["Pomp and Circumstance"]
We're going to start the announcements, so we're going to go right on to the next song, song number 208.
Song number 208, Grace is Greater Than I Said. You'll recognize it from the moment it comes.
Alright, song number 208.
["Grace is Greater Than I Said"]
This is from Luke chapter 11.
Luke chapter 11.
Verse 1 of the Bible reads,
When it came to the past, as He was praying in a certain place,
when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him,
Lord, teach us to pray,
as John also taught His disciples.
And He said unto them, When ye pray,
say, Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come,
and will be done, as in heaven and so on earth.
Give us day by day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone as indebted to us.
When He is not in a situation,
He never should be one.
And He said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend,
and shall go unto Him at midnight,
and say unto them, Friend, let me be three loaves,
for a friend of mine in this journey
has come to me, and hath nothing to set before him.
And he from within shall answer and say,
Trouble be not, the door is now shut,
and my children are with me in bed.
I cannot rise and give them.
I say unto you, We will not rise and give them,
because He is His friend,
yet because of His opportunity,
He will rise and give them as many as He need them.
And I say unto you, Ask,
and it shall be given unto you,
to seek, and it shall find,
and it shall be opened unto you.
For everyone that asketh, receive it,
and he that seeketh, find it,
to him that knoweth, it shall be opened.
If a son shall ask bread of any of you as a father,
will you give him a stone?
Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
Or if he shall be an eagle,
will he give good gifts unto your children?
How much more shall your heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to them that asketh?
And he was casting out a devil who was dumb,
and it came to pass that the devil was gone out,
and the devil stayed, and the people wondered.
But some of them said,
He cast out devils through the algebra,
the chief of the devils.
Another said, The tempeter saw that a sign
came from heaven.
But he, knowing the thoughts, said unto them,
Every kingdom divided against itself
shall be divided against a house fallen.
If Satan also be divided against himself,
how shall his kingdom stand?
Because his say, I cast out devils through the algebra.
And if I, by the algebra,
cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out?
Therefore shall they be your judges.
But if I, with the finger of God,
cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God
is come upon you.
When a strong man armed keep this palace,
his goods are in peace.
For when a strong man in he cometh,
he shall come upon him, and overcoming,
he takeeth from him all his armor,
where he trusteth, and diviseth spoils.
He that is not with me is against me.
He that gathereth not with me is scattered.
When the unseen spirit is gone out of the man,
he walketh through dry places,
seeking rest, and finding none,
he saith, I will return him to my house
whence I came out.
And when he cometh, he findeth sweat and garnish.
Then goeth he, and takeeth to him
seven other spirits who are awakened to himself.
And they enter in, dwell there,
and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
And it came to pass, as he must take these things,
a certain woman with the company
lifted up her voice, and said unto him,
Blessed is the womb that bear thee,
and the past which shall it suck.
But he said, Yea, rather blessed are they
to hear the word of God and keep it.
And when the people were gathered thick together,
he began to say, This is an evil generation,
and they seek a sign, but there shall no sign be given
but a sign of Jonas the prophet.
For as Jonas was a sign of the Ninevites,
so also shall the son of man be to his generation.
The queen of the south shall rise up in judgment
with the men of this generation, and condemn them,
for she came from the utmost parts of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
And behold, the greater than Solomon is here.
The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment
with this generation, and shall condemn them,
for they are pented at the preaching of Jonas.
And behold, the greater than Jonas is here.
No man, when he hath lighted a candle,
puteth in a secret place,
neither under a bushel, but on a canvas pole.
They which come in may see the light.
The light of the body is the eye.
Therefore, when that eye is single,
that whole body also is full of light.
But when that eye is evil,
that body also is full of darkness.
Take heed, therefore, that the light,
which is in thee, be not darkness.
That whole body, therefore, be full of light,
having no part dark to be full of light,
as when the bright shining of the candle
was giving light.
And as he spake, a certain Pharisee
saw him, the dynamite,
and he went in and sat down to meet.
He marveled that he had not first washed before dinner.
And the Lord said unto him,
Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside
of the cup and the platter, for your inward part
is full of raving and wickedness.
He fools, did not he,
that made that which is without,
take that which is within also,
but rather give alms to such things that we have.
And behold, all things are clean unto you.
But woe unto us, Pharisees,
for ye tithe in it, and ruin all manner of earth,
and pass over judgment, and love of God.
These I each have done,
and I leave the other undone.
Woe unto you, Pharisees, for ye love the uppermost seats
and synagogues and greetings in the markets.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you have graves
which appear not, and the men that walk
over them are not aware of it.
Then actually one of the lawyers
had said unto him, Master, dost sayest thou
who approaches us also?
And he said, Woe unto you, also ye lawyers,
for ye lay men with burdens grievous to be borne,
and ye yourselves touch not the burdens
with one of your fingers.
Woe unto them, for ye build the seculars
of his prophets, and your fathers kill them.
Truly ye bear witness that ye allow
the deeds of your fathers, for they
indeed kill them, and ye build
their seculars. Therefore also
said the wisdom of God, I will send them
prophets and apostles, and some of them
they shall slay and persecute, but the blood
of all the prophets, which was shed
from the foundation of the world,
may be required of this generation, from the blood
of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias,
which were yet to perish between the altar
and the temple. Barely I say unto you,
it shall be required of this generation.
Woe unto you, lawyers, we have taken away
the key of knowledge. Be entered not in
yourselves, and then though we're entering
in, be hindered. And as he said these things
unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees
began to urge him behemingly,
and provoke him to speak of many things,
laying weight for him, and seeking to
catch something out of his mouth, that they might
accuse him. Elder Allen, would you pray for us?
