Music
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
All right, folks, it's about that time.
We're gonna go ahead and get started this evening.
Welcome back to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you would, find a seat and grab a hymnal.
Our first hymn is number 301, Sweet Hour of Prayer.
Hymn number 301-301, Sweet Hour of Prayer.
["Sweet Hour of Prayer"]
On the first.
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,
That calls me from a world of care,
And is he at my father's throne,
Make all my wants and wishes known,
In seasons of distress and grief,
Thy soul has oft been found with thee,
And of this game, the tender snare,
Thy, thy return, sweet hour of prayer,
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,
Thy wings shall my petition bear,
To him whose truth and faithfulness
Engage the waiting soul to bless,
And since he bit me, seek his face,
Believe his word and trust his grace,
I'll cast on him my every care,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer,
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,
May I thy constellations share,
Till from mountains does walk,
Behind thy view, my home, and take my flight,
This rule of flesh I'll draw,
And rise to seize the everlasting prize,
And shall, while passing through the air,
Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer.
Amen. We'll open with a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day,
for another opportunity to gather freely this evening,
to sing praises, to learn from your word.
Lord, I just thank you for leading us to the seven souls
that called on the name of the Lord this afternoon,
the salvations that we had.
I pray that you would just be with them and bless them,
to help them find a good church, Lord,
that they would use their life as a reasonable sacrifice
to serve you now that they have that free gift.
I also pray, just as this morning,
that you would be with our service,
that everything's done decently and in order,
that you open our ears to the message
and incline your ears as we continue to sing praises to you.
These things we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
All right, for our next hymn this evening,
turn if you would to 315.
Excuse me, 315, 315,
take my life and let it be, 315.
On the first.
Take my life and let it be,
consecrated Lord to be.
Take my eggs and let them bloom,
at the impulse of thy love.
Take my life and let it be,
consecrated Lord to be.
At the impulse of thy love,
take my feet and let them be,
swift and beautiful for me.
Take my voice and let me sing,
always only for my King,
always only for my King.
Take my silver and my gold,
not a mite would I withhold.
Take my moments and my days,
let them flow in ceaseless rays.
Let them flow in ceaseless rays.
Take thy will and make it thine,
it shall be no longer mine.
Take thy heart and it's thine own,
it shall be thy royal throne.
It shall be thy royal throne.
Amen.
Good evening, everyone.
Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
At this time, we'll go through our announcements.
If you don't have a bulletin, you can raise your hand
and Usher will bring you one.
On the front is our Bible memory passage of the week,
Hebrews chapter 6, verse 12.
Keep up the good work on this chapter.
And if you can quote this at the end to an adult non-family member,
you will receive a prize.
On the inside is our service times listed there,
Sunday morning at 1030, Sunday evening at 430,
and our Wednesday Bible study at 7 o'clock p.m.
We do have all of our soul winning times listed there.
If you have any questions about that,
you can get with those respective leaders.
Also, our nursing home ministry schedule is there.
You can participate in that.
On the bottom left side there is our year-to-date stats.
Had a great day out soul winning today.
We did have seven people saved, so praise the Lord for that.
Keep up the good work on soul winning.
On the upper right side there
is the prayer list for our expecting ladies.
Make sure to please keep the Reed family in prayer
during Miss Whitney's pregnancy.
And also our upcoming events.
This upcoming Thursday is our chili cook-off.
Really excited for that.
Right after the Wednesday evening service,
if I could have the men help me move all these chairs,
we'll just get it set up right away after the evening service.
That way we can just come in on Thursday and enjoy the cook-off.
And just here's a pro tip.
If you have like a muffin container,
like a tin muffin container that you bake with,
that's a good thing to bring to a chili cook-off
because then you can try a bunch of different chilis
and put it in that.
So I learned that last year and that was awesome
because if you just have a bowl,
you're not really going to get to taste everything.
So I like to try out and see what people bring.
So looking forward to that and prizes are already arrived for that contest.
So it should be a great time.
November 6th through the 10th,
Faith Ward Baptist Church Missions Conference in Tempe, Arizona.
And November 24th is going to be when our church becomes Anchor Baptist Church.
Very excited for that.
There should be a lot of people here.
We're going to have a lunch fellowship together.
And so we're excited with what the Lord's going to do here
with the soon-to-be Anchor Baptist Church.
So it's my honor and privilege to be here.
And I'm very excited to be having the opportunity to serve all of you people here.
So thank you for being so faithful.
And Brother Fur isn't here,
but again, I'm just thankful for him for leading this place for a really long time.
So I'm really excited for the future here.
Online giving is set up for our church.
So if you'd like to give online, you can scan that QR code.
And there should be a full-on website soon.
It's under development right now.
But for now, we just have that QR code.
On the back is our prayer list.
Make sure to keep everyone in prayer.
And if you have a request, please don't be shy.
Please let me know.
We'd love to be praying for you as a church.
That's going to be it for our evening announcements.
We'll go ahead and go to our third song.
All right, for our third song this evening, turn, if you would, to 324, Draw Me Nearer.
Hymn number 324, 324, Draw Me Nearer.
They're on the first.
I am thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice, and it told Thy love to me.
But I long to rise in the arms of faith, and be closer drawn to Thee.
Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious, fleeting side.
Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord, by the power of grace divine.
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope, and my will be lost in time.
Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious, fleeting side.
O the pure delight of a single hour, that before Thy throne I swear.
When I'm healed in prayer and with Thee, my God, I commune as friend with friend.
Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious, fleeting side.
There are depths of love that I cannot know, till I cross a narrow sea.
There are heights of joy that I cannot reach, till I rest in peace with Thee.
Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious, fleeting side.
Amen. As the offering plates are being passed, turn if you would to Psalm 29.
Psalm 29.
Amen.
Good evening, Psalm 29, the Bible reads,
Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty. Give unto the Lord glory and strength.
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thundereth. The Lord is upon many waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars, yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.
He maketh them also to skip like a calf.
Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn. The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness. The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to cap and discovereth the forest,
and in His temple doth everyone speak of His glory.
The Lord sitteth upon the flood, yea, the Lord sitteth king forever.
The Lord will give strength unto His people. The Lord will bless His people with peace.
Let's bow our heads for a prayer.
Father God, we thank you for this day and we thank you for this holy time that we had this afternoon.
And we just have to be filled with the Holy Spirit and help us to pay attention to the preaching and apply it to our lives.
Amen.
So here we have a commandment in Psalm chapter number 29, verse 1,
where the Bible is telling those that are mighty to give their strength unto the Lord.
And this commandment is pretty counterintuitive to the nature of man,
because when man is strong or just when humankind in general is strong,
what do we like to give our strength to? You know, our energy, our effort, our mind, our emotions.
What is it that we like to give our strength to? Well, it's to ourselves, right?
We like to give our strength to making more money or trying to make our lives more comfortable and more pleasant.
That's usually what people do.
But here, God is actually giving us a commandment that's pretty counterintuitive to most people, to all of our nature, really.
And that is, if you're strong, you should give that strength unto the Lord.
Now, go to Mark chapter number 12. Mark chapter number 12.
