James chapter 1, the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is beginning there in
verse 23 where the Bible reads,
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his
natural face in a glass, for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway
forgetth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being
not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
The title of my sermon tonight is, A Doer of the Work.
A Doer of the Work.
Now, if you would flip over to Revelation chapter number 2, and while you're turning
to Revelation 2, I'm going to read from Revelation 22 verse 12,
And behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as
his work shall be.
Jesus Christ said that when he's coming again, he will reward his servants, small and great,
and I'm here to tell you that the reward will be given based upon your work, the work
that you did, to give every man according as his work shall be.
Now in Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus Christ is giving a specific message to each of the seven
churches which are in Asia, and he talks about the things that he likes about these churches,
and he talks about the things that he does not like about these churches, but the one
common denominator in all seven of these messages is the emphasis upon the work that
they're doing.
Look at Revelation chapter 2 verse 2.
To the church at Ephesus, here's what he says,
I know thy works and thy labor.
And what is labor?
It's just another way of saying the work that they're doing.
I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience, and thou canst not bear them which are evil,
and thou has tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and has found them liars.
If you would, jump down to verse 9 and see the message to Smyrna.
He starts out with, 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, but are the synagogue of Satan.
Verse 13, I know thy works to the church at Pergamos, and where thou dwellest, even where
Satan's seat is, and thou holdest fast my name and is not denied my faith, even in those
days where an Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth.
Verse 19, to Thyatira, he says, I know thy works and charity and service and faith and
thy patience, oh, and thy works.
Again, he mentions the works, and he says the last to be more than the first.
Verse 23, as he continues speaking to Thyatira, I will kill her children with death, 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.
Verse 26, he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power
over the nations.
Flip over to chapter 3, verse 1, and of the angel of the church in Sardis write, these
things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know thy works
that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead.
Verse 2, be watchful and strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die, for I have
not found thy works perfect before God.
Verse 8, to Philadelphia, he says, I know thy works, behold, I have set before thee
an open door and no man could shut it, for thou hast a little strength and has kept my
word and has not denied my name.
And verse 15, to the final church, the church at Laodicea, he says, I know thy works that
thou art neither cold nor hot, I would thou work colder.
How does he know that the church is lukewarm?
By their works?
How does he know that there's a great open door?
How does he know that they've stayed faithful?
He says to all seven churches, I know your works.
I know your works.
I'm looking at the work that you're doing.
If you do the work, you'll be rewarded.
God judges a church based on the works of that church.
God judges our lives based upon the work that we do.
The Bible says, even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure and whether
it be right.
You see, salvation is not of works.
Salvation is by faith alone.
When it comes to getting into heaven, the Bible says, for by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast.
The Bible says, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David also described it, the blessedness
of the man unto whom God impudeth righteousness without works, saying blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
Salvation is not of works.
It's not according to our works.
It is according to our faith in Christ Jesus.
But after we are saved, the rewards are based on the work that we do.
Our standing with God in the sense of whether or not he is pleased with us has everything
to do with our works.
You see, salvation is only the beginning.
Salvation is in a moment in the twinkling of an eye.
It's a one-time thing where you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you're born again,
you're regenerated, but then there's a lifetime of living the Christian life after you're
saved and after you are saved, there's nothing you could ever do to lose your salvation,
but God rewards us based upon our works and he blesses us based on our works, so we don't
want to downplay the importance of works, not for salvation because it has zero play
in salvation, but we don't want to downplay it as far as the Christian life is concerned,
as far as God being pleased with us.
We today look at a lot of churches and form opinions based upon a lot of different things
about those churches where we would go to a town and maybe look at what churches are
in that town and maybe we'll go to some kind of a directory of independent Baptist churches
and look at these churches and see what they're like and maybe decide which church we'd like
to attend or the church that we would like to recommend to someone as being the best
church in that area or this is a really good church or this church isn't so good, stay
away from that church and there are a lot of criteria that we would use to make those
kind of determinations, but let me tell you something, a really big criteria in God's
book when he looks down from heaven and when he decides what a church is doing and he decides
whether they're a good church or not, it's the work that he looks at.
What did he look at in Smyrna?
The work.
What did he look at in Ephesus?
The work.
What did he look at in Pergamos?
The work.
And I wonder how many people are choosing churches today and completely overlooking
the criteria that God says is the important big giant thing, the work.
That's why there are a lot of churches out there that have great doctrine and that are
filled with really nice people who live clean and holy and godly lives, but God is displeased
with these churches and would not consider it a good church because it is not a working
church.
It is a church where people are just showing up and going through the motions and not rolling
up their sleeves and actually doing the work that God has called us to do.
No matter how good you look, no matter how good your doctrinal statement is and that
you've crossed every T and dotted every I theologically, if you're not doing the work,
then you are not profitable under the kingdom of God.
And that's what the Bible is showing us here over and over again throughout the New Testament,
but especially in this passage of Revelation chapter 2.
Now, someone may say, well no Pastor Anderson, you've got this all wrong because the church
at Ephesus, their problem was a love problem.
Remember?
It didn't have anything to do with the work, I mean it was just that they'd lost their
first love.
That's all.
Okay, well let's see if that's really true.
Look down at your Bible there in Revelation chapter 2 when God speaks to the church at
Ephesus, the Bible says in verse 2, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience
and how thou canst not bear them which are evil and thou hast tried them which say they
are apostles and are not and has found them liars and is born and has patience and for
my name's sake is labored and has not fainted.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember thou for from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first love.
Is that what it says?
He says 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.
How did God know that the church at Ephesus had lost their first love?
Because they weren't doing the first works, that's why.
He could look down and say I know thy works and that's why I know that you've lost the
first love.
You see, our works are what earn us rewards in heaven, the deeds that we perform.
