 Amen. Job chapter 1. So keep your place there. We're going to start out there this morning. So, Job chapter 1, we see a story. This is kind of the chapter in the book of Job. Job is a long book in the Bible with many chapters detailing a lot about Job's life. But basically it all starts out. We see with this, you know, the worst day, the worst day that you could possibly imagine in your life where Job basically loses everything. He loses everything. And we see this conversation between Satan and God where basically Satan says, you know, Job was a righteous man, meaning he was right with God. He wasn't perfect and without sin. Of course, we know that it doesn't mean that. But the Bible talks about Satan telling God that the only reason that God, the only reason that Job is faithful to you is because everything is going perfect for him in his life. And then, of course, we see that things don't go perfect. God allows these things to happen to Job. And it's a great example for us in our lives. But basically what I want to talk about this morning, the title of the sermon this morning, is optimism and how to be optimistic in a society where, you know, or in an environment where things don't seem to be going your way. I mean, I think that kind of applies to all of us Bible-believing Christians. How do we remain optimistic, you know, especially heading into Christmas? I think this is a good topic to study in the Bible, so we can just always remain optimistic in our lives. Now, I wouldn't call Job necessarily an optimist, alright? But I do believe that Job, especially in chapter number one, with the way he handles this, is a good lesson for us. And it's actually going to be my first point to the sermon. But basically, I want to just look this morning at no matter what the environment is around us as Bible-believing Christians, how can we remain optimistic? So I just want to give you a few points this morning to kind of get you to think about and just ponder on how you can remain optimistic when things seem to be not going your way, whether that be, you know, as a Christian in general, whether that be an individual situation that you're in in your life that's happening with maybe just a single other person or a relationship that you have or something like that. I'm going to just give you a few points this morning to just take into consideration to keep you optimistic in your Christian life. The first one I'm going to use, Job chapter one, and you look at the last couple verses of Job chapter one. The first point I want to make this morning on how to remain optimistic. And look, I don't consider Job necessarily an optimist, but he does fit the first point that I want to make this morning, which is this. The first point to remain optimistic in your Christian life is to expect nothing in your Christian life. You should expect nothing in your life in general. Look how Job handles losing everything. This is really an amazing story. The Bible is very detailed to show how much he has, how many sons, how many daughters he has, how many sheep and livestock he has. This man is a man that is full in his life, and he loses in this first chapter, and one day he loses all of those things. Just servant after servant comes to him saying, this was stolen, this was taken, all these were taken, all your children have died. Just a terrible time to even think how we would all deal with something like this, but after Job literally loses everything, nearly everything, not his own life of course. Look at verse number 21 and look what he says. The first point is that we should expect nothing in this life. Job says in verse number 21, he got this point. He understood this point. He said, naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. He said, the Lord gave, and the Lord have taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He says, all these things came from God, all my children, all my livestock, all my blessings. He's like, I didn't deserve any of those things, and the Lord decided to take those things away. And then the Bible says that Job, the last part of the book, or the last chapter, I lost my place here, he says, in all this Job sin not, nor charged God foolishly. So what the Bible is saying here is that Job, he says, these were all blessings from God, and God decided to take them away. I don't need to understand that. It's just I had nothing, I deserved nothing, is what Job was saying. He had the right perspective, so he was able to not do what? Not foolishly charge God. Because somebody that has bad things happen in their life, this definitely implies that somebody that has bad things happen in their life, and they lose faith, or they turn against God, that's a foolish thing to do, is what the Bible is saying. And Job, he didn't commit what the Bible would call that. If something bad happens to you, and you're persecuted, or maybe it's just something bad happens to you. Because look, bad things happen because we're living in a fallen world, and something bad can just happen to you just because we're living in a fallen world. And you charge God for that, I mean, you're driving yourself into sin. But Job didn't do that because he expected nothing. So the first thing you need to realize is we don't deserve anything in this life. You know, look, if we got what we deserved, we wouldn't have eternal life. We wouldn't be saved. We did not deserve that. That's why it's called grace, because we were given something that we didn't deserve. So we were already given eternal life, like the best gift the Bible says that you could possibly receive. And to think that we deserve more than that, when we didn't deserve that in the first place, is gonna lead us down a path of being depressed, basically. All right, it's gonna, look, I get it, there's worldly concerns out there. You know, there's worldly concerns out there. You know, especially, you know, men, as