Thank you, Father God,
for this service
Amen.
All right, so first of all, I'd like to thank
Pastor for this opportunity
to be here, and also Deacon Russell.
He's sick, so be praying for him,
and all you guys for showing up as well.
This is a great honor to be
here, and I love coming down here and being able
to visit with you guys. And the
title of my sermon tonight
is called, Keeping the Basics.
Keeping the Basics.
Now I first heard this term from
Brother Segura a long time ago.
Basically what he says is
whenever somebody comes to him with some sort of an
issue, they say, oh Brother Segura, I'm
depressed, or I have some
issue in my life. I have something bad
going on, and I need advice, or whatever.
He always asks them the same
question first. He says, are you keeping
the basics? And what he means by that
is that, you know,
basically this is a topic in my sermon tonight
and what he means by that is
the way that he puts it, there's five basics of the
Christian life, and I want to go over this.
This is going to be my five points for you tonight.
And those five points
would be prayer, Bible
reading, soul winning, church attendance,
and tithing. So these are the five
things that Brother Segura asks, and it's
like, you know, are you doing these things? Because
really if you're not doing these things, then God can't
bless you in these other areas and stuff like that.
You need to be keeping these basics.
And so I'd like to preach this tonight
just as a reminder for the new year
coming up that we should be keeping these things
and our lives. And
you know, you may say to yourself, like, you know,
Brother Raymond, I don't want to hear about this. I already know all
this. You know, I already go to church
and I already read my Bible and I already pray.
But you know, we need to be reminded
of these things continually, constantly.
You know, the Bible says,
you know, I've just got a few verses right here about that.
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth
take heed lest he fall. It's very easy
to forget these things in the Christian life.
The Bible says if the foundations
be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
So these are foundational truths
from the Word of God that I'd like to
expound to you tonight. And then also
too, the Bible says to write the same things to you
to me indeed is not grievous, but for you
it is safe. So it's safe to preach these
things that are kind of the basics,
kind of the foundational things
in our Christian life. But then not only
that too, I'm also
going to be, you know, adding some challenges
in there as well. So let's say that you are
the person that's keeping these five basic
things. You're like, yep, check, check, check.
I've got all these things down. I'm also going to be
adding in some little challenges at the end for
those people who want to take their Christian life
to the next step in this new
year coming up. So all of us should be at that
basic, the basic level, but then also
too, if you're already there, then
you know, push it to the next level in this upcoming
year. And so my first point to you tonight
is that you need to have some sort of a prayer
life. You need to have prayer in
your life, prayer to God. So you're
there in Luke chapter 11. Look down
if you would at verse number one and we'll begin
here. It says, and it came to pass that as he was
praying in a certain place, when he
ceased, one of his disciples said
unto him, Lord, teach us
to pray as John also taught
his disciples. So the first thing I want
to point out is that the disciples saw
how important prayer is.
And you know, I was thinking about this. This isn't
in my notes, but I was thinking about this on my drive
down here. But you know, every, pretty much
everything in the Christian life starts
with prayer if you think about it.
Think about it. You know, our salvation
it started whenever we prayed, whenever
we asked Jesus to save us, right? The Bible
says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the
Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God
hath raised from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Think about it. You know, before you start
reading the Bible, you need to pray first and ask God
to open your, my eyes
that I might behold wondrous things from out of thy law.
Before we go soul winning, we start off with
prayer. Before we have church, we
start off with prayer. Everything starts
with prayer. Prayer is just so
important to have in your life.
Not only whenever you're doing
those things with a group or whatever, but then
also in your own private life
as well. So let's get into that. In verse
number two, it says, and he said unto them,
When ye pray, say, Our Father which
art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done as in earth or
as in heaven, so in earth.
So the first thing that he's telling you to do
is he says, you know, basically to praise
the Lord. You know, I would look at this as just
praising the Lord. And, you know, I've heard
this said too. I've never fact checked
this, but I've heard it said that the
number one commandment in the Bible is to
praise the Lord. That's stated
more often than any other commandment. And I would
say that that's probably true. You know, the Bible
just says over and over again. How about
Psalm 1 17 that we sing as a
church sometime. Oh, praise the Lord, all ye
nations. Praise him, all ye people, for his
merciful kindness is great towards us, and
the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise
ye the Lord. So, you know,
the first thing is that we got to praise him,
you know, and then look at verse number
three. It says, Give us day by day our
daily bread. And, you
know, this right here, too, I believe this is talking
about the word of God. Of course, you know, give
us the word of God. Help
us to know your word. This could be, you know,
as as in us asking for wisdom
or asking God to teach us his word, because
maybe we get this idea sometimes that,
oh, you know, God's already given me his word
in the King James Bible, and all I can and
all I have to do is just open it up and start reading
it. But really, before we ever
crack it open and start reading, we need
to ask God to show us, you know, what his
word says, because God is the one that teaches
us. If you're reading in the in the
flesh or whatever, you're not reading in the
spirit, then you're not really going to get very much
out of it, you know. And just for a verse on
this, it says in Psalm 1 19 in verse
102, it says, I have not departed
from my judgments for thou has
taught me. So see, God is the
one that teaches us his word,
the Holy Spirit living inside of us. He's the one
that's going to guide us and lead us into all truth.
And so we need to
pray that God will give us day by
day our daily bread. He's going to teach us
the word of God. That's what we need to be praying
as well. And look at verse number four. It says
and forgive us our sins, for
we also forgive everyone that is indebted
to us and lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil.
And so the third thing here is
that we need to ask for forgiveness. You know, we're
sinners. We sin every single day.
You know, I believe that we can't go through an
entire day without sinning at some point.