That's what the Bible teaches over and over again.
That is what shows us what God is looking for in a church.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter number 3.
While you're turning there, I'll read for you Revelation 14 verse 13.
And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord from henceforth, yea set the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their
works do follow them.
Their works do follow them.
I remember one time I was talking to a pastor in town and he had asked me what we'd been
up to and what was going on and I had told him about one of our recent small town soul
winning marathons.
This wasn't the one from yesterday, this was a few years ago.
And I explained to him, you know, what we do on these small town soul winning marathons.
And who was on the small town soul winning marathon yesterday?
Lift up your hand.
Yeah, we had 50 people come out soul winning.
That's a working church.
And you can get 50 people to drive over two hours away and go soul winning all day.
You know, God looks down and says, I know Faithful Word Baptist Church, I know their
works.
I know their labor.
It's what he likes to see.
People who are working hard.
And I explained to this guy, I said, here's what we do.
You know, we go into a small town and we just knock every single door in one day and just
preach the gospel to anybody who will listen and we just get as many people saved as we
can in that one day.
And just try to get the gospel to the whole town.
You know, and then we drive home.
Right?
And I explained to him how we had just done one in such and such the town and, you know,
we had this many people show up and we were able to get this many people saved.
And here's what this guy said.
He said, well, you know, are you going to now send somebody every week to go and lead
these people and disciple them and follow up with these people?
Because now they're all just a bunch of sheep having no shepherd.
And I looked him right in the eye and I said, oh, you're right.
I guess we should have just let them all die and go to hell then.
That's exactly what I said to him.
Oh, I guess we should have just let them die and go to hell then.
But that's spoken like a true loser who doesn't do any work.
But they want to criticize other people who are actually trying to do something good for
God.
And you know what?
If people actually knew their Bible anyway, they would know that Jesus' disciples did
the exact same thing.
I guess you've never read Matthew, Mark or Luke where Jesus is going throughout all the
towns and villages preaching the gospel.
And you know what they did?
They went into a town.
They preached the gospel.
And one time they even said to Jesus, hey, can you stay a little longer?
And he said, no, I'm going to the next town to preach the gospel.
For therefore am I sent forth to preach in all the towns and villages.
I mean, what kind of nonsense, what kind of garbage doctrine to say, oh, well, shame on
you for winning people to Christ unless you then nurture that person for the rest of your
life.
I mean, what about when Philip won the Ethiopian eunuch to the Lord and just when he was about
to follow up with him, God whisked him away in a whirlwind.
There goes your fault.
I mean, literally, Philip gives the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch and the Holy Spirit
just whisks him away and the Ethiopian eunuch is gone.
And Philip's like, wait, I was trying to follow up.
But you know what?
This is the kind of junk that you hear from the critics who are just doing nothing.
And listen to me.
Let me tell you something.
I see other churches that do certain things to reach people with the gospel and they have
different ministries where they do a soul winning ministry where they're going out and
preaching the gospel.
And you know what?
I'm not going to criticize people who are doing a legitimate soul winning ministry even
if it's not the exact ministry that I would do, even if it's not something that I agree
with.
I'm not going to sit here and criticize people that are at least trying to do good works
for God unless they're doing something that's unbiblical or preaching a false gospel.
Then I would be critical of that, of course.
Like when I see people out there screaming and holding signs on the street corner and
yelling at people how bad their sins are and everything.
That's not what the Bible.
The Bible told us that when we go to the lost, we should not know anything except Jesus Christ
and Him crucified.
And we're supposed to bring the good news of the gospel and that Jesus' voice was not
heard in the streets.
So yeah, if you're going to be an obnoxious, loud mouth, that doesn't work.
That doesn't get people saved.
But for example, here's another ministry that I don't agree with, that I don't do, but I
wouldn't be, I'm just happy that people are doing anything for God.
At least, you know, I personally am not into the bus ministry, okay?
Our church doesn't have a bus ministry.
We're not going to have a bus ministry, okay?
I don't think that it's the right way to go about it.
But you know what?
I have way more respect for a church that has a bus ministry that's going out and soul-winning
that bus route and winning people to Christ and bringing them to church than the do-nothing
church down the street.
I mean, at least they're doing a legitimate, soul-winning ministry that's reaching people.
You know, even if it's not a ministry that I, you know, would do myself or would have
our church participate in, hey, more power to you if you're doing a soul-winning ministry
that's a bus ministry or whatever, even if it's not exactly my style ministry, whatever.
You know what?
I'm just thankful for people that want to work and do something for God.
The only evangelizing ministry that I would criticize is the street preaching because
it's stupid, obnoxious, and doesn't work, period.
And you know what?
If someone comes to me and shows me a successful street preaching ministry that's actually
winning people to the Lord, some 30, some 60, some 100, with the true gospel of Jesus
Christ and actually shows me the fruit of it, then I will change my position on street
preaching.
I will.
Because it's not that I'm just against other people doing, no, I just think that we need
to do some work for God because this world today is dying and going to hell and the Bible
teaches that it's our job to win the loss to Christ and it's our job to do the first
works and to preach the gospel to every creature and to go into all the world and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost and
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded us after they get saved
and baptized, by the way.
You know, that's our job.
And I just think that when people go to a church that's not doing anything to reach
the lost, I just can't see how God could be pleased with that church.
When there's no work going on, when it becomes just a social club where we just get together
and have a Bible study and a coffee clatch, I just can't see how God's pleased with that
when all these other churches look down and say, well, I know your works, I know your
labor, I know, you know, that's what I'm basing it on.
That's what the judgment is based upon, is the work that we do for God.
Look if you would at 1 Corinthians chapter number 3, 1 Corinthians chapter number 3.