And, you know, I think in this room that we have a lot of men of strength in this room,
and, you know, we've got a lot of strong ladies in here, too,
but we have to remind ourselves that if God has blessed us with strength, then it's something that we should give unto the Lord.
Look at Mark chapter 12, verse 28. The Bible says,
And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him,
Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him,
The first commandment, the first of all the commandments is, Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,
and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.
And notice, and with all thy strength, this is the first commandment.
And, of course, we know that being saved is easy. Being saved is compared to drinking a glass of water,
walking through a door, eating a piece of bread, you know, whosoever believes on him, you know, is going to be saved.
That's basically how simple it is to be saved. But when it comes to following God's commandments,
you know, being someone that's sold out as a disciple, you know,
Jesus talks about how that's someone that has to love God with all of their strength.
You know, that's a very high task that's being asked of us.
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number nine, Ecclesiastes chapter number nine.
So, you know, if you want to actually follow that commandment of loving God with all your strength,
God is really asking for our entire lives. And I'm going to show you some verses soon that's going to describe that.
But, you know, this is not a small thing that God is asking of us when he says to give our strength unto him.
Look at Ecclesiastes chapter number nine, verse number 10.
The Bible says, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might,
for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest.
So we see a commandment here that whatever it is that we do in life,
whether it's something physical, carnal, doesn't matter what it is,
God wants us to do it with all of our might, with all of our strength.
And, you know, I think God really likes people that really put their heart into something that they do,
that puts all of their strength and effort and energy into what they do.
That's what God likes to see in his children.
And really, when I think about this concept of giving your strength to something or doing something with all of your might,
I think about as a child growing up and playing baseball.
I had a coach that was a lot like this, that he didn't even really care if you were the most gifted, you know, natural, talented baseball player.
He wanted to see kids on the field putting all of their strength into everything that they're doing.
You know, he wanted to see kids basically that had heart, that were putting all of their might into what they were doing.
And, you know, I related to that as a kid because my favorite teammates weren't necessarily the ones that were just the best.
Because, you know, having a teammate that's really, really naturally good but he's lazy can be kind of annoying, right?
Whereas, like, you can kind of overlook a baseball player that has a little bit of a skill issue, but he works really hard and he's really trying.
You know, like recently, steadfast, we had a softball team, an adult softball team.
And I'll tell you, the first season was very brutal.
And brother Jason had to whip our team into shape because there was a lot of just really bad playing going on, okay?
But here's the thing, like, you could excuse someone where maybe they weren't that great.
I mean, if someone didn't grow up playing baseball, you can't really expect them to be very skilled at this.
But it's like, but if they're diving for every play, if they're running super hard to first base, if they're hustling out there, you know, that's someone that I like.
That's someone, and it's the same thing in Christianity.
Like, God doesn't expect all of us to be perfect and to have everything in life squared away and everyone is just doing everything perfectly.
What he wants to see is that we're putting our strength into serving him, that we're putting all of our might into serving him.
You know, that's the type of teammates that I liked, that's the type of teammates my coach liked, these are the type of workers that your boss likes, and these are the types of Christians that God likes.
And so the title of my sermon this evening is Give Your Strength Unto the Lord.
Give your strength unto the Lord. Go to Romans chapter 12.
Number one, give your physical strength to the Lord.
Give your physical strength to the Lord.
You know, God has blessed every single person with a different degree of strength, of physical strength.
And, you know, if we have a functioning body that's moving, that's breathing, that's able to work, you know, we should give that strength to God.
And today, you got men where they want to spend every day, all day in the gym so they can look super cool.
But what are you doing with that super cool body?
If you're serving God with it, well, if you're not, then you're kind of wasting your strength.
God wants us to give our strength to the Lord. Romans 12, verse 1.
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
So notice there's an aspect of serving God that involves your physical body.
And a lot of times Christianity, you know, today people like to focus on, obviously, the spiritual aspect, praying and reading the Bible.
And rightly so, we should focus on those things.
But we shouldn't forget that there's also an aspect of serving God that involves what you do with your physical body.
One of those things is obviously what we avoid doing with our physical bodies, right?
Obviously, we shouldn't be indulging in things like fornication, drinking alcohol, doing drugs, lusting with our eyes.
These are sins that we commit against God using our bodies.
But there's also positive things that we could do for the Lord, serving God, giving him our strength with our bodies.
You know, the most obvious of those being soul winning.
Soul winning is a very obvious application of we're actually going out and we're taking the strength that God has given us in our bodies and we're giving that strength to the Lord by getting people saved.
And, you know, having bronchitis for the last six weeks has reminded me that it does take a certain amount of strength just to go soul winning.
Because yesterday we went soul winning at those triple decker apartments in South Yukon.
And I remember towards the end of soul winning, I went up all three of those flights of stairs and I knocked on the door and they answered right away.
And I was like, oh, man, usually I get a one door break before they answer.
But, you know, my lungs have just been so weak for being sick the last six weeks where I was like, you know, breathing really hard and having a hard time having this conversation with this guy.
You know, because I'd gotten a little weak in that area.
But here's the thing. We if us as Christians, whatever amount of strength you have, whether it's a lot or a little, whether you're really in shape or you're really out of shape, you know what?
You should still dedicate whatever strength God has given you to serve the Lord by going soul winning.
Because, you know, let us all be reminded that there is coming a day where our bodies will fail us.
There's coming a day where you may want to go out soul winning and you literally cannot.
That's a sad thought to think about.
Go to Mark Chapter 16, Mark Chapter 16.
You know, if you have strength today, if you have youth, if you have energy, you know, don't waste that on yourself or being selfish.
Use that for God.
Mark Chapter 16, verse 15.
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Of course, we all know the Great Commission in here that we're supposed to go out and preach the gospel to every creature.
But today, in twenty twenty four America, we have a lot of amenities in our life that makes soul winning a lot easier than they did at this time.
Because now we can go into all the world by plane, by train, by car.
Right. And we can go long distances and get there in a nice air conditioned vehicle, stretch a little bit, walk to the apartment complex.
And you only have to walk like three feet to the next door because everyone's so close together.
But here this time, imagine this task two thousand years ago to go out into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Look, people were walking long distances back in these days and people were in a lot better shape because you had to be.
There's no other option. There was no such thing as just sitting around all day doing nothing.
No, if you're going to be a soul winner two thousand years ago, you're going to be doing a lot of walking.
Look at verse 20. It says in verse 20, And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following a man.
So they went forth and they listened to Jesus and they went and preached everywhere.
And you know what that involved? That involved a lot of strength of the physical body.
And so, you know, while we like to focus, obviously, like I said, on the spiritual and we should.
And, you know, Baptist preachers that love to eat their favorite verse is bodily exercise profited little.
But that verse is actually saying that it still does profit something.
Because if you just completely neglected your physical body and your physical strength, how are you going to go into all the world and preach the gospel?
Right. We need to use the strength that God has given us to preach the gospel. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number 12, Ecclesiastes chapter number 12.
And, you know, our church is a pretty young church and our movements, a pretty young movement, and thank God for that.
We got a lot of soul winners that could put a lot of time and effort and energy into soul winning.
