Please just help us to have our hearts right in the service tonight, dear God.
Church is so important, I don't think any of us will ever understand how important church is.
But Father, it's so important that you paid the ultimate price for the church with your own blood.
And so Father, I just pray that you would speak to our hearts in the message tonight.
And in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
I have so many great things in this chapter.
The part that I want to draw the most attention to right now is beginning in verse number 17,
where the Bible says,
And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.
And when they were come to him, he said unto them,
Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia,
after what manner I have been with you at all seasons.
Now this subject comes up throughout the chapter,
but in this verse I want to especially point out what I'm going to preach to you tonight.
The title of the sermon tonight is consistency.
Consistency.
Now look at the consistency that Paul exhibits here in verse number 18.
He says, you know what, the first day that I hit town,
I mean the first day that I came to Ephesus, and he was there for three years,
but he said the first day I got there, he said,
You know that I was with you at all seasons.
You know what that means?
That means he was there Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.
He was there consistently all the time.
Point number one tonight is be consistent to church.
Be consistent to church.
Of course I'm talking to people that are here on Sunday night,
because they're consistent to church.
And I'm going to tell you something, you have no idea how much it means to me.
You have no idea what an encouragement it is to me,
those of you who come like clockwork to this church.
You know, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night,
or you know, whenever you can come, and you don't just,
Ah, we didn't feel like coming tonight.
Well, we just didn't feel like it, or we got a little busy, or whatever.
Hey, there's something to be said for being consistent to church.
And I'm going to tell you something.
If nothing else, think about this next time you feel like laying out at church.
Boy, think about the fact that not only me,
but other people in this church want you to be here.
Did you know that?
I mean, I love every single person in this church.
And I know that the other people in this church love everybody in this church.
And I'm going to tell you something, when you're not here,
people are disappointed that you are not here.
I'm disappointed that you're not here.
We've had days when there were all a whole bunch of visitors here,
but then one of our most faithful people was not here,
and I'm just thinking, man, where is so-and-so?
I'm not just trying to fill up this place with a bunch of bodies, you know?
I mean, when somebody's gone, hey, I feel that when somebody's gone.
Hey, when somebody's gone, everybody feels it when you're gone.
And you have no idea how much it thrills me
when I know that when church is going to start at 6.30,
hey, I just know that you're going to be there.
Hey, that's an encouragement to me.
That's a blessing to me.
Because those of you who've just been consistent,
every time I know you're going to be there,
boy, that's encouraging.
You have no idea.
You say, I just don't feel like God's really using me.
Hey, if nothing else, God's using you when you show up to church
in your place consistently, using you to encourage me
to at least know that somebody's going to be there,
at least know that you're going to be there,
at least know that I've got people that I can rely on,
people that I can count on.
And I'm not talking about when you're out of town,
like Virginia, for example, is out of town.
That's why she's not here.
And that's fine.
I encourage you to do so.
Go back to Chicago or wherever and see your family.
But be in church while you're there, of course.
But boy, when you're here, be consistent to church.
Do it for God.
Do it for me.
Do it for the people that are in this room.
Hey, do it for Faithful Word Baptist Church.
Hey, be consistent to church.
Paul said, I've been with you at all seasons.
He said, I was always there.
And we see that throughout Paul's life.
But read on a little bit further.
The Bible says that he was always there.
He said, after what manner I've been with you
at all seasons, in verse number 18.
But in verse number 19, he says,
serving the Lord with all humility of mind
and with many tears and temptations,
which befell me by the lying in way to the Jews.
He said, I wasn't just there.
He said, I was consistently there
and I was consistently ready to serve God.
And we'll get there a little bit later in the sermon.
But look at the next verse.
It says, and how I kept back nothing
that was profitable unto you,
but have showed you and have taught you publicly
and from house to house.
Now skip down, if you would, to verse number 29.
Actually, look at verse number 27 to start with.
Acts 20, 27, the Bible reads,
for I have not shunned to declare unto you
all the counsel of God.
Because of course, Paul was the one doing the preaching.
He says, I've not shunned to declare unto you
all the counsel of God.
Means he preached the whole Bible cover to cover,
every single word of it.
Take heed therefore unto yourselves unto all the flock
over the which the Holy Ghost had made you overseers.
Because now he's passed on this church to these other men.
He says, take heed therefore unto yourselves
unto all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost
had made you overseers to feed the church of God,
which he had purchased with his own blood.
For I know this, that after my departing
shall grievous wolves enter in among you,
not sparing the flock.
Also of your own selves shall men arise,
speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.
You see, Paul said it's so important
that I was there all the time, number one.
But not only that, he said, when I was there,
I taught you the whole counsel of God.
I didn't hold back anything because it wasn't popular.
He said I didn't hold back something
because I thought it might offend somebody.
I didn't hold back something
because a visitor came through the door
and I wasn't sure how they were gonna react.
He said, I preached the whole counsel of God
and there's a reason why I did that.
He said, this is the reason why I did that.
Because I know that after I leave, he says,
grievous wolves are gonna come into the flock
and they're gonna teach perverse things.
They're gonna teach wrong things.
Flip over, if you would, in your Bible
to 2 Peter chapter one, toward the end of your Bible,
toward the book of Revelation.
2 Peter chapter number one.
I'm gonna tie this together in a second here,
but look at 2 Peter chapter one.
Let me get there myself.
2 Peter chapter one and look at verse number one,
I'm sorry, verse 13.
2 Peter 1.13.
Yea, I think it meet, this is Peter speaking,
as long as I am in this tabernacle, speaking of his body,
to stir you up by putting you in remembrance,
knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle,
even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me.
Moreover, I will endeavor that you may be able,
after my decease, to have these things
always in remembrance.
Say, after I've died, he says,
I want you to still believe these things
that I taught you from the Bible.
He says, I will endeavor that you may be able,
after my decease, to have these things
always in remembrance.
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables
when we've made known unto you the power and coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
You don't have to turn there,
but 2 Timothy chapter four reads in verse one,
you don't have to turn there.
I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ,
whom shall judge the quick and the dead
and his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word.
Be instant, in season, out of season.
He's talking to the preacher, saying,
be there all the time.
I'm not gonna be missing church anytime soon.
I hope you're not missing church anytime soon.
Hey, I'm gonna be here.
Say, what if somebody invites you
to come preach at some other church?
It's never gonna happen, okay?
But if it does, I won't go there,
I'm gonna stay right here,
because I'm gonna be here at all seasons,
Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, why?
Because me preaching to you
is not just filling up another hour right now.
Me preaching to you has a vital role
of giving you information that you need
so that after I'm gone someday,
if I'm ever gone, or if you're not around me,
hey, you need to know these things,
is what he's saying here.
And that's why he didn't shun to declare them
the whole counsel of God, but he said,
preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season,
reprove, rebuke, exalt with all long-suffering and doctrine,
for the time will come, the time will come
when they'll not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves
teachers having itching ears,
and 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 foolproof of thy ministry.