And here's the thing, the only reason that I don't do the bus ministry, and I used to
work on the bus ministry, but the reason that I'm not comfortable with the bus ministry
is simply because of the fact that I would never put my kids on a bus with strangers
and so I feel weird about asking other people to put their kids on a bus with strangers.
That's my issue with the bus ministry.
But you know what?
Again, I'm not going to do it, but if I see a church in town that's running buses and
winning people to Christ and baptizing converts, I say praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord for their works that they're doing.
Way more respect for that than the church that's a do nothing kind of a church.
And this attitude that says, oh, well, you're winning people to Christ, but your follow
up is weak.
You know what?
Your whole life is weak.
Your whole church is weak.
Your whole, you know, I mean, what do you, how, I mean, I'm just at a loss what to even
say to that.
Like, how could you criticize going into a town and giving everybody the gospel?
Are you nuts?
Well, you know, that doesn't work.
Yeah, it doesn't work to open your Bible and show someone how to be saved.
Has the gospel lost its power?
I mean, it sure worked yesterday when we had 74 people saved.
I mean, we would look yesterday when we went to Sells, Arizona, which is on an Indian reservation
and there are about 2,400 people in the town and we went out there and just tried to preach
to everybody we could in that single day.
And we had 74 people saved in a town of 2,400 through 50 soul winners working all day long.
You know what?
That is the kind of work that God wants us to do, that God's called us to do.
And no method is going to be perfect.
No plan is going to be perfect.
But at least get out there and try and give it a shot and put forth the effort to do the
work.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 11, for other foundation can no man lay than that
is laid which is Jesus Christ.
Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay,
stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest.
For the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire.
And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
But if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be
saved, yet so is by fire.
Now in this scripture about the judgment seat of Christ, the emphasis is all on the work
that's been done.
What is the work that's been completed?
I don't know about you, but every job I ever had, the biggest thing they cared about was
whether or not the work got done and the quality of the work that was done.
They didn't say, hey you look great, here's a raise, you're so friendly I love being around
you in the office, here's a raise.
No it's all based on performance, it's all based on your works.
Now does that mean there are no rules for the employees?
Of course there are rules.
Now the jobs that I've had, they had rules, show up at this time, be on time, leave on
time, have your shirt tucked in, and be respectful, and be professional, and do a good job.
But at the end of the day you got paid for work, not for following rules, you got paid
for doing the work.
Now if you didn't follow the rules, you might get fired, but you got paid for the work that
you performed.
Well it's the same thing with these seven churches.
He points out things that they're doing wrong, and he says, no I don't want you to have fornication
in the church, and if you don't fix that, I'm going to take away your candlestick.
And no, I don't want you to have women teaching, and this woman Jezebel, and all these problems.
I don't want you to have this sin and that sin.
I don't want you to have the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.
I don't want you to be like Balaam.
But at the end of the day though, it was always based on that main thing, I know your works.
So it's just like any other job, when we work for the Lord, he has standards where he wants
us to live a clean and godly life.
He wants us to be holy, he wants us to follow his commandments, but also he wants to see
some work get done.
I mean imagine if you showed up at your job every day, you clocked in on time, you're
dressed perfectly, you show up, you're friendly, you follow all the rules, and you just don't
produce any work.
You don't get anything done.
You're really just nice and good looking, but you don't accomplish anything.
And then what happened if the boss said to you, well I'm not going to pay you today because
you didn't do any work.
Whoa buddy, I've been here since 9 a.m.
What do you mean you're not going to pay me?
I was here on time, I clocked in, didn't I?
Isn't that, wouldn't that be ridiculous to think you're going to get paid?
Okay, so wouldn't it be ridiculous, okay, but what if you said this, well boss, you
don't understand, I read the manual all day.
And I sat, I've been sitting in training seminars for weeks.
And he'd say, wait a minute, but I hired you to do work.
Yeah, but I'm learning.
You would think that that would be ridiculous to expect to get paid to just sit and do no
work.
Well, it's no less ridiculous to think that you're going to get rewards from God for just
showing up.
You showed up at church.
You sat on your rear end and listened to a sermon.
And then you got in the car and went home.
And then you came back next Sunday and you sat there and you listened to the sermon.
And then you drove home and you said, whoa God, where are my rewards?
I went to church every week.
I mean, I was at the company.
It'd be like, if you showed up at your job, I remember I used to do alarms and every morning
we had a meeting where we'd have like a 15, 20 minute meeting, everybody gets their assignments
and everything.
And then we'd go out and do the work.
I mean, what if I just showed up for the meeting and then just drove home?
And then I'm like, whoa, where's my paycheck?
I was at the meeting.
You got to at least pay me for that half hour when I sat in that meeting.
No, you didn't do the work.
The whole point of the meeting is to get instructions about the work that you're going to go do.
Well, guess what this is?
This is the job meeting.
Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night, we have a job meeting here, okay?
Where we come to the meeting and we get our assignments and God tells us through his word
what the assignments are.
And then the preacher is like sort of a project manager that explains the assignments and
says, okay, you know, here's the work that's come in, here's what we need to do.
And then you're supposed to get that assignment and then you're supposed to go out and do
the work.
Okay?
You say, well, I just don't know what to do.
I don't know what the work is.
Well turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4.
Let's stop and think about what the work is that God wants us to do.
What is our goal as a church?
Because if our church is a workplace, it's a place where people are given work to do.
If it's a place that's judged based upon the work that is performed, according to Revelation
2 and 3, then we have to ask ourselves, what is the work that God has us on this earth
to perform?
Well, it's simple.
It's to win people to Christ and then to teach the Bible to the believers to make them a
more efficient worker for Christ.
You know, to make them a more godly Christian and to make them be someone that's pleasing
to God and so that they can be used to reach more people and to be fruitful and multiply.
