Alright, we're here in 1 Kings chapter 10, and this is a three-week series, and we'll be finishing it up on actually Wednesday instead of on Sunday.
But last week what we talked about is the perfect church to die of wisdom.
What we talked about basically is with the preaching that's being done, there has to be wisdom being presented.
In terms of being in an ideal church or a great church or striving to be the perfect church, which we're never going to be,
you need to have good preaching, okay?
And that's obviously lacking in most churches. Most of the time you have people preach sermons that don't know their Bible,
they don't read their Bible, they don't have it memorized, they're not filled with the Spirit, and the sermons are boring.
We have pretty much all gone to churches. We were bored out of our minds.
We just went out of obligation. And that's a sad thing, but I've been there.
I've been to independent fundamental Baptist churches where I felt guilty every Sunday because I was like,
I don't enjoy being here. And that's sad. We ought to enjoy church. Church is great.
When we hear the preaching of the Word, we have the fellowship, and what we're going to talk about in this sermon is
thy acts and thy men. Thy acts and thy men.
So these were going to be separate sermons. It was going to be a four-week series.
What we're basically going to be talking about is thy acts, which is soul winning, great works being done,
and thy men is going to refer to basically all of you.
All the men, all the women. When you hear the preaching, what kind of person do you need to be?
What is the queen of Sheba notice in 1 Kings 10? So we're going to start with thy acts.
Now turn to Revelation chapter 2. Revelation 2.
It's your turn to Revelation 2. I'm going to read some of the verses here in 1 Kings 10.
We're talking about in verse 4, the house that he had built.
Now in the Old Testament, it does talk about soul winning, but even more so, there's a lot of symbolism to soul winning.
Great works being done without outright declaring it being soul winning.
And there are verses where they're going out with the word of God. Two people are out preaching the gospel.
There's a lot of symbolism as well. When it says the house that he had built,
what that is implying is acts are being done. Great works are being done.
And it talks about in verse number 6, she said to the king,
it was a true report that I heard mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.
So the great works that were being done, she had heard in her own country.
She had heard about the wisdom of Solomon. She had also heard about the work that was being done.
And there are people that listen to the preaching of this church.
Not a ton of people, not like some of the other church, but there are certain people that listen to preaching.
But the great thing is they're not just hearing about preaching.
They're not just listening to preaching. They're hearing about works being done.
We get some people that send us money to support us sometimes.
The main reason why is not because of the sermons, but because of the work that's being done.
Because the soul's getting saved. That's the reason why.
And if a church is going to be a real church, it must be a soul winning church.
Now, obviously we know tons of verses that talk about soul winning.
And the reason why this is a two part, two parts are merged together into one sermon,
is because I preached on soul winning a lot.
I think it's because I love soul winning, but I want to be balanced.
You know, I want to preach on everything. So I didn't want to preach a whole sermon.
So I want to go to this topic of soul winning, kind of a different perspective.
We're going to stay in Revelation 2 for a while.
We're going to read about the first four churches and see how soul winning relates to this, okay?
A lot of verses are going to be coming here.
Revelation 2, starting at verse number 1, the Bible reads,
On the angel of the church of Ephesus write,
These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand,
who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
I know thy works.
Now is this the church that's working?
It's the church that's working.
I know thy works and thy labor,
and thy patience in how thou canst not bear them which are evil,
and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not,
and hast found them liars,
and hast borne and hast patience,
and for my name's sake hast labored.
Labored implies hard work, okay?
They're laboring. They're a hard working church, and it's not fainted.
But notice verse 4,
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee.
He says, I've got a problem with you as a church.
You're working hard. You have all these great things,
but I do have a problem with you,
because thou hast left thy first love, okay?
You say, what is the first love?
Well, verse 5 kind of tells us,
Remember there from whence thou art fallen,
and repent and do the first works,
or else I will come unto thee quickly
and will remove thy candlestick out of his place,
except thou repent.
He says, I'm going to destroy this church.
I'm going to get rid of this church. Why?
Because if you're not gathering, you're scattering.
Now, this is a church that's working.
He says, I know your works, I know your labor,
but they've left their first works.
The sad thing is that when a church starts,
they're generally a fired up soul winning church.
But what happens as you grow
is you start getting a lot of activities,
and kind of the newness wears off,
and you're not quite as excited to go soul winning.
And it happens in independent fundamental Baptist churches
where they start off soul winning,
they love the Lord,
and eventually over time, the soul winning slowly decreases.
And they have a lot of great fellowship activities.
They still preach against sin,
but they've lost their first works.
Now, we as a church,
we will cease to be a real church if we quit soul winning.
And they've left their first love,
which we know is talking about soul winning,
because it says it's the first works in verse 5.
We must be a church that's not only working hard
in all kinds of different areas,
we must count on the first works.
All the other great work we do is awesome,
but the first works never go away.
We must always be a soul winning church, all of us.
We need to be a soul winning church,
otherwise it says in verse 5,
he's going to remove his candlestick.
Now, people that are unsaved would look at verse 5,
and they'll say,
well, see, you can lose your salvation.
Now, this is a church, okay?
I mean, that's one of those bizarre things.
Sometimes people say,
well, didn't Satan lose his salvation?
And it's just like, we're not angels.
It's like, what are you talking about?
You know, they'll use bizarre scenarios
that don't apply at all.
First off, this is a church,
but God's giving a strong warning
that if you are not a soul winning church,
I will remove your candlestick.
Now, what does that mean?
Well, I mean, there are churches right now
that they exist, so to speak.