Hey, I'm gonna tell you something.
I was taught some great Bible doctrine as a young child,
as a very small child.
I went to churches that taught some good Bible doctrine
as a very young child.
Most of my great Bible doctrine came from my dad, actually.
My dad's an electrician.
My dad taught me some of the things from the Bible
that I live and die by right now,
and I'm gonna tell you something.
In the 1980s, when I was growing up
in Sacramento, California,
there came a time in Sacramento, California
when they didn't endure sound doctrine anymore,
and a lot of churches started to be turned to fables,
and they started to turn their ears away from the truth,
but I thank God that I was in church before that time came,
Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night,
and I thank God that I heard some preachers and a father
that didn't shun to declare unto me
the whole counsel of God,
so that in the time when I was in churches
that were not declaring to me the whole counsel of God,
hey, I could still come back to that.
I still had those roots in me.
I still had those foundations of the word of God,
because somebody declared me the word of God,
and somebody was instant in season and out of season.
I was able to hang on to that.
You see, part of the reason why it's so important
for me to be consistent to church,
and part of the reason why it's so important
for you to be consistent to church
is because you need to get this information
while it's here for the getting.
And I'm not talking about
some cunningly devised fable, as he said,
something that I came up with
or some fancy thing that I thought of.
I'm talking about the Bible being preached.
I'm talking about the word of God.
This is what you need to be learning.
And if you miss church, I'm gonna tell you something.
If you miss a service in this church,
if you miss a Sunday morning
or a Sunday night and Wednesday night,
hey, you're missing some of the doctrine
that's being taught in this church.
You're missing Bible preaching.
If you weren't here this morning, hey, you missed something.
You missed something that could really help you in your life
but you know what?
If you weren't here or you couldn't be here,
you know, get the tape and listen to it
so you don't miss it.
Because the teaching is something that you need
and you might not need it now
but you're gonna need it later.
Did you know that Pastor Anderson
may not always be your pastor?
You know, God willing, I'll be pastoring this church
until I'm 90 years old and you'll still be here.
Wouldn't that be great?
We're all still here and everything like that.
Hey, maybe that's not gonna happen.
Who knows what's gonna happen?
Boths not thyself of tomorrow
for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
Who knows who's still gonna be in this church?
You know, God willing, everybody will still be in this church.
Who knows what's gonna,
something bad might happen to me or something
and I'm not pastoring or whatever happens.
Hey, God forbid, but I'm gonna tell you something.
Don't rely on a man, don't rely on any man.
Don't rely on Pastor Anderson to spoon feed you the Bible.
Don't rely on me to spoon feed you.
Don't rely on anybody to spoon feed you.
Kids, don't rely on your parents
to spoon feed you the Word of God.
Hey, get the Bible open and read it for yourself.
Pick up that Bible and read it for yourself
because you've gotta come to the place
where you are there in all seasons,
you're learning everything you can,
but you're cognizant of the fact
that one day you're gonna have to stand
on your own two feet
and you're gonna have to know the Bible for yourself
and know God for yourself.
Well, hey, the best way to prepare for that
is to be consistent to church
and to soak it all up while it's there.
Soak it all up while you're in a good church.
Hey, get the Bible preaching while you're here.
Hey, don't miss it.
I remember when I was 17 years old,
I didn't even, I didn't have a conviction.
Nobody had ever taught me that I should be in church,
Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
They never told me, you know,
it's really wrong for you to be missing church
and you really ought to be there.
You know, God wants you to be there.
And to him to know what to do good
and do what to not, to him it is sin.
And you're missing out on something that God has for you.
You really just must be in church.
That's the will of God for you to be in church
three times a week.
Nobody really told me that.
And you know what?
I didn't even think it was wrong to miss church,
but I was just there three times a week
is because I wanted to learn what was being taught
was the biggest reason, I'll be honest with you.
When I was 17 years old, I was a teenager.
I was there three times a week, why?
Because I wanted to learn the Bible.
Don't come here because you feel like you have to
or say, hey, come here because if you don't come,
you're gonna miss what's being taught.
You're gonna miss the preaching.
Don't miss it.
Be consistent.
Consistency is what we're talking about tonight.
So number one, be consistent to church.
But number two, not only that, hey, be consistent.
Soul winning.
We see that so many times in this chapter.
Look back at verse number 20 if you're back in Acts 20.
Flip back to Acts 20 if you would, verse number 20.
Acts 20, verse 20, the Bible reads,
and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you,
but have showed you and have taught you publicly
and from house to house.
He says, I've been out.
He said, yes, I did go.
Yes, I did go door to door soul winning is what he said.
Yes, I knocked doors.
Yes, I went from house to house like Jesus
and his disciples did.
But then look down a little bit further.
Let me turn my page here, look down a little bit further
and he says in verse number 31,
and this is the part I wanted to emphasize
about soul winning.
Oh, I'm in Acts 19, no wonder.
No, that wasn't working out, all right.
Acts 20, 31, the Bible reads,
therefore, watch and remember
that by the space of three years,
I seek not to warn everyone night and day with tears.
Look up a little bit and see verse number 25.
And now behold, I know that you all among whom
I've gone preaching the kingdom of God
shall see my face no more.
Wherefore, I take you to record this day
that I am pure from the blood of all men.
For I have not shunned to declare unto you
all the counsel of God.
And so you see, he says, day and night, every day,
he says, I was warning people.
I was preaching them the gospel.
At another point, he says that he preached the gospel
to every one who was in Asia.
He said, everyone in Asia heard the gospel from my mouth.
Paul was able to say that.
And of course, he's saying that in the Bible.
We know it's true, I mean, it's God saying that.
And so he really did preach the gospel to everyone
while he was in Asia.
How did he do that?
You think to yourself, good night,
how could one man preach the gospel
to all these hundreds and thousands of people?
How did he do it?
I don't know, maybe I just don't believe it.
Maybe the Bible's exaggerating.
No, I mean, it's gotta be, it's true, okay?
How did he do it?
There's one way that he did it, consistency.
Because see, if you break it up
over the many years and years,
he was three years just in this one city of Ephesus,
but if you spread out his whole ministry in Asia,
years and years, probably decades,
well then if you break it down
that there's 365 days in a year,
and you multiply that times 20 years,
boy, that's a lot of time to preach the gospel.
The way that he did it was consistency.
The way that he did it was by day in and day out,
every day, every week, warning every man,
preaching the gospel to every creature,
that's how he did it.
He never could have done it by being,
if he was on and off, I mean, good night,
there's no way he's gonna do that kind of accomplishment.
But he did it by systematically doing it
day in, day out, every day.
And so let me give you this example,
some of you have heard this before, of course,
but you need to be reminded of these things.
You need to be stirred up and have these things
in remembrance about the illustration
about exponential growth, about mathematics.
You understand that if there was one person
saved in the entire world, and of course,
we know that there are many hundreds
and thousands of people saved in this world,
but let's say that there were only one person
saved in the entire world.
