Good morning. Thank you for being here on a Saturday morning.
Is this, this is good? It's not too, okay.
It sounds real interesting coming this way, but okay, so.
But I appreciate you guys being here. First of all, just like everybody,
I mean, we're always very grateful whenever we get invited anywhere.
And I just want to thank Pastor Webb and his family.
And actually I had a really good time with your son, Henry.
You know, if you ever get a chance to meet him, he's a good guy.
And thank you, brother Brett, for putting, you know, all this together.
I told brother Brett earlier this morning, you know, I used to be in like the investment banking and insurance.
And we used to run three day seminars.
And I was in charge of putting those things together.
It's a little bit different, but that goes into a lot of work.
So, you know, I understand, you know, I've been there where you're at.
And I know how it feels to do that.
So what I found is just, just keep your head down and just keep doing it.
There's going to be a lot of, a lot of challenges.
But thank you guys for all of that.
But let's focus there on 1 Timothy 4 and 9.
And the title of the sermon this morning is The Common Denominator.
Common Denominator.
And we're there in the, where I get the scripture from is there in 1 Timothy 4 and 9.
It says,
In conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
And then the verse I really want you guys to focus on is right there in verse 13.
It says,
And, you know, obviously this is building upon what this is.
This is the fundamental conference, right?
And, you know, actually when I got your Facebook message that said the theme was, you know,
how to level up your Christian life.
I had a very similar thought to Pastor Thompson.
I'm actually glad I didn't go in that direction.
The very first thing I thought about was the game Contra and Super Contra.
You know, brother Jolly and I were talking about up, down, up, down, left, right, left, right.
Is it B-A, B-A?
You know, and so that, you know, I like to cheat in the games because you'd get 99 lives
and you'd never die and then that way you could beat the entire game.
But that's a whole other thing.
And, you know, I just thought about that, you know,
how you would level up with cheat codes or things like that.
But in the Christian life, the way we level up is with the Word of God.
You know, that's really what we're focused on.
And so I'm glad I didn't go in that direction.
And then the second direction I was going to take it in is I was going to do a play on words
and how the Christian life can be fun and we can find joy in it.
You know, and I was going to take a whole thing and build upon the word fun as part of fundamentals.
But the more I kept thinking about it and I thought about, you know,
what are the fundamentals of the Christian life?
How do you level up in your Christian life?
I kept thinking about how, you know, the world teaches you a lot of different things
about how to be successful in life.
You know, and you've heard that now in the last couple of days.
And what they try to do is they try to find the common denominator.
And I'm not going to go into the math part.
Math has never been my strong suit.
Truly it's never been my strong suit.
I'm not just saying that, you know, it's like a self-deprecating.
I like math, but it doesn't like me.
But if you look there, you're there in a...
Go ahead and turn over to Hebrews 4.
I'm going to get ahead of you guys a little bit, but just so you can catch up with me.
But as a way of introduction, you know, the very first thing I want to just kind of remind you
in case you didn't know, the common denominator is, you know, in mathematics
is the number that is a multiple of all the denominators of a set of fractions.
And by the way, I don't like doing fractions either.
But the second definition is it's a trait or characteristic, belief,
or the like common that is shared by all members of a group.
And so what do we look for is the common denominators on how to level up your Christian life.
You know, and I look at all these guys that have come to preach before us,
you know, Pastor Thompson, Deacon Oliver Gonzalez, Pastor Roger Jimenez,
and you find the common denominators.
And even in speaking with Pastor Webb, I've never met him.
You know, we met just within the last 24 hours.
Yet there's common things that we have.
It has nothing to do with, you know, our station in life.
It has nothing to do with what race we were born into.
It has to do with the fact that we're both saved by grace.
And then we can build upon that foundation.
As a matter of fact, there's things that we've talked about that we didn't even know we had to actually...
I didn't have to ask him permission, hey, can we talk about this?
Those were common things because we're basing it on God's Word.
And so the common denominator that you find in these great men of God or these great churches,
and when I mean great men of God, I'm not just talking about the pastors that get behind a pulpit.
I'm talking about those that do the work.
They're out there in the ministry willing to sacrifice their time for the cause of Christ.
You know, the common denominator is God's Word.
And that's what we're going to focus on today is God's Word.
But, you know, I guess you could say this would be more like a maintenance sermon.
I'm not going to give you anything.
You know, I'm not coming here with no new doctrine or anything like that.
By the way, there's no new thing under the sun.
But I am going to give you some fundamentals that you can apply to your life.
You know, in the world, there's two guys that stand out to me as a young man.
And it's a negative.
So please don't...
If you've read the books, well, then, you know, I'm sorry, I've read them too.
If you've not read the books, don't read them.
You know, there's nothing that you're going to find out.
But there's a man by the name of Napoleon Hill.
I don't know.
Have you ever heard of Napoleon Hill?
And he wrote a book called Think and Grow Rich.
You know, when you're in business, these are the books that are handed to you.
Like your mentors in business tell you, hey, these are the things that you need to read.
This book was written a long time ago.
And the book, the reason I thought about it was, you know,
Napoleon Hill was a young man and he met Andrew Carnegie.
And if you don't know who Andrew Carnegie was,
he was probably the first billionaire that the U.S. ever had.
And Andrew Carnegie asked him to spend time finding basically a common denominator
of what made people rich, what made them successful, what made them, you know,
grow big businesses.
And so for 20 years, think about this, this individual spent time studying
the common denominators of 500 successful individuals
and he wanted to find the common traits.
And then he wrote this book, Think and Grow Rich, which has sold, you know,
millions of copies and things like that.
And I've read the book before, I probably don't remember half of it.
You know, I read this a long time ago.
That's telling my age, you know.
And then there was another individual by the name of Vincent Norman Peale
and he wrote The Power of Positive Thinking.
Has anybody ever read that book?
Please don't read it.
But Vincent Norman Peale was a preacher and he was trying to, you know,
tell you these common traits that you could apply from the Christian life
so that you could be successful in the world.
You know, he was basically, I guess you could say the foundation of like,
you know, your prosperity gospel, right.
As a matter of fact, if you've ever seen any clips of Donald Trump,
he said that that was his pastor.
You know, that'll just tell you something about, you know,
maybe you need to run the other direction.
But the reason I point these things out is this is what the world does.
I mean, they have the same attitude.
They want to find the common denominator,
the common traits that make people successful or that help them grow in life.
The challenge is when you're in the self-help realm
or when you're in the business realm to just be successful for that stuff,
you're going to run into the pitfalls that, you know,
there's weaknesses in your life and it's hard to overcome these things.
And then guess what? In the Christian life, it's the same way.
When you're living the Christian life, you know, you have really good days.
I mean, I was telling Pastor Webb earlier, you know, this week
that one of my favorite characters is Elijah
because sometimes you have like these great highs, you know,
these roller coasters in life, you know, these great,
you might preach a sermon or you might go out soul winning
and, you know, every door you knock is either receptive or you lead them to Christ.
And then literally within a couple of seconds or minutes or hours,
you just have like this horrible news or this just tragic thing that's happened in your life
and you just have this big down.
So what's the difference?
The difference is that we can lean on the Word of God.
The difference is that we can focus on God's Word
to find a way to overcome.
And you've already seen a lot of these verses, you know.
I mean, I hope you were paying attention to the sermons.
You know, for me, preaching is kind of a bonus.
You know, I've gone to a lot of these conferences.
I've met some of you at some of these conferences.
That's how Brother Jolly and I became friends at these conferences.
But the reason that you come to these things is to get edified.
You know, I actually enjoy being in the pews probably more than I enjoy the preaching
just because you get edified, you learn some things.
You know, these sermons that we got preached by these great men of God,
they were exciting.
You know, Pastor Thompson, for me, what stood out was that,
you know, I have to really work on resisting my besetting sin.
For me, that's a big thing.
You know, and I know he had other points,
but that's the one that I really took out.
I don't know what you took out of it.
I hope you wrote some notes or at least, you know,
maybe you can go back and review them
because I don't know if you've noticed the theme,
but it's not just showing up,
but it's actually doing the work of the Lord, right?
And, you know, Deacon Gonzalez,
the one that really stood out to me was planted in fellowship
because, you know, as you get older,
your friends get small, like your group of friends get smaller.