They're preaching the sermons,
but they're not really churches.
The candlestick's already been removed.
And they can kind of vainly go through the motions
and preach the sermons,
and the pastor can kind of robotically
act like he cares about what he's doing,
but the candlestick's been removed.
Why?
Because the works are no longer there.
And look, we have a lot of souls
that get saved in our church.
We're not the only church.
There's other churches that do great works.
But if that soul winning number
ends up becoming really low,
the candlestick's going to get removed.
Because especially in a receptive country,
we're expected to do big works
and get a lot of people saved.
And we're doing it right now.
But look, as this church goes on and grows,
you know what?
A lot of times,
activities start to replace the soul winning.
And I'm being honest.
If you ever start seeing that at this church,
I want you to just say,
hey, Brother Stuckey,
can I just talk to you privately
and just remind me,
hey, you know, our soul winning's starting to slip.
Because I don't want that ever to slip.
I don't want to ever let other activities
get in the way where I have an improper balance.
Because you can never remove the first works.
It's not like you have the first works
and then you grow as a church
and forget about the first works
and move on to different works.
No, you always keep the first works.
Always keep the soul winning.
And if you lose the soul winning,
the candlestick's going to be gone.
It says in verse 8,
let's look at the next church.
So the first church, what we're seeing is,
they seem like an awesome church,
but they don't go soul winning anymore.
That's a big, big problem.
And God is somewhat against them.
Let's look at the next church.
Let's see about them.
Revelation chapter 2, verse 8,
And unto the angel of the church and the Samaritan write,
These things saith the first and the last,
which was dead and is alive.
I know thy works,
and tribulation, and poverty, but thou art rich.
And I know the blasphemy of them
which say they are Jews and are not,
are the synagogue of Satan.
Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.
Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison,
that you may be tried and shall have tribulation ten days,
be thou faithful unto death,
and I will give thee a crown of life.
He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
He that overcometh shall not be heard of the second death.
So in verse 9, it talks about how he knows their works.
Does he ever rebuke them for not going soul winning in these verses?
No.
What does that tell us?
Because the last church, they lost their candlestick
because they didn't do the first works anymore.
They didn't go soul winning.
Does he rebuke this church for not going soul winning?
He doesn't.
You know what that tells you?
It's still a soul winning church.
Yeah.
Okay?
Because when the first works are gone, it's no longer really a church.
Now, if they're being rebuked,
if the first church mentioned is being rebuked for not having the first works,
that's the big thing in God's heart.
The big thing is you must be a soul winning church.
This next church, they're doing works,
and they're not rebuked for not going soul winning.
You know what that tells you?
This church went soul winning.
Okay?
We must always be a soul winning church.
And so what's the result?
God's not going to remove that candlestick.
Why?
They're doing the first works.
Look, God doesn't have any problem with a church that's preaching hard and going soul winning.
If a church is going soul winning and they're doing a great work for God,
He doesn't want to remove that candlestick.
As long as we're a soul winning church,
we don't have to fear about how God's going to just get rid of this church.
I mean, if we're getting people saved,
God is happy with us as a church.
Right.
He's going to stay happy if we do the first works.
But if we quit the first works and quit going soul winning,
you know what?
We're going to have this candlestick removed.
Let's look at the next church.
Verse 12.
Revelation 2, verse 12.
And the angel of the church in Pergamos writes,
These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges.
I know thy works.
So once again, he knows the works of this church.
And where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is,
thou holdest fast my name,
and hast not denied my faith,
even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr,
who was slain among you were Satan dwelling.
But I have a few things against thee.
So here's a church also that has works.
Okay?
But God is upset at this church.
Why is he upset at this church?
Because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam,
who taught Balak to cast the stumbling block before the children of Israel,
to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans,
which thing I hate,
repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly,
and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
Now remember the first church.
The first church is doing works,
and they have a lot of great things about them.
But they're not doing the first works.
They're not going soul winning.
Why do we know the first works is talking about soul winning?
Because when a church first starts,
in order for their church to grow,
everybody realizes we need to do some works,
and invite people, and talk to them.
In some way we have to have some sort of evangelism.
And also when you first start living to God,
for God, the first thing is you start going soul winning.
You start having a burden for the lost people out there.
So the first works are referring to soul winning.
Now this church in verses 12 through 16,
they have works.
Now remember, God looked at the first church,
and rebuked them because they no longer went soul winning.
That's the first thing God mentioned,
something very important.
This church is being rebuked.
But do they get rebuked for not going soul winning?
No.
He does not rebuke them. Why?
Because they still are going soul winning.
They're still a church.
Now remember, if you don't go soul winning,
he'll remove the candlestick.
This church is being rebuked,
but not because they don't go soul winning.
They have works, and they're the right works.
It's not just all kinds of different works,
but no soul winning.
They're not being rebuked for not going soul winning.
If soul winning is so important to God
that he mentioned it to the first church,
every time he rebukes a church,
he's going to make it a point to say,
you don't have your first works anymore.
But the thing that he's rebuking them for
is not that they don't go soul winning.
So this is by every way, shape, and form a real church,
but God has a problem with them for sin,
but not because of the fact
that they're not going soul winning like the first church.
Let's look at the next church starting in verse 18.
You kind of wonder sometimes
when you're reading about these seven churches
that if God were to look down at this church,
what would he say about you?
That's kind of intimidating
because honestly, you know,
when it comes to being the perfect church,
look, we're not going to be the perfect church.
It's a cool name for a sermon series,
the perfect church.