And that one person set out as a goal
to just win one person of the Lord this year.
I mean, the whole year, that's pretty doable.
He said, all I'm gonna do this year
is win one person of the Lord,
and I'm gonna complete the Great Commission,
which says, go ye therefore and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I've commanded you.
Okay, those are the three steps there.
Get them saved, get them baptized,
and teach them to be like you.
Reproduce yourself.
Create someone that's in your own image.
Like God said, everything brings forth after its own kind.
Hey, bring forth a soul-winning Christian.
If one person just said, you know what,
just this year I'm gonna win one person of the Lord,
get them baptized, won, and then teach them
to be like me, to be a soul-winner.
Okay, well, how many people would you have
at the end of one year?
Two people, okay, two people after one year.
And so you start out with just one person,
now you got two.
And then you say, okay, the two of us,
we're just gonna go out and just get one person saved,
baptized, and teach them to be like us.
Well, now at the end of that second year,
you got four people.
Not very impressive growth, huh?
Not exactly Joel Osteen caliber growth.
That's our standard, by the way.
That's our hero around here.
Our hero is Joel Osteen, for you visitors.
No, I'm just kidding.
Billy Graham's our second hero.
Yeah, right.
Okay, and then after the third year,
okay, so after the first year, you got two people.
The third year, you got four people, right?
Well, after the fourth year, you got eight people.
After the fifth year, you've got 16 people.
Now, it's not exactly a mega church, is it?
You got 16 people.
But then if you go for the sixth year,
and remember, it's just getting one person saved a year,
okay, nobody's asking you to go out and knock doors
as a full-time job 40 hours a week.
I'm saying just can you get one person saved a year, okay?
Every Christian on earth starting with one person.
And then, of course, you get to the fifth year,
and you got 16 people, or where are we at?
I'm losing track.
32 people, thank you.
The fifth year, you got 32 people.
And then everybody does the same thing.
The sixth year, you got 64 people.
The seventh year, you got 128 people.
The eighth year, you got 256 people.
The ninth year, you got 512 people.
And you know, after 10 years of that,
just 10 years of that consistency,
it's gotta be consistent, though, every year.
You got 1,024 people after 10 years.
That's pretty good.
That's a pretty good accomplishment, right?
1,024 people that are not just saved,
but they've also been baptized, and they're soul-winning.
That'd be a pretty phenomenal church, wouldn't it?
A church of 1,024 born-again baptized soul-winners.
Okay, that's pretty good.
Well then, after 11 years, you got 2,048.
After 12 years, you got 4,096.
Now you're one of the biggest churches in the world.
I mean, after 12 years, you're huge, right?
You're the biggest independent Baptist church
in Arizona, for sure.
After 13 years, you got 8,192 people in this church
that are all soul-winners.
They all win souls.
They're all with the program.
Not to mention, you know, they might have children,
and they might have other friends
that they bring, and so forth.
After 14 years, you've got 16,384 people.
After 15 years, you've had 32,768 people saved.
Wouldn't that be great?
At 15 years from now, our church has 32,768 saved
as a result of this church.
Then after 16 years, you've got 65,536 people saved.
After 17 years, you've got 131,072 people saved.
We're not meeting, you're not gonna be meeting
in the house anymore, okay?
You're definitely got a building at this point.
That's about when we're gonna break down
and get the building.
Okay, after 18 years, you've got 262,144,000 people.
After 19 years, you got 524,288 people.
After 20 years, you have 1,048,576 people saved,
baptized, and soul-winning.
Isn't that amazing?
Is that, oh, I'm sorry, is that not big enough
growth for you?
Oh, I know, I know, you want us to go on TV, don't you?
You want us to go on TV and have a big crusade
and we get a rock band, we get Amy Grunt and Sammy Fatty
and all these, Steve Green, and we can get the Newsboys
and the DC Talk and the new kids on the block.
Hey, we can have a big crusade, right?
And people will be flooding down the aisles
and crying and everything.
Hey, I'm gonna tell you something,
you're not gonna have a million people saved,
baptized, and soul-winning.
You'll probably have zero from those kind of crusades.
You see, God's methods work,
if you work God's methods consistently.
Now, let me finish, you know, after 21 years,
you got 2,097,152 people saved.
After 22 years of this, just one man,
they start with one person, could be you.
You could start this.
After 22 years, you got 4,194,304 people.
After 23 years, you got 8,388,608 people.
And you get the idea, after 30 years,
it'd be in excess of a billion people.
You would have seen one fifth of the world's population
saved, baptized, and soul-winning.
And then after about, you know, 30, let's see,
31, 32, 33 years, you'd have the entire world saved.
Now, what's the moral to the story?
Here's the moral to the story.
Christians don't win souls at all.
That's the moral of the story.
Because we're not starting with one,
I'm not gonna start with two,
we're starting with, you know,
millions of people that are saved in this world.
Hey, what's the moral to the story, Pastor Anderson?
Why are you telling me that?
Hey, I'm telling you something.
The people in this world that are saved
and born-again children of God
do not win anybody to the Lord.
That's the sad fact.
But are you one of the few, are you one of the proud?
Are you a soul-winning Christian?
Are you somebody who opens your mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel?
Are you someone who knows how to open the Bible
and show someone how to be saved
and you've preached to someone the gospel
and had them bow their head and trust Christ as Savior?
Are you one of the people that's on this list here?
Are you a soul-winner?
You say, I go out and I win souls,
I feel like it's just a drop of water on a hot stove
when there's three million people in Maricopa County
and we see a few saved here and a few saved there.
A few saved there.
Hey, are you willing to be consistent for a lifetime?
Then you'll see the big results,
for in due season we shall faint if we reap not.
Hey, are you willing to put in the time for a lifetime
or are you experimenting with this church?
I think I'm just gonna dabble in soul-winning.
I think I'm just gonna see what it's like
to try going on soul-winning.
Ah, I tried it for a couple months, it didn't work.
It's like, I don't want trial-size Christianity.
I don't want some trial-size that comes in the mail,
you know, of Tide and trial-size Palmolive
and a trial-size Cascade for my dishwasher.
Hey, take me to Sam's Club.
Give me the jumbo economy, family-size of Christianity.
Hey, I want soul-winning by the caseload.
Hey, can I book my spot in this church?
Can I reserve a seat in this church
for the next 20 years, the next 50 years?
Hey, can I be in this church for years and years
because I wanna see the growth.
I wanna see the reaping of the increase.
Hey, I'm willing to put in the time of consistently,
maybe not some big, fancy parade.
You know, maybe not some big stadium lights and.
All right, now introducing Pastor Steven Anderson.
You know, hey, maybe that's not what our church is like.
But I'm gonna tell you something
that's gonna get the job done.
Are you willing to stick it out with me?
Are you willing to stay here with me
and work with me and help me see it?
Because I can't do it alone.
There's no way that I'm gonna,
there's no way I'm gonna win 131,000 people to the Lord,
myself, it's not gonna happen.