But we need to remind ourselves, like I said earlier, that there's coming a day where we won't be able to perform physically all the things that we would like to and all the things that you could do now in your youth.
Look at Ecclesiastes 12 verse 1. The Bible says, Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.
So notice if you grow to be an old man or an old woman, the Bible says that those are evil days. Those are not fun days.
I've never heard anyone say that they like getting old, right? It's always something that they lament about, that they're sad about, but it's just reality.
And, you know, we're all going to face it someday. Unless you die young, you know, God's going to make you experience that old age.
And the Bible says that there's coming a day where you would say, I have no pleasure in them. That's kind of a sad thought.
I mean, because right now in my life, I have a lot of pleasure in my life from my wife, my kids, and just being able to exercise and reading the word of God and going soul winning and just doing all these fun things that I enjoy.
But imagine like you're sitting at home and you want to go to church, but you can't. You want to go soul winning, but you can't. You want to go play with your kids, but you can't.
That is a real day that's coming that every person will, will experience. And even if you are super, super healthy, you know, you will, your body will break down someday.
You know, our bodies will fail us. We have this flesh and someday, thank God, we're going to get a glorified body where we don't have to experience that.
But in this life, we will have to experience that. Look at verse two, while the sun or the light or the moon or the stars be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain.
It's talking about like your vision failing you. You're not able to see light as well. Verse three in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble.
You know, if you notice very old people, oftentimes they tremble, they go to drink water and their hands kind of shaking. They're trembling. Right.
And strong men shall bow themselves. I mean, you look at these guys that they were like war veterans. They were super strong.
But now in their eighties, they're kind of walking around like this, right? They're bowing themselves and says, and the grinders cease talking about your teeth falling out of your head because they are few.
And those that look out of the windows be darkened and the doors shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low.
And he shall rise up at the voice of the bird. You're not able to sleep as well. You're constantly being, you know, waking up in your old age.
And all the daughters of music shall be brought low. Also, when they shall be afraid of that which is high, you know, oftentimes you see old people are very afraid of heights.
They don't want to fly. They don't want to get on ladders or anything like that. Right. Because their body's not working as well as it used to.
And fears shall be in the way and the almond tree shall flourish and the grasshopper shall be a burden and desire shall fail.
Because man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets wherever the silver cord be loosed or the golden bowl be broken or the pitcher be broken at the fountain where the wheel broken at the cistern.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
You know, this isn't really an encouraging passage of scripture, but it's just the reality of life.
That we are in vile bodies right now that are decaying, that are breaking down, that have issues.
And, you know, every single day that we have good health, you ought to be thanking God for that.
Because health is probably one of the biggest things that we take for granted in life.
And when you lose an aspect of your health, you realize that it's more important than just about everything.
I mean, people, what do they really stress about? Money. That's a big stress for people, right?
Having the bills paid. But it's like, I'd rather have money problems for my entire life than have health issues.
Any day of the week. And when you experience health issues, you realize like, wow, that is so important to have a sound body.
And look, if you're sitting here today and you say, you know what, thank God, I have two legs that walk.
I have breath in my lungs. I can go out and preach the gospel. You know, I can read the Bible.
I could drink water without my hands shaking. I can walk without my back being crooked.
You know what? That is something you should thank the Lord for because there is coming a day where life will not be as easy as it is right now, physically speaking.
And so today, here we are in 2024. You know, are you just letting that go to waste?
You know, you should be thinking, how can I use my strength to give it unto the Lord with my body?
And of course, you should take advantage of that in your youth and go soul winning.
Go to First Timothy, chapter number four, First Timothy, chapter number four.
You know, there's a lot of benefits of being young, something that doesn't last very long.
But the wise thing to do is to take advantage of your youth, take advantage of being healthy, take advantage of having physical strength.
And, you know, it's kind of funny to me because I'm a young guy. I'm 27 and I'm not ashamed of that.
But a lot of people actually criticize me for being young. And I've heard people criticize me for being a preacher that's young.
It's like, well, you know, you're too young to be a preacher. And, you know, God willing, next month I'm going to be ordained as a pastor.
It's like, well, you're just too young to be a pastor. Here's what's so funny to me about that and why that's such a stupid mentality to have.
It's like, so answer me this. So I spend my entire twenties serving God, being free to thrive, going soul winning every week of my life,
reading the Bible every day, having lots of kids, loving God, following His commandments and preaching the Bible.
That's what I did with my twenties where it's like, oh, you're in your forties or fifties now.
Meanwhile, when you were in your twenties, you were drinking alcohol, committing fornication, wasting your life, being a young idiot.
But now that you're in your forties and fifties, you want to say, oh, that guy's too young. What a hypocritical thing.
You know, if you ever criticize a young person for preaching the Bible, you better hope you live the squeaky cleanest life possible in your twenties.
But, you know, if you spent your twenties out of church, if you spent your twenties not reading the Bible,
if you spent your twenties not soul winning, you're drinking alcohol, you're doing whatever, you know what?
You have no right to criticize me. You have no right to criticize any young person that's preaching the Bible.
That's hypocrisy. Rather, what you should do is you should actually use your youth to serve God.
And you should encourage other people that are doing that, saying, hey, that's actually the right thing to do,
is to use your strength and your youth and your help to serve God, not to waste it on alcohol and video games and stupidity.
Look at First Timothy four twelve. This verse isn't in the Bible by coincidence.
Let no man despise thy youth. I wonder why the Bible has to say that.
Because you got a bunch of idiots that despise people just for the fact of them being young.
Never mind the fact that they've read the Bible dozens of times more than you.
Never mind the fact that they've been soul winning for a decade plus.
Oh, let's just despise a guy because he's young. You know what? You're prideful if you're the one doing that.
You're the one that's prideful. You're the one that's foolish.
And the Bible saying here, let no man despise the youth.
But be thou an example of the believers in word and conversation and charity and spirit and faith and purity.
You know, I don't don't get discouraged if you're in this church or if you're in this movement and you're young and you know,
you're spending your youth serving God and you're soul winning and people might look down on you thinking like,
why are you wasting your youth? Shouldn't you be trying to like build all this money and wealth?
Shouldn't you be trying to travel the world? Shouldn't you try to live it up before you get married?
Before you follow these rigid commandments? You know, let no one despise your youth.
If you're a young person in here and you're trying to do what's right.
And here's the thing. Following God's commandments and doing what's right in 2024 is harder now than it used to be in a lot of ways.
You know, it used to be that supporting a family on a single income,
you could work at a shoe store and do that just fine in the 40s and 50s.
I mean, you could buy a house for six thousand dollars brand new back then.
And now it's a lot harder to do. And especially like if you get married young,
you get married when you're 20 and you start pumping out a bunch of kids and you're not going to college and you're not spending the first 10 years of your marriage.
You know, only focusing on your career. Yeah, it could be a lot harder for you.
But you know what? It'd be so stupid for someone who wasted their youth, who didn't get married young.
They didn't have kids when they got married. They spent their 20s just focusing on themselves to go look down on someone else.
That's not doing it the way that they did when that other young person is actually following the Bible.
So, you know, don't let anyone despise your youth in here if you're actually doing things right and you're young.
