["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Now please have a seat.
Grab a handle and open up those handles to song number 324.
We begin this morning's service by singing song number 324,
Rolly Hale.
Song number 324.
["Rolly Hale"]
That's a great voice.
Well, I thank you, brother Dave, for your many blessings on our lives.
May God bless your service and our singing.
Amen.
Amen. Thank you, brother.
Let's turn to song number 174.
Song number 174, by Jesus, I Love Thee.
Song number 174.
["I Love Thee"]
It's a 15-passenger van, and there's seven of us.
So we want to only take, for comfort's sake, we'll call it a 10-passenger van.
So that means...
I forgot my phone. Does anyone have a calculator? No. I'm kidding.
So that means we have about three or four seats, depending on the people, I guess.
But if you want to go, you're more than welcome to come.
I'm just totally going to get run out of this town on a rail.
But if you want to come, there's still those seats available.
They're limited. It's first come, first served.
But we'd love to have you along and come celebrate that special day with the Forte and Hester families.
And then also, don't forget, below that we've got the...
Moving on quickly, the 2022 yearbook portraits.
So this is all going to be done all in one afternoon.
We're going to get everybody's photo taken that wants to participate,
simply because Brother Ramon is coming down here from Tempe.
And he doesn't have the time to be going back and forth.
And he's the one who's shooting all the photos up there for the Tempe yearbook.
But we're going to be included in that yearbook. We'll have our own section, the Tucson folks.
And we'll get a nice picture taken. We'll have a backdrop set up.
But it's going to be right after the morning service on October 23rd.
We'll have some sub sandwiches from EG's.
And so while you're waiting, you can have something to eat.
It's probably going to take maybe an hour, hour and a half.
I don't know exactly. To get the photo taken doesn't take a long time.
But we're going to have to work through everybody.
We'll start with the bigger families and work our way down.
So please do participate.
If you do, you'll also get a high quality digital file of the photo.
So that'll be sent to you in your email.
And then you can do all kinds of things with that.
You can make greeting cards out of it.
You can get the nice photo framed for the wall.
You can put it on a banner and have a biplane fly it over the city of Tucson.
Let everyone see your pearly whites.
But come and get that photo taken.
Because it's one of those things that you always look back on in the years.
And you think, man, we never took the time to get that photo taken.
It's one of those things you kind of have to make yourself do.
Well, the church is doing it. And it's doing it at no cost to you.
And in fact, we're even feeding you while you're waiting.
So try to find a photographer who's willing to do all that.
They're not out there.
But we're going to do that for you.
So do mark the calendar there and plan to have that done if you'd like.
Also, more exciting news.
We've got the annual chili cook-off coming up on Monday, October 31st from 4.30 to 7.30.
All chilis that want to – anyone who wants to enter a chili for the competition must have it here by 5 p.m.
No exceptions.
Okay, I'm going to go on the record and say it now.
You have to be here by 5 o'clock.
Five o'clock is when the voting begins.
All right, so you say, well, why can't I show up at 6 or 7?
Because by then people are already going to be casting their votes.
And then if your chili's better, then they're going to have to go and take it out and put it in somebody else's.
We don't want that confusion.
Just have the chili here by 5 p.m.
That's when we're going to start.
Just pick your favorite chili and vote for it.
That's how we're going to do it.
We'll probably just give you a ticket or something.
We'll figure that out when we get there.
The important thing is that we're going to be eating chili.
There's going to be sides and spice cider provided by the church.
So we'll have some sides, chips, bean dip, probably some corn muffins, you know, and the cider and maybe some other beverages provided.
There will be prizes awarded to first, second, and third place winners.
Now, let me say this about the prizes because I know – I think the first year we did this I set a pretty high bar for prizes.
And that may have influenced some people's voting.
It kind of dawned on me.
And I'm not saying it did.
I'm just saying there's potential.
You know, that if you make the prize so alluring, some people might be willing to kind of maybe bend the rules a little bit.
I'm not saying that happened, right?
But I don't want that to be a temptation when there's a potential $100 gift card to Amazon or $50 gift card.
That's kind of steep.
So this year we're toning it down.
It's going to be modest prizes.
And I'm not exactly sure what all is going to be up for grabs.
But it's not going to be this year.
And I'm not saying it's going to be this year.
That's the offering plate as it goes around.
You can follow along with me as I read from Psalms 122.
I'm sorry.
That's totally wrong.
We're going to go to Psalm.
Let's go to Psalm 33.
Psalm 33.
Maybe I did want Psalms 122.
Yeah.
Psalms 122.
Sorry.
Let's go there.
Psalms 122.
I'll start reading from verse 1 in Psalms 122.
It says there in verse 1,
I was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go into the house of the Lord.
Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together,
where that the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord,
unto the testimony of Israel,
to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.
For there are set thrones of judgment,
the thrones of the house of David.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
They shall prosper that love thee.
Peace be within thy walls,
and prosperity within thy palaces.
For my brethren and companion's sake,
I will now say,
Peace be within thee,
because of the house of the Lord our God.
I shall.
In 1 Corinthians 14, verse 12,
Even so ye,
for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts,
seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.
And if you remember last week,
I talked about how it's good to have
kind of a theme verse for the year,
and because the church had just celebrated
its fourth year anniversary,
we're moving into the fifth year,
that I thought it would be good
to kind of keep this in front of us
throughout the year,
this idea of seeking to excel.
We don't want to get to a place in our lives
as individuals or as a church
where we start to plateau
and just kind of take the status quo
and just say that's good enough.
That's not the attitude that we want to have
in our lives,
and that's not the attitude that we want to have
when it comes to serving God.
And again, Paul here in 1 Corinthians 14
is saying, seek that ye may excel.
I mean, we talked about the idea
that excelling and improving is something
that has to be done through desire.
That's something that you have to want.
It's something that you have to go after,
and desire, that's something that you have to want.
It's something that you have to go after,
and it's something that,
in context of 1 Corinthians 14,
should be done to the edifying of the church,
and really that's what I want to just spend
maybe a week or two talking about.
I don't want to carry this out too far,
but I do want to put my finger on a few things
this morning more specifically.
I know I've kind of been building this up,
but I'm just going to touch on a couple things
this morning that I think that are important
that are areas that we could all work to excel at.
These are areas that we could all work
to seek to be better in and to improve in.
Now, I want to start by saying this,
is that when it comes to serving God,
when it comes to improving,
when it comes to the things of the Lord,
attitude, and really this is true about any area in life,
attitude is everything.
The way that we think,
the way that we feel about things
is going to affect how we act.
Attitude really is everything.
I'll just read to you from Proverbs 23.
It says,
Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye,
neither desire thou his heart bringeth forth that which is evil,
for out of the abundance of the heart
his mouth speaketh.
So the things that come out of our mouths,
the actions that come out of our intentions,
those are all things that come from our heart,
which is why it's so important to guard your heart
with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.
And to always be keeping our attitude in check
and making sure that when the flesh is getting out of hand
or when we're getting a bad attitude
that we rein that in,
and that we always make sure that we have our priorities in order.
Because again,
I just want to put my finger on a few things this morning
and get a little bit more specific about areas that I think that we could seek to excel in.
And really it's just in two areas.
And I don't want to belabor this whole series here,
but really two areas I think we could always seek to excel in
is in the area of our services, meaning our church services,
and then obviously in our soul winning.
Because what else are we doing as a church?
I know we're having a lot of extracurricular things that we do,
but really what is it that we're here to do as a church?
We're here as a church to have church services
for the preaching and the teaching of the word of God,
and then we're here also to fulfill the great commission
of going out and preaching the gospel to every creature
and teaching them all things whatsoever has been commanded us.
That is the purpose of the church.
Obviously there's a lot of other things that we benefit from.
Obviously there's a lot of other things that we benefit from the church,
but we always have to keep in mind the primary purpose of the church.
It's not to provide people with a social life.
It's not there to just entertain people.
It's there to get the work of God done.
Look, we could still go ahead and have our social life.
We could still go ahead and have our entertainment.
We can go ahead and still have the fellowship
and all those good things that come along.
I was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go unto the house of the Lord.
If you find yourself having to drag yourself into church,
if church is just some laborious thing that you just have to just
make yourself do week in and week out,
you ought to do some soul searching.
You ought to ask yourself,
Why am I not glad when it was said unto me,
Let us go unto the house of the Lord?
Here's the thing.
I understand that sometimes we have other things going on in life.
Sometimes things are going to be hard.
Sometimes going to church isn't going to be just the most thrilling thing to us.
Sometimes coming to church and hearing a sermon can be quite uncomfortable.
If you don't believe me, just buckle up.
Because it's about to get uncomfortable.
But if that's just continually our attitude of just like,
Oh, church again.
Oh, soul winning again.
Oh, by all these things that come to the things of the Lord,
that shows a poor attitude.
And that's something that we need to get in and say,
Am I glad to be going here?
And if not, maybe we should do some soul searching and ask ourselves,
Why should I be glad to go to church?
What are some reasons that you should be grateful that there's a church like this
in Tucson where you live?
A lot of other churches out there,
I'm sure there's plenty of other good churches,
but are they doing the work that needs to be done?
Maybe they are. I don't know.
The one thing I want to really touch on is this idea,
when it comes to our church services,
is being on time or being punctual when it comes to coming to church.