But you know what?
This church can win 131,000 people to the Lord.
I mean, it's possible.
It's possible with God, all things are possible.
But you see, it's not gonna be done by one person
and it's not gonna be done in one day or one year.
It's gonna be done with everybody
being a soul-winner for a lifetime.
That's what's gonna be done.
You know, Brother Dave and I, you know,
of course we saw a whole bunch of people say today,
it was a very exciting afternoon, our soul-winning.
But you know what?
How many other days did we put in where it was not exciting?
Where it was boring?
Where it was especially just being with Brother Dave
for all that time.
Yeah.
What do you talk about, right?
No, I'm just kidding.
It's all that time between doors, you know, a kid at night.
Yes, I'm suffering for Jesus.
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, he knows, he knows I'm kidding.
That's why I can pick on him like that.
You know, there were times when it wasn't that fun.
There were times that you didn't feel like it
and when nobody's getting saved
and when nobody even wants you there
and people are laughing at you and saying,
you know, there's a Baptist church right across the street.
What are you doing starting another one?
Well, they're not all the same, that's why.
And now they, you know, the mockery
and just the slam door in the face and so forth,
it's not always fun.
You gotta decide right now.
You say, well, I tried soul-winning a couple of times.
Didn't really see anything big happen.
Don't try it.
Just say, I'm gonna experiment for the rest of my life
and at the end of my life,
I'll decide whether soul-winning really worked.
At the end of my life,
I'll decide whether God's methods of building a church,
built a church, when we sit down at the end of it all
and look back and you say, well, it's gonna be too late
to find out, well, that's fine with me
because I'm doing it by faith
because I can see the invisible.
I can see what God said is gonna happen.
I just believe it's gonna happen.
And so we're, no, we're not changing.
Pastor Anderson, are you ready to change something
because it's not working?
Hey, it's working.
It's working.
People are getting saved.
People are joining the church.
People are growing.
You know, it's working.
I'm not gonna change anything.
And that's about it for that.
But anyway, let me have you turn to another scripture
for the next point.
Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians 15, 58.
1 Corinthians 15, 58.
I'm gonna show you maybe a famous verse in the Bible
that you might've seen a lot.
But it's such a great verse.
1 Corinthians 15, 58, the Bible reads,
in 1 Corinthians 15, 58.
Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be therefore steadfast, unmovable,
always, that's the key word right there,
always abounding in the work of the Lord,
for as much as you know that your labor
is not in vain in the Lord.
See, the only way that your labor's not gonna be in vain
in the Lord is when you're always abounding,
when you're consistent with it.
That's the big thing.
The always abounding needs to be there.
Then you'll know that your labor's not in vain.
You see, this year, you know,
we wanna have more people saved this year
than we had last year, so that's our goal.
Our goal is to have more people saved this year
than last year.
Now, how are we gonna do that?
Are we gonna take one weekend
and just take a whole week off?
And we did that last year.
We did it a few times where we said like,
okay, these three days are gonna be soul-winning marathon.
You know, we're gonna go soul-winning every day
and put in the time, you know,
as much time as you're willing to put in,
and we're gonna go out and do this.
And we did some days like that,
and that helped us achieve our goals last year,
putting in the time like that.
You know, really, where did the bulk of the salvations
and the baptisms that we saw in this church,
where did the bulk of them come from?
They just came from just one here, you know, one there.
Just came from just being consistent,
just one or the other.
Now, there's no reason in the world
why we shouldn't have more people saved this year
than last year,
because we have more people soul-winning this year.
We have more people involved.
You know, now we have, you know, seven, eight people
that could open their Bible and do the talking,
you know, at a door.
I mean, if you think about it, they could actually,
if they, you know, if they'd always show up
and always be there and be consistent with it weekly,
I mean, that have the capability to easily,
you know, maybe they've won somebody in the Lord already,
but they could easily open the Bible
and show somebody the gospel
and preach the gospel to them.
But see, what if we could get everyone
who knows how to do it, okay,
everybody who knows what they're doing with it,
and good night, if you're saved,
you gotta know what you're doing with it,
or at least jump into it and just try.
But if we could get everybody doing it every week,
good night, I mean,
we would exceed the numbers from last year easily
with the consistency and the 100% participation.
That's what it's gonna take to see those goals happen.
And so I encourage you to think about that
throughout the year.
Don't be the weak link in the chain this year,
you know, that is not in your place,
that is not winning souls,
that is not contributing to the success of this church
and to the success of the kingdom of God
and to the blood of Jesus Christ,
seeing as many people saved as possible.
Don't be the missing, not the missing link, good night.
Don't be the weak link in the chain when it comes to that.
The Bible reads, you don't have to turn there,
but in 1 Peter 3.15, the Bible reads,
but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts
and be ready always, all the time,
consistently is what he's saying,
be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asketh you a reason of the hope
that is in you with meekness and fear.
Another instance in 2 Thessalonians 1.11,
on another subject, he said,
wherefore also we pray always for you,
that our God would count you worthy of this calling
and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness
and the work of faith with power.
That's in 2 Thessalonians 1.11.
Let me tell you a little bit
about the church at Thessalonica.
You know, when Paul first went to Thessalonica,
he went there, he preached the gospel,
many people were saved, started a church,
he moved on to another city called Berea.
And if you remember, when he got to Berea,
the Bible says these were more noble
than they at Thessalonica,
for they searched the scriptures daily
to see whether these things were so.
And so the Bible actually puts in a little point there
in the book of Acts saying that the church in Berea,
the people that he reached in Berea
were actually a better church.
It was a nobler, stronger church
because they studied the Bible for themselves,
they learned the Bible for themselves,
and he said, if I had to pick which is a better church,
he said, I'd say Berea is the better church
than Thessalonica.
But boy, when you get to the book
of 1 Thessalonians later on,
and when you get to the book of 2 Thessalonians,
boy, the things that God says
about how great that church is,
it became one of the greatest churches in the world.
How did it become such a great church?
Well, maybe it was because Paul said
in 2 Thessalonians 1.11,
Wherefore also we pray always for you.
All the time.
Always in every prayer of mine
for you all making requests with joy,
Paul said in another place of the church at Philippi.
Look, if you could think about this,
what if you prayed consistently
for one person every single day?
Can you imagine what God would do with that person?
I mean, consistently,
what if you prayed for somebody consistently every day,
365 days a year for 20 years?
I mean, you prayed for that person
in excess of 7,000 times?
You don't think God would do great things
in that person's life?
I'm thinking about people that I've chosen
through the years.
I've picked somebody.
For whatever reason,
I just had some love for somebody,
or I just felt like somebody needed me to pray for them,
and I just picked somebody
and just prayed for them like that,
and just picked one person
and just kind of hit that person.
Just every time I was praying,
I just remembered to ask God to do something for them.
And even just doing that for a few months,
I just watched God do great things.
Because the truth of the matter is,
we're so inconsistent sometimes with our praying.