And so when you don't have that many friends,
it's really good to have a good group of church members that you can fellowship with.
They might not be your best friend,
but there's something sweet about going to church
and just being able to talk about the same things and edifying each other.
You know, I really enjoyed just sitting around talking to you guys,
having some good meals.
I mean, I think I've eaten more, you know,
Cincinnati chili than I probably will ever want to eat in my life,
but it's been good, but it was a lot of Cincinnati chili.
And then, you know, Pastor Jimenez,
the one thing that really stood out to me as I get older is
I want to exercise my conscience.
You know, I really, of all the things that you want to exercise for me as I get older,
I'm not so concerned about, you know, some of the other exercises as much as my conscience.
You know, because your mind takes you places you don't want to go.
Unfortunately, you know, I got saved at the age of 25,
so I've got 25 years of bad habits that I'm still trying to deal with now at 41.
And, you know, I don't know if it's happened to you, anybody who's ever lived worldly.
You know, one of the things that I hate personally,
I hate is when I'm driving down the road and it's real quiet,
and then one of the songs that I learned in my youth pops into my head.
Now I'm like trying to really sing hymns to just get that junk out of my mind.
I want to exercise my conscience. I don't want that junk in my head,
you know, just perverting and defiling.
Then you're not able to renew your mind daily.
So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to,
I have six points, but they're broken down.
The very first thing is I'm going to give you the three common denominators
in the Word of God that you want to focus on.
And then I'm just going to give you some application.
Like I said, this is not anything fancy.
This is very maintenance.
But I think these things will help you out.
And the first common denominator that I want you to just focus on is
it's the Word of God.
That is the common denominator.
And I'm not talking, you know, the Bible like people.
I'm talking about the King James for the English speaking people.
But then we also have to have a balanced view of the King James.
Because I know if you've been around long enough,
if you've followed anything in the new IFB movement
or even just in the old IFB or just in general,
there's people who can take these things to extremes.
You know, I mean, there's people that believe that the King James
is the Word of God, like the originally inspired Scriptures of God
that everything should be translated from the King James.
Well, I'm not, that's not, that's not the view we need to have.
There's also people that just, you know, they think,
oh, well, I like the King James,
but I also like to compare with other Scriptures.
No, the view that we have is that for the English speaking people,
it's the Word of God.
It's the preserved Word of God.
I don't need to go back to the Greek or the Hebrew.
As a matter of fact, I don't speak Greek or Hebrew,
so I don't need to go back to that to get edified from the Word of God.
If I spoke Greek, I'd read it in Greek.
If I spoke Hebrew, you know, then I'd read it in Hebrew.
Now, I do speak Spanish, and this is the point I want to make is,
for me, the foundation is the Word of God, the inspired Word of God.
So in Spanish, we have a version.
You know, it's not like the King James.
You know, we can actually go back and look at other versions
that have very similar strengths,
but I used the Reina Valera Gomez 2010.
You know, but what I'm talking about is,
we have to find that common denominator.
We stick to the Word of God,
the original inspired Word of God that's now being preserved.
And, you know, I mean, this is not a King James,
and this is not a historical view.
If you want to talk about it later, we can.
But there is a preserved Word of God.
There's also an attack on the Word of God,
and you need to learn that,
and you need to be able to discern that.
That's why I think these sermons that were preached were great,
because you need to be able to discern the good and the evil.
You know, I mean, I love doing that exercise with people,
when they're like, oh, I like the NIV,
and I like taking them to, you know, Acts,
and I'm like, hey, where's that verse on the baptism?
And they're like, well, I can't, what's going on?
They skip the verse, and I'm like, that's right,
because they move, remove the deity
and the salvation of Christ.
I mean, those are the attacks, right?
So the very first thing you want to look at is
the common denominator is the Word of God.
It's not the King James, it's the Word of God.
But for the English-speaking people,
it is the King James Version.
You know, if you realize, by the way,
if you know anything about that history,
the King James Version is called the King James Version
because he's the one that ordained
that the Word of God be preserved in English.
It's not like we have versions.
People just like to add that.
It's really the King James Bible,
but you know, ultimately, it's just the Bible.
It's just the Word of God.
You know, don't let those terms confuse you.
You know, we lean on God's Word.
I'm not like, I don't think,
I mean, I don't know anything about King James
other than he paid a lot of money
so that people would preserve the Word of God.
Thank God that he did that.
You know, and I know a little bit of history about it,
but you know, it doesn't really matter.
The other thing is, if you look at a lot of the churches,
especially in the Baptist movement,
they're the ones that really lean on the Word of God.
You know, this church is called Good News Baptist Church.
Why do we call it Good News?
Because what does the gospel mean?
It means good news.
You know, it's based on the Word of God.
Now, if you go to a church,
the church I serve at is called Spring Crest Baptist.
You know, a lot of churches
were also named for the regent, right?
But the common theme that you see
is that they try to lean on the Word of God.
You know, I mean, Pastor Jimenez came.
What's the name of this church?
Verity Baptist Church.
You know, it means truth, right?
Or Pastor Thompson would hear
Shore Foundation Baptist Church.
I mean, there's a reason why they're naming them like that
because they're focused on the Word of God.
You don't have to turn there.
Like I said, you're over in Hebrews.
But in Matthew 24, 35, the Bible says,
heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my words shall not pass away.
We need to really believe that.
And I don't want to get ahead of my points,
but, you know, this is truth to us.
We believe this to be actual truth.
It's not like these other books that I've mentioned
where these guys found these common denominations,
but they could be right or wrong.
This is truth.
You know, 2 Timothy 3, 16 says,
all scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be perfect, complete,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
You know, that word furnished,
if you look it up in dictionary.com,
they say it's furniture,
but the old English means, you know,
that it's fitted with the necessities,
with what is necessary.
In other words, you're complete
because you're fitted with what is necessary
to complete the job.
You know, if you're going to level up your Christian life,
you've got to look at where you're unbalanced
and you need to focus on fixing that.
And I'm not talking about your weaknesses
because I've heard, you know,
in business you hear people say,
well, don't focus on your weaknesses,
focus on your strengths,
and then other people say,
well, you need to work on your weaknesses.
What I'm talking about is
when you're looking at your spiritual,
you know, all the points
that the pastors made in the past,
the point that Pastor Webb's going to make today,
I'm really trying not to even touch,
you know, the title of your sermon
because you gave it to me.
I don't want to do that.
But the points that you're going to hear today,
even the ones that I'm going to give you,
you know, if you're lacking in one area,
this is where you need to level up.
You know, is it your prayer life?
Is it, you know, your soul winning?
But you know what it all comes back to?
The Word of God.
How do you fix your prayer life?
Hey, go look up how to pray properly.
What do I need to pray?
Don't ask for a Lamborghini.
Some people teach you to pray like that.
The Bible says that you ask, right,
and you ask in faith according to what?
His will.
Right.
Not my will,
because I'm going to tell you,
I do like, you know,
that's my favorite car is a Ferrari.
You know, in the flesh,
if I could, you know,
if I was going to do it,
I'd get a Ferrari.
But the reality is,
the Bible says it's all going to burn up.
It's all hay and stubble.
Right.
How do you overcome the flesh?
You get in the Spirit,
you get in the Word of God.
Right.
Proverbs 4.20 says,
My son,
attend to my words,
incline thine ear unto my sayings,
let them not depart from thine eyes,
keep them in the midst of thine heart,
for they are life unto those that find them,
and health to all their flesh.
Keep thy heart with all diligence,
for out of it are the issues of life.
You know, it's interesting,
my mom,
that's the verse that she's always like,
bugging me about all my life.
Proverbs 4.23,
keep thy heart with all diligence,
for out of it are the issues of life.
And you know,
what's one of the verses we use,
that we believe with our heart, right?
We confess them,
and then that's how we get saved.
Well, what does the Bible also say?
Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh.
What are you feeding your heart?
The Bible also says that the heart is wicked,
you know, desperately wicked,
who can know it?
So we've got to guard our heart,
how do you do that with the Word of God?
Proverbs 30,
you're still there in Hebrews 4,
and then we're going to be in Exodus 24,
I'm just going to, you know,
help you out so you can.
But in Proverbs 30 verse 5,
the Bible says,
Every word of God is pure.