the Bible teaches, they're to go off and they're to support their families. They're to work hard. They're to serve their masters. You know, like they're serving Jesus Christ. There's a lot of responsibilities in this life. I get that, but we need to make sure. Turn to Matthew chapter 6. We need to make sure that, you know, those worldly concerns that we are commanded to take care of in the Bible don't turn into worldly goals, where we think that we need these things, we deserve these things. Look at Matthew chapter 6. Go to Matthew chapter 6, in your Bible. Matthew chapter 6, and look at verse number 25 of Matthew chapter 6. Look what Jesus says. So the first point in being optimistic in your life, because look, you don't want to be a negative person. All right, it'd be pretty easy looking around and being controlled by the things that are happening around you at different times in your life to, you know, just focus on negative things. But the Bible says, you know, the Bible gives us a lot of advice on how we can remain optimistic. And the first one is, realize that we deserve nothing. Look at Matthew chapter 6 and verse number 25. Look what Jesus says. He says, Therefore, I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on, is not the life more than meat and the body, and the body than raiment. So Jesus is saying, look, he's not saying, don't, you know, do anything. You're still supposed to follow what the Bible says and do what your responsibilities are according to the Word of God. But he's saying, these things are not to become your goals. These things are not going to become the most important thing. He says, Behold the follows of the air, they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them, are ye not much better than they? He's saying, if God takes care of the birds, God takes care of the animals, like, don't you think that you're better than those things? You were created in the image of God, not animals. All right? Which of you, now verse number 27 I'm going to come back to specifically on a different point. But he says, which of you by taking thought can add one cubit under his stature? He's saying, some things you can't control, is what he's saying here. And why ye take thought for raiment, consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God can close the grass, clothe the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, oh ye of little faith. He says, take no thought saying, what shall we eat, nor what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. And look at verse 33. You're saying, like, you're saying, like, look, can I work hard to provide for my family? Can I work hard to provide for my family? Can I follow biblical advice and save money? And maybe buy a home for my family and improve my family's life? No, that's not what the Bible is saying that you can't do. If you follow the Bible's advice, those things will come to you. If you're smart and you're not just doing unbiblical practices in your life, blessings will come to you. But look at verse 33. This is the trick. The trick is, it says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. The Bible is just saying here, hey, do what you're supposed to do, blessings are going to come your way, but you just got to make sure you don't put those things in front of God. And that's what we get in trouble is when we get this order wrong in our lives. Especially as Americans, you can't really say that good things won't come to you if you work hard. We can still say that in this country, that if you work hard, good things are going to come to you, but you need to make sure that those things are not the goal they are not in front of the kingdom of God, as the Bible says here. He says, take therefore no thought for the moral. For the moral shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Now it's interesting here that he compares Solomon, just a few verses before he brings up Solomon, because the very same, the very exact thing happened to Solomon. Solomon in 1 Kings chapter 3, God asked him, what do you want? You can have anything you want. Ask me and I'll give it to you, God said. And Solomon, he asked for the right things. Solomon had his heart in the right place. He asked for a wise and understanding heart. He asked for discernment to judge the people. He asked for, you know, basically he asked for wisdom so, you know, he was having respect for God's people. He wanted to do right by God's people, and he asked God for that wisdom. And God, God was so happy with his answer that he added everything to Solomon. He said, I'm going to give you all that and all the riches and all the wealth and all these things. And then what happened? Solomon ended up putting those things in front of God. And that is the, that what we have to watch for in our lives. So step one to optimism is realize that we deserve nothing. We deserve nothing. And if things come to you, don't put those in front of the kingdom of God. And that is a constant reminder. That is a constant reminder that you must make to yourself to not put any blessings that come to you in front of the kingdom of God. More on that later. But back to this, we deserve nothing. The worst thing you could ever do to someone is teach them that they are owed something that they are not. This is the opposite of what Job was. And look, the worst thing you could ever do is lie to somebody, because that's what you would be doing. You would be lying to them, teaching them that they are owed something when they are not owed that thing. I mean just think about, think about people in this world, in this country that feel like the opposite of Job. Job was like, I came here with nothing, God gave me my life and I came here naked and he's like, I guess God blessed me with all these things. He took them away and okay, he charged God not. But now imagine somebody that believes that they are owed