I mean, that's the goal.
The goal is to evangelize the world.
Okay?
The goal is to evangelize our area and the world with salvation and then to teach all
the rest of the commands so that we can have people that are saved but that are also being
sanctified and pleasing to God.
Okay?
Now, look what it says in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1.
And I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the
quick and the dead that is appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, be instant in season,
out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine, for the time
will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears
and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.
But watch thou in all things endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof
of thy ministry.
So when Paul is instructing this pastor Timothy, he tells him first of all that he's to preach
the word and he's to rebuke, reprove, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
So he's teaching the people, he's correcting the people, he's motivating the people as
a pastor.
But then the pastor is also told in verse 5, do the work of an evangelist.
Do you see that?
Do the work, an evangelist means someone who brings the gospel, evangelizing.
So go if you would to Ephesians chapter 4, the purpose is to evangelize the lost and
then baptize those people and then teach them to observe all the commandments that Christ
taught us.
That is the threefold mission known as the great commission, which has become known in
many places as the great omission.
You just take the C off of it.
The great commission is often the great omission, the thing that's being omitted, the thing
that nobody's doing.
But God said, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've
commanded you and lo I'm with you all way even unto the end of the world.
Look what it says in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11, and he gave some apostles and some prophets
and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
What is the work?
Well, it has to do with evangelizing and it has to do with teaching those who are already
saved.
It says, till we all come in the unity, verse 13, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
So when is the job done?
The job is done when everybody comes to the knowledge of the Son of God.
When everybody's got unity of the faith because they all know the Bible and they all believe
truth and sound doctrine.
Now is that ever going to happen?
No.
The job continues.
We keep winning people to Christ.
We keep teaching the Bible.
We keep perfecting the saints.
Why do we want to edify and perfect the saints?
For the work of the ministry so that they can be a better worker.
We are servants of God.
Paul said in Romans chapter 1 verse 1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an
apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, which he had promised before by his prophets
and the Holy Scriptures.
What's he saying there?
He said, I'm a servant of God.
I'm called to be an apostle and he says I'm separated.
Now there are a lot of churches today that say, we're separated from the world.
But hold on.
He said, separated unto.
It's one thing to be separated from this world.
That's great.
But what are you separated unto?
He said, I'm a servant of God and I'm separated unto the Gospel, preaching the Gospel.
The Gospel is where the power, he said, and then there's a few verse later, I'm not ashamed
of the Gospel of Christ, he said in Romans 1.
It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also
to the Greek.
Right before that he said, as much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the Gospel to you
that are at Rome also.
He said, I want to take my journey into Spain.
You know, why did Paul want to take a journey into Spain to preach the Gospel?
Because in his world, that was kind of the furthest point that he knew to go preach the
Gospel.
I mean, here he is in the regions of Israel and modern day Turkey and he's in the Greece
and Macedonia and he's saying, I want to take the Gospel all the way to Spain.
I want to take it to the westernmost point in Europe.
I want to go there and preach the Gospel and on my way there, I'm going to stop in Rome
and I'm going to preach the Gospel there.
We have been called to preach the Gospel to the lost.
We are ambassadors for Christ.
We beseech the lost in Christ's stead that they would be reconciled to God.
What is the mission?
The mission is to preach the Gospel to every person in the city of Phoenix, Arizona.
Really in the temple and in every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
Act 542.
We want that to be said of Faithful Word Baptist Church.
We have approximately 4 million people in this area.
The county, Maricopa County, has I believe about 3.8, 3.9 million people in it.
And then of course, Pinal County is part of this greater metropolitan area as well.
So if you just go with this greater Phoenix area, 45 minute radius from where I'm standing,
you have about 4 million people.
Now there are other churches in this area and many of them have soul winning ministries,
but I do not believe that there is a church in the state of Arizona that has anything
close to the soul winning ministry of Faithful Word Baptist Church.
We knock more doors than any other church in this state.
I believe that.
We get more people the Gospel.
And let me tell you, and look, if I'm wrong about that, and if there's another church
that's doing more, then praise the Lord.
I'm not criticizing them.
I just don't know of any that have as aggressive of a soul winning ministry.
If they do, great.
Hallelujah.
Praise the Lord.
But let me tell you something.
I'm not going to rely on other people to get the job done.
Do you want to rely on other churches and just kind of hope so?
No, I say that we, as a church, decide that our vision is to personally, our church, knock
every door of 4 million people.
Say, it can't be done.
Yes, it can be done.
We look at the map in the back, we're already doing it.
We've already put a huge dent in it.
And much of that map has been knocked, the close to our area stuff has been knocked five,
six, seven times.
But everything on that map that's shaded in has been knocked at least once.
And this job is getting done.
And if God blesses us, and if God allows us to continue the work that we're doing,
we will get it done with his blessing.
At the rate that we're going, it's going to happen.
Praise be to God.
And let me tell you something.
Not only that, I believe that God wants us to reach people in other areas too.
I believe that God wants us to extend our reach not to just this Phoenix area here,
but to also reach out into our Judea.
Because remember he said to the apostles, he said, you shall receive power after the
Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and
all Judea and in Samaria and under the uttermost part of the earth.
And I believe that our Judea would be the state of Arizona, our region.
Because this is our Jerusalem here in Phoenix, Arizona.
And then beyond that, we have our Judea.
And that's where I believe the small town soul winning comes in, where we go out to
these towns in our Judea, little small towns.
And we met people yesterday in the small town that lived and died in that town.
I mean, people, well, we didn't meet anybody who had died except when we went by the cemetery.
But there are people who live and die in this town.
And let me tell you something.
There was a lady there that was a very old lady, and she lived there her whole life.