He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him.
Add thou not unto His words,
lest He reprove thee,
and thou be found a liar.
Hey,
we want to follow men of God,
we want to follow preachers,
we want to follow soul winners
that are preaching the truth.
You know what's the thing that I hate the most?
It's, I mean,
we hate all sin,
but I actually hate lying.
That's one of the things that I really just,
I mean, I can't stand.
You know why?
Because it's deceitful.
It leads you down the wrong path.
It leads you down the wrong road.
I've told this many times in my preaching.
You know,
I was 25 when I got saved.
Thank God for His grace.
For 25 years,
I was on the road to hell.
And you know why I was on the road to hell?
It's not because I wasn't going to church.
I grew up in church.
I grew up in a Seventh-day Adventist church though,
where they preached lies to me all my life.
And you know what you,
who here,
when you find out someone's been lying to you
for a long time,
how do you feel about that?
I hate the Seventh-day Adventist cult.
I mean, I hate it with a strong passion.
People say,
you shouldn't talk about false religions.
Well, I'm going to tell you about this false religion.
Because I was on a road to hell.
And many of you,
that's how you feel, right?
I mean, you grew up
and you've been lied to all your life.
And the worst part is some of you
might have actually grown up
in a Bible-believing church
that was telling you
that it's all of works, right?
It's about how good you are
or, you know,
how much you tithe
or, you know,
how many sins you repent from.
I think that's the funniest one of all,
repenting of your sins.
Because, you know,
nobody knows all the sins that you commit.
You know, for all I know,
I know, I mean,
nobody's perfect for all I've sinned
and come short of the glory of God.
And I know I'm probably going to sin today.
I hope I haven't sinned up to now.
But at some point,
even if I don't want to,
you're going to do it.
It's not something I'm proud of.
I mean, I'm not telling you up here,
like, oh, I'm going to sin today.
But I know I'm going to sin today.
It's just part of life.
But you know how you avoid the sin?
You get into the Word of God.
Right there in,
you're there in Hebrews,
but, you know,
I'm building this up, right?
In John 1,
and these are verses you know,
but in John 1, verse 1 says,
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made
that was made.
In Him was life,
and the life was the light of men,
and the light shining in Him.
And the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehendeth it not.
We know these verses,
but do you believe these verses?
You know why the Word of God is so important?
Because the Bible tells us that it represents,
it is Jesus.
He is the Word.
And if we say that we believe in Jesus,
and that we want Him to guide our life,
and we want Him to,
you know, we want to follow Him,
well then we need to follow Him in Scripture.
In Hebrews 4, verse 12,
that's where you're at,
we know these verses,
but we love them.
It says,
for the Word of God is quick.
What does that quick mean?
It means it's made alive,
and powerful,
and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing of sunder
of soul and spirit,
and of the joint and marrow,
and is the discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart.
You know where our blood is made?
In our marrow.
I mean, if you look at the Word of God,
you see His majesty,
the way He just weaved life into us.
You know when the Bible says that
even nature shows us that,
you know, God exists?
Think about your life right now.
How many of you can control your breathing?
And what I mean by control your breathing,
like, can you stop it and just not breathe for like an hour?
Tell me what happens.
Come back to me in an hour.
How many of you can control your heartbeat?
Or your blood pumping?
Or the fact that your body is doing
what is necessary to do to keep you healthy?
You know, I know people tell you to go get
vaccinated for the Corona vaccine.
You know what?
God's already put all that in you.
But it's right here,
but it's through the Word of God.
And then by the way, you know what?
One of my favorite verses is,
Though the outward man perish,
the inward man is renewed day by day.
What's one of the things that doesn't age?
Your mind.
Now it ages if you don't focus,
if you don't train,
if you don't work it out.
But what doesn't age,
but you know what's even better?
What's one of the things that levels up
your Christian life in your mind
is when you read the Word of God.
I'm serious about that, you know.
So the very first thing is obviously
it's the Word of God.
The second common denominator though is,
now, when I first got saved,
I believed the King James.
You know, I grew up around the King James.
Even in a false religion,
the King James has been dominant for a long time.
It's not until recent years
that it's even gotten worse, right?
It's still the most popular version.
It's still the most sold book in history.
There's something to be said about
the preserved Word of God in English.
You know, God hasn't had it ordained that
from the beginning of time.
But you know, the King James dominates.
It dominates for many reasons.
Obviously the number one being that
it represents Jesus Christ.
It is God, right?
But the second common denominator is
you actually have to read the Word.
I'm not, you know, so much as
I want you to study the Word of God,
but you know how you can study better?
Just read it.
You know, go to Exodus 24.
You're there in Exodus 24.
I told you and then we're going to be in Deuteronomy.
But in Exodus 24 verse 1,
it starts out and it says,
And he said unto Moses,
This is God,
come up unto the Lord thou,
and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abihu,
and seventy of the elders of Israel,
and worship ye afar.
And Moses alone shall come near the Lord,
but they shall not come nigh,
neither shall the people go up with him.
And Moses came and told the people
all the words of the Lord and all the judgments,
and all the people answered in one voice
and said,
All the words which the Lord hath said
we will do.
Now the reason that they,
that they really, you know,
came to that conclusion is because
they were seeing God's majesty.
If you remember,
they were afraid to even get close to the mountain.
They were so afraid of God,
they were like, you know what,
just send us your messenger Moses.
You know, that's the kind of attitude
we need to have towards the word of God.
You know, everybody's running around
in all kinds of fear.
You know the only thing I really fear?
It's not obeying God.
We're going to keep reading there and it says,
And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord
and rose up early in the morning,
and builded an altar under the hill,
and twelve pillars,
according to the twelve tribes of Israel,
excuse me.
And he sent young men of the children of Israel,
which offered burnt offerings
and sacrificed peace offerings
of oxen unto the Lord.
And Moses took half of the blood
and put it in the basins
and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
And he took the book of the covenant
and read in the audience of the people
and they said,
All that the Lord hath said
we will do and be obedient.
See, my goal today is not just to tell you
this sermon about the word of God,
but that you would leave here and say
we will do and be obedient.
Hasn't that been the theme actually
for the last two days?
It's not just that you show up
and that you hear the preaching,
but that you do it.
You want to level up your life,
execute what the word of God
has asked you to do.
What does the Bible say?
Obedience is better than sacrifice.
What do we want to teach our children?
You know, obedience.
Right?
I mean, I think about Saul all the time
and I think, man,
that guy just, you know,
he represents the road
of good intentions, right?
It's paved.
I mean, the road to hell is paved
with good intentions, right?
Now, he didn't go to hell,
but it does feel that way sometimes.
Like, you're just,
you've felt that way.
It does feel that way sometimes.
Like, you're just,
you've got all these good intentions.
You've got all these good intentions,
but you're not willing to obey God.
Don't we all have that attitude sometimes?
Like, we know a little bit better.
You know, especially you young guys out there,
you probably listen to someone like this
and you're like,
yeah, but I don't know if I'd necessarily agree.
I'm going to do it like my way.
And what you realize is
your way is not God's way.
You know, one of the things
that's most frustrating is,
and I was guilty of this.
I've been in sales all my life
and the very first thing they do in sales
is they script you.
They give you a script.
Here, read this.
And scripts, I mean,
I don't know if you've ever read a script.
They read Courtney.
Like, hello, is Mr. John there?
Oh, hello, Mr. John.
You know, my name's Enrique.
You don't know me,
but you know Billy.
And Billy asked me to give you a call
and he said that, you know,
you'd be interested in it.
And then he's like,
well, I don't have time for this.
And so then the next thing says,
oh, this is a rebuttal.
This is how you overcome that objection.
Oh, Mr. John, you know,
it's like giving you a haircut over the phone.
It'd take twice as long and never come out right.
You're like, I'm not going to read this junk.
You know what's proven?
Is the guys that sell the best follow the script.
You know what's proven?
The best Christians are the ones
that follow the script.
You've got a script.
You know, like in five years,
you could memorize the entire New Testament.
There's reading plans out there.
Memorization plans.
Most of you know all the songs from your youth,
but you can't memorize one verse.
You know, you can't read the Word of God.
You know how you memorize stuff too?
Repetition.
Just read the Word of God
and those verses will stick to you.