And again, I know that not everyone's going to make it here on time.
Things happen.
I mean, good night.
I'm trying to get here on time.
Yesterday to soul winning and the 19 narrows down to one lane on Saturday morning.
It's like, what in the world?
Because they had this construction.
Thankfully, I still made it here in the nick of time.
I mean, I walked in literally on time at like 10.30.
But here's the thing.
When it comes to being on time,
there's this saying that's out there,
On time is late.
That's something that they say in the military.
On time is late.
When it comes to serving and excelling and doing better,
squeaking in at the last minute, you're not going to excel.
And I'm going to harp on this.
And look, I don't want to turn this into a brow beating sermon.
I don't want to bully people from the pulpit.
People can do whatever they want.
But I'm going to touch on it because we're going to talk in the soul winning
and doing some follow up and getting people here.
But I don't want to go through all the work of getting people to come to church
and dragging visitors in here to have them show up at 10 o'clock to an empty building.
Have them show up at 10.15 to an empty building.
Or just brother Andrew, bless his heart, in here practicing his scales.
They walk in and he's the only one here.
Me and him.
And I'm running around like a chick with my head cut off trying to get everything ready.
And he's over there.
La la la la la.
La la la la la la.
Or whatever he does.
I'm not saying that's what he does.
But you know, it sets the mood.
And look, I think our church is in a great place.
I was almost hesitant to bring this up just because I don't want people to get the idea that somehow
we're in dire straits or we're despairing.
I think our church is in a great place.
Four years into it.
We've got a great core of people.
I mean, we've got a nice full house here this morning.
We're getting the work done.
The soul wedding's being done.
People are being reached.
I'm for that.
But again, the whole idea of the series is seek to excel.
To do better.
Because you're not here.
You know, I walked in this morning.
You know what?
We had visitors at 10 o'clock.
You know?
And I get it.
They're from just out of town and they're visiting.
But, you know, what if it had been somebody else who'd gotten a flyer and said,
I'm going to go check this church out.
What if it was somebody who understood that on time is late and said,
I'm going to show up a little early to that church and meet the people and get to know them.
And they show up and it's, you know, they're going to get to know brother Andrew really well.
Because he's the only one here.
They're going to get to know me really well because we're the only ones here.
And again, you know, you say what time?
You know, you decide.
You decide what is early enough to be considered on time to church.
But it's not 1028.
It's not 1030.
It's, you know, I mean, 1015.
You know, to me that seems like a good reasonable, hey, could you be here 15 minutes early?
10, you know, half hour I know is kind of maybe a little much.
But there's donuts this morning.
You know, do I got to get donuts every Sunday?
I'm not committing to that.
But, you know, why show up early?
So that when people come here, you know, it's not this museum feeling here.
And I'm going to talk a little bit more about that.
Because I think that's one area we could seek to excel in in our church.
Is being on, having people show up on time.
And look, if you've been late, I'm not, look, it's multiple people.
It's multiple incidences.
And I understand from time to time we're all late.
Things come up.
But I'm just making the point this morning that no one is on time accidentally.
Just on time, but actually early.
You know, that's why she has time to fellowship with the ladies.
That's why the children have time to fellowship and draw silly pictures and get to know one another.
Right?
Because she, because here's the thing.
No one is on time accidentally.
They make a, they say I'm going to be on time and then they plan to be on time.
Okay?
And again, this idea that rolling in the last minute is good enough to me doesn't cut it.
That's not seeking to excel.
That's just like par for the course.
That's just like, okay, I'm just checking off the box.
And I get it.
People have schedules.
People go through seasons.
People can't always do that.
I understand.
I don't, I just assume the best in all those situations.
But I'm just saying it wouldn't shock me if there's people there that are just going ahead and just waiting to the very last minute just because they feel like.
People there that are just going ahead and just waiting to the very last minute just because they feel like it.
Okay?
And if that's you out there, you know, then you've got some soul searching to do.
Are you glad to come to church?
Probably right now.
Probably right now you're probably thinking, boy, this would have been a good one to walk in late on.
You say, let me just make some practical tips because I, again, I don't want to just be this, eh, sermon.
You know, I actually want to give some beneficial things because I get it.
You know, being on time, showing up, it's a discipline.
It's something you have to work at.
So let me give you a practical tip on how to do this.
This is something that I heard you be somewhere at a specific time.
You know, figure out what that time is and then work backwards from that when you're planning your schedule.
Say, okay, I have to be at this place at 10 o'clock.
Okay?
So then you have to go, okay, well, how long is it going to take me to get there?
Say a half hour.
Okay?
You know, some of you it takes longer than that.
Yet you still manage.
You know, it's probably because they did that on purpose.