You know what? You should keep your head up high and realizing that you are following God's commandments.
And don't let someone look down on you for that. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number 12. Ecclesiastes chapter 12.
I had you go back there. Sorry. So, you know, we talk about soul winning.
It's a good way to physically give your strength to the Lord about studying scripture. Look at Ecclesiastes 12 verse 12.
It says, And further by these, my son, be admonished of making many books.
There is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
You know, God has given you strength. You should use your strength to study the word of God.
And the Bible says that if you do that, much study is a weariness of the flesh.
It is something that's hard to do. It does take a certain amount of physical strength just to really study,
because oftentimes people have people usually have like only work blue collar or only worked white collar.
But I've worked kind of both. And honestly, I get more tired at the white collar jobs just because of the mental work that you put in.
And don't don't discount mental work. Mental work is exhausting.
It's physically exhausting. And reading the Bible and studying scripture can be a weariness of the flesh.
But if God has given you strength, you should use that strength and give that physical strength unto the Lord and put some real effort and energy into your Bible reading.
Go to Hebrews 10. What about going to church?
Going to church is something that a lot of people take for granted.
But, you know, over the last decade plus of being in church, I've seen people that were in church and then they had a major health problem and they can never return to church again until they passed away.
And, you know, that could be a reality for us. Look at Hebrews chapter 10, verse 20, 23.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised.
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.
And so much the more as you see the day approaching.
You know, if God has given you physical strength, you should use that to go to church and to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is.
Right. The manner of some, the habit of some is to, you know, forget about the fact that going to church is a privilege.
And I'll say, you know what, this Sunday, I'll just stay home and watch football.
This Sunday, I'll just go out and go fishing or, you know, maybe for some of the diehard guys, you know, I'm going to skip church and go to the gym.
But really, you should use that strength that God's giving you to serve him and to go to church because, you know what, it's not promised you next week.
I guarantee you, you know, sometimes people struggle with going to church and they say, you know, sometimes they just don't want to go. Right.
But I guarantee you, if you got into a major car accident this week and you were sitting in the hospital on Sunday morning, I bet you you would trade anything to be in church.
Right. And so why don't we just not have to get to that point, not have to make God chasing us in any way and just think about like, hey, God, you've given me strength.
You've given me a body that can make it to church and I'm going to be in church as long as you do that.
You know, to me, I feel like maybe I'll have health for a longer time in my life if God looks down and he sees, hey, Dylan's using his strength to go soul winning.
Dylan's using his strength to read the Bible, to go to church. Maybe I'll bless him longer with good health.
And, you know, that's what I want for my life. I think that's what everyone wants.
But, you know, maybe some people aren't being blessed with a long life and long health because maybe they're not even using the health that God gave them to do anything for him to begin with.
Go to, if you would, Isaiah chapter 58, Isaiah chapter 58.
When we're talking about giving your strength, giving your physical strength to serving God, here's another application we can make.
Isaiah 58 verse one says, cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression in the house of Jacob, their sins.
You know, if you get a chance as men to preach a sermon, to preach the word of God, you know, put your physical strength into that.
Don't just take it lightly and just get up here and just kind of murmur and just kind of, you know, shrug and not really put your heart into it.
You know, put your strength into it. The Bible talks about crying aloud, sparing not, lifting up your voice like a trumpet.
And it doesn't necessarily have to be, you know, the whole sermon every single time.
But, you know, you should be willing to put your strength into your sermons, into preaching the word of God.
And again, having bronchitis the last couple of weeks has made me realize that it does actually take some strength to preach because you've heard it.
I'm sorry that you guys have had to deal with this for the last several weeks.
I mean, you've heard that my lungs just sound terrible.
Okay. But, you know, thank God I'm starting to get a little bit better. And boy, can I feel the difference.
And I thank God for help every day, especially after that.
Go to Romans 15, Romans chapter 15.
You know, I heard this one preacher who I love and respect say that every Sunday he just goes home and he just sits on the floor and just eats a bowl of ice cream.
And I'm like, I can't relate with that because, you know, there's a certain level of physical exhaustion that goes into preaching sermons.
And, you know, it's not just it's not as easy as it looks. I'll just say that.
Okay. Preaching is hard. If you men have done it, you know what I'm saying is true.
Writing sermons is hard. Studying the Bible is hard and preaching the word of God is hard.
But you know what? If you could do it, if you get the opportunity, you should give whatever strength you have to the Lord.
Number two, give your strength to the Lord by serving other people.
We talked about giving your physical strength to the Lord. How else can you serve the Lord?
Well, you could do this by giving your strength to other people.
Look at Romans 15, verse one.
You say, oh, yeah, I'm real strong. I'm a strong dude in this church tonight.
Okay. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves.
Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification, for even Christ pleased not himself.
But as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.
You know, you think you're strong in this room tonight?
Well, then how many burdens from other people are you bearing?
Because Jesus Christ was the strongest man to ever live.
He'd win every strong man competition. He would destroy all of us at the mighty men's competition.
He would throw the ball to the moon or something. I don't know.
He would just destroy all of us. Right. But here's the thing.
Jesus, being the strongest man that's ever lived. You know what he did?
He bore the infirmities of other people. And, you know, that's really what being strong is, is not pleasing yourself.
Right. We talked about how man's tendency to take their strength and to just please themselves with it.
Jesus took his strength and he used all of his strength to serve other people.
That's a man right there. That's a leader. That is a strong man.
Someone that is strong, that can take the heavy loads, that can take the weight of the world on his shoulders.
And you know what? He does it for all of us that don't deserve it. That's amazing.
And you say, you know, I want to be a strong man. Well, how you become a strong man is by shouldering more of other people's burdens.
This is what becoming a man is. It goes from being a teenager, being a child, where your parents do everything for you.
To you get married and now there's one human being relying on you and you have to shoulder some responsibility and you have to shoulder the weaker vessels burdens on you.
You have to carry that as a man. And that's a certain level of, you know, maturity and strength, having to take care of another person.
Then you have a baby and you're increasing in the amount of responsibility that you have and you're increasing the weight that's on your shoulders.
And then you have two and then you just keep going and going and going.
And every time you do, more and more responsibility is being added, more and more weight.
And it makes you more of a man to take care of other people's burdens and other people's infirmities.
Go to Mark Chapter number 10, Mark Chapter number 10.
And, you know, it's not just our families that you take care of, because if you get more responsibility,
you know, there might be people at your job that you're in charge of that you're taking care of.
There might be people at church that you're helping with different ministries and things like that.
And you could shoulder each other's burdens by doing things like that.
Look at Mark Chapter 10, verse 45.
For even the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.
So notice Jesus came to give his strength for us.
Verse 46, and they came to Jericho.
And as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging.
And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.
And many charged him that he should hold his peace.
But he cried the more a great deal, thou son of David, have mercy on me.
And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called.
And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee.
And he casting away his garment rose and came to Jesus.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?
The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.
Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.
And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way.
So here we have a story about Jesus, the ultimate strong man.
And we have this blind guy who's sitting by the highway side begging.
Now, this would be, by anyone's definition, a weak man.
I mean, he's weak. He's blind, right? This is not a very strong guy.