I mean, and people are born in this town, and they live there, and they eventually die
in that town, rarely even leaving the town.
Who's going to bring these people the gospel?
Who's going to evangelize?
You know, you want to be a missionary?
Well, here's your chance.
It's right here.
The mission field is right here.
You know, say not there are this many months until I go to the mission field.
He said, lift up your eyes.
The fields are white already to harvest.
It's all right here.
You open your eyes, and there it is.
Arizona is here.
Let's reach our whole state with the gospel.
What if our church knocked every door in the greater Phoenix area, and then we also did
every small town in the whole state of Arizona into the bargain?
It's possible.
It's very realistic.
We've already put a big dent in that.
Let's do it.
Now, what if just one church in each state across America would get the same vision?
What if there were 50 churches across America that would say, well, I'm going to reach everybody
in my city, and I'm going to do all the small towns in my state that don't have churches?
You know what?
Then every small town in America would be evangelized.
It's not that the job's impossible.
It's that people aren't getting excited about doing the work.
They're not rolling up their sleeves and saying, what kind of work can we do?
A lot of people are mixed up about what the purpose of the church is.
A lot of people have this backwards, where they think that we go out and knock doors
because we're trying to build a bigger church.
Well, I've got news for you.
Knocking doors doesn't really do a lot for the size of the church because we knock a
lot of doors, and it doesn't make our church just grow by leaps and bounds through the
door knocking.
See, I don't believe that we go soul winning in order for the church to get bigger.
Here's my goal.
I want the church to get bigger so we can do more soul winning.
See, we want the means and the end not to be swapped.
We want to realize that the goal is more souls.
The goal is not a big church.
The goal is to get more people saved, to reach the world with the gospel.
The church is a tool to reach the goal.
The church is the soul winning tool to get to the destination, not vice versa.
It's not that soul winning is the tool to get to a bigger church.
What do I want a big church for?
What do I, you know, oh, I just want to pastor a big church so I can be a big shot?
Who cares?
Do you just really want to go to a big church?
I just really want to go to a big church.
Who cares about the size, right?
Except you know why I care about the size?
If it's workers.
I mean, look, why would you want to have a huge company?
Oh, I have this huge company.
I have a thousand employees, 800 of them do nothing, but I have a thousand employees.
I want to keep adding more employees that don't work.
It doesn't even make any sense.
What you actually would want to do is only put on people that are actually doing the
work, you know?
Look, you say, well, that sounds kind of harsh.
What does the Bible say, though?
I mean, God says, let every tree bring forth fruit, otherwise if the branch isn't bringing
forth fruit, cut it off.
I mean, God is saying that he wants people to work, to be productive and not to be a
burden upon the ground.
So we need to understand that God's work is the sole winning work of reaching Jerusalem,
which would be Phoenix, Judea, which would be, you know, our greater region here.
And then he said, and in Samaria, you know, you could see Samaria as, you know, the other
places in the United States or a state, one state over or something nearby, another region.
You know, for example, if we sent someone to start a church in Texas or California or
to other states and to reach out to other places and commit the Word of God and these
methods to other men who could do the same thing somewhere else, that would be reaching
Samaria.
That's the uttermost part of the earth.
You know, we ought to have a vision that's bigger than just Phoenix, that's bigger than
just Arizona, even that's bigger than the United States where we'd literally be reaching
people all over the world.
And with the internet, too, this makes that even more accessible, where you can broadcast
preaching all over the world and you can actually teach people how to go soul winning.
But even beyond that, you know, you need to have, the internet is not the end all be
all, obviously, you need to also have people that are actually going to those places and
actually going to the mission field, people going to places like the Philippines, going
to Africa and starting the churches in Europe and in Asia and everywhere else and going
out and being an evangelist, being a missionary that would evangelize that area and bring
the gospel to lots and start churches all over the world.
And you see, if every church would individually get this kind of a vision, man, we would get
so much work done for God.
And our church is not a huge church.
This isn't Joel Osteen's church.
This isn't a mega church.
I mean, our church has about 200 people in it.
But look at the work that God has used us to do, just the little old church that we
are but yet we're doing great, big works for God.
I think spiritually our church is a giant, whereas other churches might be giant but
in God's sight they're little because they're not doing great works.
It's about the work that's being accomplished.
That's the measuring stick in God's mind.
We need to get this in our minds because we have it all wrong where we think the works
don't matter.
Oh, it's just the heart.
Yeah, but the heart is what makes you work.
Oh, man, I love this worker at my job.
He's got such heart.
He doesn't really get anything done, but man, he's got heart.
First Thessalonians chapter 5 is another verse that talks about, well, if you would flip
over to 1 Corinthians 16.
Here's another verse that talks about the pastors or the leaders of the church.
It says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 12, we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among
you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love
for their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves.
The respect for the pastor is based on work that he does.
It says esteem him highly for his work, meaning that the work is an important part of what
a pastor does.
That's why it says if any man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
It's not a sit back and relax job.
It's a roll up your sleeves and make something happen kind of a job.
It's a working job.
Look at 1 Corinthians 16 verse 9.
For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.
Now if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear, for he worketh the
work of the Lord as I also do.
Let no man therefore despise him, but conduct him forth in peace that he may come unto me,
for I look for him with the brethren.
You know what he's saying?
Don't treat Timothy bad because he does work.
So therefore he shouldn't be afraid, he shouldn't be mistreated.
I don't want anybody to despise him.
And over and over again Paul talks about what a great worker Timothy is in various epistles
and how he is a doer of the work and that's why no man should despise him.
This is how I feel.
Sometimes there are people in our church or there are people even that are not in our
church but maybe there are people around the country or people around the world who tune
into the sermons here because obviously there's a big group of people online that listen to
the preaching from this church.