Okay?
But you say, I got to be there at 10 o'clock.
Right?
Okay.
Well, it's going to take, it took longer than my wife does to get ready to go out.
Right?
But if you, you know, say you need a half hour.
That's what I do.
I schedule a half hour.
And honestly, that leaves me time because I'm a dude.
Right?
I'm not sitting there making sure my ensemble is just right.
I mean, I've got one suit coat.
Good night.
Right?
So it's easy for me.
But I'm just saying for you, you know, if you need more time, you need to factor that
into your equation.
Okay.
What does it take me to get ready?
It takes me a half hour, an hour, okay.
Well, that's when you need to start getting ready so that you can leave on time, so that
you can be here on time.
I know this is real practical.
I know that's real simple.
But you know, I think if people put that into practice, it would probably benefit them a
great deal.
It helped them, this church to excel.
I mean, I'm sure if you're not doing that at work, you know, you might want to start.
You don't want to be that guy that's showing up, you know, one minute late or one minute
early.
You mean the boss notices.
And it's funny how when there's like real consequences involved, people have no problem
showing up on time.
And that's the way it goes back to what I'm saying.
It's attitude.
It's priorities.
You know, this is a volunteer work.
People if they're late for no good reason, you know, but this is, I'm not going to write
you up.
There isn't going to be a yearly incident report.
We're not going to sit you down and have a yearly review or we're going to have a one
on one and I'm going to talk about, well, you need to, you know, you could do that or
you cannot.
You know?
And it's funny how that's exactly how it is at work and nobody has any problems.
They'll make those changes.
Oh, you want me to be here a little earlier?
No problem, boss.
Because there's real consequences that you're going to feel immediately.
Get fired.
Not going to get the raise.
Not going to get the promotion.
Not going to exceed.
Right?
You're not going to excel.
Well, you know, there's some spiritual things here that you might miss out on.
You know, if, if, if you're just in the habit as the, you know, people can take this or
they can leave it because this is, this is all volunteer here.
But I'll tell you this much, tardiness communicates priorities.
It communicates your priorities.
It says, I haven't taken the time to get myself where I need to be on time.
And look, and if you're one that is, is holding up other people from being where they need
to be, that's not good.
You know, shame on you.
Fix that.
People need to be where they need to be.
We don't want to be holding up children, holding up parents, holding up families, vice versa.
You know, individuals, adults, you know, not getting themselves where they need to be.
We need to fix that.
Okay?
We need to seek to excel.
You say, I want you to get specific in this, in this, uh, this series, when are you going
to get specific?
Well, we're getting specific.
Okay.
Now you're thinking that's enough being specific.
Go back to being more general.
Okay.
There, there's some specific application.
And again, I'm not saying this in a mean spirited way.
I'm not trying, I really don't want to come across as I'm brow beating or bullying people,
but you know what, if you don't point it out from time to time, if you don't say, here's
what needs to be fixed, it probably just won't get fixed and say, well, to me, it just doesn't
seem that important to be here on time because after all, it's just us.
That's a terrible attitude.
That is a church anyway.
Well, it's just Deacon and his family.
And then they're, you know, there's no visitors.
Like, it's like, I'm still in that house, you know, we've moved into my mother's house
after she passed away.
And the mud room in the back, which faced the alley had this big sliding glass door.
So you could see in, you know at night, when it's dark out, you can see in, but you can't
really see out as well.
So I'm sitting there, you know, and I'm pretty much ready.
I mean, I've got my lunchbox packed and I think I was like playing with one of my, you
know, Karen at the time or talking to my wife or something.
And I see the pastor's truck, my boss's truck pulls up and he's, he's there to pick me up.
Do you think I just sat there and waited for him to come knock on the door?
Like tell me?
No.
Well, here's what I did do.
Like tell me?
No.
What I did do is when I saw his truck pull up, I pulled on my boots.
You think that didn't take very long.
And then I laced up my boots and I mean, it might, the whole thing might've taken maybe
a minute.
I mean, how long does it take to lace up a pair of red wings?
You know, the, the, the tall ones.
Some of you probably know the answer to that.
You might've timed it.
It's been a while for me, right?
And then I, and I just thought, well, here we go.
And I kissed my wife goodbye and I walked out the door and I remember I got in the van
and second morning, he just looked at me and he just didn't say anything.
I was like, oh, okay, I guess he's just having a bad morning.
I guess he's just in a bad mood.
Certainly couldn't be anything I've done, right?
Couldn't be me that's causing, putting him in a bad mood.
It's his problem.
And then he just turned up the AM talk radio, whatever it is that he's listening to.
And he, we drove for like 20, it was like 20 or 30 minutes in, not a, then he just turned
and he just turns down the radio and he looks at me and says, it's really hard for me to
smile and be friendly with you when you're late.