He's on the side of the road begging.
And I think the picture is that all of us in this room are that blind man.
Because all of us in comparison of Jesus Christ are weak, helpless, blind people that need help.
And notice Jesus, he saw this man have a problem and he made that problem his own problem.
Right? Because Jesus went to him and he said, What would you that I should do unto you?
He's saying, How can I help you? How can I take a burden off of you?
Jesus saw someone with a problem and he didn't just walk.
He didn't just keep walking like the Pharisees with the Good Samaritan story, right?
He saw this man that had a need that called out to him and he said, You know what? How can I help you?
What would you that I should do unto you? And Jesus healed this man and brought him his sight. Right?
And in a way, that's what Jesus did for all of us.
Because all of us was that man on the side of the road that's blind, that's helpless, who needed a savior.
And we needed someone to care about us.
We needed someone to take our infirmities on themselves.
And right. That's what Jesus Christ did when he died on the cross.
He took all of our sins and bear all of our sins in his own body on the tree so that we could be saved,
so that we could believe on him and that we could see spiritually.
You know, thank God that Jesus took us weaklings and took our infirmities upon him.
That makes Jesus strong, right?
Jesus isn't just like this taskmaster, Lord and taskmaster. No, he actually came to take burdens off of us.
And that is an incredible amount of strength for a person not only to have their own issues and problems and burdens,
but to actually take on the burdens of other people. That is a great example. Go to John 13, John 13.
And, you know, a very practical way that we can apply this is, you know, us as men, when you're married,
the Bible says that the wife is the weaker vessel, that we're supposed to be giving honor unto the weaker vessel.
You know, that looks like things as simple as, you know, carrying the heavy bags.
You know, men, you should never let your wives carry all the heavy stuff by yourself.
You should take on the infirmities and the burdens of the weaker vessel.
You should be the one taking problems from her, right? You should be the one reaching on the high shelf and getting things for her.
All right. And if you're shorter than your wife, you need to buy a ladder and just keep doing it anyways.
OK, you got to make sure that you're getting the things off the high shelf.
You're you're the one that opens up the jar for her. OK, you're the one that does the hard things in life.
You know, go out and do the yard work. Go out and do the hard things that your family members don't want to do.
You know, be strong by serving your wife. Be strong by taking on her burdens.
And you know what? That's what Jesus did for us. John 13.
Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father,
having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,
Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God,
he riseth from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself.
After that, he poureth water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, does thou wash my feet?
Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.
Verse eight, Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet.
Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
So notice in this story here, we have the Lord Jesus Christ, who is very close to the point of his life where he is going to die on the cross.
He's going to go through the brutal, torturous death on the cross.
And if I was to think about myself and if I was to think like I'm about to be tortured, I'm about to die on the cross.
I'm just going to be honest to you. I would probably be thinking about myself.
And if that makes me unspiritual, I'm sorry, I just I have the flesh.
And if I knew I was about to be tortured, I would probably be thinking about myself.
But Jesus, being the strongest man that there is, you know who he was concerned about?
He was concerned about his followers.
He was concerned about the people that he had responsibility with and authority over.
He was interested in their well-being.
And here's the thing. It's like it's not like his disciples were starving and like, oh, I need to give them food.
Their feet was just dirty, but he loved them so much.
And he was willing to take so much burdens and infirmities off of people that as he's about to die,
as he's about to be tortured, he's thinking about cleaning his disciples feet.
I mean, would that be you and me if we were in that situation? Probably not.
I probably wouldn't be caring about my cellmate's feet and how they looked or my family or anything like that.
I'd probably be worried about what I'm about to go through.
But Jesus gets down being God himself, being sinless, and he gets down and he washes his disciples feet.
And Peter is kind of shocked by this. He's like, what are you doing? You know, you're Jesus, you're God.
Why are you doing this? And he kind of rebukes him.
And Jesus is like, if you don't let me do this, you have no part with me.
And he's like, wash everything. Just whatever you want to wash, I'm here.
You know, Peter is always saying some really funny things, but I love Peter.
Look at verse 9, Simon Peter, or verse number 10, Jesus saith to him,
He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit,
and ye are all clean, but not all.
Speaking of Judas.
For he knew who should betray him, therefore said he, ye are not all clean.
So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again,
he said unto them, know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me master and Lord.
And ye say, well, for so I am.
If I then your Lord and master have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet.
For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.
You know, why is it that Jesus did this?
Well, of course, because he loved his disciples, because he cared about them.
But also he wanted to show, you know, if I as God can humble myself,
and can think about others in my darkest hour that I'm about to face,
how much more should you that are sinners, that don't deserve anything except hell,
be willing to serve each other, be willing to love each other.
And you know, that is something that we need to put into our mind in the day and time that we're living in,
when we're living in generation selfie.
We're living in a time when men only think about themselves and how they could please themselves.
We need to humble ourselves and realize that we are sinners deserving of hell,
and that if our Savior can wash his own disciples feet,
then we should be willing to take on burdens, to take on infirmities,
and to serve each other in this church, to serve your wife, to serve your husband,
to serve your children, to love each other.
But today, you know, many people think that, well, you know, all I care about is myself.
All I care about is making sure my bills are paid, that my house is in order,
that my family has good health, not realizing that Jesus Christ wants us to think about each other.
And you know, one of the most simple ways that you could do this is to pray for our prayer list.
You know, that is something that is not on there for a decoration.
That is giving you an opportunity to love your brothers and sisters in Christ.
That is giving you an opportunity to stop thinking about yourself,
stop thinking about your problems and your issues,
and to truly take on the burdens of other people.
You know, I think that things would just be absolutely revolutionized in this church and in every church
if every single person actually prayed for the prayer list.
Because obviously I don't know what you do, it's between you and the Lord,
I don't know what you do in your house or whatever,
but if I just had to guess, I would guess that most people are not praying on that prayer list.
And I don't know what would help you to do that, I don't know if you need to put it in your car,
you know, just tape it up in your car,
I don't know if you need to get like a waterproof whiteboard in your shower or something,
I don't know what needs to happen.
But you know, something needs to happen in our churches today that is going to cause you to love other people,
that's going to cause you to think about other people,
and not just wake up in the morning and think about,
what am I going to eat, where am I going to work, what am I going to do,
what is my family going to watch on TV tonight,
and actually wake up and think about your brothers in Christ.
That's what God wants for us.
Go to Acts chapter 6, I want to read to you a few verses.
Matthew 5 41 says,
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
You know, Jesus taught the extra mile principle.
Someone asks you to do something, you know, go above and beyond for them.
You know, we didn't deserve salvation, and Jesus went the extra mile for us.
He went above and beyond for us.
Acts chapter number 6, verse 1, it says,
In those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied,
there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews,
because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.
So you know, in 1 Timothy chapter 5, the Bible gives parameters on when a church would be able to provide for a widow's needs,
and here the situation's happening where their church is just growing so much,
and they're getting so busy that there's things that are falling by the wayside.
You know, and leadership can't do everything by themselves.
There's a lot of work that goes on into the ministry,
and here there's this problem where widows were being neglected.