You know, we pray, and then we kind of miss,
and then we kind of think of somebody
every once in a while and pray for them.
But you know, whenever I've just sat down,
and it's very difficult to do,
and I struggle with it, of course,
but I've sat down and written down and said,
you know what, I'm gonna pray for this person
to get saved, for example.
And I just spent hours praying for that person to get saved.
Well, God will do a lot if you pray like that.
I'm telling you, I've never prayed like that.
I mean, when I pray like that for somebody,
and it's difficult to do, and I struggle with it,
but whenever I've said, you know, I'm gonna do it,
I'm gonna pray for so-and-so, for whatever the case may be,
God always did something.
I mean, I'd be shocked if he didn't.
You know, whenever I pray for somebody like that,
I just know something's gonna happen.
I mean, I don't even wonder if something's gonna happen.
And I think about people that were already saved
that I just decided I was gonna pray
that they would live for God.
You know, I was gonna pray
that they would stay in church and stay with it
and stay with the things of God,
and you know what, it worked.
But the reason that it works
is because if you pray for somebody a couple times,
but if you pray for somebody, you know, 500 times,
God says, just because of your importunity,
just because of your continual asking over and over again,
he says, if nothing else, just because you keep asking me,
he said, I'll do it for you.
But it takes consistency to do that.
You see, everything in the Christian life
is by consistency.
Think about your Bible reading.
The way that you're gonna read more Bible
than any other way is by reading the Bible
every single day a certain amount.
You could sit down and read the Bible for hours one day,
but if you read the Bible for 15 minutes every day,
you'll read through the Bible cover to cover in one year.
And you know, I'd venture to guess that 99% of Christians
have not read the Bible cover to cover, and that's a shame.
It's a sad thing that they think that the pastor
will spoon feed them what they need to know.
And if you have never read the Bible cover to cover,
Genesis to Revelation, you are a baby,
and you are being spoon fed by the pastor,
how do you know whether what you're being taught
is right or not when you've not searched the scripture
yourself to see whether these things are so?
Now, it's not very hard to read through the Bible
cover to cover.
People have been in church for 40 years,
and they say, well, I read the Bible,
and I've said to them, yes,
but you've never read it cover to cover.
And they say, well, I'm sure I have.
I mean, just in the course of being in church 40 years,
and I pick it up and read it from time to time,
I'm sure I've read it.
You talk to that same person,
I'm thinking of a person in particular,
and I challenge them, I said, no,
I promise you you've not read through the Bible
cover to cover unless you've set out to do so.
And I said, here's the chart, you know,
check them off and read the Bible cover to cover.
I talked to that same person the day that he finished.
He said, I just finished today.
I've been in church for 40 years,
but I just finished today reading the Bible cover to cover.
I said, had you read it before?
He said, no.
He said, there's no way.
He said, the stuff that I read,
I couldn't even believe it was in there.
There's no way I read.
This is not what I was taught in Sunday school.
There was no flannel graph
of some of these stories that I read.
He said, no way, no how.
I hadn't even read even half of it.
And that's the truth unless you've set out to do so.
But you say, wow, it's such a big book.
It's so long, so much to read.
Hey, 15 minutes a day, but watch it,
it's gotta be consistently.
Because you miss one day, you blew it.
You gotta read it consistently.
Every day, just a little bit.
Don't tell me you don't have 15 minutes a day.
Anybody, I mean, anybody,
it doesn't matter how busy you are,
you have 15 minutes a day to pick up the Bible and read it.
You could get the tapes read by Alexander Scobee,
the King James Bible, and stick them in the cassette deck
for 15 minutes a day on the way to and from work.
Hey, you probably, I spent hours a day driving for my job.
Hey, if I just only limited myself,
if that was the only Bible reading I did,
I just had those CDs in my car,
hey, I'd be reading the Bible four or five times a year.
Just doing that only alone.
See, if you do it consistently though,
that's the only way to do it.
Memorizing the Bible, same thing.
I used to think it was impossible to memorize large,
huge parts of the Bible.
I remember when I was in 10th grade,
somebody told me that their grandma memorized Psalm 119,
and I hardly even believed them.
176 verses, I said, I don't even know if that's possible.
I don't even know if you can do that.
Later, somebody told me about somebody
who memorized the whole book of Romans.
I said, I'm not even sure if I believe that.
That's so long, how could you memorize
the book of Romans, it's unthinkable, it's unbelievable.
Later on, I stumbled across a website that said
you can memorize the New Testament in five years.
I laughed and said, and this was only a couple years ago,
I said, I don't know if you can really do that.
But you know what, if you ask me right now
what I believe about it, I'll tell you right now,
I believe that you could memorize the entire Bible,
Genesis, Revelation, I believe it could be done,
and that it wouldn't even be that hard for it to be done.
But there's only one way you're gonna get it done,
is by doing it consistently.
Think about this.
People go to Bible college for four years.
For four years, they sit in a Bible college
and supposedly they're learning the Bible, okay?
But you know that same person,
if they for four years memorized five verses a day,
would have the entire New Testament memorized?
Now look, good night, you go to Bible college,
you spend four or five hours in the classroom.
Spend four or five hours, you telling me
that you can't learn five verses in five hours, okay?
I mean, you can learn five verses
in a lot less than five hours.
And if you learn five verses a day
and just retain what you've learned,
but watch it, it's gotta be consistently,
it's gotta be every day.
Five verses a day, you have the whole New Testament
memorized in just the time that you get
a Bible college degree.
I don't wanna hang some Bible college degree on my wall,
I wanna hang a New Testament on my wall.
I say, yep, it's right here, it's up here, it's in my head.
Look, you say, well, five verses a day is a lot.
Well, how about this?
Memorize one verse a day in 2007.
You say, well, Pastor Anderson,
we're already into the year of 2007.
Hey, start right now, okay?
Start right now, one verse a day.
Memorize one verse a day.
You will be a few verses, on December 31st,
you'll be a few verses away
from having the entire book of Hebrews memorized.
13 chapters of the book of Hebrews.
If you start today and learn one verse a day.
You see, the way that you accomplish anything
in the Christian life,
the way that you win multitudes of souls to the Lord,
the way that this church is gonna grow,
the way that you grow spiritually,
the way that you read and learn the Bible,
the way that you pray for a person and get results,
the way that you memorize the scripture
is by consistently doing it just little by little,
line upon line, precept upon precept,
here a little, there a little,
and I'm gonna tell you something,
in the long run, in the long haul,
you're gonna see huge results,
huge things for God if you're consistent.
You see, the person who comes to church
and just puts in their 10% every week,
that person ends up outgiving Mr. Moneybags,
who every once in a while throws down his big check
for $25,000 or whatever, or some big check,
and he gets his name on the wall,
hey, the person who just consistently
just gives 10% for a lifetime, that's a lot of money.
I mean, I don't care how much you make,
if you gave 10% of what you make to the local church
for 70 years, that's a lot of money.