And sometimes someone will come to me and criticize a certain person or that person
or the other.
When somebody comes at me and criticizes someone at our church who's a major worker, like they
actually do a lot of work for God, my attitude is always like, whoa, back off that person
because that person is doing a lot of work.
So if they do things that I don't like, I'm really more likely to overlook them doing
stuff that I don't like or that you don't like if they're doing a lot of work for me.
Then I'm going to be really gracious with that person.
Why?
I really like people who work.
I like, you know, people who get things done.
Now there are some people who talk a big talk or they have a lot of ideas but they don't
really do anything and then there are some people who get in there and they get some
work done.
I love that.
Love it.
You know, there are people all over the world who will just contact me like, hey, I translated
your sermon into this language or hey, I put subtitles on it in this language or hey, we
dubbed it into this language.
I'm just like, I love you.
I love it.
It's like, I mean, I like what Paul said.
Take Mark and bring him with you for he's profitable to me for the ministry.
You know, here's somebody who's a profitable servant who's getting stuff done, who's getting
work done.
I like it.
I mean, I love people like that who just take initiative and get things done and make things
happen and, you know, if then that person says something I don't like or does something
I don't like and I'm not talking about some wickedness or something.
I'm just saying if that person is maybe at some point annoying or rude or something,
I'm just like whatever, you know?
Because who cares?
They're working.
You know what I mean?
And there's so few people who really roll up their sleeves and work hard and get things
done.
You know, I love the people, you know, and here's the thing.
People are always calling me and it's hard for them to get through to me just because
millions of people call me and I get thousands and thousands of emails and phone calls.
So it's, you know, I'm not able to get to all that stuff.
You know, I wish I could but I can't.
It's just that I don't live in a call center and it's kind of a full-time job, all the
phone calls and emails.
Now that Brother Baker is helping me, he spends hours a day answering phone calls and emails
and I mean, is it a big job?
Yeah, he spends like two hours every day and here's the thing.
I told him, I said, go back over the old messages and the old emails, you know, try to kind
of clear up the backlog and he's only calling people back and answering emails that he considers
to be, you know, important or people that are nice people.
You know, all the people who are just, you stupid blankety-blank, he's just deleting
those and there's a lot.
Are there a lot of those?
Yeah, all right.
Whoa, what's that supposed to mean?
So basically, you know, he's sitting there and going back through and I mean, he sent,
I checked out, he'd sent like almost 500 emails over the period of a couple weeks or something
and these are the people that he decided, oh, you know, this person needs an answer.
Over 500 and some emails he'd sent out and then it was like I looked how far back in
the backlog he'd gone.
It was only like several weeks or something.
It was like a month and a half or something.
So I mean, it's a huge, huge job just to do.
But I'll tell you what, you know, the people where I'm like, oh, here's my personal email.
Here's my phone number.
Here, when they call, yes, you know, it's the people who work and do stuff for the ministry,
do stuff for the church.
And here's the thing, I've noticed this about people too.
Some people come to our church and look, maybe this offends you, maybe it doesn't, but there
some people come to our church and then they complain that they don't have friends or
people aren't being friendly to me or I don't know anybody.
And here's the thing, if you go soul winning, you'll have friends.
Why?
Because when you work, you make friends.
And you say, well, Pastor Anderson, I just want to be your friend, Pastor Anderson.
I just want to hang out with you.
Listen, if you want to hang out with me, come soul winning with me.
Let's hang out.
You want to hang out with me, work with me.
You know, because that's a good way to hang out.
That's a good way to get to know people, by working with them, right?
I mean, think about how well you know the people at your job.
You work together.
And look, I'll tell you this, the people here that you feel like are the inner circle, right?
It's the people who go soul winning.
Why?
Because when you go soul winning, go soul winning with a different person each time
and you're spending an hour with that person and you're talking between doors, you're chatting,
you're making friends, you're getting to know people.
Otherwise, sometimes, you know, if you just, if you show up to church and you listen to
the sermon and then you get in the car and leave immediately, and then you wonder why
you don't know anybody, okay?
Now here's the thing, if that's what you want to do, you're more than welcome to do that.
We love you and we're glad that you're here, but don't then say, well, that church wasn't
friendly enough.
No, a man that hath friends must show himself friendly, okay?
And the way that you get to know people is by getting in the work with them, okay?
Or why don't you go up and start greeting visitors and greeting new people and making
friends on your own and reaching out and not expect it all to come to you, okay?
See, God loves a good worker.
I love a good worker.
You know, work is the principle thing amongst men, you know, even just outside of church,
just in our lives, we work, we're men, we work, that's who we are, right?
And of course, ladies have works that they've been given to do as well.
Go ahead and turn, if you would, quickly to Matthew chapter 21.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 9, 8, and God is able to make all grace abound toward
you that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work.
See God's grace abounding in you, what's the goal, what's the purpose?
So that you can abound to every good work, so that you can do work.
Matthew 21, 28, but what think ye a certain man had two sons, and he came to the first
and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard.
He answered and said, I will not, but afterward he repented and went, and he came to the second
and said, likewise, and he answered and said, I go, sir, and went not.
Whether of them twain did the will of his father, they say unto him, the first, Jesus
saith unto them, verily I say unto you that the publicans and the harlots go into the
kingdom of God before you.
Now that's some pretty harsh words, right?
What's he saying?
He's saying, you know what, you guys talk a real big talk, but you're not doing the
work.
You didn't do the will of the father.
Oh, you said you would.
You Pharisees, you say that you're going to do the work, but you don't.
Other people who said no to God, but then after they'd screwed up their lives and had
even become publicans and even harlots, then they went into the vineyard.
They're actually doing the will of God.
See, it's not about the talk that you talk.