You don't even have to work that hard at it.
I mean, how many of you
have your soul ending presentation memorized?
Yeah.
It's not because you sat and did and didn't.
You know where you memorized it?
Out in the field, right?
If you were to die today,
you're 100% sure you'd be going to heaven.
Isn't that what we say?
God forbid.
You all have your little script.
You all deliver it the way you want to.
You're executing.
That's what you need to do,
but you first need to start reading,
because what's that other saying we hear?
Out of sight, out of mind.
Don't be like those Christians
that have to take their Bible out and dust it off.
Read the Word of God.
Go to Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 17.
You know, one of the other things I love is,
as Christians, as Bible-believing Baptists,
fundamentalists,
we love the Old Testament
just as much as the New Testament.
Because, you know, these New Evangelicals,
these contemporary,
I mean, they just love the New Testament,
and then they forget there was a whole other Testament.
You know, the reason God gave us the Old Testament
is so that we could love the New Testament,
because it is the better Testament, right?
But it leads up to it.
And what you see is Jesus all over the Old Testament
just as much as in the New Testament.
You really do.
I mean, it's a great book,
and it's satisfying to the soul.
But you're there in Deuteronomy 17 and verse 14,
it says,
When thou art come unto the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee,
and shall possess it,
and shall dwell therein,
and shall say,
I will set a king over me,
like as all the nations that are about me,
thou shall in any wise set him king over thee,
whom the Lord thy God shall choose.
One from among thy brethren
shall thou set a king over thee.
Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee,
which is not thy brother's soul.
God's given them...
God already knew that they were going to need a king.
As a matter of fact, it's interesting
because the people forgot,
but God did it.
You know, in Deuteronomy,
He gave them instructions,
and skip down to verse 18,
and it says,
But here's the instructions to the king,
and what does the Bible say
about those that are saved?
That we're saints,
and we're judges,
and we're kings.
We're of the priesthood, right?
We're of the royalty.
And I don't want you to go around thinking,
oh, I'm royalty, you know, kiss my...
No, we're here to minister,
but we are royalty.
We are spiritual royalty.
And so we have a duty to God
to obey what He's asked us to do.
If we're going to rule
like God wants us to rule,
well, then He tells us exactly here.
He says,
verse 18, it says,
And it shall be,
when he sitteth upon the throne
of his kingdom,
that he shall write him
a copy of this law
in a book
out of that which is said
before the priests,
the priests of Levites.
And then verse 19 says,
And it shall be with him,
and he shall read
and he shall read therein
all the days of his life.
Not some, all.
And I know, I mean,
I hope that your toes
have been stepped on a little
and I hope that I'm stepping
on your toes a little,
but that's a tall order.
All the days of your life.
Not some, all.
So if you've not read the Bible
all the days of your life,
you can start now.
All the days of your life.
You know, I mean, there's,
in business, you know,
I've been in business for so long
that it's the exam,
you know, you preach what you know.
There's guys that have done things
like figured out how long,
you know, the average age
people live to is 70,
and then they'll take,
you know, all the weeks
that they have left
from that time till then,
and then they take all these rocks
and they'll put these pebbles
and every week they take out
a pebble so they can just see
their life diminishing
so they know how much time
they need to, you know,
to build stuff up.
And I actually, at one point,
I thought maybe of doing that,
right, because, you know,
I want to be successful,
I want to see
how much time you have.
People will dedicate,
they just eat, sleep,
and breathe the things
that they're committed to,
but you won't read the Word of God
all the days of your life.
You know, I love that shirt
that's going around,
I have it.
As a matter of fact,
it's not that great of a shirt,
but, you know,
I got a little tear
and I even fixed it
because it says,
eat, preach, repeat.
Eat, preach, repeat.
Like, it should be
your nourishment.
Let's keep reading it
because it says that
He may learn,
right there in verse 19,
that He may learn
to fear the Lord,
His God,
to keep all the words
of this law
and the statues
to do them,
that His heart
be not lifted up
above His brethren.
Hey, you want to
get rid of some of that pride?
Here's your solution.
And that He turn not
aside from the commandment
to the right hand
or to the left,
to the end,
that He may prolong
His days and His kingdom,
He and His children
in the midst of Israel.
You know, the Bible,
one of the promises
you see that a lot
is a long life,
but how do you get
that long life?
You don't turn away
from His word
and you stay on
the straight and narrow.
You know, we worry about
the next generation.
How do we train up
our children in the fear
and admonition of the Lord?
It's the word of God.
You know, I have a lot of ideas
of how to raise children.
I'm pretty sure you do too.
But the only ones that count
are the ones that are
from the word of God.
That's really the truth.
I can have a lot of opinions
about a lot of things.
You know, as a matter of fact,
that's why probably
Brother Jolly and I
get along real well.
We have a lot of opinions
about a lot.
Have you ever talked
to Brother Jolly, you know,
you want to get an opinion,
just talk to Brother Jolly.
And I'm not,
I don't mean that negative.
Like, you know,
he reads a lot
and discusses things,
but the only ones
that really count
at the end of the day
are the ones that are
word of God.
And I'm not picking on him.
I'm picking on me too.
You know, I mean,
I love reading about
all the history
and I love reading about this
and things might happen.
I might even give you an opinion
of how I think the end
of the times comes.
But none of that matters.
At the end of the day,
the only thing that matters
is the word of God.
We need to read it.
Go to Deuteronomy 31.
Deuteronomy 31.
By the way, Cincinnati is great,
but, you know,
I'm from the south.
You know, I love my humidity.
So excuse my coughing,
but it's drying me out.
Like, I'm really having
a hard time over here.
But there in Deuteronomy 31 verse 11,
the Bible says,
When all Israel's come to appear
before the Lord thy God,
in the place which he shall choose,
thou shall read.
This law before all Israel
in their hearing.
Gather the people together,
men, women, and children,
and thy strangers
within thy gates,
that he may hear
and that he may learn
to fear the Lord your God,
and observe to do all the words
of this law,
and that their children,
which have not known anything,
may hear and learn
to fear the Lord your God,
as long as ye live in the land,
whether ye go over
to Jordan to possess it.
You're starting to notice a theme?
You know, God's ordained this place
for you guys that are here
in Cincinnati,
so that you can bring your children
and the strangers of this land
to hear the word of God.
Not only being read,
but preached to you.
Turn over to Psalm 119.
I'll just read these other verses for you.
But in Matthew 12, verse 1,
the Bible says,
At that time Jesus went
on the Sabbath day
through the corn,
and his disciples were at hunger
and began to plug the ears
of corn to eat.
But when the Pharisees saw it,
they said unto them,
Behold, thy disciples,
do that which is not lawful
to do upon the Sabbath.
But he said unto them,
Have ye not read
what David did
when he was in hunger,
and they were with him?
That's the problem.
Have ye not read?
You get all these weird people
and these doctrines.
You know, I don't like spending
a lot of time on Facebook,
but I run our church Facebook page,
so I have a Facebook.
And over time,
I've cleaned up that Facebook
where my friends are mostly people
that are like-minded.
But every once in a while,
you know, people that are like-minded
aren't as like-minded as you thought.
And you see some of the stuff
that they're like preaching out there,
and they get Rose overzealous
for the word of God,
and you're like,
where did they get this?
You know, how did you...
What verse are you reading?
Like, you know, people say,
oh, you know,
have you ever gotten so in
and someone tells you
what the Bible says,
and you're like,
where did you get that?
I had a Mormon kid show up
at our house one time,
and I said,
hey, you're in a false religion.
He's like, oh, why would you say that?
I said, well, first of all,
you guys think that Jesus and God,
I mean, that Jesus and Satan
are brothers.
He's like, yeah, that's true.
We do believe that.
Proving my point.
He's like, well, we get that
for when Satan tempted Jesus,
and Jesus called him brother.
I was like,
what book were you reading?
Have ye not read?
I mean, at no point was...
I mean, does that make sense?
But even within our Baptist brothers,
sometimes you hear weird stuff
like that, right?
Maybe not that extreme,
but...
And you're like,
did you...
Have you not read this?
And that's the problem,
is you're not reading the book
And that's the problem,
is you're not reading the Bible, right?
So I'm just going to be really
frank with you right now.