We're not the perfect church.
Unfortunately, you got me up here,
and as long as I'm up here,
we're not going to be perfect.
I promise you.
But we're going to strive to be a great church,
and we have to think about that.
We look at these churches,
why God has a problem with them.
One thing I never want to be a problem in God's eyes
is the fact that we don't go soul winning.
And look, I have preached maybe a little bit too much
on soul winning these first month and a half
just because I'm excited I'm getting to preach,
and I've got so many soul winning sermons in my mind,
and I've got to be balanced.
But you know what?
I would much rather go overboard on preaching on soul winning
and maybe deficient in some things
rather than just going the other way
and never preaching on soul winning
and not motivating us.
We need soul winning.
This is number one.
We're never going to quit going soul winning.
Look at the church in Thyatira starting in verse 18.
And on to the angel of the church in Thyatira,
these things saith the Son of God,
who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire,
and his feet are like fine grass.
I know thy works,
so he knows the works of this church as well,
and charity, and service, and faith,
and thy patience, and thy works.
So he emphasizes, you've got works.
And the last to be more than the first.
Now when he says the last to be more than the first,
I think what he's trying to say
is this church was more zealous working
than when they began.
I hope that can be said about us
that the last is more than the first,
that we started off on the right foot.
Our first month in one week,
like five weeks of a church,
that's a lot of souls that got saved.
A lot of people putting in a lot of man hour.
We're off to a good start,
but I would like to see the last works
more than the first.
That we just grow as a church
and the soul winning becomes bigger and more.
Now obviously this is only five weeks,
so it's kind of hard to tell long term.
We haven't been around for years.
But I know the people in this room,
we have like 75% of the people in this church
that go soul winning on a weekly basis.
That is a good number.
That is great.
And I hope we can continue that.
I hope this church grows,
but I hope as it grows that 75% stays at 75%
or even goes higher.
That's great.
We're off to an awesome start,
but our goal is that our last
is going to be more than the first.
We started off on a good foot,
on a good note,
and we'll do even better as we go forward.
Now I would be shocked if this month
we have less salvations than last month
because we do have the missions trip.
And I'm not saying that we have to live up
to this missions trip every single month
because we're going to have so many people here
doing the work.
But as a church,
we need to always be going soul winning
and all of us becoming more zealous
and doing more work as time goes on.
Verse 20,
Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee,
because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel,
which calleth herself a prophet,
is to teach and to seduce my servants
to commit fornication,
and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
And I gave her space to repent of her fornication,
and she repented not.
This is a pretty big sin.
It's pretty bad.
It's talking about committing fornication.
Behold, I will cast her into a bed
and them that commit adultery with her
into great tribulation,
except they repent of their deeds.
And I will kill her children with death.
I love the wording there.
I'll kill her children with death.
It's kind of an interesting way to say that.
And all the churches shall know that I am he
which searcheth the reins and hearts,
and I will give unto every one of you
according to your works.
Us individually, we reap what we sow.
We're given according to our works.
But as a church, it's being rebuked.
But notice, it's not rebuked
because it doesn't go solely.
This is a church that goes solely.
And even though we're talking about big sin,
a bigger problem with as a church
is if they don't go solely.
That's the truth.
I went to a church shortly after I got saved,
and the pastor is a heretic.
He's a devil.
I didn't know that when I went to the church.
But I'll say this about the guy who was preaching.
He was a devil. He was unsaved.
He was very good at preaching.
He was dynamic.
If you had just walked in for a service,
because most sermons pastors aren't preaching heresy
even if they are devils.
So you could walk in even now.
It's been a long time. It's been like a decade.
But he was dynamic.
He was good.
He was charismatic and motivating behind the pulpit.
And we talked about Thy wisdom last week.
But who cares how good the preaching is
if the church is as dead as can be?
Who cares if there's no sowing going on?
And that's what you see with a lot of churches.
Most IFB churches in the world,
look, they have no sowing going on.
And the truth is this.
And when you look at some of those pastors from the old IFB,
some of them were super dynamic.
Some of them were much better speaking than I am.
Some of them have much more experience,
or they're better.
They have great examples.
They can get up and preach a sermon,
and you're like,
Amen!
But the church has no sowing.
That's a huge problem.
And I've been to churches that,
honestly, the preaching wasn't that great,
but I had a lot of friends at that church,
and we did sowing.
And look, God's going to bless that church that goes sowing.
Even if the preaching is lame.
You say,
Brother Steike,
your preaching is lame.
Well, at least we go sowing, right?
That's more important in God's eyes,
because at least we're a real church.
Because if you don't have first works,
He wants to remove that church.
And the number one thing we must do
is always keep sowing.
Obviously, we need a balance.
We need the preaching.
We need sowing.
But we can never remove the sowing.
We must always be a sowing church.
We need to be a sowing church.
Now, turn to 1 Corinthians 3.
1 Corinthians 3.
One thing we need to keep in mind
when we're talking about being a sowing church
is just because you're merely here
does not mean that you're partaking in the rewards
that are going to come with getting people saved.
Now, I've heard it preached before
for people that turn out to be bad people
that, you know, just being at a church,
you know, you openly share all the rewards.
So if you just kind of magically walk in here,
but you don't partake in the sowing
or the work, that you're going to get just as many rewards.
That's stupid.
Right.
And it's unmemorable as well.
Yeah.
1 Corinthians 3.
This is what it says.
Verse 6.
I have planted, I have planted,
a polished water, but God gave the increase.
So then neither is he that planted anything,
neither he that watered,
but God that gave the increase.