Now that's a big deal. You know, we want to care for widows and the fatherless.
We want to care for those people, and when widows are being neglected, that's a problem, right?
Look at verse number 2,
Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said,
It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.
So notice the disciples are saying, like, yeah, this is a problem,
but it wouldn't really make any sense for us to stop reading the Bible,
to stop writing sermons, to stop preaching the gospel,
to stop doing funerals and weddings and all these things,
to, you know, hand a paycheck to a widow.
This is something that could be done by someone else.
Verse 3, it says, Wherefore, because of that, brethren,
look ye out among you, seven men of honest report,
full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
And later on in the story, we get the story of Stephen,
who I believe kind of fits the office of a deacon,
where he is going to basically be working for the church
to help the church with daily administrative tasks.
And, you know, having worked in a church, I know this firsthand,
that there is a lot of work that goes into the ministry.
It's literally just like running a business.
It's a lot of work, it's a lot of time, and it's a lot of effort.
But what I'm saying is that there's more to a church
than just what you see right now.
You know, there's more to a church than just a sermon being preached.
There's a lot of work that needs to be done.
And one of the ways that you can, you know, take burdens off of other people
and take infirmities off from other people
is simply just by helping in the work of the ministry.
And here, you know, we have lots of ministries.
We have ushers, we have a safety team, we have a music ministry,
and, you know, that kind of stuff takes work.
It takes planning, it takes sitting down and writing out every single song
that we're going to sing for the whole quarter.
You know, it takes out, it takes musicians taking their time and practicing.
You know, when people have a baby, we like to do meal trains.
It takes time for ladies to cook those meals
or, you know, to buy those gift cards or whatever and drive it over to them.
All I'm saying is that there is plenty, plenty of opportunities to serve other people.
You will never run out of work when it comes to wanting to serve other people.
But, you know, if you want to be someone that is strong,
that gives their strength unto the Lord, you could do that by serving other people.
And the great thing about this is that a lot of this,
a lot of these activities don't really require a complete amount of physical strength, right?
Because anyone can pray.
You could be in a hospital bed and you could pray for other people, right?
Anyone can help with some computer, you know, administrative tasks, right?
So there's definitely work for everyone that wants to take other people's burdens.
I just wrote down a few things here that I didn't, that I'm thinking about.
You know, music, I talked about that.
Event planning takes a lot of time.
It takes, you know, making a sign-up sheet, bothering people and letting them know like,
hey, are you going to sign up because I need to order food.
And if you don't tell me that you're signing up, we're not going to have enough food.
And then people don't sign up until the last minute and then you got to order more food, you got to call them.
Right, so like there's a lot of stuff that goes on with event planning, calling different places,
making sure things are going to work out, right?
Paying the bills, that takes diligence.
You know, we got like a live stream team that helps set up the live stream, the audio and video.
You know, that takes a lot of work.
Someone that's not going to just think only about themselves.
Just like, well, I just want to walk into church and just sit down and just, you know, wait for the sermon.
No, there's people in here that actually want to serve other people, that want to take burdens off and I appreciate that.
Making soul-winning maps.
You know, this is a big city that we're in and it takes some planning.
It takes some strategy to decide where we're going to go to preach the gospel.
Meal trains, baby showers, you know, weddings, funerals.
In the past, we've done, I've led some soul, sorry, not soul-winning, some song-leading classes.
I've led some preaching classes and things like that.
It just takes a lot of effort, energy and work.
And, you know, we need people in this church to be willing to assist and serve other people.
Go to Proverbs, chapter number 18.
Number three and lastly this evening, give your strength to the Lord by giving financially.
Give your strength to the Lord by giving financially.
This could be kind of a taboo topic in churches, but I'm not ashamed of anything that the Bible says.
You know, I think that it's inappropriate and weird when pastors, every single sermon, all they want to do is talk about tithing and talk about money.
That's weird. That's inappropriate.
But, you know, the Bible does talk about these things.
Let's look at Proverbs 18, verse 11.
Notice it says, the rich man's wealth is his strong city and has a high wall in his own conceit.
So notice, part of strength in one context is physical strength.
Part of strength in another context is serving other people, taking on burdens.
But here the Bible says that a rich man's wealth is his strength.
You know, you could be strong financially and everyone definitely has varying levels of strength when it comes to financial strength.
But, you know, my philosophy is that if God has blessed you with any type of strength,
Psalm 29 says, give your strength unto the Lord.
And so if God has blessed you in that way and you have some sort of financial strength, you should use that strength to God.
Look at Proverbs 11.
Proverbs 11, verse number 16.
A gracious woman retaineth honor and strong men retain riches.
So notice, the Bible is describing again that a certain aspect of strength is having financial, you know, abilities, whatever, resources.
And, you know, a lot of people, they'll be like, yeah, you know, you know, give your physical strength to God.
Yeah, yeah. Serve other people.
And it's like, give your financial strength.
They're like, oh, no.
But wait, wait a second.
Which is more severe?
Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength.
And Romans 12 one, present your bodies as a living sacrifice.
It's like, how can you say amen at that?
But then it's also like, hey, you should give financially to church.
And then it's just like, whoa, that's crazy.
It's like, wait a second.
Jesus said, be faithful unto death.
Like, we're supposed to be willing to die for Christ.
But it's like, oh, but giving money to church is crazy.
I mean, you're in a cult if your church, you know, passes the plate.
It's like, which one is actually more severe that Christ is asking of us?
Giving money is way easier than dying for him, right?
Go to Proverbs chapter number three, Proverbs three.
Proverbs three, verse five, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.
Be not wise in thine own eyes.
Fear the Lord and depart from evil.
It shall be health to thine navel and marrow to thy bones.
Honor the Lord with thy substance.
That's talking about your assets.
And with the first fruits of all thine increase and notice what happens when you honor God with your money.
Verse 10. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
You know, there is blessings associated with giving financially to the Lord.
You know, I'm not going to stand up here like the fake televangelist that says, you know, you give a thousand dollars.
God's going to repay you ten thousand dollars.
You give a million. God's going to give you a billion.
You're going to you serve Trump in a few months here.
No, that's not how it works.
But here's what I do know.
I do believe that if you faithfully tithe to church, I do believe that if you give unto the Lord that God will take care of your needs.
And I do believe that God will put a spiritual blessing on your life.
And could that be also a financial blessing?
Absolutely. It could be. Yeah.
I mean, our God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
Absolutely. He could bless you financially.
But one thing I do know is that God will bless you.
God will take care of you, whether that's spiritually or physically.
But you know what? There's a lot of blessings in life that we take for granted, like we talked about, like with health.
You know, maybe God's blessing you in the sense that he's just giving you good health.
Maybe he's blessing you in the fact that you're having a great marriage.
That you're having godly children.
Maybe he's blessing you in the fact that your stuff is lasting longer.
Right? You know, that's a good thing.
That's something that I want in my life.
Go to Proverbs 11, Proverbs chapter 11.
Proverbs 11 verse 24.
There is that scattereth and yet increaseeth.
And there is that withholdeth more than is meat, but it tendeth to poverty.
The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
So notice there's some people that kind of just scatter their money.
They're just kind of just really generous with it and they just scatter it all over the place.