You know, whatever you're
struggling with in your life
right now,
a big part of that's
because you're not reading
God's word.
You're not spending time
in God's word.
And not only that,
you've not spent enough time
to know where to go
look for the answers.
Sometimes, you know,
I'm reading...
Right now I'm in the book of Isaiah,
but I've read it enough
to know where to go look
for when I have challenges
in my life.
You know, I love
the book of Psalms,
because even though
it's like up and down,
whenever I'm feeling down,
the book of Psalms is great,
you know,
His mercy endureth forever.
We praise the Lord,
you know,
we seek the Lord early,
we seek You
and we meditate on Your word.
As a matter of fact,
we're going to go there
to the book of Psalms,
but the final common denominator
before I give you my three points
and this is,
is that we have to believe
what we're actually reading.
I'm not talking about
your salvation.
You know,
a lot of people didn't even
truly understand everything
that they were believing.
It's over time
that you learn that, right?
As a matter of fact,
I was telling Pastor Webb
that when I first got saved,
you know,
being a Seventh-day Adventist,
one of the things they do have,
right, is their post-trip.
Not exactly like us,
but their post-trip.
So I grew up post-trip
all my life.
But then one of the first things
I did and it was only
for like six months
was when I first got saved,
I got saved in an old IFB church
and they were pre-trip.
And you know what I did immediately?
I took the pre-trip position.
And I was like,
well, if God says it,
then that's what's got to be.
Now, after reading my Scripture again,
I was like, oh no, that's not true.
You know what I also thought
for a long time?
I thought the Jews were
God's chosen people.
I thought so much so
that I had told people,
look, when the end times come,
I'm going to move to Israel.
I'm going to become a Jewish citizen
and I'm going to get on that army
because, you know,
God's going to take care of us.
But then you read Revelation 2, 9
and Revelation 3, 9,
that they're of the synagogue of Satan.
And even though I didn't
understand it all,
I was just like, just take it.
And I changed my position.
You know, you can change your position
without understanding your position.
Just talk to a child.
You know, it's not that difficult
to change their mind.
That's why we need parents
to protect their children
because children are susceptible,
they're gullible.
But you need to be a little bit gullible
when it comes to the Word of God.
Look, if God says something,
if you don't understand it,
He said it, it's true.
Period.
There's been a lot of things
that I read in the Bible
that I just don't get.
And I'm just like,
it's God's Word.
As a matter of fact,
my family hates talking to me.
Because they're like,
that's all you do.
It's your scapegoat.
It's your cop-out.
It is.
If it's God's Word,
He knows more than I do.
That's it.
I don't care what you think.
I had someone call me the other day
and they're like,
so I'm not supposed to divorce my husband
because, you know,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
They want to get divorced
because they're having marital problems.
So the Bible doesn't,
and they're Christian,
I said the Bible does not condone divorce.
Period.
So you're saying that I get more blessing
if I stay in this horrible marriage.
Yeah.
Now, I mean, unfortunately,
sometimes you can't control that, right?
But that's our human nature.
But God's Word is God's Word.
Period.
You know, the one that everybody struggles with,
I struggle with,
is the Bible says,
love your enemies.
My enemies, not God's enemies, right?
I still struggle with that to this day,
you know, when you have to forgive
and move on,
and then just try not to think about that.
Forgiving your enemies,
that doesn't even make any sense.
From a fleshly point of view,
it does not make any sense.
God said it.
That's what it is.
Period.
End of story.
You know, you're there,
where did I tell you to be?
Psalm, you're not there,
let me just read for you 2 Chronicles 20.
Verse 20 says,
And they arose early in the morning
and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa.
And as they went forth,
Jehoshaphat stood up to them,
Jehoshaphat stood and said,
Hear me, O Judah,
ye inhabitants of Jerusalem,
believe in the Lord your God,
so shall you be established.
Believe His prophets,
so shall you prosper.
You know, why is it important to believe
and trust in God?
Because when you do,
when you believe His word,
you get protection.
You know, this verse really stands out to me
in Matthew 18 verse 3,
and you're there in Psalm 119,
I'm getting there,
but Psalm Matthew 18 verse 3 says,
And said,
Verily I say unto you,
be converted and become as little children.
You know why we want to have a childlike attitude?
Because then our father will protect us.
Who wouldn't die for their child?
That's the one thing I know for sure.
Don't come at my children.
I mean, I'm going to be acting,
I'll act meek and I'll hold my tongue.
You come at my children,
I'm willing to lose, you know,
I'm willing to lose my ordination
and not be a pastor to protect my children.
I will fight tooth and nail,
to the death for my children.
Well, guess who's going to fight tooth and nail for you?
God.
It says there,
It says,
And verily I say unto you,
except you be converted and become as little children,
you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself
as this little child,
the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
And who shall receive one such little child
in my name receiveth me?
But who shall offend one of these little ones
which believe in me,
if it were better for him
that a millstone were hanged about his neck
and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
I love that verse.
Because that's the attitude we need to have,
not only towards our children,
but our spiritual children.
Why do we preach hard?
Because we don't want you to be in danger.
I don't want you to fall into the pitfalls of life.
You know what?
Life is tough.
You heard Pastor Jimenez say it yesterday,
life is tough.
And it's tough in the world
and it's tough as a Christian,
so you might as well be a Christian
because at least you know
your Father is going to protect you.
Life, I mean,
you've lived long enough,
people have stabbed you in the back,
you've just been through health issues,
you've had tragedy happen,
some worse, some others.
Life is tough.
So just get over it in the Word of God.
Now here's the application.
You're there in Psalm 119.
And these are the,
I've got three little points and we're done.
But the very first thing is,
we've already touched on it a little bit,
is you want to internalize.
You know, and it can be light at first.
I mean, I remember when I first got saved,
I knew kind of the area
where I wanted to go to for references,
but it was always the Word of God.
And then over time I've memorized some Scripture,
and then over time I've learned,
you know, there's certain chapters
I really enjoy more than others
and I know them real well.
This is a lifelong journey.
This is a marathon, not a sprint.
There in Psalm 119 verse 9,
what does the Bible say?
It says,
Beth,
wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way
by taking heed thereto
according to thy word?
With my whole heart have I sought thee.
Well, let me not wander from thy commandments.
Thy word have I hid in my heart
that I might not sin against thee.
See, who do we ultimately sin against?
God.
You know, I mean, we offend people
and in our flesh we get offended,
but sin is towards God.
It says,
Blessed art thou, O Lord,
teach me thy statues with my lips.
Have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth?
I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies
as much as in all riches.
I will meditate in thy precepts
and have respect unto thy ways.
I will delight myself in thy statues.
I will not forget thy word.
You know, I wanted to,
I really did want to do something
about the fundamentals
and, you know, how it's just fun being a Christian
and, you know, I was going to use examples like,
you know, when Elijah mocks the prophets
and he makes fun of them
and then he basically slews them all.
You know, if you think about it,
like, that's a very dramatic story.
I mean, he'd like,
not only does he mock them,
but then afterwards he just takes them all out.
Right?
Because we want to focus only on the Christian life,
the goody parts,
but I think that's fun too.
But how do you get to that part?
You first have to meditate on God's word.
You have to find the joy in God's word.
And you know where you find the joy?
We were talking about this earlier.
I enjoy the harder parts of the Bible more now
than the parts that are like,
the more popular ones.
You know, like,
you know, when I am weak,
He is strong.
And don't get me,
I mean, it's God's word.
But I enjoy,
you know, I like in Ecclesiastes,
it says it's better to go to the house of mourning
than the house of feasting.
Because it's in the tough times
that you learn to find joy in Christ.
It's in the tough times
that you really build that character.
You know, you want to level up your Christian life,
be willing to go through some tough times.
Yea, and all that live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
People are like,
I want to live godly in Christ Jesus.
Well, you're going to suffer persecution.
Well, I don't like that part,
so never mind.
That's the attitude people take.
How many times have you heard that?
I mean, I've heard that all my life.
Well, I don't know if I like that part of the Bible.
I like all the Bible.
Everything.
I mean, that's how you learn to hate things
and how you learn to love things.
The Bible says there's a time of war,
there's a time of peace.
There's a time to love,
there's a time to hate.
People say,
Oh, you shouldn't hate anything.