And so we need to constantly be asking God
to forgive us for those things.
And that's pretty
pretty simple as well. So
let's continue. Verse five. And he said
unto them, Which of you shall have a friend
and shall go unto him at midnight and
say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves
for a friend of mine is in a journey
and his journey has come to me
and I have nothing to set before him.
And he from within
shall answer and say, trouble me not
the doors now shut and my children
are with me in bed. I cannot rise
and give thee. I say unto you,
though he will not rise and give him
because he is his friend
yet because of his importunity
he will rise and give him as many
as he needeth. I say unto you,
ask and it shall be given you.
Seek and ye shall find, knock
and it shall be opened unto you.
For everyone that asketh receiveth
and he that seeketh findeth and to him
that knocketh it shall be opened.
If a son shall ask bread of you
of any of you that is a father, will he
give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish
will he for a fish give
him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an
egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
If he then being evil know how to give
good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your heavenly father give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask
him? And so these last several verses
are talking about asking God for things
asking God for our needs
for our for our desires
according to his will.
And what I want to point out here
is that you know at whenever
the disciples ask Jesus to teach
them how to pray he didn't immediately go to the
asking part. Now the word pray just means
to ask and that that really is what prayer
is it's just asking God for things but he
didn't start there he started by first
praising the Lord and then asking
to teach us his word and then
asking for forgiveness
for their sins and I think the reason for
that is just because you know we need to get
right with him before we start giving him all
of our requests if we just you know call out and we're
just like God I want this I want this I want
this I want this but we're not praising him we're not
asking for forgiveness of our sins we're not
you know asking him to help us know his word
better then you know I mean
yeah that's not right you know we need to
start out you know praising him and
and these things first and so I think that's why
Jesus started with those things and then went
on to the asking part but of course
yeah you know asking that is what prayer
means is just to ask Jesus and
so turn if you would to Genesis
chapter 32 Genesis 32
while you're turning there
I'll read to you a couple other verses as well
In 1 John 5 it says in verse 14
and this is the confidence that we have
in him that if we ask anything
according to his will he heareth
us and if we know that he hear us
whatsoever we ask we know that we have
the petitions that we desire of him
and so we can have this confidence that we're
if we're asking according to his will we have
those things that we've asked of him and
so this is a great honor and a great
privilege that we have to talk to
God and to ask him for the things that we
need in our daily life
and a couple other verses in 1 Thessalonians
5 it says just pray
without ceasing right that's a very easy
command very small very short
sweet to the point and and
that's how we need to be is praying without
ceasing now you're there in Genesis 32
I want to show you a symbolic story
of prayer it says in verse
number 24 now
if you know the story up to this point
basically Jacob is is going back
to see his brother Esau after about 20
years of being separated and
so and he's
nervous he's worried about his brother Esau
that he's going to hurt him because
of you know all the messed up stuff that
Jacob did to Esau before so
look down if you would at verse number 24
it says and Jacob was left alone
okay so he had separated
himself from the rest of the people that was
with him his wives and his children
so he was left alone and there wrestled a
man with him until the breaking of
the day and so this
is Jesus we'll see in just a minute and
then it says in verse 25 and when he saw
that he prevailed not against him he touched the
hollow of his thigh and the hollow of Jacob's
thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with
him and so notice you know he's
wrestling with this man just like whenever we
pray we're wrestling with God and
basically you know it cost him
something for the rest of his life he's going to have
this issue in his thigh because he was wrestling
with God and then verse 26 and he said
let me go for the day breaketh
and he said I will not let thee go except thou
bless me and he said unto him
what is thy name and he said Jacob
and he said thy name shall be called no
more Jacob but Israel for as a
prince has thou power with God
and with men and has prevailed
and so I love this verse right here
so this is symbolic of
prayer because basically if
you look at it symbolically Jacob is spending
all night in prayer you know he's just praying
to God he's just calling out to him and he's wrestling
with him because it's something that happens that's
fervently right the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man will avail much
and so it's a very fervent it's a very
strenuous thing
and you know and then Jacob is wrestling
with this man it's symbolized here
and then he goes on to say that he has
power with God and with men
the reason that he says this is because you know
whenever we pray we can have power with
God meaning that we can change God's mind
about things you know and I don't have time to go
through all the examples in the Bible but there are many
times in the Bible where God has made up his
mind he's like this is what's going to happen and
then somebody prays and then he changes his
mind because prayer changes things
and you know we can have power
with God and with men as well
and what I want to take from that
is that you know through our prayers
we can change people's hearts
we can change people's attitudes
what do I mean by that like for example if you had
somebody in your family for example
who's maybe a hard case who doesn't want to hear the
gospel or whatever then you can pray to God
that he would basically
you know soften his heart
make him receptive to the gospel and you
know things can change you know
you can change you can have power with
men through praying to God because God
can bring circumstances in those people's lives
and you know
help their situation and help your situation
as well and you know it's no
coincidence that in the next few
verses after this you know
Jacob is so worried that Esau is
going to hurt him Esau is still going to be mad
after 20 years but you know what Esau if you
know the story he's very congenial he meets
Jacob and he's so happy to see him
you know maybe that's a direct
reason or that's a
direct result of this night of prayer that Jacob
spent you know we don't really know but I do
think that it's great that that just
proceeds right after this comes right
after this and so prayer changes things
okay and so don't neglect your
prayer life it is 100%
vital to your Christian
life if you don't have prayer
in your life at all then all the
rest of the things that we're going to go through
tonight just doesn't even matter because you need
prayer this is where it starts it starts
with asking God asking