Yet they're increasing somehow.
And that doesn't make logical sense.
But what it is is God's blessing.
Then there's people that are really stingy.
They withhold more than is meat.
And even though they're really frugal, even though they keep everything nice and tight,
everything still tends to poverty.
Right?
Then it says that the liberal soul, that's not talking about Kamala.
That's a communist whore.
OK?
Liberal here meaning that you just want to give out a lot.
OK?
Not the communists.
The liberal soul shall be made fat.
And that's not like physically fat.
That's just like you're taken care of.
You have all your needs.
You got everything you could possibly need.
You know, you're fat.
The liberal soul shall be made fat.
By the way, liberals are not liberal.
Liberals are thieves.
Liberals don't want to give their money.
They want to steal your money.
And then they want to act like virtue signers like,
aren't we so nice that we want to steal your money and give it to homeless people?
That's not being liberal.
Being liberal is actually of your own money being willing to give it to other people
just out of your own heart, out of the goodness of your own heart,
not them stealing it from you.
So I find it funny that they're called liberals,
but they're not even liberal according to the Bible.
Go to Luke chapter number six.
Maybe where the Bible says that, you know, the vile person will no more be called liberal.
Maybe in that sense it's talking about them.
Luke chapter number six.
Look at verse 38.
Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down and shaken together.
And running over shall men give into your bosom.
So notice the Bible is giving us this description that if you give,
you know, you're going to reap what you sow.
And what you reap is going to be a good product.
It's not like when you go to a coffee place and you get a large
and they just put the whole thing of ice, right?
And then like they pour for like two seconds and it's full somehow
because it's just ice, right? It's not even coffee.
Well, the Bible is talking about here, like you're going to get good measure,
press down, like you're getting a lot of product into what God is giving back to you.
It says for with the same measure that you meet with all it shall be measured to you again.
Go to first Corinthians chapter number nine, first Corinthians chapter number nine.
Almost done this evening. First Corinthians chapter number nine.
What are we talking about? Giving your financial strength unto the Lord.
A lot of people question, you know, should pastors be paid?
Should preachers be paid? Is it okay to have church staff?
And I don't really think this is a problem like with people that actually go to church.
Usually they have no issues with this.
Usually it's people that don't go to church whatsoever
that are like so shocked and horrified that preachers get paid,
which is just so silly because it's like imagine telling these people like,
go work your full time job for no money.
It's like no one would do that.
But for some reason people think that preachers are supposed to just work their butts off
like a ton and just not get any money for it. That's weird. Okay.
Look at first Corinthians chapter nine.
That's not just my opinion. Look at what the Bible says.
Paul said, Am not I an apostle? Am I not free?
Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord?
If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you,
for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.
Mine answer to them that do examine me is this.
So people are examining Paul. They're questioning him.
And if you actually know the context of this chapter,
they're like mad that a preacher could make money because look at what it says in verse number four.
He says, Have we not power to eat and to drink?
He's saying like, Well, excuse me. Am I just supposed to not eat food?
Am I supposed to just not drink anything?
Look at verse number five. Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife,
as well as other apostles and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas?
You know, he's saying, Don't we have a right to get married and to take care of our families
to make sure that there's food in their mouth and a roof over their head?
Or I only in Barnabas have we have not we power to forbear working?
So here, Paul and Barnabas, they actually have decided not to take money from the church,
not to take a paycheck, and they're out working a secular job.
And there's nothing wrong with that. That's totally fine.
And if a preacher wants to do that, that's great. But he's saying, Don't I have power?
Don't I have the right to forbear that if I wanted to?
The answer is obviously yes. Why? Because obviously Paul needs to eat.
Paul needs food. Paul needs water. Paul, if he had a family, we need to take care of his family, right?
Someone that's in that position. Look at number seven.
Who goeth a warfare at any time at his own charges?
Who planted who planted a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof?
Or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock?
He's saying, like, wouldn't it be crazy if, you know, you're 18 years old
and you walked into the recruiting office and, you know, you join the Marine Corps and the nation's about to go to war
and you're like, all right, I want to sign up. And they're like, where's your uniform? Where's your gun?
You're like, what are you talking about? I'm joining the military. You got to give me a uniform. You got to give me a gun.
Wait, you own an AC-130 transport so you could fly over to Afghanistan, right?
It's like, no, I was kind of hoping that the U.S. government would fly me over to Afghanistan.
Oh, no, no, no. You got to you got to provide that on your own. You got to go to war at your own charge.
Buy your own uniform, buy your bullets, buy your gun, buy your plane ticket over there.
Once you're over there, buy your food, buy your clothes, buy everything you need. That makes no sense.
Who would join the military if that was the rules? I mean, only, I guess, if your country's being invaded.
You have no other choice, right? But no one goes to warfare at their own charge.
Who spends their life raising livestock? You know, you got chickens and they lay eggs.
You're not allowed to have any of your own chickens. You're not allowed to have any of your own eggs.
It's like, OK, well, I just I won't have chickens then because I'm kind of just wasting my time.
Oh, you know, you got cow. You want to have milk. No way, man. You can't have milk from your own cow.
So what's the point? Why would you do that then?
He's just saying this is a really silly mentality to act like a preacher can't make a paycheck to survive.
And look, of course, we know that the love of money is the root of all evil.
And you look at these mega church pastors that I preached against this morning.
Yeah, they live an over the top, luxurious lifestyle that is unseemly for a man of God.
I agree with that. But what is wrong with a man of God just paying his bills, just living, just feeding his family, just having a roof over his head?
You know, if you have a problem with that, you have a weird heart.
You've got a serious issue to think that the ministry, which in my mind is the most important thing.
I mean, isn't the house of God the most important thing?
The institution that Jesus Christ bled and died for and purchased with his own blood.
That's what you get upset about of someone getting paid to do. It's like, what is wrong with you?
You have a wicked heart. Look at verse eight.
Say I these things as a man saying, is this my opinion or say if not the law the same also?
For it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn.
Does God take care for oxen?
So, you know, the Bible in the law commanded that you're not supposed to put a muzzle,
you're not supposed to put a device on the mouth of a working beast that would prevent them from eating as they're working.
Why? Because it kind of makes sense that if you're driving your car, you need to put gas in that thing.
Kind of makes sense that if you have an ox working, that it needs to eat in order to produce.
Well, the same way, doesn't it make sense to have a preacher that's dedicating his life to serving God,
to preaching the word of God, to getting people saved, to working in the ministry?
Doesn't it make sense to not muzzle the mouth of that ox?
And look, he says, Does God take care for oxen?
He's saying, did God really say this because he cares so much about a stupid cow?
Look at verse 10. Or saith he altogether for our sakes?
He's saying, or was this law actually for me as a preacher?
Notice what he says. For our sakes, no doubt this is written,
that he that ploweth in hope, or he that ploweth should plow in hope,
and he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.
If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?
He's saying, who's getting the better end of the deal here?
You know, the Apostle Paul is imparting spiritual things to people.
The Apostle Paul is preaching great sermons. He's out tearing it up with the gospel of Jesus Christ,
winning thousands to the Lord, planting churches, training preachers.
