack thereof of this or that from a different point of view, because you for whatever, if you did that, the moment you got saved, that's all gone. Instantly, God cleans it out of you and you view people differently. See, in Louisiana, we have Native Americans who uh are also French, and we have a racial slur for them. At least where I grew up, there was a particular place that most of them lived. Remember two weeks ago I told you about the man who the son-in-law bought the um the offering plate on his head and the money went everywhere? Because that man was like that. One of the reasons he was angry is because his son-in-law was one of those people, and his daughter was white or whatever you call it. Yeah. And he was angry that she had married a mixed man. I'm gonna be honest with you. You know what that told me about that man? Told me he's a religious guy, but he's a lost man. You can't have the same Jesus I got and feel that way about anybody. Anybody. At the foot of the cross, the ground is level. And that's the base of humility. And our Savior humbled himself to the point of the cross for you and me. So let's go walk in this life with truth, obedience, and let's be humble toward our fellow man. Watch the opportunities that God will give you to serve other people as a result of that. Could you stand with me? Let's pray, Heavenly Father. Thank you for your absolute amazing love. Thank you for the truth of your word. Thank you that somehow, some way, because of your spirit, we can obey you. And thank you that there's a remedy for pride. And you, through your son, are always working on our hearts, on our pride to bring about humility. So I pray for our people today that as we come to the end of this service today and we prepare for a week of living, that you would grant us strength to get through and to be strong and to live each day with purpose. Now, you may be visiting today, or you may have never given your life to Christ, and you want to do so. And I was talking about how God changes your heart from the inside out. That's how he changes you. You can't get cleaned up enough for God. But God will clean you up for him. Put your faith in him and trust him. I'll be here if you want to talk to somebody. You want to pray, this altar will be open, church. Find strength for your life this week. And I pray it all in Jesus' name as our team leads us. You let the Lord lead you. Walk out of here today with victory. Victory.