Now in James chapter 1, the part of the chapter I'd like to focus on is beginning verse number 5
where the Bible reads,
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God to give it to all men liberally,
and a break not, and it shall be given him.
But let him ask at faith nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea,
driven with the wind and tossed.
For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
And that's what I'd like to preach about this morning.
Being double-minded or wavering.
Now if you would, flip over to James chapter 4.
You're in James 1 there, and we'll see something similar in James 4.8.
The Bible reads,
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.
Go to Acts 7.
So we see again, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Purify your hearts, ye double-minded.
What does it mean to be double-minded?
It means to waver.
It means to lack faith in what God has told you to do,
what you're doing when you're obeying God's Word.
Go to Acts 7, verse 37.
Here's a perfect example of the children of Israel.
It says in Acts 7, 37,
This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel,
and this is of course Stephen preaching,
A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me.
Him shall ye hear.
This is he that was in the church in the wilderness,
with the angel which spake to him in the Mount Sinai,
and with our fathers who received the light of the oracles to give unto us,
to whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them,
and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt.
So when the Bible talks about someone who's being double-minded,
it's somebody who can't make up their mind is what that really means.
Double-minded meaning that there are two different opinions.
On the one hand, the children of Israel, they wanted to leave Egypt.
They wanted to get out of that bondage.
They wanted to follow Moses.
They saw the miracles, they saw the power of God,
and they were willing to follow him,
but then whenever times got tough,
and whenever things weren't going well,
they didn't have the right food to eat, they didn't have enough water,
then they started to waver in their faith.
They started to doubt what they were doing,
and in their hearts the Bible says they turned back to Egypt.
And you remember how they kept saying to Moses,
you know, hey, maybe we should have just stayed in Egypt.
Maybe this wasn't a good idea.
Now here's the thing.
When Moses first showed up to take the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,
when he first showed up, he showed them the miracles,
he told them what he was going to do,
he told them what was going to happen,
and if you remember, they all rejoiced.
They were all excited about it.
They all wanted to do it.
Now, after Pharaoh's firstborn son has been killed,
everyone else in the whole land has had their firstborn killed
by the death angel on the Passover night.
After they've already left Egypt,
the armies of Pharaoh have been drowned in the Red Sea,
the waters parted so that the children of Israel could cross,
and then of course they came back and drowned Pharaoh and his chariots.
They've already gone out into the wilderness.
There's no turning back at that point.
You can't go back after that.
But yet, they said, let's go back.
Maybe we should have just stayed behind.
Now, here's what I'm trying to say this morning.
When you have a clear directive from God,
when you understand something from the Word of God,
just as they had the Word of God preached by Moses,
we have it in this book right here,
when you understand a clear directive from God's Word,
you ought to not be double-minded about it.
You ought to just make up your mind and be settled
and not keep revisiting that decision over and over again.
When you can sing that song, I have decided to follow Jesus.
Remember the last words? No turning back.
That's the way you have to be in life in order to succeed as a Christian.
Because if you have any inkling in your heart of turning back to Egypt,
you will have plenty of opportunities to do so.
If you remember Hebrews, the Bible says that if they had been mindful of that country
from whence they came out of,
they might have had an opportunity to have returned.
You see, when you leave that back door open,
when you leave that part of your heart open that says,
well, I'm going to try this.
I'm going to try following Jesus.
I'm going to try getting interred.
I'm going to try a certain guy.
But you leave yourself a back door.
You leave yourself the option of going back to Egypt.
If you are mindful of the country from whence you came out of,
you're going to find an opportunity to return.
You must burn your bridges behind you when you are following Christ
and when you make the decision to follow the Word of God in your life.
You can't be somebody who wavers.
And look, the Bible says that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
And the Bible says he that wavereth...
And I like how the Bible defines words for us.
He says he that wavereth is like a wave.
And that's where the word comes from.
He said he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea
driven with the wind and tossed.
You see, you can go through life being tossed about by circumstances.
Today I'm in church.
Next week I'm not in church.
This week I'm living for God.
Next week I'm following the path of the world.
And you're just tossed about by circumstances.
Things are going good.
Things are going bad.
Or you can be like a rock.
Or you can be anchored.
Or you can be steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord
for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
That's the decision that you have to make in life.
To be steadfast or to waver.