Now, he that planted and he that watered
are one, and every man shall receive his own reward.
Notice this.
According to his own labor.
Amen.
You say, Brother Stuckey,
it's so great to be a part of this church.
We got all these souls saved.
Well, we got all these souls saved,
but if you got a big zero, it's not we.
It's, hey, you guys got all these souls saved.
A lot of people got these souls saved.
Most of the people that got saved in this bulletin
were not from me.
It's the minority that were from me.
I mean, yes, I have some.
Yes, my wife has some.
It's a joint effort.
It's everybody.
And if we're going to be a church
that gets lots of people saved,
it must be a joint effort.
Now, here's what you have to understand.
Let's say that just everybody in the church
decided tomorrow to quit soul winning.
Now, I might say in my mind,
I'm going to keep going soul winning.
We need to be a soul winning church.
The reality is I'll probably just end up
dying off from soul winning as well.
Why?
Because I need you guys.
We need each other.
We need each other for motivation.
You hear stories of somebody getting saved,
what does it do?
It motivates you to keep doing the work, doesn't it?
It is awesome.
It's exciting.
We're in this together.
We're a team.
We're a church.
We're one body.
It's not just one.
I know I preached last week about Thy wisdom.
This is not a one man show.
This is a team effort.
I need you guys to have success.
I will fail as an evangelist
and have to get a different job
if everybody quits soul winning.
I need you guys to keep going.
We all need each other.
In order to keep going and be zealous and excited,
we need each other.
We need each other to help motivate one another.
Turn back to 1 Kings 10.
I do want you to notice something in 1 Kings 10, verse 6.
I preached a sermon on 1 Kings 10,
just kind of this whole series of one sermon a long time ago.
I kind of noticed something as I was preparing this sermon.
It's kind of interesting.
I want you to notice in 1 Kings chapter 10, verse 6,
And she said to the king,
It was a true report that I heard in mine own land
of thy acts and of thy wisdom.
So the queen of Sheba,
she's heard in her own land.
She's heard about the wisdom of Solomon.
When it says thy wisdom,
she's referring singularly to Solomon, isn't she?
Thy wisdom.
And she also said, I've heard of thy acts.
She's referring singularly to Solomon.
Now was Solomon the only one doing the work?
No.
But she gave credit to Solomon.
Now here's what you have to understand,
that when it comes to people that listen to the sermons and everything,
you know what they're going to say?
The person they're going to give credit to is me.
Now does it mean that I deserve all that credit?
No, it doesn't.
Because when it comes to this bulletin,
most of those souls, I did not get saved.
But you have to understand that people looking from the outside are going to be like,
and they'll say, Brother Stuckey's doing a great job running that church.
That's what they're going to say,
even though it's all of us that are doing the work.
The reason why I bring this up is the fact
that you should not be doing your work to get praise from men.
You have to understand that.
You say, well, I'm not getting any credit for the souls I got saved.
Who cares? We don't do it to get praise from men.
You want to get praise from men, you lost your reward in heaven.
The truth is, they're always going to look at the person who's the leader, so to speak,
and give that person the credit for what's being done,
even if it's a team effort.
And this is a team effort.
She heard of thy acts individually,
but it wasn't just Solomon doing work.
Yes, Solomon was doing the work,
because he can't just have wisdom and not do the work.
But everybody's doing the work.
It's not just a one-man show.
And one thing you have to understand about this is,
even though people will give me the credit for the souls that are getting saved,
which is not honestly fair, because we're all doing the work,
I'll also get the blame if anything goes wrong.
So you say, man, I want the credit.
Well, do you want the blame?
Because when things go wrong, I'll gladly impart to you some of that blame,
like, hey, Brother Chris volunteered that he take the blame for what happened.
I'd love to give you that.
You know, I might get the credit for the great things being done.
I'll also get the blame.
I'll also be the one that gets threatened to be sued and whatever, right?
We've already seen that.
None of you guys, I mean, it's coming towards me, right?
So I may get the credit, but I'm also going to get the blame.
So you have to understand there's kind of a balance there.
And look, I've been at churches before.
I was at Verity Baptist Church,
and my goal was just to help that church out,
to help it grow and help it build.
Now, look, at Verity Baptist Church, like, over half the church goes solar.
Is it a one-man show?
It's not a one-man show.
But if you were to talk about that church, what would you say?
Pastor Jimenez is doing a great job.
Now, he is doing a great job.
He's not the only one, though.
But look, we don't know of...
I know the names of people who go to Verity Baptist Church,
but most of you don't.
You know something that came to the missions trip.
When it comes to this church,
people are going to see that the salvation and the excitement and everything that's going on,
and say, man, that church is doing a mighty work.
They're going to give me the credit.
They might not know your name.
That's fine, though,
because that does not affect whether or not God looks down and approves you.
And I've said this before, and I believe this.
I do not believe just simply because you're behind the pulpit preaching,
you're going to get the most rewards of the church.
I do not believe that.
I'll never believe that.
I don't know in this room who's going to get the most rewards.
It's not my job to find out.
My job is to preach the sermons and try to be a good example,
and all of us will be a good example.
We're working hard.
I'm not here to find out who gets the most rewards.
I don't spend my time just writing down.
I think number one is Brother Prince is number one.
Two, let me see.
I have no idea.
God's the one who looks down,
and God talks about rewarding you based on what's in your heart.
I can't see your heart.
Man looks on the outward appearance.
I see the outward appearance.
I see the work you're doing,
but I don't know what's inside your heart.