I hate anybody who attacks my children,
let me tell you that.
I mean, just giving you a great example.
But go to Colossians 3, 16.
The Bible says there in verse 16,
I'll give you a second to get there,
Colossians 3, verse 16.
The Bible says,
Let the word of Christ dwell in you,
richly in all wisdom.
That's how you internalize.
I mean, literally God's telling you
to internalize His word.
It's your meat.
He says,
Let the word of God,
let the word of Christ dwell in you,
richly in all wisdom.
You want wisdom,
it's through the word of God in you.
Teaching and admonishing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
One of the things I love is the old hymns.
You know, stand up for Jesus.
We're marching as soldiers unto war.
You know, all the hymns we sang today,
they just get you pumped up and ready to go.
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed,
do all in the name of who?
The Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.
You know,
we want to give thanks to God.
A couple of weeks ago,
just, you know,
I got sick.
I actually got, you know, the coronavirus
and I was in bed laid up in pain
and anguish and all that.
You know what I,
what I,
and it's not a bragging thing.
I don't think I would have done this
maybe 15 years ago,
but thank the Lord that I got sick.
I really am thankful.
God,
if He's doing it,
it's for a reason.
So thank the Lord.
What did Job do?
I mean,
Job got everything taken away from him
and immediately,
and I'm not picking on you,
Job, by the way.
And immediately,
because I was looking at,
I was like,
you're perked up.
He's like, what did I do?
Not this Job, the Job in the Bible,
but what did he do?
But I would hope that
if something happened to you,
you would praise the Lord.
That was the very first thing that he did.
Hey, how many of you,
you know, it's praising the Lord right now.
It's great.
But when hard things come in your life,
is that really your first thought?
It should be.
Praise the Lord.
I know,
I mean, I don't have to.
I mean, this has statistics.
You're going through some hard times right now.
Like, some of you might be coming out of it,
like Pastor Jimenez said,
but if you're going through it,
praise the Lord.
It is what it is.
You know what I mean?
Turn over to James 1,
but Jeremiah,
in chapter 15 of Jeremiah,
he's going through this hard time.
And the first few verses are,
you know, he's just kind of like
complaining and just in anguish.
But what does he say in verse 16?
And that's why I'm not having you turn.
There's just verse 16 of Jeremiah.
He says,
Thy words were found,
and I did eat them.
And thy word was unto me
the joy and rejoicing of my heart.
For I am called by thy name,
O Lord, God of hosts.
You know, the world doesn't get that.
It doesn't get how you can be so at peace
and joyful through all these tough times.
And that's why we need to preach the Word of God.
It doesn't make any sense to the world.
You know, when you get in your flesh,
sometimes it doesn't even make sense to you.
But if you get in God's Word,
you're at peace.
How many of you, like,
just cower in fear because of coronavirus?
Probably don't.
You know why?
We don't fear it,
because we know that whatever God's will
is in our life,
it's God's will in our life.
We're not going to live our lives in fear.
He gave us the spirit of power,
of peace and of love.
You know,
you're there in James,
but real quick,
you want to internalize,
but then the next thing you want to do
is you want to realize.
And what I mean by that is
you become fully aware of something as a fact.
You know, when you read the Bible
the first few times,
this is kind of like when you're a kid.
You're living life,
you know you're alive,
but you're not really conscious of the world.
You know,
it's not like you don't see
a five-year-old campaigning,
you know,
for the Republican Party
or the Democrat Party.
You know, right?
I mean,
they're just living life.
But then as you get older,
you start to question things
and that's when you start to find out
who you really are.
Then you go through,
you know,
you've heard things like,
oh, I'm not going to go to college
because I'm finding myself
and things like that.
I'm not for that,
but find yourself in the Word of God.
You need to realize,
but the only way to do that
is you've got to read it,
you've got to constantly meditate on it.
Things will stand out.
You know,
one of the first things
that stood out to me
when I started reading my Bible
and I committed to reading it
all the way through,
and this is not part of my sermon,
but you know,
just turn there real quick.
1 Peter 4.12,
and then we'll,
and then come back to James.
But in 1 Peter 4.12,
this verse,
I realized,
I became aware.
I'm sorry,
I got,
right there in 1 Peter 4.12,
this is probably my life verse
when people say,
it says there,
Beloved,
think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial
which is to try you,
as though some strange thing
happened unto you.
Every time I read that verse,
all I can think of is
when I was a young man,
you know,
when I was shorter than my dad,
my dad,
every time that I would like
do something dumb,
he'd come up behind me
and slap me upside the head.
Everybody remember?
And he's like,
what's he doing?
And every time I read that verse,
it makes me think of like
God doing that,
you know,
something bad happened to me.
Why, why did,
I don't understand why
so and so treated me such way.
Well, I don't understand
why this happened, right?
You don't understand
because you have not read the Bible.
The Bible says,
Beloved,
think it not strange
the fiery trial which is to try you,
as though some strange thing
happened unto you.
But what's the next verse?
But rejoice,
inasmuch as ye are partakers
of Christ's suffering,
that when His glory shall be revealed,
you may be glad also
with exceeding joy.
Man, when I read those verses,
I was like,
I've been preached different
all my life.
That doesn't even add,
like that doesn't even add up
to what preachers preach nowadays.
Like that really,
I became aware that life is tough,
but that God's going to give you joy.
This is a long time ago,
I mean this verse like
just revolutionized my life,
but it wasn't until I read it.
Nobody had ever preached it
because you know what preachers do?
The majority of preachers,
I'm not talking about preachers
that preach the entire counsel of God,
but the majority of preachers,
they just pick and choose.
So you know,
somebody that preached on this sermon
in the modern contemporary movements
would be like,
Oh, turn your Bibles over to verse 13,
verse 14, right?
Have you ever been to, you know,
maybe some of these old IFB churches?
I remember when I first got saved
and I started reading my Bible,
you know, you learn the stories
and you get excited.
And I remember, you know,
the preacher get up there
and he started preaching this like
part of the Scripture
and he's building it up
and you're like getting ready
for the really good part
and you're like,
here we go.
And then he's like,
he stops and he moves on
to the next point.
Like, I mean, I know it's a pastor,
but in my mind I'm thinking,
Bro, you missed the best part
of the whole sermon.
Like, I wanted you to finish
the whole thing.
Why didn't you finish the story?
Like, that's the best part.
But you know why they do that?
Because they don't want to offend anybody.
Because they're afraid of man
instead of God.
I had you in James, right?
So you need to realize,
I mean, you need to internalize
and then you need to realize.
Proverbs 20 verse 5 says,
Counsel in the heart of a man
is like deep water.
But a man of understanding
will what?
Draw it out.
You've got to draw it out.
You young guys,
you read this
and you get real excited
and you're like overzealous.
Hey, how about you take a step back
and draw it out?
How about you learn?
You want to level up your life?
You want to be in the fundamentals?
Hey, it takes decades.
It's an entire process.
It's in your entire life.
It's not just, you know,
you got saved today.
You learned the soul when you were young.
You got saved today.
You learned the soul winning program.
You went through the soul winning seminar
on YouTube.
And you know,
now you know everything.
James 1 verse 2,
you want to internalize
and you want to realize
you become fully aware.
You know, you understand clearly.
You make it a fact.
James 1 verse 2 says,
My brethren,
count it all joy
when you fall into diverse temptations.
Verse 2,
Knowing this,
that the trying of your faith
worketh patience.
Hey, you want to learn patience?
You've got to have your faith right.
I learned to say this,
maybe I'm not really that impatient,
but you know,
business guys love to say that.
Oh, you know,
I'm not very patient.
The one thing that I lack
and I'm weak in is patience.
My one says you can learn it.
It says,
But let patience have a perfect work
that you may be perfect
and entire wanting nothing.
I love that.
Wanting nothing.
That means that you trust wholly
on whatever Jesus puts in front of you.
If any of you lack wisdom,
let him ask of God
that he giveth to all men liberally
and upbraideth not
and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith,
not wavering,
for he that wavereth
is like a wave of the sea,
driven with the wind and tossed.
For let no man think
that he shall receive anything
from the Lord.
A double-minded man
is unstable in all his ways.
Remember Pastor Thompson
was using the example of the dogs,
you know.