God for help in your life
and you know maybe you
already have a prayer life well here's your challenge
for the next year and I'd just like to throw this
in here but you know let me
stress this point of praying also
on your knees as well so
you know we don't hear a lot of preaching about this
but you know what there is many examples in the
Bible it's not a commandment but there are lots of
examples of praying on your knees kneeling
before God because it is an act
of humility so it's really good to do this
let me just share with you a
verse it says in Psalm 95 it says
oh come let us worship and bow down
let us kneel before the Lord our maker
so it is an act
of humility and I think that
it's good to do it and you know whenever
I'm whenever you're alone you
should strive to do this
you know whenever you're in your closet
by yourself or whatever
maybe you have to make an effort to do this but
I think this is good it'll change your
heart I believe if you just make this
one little small change you may think to yourself
like oh well that that's no big deal I can
just pray here or I can pray while I'm driving
and that's great and I do that as well and that's
and that's correct but
there's just something about that humility
the act of humility of just
getting on your knees before God and so I think
that's a great thing and if you're not already
doing that then I think that you should
challenge yourself and try to do that you know
do that every day if you can
this upcoming year I think that that's very important
so turn if you would to
Psalm 119
so my second point for you tonight
is your Bible reading okay
now I'm about to
now Joshua 1 8 says
this book of the law shall not depart out of
thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein
day and night that thou mayest observe to do
according to all that is written therein
for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous
and then thou shalt have
all that is written therein
for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous
and then thou shalt have
good success this is one of my favorite Bible
or favorite verses out of the entire
Bible and here's
what I really want to stress with this is that
you know I want
you to well I mean it's one thing
to mark it off on a piece of paper right
to have like a Bible reading schedule
and I'm all for that I have my
Bible reading schedule as well and
I have it on my phone and I think that's
great but don't let Bible reading just
become some mundane thing
just something where you're just going through the motions
you're not really feeling it you
know we we should love the word of
God you know we should be happy
to to hear the word of God we should
love it we should want it we should want
the word of God we should want to read it should not be a drudgery
it should not be something where we're just going through the motions
you know the Bible says in Romans 7
it says fry the light and the
law of God after the inward
man so in our flesh we you know
we may not want to read the Bible but you know what we need
to put off the flesh and put on the new
man and we just need to read the Bible and we
need to love the word of God
in Mark chapter 12 it says
and one of the scribes came and having heard
them reasoning together and perceiving
that he had answered them well and asked him
which is the first commandment
of all and Jesus answered him the first
of all the commandments is hear O Israel
the Lord our God is one Lord and thou
shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart
and with all thy soul and with all thy mind
with all thy strength this is the
first commandment you know you may
ask you know what does loving God have to do
with reading the Bible everything
you know what I mean God is the word
or yeah God is Jesus
is the word Jesus is the word of God
and so how can you say that you know you
love God if you don't love his word you know what I mean
so we need to love the word of God
we need to just you know read
it but not only just read it we need to
love it and you're there in Psalm 119
and you know I've got
a full page here of
verses from this one chapter that just
talks about loving God's word
we're just going to read a whole bunch of verses right here
about 30 verses we're just
going to go through really really quickly
but look down if you would at verse number 14
it says I have rejoiced in the way
of thy testimonies as much as in
all riches
so notice that in as much as in all riches
imagine somebody who wins the lottery
how excited they're going to be they're going to be like
whoa I just won the lottery
I just won three hundred and twenty
million dollars or something like that
you know what we need to be that way about God's word
we need to rejoice more in God's
word than if we were to win the lottery
you know that's that's strong language
right there look just a couple verses
down in verse 16
I will delight myself in thy statutes
I will not forget thy
word over and over again we're going to see this
word delight delight delight
we need to delight ourselves in the word
of God verse 20
it says my soul breaketh for the
belonging that it hath unto
thy judgments at all times
imagine someone that you miss you miss
dearly maybe someone who passed away
or maybe someone that you've been away from for a long time
and your heart and your soul breaketh
you just want to see that person that's how we need to feel
about the word of God look at this
it says at all times we need to just be
breaking like man I can't wait to get
back to reading the word of God you know
look at verse number 24 it says thy
testimonies also are my delight in my
counselors verse 35
make me to go in the path of thy commandments
for therein do I delight
behold I have longed after
thy precepts quicken me
in thy righteousness 47
and I will delight myself in thy commandments
which I have loved I have
loved your commandments verse 70
their heart is as fat as grease but
I delight in thy law
verse 72 the law
of thy mouth is better unto
me than thousands of gold
and silver the law of thy mouth
is better than thousands of gold
and silver thousands of what thousands of
coins thousands of ounces thousands of
pounds thousands of tons it doesn't really
matter because your word
is better than all that stuff it
says in verse 77 let thy tender
mercies come unto me that I may live for
thy law is my delight
unless thy law had been my delight
I should then have perished in mine
affliction verse 97 oh how
love I thy law it is my
meditation all the day
how often do you think of the word of God
how often is it on your mind how
often are you meditating on it because
here he's saying that it's his meditation
all the day I think we can all work on
that and then it just keeps going on
and on and on how sweeter
thy words into my taste yea sweeter
than honey to my mouth and
then it goes on to say I hate vain thoughts
but thy law do I
love and then it just keeps going
on and on oh I'll just
point out a couple more here one is
verse 131 it says
I opened my mouth and panted
for I longed for
thy commandments just think about the thirstiest
that you've ever been that's how much we should
love the word of God I just need it
I need the word of God and then in verse
148 this will be
my last verse mine eyes
or 147 I prevented
the dawning of the morning and cried I
hoped in thy word and then
verse 148 mine
eyes prevent the night watches that
I might meditate in thy word