Some people could be doing it for vainglory,
and you'll get that vainglory and get no rewards in heaven.
I don't know what everyone's doing.
We have to look at ourselves individually.
Yes, we motivate one another.
We have to realize that we should be doing the work
because God tells us to, and we love it,
and we want to save people from hell.
Whether or not we get any credit for men whatsoever,
that's not the reason why we should be doing the work.
Now, one thing that's very difficult,
and I've kind of learned this,
and this advice I've got from various pastors and pastor men
is one thing you want to try to do is encourage your members
and tell them when they're doing a good job and working hard.
But the truth is, you know what?
I'll probably forget to give you credit sometime.
You might say, wow, man, I did this work for the church,
and brother suck, you didn't get me credit.
Look, the best of men are merely men.
The best of men are just men.
Look, I might sometimes not treat you fairly.
I might sometimes not give you the credit
for the work you're being done.
I might forget to thank you sometimes.
I know it's going to happen, right?
It's going to happen.
It's going to happen in any church.
I'm not going to do things perfectly.
I'll try to give you guys credit when you work hard.
Many of you are doing so many great things,
not just so many, but so much other help.
I'll try to give you credit.
I'll try to thank you, but I'm going to forget sometimes.
But just realize that, you know what?
You're not doing that work to get thank you from me.
You're going to get somebody online saying, hey, great job.
You're doing it because God wants you to.
Amen.
That's the reason why that should be the reason.
That's why we should all be looking for the Word.
We're working for the Word.
The second thing I want to look at
is when it says thy men.
Look at verse 8 where it says,
Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants.
Now, I talked about soul winning,
and soul winning relates to thy men
because if you're going to be a blessing to this church,
you need to be a soul winner.
That's huge because if you're not gathering,
you're scattering.
So if you're not gathering,
what you're going to do is probably
kill off the zeal of other people.
This church ends up going like,
the church is like 200 people,
and we still have 20 soul winners, 25 soul winners.
What's going to cause is those 25 soul winners,
their zeal is going to go down.
We want to increase in size,
but I don't want to just increase in size
without increasing soul winners.
We need to increase the amount of soul winners
as this church grows as well.
Turn to Romans 16, Romans 16.
And so, yes, as a member, you need to be a soul winner.
But you know what?
To be a great church member
and to be the sort of church member
the guy would look down and say,
Man, you're doing a great job.
It's kind of a total package.
You've got to listen to the preaching.
You've got to care about the preaching.
You've got to love this church.
But I want you to notice here
that Paul the Apostle,
when it comes to giving credit to people,
Paul the Apostle was very good at this.
And this just kind of shows
that Paul the Apostle was a very good Christian.
Because you know what?
He was doing the soul winning.
We saw in the last sermon
he had compassion on his friends
that he very well thought would have been killed.
But I want you to notice in Romans 16,
you're reading through the book of Romans,
one of the best books in the Bible.
You get to the last chapter,
and you're like, Oh, there's all these names.
Man, this is so boring.
But you know, what this is showing is
that Paul the Apostle,
he was very thankful for the people
that were helping him,
and he gave credit to people.
Notice what it says in Romans 16.
We're going to read the first 16 verses.
Romans 16 verse 1.
I commend on you Phoebe our sister,
which is the servant of the church,
which is at Cintria.
Now notice right off the bat,
he names a sister.
Now this is talking about a fellow saved believer
that's a woman.
But he names Phoebe.
Now what that shows you is that you know what?
Women are supposed to be doing the work as well.
It's not just men.
And you've got a lot of churches
where women do no soul.
There's even churches that I know in America
where they kind of forbid women going soul-winner.
They're against women going soul-winner.
Now how bizarre is that?
You're mad because a church member
got somebody saved?
You're like, oh, you know,
how dare you?
Treats the gospel.
It's like, what in the world?
And you know what?
I mean, obviously as you have lots of kids,
it's going to be difficult
to go soul-winning as much.
That's why we don't compare ourselves
to one another.
But you know what?
I don't care how many kids I have.
My wife is going to be a soul-winner.
She needs to stay a soul-winner.
I need to stay a soul-winner.
All people need to be doing the work.
And look, whether you're a man in this room
or whether you're a woman,
you need to be a soul-winner,
which means we all need to learn
how to preach the gospel.
We all need to know these verses
that we're memorizing here for this month.
We should all memorize those verses.
Not just because...
I mean, yes, you're going to get a small reward
like a candy bar or something at the end of the month.
Yes, you're going to get a small reward.
Don't do it for the candy bar.
Okay?
It's not worth it.
You can just go out and buy a candy bar.
It's not going to be like this really huge,
fancy, imported candy bar.
Candy from Belgium or something.
That's not going to happen.
It's going to be like a cheap little piece of chocolate or something.
But you know what?
You're not doing it for glory
or to be able to tell people,
hey, I memorized the verses.
You should memorize those verses, though,
because of the fact they won't help you down the slope.
They won't help you rescue people from hell.
We need to know those verses.
We need to know the Bible.
And we see here in verse number 1 that, you know what?
Women are doing the work as well.
Verse 2,
that you receive her and the Lord has become a saint
and that you assist her in whatsoever business
she hath in need of you.
For she hath been a sucker of many and of myself also.
Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus,
who have for my life laid down their own necks
unto whom not only I give thanks,
but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
Likewise greet the church that is in their house.
Salute my well-beloved Epinadus,
who is the first-fruits of Achaea unto Christ.
Greet Mary, who bestowed much labor on us.