It's about the walk that you walk, and it's really even about the work that you work.
What are you doing to reach people for Christ?
What work are you doing to get people saved?
It's not hard to show up and go soul winning.
It's not hard to be a silent partner, just to show up and just tag along and be a part
of the work.
What are you doing to disciple people in your life?
What are you doing to teach people the word of God?
What are you doing to advance the cause of Christ and to advance the gospel of Jesus
Christ?
If you can't think of anything, then just don't be surprised if you don't get a bunch
of rewards on judgment day.
It's not going to happen.
And don't be surprised if you feel that God is displeased with you in your life because
you're not doing any work.
And I don't think anybody who goes to this church is confused as to what the work is.
There's all kinds of work to do.
And look, there's other menial work that people help out with too, where they clean the building
or where they volunteer to help with this and help with that.
But they're working.
They're showing up and doing some kind of work or they're working at least with the
music program and working with whatever they're asked to do.
I mean, there are people who need meals brought to them.
After they have a baby, we bring meals to those families so that the mother can lay
down and rest and take it easy.
And then we put out a call that says, hey, we need somebody to volunteer to help bring
meals onto this family that's in need or somebody's in the hospital or someone's suffering and
we're going to help them out.
When you step forward and say, you know what, I can cook a meal or I can transport a meal
that someone else cooked, you know, you're working.
You're doing something, okay?
We all should ask ourselves what is the work that we can do to please God and to cause
his work to prosper and to get something done for the Lord.
It's important.
Now one last place I want to turn to is 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
1 Corinthians chapter number 1 because I want to close on this thought.
Nobody's perfect, right?
We all have flaws.
We all have sin in our lives.
I mean, you're not going to believe this, but people in this church have sin in their
lives.
And I think sometimes we get to where we live in a dream world or live in a fantasy where
because we all come to church and we're all dressed really nice and we're all praising
the Lord and saying hallelujah that we actually get this idea that the people in our church
don't have sin in their lives.
And then when one of you gets sin in your life, you start thinking like, I'm probably
the only one that has sin in my life because I mean, look, I can't picture anybody at church
committing any big sins or anything.
But you know what?
Honestly, let's just be real.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
There's none righteous, no, not one.
Even the apostle Paul said that he was constantly doing things that he regretted and things
that he didn't want to do and he felt so wretched and so forth for the sins that he committed.
See, everyone has sin in their life.
That's the true story.
You know, it's funny.
A lot of pastors make the mistake of thinking to themselves, oh, nobody in my church is
struggling with that sin.
So then they don't preach on sin because they think, oh, nobody, I mean, good night, it's
an independent fundamental Baptist church, nobody's drinking.
But here's the thing, there are people who come to independent fundamental Baptist churches
who will drink or will smoke pot or will, you know, smoke cigarettes or do things that
are just harmful or sinful or whatever.
And I remember one time when I first started the church and there were only about 20 people
coming to the church in the first year or second year of the church and I preached a
sermon against smoking.
And I did not know of anybody in the church who smoked.
I didn't know anybody smoked.
But I'm just preaching on everything, you know, you're just preaching against smoking
because it's there, you know.
And literally, it turned out there were four people in the church who smoked and I didn't
know that any of them smoked.
And several people came to my wife and they're like, is Pastor Anderson mad at me?
Like what, he's really coming down on me hard in that smoking sermon, you know.
I know he was talking about me because I'm the only one that smokes.
And he was ripping my face in that sermon like, did I do something to make him mad?
He seemed so mad up there, you know, when he's screaming about smoking.
And I did not know that anybody smoked.
I was just preaching.
And multiple people went up to her and thought, oh, it's just, that was directed at me.
And I know, I've gotten emails from people like, I know you were talking about me in
that sermon.
I'm like, I don't even know that you're into that.
I feel like a priest or something, like you're confessing your sins to me.
I didn't even know that you did that.
And by the way, I don't have a very good sense of smell.
So even if you smoke like a chimney, I probably wouldn't even notice unless I just got right
in your face to notice that because I don't really know if you're smoking.
But I'm not going to ask a raise of hand of who smokes in here.
But I promise you there are people in this auditorium that smoke, period.
You're like, oh man, what in the world?
I guarantee, there's people in here who do all kinds of stuff.
And those are just kind of the obvious, you know, alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes.
You know, they're just kind of easy to throw out there.
But you know, there are people in here who lie, who steal, who look at stuff they're
not supposed to look at.
I mean, who do, all, the list goes on and on.
Okay, people are sinners, okay.
Now I'm not condoning it.
I'm not saying, hey, everybody's doing it, so it's not a big deal.
And obviously, there are sins that are worse than others.
There's no question about that.
But let's just face the fact that all of us are sinful beings.
And I'm going to tell you right now, I am not perfect.
And if you lived with me and followed me around 24 hours a day, you'd find all kinds of things
that you could pick apart about me and criticize about me, and all kinds of things where you,
oh, Pastor Anderson, I can't believe you.
But here's the thing about it, though.
God is still able to use me.
Even though I am not, and I don't consider myself a great Christian, I definitely don't
consider myself the greatest, I don't even consider myself great.
I don't even consider myself even above average, okay.
But I'm telling you, I'm being used by the Lord in spite of that.
Even though I do make mistakes, and even though I'm not a perfect person, even though I do
sin, and I am not just this saint up here that never makes a mistake.
But let me tell you something, God can use you if you work hard, even if you're not perfect
because none of us is perfect.
And obviously, look, we should strive to live as clean and holy and righteous as we can,
and we should be growing and improving, and I'm not condoning sin in anyone's life.
But I'm telling you, you can't get this attitude that says, oh, well, you know what, God can't
use me because I'm sinful.
That's what Peter said to Jesus.