You've given a lot of money to God.
You say, I just feel like I'm throwing my little check
into the offering plate, I just feel like it's nothing.
Hey, it's a lot, because just consistently,
every time, that adds up to a lot of,
that's thousands of dollars, you know,
that's tens of thousands of dollars
that you put in the plate.
You're like, maybe I should rethink this whole typing thing,
that's a lot of money.
Hey, it's a lot of money, but you know what,
it's going to a good cause, right?
But anyway, you know, put the money in the plate,
just the 10% God asks.
God's not asking you to sign over
your whole paycheck to church.
God's not asking you to give some big offering.
He says, hey, give me 10%, and just do it consistently.
And it's huge.
Good night, if every church had just people give 10%,
you wouldn't need the big stupid thermometer,
and we got to raise more money and spin the wheel
to see how much you give, and all this kind of crazy stuff.
Hey, you wouldn't need all these elaborate fundraisers
if everybody just put 10% in every week,
and it wouldn't really hurt anybody.
You know, nobody would have to give
some big sacrificial gift.
Everybody just puts in the 10%,
and it'd be plenty of money.
I remember in the Old Testament, in the book of Exodus,
when all the people gave, they told them,
they said, stop giving.
When was the last time you ever been
in a Baptist church that said that?
You know, hey, stop giving, we have too much money.
It's too much.
You remember this in the book of Exodus,
when they were building the tabernacle?
He said, it's too much.
It would to God that Baptist churches would say,
it's enough, it's too much,
and that they wouldn't always be reaching
to the pockets of people trying to get more money,
more money, more money.
Hey, why don't you just preach the truth?
Why don't you just build people up in the faith,
and why doesn't everybody just get involved?
Then you wouldn't even need those mass building,
or money raising, whatever, campaigns.
Because I'm gonna tell you something,
consistency is what's gonna pay off in the Christian life.
Every area of the Christian life,
across the board, it's consistency.
But look back, if you would, to 1 Chronicles,
in the Old Testament, 1 Chronicles, chapter number 12,
1 Chronicles, chapter number 12.
1 Chronicles, chapter number 12,
we're talking about consistency tonight,
we're talking about in season, out of season.
We're talking about when things are going bad,
you're faithful to church.
When things are going great, you're faithful to church.
Hey, when you're feeling bad,
I'm talking about emotionally, you come soul winning.
Some of the best days that I've had out soul winning,
were the days that I did not wanna go out soul winning.
I mean, some of the days where I just said,
the last thing I wanna do is go soul winning,
I went to the first door, I had a bad attitude,
I knocked the door, and that's where I saw somebody say
that they came to church and got baptized,
and became a member of the church,
and all this great stuff, the day I didn't wanna go.
And the other days, I was like, yeah, let's go soul winning,
and I came back, you know, a little down.
Because nothing happened, okay?
But I'm gonna tell you something,
some of the days that are the worst days to go soul winning
end up being the big increase, why?
Because you've got to be consistent,
because you never know when it's gonna be
that God's gonna decide to open the windows of heaven
and pour you out a blessing when you're out soul winning.
Hey, you never know when it's gonna be,
you never know when that service is,
you don't know if it's gonna be on a Sunday night,
you don't know if it's gonna be on a Wednesday night,
when God speaks to your heart through the word of God,
and your life is changed by something
that you learn in the Bible.
The whole course of your life is changed,
but you don't know.
You say, well, it's not like that every service.
You're right, it's not like that every service,
but you don't know when that one service is gonna be.
But if you're there at every service,
you know you're never gonna miss it.
So just don't miss church, just don't miss soul winning.
Hey, just don't miss Bible reading.
Remember the manna in the Old Testament?
Remember how they had to go out every day
and gather the manna?
Of course, the manna was a picture of the word of God.
He said, he suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna,
that thou mightest know that manna not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of the Lord that man live.
He said, the manna was a picture of you daily
going to the Bible, and he says, if you store it up,
he says, if you try to go out and get it later,
it's gonna be gone, it's not gonna be there anymore.
He says, if you try to store it up for the next day,
it's gonna breed worms, it's gonna be gone.
He says, today I've got something for you
in the Bible today, and if you don't get it today,
you're not gonna get it.
And so if you miss one day of Bible reading,
you missed something that God was trying
to tell you that day, and you can't go back and find it.
You can't go back and get it, it's gone.
And so you gotta be consistent with Bible reading
for that reason, but look at 1 Chronicles 12, verse 33.
The Bible says of Zebulun, such as went forth to battle,
expert in war with all instruments of war,
50,000 which could keep rank, they were not of double heart.
And of Naphtali, 1,000 captains with them,
with shield and spear, 30 and 7,000,
and of the Danites, expert in war, 28,600,
and of Asher, such as went forth to battle,
expert in war, 40,000, and on the other side of Jordan,
of the Reubenites and the Gadites
and of the half tribe of Manasseh,
with all manner of instruments of war for battle,
and 120,000, all these men of war that could keep rank
came with a perfect heart to Hebron
to make David king over all Israel,
and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart
to make David king.
Notice two things he said in verse number 33.
He said that they could keep rank,
they were not of double heart.
He said the great thing about this particular group
of soldiers was that they stayed in formation,
they could keep rank.
He said even in the midst of a fierce and heated battle,
he said they could all stay lined up in their position,
and that's why they were such a formidable foe
on the battlefield, because they could keep their places.
You know, you ever play basketball,
and you play, I haven't played basketball,
I literally haven't played basketball
in probably six years or something,
but I remember we played basketball,
and there's two kinds of defense,
there's the zone defense and the man-to-man defense,
and I always hated playing with the man-to-man defense.
Does anybody know about basketball at all?
Nobody cares, I don't even care.
I haven't played in six years, okay,
and I dead sure don't watch it on the television,
but you know, I'd be playing basketball,
and I never would play with anybody,
or I just didn't like to play
when they did the man-to-man defense.
I just didn't like somebody all over me, you know?
Somebody hanging on you, you know what I'm talking about,
you play basketball, you play man-to-man defense,
somebody's just all over you.
I didn't like that, and I liked the zone defense,
because there was a lot more strategy involved,
that means that on the defending team
on the basketball court, this is a bad illustration,
nobody's into basketball, but I'm not even into basketball,
why am I telling this, let's go back to the Bible,
but anyway, you got like two guys
down at the bottom of the key,
you got two guys up here,
and then you got one guy in the center,
and they're kind of guarding, you know, the hoop,
and then the other team comes forward,
and the goal in the zone defense
is you gotta get somebody out of their place.
You know, you entice somebody to move out of their spot,
and then you got that hole,
and then you run through and score a basket.
Well, this is what God's talking about here,
he's saying these people could keep rank,
they were in their place,
and this is what we talked about earlier
with being the weak link in the chain,
hey, be in your place.
This church is a military unit, do you understand that?
We wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers.
Hey, God said, thou therefore endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,
no man that warth entangleth himself
with the affairs of this life,
that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier.