Salute Andronikos and Junia,
my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners,
who are of note among the apostles,
who also were in Christ before me.
Greet Ampleus, my beloved in the Lord.
Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ.
And stackest, my beloved.
Salute Appellus, approved in Christ.
Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household.
Salute Herodian, my kinsmen.
Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus,
which are in the Lord.
Salute Tryphina and Tryphosa,
who labor in the Lord.
These are all people that are doing the work.
That's the key.
That's why he's greeting them.
That's why he's saluting them,
because they're workers.
They're out there preaching the gospel.
Salute the beloved Persistus,
which labored much in the Lord.
Salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord
and his mother and mine.
Salute Asranitius, Phlegon, Hermes,
Petrobis, Hermes, and a brethren which are with him.
Salute Phylogus and Julia,
Nerus and his sister and Olympus,
and all the saints which are with them.
Salute one another with an holy kiss.
The churches of Christ salute you.
He goes through all these names,
and you look at this chapter.
Look, I don't think most of us
have really stopped and just dug into this chapter
and tried to understand all these verses
and everything like that.
The reason why he's focusing on this so much
is he's showing you.
He's not a one-man show.
Yeah.
Now, who do we give credit to?
Well, we give credit to Paul the Apostle.
I would imagine that if we closed our Bibles
and there was a competition to see who could name
most of these names that nobody would be able to name,
half of them,
unless you memorize that chapter.
I don't know most of these names.
Right?
But you know what?
These are people that were laboring.
They were working hard.
And look, in this room,
most people aren't going to know who you are.
Right?
But you're still part of the world,
and God's still going to reward you,
and Paul the Apostle,
look, he's giving credit to men that are doing a great work.
He was not a one-man show.
As much great labor as Paul the Apostle did,
he would have only gotten so far by himself.
He needed other people to help him.
Now turn back to 1 Kings 10.
1 Kings 10.
And so what we see is as a church,
we need to be a soul-winning church.
As individuals, though,
you need to be soul-winning.
But not only this,
like last week when I talked about
thy wisdom and preaching the sermons,
it's not just that I need to have wisdom
if we're going to impress people about this church.
You guys all need to have wisdom
and know the Bible as well.
Notice what it says in 1 Kings 10, verse 8.
One thing that she notices when she comes,
it's not just Solomon.
She notices that the people
that were sitting there listening,
they just wanted to hear thy wisdom.
You see, if somebody comes here,
it's going to be very obvious to them
whether or not you're on your cell phone
during the service
or whether or not you're paying attention
to what's being said and taking notes.
They're going to notice these things.
And one thing that impresses the Queen of Sheba
is that when Solomon was giving wisdom,
the people were just excited
and happy to learn that wisdom.
We ought to be happy
when we're learning the Word of God.
And the reason why this sermon series
is so important
is because we have a lot of people visiting here
in just over a week.
I want God to be able to look down
and see us as a church that's doing a great job,
but I also want people to visit and say,
wow, that church is doing great work.
That church loves the Lord.
This chapter's given so we can have an idea
of what type of church we need to be.
And if you're going to look down
and everybody here at this church
is just on their cell phone,
goofing off, not paying attention to you,
they're going to notice that.
They're going to be like, wow, that's great.
They go soul winning.
Wow, the sermon.
But this church doesn't care about God.
That should not be the way it is.
And look, I don't think we have a problem with this.
I think people are paying attention.
I think you guys love the Word of God.
I think that's why you come here.
Because you want to hear the Word of God preached.
You want to learn.
You want to have fellowship and go soul winning.
But they need to be able to see that.
That when you come here,
you're actually paying attention
and you want to hear the Word of God.
And you're like, man, I love the Word of God.
I just want to learn what the Bible says.
Turn to Nehemiah chapter 8.
Now, obviously, during this missions trip,
it's important that we set a good example.
We show that, hey, we love the Lord.
Obviously, that's important.
But even more so, because that's only a week long,
is that when we get people to visit this church,
we must have a good first impression.
And next, well, not next week,
but on Wednesday since I changed
when I'm going to preach that sermon,
we're going to talk about all the things
that are going on in this church.
We're going to talk about all the little things
that kind of add up to be a big thing.
There's a lot of little things in a church
that they don't seem like they're that big by themselves,
but they are very important when you add them up.
But when people come here,
they're going to be able to tell
whether or not you care about the Word of God
or whether you don't.
Now, look, a lot of people,
I didn't grow up Catholic.
I grew up United Methodist.
But you know what?
United Methodist is the same as Catholic.
And I'm sure it's the same in this country,
that people, when you walk into that church,
you can tell they don't want to be there.
Is that not true?
You're just like, man, they're bored out of their mind.
They don't want to be there.
I remember going to church.
You know, we'd go just every once in a while.
It was obvious nobody wanted to be there.
It was like going to a funeral.
People were not happy.
They didn't want to be there.
I hated it too.
I would just read sports books during church.
I'm just like, oh, you know, this is boring.
Nobody wanted to be there.
They just did it because they vainly thought
this is somehow going to give them forgiveness for God.
They just didn't know any better.
Look, it's very important that when people see this church,
they see that people want to be here.
Because if they visit a church and they're like, wow,
people don't even like being here, guess what?
They're not going to want to be here.
It's important that, yeah, we care about this church,
that we love this church.
And you know what?
If we're like that, when people visit this church,
they're going to be like, man, maybe this is a church for me.
We've got to be friendly to people as well.
We've got to care about them and be nice to them
and everything like that.