A half hour to 20 minutes late, like several days in a row, I had drive to his apartment,
pick him up, drive out to my boss's house and then get in a van with the other guys
that drove to his house and drive an hour to a job site.
So it was like two hours of driving and this guy was late at like 20, 30 minutes dragging
his butt to get in that car so we could make an hour drive and then make another hour drive
with the rest of the crew.
If you, hopefully everyone follows what I'm saying.
And what this guy failed to realize is that when you're late, it's not just you that's
late, you're making other people late.
And this really applies more to like, you know, a job situation, but think about it.
If you're, if, if you're late to a job where people are getting paid by the hour and you're,
let's just say you're half hour late just to make the math, math easy.
Half hour late, which, you know, that probably get, you know, I've worked jobs that would
just get you fired.
You're half hour late, you're fired.
You know, if you were half hour late, it's not just your half hour that you wasted.
If you're holding up, you know, several other people, it's their half hour and their half
hour and their half hour.
This guy was a half hour late, but you know what?
He cost the company two hours of manpower.
Two hours.
You know why?
Because it was four guys or whatever.
We're all half hour late now because of one guy.
So this is just some practice.
So this is just some practical application and I'm kind of ranting here, but you know,
that's how kind of my tardiness was discouraged was when someone pointed it out to me and
said, Hey, here's what it means to be on time and here's why it's hard for me to be, have
a good attitude with you when you're late.
You know, and, and I, I didn't know if I wanted to bring this up, but I'm, you know, I'm already
peeling the bandaid off.
I might as well just say it.
You know, the last week I, I showed up here late, you know, and by late I mean like not
at 10 o'clock, like at like 15, two, we don't really, you know, I don't know what to think
about that.
But you know, I still have to get up here and do this.
I still have to get up here and pull out the bulletin and say, thanks for coming everybody.
And I still have to have a good attitude.
But you know what?
I feel like my boss in that truck.
It's hard for me to do that and shake hands and smile when you're just squeaking in at
the last minute because it just communicates and maybe I'm wrong, but you know, maybe that's,
this isn't the case, but it just seems to send the message of this really isn't that
big of a priority to me getting here on time, making this a point of being here because
after all, it's just us, right?
Well, that's not really what I'm aiming for.
I want to bring people in here.
I want to put some effort into getting other people to come to this church, but I don't
want them to walk into a church with nobody in it because I've done that.
When I started looking for a church and I walked in a church where there's just, you
walk in a few minutes early and nobody's there or it's very few people.
It's like, there's boy, there's nothing going on here.
You say, well, what do you mean?
Is there nothing going on here?
No, there is something going on here.
We do have soul winners.
We do have a vision.
We do have the King James Bible.
I believe God wants this church here and that this church is and will continue to do great
things, but I'm just saying, you know, that's the impression somebody could get when they
walk through that door and the building's empty.
It's the impression somebody could get when they walk through that door and the building's
empty.
They might say, in spite of the fact that there is something going on here, they might
say, and they might think, just from what they see, there's nothing going on here and
decide, oh, I'm going to go find another church.
And that's happened.
I've had, we've had visitors come to this church in a midweek service.
We've had, and I know midweeks are harder to get here.
I get that.
We've had visitors show up on Sunday nights and it's just like, hi, you know, I promise
there's something going on here.
And I know I got to move on because this is Gates with Thanksgiving and into his courts
with praise, be thankful unto him and bless his name.
You see how attitude plays a part in this again?
How it's an attitude of thankfulness that would bring you into his courts with praise.
You know, the more we dwell on and think about the Lord and the more that we meditate on
him throughout the week, the more that we have his word dwelling within us, the more
that we're praying and thinking and seeking the things of God, you know, the more readily
you're going to come in here and be wanting to just sing out, sing out loud.
And I get it.
I'm not saying if you don't that you're just some unspiritual, you know, carnal Christian,
but I'm just saying, you know, that might help.
But when it comes to this area of singing, what we need to do is to learn to sing and
to sing out.
And I get it.
This is very awkward.
But you know what's funny is every time I bring this up, you guys start singing better.
So I'm going to bring it up again, you know, because the singing has been good, but it's
been better at the same time.
So I'm going to bring it up.
Go to Psalm 33, Psalm 33, you know, sing, sing out when you come to church.
When I first got in church, when I first got into Baptist church, they were singing those
old hymns and people were singing out and I, man, it moved me.
They're being so loud that now my voice will get drowned out and people won't hear me as
well anyway.
I don't, I mean, I don't know.
Just to me, I love singing out loud, you know, and I get it when it's harder, when it's a
smaller group and you stand out a little bit more, but you know, it's, there's something
about being in a service where the singing is loud.