he's talking about reading the word of God all
night long that's how much he loves
the word of God and so see we need some
of these attributes right here I'm not
I'm not saying that I'm perfect at this and
I know that none of us are really you know
loving God's word the way that we
should at all times but that's what he's
saying here and this should be the standard this should be
you know what we you know want to shoot
for especially in this new year
coming up you know you need to fix this in your life if you
don't love the word of God I have found
myself since I've been saved you know I've
said I've been in and times whenever
I've kind of grown cold to the things
of God and I thought to myself
man I just don't love the word of God the way
that I should and you know what we all go through
those times but we need to fix that we need
to love God's word and
we you know
yeah we just need to love it I just can't
express to you how much that's
so important and I skipped a whole bunch
of verses by the way I'd like 30 verses but
I didn't want to belabor the point too much
but you know and
let me point this out too God wants to have
like a good relationship with us you know
because our relationship to God is where
his children he's our father and
you know he loves us and here's the thing
about that what if I never spoke to my kids
or my kids never spoke to me we just never talked
to each other they just left the house and
we just never had any
fellowship at all you know that's not what God
wants you know what I mean God wants to talk to you
through his word he wants you to talk to him through
prayer he wants to have that good relationship
with you and you know if you
struggle in this area of loving God
then God can help you and I've got many
verses here that from the
same chapter but it just says make me to
understand the way of thy precepts
so shall I talk of thy wondrous
works and it says that I
will run the way of thy commandments
when thou shalt enlarge my heart
and it says incline my
heart unto thy testimonies and
not to covenness over and over again he's
asking God to change his heart and
you know if you if this is you if
you're struggling in this area where you don't love
the word of God the way that you should then you
just need to just ask God to help you
you know I had to do that at that time
and I just asked God God please
just change my heart make me love your
word and you know he can help you
with that he wants you he wants to be
close to you in that way
and so my challenge for you this
year is maybe you are reading your Bible
maybe you have the Bible reading plan
where you're going to read it through the year
in one year and that's great and you know
if you've been saved for over a year but you haven't read the
Bible yet then you know shame on you you need to do
that and I'm not against that
I have that myself but
you know here's the challenge right here
love the word of God don't just go through the motions
but love the word of God
you know just you crave it
you need it you long after it your heart
breaks after you delight in God's word
this is the challenge for you this year
turn if you would to Acts chapter 20
Acts chapter 20
my next point is about church attendance
okay so we need to emphasize
church attendance this is being
so much de-emphasized in the world
that we live in today but look at how Jesus
feels about this in Acts 20 look down if you
would at verse 28 Acts 20 28
it says take heed therefore
unto yourselves and to all the flock
over the which the Holy Ghost has made you
overseers to feed look at this the
church of God which he referring to
Jesus has purchased with his own
blood Jesus
loves the church so much that he purchased
it with his blood that's how important
church is in Ephesians 5
it says husbands love your wives even
as Christ also loved the church and
gave himself for it see
God gave us church
because he loves church he knows
that's so important and we need to get this
same attitude that church is
so important turn if you would to
John chapter 20 John chapter 20
you know Jesus thinks that church is
important enough to die for but you
know we can't even make it for
you know all the three services a week or
whatever you know that's that's a shame
we need to you know we need to make
it to the church services
now in John chapter 20
unless there's some sort of you know
hindrance as far as sickness or whatever
I know deacon wrestles sick tonight so
but um but other than that we need to
in general we need to make it the church
of course now you're there in John
chapter 20 look down if you would at
verse number 19 I'm going to show you a
bad example of somebody who did not
value church enough okay verse number
19 it says then the same day at evening
being the first day of the week so
notice this is Sunday evening this is
the Sunday night church when the doors
were shut where the disciples were
assembled for fear of the Jews came
Jesus and stood in the midst and saith
unto them peace be unto you and we and
when he had so said
he showed unto them his
hands and his side then were the
disciples glad when they saw the
Lord then said Jesus to them
again peace be unto you as my father
hath sent me even so send I you
and we and when he had said this
he breathed on them and saith unto
them receive ye the Holy Ghost
whosoever sins you remit
they are admitted unto them and who's
so ever sins you retain
they are retained so this is a fantastic
church service probably one of the greatest
church services that ever happened
whenever Jesus actually physically showed
up in in the flesh
after his resurrection but look at this
next verse it says in verse 24 but
Thomas doubting Thomas
but Thomas one of the 12 called
Didymus was not with them when
Jesus came he skipped out on Sunday
night church look what happened the other
disciples therefore said unto him we
have seen the Lord but he said unto
unto them except I shall see
and his hands the print of the nails
and put my finger into the print of
the nails and thrust my hand into
his side I will not believe
so here's a guy who did not value
church here's a guy who just who
who didn't want to come to the Sunday night
service and and you know I don't know why
he didn't show up the Bible doesn't tell us but you know what
for all of the rest of history he goes
down in history as being doubting Thomas
and you know you never know when
that fantastic life-changing
service will be at church you know what I mean
and the thing is yeah
you know you can catch the live stream all day long
but you know the Bible says that where two
or three are gathered in my name there am I in the
midst of them and I
don't know if you know this or not but right now while we're
gathered here as I'm preaching you
know the Spirit of the Lord is here with us
right now because you know this is
church and God has ordained church to be
the place where we meet and talk about him
and all that good stuff and
so and there's many other reasons
for going to church you know I have a lot of
reasons here such as we congregate to
pray you know in Mark chapter 11 it
says and he taught saying
unto them is it not
written my house shall be called of all
nations the house of prayer but ye
have made it a den of thieves so his
house is a house of prayer
and let's
see what else
in fact let me give you an example of how
prayer changes things also in church
as well this kind of mixes the two
points that we already talked about but in