To falter.
To doubt.
Now if you would go to Genesis.
Actually if you would turn to Luke chapter 9.
Luke chapter 9.
In Genesis 19 is the story of course about
Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed.
And you remember that they flee out of the city.
And remember what happened to Lot's wife.
She looked back.
And she became a pillar of salt.
And then Jesus told us in Luke 17.
He said remember Lot's wife.
And the next thing he said after he said remember Lot's wife.
He said whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it.
And whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
Now let that sink down into your ears.
He said first of all remember Lot's wife.
Then the next breath he says whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it.
And whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
If you get the context he's talking about persecutions and things.
And if you think about it.
Jesus Christ expects us to be faithful unto death.
Does he not?
The Bible says in Revelation 2.10.
Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.
Behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried.
And ye shall have tribulation ten days.
Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.
So you ask well Pastor Anderson.
You know I'm steadfast.
I'm unlovable.
I'm not wavering.
I'm not turning back in my heart to Egypt.
But how far does it go before I am supposed to buckle?
You know how far does it go before I do give up?
Before I do quit?
And the answer is be faithful unto death.
And Jesus said remember Lot's wife.
And then he basically followed it up with an admonition.
Hey be faithful unto death.
Don't seek to save your life in the face of persecution.
Because God expects a commitment that is an utter commitment of just unto death.
You say well that's an extreme commitment.
But that's what he expects.
He was obedient unto death to save our souls.
Even the death of the cross.
And he left us an example that we should follow in his steps.
Now look not that all of us are going to be put to death.
He only said some would be cast into prison.
You know he didn't say everybody's going to prison.
I'm here look.
Welcome to Faith Board Baptist Church this morning.
I've got a really encouraging message.
Everybody's going to prison.
Everybody's going to die.
No that's not the message.
Because he said some people will be cast into prison.
Some people will be put to death.
But he expects us all to be willing to follow him.
And to not be double minded.
And you know what?
It's a lot less that causes some people to quit.
Than being faced with the slam.
Or being faced with death.
A lot of people quit sooner than that.
Just when they're faced with he made fun of me.
Or they're faced with a little bit of opposition from family.
Or maybe they're faced with a little bit of financial hardship.
Or marriage hardship.
You know we need to be more steadfast than that.
I think I had you turn to Luke 9.
Go to verse 57 in Luke 9.
It says,
It came to pass as they went on their way.
A certain man said unto him,
Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
And Jesus said unto him,
Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests,
but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.
And you know if you get the context of the story
and say this in the book of Matthew,
that guy didn't follow him.
After he heard that, he didn't follow him.
Look at the next verse.
It says in verse 59,
He said unto another,
Follow me.
He didn't say,
Follow me if you want.
He said,
Follow me.
But he said,
Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Jesus said unto him,
Let the dead bury their dead,
but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.
61,
And another also said,
Lord, I will follow thee,
but let me first go bid them farewell which are at home at my house.
And Jesus said unto him,
No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.
God wants us to put our hands in the plow and not look back like Lot's wife looked back.
Don't look back.
Don't be double minded.
Make the decision.
Lock it in and stay with it.
Go to Luke 14.
And you see this is a great admonition for every area of life.
Now let me give you an illustration.
Maybe this is a little bit silly,
but this is a pet peeve of mine.
You know when you're in,
let's say you're at a drive-thru,
and I don't know,
maybe this doesn't bother you,
but when people,
they place an order and then they want to change it.
You know what I'm talking about?
Like you place the order and then it's like,
Oh wait, I changed my mind.
I want something totally different.
And you're just like,
people are like,
I already ordered it.
You know?
It is what it is.
Just eat it.
And you know,
in life it's good to make decisions and stick with them.
You know when you're always,
some people just start,
it seems like they're always bouncing around.
They can never live in the same place.
They can never stay with a job.
They can never stay with a church.
They're just bouncing from church to church constantly.
They can't stay with anything.
They can't stay with their spouse.
They can't stay with anything.
They just,
they're always bouncing around,
indecisive.
You know,
they don't lock in on something.
And so they're constantly changing.
And the Bible says,
Metal not with them that are given to change.
There are people who just have a tendency
to constantly change.
And that makes them unstable.
That makes them someone who's not going to excel.
And so,
look at verse 28 of Luke 14.