Anyone who's been to any kind of a large church or any, you know, we go to the Red Hot Conference,
the preaching conference, or whenever we have a large group of people and you hear that
singing, man, it's powerful.
It moves you.
You know, we could have that every Sunday.
There's nothing stopping us from having a powerful, moving song service that draws us
closer to the Lord, that, you know, makes us think more in the things of God, that fills
us with the Spirit, gets ready for the preaching of the Word of God.
There's nothing stopping us from having that if we want to sing out.
You know, that, and I say, sing, you say, well, I don't know the hymns.
Well, you know, in the pulpit, not the pulpit, but the bulletin, you know, we have the songs
listed.
You know, you say, well, I don't, I don't have a hymnal.
We'll take it down for hundreds of years, hundreds of years.
You don't think anybody's ever put that up on YouTube somewhere?
I mean, go to the, go past, go to Faithful Word Tempe's website.
You know, I guess I need to get a link on our website too.
There's a link to a website with all of these songs listed with the mini player and with,
you can download it.
You can get them sheet music.
You can hear it played.
You can, I mean, there's no reason to not learn these hymns.
And I remember when I first started going to church, I remember one of the most vivid
dreams I ever had was me sitting in church and just panicking and saying, I have to learn
these songs.
And you know what?
I ended up learning them.
You know how I learned them?
Because I listened to them throughout the week.
You know, I'd have the tape and by just going to church and hearing it and by singing out,
by trying to follow along.
And once I caught the tune, these hymns are not that hard folks.
And that's why we sing all the verses so that by the end of it, you catch it, you know,
but you got to put effort into it.
Look at Psalms 33 verse one.
He says, rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely for the upright.
So you know that last part, praise is comely for the upright.
What is he saying there?
Is he saying that it's, it's that, that the right, the upright, they like to hear praise?
Is that what it's saying?
Because I, maybe, you know, but when I read this, what I think is that when we praise
the Lord, when we rejoice in the Lord, you righteous, when we praise him, it is comely
for the upright, meaning it, praise looks good on you before God.
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely, it's pleasant, praise is pleasant
to behold for the upright.
You know, it's, it's, yeah, obviously it's good for us to behold, it benefits us to,
to hear singing and to praise God and things like that.
But I also believe that God looks down from heaven and hears the praise of his saints
and says that it is a comely thing for my people to praise me.
God enjoys it.
God takes pleasure in the praises of his people.
You know, the God of Israel inhabiteth praise.
I mean, the command to praise the Lord is the most commanded commandment there is in
scripture.
There's, I mean, that's all pretty much Psalms is, just praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
praise the Lord, praise ye the Lord.
Just repeatedly, that's the most commanded commandment we have in scripture is to praise
God.
And to him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings, sing unto him a new song,
play skillfully with a loud noise.
You know, and this leads me to my next point is that it's not perfect.
As long as they're practicing, I don't care.
As long as people throughout the week are practicing and trying to improve, if they
make a mistake, I'm not saying come here and make mistakes, okay, don't get me wrong.
But I'm saying, you know, I can look, we can, obviously people are going to make mistakes.
Obviously people are going to play the wrong note.
Obviously, sometimes, even I've done it as a song leader, gotten up and sing the completely
wrong verse.
Sometimes I've had to stop and listen to you guys and go, okay, that's where we're at.
Look, we're going to make mistakes.
But if you're putting forth the effort throughout the week of learning the songs that are being
scheduled, if you're putting forth the effort to play the instrument that you're playing,
then you know what, God bless you.
You know, because that takes work, that takes discipline, that takes sacrifice, I understand
that.
But make sure that you're doing it.
The other point when it comes to the services and song, and I know I'm going kind of long
this morning, and I'll wrap it up quickly, but is the pre-service music.
And again, this goes back to the idea of being here early, of being here on time.
Is that it would be really great, and this is just something I'd like to see, is if when
people came in here there was music playing.
Because sometimes it takes the air right out of a room when you come in here and you can
hear everybody's conversations or there's no one talking or, you know, when you walk
in and there's music playing, when the hymns are already being played, 15, 20 minutes,
30 minutes before the service, when there's a continual stream of music, it sets the mood
for church.
It makes you feel like you're coming into the house of God.
You know, rather than walk, being on time, it requires people maybe saying, hey, you
play this one, I'll play that one, whatever.
I'm just saying, if possible, if it's possible, why not?
You know, if it's not possible, I get it, that's fine.
But if it is possible, boy, it'd be great to have some pre-service music.
