So the message of, not just the gospel, but the message of the Bible is spreading to other people.
And that's important. You know, we not only want to win people to Christ, that's the most
important, we want to teach them doctrine. We want to teach them what the Bible says about,
you know, sin, what the Bible says about their marriage, what the Bible says about child
rearing, what the Bible says about sodomy, what the Bible says about murder and lying.
We want to cover the entire spectrum of the Bible and teach them those things. Why?
Because the Bible commands us to. That they would observe all things whatsoever Christ has
commanded us. And when people remain in the church and they're listening to the Bible being
preached and they're accepting it, it's showing that the word of God is increasing in their
lives. Okay. But how about this? Church growth is important because it creates more laborers for
the harvest. Right? The more people we reach, the more people we can train,
the more people that can go out and preach the gospel to every creature.
So church growth is important because we're creating, you know, we're not just reaching
people just to fill up the auditorium. We want to reach people to fill up the auditorium
with sole winners. Laborers. Okay. Matthew 9, verse 37, familiar verse says,
Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.
That's weird because there's plenty of churches out there that are filled with people.
Why is that? That's interesting because isn't there like a stadium in Texas?
Joe Olstein's church doesn't even have a football stadium filled with people.
But yet the Bible tells us that the laborers are few. There's plenty of churches out
there that are over a thousand. Plenty of churches out there that maybe even run a little
less than that filled, but the laborers are still few. Why is that? Because the churches are not
teaching their people how to be sole winners. So when we reach people, when we get them saved,
we get them baptized, we begin to teach them the Bible, we also want to equip them to be
sole winners, to reach their family, teach them how to preach the gospel to their parents,
to their siblings, to their cousins, to their neighbors, to the stranger, make them a sole
winner. Help them to follow Christ and the result of that will be that they become
fishers of men. That's the goal. More labors for the harvest as the church grows. Okay.
Acts chapter 16, go to Acts chapter 16 if you would.
Now there are pastors out there that want to impose growth on their church through
compromise and pragmatic methods and obviously that's wrong. Okay. Our desire should never be,
well, we're going to grow by any means necessary. Chevy, I know Chevy, you got electric
guitar, you know, maybe you can bring that over every once in a while. You know, maybe we can
rent a little smoke machine or something like that. Get a praise band up here.
Garbage folks. It's unbiblical and let me say this, what you reach them with,
you have to keep doing to keep them. So if you reach them with hoochie mamas
dancing on stage, you're going to have to have a whole lineup of hoochie mamas each week
to keep them. It's true. But you know, if you reach them with hard preaching,
all you got to do is keep preaching hard and you'll keep them. It's a win-win situation.
If you win them with fleshly things, you're going to have to keep doing fleshly things to keep them.
But if you win them with spiritual things, you just have to keep doing the spiritual things in
order to keep them in church. Keep feeding them the word of God, keep helping their marriages,
keep helping them to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
keep helping them to become better Christians and they will remain in the ways of the Lord.
Acts 16 verse 1 says, Then came he to Derbe and Lystra and behold, a certain disciple was there
named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess and believed, but his father
was a Greek, which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Niconium.
Him would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised them because of the Jews
which were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was a Greek.
And as they went through the cities, they delivered them to the decrees for to keep
and that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.
And so were the churches established in the faith and look what it says,
an increase in number daily. That's another reason why it's important that we grow our church
so we can start churches. You see, I hope this church continues to grow and there's no cap on it,
but you know what I also desire is to start more churches.
Amen.
You know, it's great to have a church here, but wouldn't it be great to have a church in
San Diego? National city. Riverside. Someone throw out a city. Far from here.
Vegas? Who said Vegas? Did you say Vegas? Oh, Bakersfield. Lancaster.
Yeah. Oxnard. All right, stop. I'm just kidding.
The church is increased when believers increase.
And I guarantee you within the next couple of years, we're going to be starting churches
because if we're reaching people, people are getting saved, people are getting baptized,
they're being taught the word of God. Men shall be inspired. Men shall be trained.
Men shall be ordained. Men shall be sent out. Churches shall be started.
This is why it's important that we grow as a church.