whatever, whatever that is, material things, success, money, family, children, whatever. Now ask yourself this, somebody that thinks that they are owed all these things, are they happy people? Are they optimistic people? No, they are miserable people. If you find somebody that believes that they are owed something in this life by you or by the government or by whoever, they are miserable people. You say, but what if somebody actually does owe me something? I have a good example of this. I worked for a small company in Texas about 15 years ago and this was a small little startup company and we got paid once a month at this company. And I remember that the company was just having a lot of financial problems at the beginning of the early 2000s. There was a big crash in the economy that was happening and one month they didn't pass. They just didn't pass. And to this day I've never been paid for that month of what you say, an entire month's worth of work. Look, I was owed that but here's what the Bible teaches in 1 Corinthians 6. Just, you know, I could just be focused on that my whole life and year after year after year after that or the Bible says the best thing to do is just suffer yourself to be defrauded. Because ultimately I deserve nothing in my life. Ultimately nobody really owes me anything in this life. So look, have the mentality of Job. You came here with nothing. Anything that you possibly have is a blessing from God. It could all be taken away tomorrow and you should be able to say, God blessed me and God took it away and I guess I'm just going to leave this earth how I came in. I mean look that's a tough place to get to. That's a tough place for somebody to be. I don't know that, you know, I could react like Job reacted here after losing all those things. But look, it's a good ideal for us to shoot for. We deserve nothing in this life. And anything that we do get we need to make sure. We'll talk about that in a few minutes that we don't put those things in front of the kingdom of God. All right? So you deserve nothing. Keep that in mind. Step two, appreciate the good that you do have. Now there's some people in the Bible that were really good at this. And I'm going to focus on one person. Turn to Psalm chapter 27. David was really good at this. Okay? And look, you say, I don't think there's nothing good right now. There's nothing good going on right now. It's like everything's bad in my life right now. Guess what? You have the Lord. Because David got to the point in his life. Look if he read through Psalms. It's tough to miss this thing. Here was a man. You're like, oh, he was king and this and that and whatever. Look, here was a man who was under attack most of his life. He was being chased. People were trying to kill him. People were constantly stabbing him in the back. His own son steals the kingdom from him. I mean, this man, you can see it in, in he wrote most of the Psalms and you can just, you can feel his anguish that all these people are after him, his whole life. But you know what? He was optimistic. You're like, what? You're like, how? Here's how. Look at Psalm chapter 27. Just look at verse number one. There's so many examples in the Psalms of, of David just, just focusing on optimism and focusing on the good and the good in his life was the Lord. The good in his life was, you know, salvation. Look at verse number one. It says, the Lord is my light and my salvation. I mean, things must have just been perfect for him right now. Right? He's like, the Lord is my light and my salvation. He got up. He's got a mansion. He's got a billion friends. Everybody loves him and he's just like, I love the Lord. But keep reading. It says, whom shall I fear? Whoa, why is he, why is he worried about fearing people? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? All right? So he's saying, he's saying, look, there's that temptation. You can see the tone already in verse number one. He's saying, there's that, there's that temptation. There's that ability right now for me to be afraid of a lot of things. There's, there's that risk right now in my life for me to be fearful of many, many things. But he's saying, the Lord is the strength of my life. So I'm not going to fear those things. Then he gets into the details in verse two. He says, when the wicked, even my enemies and my foes come upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell, though in host, meaning an army, should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, and this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the, look at this, in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. He's saying, I don't care how many armies come against me, I don't care how many people try to eat up my flesh, you know what that means? Try to like murder me. He's like, people are trying to murder me, armies are coming up against me, it's just nothing but deceit and destruction. He's attempting at me. He's like, you know what? I got the house of the Lord. I can go to the Lord and I can inquire of the Lord. He's like, what, what, what, what could I fear? It's such a great example. Turn to Psalm 31. Psalm 31. Psalm 31, look at verse number one, just a few pages over in your Bible. David again, in the Lord do I put my trust. Look, look, that's it right there. Look, you can be saved today and have wavering faith that the Lord's going to take care of you in your life. All right, you can have all these expectations. Again, going back to point number one, don't expect anything in your life. But he says, in the Lord do I put my trust. Now, does that mean that like, so I'm going to put my trust in the Lord. You're like, sounds good. I'm going to put my trust in the Lord that he's going to make me a billionaire and I'm never going to have any trouble. No, you know what I'm going to do? This is what David is talking about, because David had a very difficult life, especially