But one big thing is just that we're actually paying attention
and engaged in the preaching, and we actually
care about what's being said that we actually
want to learn.
Turn to Nehemiah chapter 8, Nehemiah 8,
and let's notice verse 2.
Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 2, and Ezra the priest
brought the law before the congregation
both of men and women, and all
that could hear with understanding upon the first day
of the seventh month.
Now, I mean, I preached about this.
I don't know if it was Wednesday or last week,
but I'm just going to kick this dog again.
There's a great comfort that says the law is referring
to the Ten Commandments.
I mean, do you think that Ezra spent hours just reading
the Ten Commandments, you moron?
The law is talking about the whole Bible.
This law of the Lord is perfect, converting
the souls to just tell them, wait, have you ever
committed adultery? Have you ever done this?
That's his repentance of sins heretics.
You don't even know what the Bible says.
The law there is referring to the whole Bible.
It's not like you just read Exodus 20.
You read a few commandments and it lasted for hours.
He's referring to the whole word of God.
And all that could hear with understanding upon the first day
of the seventh month.
And he read therein before the street that was before the water
gave from the morning until midday before the men
and the women and those that could understand
and the ears of all the people were attentive
unto the book of the law.
Notice these people are attentive.
It means they paid attention.
They're actually paying attention to what's being said.
They're excited about the word of God, you see,
in Nehemiah chapter 8.
Look, I understand we're here from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
It's a lot of time.
That's the way it works out here in terms of renting this place.
We have the services back to back.
But you know, here in the Bible, they were able to pay attention for hours.
People were able to pay attention to long sermons.
I don't believe this modern day philosophy that sermons need to be 15 minutes.
No, I mean, you can preach for a long time if you can pay attention.
The reason why these experts say that it's been scientifically proven
that a sermon between 21 to 23 minutes
is the longest anyone can pay attention.
Supposedly it's a scientific fact even though here they're paying attention longer.
Well, the reason why preachers love this is because of the fact
for one, they don't want to preach long sermons.
And for two, they're shocked that everybody's bored.
People just can't pay attention.
That's why they're on their cell phones.
That's why they're walking out of the service.
It's like, no, you're just a bad preacher.
They just don't want to hear what you're saying.
That's the reason they're bored out of their mind.
People are able to pay attention.
And it's important that all of us here when the preaching is going on
that we actually care about what's being said.
Turn to Acts 17.
Acts 17.
We're going to look at a few more verses here.
And in Acts 17, I want you to notice verse 11.
It says,
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica,
in that they received the word with all readiness of mind
and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Now it's very clear they searched the scriptures daily.
There's so many verses you can show that say
we need to read the Bible and study it and meditate on it every single day.
They search the scriptures daily.
But what these people did is
they didn't just hear sermons,
but they actually double checked to make sure it was correct.
I don't want to break your heart,
but I will make mistakes up here preaching.
I'm human, and I'm sure I'm wrong on stuff.
I don't disagree with Pastor Jimenez on very many things.
There's a few things here and there where we have a different opinion,
which is fine because they're not major things.
This could be like that with any pastors,
but I want you to understand that there are going to be certain things here
you might disagree with me a little bit on,
which is fine.
I don't have a problem with that.
There's somebody who sent me a message last night.
They told me one of my sermons.
They kind of disagree with what I said,
and I said,
I don't have a problem with that.
It's a good person.
I don't have an issue with them.
That's fine.
I don't expect everyone to agree with 100% what I'm saying.
I'm going to do my best to preach what the truth is,
and obviously I believe what I'm saying.
I'm not just up here pretending.
I'm not an actor up here.
I believe what I'm saying,
but I'm going to make mistakes,
and I want you to search the scriptures to double check.
If you find out I'm wrong on something,
hey, talk to me privately.
Don't embarrass me,
but privately talk to me and show me,
hey, actually this is what the Bible says.
Look, I'm willing to change if I'm proven wrong.
I've said things in my years preaching sermons
that now I would say,
wow, I was wrong about that.
What I said was not right.
Look, I want you to search the scriptures.
That's why we have our 31-day Bible reading challenge,
the New Testament,
because we will not be a church that is afraid of the members
letting the Holy Spirit guide them.
That's what you see with most churches.
The pastors are afraid of their members reading the Bible
and coming to different conclusions,
but we're not going to be afraid of that.
I'm not going to be afraid of that.
I want you to read the Bible in your free time.
I want you to study the Word of God and say,
well, how often?
Daily.
That's what the Bible says,
and look, when it comes to Thessalonica,
Thessalonica, if you notice the churches,
they were a pretty good church.
When you look at the church,
I mean, the Church of Corinth, not a great church, right?
I mean, I'm not saying they're a terrible church,
but they had some real problems they had to fix.
The Church of Galatia, they had some real problems.
The Church of Thessalonica,
1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians,
they were a pretty good church,
but you know what?
The Bereans were more known.
Why?
Because they, the members,
were actually reading the Word of God on their own
and searching these things.
Everything I say, I want you to search,
and you know what?
If there's something I preach and you say,
I'm not sure if that's right or not,
search it out.
See whether or not I'm right.
Now, I would presume that the majority of things I say,
you immediately say,
yeah, that makes sense.
That's what the Bible teaches,
but there are going to be certain things
where it's maybe the first time you've heard it,
and you say, you know,
I don't know if that's right or not.
Search it out.
I'm fine with that.
I don't have a problem with you searching to double check
because I want you to not just say
that you believe this stuff.
I want you to actually believe it,
and I want you to know why you believe, sir.