Because, you know, and I'll just read you from Hebrews 13, because it all comes back
to this idea, and I'm going to lead into, I'm going to close this final point, but I'm
preaching all this, why, because of the fact that we want to grow as a church, we want
to bring visitors in here, and I'm going to talk about how we're going to do that here
in a minute.
I have some specific plans on that end, but we don't want to bring them into a library
where it's as quiet as a museum or something like that.
I'm trying to bring it in a place where it feels vibrant, where the Spirit of the Lord
is, where it's exciting, where it feels like there's something going on, because there
is something going on here.
The Bible says in Hebrews 13, be not forgetful to entertain strangers.
And I know I'm kind of reaching with this one, all right, that it's talking about being
hospitable.
But you know what, another way we could entertain strangers are people that are foreign to us,
people we do not know, is that when they come to church, you know, we are hospitable
towards them, we put them, you know, make them feel like, you know, we are hospitable
towards them, we put them, you know, make them feel like they're where it's going on.
Okay?
And I'm not saying we need to entertain them in the sense that, you know, I'm going to
start juggling or something, you know, we're going to start doing all these stupid things
that churches do out there to just make everybody, you know, ooh and aah.
You know, we're not going to have people start gunning up here in their tutus and doing ballet
dances for Jesus.
That's out there.
You know, we're not going to do things like that, but you know what, one way we could
kind of entertain strangers is in our soul winning.
Okay?
Is in our soul winning.
Okay?
And look, again, we're, we are doing a good job soul winning.
Okay?
I believe that.
You know, we have consistent people that show up and go out in their blessing.
And I'm saying this as gently as I can going into this.
Okay?
But here's what we need.
Okay?
And we're going to talk about excelling.
And I'm fine with the status quo, you know, I'm not.
But if we want to excel, okay, as individuals and as a church, here's what we need to do.
Some people need to go from silent partner to speaker.
Okay?
Now I know that I've preached and have said, and this is still my policy, that I will never
put undue pressure upon people to speak when they are not comfortable or when they don't
want to.
Okay?
And I'll never do that out soul winning.
But I'm going to do it from this pulpit.
Okay?
Because that's what we need.
And it's, and it's, and here's why, it's because we have a lot of work to do.
And if we double the workers, we just doubled our accomplishments.
If we double our work, we double the results.
And there's been times when we could, we've gone out soul winning, where if, if, you know,
just a few more people had taken the time or would just get, take the initiative and
get over that hurdle of awkwardness or whatever it is that's holding them back, if they could
just get over that, we would literally have doubled the amount of work we could have done.
Think about that.
You know, and again, I'm not, and again, I'm putting this as gently as I can.
I'm grateful for everybody that shows up at all, honestly, because even just by being
a silent partner, you showing up, you help us double our efforts.
I get that.
But we're seeking to excel.
Okay?
And whatever it is that's holding people back, if it's awkwardness or just not feeling like
they're ready, you know, we should try to remedy that as individuals.
We should try to get beyond that.
We should try to, you know, is it, do we need to mark our Bibles?
Do we need to ask certain questions or maybe it's just, you know, we know what to say.
We know what the scripture is.
We know what the gospel is, but it's just that getting over those nerves, you know,
of knocking that door and going through, you know, the, the mumbling and the fumbling that
we're afraid of, you know, say, why do you want more talkers and less silent partners
or where do you want people to make that transition so that we can make known the mystery of the
gospel and get more people saved?
Okay.
That's why.
I say, well, yeah, that was for Paul though.
He said it, you know, Paul, as it says there, was an ambassador in bonds that there and
I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
Well, that was for Paul.
Of course he should speak boldly.
He's Paul because, you know, he's an ambassador, but what does the Bible say in second Corinthians
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us, be reconciled
in Christ's stead.
You know, we are also ambassadors for Christ.
We are the ones that need to open our mouths and make known the mystery of the gospel and
do it boldly.
Another area, and I'm not going to harp on that because again, I, I don't want to put
pressure on people.
People are, you know, can look, and I've said it and I mean this, people can remain silent
partners for the rest of their life, but I will say this.
No one's ever taken me up on that offer.
I don't know of anybody that's ever said, I'm done, okay?
That's all I'll say about it.
Another area that we could prove in is, you know, with the Spanish.
If you're a Spanish speaker, you know how to speak Spanish, you are incredibly valuable
to this ministry when it comes to soul winning.
You know, because me no speak of the Spanish, okay?
And I would like to take the time, I wish I had more time in my schedule to be able
to devote the hours to do that, but it's, you know, it's kind of a full docket already,
but like if you already speak Spanish, you have, good night, this city, last time I checked
is 64% Hispanic.
I mean we go to neighborhoods where it's just like, no ingles, no ingles, no ingles, it's
like almost every other door is no ingles, right?
So if that's you, that's a real area we could.