at specific times. Some was his own doing, but a lot, you know, was just enemies against him, enemies of the Lord actually. All right, David's enemies were God's enemies in many cases. And he's quick, he points that out many times in Psalms and in other places in the Bible. But look, here's what I'm trying to say. Here's the trust that you need to have in the Lord. The trust that you need to have in the Lord is, Lord, whatever you do is right. Lord, whatever I trust, that whatever you do, I'll be, I'm going to get everything right on my side, but whatever you do, Lord, I trust is right. That's ultimate trust in the Lord right there. Not, Lord, I trust you. I trust you as long as things are great for me. That's not trust in the Lord. That's not trust in the Lord. You know, this, you carry this kind of trust, by the way, you carry this kind of trust into your marriage and you'll have a great marriage. If you're a husband that carries this kind of trust into his marriage and you're a wife that also carries this kind of trust into her marriage, because you know what you'll do? You'll have a marriage that says, you know what, I'm going to be a biblical husband no matter what she does. And you'll have a wife that says, I'm going to be a biblical wife no matter what he does. But that's not what we do in marriages. What we do in marriages is, I'll do my part in the Bible as long as she shapes up. That's what people do. So it becomes this war of, of, you know, you didn't follow the Bible here, you didn't follow the Bible there. It's like, no, you do your part in the Bible, you do what God wants you to do, regardless of what other people do. And that's that same kind of trust that David has here in Psalm chapter 31. He's saying, Lord, I just, I trust you no matter what. Whatever you got it figured out, just like Job. Are we seeing a pattern here? Look at verse 2, By thou my near to me, deliver me speedily, Be thou my strong rock for an house of defense to save me, For thou art my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for thy namesake, lead me and guide me. Pull me out of thy net that they have laid privily for me, for thou art mine strength. Into thine hand I commit my spirit, thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. I have hated them that regard lying vanities. You know what he's saying? You know, we're talking about, we're talking about people that love lying. We're talking about people that just love deceit here. But I trust in the Lord. He's like, people are just lying about me. They love lying. They love attacking me. But how do I get through that? I just trust in the Lord. Look at verse, look at verse number just for sake of time. Verse number 11, I was a reproach amongst all my enemies. Like they despise me. People just despise him. They hate him. But especially among my neighbors and a fear to my acquaintance that they did see me without fled from me. That they, they that did see me without fled from me. Saying, I have, there's times in his life he's saying nobody wanted to have anything to do with me. He's like, even my neighbors were afraid to be close to me. Because I was so, he was such a dangerous person to other people. Nobody wanted to stand up for him. Nobody, I mean I am forgotten as a dead man out of mine. I am like a broken vessel. Talk about bad times. He's saying nobody wants to have anything to do with me for fear that they will also be destroyed. I mean everybody thought like this guy is on the way out. This guy, this is the losing side. This is the losing side. But look at verse 14. But I trusted in the Lord and said, thou art my God. And through all this, I could just keep reading to you verse after verse after verse. Through all this in verse 21 he says, blessed be the Lord. Freya showed me his marvelous kindness in a strong city. Verse 23, O love the Lord all ye as saints. For the Lord preserveeth the faithful and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart all ye that hope in the Lord. So I mean there's a good lesson here that says, you know, basically the more you can endure, the stronger your faith will become. You know, it is what you're seeing with David here. But you know, look, sometimes I wonder, you know, sometimes I wonder if the Lord counts for anything with people. Because ultimately we're talking about appreciating the good things in your life and you will always have the Lord. That is a constant in your life. I don't think that we can compare any of our lives today with what Job went through or what David is going through here. And David's faith just got stronger and stronger and stronger through those times. You say, I lost everything. I lost all my sheep. I lost all my possessions. But you always have the Lord. You always have that. And that is really all that any of us need. Look, this alone was enough for David. The fact that he had the Lord. That was his ultimate fall back strength position. But look, you know, I suppose there's just too many other things. You know, this is what we see, you know, especially in our country and our society today. There's too many other things for people to focus on. They forget the Lord because they did what? They put things in front of the Kingdom of God. They put those things in front of the Kingdom of God. But look, folks, there's, we might not know them, but there are many Christians who will not receive much good in this life in the past and even today. You know, one thing that going to the nursing home on Thursday did, you know, on a number of different levels, one thing it did for me, and I brought this up to a couple of the guys yesterday, but one thing that it did is it really gives you some perspective. It really gives you some perspective on that things. I talked to one man there was my longest conversation there. I talked to him for nearly an hour and he wasn't even, if he was 60, I'd be surprised. If he was 