Acts chapter 12 you don't have to turn there
just go ahead and turn
actually I do want you to turn there
turn to Acts chapter 12 please Acts chapter 12
let's take a look at this real quick
so another great advantage that we're
talking about right now going to church
is prayer you know
praying together as a church
praying by yourself is great and we already
talked about that but we're talking now about
praying in church and
the thing is that that church really
isn't for anybody
but you you know if you're not going to church
and you're basically depriving yourself as well but look
down if you would Acts chapter 12 look down at
verse number one it says now about
that time Herod the king stretched forth his
hands to vex certain of the church and
he killed James the brother of John with the
sword and because he saw it pleased the Jews
he proceeded further to take Peter also
then were the days of unleavened bread
and when he had apprehended him
he put him in prison
and delivered him to four quaternions
of soldiers to keep him
intending after Easter to bring him forth
to the people Peter therefore
was kept in prison look at this but prayer
was made without ceasing
of the church unto God
for him and if you know the rest of the
and if you know the rest of the story then Peter's
broken out of prison and by the end of the chapter
Herod's dead Herod dies from
from worms eating his brain
so that's pretty crazy
it's a crazy story you know what it happened
why because prayer was made
of the church without ceasing
and so you know we whenever
we pray up here you know before the services
and you know I know
often times too in Tempe
whenever we have somebody who's going through a really
hard time maybe they're going through something
life threatening you know disease
or whatever then we always pray for them as well
from behind the pulpit you know all together
and so prayer is so important at church
not only that
the Bible says in 1 Timothy 3.15
it says but if I tarry long that thou mayest know how
thou oughtest to behave thyself and the house of
God which is the church of the living
God the pillar and ground of the truth
the church is where you get
the truth you get the truth preached to you
this is where you learn the truth
and then here's another great
reason to come to church Romans 10.15
and how shall they preach except they be sent right
so going soloing you know preaching the gospel
to every creature and we'll talk
more about soloing in a few minutes but
you know the thing is that we need to
be preached from or we need to
be sent from the church to go out soloing
and to go out preaching and
and so if we're not
sent by the church and we can't really be effective
in this area God has ordained it this
way and then finally
I want to point out Psalm 1.22
it says I was glad when they said unto me
let us go into the house of the Lord
and if there's one theme throughout the entire sermon
tonight it is just you know all
these things are going to come so easily
and naturally if you just love God you know what I mean
if you love the word of God if you love God
you're going to pray to him if you love the Lord
then you're going to be glad when they said unto me
let us go into the house of the Lord and so
it's all about this delight delighting yourself
in the Lord and I guess that's the
one great theme of this
sermon but
I want to challenge you so if
you're already going to church at least once a week
then that's great you're fulfilling the commandment
but you know what I want to challenge you to go to all three
services this upcoming year
that's what God would prefer if you go to all
three services and we
need more church as the day is approaching
not less you know what I mean
so that's a challenge for
you in this upcoming year
and then let's talk about my fourth point
tonight which is tithing we need to be
tithing so
let's see here turn if you would to 1 Corinthians
chapter 9 1 Corinthians chapter
9 I'll read to you some familiar verses
from Malachi chapter 3
it says will a man rob God
yet ye have robbed me but ye say wherein have we
robbed thee and tithes and offerings
ye are cursed with a curse
for ye have robbed me even this whole
nation bring ye all the tithes into the
storehouse that there may be meat
in mine house and prove me
now therewith herewith
sayeth the Lord of hosts if I will not
open you the windows of heaven and pour you
out a blessing that there shall not
be room enough to receive it so what's
he saying here he's saying that look you haven't been
tithing in a while and you're robbing me
but if you start tithing then
I will open you the windows of
heaven and pour you out a blessing so
God will bless us and he even goes so far
as to say he says prove me prove me
you know prove me wrong I'm
saying right here that I'm going to bless you
just do your tithe and then prove me wrong
and then you know of course
he's going to bless us so he's saying prove me
so he wants to show you
that he will bless you but you know
you need to be tithing in order to do that
and in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 look down
if you would at verse number 4
it says have we not power to
eat and to drink 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 or I only
and Barnabas have not we power
to forbear working
who goeth a warfare at any time
at his own charges who planteth a
vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof
or who feedeth a flock and eateth
not of the milk of the flock say are these
things as a man or saith not the law
the same also for it
is written in the law of Moses thou
shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox
that treadeth out the corn does God
take care for oxen or saith
it all together for our sakes for
our sakes no doubt this is written that he
that ploweth should plow in hope and that
he that thresheth in hope should
be a partaker of his hope if
we have sown unto you spiritual things it is
a great thing is it a great thing
if we shall reap your carnal things
if others be partakers of this power
over you are not we rather
nevertheless we have not
used this power but suffer all things
lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ
do ye 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 of the altar
even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach
the gospel should live of the gospel
and so you know whenever you tithe
it goes to the church it goes to
you know the people who work
for church of course and you know
the thing is that I think that we probably
have the most generous church
of all time probably
you know I've never heard of a church
that is so generous as us
I mean we have like weekend
trips almost every single weekend
going all over the state
and then we have school field trips
we have lots of food all the time
we have dinners and potlucks and
picnics and all kinds of crazy stuff
going on and you know
that all comes from our tithe money that
we give myself included
and I mean we have mission trips that
come up I mean even right now as I'm
speaking we have six people that's in the
Bahamas right now they're getting all these crazy amounts
of people saved they got over 400
people saved already so far so they're coming
back in a few days and you know
church helped out with that as well and
not to even mention just having a beautiful pulpit
here I mean I haven't been here since you guys got the new mural
but this is great you know and I'm sure that
some of the tithe money went to that as well