He says, you're in a battle, you're in a war,
you're in a war battling for the hearts and souls of men,
you're standing between the living and the dead
as Aaron did in the Old Testament,
hey, you're in a war, you're on a battlefield,
I'm gonna tell you something, if you're not in your place,
people are gonna get hurt.
You say, people are gonna get hurt?
Hey, if you're not out soul winning,
somebody might go to hell that you could have won to Christ
and seen saved.
Yes, yes, it matters.
Yes, when you're out of your place, somebody could be hurt.
Yes, when you're not in your place,
the battle could be lost.
When you're not in your place,
every single person in this church is important,
hey, be in your place consistently, stay in your rank.
Understand that you being in your place
means winning the battle.
You being out of your place
means that there's a weak link in the chain
where the devil can attack and where we can lose the fight.
And so be in your place.
Now that was the first part of the sermon,
which is the very popular part,
that's the part that people like, okay?
This is the part where it's all rah, rah, read the Bible,
prayer, soul winning, preaching, be in church.
How about this though?
How about lastly, how about consistency in what you believe?
Now here's where it gets a little ugly, okay?
Consistency with what you believe.
You know, it's one thing to be consistent to church,
like you're always there at all seasons,
like Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
It's one thing to be consistent and out soul winning,
like every week you're out soul winning,
but is what you believe consistent?
Are you consistent with what you believe?
Let me ask you something,
are your standards of what right and wrong is?
Is your belief of what is right and wrong,
do you practice that consistently?
See, the positive side of the coin
is where we're obeying the commands of God,
where God says, do this and we do it.
God says, be in church and we're in church.
God says, be a soul winner, we're a soul winner.
God says, read the Bible, we read the Bible.
God says, pray, we pray.
What about the things that God says not to do?
Do we consistently not do the things
that God told us not to do,
or do we practice what's known by the world
as situational ethics?
Now, situational ethics is what's taught in school
and in these classes at the university
and in public school, where they basically teach
that what's right in one situation
is not necessarily always right in every situation,
and what's wrong in one situation
is not necessarily always wrong.
For example, did you know that the word ethics
comes from the word like ethnicity?
It comes from the word ethos,
it comes from a word that has to do with where you live.
I mean, people in Mexico are of a different ethnicity
than those in, say, Germany, for example.
Now, they have a totally different culture,
they have a totally different belief system,
they have a totally different foods that they eat,
and they probably have some slightly different ideas
about what right and wrong is.
Now, the word ethics means what's considered right
around the people that you're around.
That's what it means.
That's why the word's never used in the Bible.
Another word that means the same thing as ethics
is the word morality.
The word morality, if you have a King James Bible,
the only Bible there is,
then you'll know that the word morality never occurs.
It's all through the NIV and these new Bibles.
The word morality is never found in the King James Bible.
Now, let me ask you something.
You speak Spanish?
Right, of course.
And you know the word morvar?
What's it mean?
What's it mean in English?
What's it mean in English, I'm saying?
Translate it for me.
To live, to dwell, okay?
To live somewhere, okay?
So basically, that's the root word
of where the word morality comes from.
It has to do with where you live.
Just like ethics have to do with your ethnicity.
And so that word morals comes from that same Latin root word
that morar, the Spanish word comes from,
has to do with where you live.
God doesn't use words like that.
Hey, God's not gonna use a word that talks about
what's right and wrong based on where you live, okay?
No, that's situational ethics.
That's what I'm talking about.
Now, I preach the Bible
to the best of my ability consistently.
Now, there are certain things that I believe from the Bible.
Flip over, if you would, to Exodus 28, 42.
Let me show you one of the things
that I believe from the Bible.
And God willing, everything that we believe
is from the Bible.
I sure hope it is.
And if it's not, we need to correct our mistake.
Look at Exodus 28, verse number 42.
And let's see some consistency.
We saw consistency with the positive commands of God,
but now let's see some consistency
with us obeying the negative commands of God,
the thou shalt nots, if you will.
Look at Exodus chapter number 28, verse number 42.
Exodus 28, 42 reads,
And thou shalt make them linen breeches, or pants,
to cover their nakedness from the loins,
even unto the thighs they shall reach.
Now, if I'm not mistaken, God just told us
that a man, he's talking about a man,
his loins and his thighs being uncovered
constitutes nakedness.
Now, I can't understand how else you can understand that.
Okay, the Bible's very clear
that he says that these pants that he's wearing
need to come from the loins to the thighs
to cover his nakedness.
You say, well, I think they're just supposed to come
right up to the loins, or right up to the thighs.
Well, look, if they're gonna come right up to the thighs,
that's pretty short, okay?
That's a speedo, okay?
If they're gonna come right to the loins,
that's indecent, my friend.
He's saying to cover the loins and the thighs,
that's how you can cover your nakedness.
The Bible says that thou mayest be clothed
and that the shame of thy nakedness
may not appear in Revelation 3.18,
and so we see here that God is telling us
exactly what nakedness is.
Let me ask you something.
Do you consistently apply what you believe
the Bible says is nakedness?
Flip over to Isaiah chapter 40,
Isaiah 47, I believe it is.
Let's flip over there.
Isaiah chapter 47, and let's see an example
of the female proper clothing.
Look at Isaiah chapter 47, I believe it is.
And let's look at verse number one, the Bible reads,
"'Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon.
Sit on the ground.
There is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans.
For thou shall no more be called tender and delicate.
Take the millstones and grind meal.
Uncover thy locks.
Make bare the leg.
Uncover the thigh.
Pass over the rivers.
Thy nakedness shall be uncovered.
Yea, thy shame shall be seen.'"
What was uncovered in verse number two
that caused her nakedness to be uncovered
in verse number three and her shame to be seen?
The Bible says, uncover the thigh.
"'Thy nakedness shall be uncovered.
Yea, thy shame shall be seen.'"
So both on a man and a female,
we have God's example that the thigh is considered naked.
You say, I don't consider that nudity to expose your thigh.
Do you think I care what you consider nudity?
Do you care what I consider nudity?
Okay.
You say we live in the United States.
Doesn't, no, we're not talking about ethics.
We're not talking about morality.
We are talking about righteousness.
We're talking about godliness.
And it's not based on situations.
It's not based on where you live.
It's based on what the word of God says.
Now let me ask you something.
Do you consistently believe that a man
or a woman's thigh is nakedness?
Do you believe that?
All the time.
Now let me ask you something.
If I were to dig a hole in the ground,
fill it with water, put a fence around it,
and then you walk inside that fence,
would you still believe that?
Or would you strip down into a bathing suit
that exposes your thigh to the minds of lustful men?
Would you still believe that, sir?
When you step into that same area
with your short little shorts on,
would you still believe that when you're standing
in a gate with a hole in the ground filled with water
called a swimming pool?
Do you still believe that a thigh is nakedness?
Because if you don't, then you're inconsistent
in your obedience to the word of God.