He's saying, if I'm providing all this, is it a big deal that I just pay my bills?
And you know what? It's a carnal person that would think the reverse on that.
It's a carnal person that would think, well, a preacher shouldn't get paid.
What right does he have to take a paycheck from the church?
You know, that is a carnal mindset, thinking only about money rather than thinking about the work that's being done by the church.
Because obviously, if you have someone that's full time dedicated to the church,
that church is going to be able to make a bigger impact for the Lord.
That church is going to be able to do more mission strips, more events.
You know, just everything about the church would run better if someone actually could dedicate their time for that.
And so what does that take? That takes finances. Why?
Because, you know, Jesus Christ said, I must be about my father's business.
And guess what? Church is a business. This church has bills.
This church has events that cost money. And you know what?
We're never going to charge people to partake in those events. That's always going to be paid for by the church.
But you know what? Why the church is able to do things like that is because God's people, out of their own free will, give to the local church.
And that's a good thing.
Verse number 12,
If others be partakers of this power over you, or not we rather,
Nevertheless, we have not used this power, but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
So Paul, he decided to work a secular job. And like I mentioned, there's nothing in the world wrong with that.
There's many pastors that do that for many, many years. That's great.
Do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple?
And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?
Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
So notice it is actually God that has chosen, that has ordained that those that preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
I had someone one time after a service argue with me for like an hour and a half on why tithing is unbiblical,
which is weird because my sermon had nothing to do with tithing, so I don't know why this even happened.
I definitely learned some lessons from this conversation, but I'm just thinking like if God has ordained,
God has ordained, he chose that ministers of the gospel should live of the gospel.
Please explain to me how that's supposed to happen without people tithing.
Yeah, it doesn't. Please explain to me how lights are paid for with no money by faith.
Lord, just pray that my landlord won't kick me out, even though we're not paying him any money.
That's not how Jews work, my friend. They want the money.
OK, they love money. Go to First Timothy, chapter number six.
First Timothy chapter six. And also get your place in Psalm chapter twenty nine.
First Timothy six, Psalm twenty nine.
We're talking about it. Hey, if God has blessed you with that type of strength, give your strength unto the Lord.
Of course, God has blessed all of us in varying ways in that first.
First Timothy six, 17, charge them that are rich in this world.
So, you know, if you are someone that's rich, this versus for you here that they be not high minded,
nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.
So if you are rich, you have to be reminded not to be high minded,
not to be prideful, just in the sense that if a man is super strong physically and, you know,
he could deadlift 500 pounds and he could bench 315 or whatever,
there could be a tendency for that guy to be really prideful. Right. To think like, man, I'm all that.
I'm so strong. I'm so awesome. Well, in the same way, if someone is very strong financially,
they're often tempted to think like, I'm so great. I'm so wonderful. I'm so smart.
I'm so skilled. And that's why I was able to amass all of this wealth.
But notice, God is admonishing us. If God has blessed you in that way, be not high minded, but rather fear.
Right. Because God can take away our strength like that. The guy that could deadlift 500 pounds.
The next time you deadlift, God could snap your spine into. OK. Oh, you got lots of money.
Well, that could be taken away from you so fast. It's not even funny.
It could all be gone in a moment. And so we shouldn't trust in uncertain riches.
We should trust in the Lord. Verse 18. They that that they do good, that they be rich in good works.
Ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up for store for themselves,
a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
And, you know, in the time to come, when we die, in the time to come,
when we're at the judgment seat of Christ and we're judged for our works,
your money has absolutely nothing to do with anything. Your money holds zero value when you're dead.
Actually, it holds no value now because the Jews ruined it in 1913 with the Federal Reserve.
That's another sermon. OK. But here's the thing. You know, don't trust in those things because they can be taken away from you at any moment.
And when that day comes, you know, that's not going to help you with anything.
You're not going to get any rewards in heaven for being rich.
But, you know, you actually could get rewards in heaven for is using your money and giving your strength unto the Lord,
using your money to help the church do great things for God, to do missions trips, to do events, to have a pastor,
to have all these things that we like to do as a church.
You know, God will reward you for that in heaven, but you're not going to be rewarded just for simply having money.
Go back to Psalm 29, Psalm chapter 29. So what's the sermon about?
Give your strength to the Lord. You have strength. It doesn't matter what kind of strength that is physically.
You know, just taking other people's burdens, serving others financially, whatever strength you have, give to the Lord.
But I think a lot of times us in life, we can feel like we don't have much strength left to give.
We could feel like our strength is failing us and that we're, you know, just becoming bogged down and tired and weak.
But what I want you to notice is in Psalm 29 one, notice what it says.
Give unto the Lord. Oh, ye mighty. Give unto the Lord glory and strength.
But skip down to verse 11. Notice what happens when you give the Lord your strength.
The Lord will give strength unto his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace.
So notice it's not a one way transaction here where God is saying, give me your strength, give me your strength, give me your strength.
Those that actually do give their strength to the Lord. The Bible says that God will strengthen them, that God will give them strength.
Let's end on this verse. Go to Isaiah chapter number 40, Isaiah chapter number 40.
You know, if God sees you using your body to serve him, he's probably going to keep giving you strength in that body.
If God sees you using your life and using your strength to love your brothers and sisters in Christ,
he's probably going to strengthen you and give you strength and power and energy to continue to do that.
If God sees you, you know, you have strength financially and you're using that strength of the kingdom of God,
he'll probably keep giving you strength in that area. But when you decide not to give your strength to the Lord,
that's when you'll actually become weak. Last verse here, Isaiah 40 verse 31.
But they that wait upon the Lord, that's referring to serving him like a waiter serves,
but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.
And they shall walk and not faint. And notice that is counterintuitive to our flesh, right?
That the Bible is telling us work really hard and then God will renew your strength.
And he's saying you're going to run and not be weary. That's crazy to think about because when I run,
I get really tired. I get really weary. But obviously we're talking spiritually here.
It says when you walk, you won't faint. And you know what this is talking about?
This is talking about God's hand moving upon your life and God supernaturally blessing you with strength when he sees you working for him.
So oftentimes, you know, if you feel tired, you feel bogged down, you feel burnt out.
Our human tendency can be like, well, I need to stop. I need to stop serving God.
I need to stop doing these things because I'm getting tired. Whereas the truth is, we need to continue to serve the Lord.
We need to continue to give our strength unto the Lord. And when we give our strength to the Lord, he'll strengthen us in return.
Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this day and thank you for the strength that you've given our church.
I pray that we would steward it wisely, that we would give our strength to you in any way we possibly can.
And I just pray that you would give us the energy and power and sustenance and resources and strength to continue to serve you and to love those in our community.
We love you in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Alright, at this time, we'll turn to our last hymn for the evening. If you will grab your hymnals, turn to number 355.
What a friend we have in Jesus.
Hymn number 355355. What a friend we have in Jesus.
We'll sing there on the first.
What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear.
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.
Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear.
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful? Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy-waken? Cumbered with a load of care.
Precious Savior, still our refuge. Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy praises rise for safety? Take it to the Lord in prayer.
In His arms He'll take and shield me. Thou wilt find us all this way.