60 years old, I would have been surprised. You say, why is he laid up in a nursing home? Well, he got in a motorcycle accident and he got hit by a drunk driver, sharp as a tack up here, but broken in his body. And I could see, as I spoke to him, I could see in his eyes, you know, just the, you know, kind of the sadness that, you know, of his situation that he was in, and, you know, kind of maybe, if you want to think of it this way, the hand that he was dealt in his life. But guess what, you know, it's a pretty good day when you get saved no matter what your situation is in your life. But it gives, it gives, it gives us perspective in our lives that maybe we should, you know, we always have the Lord, first of all, no matter how broken we are, we always have the Lord. But you know what, it kind of gave me some perspective as I walked out of there being like, you know what, I'm glad I can walk. I'm glad when I go soul-winning Saturday morning that I can walk down the street. You know what, that's something that I take for granted. That's something, our health is something that we take for granted. But you know what I even told him? I turned to Luke chapter 14. You know what, he even told him as far as his life went and his Christian life going forward, even though he might not be this person that can get up, walk around and do all the things that a lot of other people can do. You know what, the disciples didn't have that great of a life either. As a matter of fact, the disciples, anything that they actually had in their lives before they met Jesus, they gave it all up. They walked away from all of it. Jesus actually demanded it. Look at verse 33 of Luke 14. He says, so likewise, and Jesus went into a lot of detail before this verse, but he says, so likewise, whosoever he be one of you that forsakeeth not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. And that's what these men did. They walked away from everything. Anything good, their businesses, they left family behind and they just went and they just followed Jesus. But look, this right here is why it's so hard to make disciples today. It's hard to get people saved for this reason, but it's also hard to make disciples today because people, there's just too much other stuff that gets in the way. You're like, okay, you're saved now and you know, what can you do with your life? Well, you know, you can't have that stuff in front of the kingdom of God. Because if you love the stuff more than the kingdom of God, especially if you're saved, it's just like, what do I care that other people are saved? That the stuff is more important. You know, this is why we need to appreciate the good, but again, don't let it get in the front. Don't let it get in the front. Second Corinthians chapter four and verse number eight, I'll just read it to you. This was the life of the disciples. This is what I explained to this man in the home. He says, you know, the disciples, they gave up everything. They did not have a good life as we would look at it from, you know, an American perspective. And most of them died miserable deaths because they followed Jesus. Not because they were saved, because what they did in their lives, because they always had, because, so that shows you that, look, always having the kingdom of God in front means that a lot of times those other things are going to suffer. So look, it's good to have a job. It's good and to be thankful for that job. Appreciate that good. Appreciate those blessings, but that can never be the front. And actually having the kingdom of God in front all the time may make all these blessings suffer at some point, because they're not the point. The point is the kingdom of God. And that's what the disciples did right. They always kept the kingdom of God in front. They walked away from all those other things and they took it all the way to the end, most of them. Second Corinthians chapter 4, Paul explained this, he says in verse 8, we're troubled on every side. He's writing to the church here, yet not distressed. He's like, we're not depressed. He's like, we're optimistic. He's like, we're perplexed but not in despair. Persecuted but not forsaken. Cast down but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. That the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our body. He's saying, it's just those things just aren't the important thing. He's like, we're not beaten down because none of that stuff matters, even our own bodies. It doesn't matter. What matters is that Jesus Christ is manifest or shown in what we do, is what Paul is saying. But he's like, that's causing us a lot of distress. That's causing us a lot of trouble. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. He's just saying, look, there's going to be some blessings. There will be some blessings in your life but they may go away, especially if you keep the kingdom of God in front. But that's what you have to do and not be distressed about it. First thing you need to do is you need to realize that you deserve nothing in this life. You deserve nothing in this life. And second of all, you know, we need to keep things in perspective and realize that, you know, appreciate the good but don't put the good in front. That's point number two. How about this one? Turn to James chapter one. James chapter one. How to be optimistic. How to be optimistic in this life that we're living today. So appreciate the good. Fix the bad that you can. Turn to James chapter one. Look at verse number fifteen. Fix the bad that you can. What's the bad that you can fix? What am I talking about? Here's the bad that you can fix yourself. That's the bad that you can fix. Anything that's within your wheelhouse. Fix the bad that you can yourself. If you're a husband, if you're a father, your family. That's your wheelhouse. Fix the bad. Get sin out of your life because guess what? You know what sin's going to cause