On the maps, there's always going to be an overview map of all the maps that are included
for the individual teams, right?
And on the back of the master map, there is this, I know it's kind of hard to see, but
there is a table put out here, a spreadsheet of the date, the name, the address, this person
who was soul winning, and you know, other, where you can include information about the
follow up.
And all you need to do now is just fill that out after your soul winning, you know, if
you get somebody saved, if you find somebody, and I'm saying anybody, anybody who gets saved,
write it down, I'm going to follow up on all of them.
I just want to go out, and you say, when are you going to do that?
Saturday afternoons.
I'm going to do the Saturday soul winning, take people out soul winning, and then I'm
going to go out for a couple hours or however long it's going to take on Saturday afternoon
and just go follow up on these people, because that's the best time to follow up on people,
is the day before church, and try to get them into church, okay?
And let me say this, because I don't want to give the impression that this is the end
all be all of church growth, that this is it, you know, Deacon's going to do soul winning
or follow up, and now the church is just going to explode.
This is what I believe, is that God is the one that builds the church.
God builds the church.
That's what Jesus said.
I will build my church, is what he told Peter and the apostles, right?
The Bible says if you're there in Psalms 127 verse 1, except the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain that build it.
So ultimately, and we can do all the follow up and all the soul winning in the world,
but if God isn't going to be the one that builds the church, it's all in vain, okay?
So I don't want people to get the wrong idea that, you know, handing out invitations is
going to be what builds this church.
Doing follow up, you know, is not going to build this church.
Engineer circumstances, God will cause people to cross our paths.
People will be led here in, you know, in ways we don't understand.
People will find us, and people, good night!
People will find, have found churches on YouTube shorts.
I was just talking to another pastor, he said, yeah, I got people in my church because they
found me on YouTube shorts.
Minute long video, now they're baptized members of my churches, or my church.
You know, so that's, you know, that's one area you say, hey, what are you doing to excel,
deacon?
Well, you know, sounds like I got some shorts to make.
I'm not talking about the ones who wear the pool.
You know, sounds like I'm going to have to figure out how to film and edit in a vertical
format, and do something about this, and actually have something worth a say.
Right?
It sounds like I have some work to do.
Why?
Because that's the work I can do.
You know, I can work on the website.
That's where I'm seeking to excel.
And there is a better website coming, I promise.
I know ours is kind of janky.
Just being honest, you know.
Thanks for not saying amen to that.
There's an amen.
Okay.
This is true.
God bless you.
It is, but hey, seek to excel.
Improve the website.
Improve the online reach.
That's something I'm working on.
Don't feel like you have to have the super discerning thing about, obviously, you know,
don't send me to try to convert some Jehovah Witness or something like that, or whatever.
If it's a Spanish speaker, you know, probably not, that's not going to work either, but.
Anybody and everybody that you can think of right on there when you're out sowing, get
saved, write it down, and I will fall out because I believe that God will bless our
efforts.
Did I have you go to Psalm, yeah, we already read it, Psalm 127, verse 1, except the Lord
build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
Say well, God's going to do it.
God's going to do everything.
Yeah, you know what, God is going to build the church.
But that doesn't mean we should take that as, well, let's just not try anything then.
Let's just, let's just squeak by, let's just, you know, show up whenever it's convenient,
let's just go soul winning whenever it's convenient, let's just be satisfied with the status quo
and just wait on God to do everything.
You know, God will bless our efforts.
Don't take Psalm 127 as, well, let's not try to do any better.
Take that as, you know, yeah, God's going to do it, but we should still do what?
Seek to excel in these areas.
Let's go ahead and pray.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for the opportunity that we have here in this ministry to serve
you, Lord, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength.
And Lord, I pray that you'd help us in this coming year to continue to excel as a church.
I thank you for this body that you've assembled thus far.
I thank you for the faithfulness of the members here, the people that love you and love your
word.
And Lord, I pray you'd help us to serve you, Lord, out of sincere lives and in this city,
we ask in Christ's name, Amen.
Alright, we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we go.
Let us shine from shore to shore.
Send the light.
We have heard the best we've known with all today.
Send the light.
And the golden offering at the cross we lay.
Send the light.
The blessing must go by.
Let it shine from shore to shore.
Send the light.
The blessing must go by.
Let it shine forevermore.
Let us pray that grace be everywhere about.
Send the light.
Send the twice light spirit everywhere we go.
Send the light.
The blessing must go by.
Let it shine from shore to shore.
Send the light.
The blessing must go by.
Let it shine forevermore.
Let us not grow weary in the work of love.
Send the light.
Let us gather in truth for a crown of love.
Send the light.
The blessing must go by.
Let it shine from shore to shore.
Send the light.