and so you know it's great to tithe
it actually helps you out you know
God already told you that he's going to bless you he says
prove me and so I can show you
that I'm going to bless you and
it's and you know we're just blessed with a great
church you know if I if I went to a church where
they were just abusing the tithe or taking
it or doing whatever with it that wasn't
good then you know maybe I wouldn't want
to either but you know what God has commanded it and guess
what you've been blessed to be at a great
church that you know that the money is going to
something really really good getting people safe
you know and so
you know
and so that is the
the basic there the basics right
we're talking about the basics tonight is tithing
this is the next basic but let me give
a little challenge on top of that so let's say
that you're already tithing that's great but here's
a little bit of challenge how about and this is a
slightly different topic but how about just
giving right alms giving giving
the bible talks a lot about this Jesus
talked a lot about this as well you know
in Matthew chapter 6
yeah you can turn over there too go
ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 6 I want you guys to
check this out but
you know we should be giving as well giving
to the poor now
by the poor I don't mean these homeless
bums that are on the side of the road with their
little sign and stuff like that obviously
you know a lot of them
they're just out there because they want to be out
there but but you know and in fact
the bible says in proverbs 29 it says
the righteous considerth the cause
of the poor so whenever you see those people
consider why are they out here why are they begging
is it because you know they have
a drug problem or alcohol
or laziness I mean why aren't their
friends helping them out their family members
you know why isn't their church helping them
out and really it just comes down to you know
obviously you know 99.9%
of them are just wicked and they're just
doing all sorts of things that they're not supposed to be doing
I mean why don't they have a job you know all
that sort of thing so I'm not saying to give to those
people but don't have this mentality that says
like well I'm not going to give to the homeless
person on the side of the street because you know he's
in a young well you know
able bodied man or whatever he should be out working
that exempts me from giving to anybody
that's not true you know we should have
some giving in our life as well because if you
finish this verse in proverbs 29 it says
the righteous considerth the cause of the poor
but if you finish the verse it says but the
wicked regardeth not to know it
so see there is a time and place whenever
we should be giving right and
the thing is that there are plenty of
opportunities to give to people that
you know for sure are good
people they're Christian people they're just going through
a hard time and you know
the bible talks about this as well but
you know we need to be giving we
need to have this in our lives I can even
name to you right now church members that
you know need help financially and stuff
so there's plenty of opportunities to give
and so yeah you know
that there's that going on but look if you would
at Matthew chapter 6 look down if you would at verse
number 1 it says take heed that you do not
your alms before men to be seen of them
otherwise you have no reward of your
father which is in heaven therefore
when thou doest thine alms do not sound
a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do
in the synagogues and in the streets that
they may have glory of men verily I say
unto you they have their reward but
when thou doest alms let not thy left
hand know with thy right hand do it that
thine alms may be in secret and
thy father which seeth in secret
himself shall reward thee openly
and so you know Jesus has taken it for
granted here like you're going to give some alms
just don't do it publicly just don't make
a big deal about it and so the thing is
now this is a different category of course
from tithing but I thought I'd mention
it as being like that little extra
challenge so if you're already tithing
great but you need to add some giving to
it as well you know this is what God's
talking about here and then finally my
final point for tonight is soul winning
so we need to you know be soul winning
Mark 16 15 says and he says in the
them go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature and you may
be saying brother Raymond every time you
come down here you preach about soul
winning and yeah I am because you know
soul winning is like the the number one
reason why we're even on this earth right
now I mean whenever you got saved why
weren't you just raptured up that moment
it's because we're supposed to go out and
get other people saved you know soul
winning you know it's just so important
so I want to expound to you some numbers
tonight I got some numbers right here
just in my conclusion basically I'm
almost done but I want to I want to wrap
up with some with some numbers because I
want this to motivate you and and I want
you to realize the the reality of hell
you know hell's a real place and a lot
of people are going to hell
unfortunately okay so let me go through
some numbers so right now just today I
have some statistics from online it says
that roughly one hundred and sixty five
thousand people die every single day in
the world that's sad but you know it's
it's not sad if they're going to heaven
but many of these people are not going
to heaven unfortunately and then in the
u.s. is seven thousand six hundred and
seventy five people die every single day
and the United States of America and
here in Arizona we have one hundred and
fifty eight people that die every single
day and this is sad this is unfortunate
but you know unfortunately the vast
majority of these people you know are
going to hell and and that's so that's
bad you know of course that makes us
really sad it's hard to talk about but
you know the vast majority of these
people are on their way to hell and I
also have here some numbers of the
world's top religions I'd like to just
go through this really quickly but you
know the top religion in the world is
Christianity but we're not going to talk
about that one right now we'll save it
for the end but then the second biggest
is Islam with 1.6 billion people that are
Muslims the next biggest is
non-religious people who are atheists or
agnostics or don't really adhere to any
sort of religion with 1.2 billion after
that is Hinduism at 1.16 billion
Buddhism at 500 million and then the
last 10 percent are just kind of weird
beliefs like animist and Judaism and
stuff like that so we have that's about
70% of the world if you're keeping up
with it so 70% of the world right now
isn't even a Christian okay but now
let's talk about the Christians and I'm
showing you and the reason I'm going
through this is to show you just how
many people are on their way to hell
today and why it's so important to
preach the gospel to every creature in
the entire world but out of the 30% of
the world that's Christians about 2
point or hold on 1.3 billion are
Catholics so of course many yeah almost
all of them are unsaved of course unless
they got saved somewhere else and just
go to a Catholic Church right I've heard
brother Segura tell the story that he
got saved by a Baptist and then for the
next two years he wasn't taught any