you in your life? It's going to cause you despair and trouble. Here's one that you don't hear a lot about but you know, sin, now that you're saved, sin can't spiritually kill you. The wages of sin is death. You're never going to get that second death, that spiritual death. But did you know that if you're saved, sin can still physically kill you. Sin can shorten your life either through the chastisement of God or just the consequences of sin. You know the thing that that just drives me nuts is just about every single news story of something horrible happening to somebody. The sin factor is completely ignored. It's just like it's like we're you know we're in the side of that just they don't want to see sin. Somebody is you know horribly killed or some wicked thing happens to somebody from a wicked person but the sin factor is completely ignored whether it be the lifestyle of the people, the actions that they were taken. But the Bible says that you know some actions, some sins will lead to literal death. There's sins, I mean fornication is a sin against your own body the Bible says. You know it could lead to disease or just other things of just physical death. The Bible says if you're you know into alcohol and drugs you just have wounds without cause maybe wounding you to death by the way. But the sin factor is completely ignored. This is a problem with feminism here. Feminism that what they do just feminism in a nutshell just pushes all this sin on young ladies especially today. They just push them into all this sin today whether it be fornication, alcohol and but here's the thing there's plenty of evil reprobates out there that are waiting to take advantage and prey on people. And guess what? That percentage and that number of evil reprobates is growing by the day. So obviously somebody that goes out and and is you know living a sinful lifestyle you know doesn't need to be doesn't need to be murdered. We get that but I mean we shouldn't just ignore the sin factor which is what we do today. We completely ignore sin. So we need to get sin out of our lives. Sin is important to get out of our lives. You want to be optimistic? Many times people are depressed and they're down because of the things that they're doing. Because of the things that they're doing to themselves, the lifestyle they're living where they're hurting other people and their conscience is bothering them. We need to do what we can do to fix the bad in our lives get the sin out of our lives. Turn to Matthew chapter 6 and look at verse number 27 again. We just looked at Matthew chapter 26 but basically what I'm trying to get you to understand is fix the things that you can fix. The Bible says you can't add one cubit to your stature in Matthew 6, 27 but that's something you can't fix. You know you can't fix some things but fix the things that you can is what I'm trying to get you to understand. But look you can't fix all the bad. You can't fix all the bad. There's some things that you have nothing to do with. You just can't fix those things. I mean you just look at our own look at our own culture today. You can't. You know we talk a lot about these problems. We talk about a lot about the way things are going in this country. I mean literally like look I mean we just went through an End Times prophecy sermon series for a few weeks. I don't know when the End Times are going to be. We know we're in the last days but I don't know when the End Times are going to be. I don't know when we're going to start Daniel's 70th week but here's what I do know. Here's what I do know and you know and this is kind of a depressing thought sometimes. We are we are literally witnessing in our lifetimes the fall of western civilization. We are watching it happen before our very eyes. You're like that's you know that's that's depressing. But here's the thing. There's nothing you can do about that. There's nothing we can do. Anything we can do we're doing. As long as we what keep that kingdom of God in front. You know we can we can mitigate for ourselves and our brothers and sisters in Christ. The Bible teaches us to separate. The Bible teaches us you know to protect our children from things that we see. The biggest thing that we have protecting us is the knowledge of it happening around us so we can properly separate. We can properly mitigate. We can properly instruct and teach our children the right things and not the wrong things that everyone is getting fed today. So we can definitely mitigate this knowing God's word. But as far as it just completely falling off the cliff you know we may not be able to stop that ourselves. So we fix ourselves we mitigate how the Bible tells us to mitigate separate from those things. You know not mix our light with darkness of this world. But guess what you know the biggest optimist was in the Bible. Turn to Matthew chapter 26. It was Jesus. Jesus was an optimist. You think the Roman society was great where Jesus was. We'll get to that in a second but turn to Matthew chapter 26. Let me just give you two passages in the Bible that show you that Jesus kept things in the proper perspective. Jesus had things in the right context and he always kept his focus on the kingdom of God. That was what Jesus I mean of course he is God. Look at verse 26 or verse 47 of Matthew 26. This is right where Jesus gets he's getting arrested. Judas comes and brings the the soldiers to arrest Jesus after he betrayed him. It says while yet spake low Judas one of the twelve came and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now he that betrayed him this is Judas gave him gave them a sign saying hoops however I shall kiss the same as he hold him fast. He's like I'm going to identify Jesus to you by I'm going to go up to him and give him a kiss. Verse 49 and fourth with he came to Jesus and said hail master and kissed him and Jesus said unto him friend wherefore art there come