He said, just depart from me, Jesus.
I mean, Jesus is trying to pick him to be a disciple.
I mean, can you imagine Jesus walking up to you and picking you to be a disciple?
And you can see where Peter's coming from where he kind of said, you know what, just
depart from me.
Like, it's not that I don't want to follow you, but I just want you to know I'm a sinful
man.
That's what Peter said.
He said, look, depart from me, Jesus, I'm a sinful man.
And he said, fear not, you know, from henceforth thou shalt catch men.
I'm going to make you a fisher of men, Peter.
I'm going to use you greatly.
But you know who God can't use is somebody who's not working, who's not willing to work.
I mean, if you're not willing to work, he can't use you, period.
I don't care how good you are.
I don't care how nice you are.
I don't care how smart you are.
You could be the most intelligent person.
You could be so separated and godly and holy.
If you are not willing to work, what can he use you for?
He's looking for servants.
He's not looking for, you know, people to just put on a pedestal and be on display.
He's looking for people to serve, people to work, people to get something done.
Look what he says in 1 Corinthians 1 25, because the foolishness of God is wiser than man and
the weakness of God is stronger than man.
For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called.
He's saying, look around at the pastors.
Look around at the great preachers and the great men of God and the great women of God
who are doing great works for God in the church or in other churches.
Look around and you know what you're going to notice about the people that are doing
great works for God?
There aren't that many that are wise after the flesh.
There aren't that many that are mighty.
There aren't that many that are noble.
I mean, look, I've seen some guys that God used greatly and I've thought to myself like,
wow, that guy?
I mean, I've seen, look, I'm not trying to be rude or anything.
I'm talking about growing up and my childhood.
I've seen preachers that were greatly used by God and I thought like, wow, this guy is
kind of a dork.
This guy's kind of a nerdy guy.
You know what I'm talking about?
This guy's a dweeb.
But he was doing mighty works for the Lord, mighty works for God, powerful work, reaching
thousands of people with the gospel.
And you look at him and you're like, this guy is the one that was the, so all the hype
is about?
But you know what though?
It's because then God gets the glory.
And you know why?
Because the guy who was good looking and cool and mighty, you know, the guy that was a big,
buff, cool dude.
You know what?
He's out living for himself.
He's out living for the devil.
He's out partying and making money and enjoying everything.
You know what?
And the guy who is not mighty and not super duper smart by the world's standards and not
noble and of great breeding, he actually is humble enough to be used by God and not let
it go to his head.
And he can actually, you know, roll up his sleeves and just work hard.
And that's why he succeeds because he's a worker.
He's working his tail off.
That's why.
You know what Paul said?
I labored more abundantly than they all.
And he said that under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, that he worked harder than
any other apostle.
I labored more abundantly than they all.
You think it's a coincidence that he wrote 14 books of the New Testament?
Stop and think about that.
I mean, John was the disciple whom Jesus loved.
I mean, Peter, come on, Peter.
Peter, James, and John.
These are the guys that walked and talked with Jesus Christ for three and a half years.
Wouldn't you expect them to be the main authors of the New Testament?
Wouldn't you expect Peter, James, John, Andrew, wouldn't you expect them to write more scripture
than what they wrote?
I mean, why did Paul get, do you think that Jude only wrote one letter?
I mean, do you think that Peter only wrote two letters?
You know, why is it that God chose to let the apostle Paul write half the books in the
New Testament?
I'll tell you why.
Because he said, I labored more abundantly than they all.
That's why.
It's not because he was the godliest, it's not because he was the best, it's not because
he was the smartest, it's because he labored more abundantly than they all.
And God likes that.
And again, I'm not condoning other, I mean, look, if we have sin in our life, it can destroy
our life and derail us and stop us from working.
I mean, what did it say in Revelation 2 and 3?
You're in sin, I'll take away the candlestick.
But wait a minute, what about the works?
He says, did you notice, brethren, your calling, verse 26, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish
things of this world to confound the wise.
And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty
and base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not to bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his
presence.
See, he wants a humble servant who's just ready to roll up their sleeves and work.
Look, you might be a skinny dweeb tonight, but you can be a giant of a man spiritually.
You can be a mighty man of God.
You can earn great rewards and be a spiritual giant.
You may be a homely person tonight, but you know what?
You can be one who shines as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars forever
and ever.
You can be glorified with Christ and earn great rewards if you'll work for him.
It's not about being good looking.
It's not about being super duper smart.
You don't want to be a total idiot either, folks, but it's not about being super smart.
It's not about being good looking.
It's not about being cool.
You can be the most uncool dweeb ever and walk up to those doors and you can win people
to Christ and be a giant spiritually and do great works for God.
I hope that this sermon encourages you to want to work for the Lord because that's really
what I'm trying to get across in the sermon and the point is that at the end of the day,
God looks down and he judges you based on your works.
He judges our church based on its works.
He's going to reward us based upon our works and he will give you more grace and more opportunities
and more blessings if you'll do a lot of work for him.
Is this the only part of our lives?
No.
There are other aspects of the Christian life, but tonight I just wanted to emphasize this
one major important facet, work, work.
Be a doer of the work tonight.
If you don't have any work to do, come to me and I will put you to work.
I'm not kidding.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for our church and Lord, it's our workplace.
Lord, it's a job.
It's where we serve you.
It's where we preach the gospel and teach the Christians and serve you and fulfill the
Great Commission.
Lord, help us to be a blessing to the church, Lord.
Help all of us to edify the church and to greet the visitors and to be friendly and
to encourage people and to bring the meals and to clean the building and to win the souls
and to preach the gospel and to do everything, Lord, that we can to get this job done, Lord,
to fulfill the mission of Faithful Word Baptist Church, which is your mission.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.