doctrine so he just told people like I'm
a Catholic but he was saved but you know
he he just didn't know any better but
but Catholics make up about 60% of all
you know Christians out there after that
a Protestants with 350 million and this
would be Lutherans, Methodists, Anglicans
stuff like that and after that would be
Pentecostals with 280 million
non-denominational makes up a hundred
million and then we get to us Baptists
with 100 million so there are about a
hundred million Baptists in the world
and after that there's about a 35 million
of all the other weird stuff like
Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses and stuff
like that so if you if you break it all
up if you break it all down well let me
let me say this okay so not all Baptists
are saved right you know I meet tons of
Baptists out soul winning and a lot of
them are not saved but you know what we
meet a lot of saved people too that just
go to these other churches maybe they
got saved by a Baptist a long time ago
and then they just go to these other
churches or whatever and so let's just
you know round it all out and say that
there's about a hundred million saved
people in the world hopefully there's
more than that you know maybe there's
less than I don't know but you know and
and that's just kind of a vague vague
thing but let's just say for grins that
there's a hundred million saved people
in the world that's 1.2 percent of the
world are saved that means that ninety
eight point eight percent of people in
this world are not saved today so do you
see why we need to preach the gospel to
every creature I mean we need to give
these people the opportunity to get
saved and many of them will get saved if
somebody just brings them the gospel you
know it says in Ezekiel right I mean
very familiar verses but it says that if
we blow the trumpet if we're the
watchmen then you know the blood their
blood is not on our hands but if we
don't even tell them about it then their
blood is on our hands and then the Bible
says in Isaiah 52 it says how beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of him
that bringeth good tidings that
publisheth peace that bringeth good
tidings of good that publisheth
salvation that sayeth unto Zion thy God
reigneth we need to be those people that
publish salvation we need to be telling
people how to be saved and in 2
Corinthians chapter 4 it says I
therefore saying we have this ministry
as we have received mercy we faint not
but have renounced the hidden things of
dishonesty not walking in craftiness nor
handling the Word of God deceitfully but
by manifestation of the truth commending
ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God but if our gospel be
ahead it is head to them that are lost
and whom the God of this world had
blinded the minds of them which believe
not lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ who is the image of God
should shine unto them for we preach not
ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and
ourselves your servants for Jesus's sake
for God who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness has shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ but we have this treasure and
earthen vessels that the excellency of
the power may be of God and not of us
see we have this treasure in ourselves
in these earthen vessels and we are the
ones that need to preach the gospel and
and tell other people how to be saved
and I've got more and more verses here
about just you know soul winning soul
winning soul winning we got it we got to
be soul winning you know and acts 1 it
says but ye shall receive power after
that the Holy Ghost has come upon you
and ye shall be witnesses unto me both
in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in
Samaria and unto the uttermost part of
the earth see this is our goal this is
our mission is to preach the gospel to
every creature and that just starts out
with soul winning and so the basic here
the basic standard is just go soul
winning you know if you if you if a week
goes by and you haven't told anybody how
to be saved whether out soul winning
door-to-door or just in your personal
life then you know shame on you you know
you don't need to even let one week go
by we're not telling somebody how to be
saved and you know I guess the challenge
for the new year is just you know if
you're already someone just so and more
just go so anymore just just you know
carry some YouTube cards in your pocket
I just started carrying them in my
wallet so I can just start handing out
to people whenever I meet them out and
about you know just little things like
that but you know you need to just be
so winning more just finding new ways to
do so winning so into your family
members who aren't saved yet you know
because here's the thing you know I've
looked at the numbers and everything and
we need more soul winners just even in
our church right because I've looked at
how long it would I mean just projection
like if we keep going at the rate that
we're going now how long will it take us
to reach the whole state of Arizona and
it's another like lifetime away if we
don't you know start raising the bar a
little bit and having more soul winners
but not only more soldiers but the soul
winners doing more hours of soul winning
as well and maybe that's you know a
challenge for this new year and
obviously if you're already doing so
winning the great you know praise the
Lord for that but this is the little
challenge if you want to take your
Christian life to the next step this
year then do more so winning you know
and I and just recently you know I want
to start the I've already started
actually some Monday Tuesday trips so we
already have the weekend trips but now
we're doing Monday Tuesday trips to
other parts of the state I'm about to
start doing like week-long trips like
once a month just going up to the
reservation like once a month once a
month or whatever for an entire week but
you know it can't just be me that's a
bumping stuff up you know ramping stuff
up we all need to you know ramp up this
this thing of soul winning because
here's the thing you know if if we're
gonna preach the gospel to every
creature then you know we all need to
chip in and pull our weight and
everything and so here's the thing why
did I preach this sermon tonight I
preach this sermon it's very clear you
know I preach this sermon because the
new year is coming up and I want to
remind everyone of the basics this is
you know the standard this is what we
need to be doing as Christians and then
not only that if you're already there
then just you know raise the bar a
little bit raise the bar of
righteousness in your life this upcoming
year and just you know have some new
goals for yourself you know and and just
challenge yourself if you're already
doing these things but if you're not
doing these things then make make that
your goal the basics right and so you
know that that's why I want to preach
to you guys about tonight just the
basics and just keep up the good work if
you're already doing it then great and
just just raise that bar this year so
let's just go ahead and pray so dear
Lord thank you for this opportunity to
preach and I just pray that you would
bless all of us and I just pray that
something I said tonight would have
would have touched somebody and edified
and and just please help us all to be
better Christians this upcoming year and
it's in Christ's name I pray amen
you
Oh