he's like why are you here then came they and laid hands on Jesus and took him and behold one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand and of course from other gospels we know that this is Peter so Peter he takes out and drew his sword and struck a servant of the high priest and smote off his ear then Jesus said unto him then said Jesus unto him put up again thy sword into its place for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword think is that that I cannot now pray to my father and he shall presently give me more than 12 legions of angels so Peter pulls out his sword and he I mean look is Peter's justified Peter I mean self-defense is something in the bible that's justified Peter's trying to stop something unjust from happening to Jesus he pulls out his sword and he cuts off the ear of the soldier and Jesus says put your sword away for the Jesus has two things here he has two points first of all Jesus says don't you think I can handle this if I if I wanted to handle it this way I mean I'm God he's like I could bring down the reign of heaven and take care of these you know four punks in like a millisecond and he tells you know Peter put your sword back up and then he tells Peter there are more valuable things for you to be doing in this life is what he tells Peter he tells Peter you need to keep perspective look Peter could have maybe taken out all these soldiers if all the disciples you know would have all banded together they probably could have stopped of course we know that Jesus was here for a purpose but it's very important what Jesus said he said those that take the sword shall perish by the sword look he's saying I need you to do something else I need you to do something else in this life if Peter had gone out and raised the band and started fighting the Romans you know what we wouldn't have we wouldn't have the book of Acts we wouldn't have if all the disciples took this this route we wouldn't have the New Testament today and those thousands and thousands and thousands of people and even millions of people that have been saved since that time it would not have happened maybe they would have killed a few hundred Roman soldiers big deal Jesus is saying no no no this is not the point this is not the point he's like you can do that but then you're going to die that way it's going to cost you you're like and look it wouldn't have been an unjust thing Jesus just said no I want you to spend this little bit of your mortal life that you have for something much greater for eternal benefit for thousands of people turn to Luke chapter 9 none of the disciples raised an army they never fought the Romans instead they wrote the New Testament with their lives is what these men did turn to Luke chapter 9 in Romans 8 36 Paul says we're like sheep to the slaughter they didn't go out and raise an army to fight these people that were trying to slaughter them look at Luke chapter 9 even at Peter's death at his crucifixion he didn't fight he just argued that he wouldn't be crucified upright that he'd be crucified upside down because he didn't feel righteous enough to be crucified to die the same death that his Lord and Savior died look at Luke chapter 9 look at verse 51 here's another example look Jesus was an incredible optimist verse 51 and it came to pass when the time was come that he should be received up he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem this is now before they were even in Jerusalem and sent messengers before his face and they went and entered into the village of the Samaritans to make ready for him and they did not receive him because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem when his disciples James and John saw this they said Lord we'll tell we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elias did he's saying hey just as Elijah commanded fire to come down from heaven and burned up the prophets he's like let's burn up these people that didn't accept you let's burn up these people that have rejected the Savior of the world but he turned and he rebuked them and said you know not what man or spirit year of he's like you guys are missing the complete and utter points is what he's saying is it possible if those people deserve to be burned up yeah that's possible but he's like you're missing the point here for the son of man has not come to destroy men's lives but to save them and they went to another village Jesus lived amongst Roman society at this time don't even go read about it it's so sick and twisted and perverted what the Romans were doing at this time of Jesus yet Jesus was just saying look we're here to save people like we're not here to fight these people this is why this is why it will never this is why it just irritates the living daylights out of me when people say Christians are you know by preaching the Bible that we're violent that it's going to inspire Christians have never been the violent ones Bible believing Christians Bible believing Christians have never been the violent ones because they understand that the kingdom of God is the goal not some physical battle or physical war Jesus himself talked about that just because we speak the word of God just because we say that we extremely dislike what is going on that you know people say you know we don't like where this culture's headed we don't like how these things are going we don't like the fact that we have to separate all these things and but look the bottom line is there's nothing you can do to save reprobates nothing there's nothing you can do to save unnatural people she says so what can we do focus on the good focus on the word of God we're out here we're competing for the souls of those that are not corrupted is what we're doing this I mean we're here to save people just like Jesus said we're not here to burn up some town like God makes those decisions and when it's time for those decisions to