We're double-minded
if we're not in the spirit.
That's the struggle, right?
Old wretched man that I am,
the things that I want to do,
I don't do.
And the things that I don't want to do,
those are the things that I do.
You've got to feel,
you've got to realize
that's a reality.
See, I don't pretend that all of a sudden
because I've grown in Christ,
I'm better.
As a matter of fact,
the reality is
that when you grow in Christ,
you start to see how
wretched of a man you really are.
I'm not growing around like,
oh, woe is me.
Don't pity yourself.
Know that God's grace
can make you better.
See, that's the problem
with Christianity today.
You've got all these extremes.
God's a balanced God.
The reason that you want to learn to hate
is because you'll love better.
You know what's made me
a better Christian?
Soul winning.
Because then you realize
there is a lost world out there.
You know, one thing is
knowing there's a lost world,
the other thing is
realizing you see it.
Man, that's a lost world.
You know, who was I,
I wasn't with,
well, we had some interesting,
but I was yesterday.
You know, we had this one guy
and Deacon Oliver
took him through the gospel presentation,
but he just wasn't getting it.
He was lost.
Thank God he planted the seed,
but he just couldn't get there.
It had nothing to do with
the presentation.
Brother Deacon obviously knows
how to give the gospel presentation.
We run into those,
but your heart goes out
because you're like,
man, you're right there, brother.
You're right there.
You get it,
but you don't get it.
But you know what?
The job was done though.
We planted that seed.
That's what we realized, right?
Go over to Matthew
and keep your finger there in James.
You're going to be in James 4,
but go to Matthew 6.
Go to Matthew 6.
I'm almost done.
I apologize if I went too long,
but Matthew 6 it says in verse 25 says,
Therefore I say unto you,
take no thought for your life.
See, we spend so much time
planning our lives.
And God says 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 the meat
and the body more than raiment.
Behold the fowls of the air,
for they sow not,
neither do they reap,
nor gather in barns
that your heavenly Father
feedeth them.
Are ye not much better than they?
Which of you,
by taking thought,
can add one cubit to the stature?
I'm five foot five and a half,
let me tell you,
there's no way I'm getting taller.
And why take ye thought for raiment?
Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow,
they toil not,
neither do they spin,
and yet I say unto you
that even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore,
if God so clothes the grass of the field,
which today is and tomorrow
is cast into the oven,
shall He not much more clothe you,
O ye of little faith?
Hey, it's the Word of God
that increases your faith.
Isn't that a common theme
from Jesus' ministry?
O ye of little faith?
I mean it's a common theme in our life.
I'm not picking on you,
it's just a reality
and I'm picking on myself too.
O ye of little faith?
Yeah, I might be really strong in one area,
but you know what?
You know you lack faith
in some other areas.
It says there,
therefore take no thoughts
in which ye shall eat
or where ye shall drink
or wherewithal ye shall be clothed.
For all these things do the Gentiles seek
for your heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of all these things.
But what is it?
I'm telling it's a maintenance sermon,
but seek ye first
the kingdom of God
and His righteousness
and all these things
shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow,
for the morrow shall take thought
for the things of itself.
Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof.
Hey, but you've got to realize that,
like people love quoting this verse,
but is it real?
Have you realized
that this is an actual fact?
Seek ye first the kingdom of God.
What's the one common verse,
I mean most of you probably use it,
what's the most overrated verse
in the Bible?
John 3.16.
How many people quote it all over the place?
That means that everybody should be saved.
For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son
that whosoever,
that means anybody believeth in Him
shall not perish
but have everlasting life.
And you know what we do?
We quote that verse
to people at the door
and they're like,
oh, I never realized that.
Oh, I've read that verse all my life
and it just didn't click.
I thought I had to be good.
And you ask them, right,
does it say believe and go to church?
You know, you've done that,
or believe and it's just this belief.
But you realize.
And then the final thing
that you want to apply to your life,
go back to James,
like I said,
we're going to be in James
and we're done,
is you want to actualize.
And like I said,
I didn't talk to any of these guys
but it seems like we all got on the same page.
That's God's power.
What does actualize mean?
It's to make real,
to turn into action.
So you realize,
you know,
oh, this is,
the Bible says life is tough, right?
1 Peter 4.12,
or the Bible says,
seek ye first the kingdom of God.
But then you want to actualize it.
Hey,
it's not if,
but when.
The longer I preach,
I look forward to the tribulation,
to the trials.
Now, I know that when it happens,
it's probably not going to be fun
to go through it,
but I know there'll be a good lesson
that comes out of it.
It'll make me a stronger,
better person,
a better husband,
a better father,
a better pastor,
a better preacher,
a better soul winner, right?
And so you want to actualize.
You want to make actual real.
You want to turn into,
you want to just get active.
I mean,
I know you guys are going out soul winning
and that's great,
but you know,
there's a lot of little things
in the fundamentals
that you really need to work on.
You know,
the one thing that really stands out
is as you get older
and you read the Bible,
mercy and grace
is something that we need
in our Christian walk.
You know,
I know a lot of people
love coming to these sermons
because you get all this heart preaching
and we preach against the sodomites,
but it's the mercy and the grace
that you really need to work on.
If you think about God in our lives,
I mean,
there's nothing worthy in us
why God would even notice us.
It's the blood of Jesus
that He takes notice
and then He does notice us.
It's not that He doesn't,
and I'm not,
God does want you to succeed
and He'll bless you
and He'll notice that,
but it's not because you're that good.
It's because of the blood of Jesus, right?
And then you come to realize,
man,
why would God even use me?
Why would God use you?
Because of His mercy and truth.
Because of His grace.
But yet we don't have any mercy or grace
towards the people that we deal with
on a regular basis.
I'm not even talking about the soul winning.
The soul winning, you're out there,
you're very compassionate,
but you can't even be nice
to the church member who took your pew.
Am I exaggerating?
You can't be nice to the one church member
who forgot to shake your hand.
Hey, for all you know,
He lost somebody in His life.
I don't know,
I don't like that guy.
Man,
John just won't shut up
about the book of Revelation.
How about you just love him a little bit better?
There's nobody named John here I hope.
Maybe I'll say Hosea,
that way we can just make sure we cover it.
But you're there in James 4,
like I said we're wrapping up.
The Bible says,
James 4 verse 13 says,
Go to now,
ye that say,
Today or tomorrow
we will go into such a city
and continue there a year,
and buy and sell and get gain.
Whereas ye know not
what shall be on the morrow,
for what is your life?
It is even a vapor,
that appearth for a little time,
and then vanisheth away.
For that ye ought to say,
If the Lord will,
we shall live and do this or that,
but now ye rejoice in your boastings,
all such rejoicing is evil.
Therefore,
to him that knoweth to do good
and doeth not,
to him it is sin.
Hey, if you don't have mercy and grace,
it's a sin.
You know the Bible,
you know I love that book,
I mean the verse in Proverbs,
if somebody comes to you
and asks for something,
you have to give to them,
what does the Bible say?
Don't tell them to come back later,
do it.
That's mercy,
that's grace.
You know,
when I think about sermons sometimes,
as a preacher in your ego,
you want to preach that like
sensational sermon.
You really do.
You know you want to get up there,
and you want to wow the people,
and you want to you know
get down there and people come,
and great.
But the reality is
that's not our duty,
our duty is to preach the whole
counsel of God.
You know the better,
the way we get better as Christians
in this fundamental,
is we've got to learn the tough stuff.
See mercy and grace and love
and charity and purity,
you know we read all those,
that's tough.
Screaming out of sodomite across the street,
that's easy.
You know,
your ego can do that real quick.
You know,
rebuking a Jehovah's Witness at your door,
that's fun.
I've done that many times,
that's easy.
You get out of here,
you get out of here you devil,
I mean seriously,
I've told,
get out of here I'll call the cops,
I've screamed out dumb,
you know.
That's easy,
that's your ego.
But loving the guy that maybe
doesn't quite get it,
and being patient with them,
and loving them,
and being graceful and merciful,
that's tough.
You know,
sacrificing your time for others,
that's tough.
You know,
Pastor Webb was telling me
of some of the challenges that he deals,
I mean he runs a church,
so some of the challenges
he deals with.