And God says to be instant in season, out of season,
to obey the voice of the Lord your God at all times.
Hey, I'm gonna tell you something.
You better make sure that what you believe is consistent.
I was taught growing up, we went to Christian schools
where they had the rule, the girls had to have
their skirts to their knees.
But then the same Christian school would have
a swimming party where the girls would strip down
into a bathing suit and swim around.
You say, come on, that's normal, everybody does it.
I don't do it.
My wife doesn't do it.
My kids don't do it.
And you say, are you against mixed swimming?
I'm not against mixed swimming.
I'm against mixed nudity is what I'm against.
And so I don't think it's wrong to go swimming at all.
I've got a swimming pool in my backyard.
Never use it.
Hey, I use it all the time.
But I'm gonna tell you something.
Nobody enters this pool that's not married or brothers
or whatever, you know, or whatever,
and is around people of the opposite gender
exposing their thigh.
It's never gonna happen.
It's just not gonna happen, my friend.
Because I'm not gonna break God's laws
because of where I live and because of the culture
that I live in.
I grew up, you know, I grew up going to all the
swimming parties.
I went to a church where they canceled Wednesday night
church in the summer, and we had pool and devotions
where we'd swim for an hour and a half,
all the teenagers and all the girls are in bathing suits.
We'd go swimming for an hour and a half
and then have a five minute lesson from the Bible.
Hey, I've been there.
But I'm gonna tell you something.
It's a sin, and it's wrong.
And it's always wrong.
And you say, well, what about this?
No.
What about no?
But no, okay?
Hey, you didn't hear me the first time.
I said it's always, at all seasons, at all times,
wrong for a person to expose and uncover their thigh.
Say, what about playing basketball?
Hey, play basketball wearing pants,
or play basketball wearing knee length shorts
that cover your thigh?
Say, are you against shorts?
I'm not against shorts that cover your thigh.
I'm not against shorts that keep your thigh covered
at all times.
I'm not against skirts that keep your thigh
covered at all times.
No, of course I'm not.
But I am against exposing a thigh, male or female.
It's nudity.
Okay, you still believe that?
Are you still with me?
Okay, go home and turn on your TV.
Is there any nudity on there?
You say, no, no, no, no, no.
I never watch anything with nudity.
Oh, really, you watch a show where people wear shorts?
Do you watch a show where people wear short shorts?
You're watching nudity.
You say, that's not nudity.
You have a picture in your house
of a girl wearing a bathing suit?
That's pornography.
Yes, it's pornography.
You say, that's not pornography.
Pornography is nudity.
Hey, that's nudity.
Get your mind right.
Get your mind on track with what the Bible says.
Girls in bathing suits is pornography.
Watching it on TV is pornography.
Having it in your magazine rack is pornography.
You don't like that, do you?
You don't like it when I call it pornography,
but God says it's pornography.
God says it's nakedness, and nudity.
He says it's a shame.
You know, and on and on, we could really dwell
on that subject for a while,
having consistency in your sense.
I'm out of time tonight.
That'll be a whole other sermon.
Okay, come and do a church near you, okay?
Consistency in what you believe
about what's right and wrong.
And I preach sermons like that.
Hey, go through the library.
One will jump out at you, okay,
when you're looking through the CDs there.
Because I'm gonna tell you something.
We live in a day where people are not consistent
with what they believe.
Let me give you another example.
How about this?
Don't watch that movie, it's got too much cussing.
How much is too much?
That's what I'd like to know.
But then now you say, well, this one only has one cuss word.
I could live with that.
But this one over here, good night,
every other word is a filthy word that's too much.
Well, look, just rewind the other one 500 times,
and just put it on loop, boop, boop, boop.
You know, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop.
Okay, hey, just watch it 500 times.
You get the same amount of cussing.
That's what's so inconsistent about the world.
The world's very inconsistent with what they believe.
What they believe is right and wrong.
Oh, it's never right to take human life.
The same crowd who's against the death penalty
is for abortion, right?
The same crowd that's against the death penalty
is for euthanasia.
You know, the world is so inconsistent
with what they believe.
That's why they have a rating system
that's based on the quantity of curse words in a movie.
I mean, I've seen a movie that's rated PG
that has the F word in it.
I could tell you what it is after the service.
A PG rated movie, but it's only in there one time.
So it's okay, it can be PG.
But this movie has the F word 500 times, that's rated R.
See, that's the world's warped view of right and wrong.
I hope you haven't adopted the world's viewpoint
of what right and wrong is.
To think that the quantity of how many times it's used
determines whether it's right or wrong.
Look, if it's right, it's always right.
If it's wrong, it's always wrong.
And you could apply that all the way across the board
to everything that you believe from the Bible.
So remember, be consistent to church,
because you might miss something important
if you're not here.
Hey, be consistent reading your Bible,
you might miss something.
Hey, you want God to do something big
in the life of someone that you love?
Hey, pray for them every day consistently.
You'll be shocked what happens.
I've done it.
I've had people challenge me and said, try it.
And I did it, I tried it, it worked.
It worked great, okay?
And be consistent with these things.
Be consistent memorizing the Bible.
Thy word have I hidden in my heart
that I might not sin against thee.
I meditate in thy word night and day, David said.
Hey, memorize the Bible.
It's for everybody.
It's not for little kids.
Memorize the Bible.
Do it a little bit at a time and you can do it.
Learn one word a day.
Just learn one word, not even a verse.
One word, you'd have probably a chapter done
by the end of the year, come on.
You can learn the Bible.
You can study the Bible.
You can see things happen in your life
if you're consistent with them.
But secondly, and we didn't really have a lot of time
for this part of the message,
but secondly, hey, be consistent.
If you believe something's wrong,
hey, then let it be known you're never gonna violate that.
You say, well, you know, I believe it's wrong
for a woman to wear pants, which I do,
and I wish I had time to prove that to you.
But except for when we're doing this activity.
No, it's always wrong, otherwise it's always right.
Take your pick.
But let's bow our heads and have a word of,
boy, I opened a can of worms on that one.
No, I'm just kidding.
That's not what you close the sermon with.
That's not what I learned in Bible college.
But let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we love you and thank you so much
for the Bible, dear God, a powerful book,
the powerful book, the word of God.
And Father, I thank you so much
that you're consistently with us, Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday and today and forever.
I thank you that today you're there to hear my prayers.
Today you're gonna speak to me in church.
Today you're gonna speak to me through the Bible, Father.
I thank you that you're consistent,
that you're always the same every day, that you change not.
And Father, help us to be consistent.
Help us to be instant in season, out of season.
Help us to have a consistency in our lives
where even when we go through a difficult time
or a rough time, we're still in church,
we're still with soul winning,
we're still with Bible reading, and we stick it out.
And God, please help us never to practice situational ethics
and to adjust what we believe
for who we're around or where we live.
But God, help us to understand
what we believe from the Bible
and to never, never compromise what we believe,
but to stay true to what we believe to the death,
dear God, and we love you.