I don't want it to be just that you say,
well, you know, I don't believe in repentance of sin,
so, you know, I don't think you have to repent.
I want you to know why you believe that.
I want you to know very clearly what the Bible says
and why you believe that
so you can show other people,
so I am not going to ever be afraid.
I would love it if everybody in this church
reads through the entire New Testament
in that 31-day poverty challenge.
That would be great.
It would be awesome.
We're all going to grow spiritually if we do that.
Turn to Acts 6.
Acts 6.
I mean, honestly,
when it comes to people that are preaching,
sometimes people look at people preaching
like they're more than human,
and they assume that they can do no wrong.
Okay?
But what ends up happening is they agree with everything.
Then there's, like, one thing they disagree with,
and all of a sudden it's like,
man, you're a devil,
you're a heretic, you're whatever,
and it's like, I just want you to write up front.
I'm going to make mistakes.
And so right off the bat, you're like,
okay, you know, brothers talk to everyone,
so while he says stuff that's wrong,
I'm fine.
Search the Bible and decide for yourself
and realize, you know what?
I'm going to make mistakes here.
I'm doing the best I can,
but you know what?
We're all wrong sometimes on what we preach.
We're going to make mistakes every once in a while.
The last thing I want you to understand
as we're in the book of Acts is this,
that when it comes to knowing the Bible
and having wisdom,
and for all of you and myself as well,
even though I'm the one preaching the sermons
and it's going to be very obvious
whether or not I'm a phony
or whether or not I know what I'm talking about,
it's also going to be very obvious for you guys as well.
Over time, it's going to be very obvious to people
whether or not you read the Bible
or whether or not you don't read the Bible.
That's the truth.
I mean, we're going to have conversations in this church,
outside of church, talking about the Bible,
and when names come up in the Bible
and you have no clue who they are,
it's going to be kind of obvious,
well, brother so-and-so
or sister so-and-so doesn't really read the Bible.
Whenever any questions come up
and you never have any idea whatsoever,
it's going to be very obvious.
So I want you to understand that,
and look, I've been at church for a long time.
No matter whether or not it's a church that goes soul winning
and people are soul winners,
a lot of soul owners do not read the Bible.
That is a fact.
It's a sad fact, but it's a reality.
And I know that's the case.
And I want you to realize
you're only going to be able to fake it for so long.
People are going to find out if you're not reading the Bible.
It's just going to be obvious to them
when we talk about the Bible
and you just have no clue about anything.
It's just going to become very obvious.
And look, I love that everyone's going soul winning and stuff,
but I want you to read the Bible as well.
I'm not trying to out somebody
if I find out they're not reading the Bible.
I want you to read the Bible.
I'm just letting you know you can only fake it for so long.
And one thing people try to do in life
is just go through the motions and fake it for so long
and think we'll never get caught.
You will get caught.
People are going to realize,
oh wow, so-and-so doesn't really know the Bible.
I'm going to stop asking so-and-so questions.
I thought he really knew the Bible,
but then I started asking him questions
and I realized he doesn't really know what the Bible teaches.
Acts 6, verse 3.
What it says in Acts 6, verse 3 is this,
Wherefore, 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.
Now notice what it says.
It says seven men full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom.
If they're choosing seven people
based on how much wisdom they have,
that means they obviously could tell
how much wisdom they have.
Look, it's going to be obvious to people
whether or not you're wise in regards to the Bible,
whether or not you know the Bible,
or whether or not you don't.
That's one of the characteristics listed in Acts chapter 6,
where they're picking the people.
They pick people that they knew the Word of God.
As we have men's preaching nights and things like that,
if people don't want to come up and preach
or preach on Sunday afternoons,
it's going to be kind of obvious to people over time
whether or not you know the Bible,
whether or not you study,
whether or not you spend time preparing that sermon,
or whether you just got up and pulling it.
When I was at Verity Baptist Church
and we had men's preaching nights,
it's just very obvious.
Certain people put in a lot of time in their sermons,
and certain people don't put any time whatsoever.
And it's just not that hard to tell
whether or not somebody's actually putting in time
into their sermon or not.
It's going to be obvious.
We need to study and know the Bible.
Verse 10,
And they were not able to resist the wisdom
and the Spirit by which He spake.
I hope this can be said about anyone at this church,
that you know the Bible so well
that when you come to an INC heretic
or on Dot Team to Honor, whomever,
who's an expert,
that you can't just disprove them left, right, and down the center.
They can't resist the wisdom and the words you're saying.
And you show them clearly Jesus is God
and they can't answer you.
And they try to pull out,
well, you know, His name alone is Jehovah.
And you just show them very clearly from the Bible,
don't you?
You know, God has a lot of answers.
And you just disprove them and they have no answer.
They can't resist your words.
They can't respond back.
They have no clue how to respond.
It's great that we're a church that goes so on.
We saw in this sermon we must be a soul-winning church.
You know, as members of this church,
you need to actually know the Bible as well.
We need a combination.
We hear the preaching.
That's what we talked about last week.
Then we need to have great works that are being done.
And when it comes to the men and women in this room,
we all need to partake in learning the Bible for ourselves.
This goes in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for allowing us to be here today.
And I ask You to bless us as we're going out soul-winning later
and help us all to apply this to our lives,
and not just wait until the end of January
to start reading your Bible and memorizing it in God,
but help us just decide right now we're going to do that
and make it a daily part of our lives
and be able to have this daily growth
as we study and read Your Word, God.
Help us all to have great wisdom
and help us be a great example to people during the missions trip.