be made God will take care of those things completely with perfect judgment it's it's literally something we don't even have to worry about we're focusing on showing the word of God showing the truth to those who are not rejected to those who still have a chance I look at it like this it's a race it's a competition Paul said we persuade men that's what we're doing we're out here we're trying to the culture is falling civilization is falling we're out here trying to persuade men and we have the advantage because all men have a conscience all human beings have a conscience that has to be undone that conscience has to be undone you can see it in kids out soul winning you'll see that that's why it's so easy to get children saved that's so easy when you see a 10, 11, 12 year old kid that it's really just easy to get them saved because they're not corrupted by the things that are going on in this fall of our civilization but it's a race to get people the truth that is our focus to save them before Satan and his minions can get to them so look focus on the good focus on the good because that's what we're supposed to do so look folks turn to Matthew chapter 16 to close we have our way we're lucky we're blessed I should say we have our way we have our protection and Jesus tells us this in Matthew 16 verse 18 just as just as David said that you know I have the house of God to go to that's my fortress that's my protection I always have the Lord Matthew 16 18 the Bible says and I also say unto you that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it look a Bible based church with Christ at the head this is our temple this is our fortress today if we have that we can succeed in any environment because the gates of hell will not prevail against Christ's church we have our marching orders as we're in the church so we don't have to really be pessimistic about how bad the world gets because we know what we are supposed to be doing we just keep doing what we are supposed to do that's kind of the nice thing about the Christian life it may be difficult at times but it is not hard to understand it is easy so look how to be an optimist you I all of us we deserve nothing understand that just like Job we deserve nothing appreciate those bonuses in your life appreciate those blessings what are the blessings in your life anything that Job lost any material thing any family that you have all of your children these are blessings that God has for you right now but don't put them first don't put them first and look that's every single one of us including myself needs to remind ourselves of that every single day because we're out there in this world and especially the men are out there in this world and we're fighting to support our families and we're fighting to do the right things and we're out there and we're working hard as the Bible says that we should do and you know in the environment that we have in this country if you do those things that you know you'll have some blessings but don't be Solomon and put those things in front of the kingdom of God and then focus on fixing ourselves and obeying God you know we always have and by the way even if all those blessings go away even if all those blessings go away as I saw on Thursday that you know there's some there's some people that they're in some pretty bad condition even in our country they're in some bad health conditions I mean think about your health goes away what really else matters you know other than the Lord at that point I mean the Lord is always your fall back position just like we saw with David and then focus look focus on fixing ourselves God forbid that you're pessimistic and you're down and you're depressed in your life because of some sin that you're into I mean how how silly would it be that you can't be optimistic and you can't be a joyful person in your life because you're hanging on to some sin that that is dragging you down and look if you're saved you're done getting away with stuff so get rid of it get rid of that sin let it go and then you can focus on just like obeying God and just moving forward for the kingdom of God all this other stuff that we see everywhere God God is on the throne folks all this other stuff you know you're just like man we're a gazing stock to the world and man look at I don't even know it seems like it's coming out on a weekly basis at this point things are getting worse and worse and stupider and stupider and wicketer and wicketer every single day but here's the thing God's on the throne no matter how it gets and God will take care of those things our mission is always the same always the same take care of ourselves get that sin out of our life and let's get out there let's focus on the Lord and let's save the lost you know and you know if you can't get optimistic go out and preach the gospel to somebody and lead someone from death to life and tell me that that doesn't bring you joy in your life because like you're like I don't you know will that bring yeah that will bring you joy because that is literally what you're supposed to be doing with your life so many people will walk through their life they will never know what their purpose is you want to know what your purpose is your purpose is to preach the gospel and to lead the lost from death to life that is your purpose and just remember you don't deserve anything you always have the Lord keep things from getting in front of that watch yourself you're going to have blessings in your life everybody that I'm looking at today is going to have many it has already many many blessings in their life you can't even compare yourselves to the people some of the people that I talked about this morning but don't let those things get in front so you can always push forward for the Kingdom of God that's how you can remain optimistic no matter how things are looking around you let's bow our heads and have a word