And you listen to the stories
and you get riled up,
you're like,
man,
if I would have taken that call
or if I would have done that,
but the reality is
that's not the way to act.
Because you don't know what's going on,
you want to leave a good testimony,
but you also want to help people
grow in Christ.
You know,
go to Galatians,
I mean,
go to James 1,
I'm going to read for you Galatians,
James 1 we're done.
Galatians 6 verse 6 says,
Let him that is taught in the word
communicate unto him that teacheth
in all good things.
But here's the thing,
be not deceived,
the Bible says,
God is not mocked,
for whatsoever man soweth,
that shall he also reap.
For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption,
but he that soweth of the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
And let us not be weary in well doing.
See,
we've got to get in the word
because we're going to get tired,
but the Bible says,
let us not be weary in well doing,
for in due season we shall reap
if we faint not.
As we have therefore opportunity,
let us do good unto all men,
especially,
here's the part that I want you to focus on,
especially,
especially unto them
that are of the household of faith.
Hey,
it's the family members,
the people we love the most
that we treat the worst.
That's what the world tells you, right?
But as Christians,
it's our family members,
our church,
our brothers and sisters in Christ
that we should love the most.
You know what's the church
that I love the most?
My church.
My church members.
They've been through thick and thin with me.
Nothing against you guys.
You guys are great,
but you should love your church.
You get all caught up in,
man,
I wish I was in this church
or I wish they would do this
or I wish they would do that.
No,
just love,
be merciful,
be graceful,
live in truth.
Nobody's perfect.
Let me tell you that.
Nobody's perfect.
I mean,
sometimes you do need to be reminded.
I know you got saved
but maybe along the way you forgot.
Because man,
sometimes you hold your preachers
and your pastors
and your deacons
to this standard
that only they could meet in your head.
How about you love your pastor
a little bit better
and their family?
Try running a church for a day.
Try working on it.
For preachers,
you know what's one of the things
that I actually miss?
I love going to church.
I'd go to church in the morning,
get my lunch,
get my nap,
then go back to church in the evening,
then go home,
go to sleep.
Now,
I'm a pastor.
It's like,
it's a full day's work.
I mean,
I've got to fly.
I'm getting ready for tomorrow.
I'm already thinking of the songs
we've got to sing.
I've got to get everything ready,
make sure that...
It's a lot of work.
Sundays are exhausting for the pastor.
Go to James 1.
That's why I didn't have you
go to James 1.
We're closed.
So,
you want to internalize,
you want to realize,
you want to actualize.
And here's where it ends.
James 1 verse 21 tells you,
Wherefore,
lay apart all filthiness
and superfluity of naughtiness.
That word superfluity is just like
an axis of naughtiness.
You know,
Pastor Thompson alluded to that.
Sin is pleasurable
for a season.
And what ends up happening with
sin is,
you end up over...
It's always an axis.
Nobody is a social drinker.
You know,
I know people say that.
Oh, I only drink socially.
Yeah.
You know, you don't.
Or, you know,
I can control it.
I can...
I only smoke certain times of the day.
No, you don't.
You're just lying to yourself.
But it says here,
Wherefore,
lay apart all filthiness
and superfluity of naughtiness
and receive with meekness.
I love that word.
That's why I chose this verse.
It says,
The engrafted word.
You know that word engrafted
means to like insert
if you're in horticulture
or in planting.
I used to grow rose bushes
and one of the things I learned
was how to make a hybrid.
You know,
where you have like a red rose
and a yellow rose
and you engraft it.
Basically you can cut
like a certain angle
and if you tape it up correctly
and you just water it,
now that tree can grow too different.
It's engrafted.
It becomes one.
Kind of like your marriage,
you know, your one flesh.
Right there,
the Bible says,
Hey, the word should be,
it should be like,
you should literally be walking around
and be able to just be the word
in the sense,
and I'm not talking about Jesus,
don't get me wrong,
it's not weird like that,
but that you should be able to just,
Jesus should live so much in you,
you can just,
all you do is spew the word of God.
People would be like,
kind of annoying,
you know,
have you ever gotten that?
I don't know how,
how dedicated you are
to the word of God.
That's all you ever want to talk about
is the Bible.
That's the only thing that matters.
My brother doesn't call me.
I mean,
we're on good terms,
but it's like very short phone calls.
He doesn't,
and the reason is because
all I want to talk about is the Bible.
I want to lead him to Christ.
I don't want him to go to hell.
My sister,
she's saved,
but she doesn't call me
because she doesn't want to talk about the Bible.
I don't have many friends anymore
because all I want to do is talk about the Bible.
You know what we've done all this weekend?
Talk about the Bible.
Nobody's ever,
and none of you have gotten on to me about it,
but it says,
I hope not, right?
It says,
the engrafted word,
which is able to save your soul.
And remember in James,
he's not talking about just your salvation,
like your eternal salvation.
It's here on this earth.
Hey, even through trials and tribulations,
God can save your soul.
God can protect you,
but it's got to be engrafted.
But what is it?
What's the next one?
And this is kind of,
I guess maybe that should have been
the theme is action
because here's the verse,
but be ye doers of the word
and not hearers only.
And not hearers only,
deceiving yourselves.
Hey, stop lying to yourself.
Have you ever met a compulsive liar?
They believe the lies that they're spewing.
We were talking about President Biden.
I mean, I've never seen a guy
who can deliver lies so well.
I mean, you'd think the guy
really believes what he's saying.
I mean, it's gotten so bad,
like he gets up there
and he's spewing these lies
and it almost sounds like
he really believes it.
I mean, am I exaggerating?
I was watching this clip that popped up
and they were interviewing Fauci
with some young lady
about reading tweets
and he's reading about the vaccinations.
He believes the stuff he's saying.
Like the lady was like,
oh, I got chills and I was feeling sick.
You know, that's not a good thing.
And he's like, oh, if you feel that,
that's good.
That means your body's doing
what it's supposed to do.
And he delivers it like truth.
Now, I'm not here to tell you,
your position on that can be,
I don't care what your position is.
I'm telling you what my position
is based on the Bible.
But don't deceive yourselves.
Don't go around thinking that,
you know, truth is truth, period.
Like Pastor Thompson said,
we believe in science
because science is from God.
The reality is if you put
poison in your body,
your body's going to react to poison.
I mean, that's just the fact.
But let's finish here and I'm done.
He says,
For if any be a hearer of the word
and not a doer,
he is like unto a man beholding
his natural face in a glass,
for he beholded himself,
and goeth away, and straightway
forget it with manner of man he was.
How many of you could
draw yourself a self-portrait?
I mean, it's truth, right?
You look in the mirror and you're like,
man, I'm starting to look old.
I was looking at myself in the mirror,
can I shave this morning?
I was like, oh, age is catching up.
He says, But whoso looketh
in the perfect law of liberty
and continueth therein,
he, be not a forgetful hearer,
but a doer of the work,
this man shall be blessed in his deeds.
See, my goal today was to just edify you
and tell you, hey, you want to level up
your Christian life,
you've got to find the common denominators.
Don't look at the preachers
and the common denominator
is not the dynamic preacher.
The common denominator is not the guy
who knows so much doctrine
and he's deep and he memorized that.
The common denominator is the word of God.
Look, if you never memorize a verse
but you can read the Bible,
then read the Bible every day,
all the days of your life.
And we've all been guilty.
I'm not just picking on you,
I'm picking on myself.
I mean, let's just be honest.
The Bible says, For all have sinned, right?
So we're not perfect.
There's not a just man on the earth.
But that doesn't mean we can't refocus.
If you take anything from today,
it's refocus, reset.
I love that word renew
because you know what renew is?
You have to repay,
like if you go to renew a membership,
what do you have to do?
Pay again so that you can be involved in it, right?
The Bible is free.
The Bible just says,
Hey, renew this daily
so that you can be involved in this again.
You can get these benefits,
these discounts
or whatever this is that it's giving you.
So anyways, I just wanted to let you know
that was for me the big thing is,
as I look at these great preachers,
as I look at these people that have left legacies
and that we look up to and we say,
Hey man, we love Paul,
arguably the greatest Christian of all.
What's the common denominator?
God's word.
You've got to read it,
you've got to believe it,
you've got to internalize it,
you've got to realize it,
you've got to actualize it.
Let's close in a word of prayer.