Before I read that,
let me say this about the,
you know,
changing your order and so on.
You know,
for example,
when it comes to church,
okay,
I don't wake up every Sunday morning
and decide whether or not
I'm going to go to church.
I mean,
do you really think I woke up this morning
and had a mental debate on,
should I go to church
or should I just do something else today?
Now,
you say,
well,
that's easy for you to say
because you're the pastor.
But here's the thing.
For a long,
long time before I was the pastor,
I still didn't have that discussion
because what I did is
I just made a decision one time.
I just decided,
hey,
church is important.
Church is my priority.
And I'm going to go to a real church.
I'm not going to go to a little play toy church
down the street.
I'm going to go to a real church
that preaches the real Bible,
okay,
that does real soul winning,
big boy soul winning.
Right?
Not this little baby soul winning,
which is like
you go out and put a door hanger
and you run away real fast
hoping that,
you know,
nobody saw you do it
in case you might actually have to confront someone.
I'm talking about big boy soul winning.
Like when you carry your big boy Bible,
right Chris?
And you carry your big boy Bible
and you go up to the door like a man
or like a woman
and you stand there
and you knock the door
and you preach the word.
You open your mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel.
I'm talking about real soul winning,
real church.
You know,
I decided a long time ago
that's the only kind of church
I'm going to mess with.
Yep.
And then I decided
I'm always going to be there.
I'm going to be faithful.
I'm going to be there
when the doors are open.
And you know,
part of what made me make that decision
was I spent some time in Germany
living in the homes of pastors.
And I saw them,
these pastors,
I saw them get up in the morning
and be excited about Sunday morning
and they had their sermon
and they were getting the building ready.
I was helping them get ready.
And they were so excited
and they would be saying,
man, I hope so and so is going to be there.
I hope so and so is going to be there.
I hope so and so.
And they really wanted everybody to be there
and they were really disappointed
when people didn't show up.
And I thought to myself,
you know,
am I being a disappointment
when I fool around and do other things?
You know,
I want to be faithful.
I want to be an encouragement.
I want to be somebody that the pastor can rely on.
I want to be there faithfully.
You know,
it's good to just make decisions in your life.
Hey,
this is the kind of person I'm going to be.
This is the kind of church I'm going to go to.
This is the Bible that I'm going to read every day.
This is the lifestyle I'm going to live.
This is the kind of soul-winning I do.
And not just keep asking yourself
whether it was a good idea or not
over and over again.
Once you've made,
I mean look,
do you think that I wake up every morning
and ask myself,
do I want to be married with my wife?
Did I make the right decision?
Wouldn't that be ridiculous?
I mean,
it's stupid, right?
Because I'm married.
So I don't wake up every morning
and look at my wife and decide whether I,
you know what,
I'm going to get,
let's give it another day.
Let's see what happens.
Because a person who wakes up every morning
and decides whether they're going to stay with their spouse
is not going to stay with their spouse.
I mean,
eventually they're going to leave.
Because guess what?
Every day is not a good day.
Now there are good days,
that's life.
But you make a decision one time
and you say,
till what?
Till death do us part.
And then you just stay with it.
You don't keep asking yourself,
what about that other one?
Was she a better option
or was he a better option?
You know,
that's wickedness.
That's foolishness.
You make that decision.
You lock that in.
You stay with it
and that will help you to be stable.
That will help you to be steadfast
and not somebody who's constantly wavering
and being tossed about
and here's the thing.
You say,
well I'm staying married.
Yeah,
but don't be even tossed about in your heart
and in your mind.
You know,
just keep your mind and your heart set back.
You know,
be focused on the Word of God.
Be focused on your spouse that you're married to.
Stay focused.
Hey,
this is my church.
You know,
and here's the thing.
You say,
well,
I don't know if it's my church.
You know what?
You need to figure that out.
And if you think there's a better church out there,
then go find it
and go get over there
and get rooted and planted.
But don't be someone
and you're not sure
whether you like a faithful word about this church or not.
Why don't you read the Bible
and figure out whether the way we do things
and the way we preach things here
is scriptural or not.
Amen.
And if it's not,
there's the door.
And if it is,
then sit down
and stay put
and don't just constantly doubt
and question whether you're supposed to be here or not.
You know,
you need to just figure out
what you're supposed to do in life
and do it
and make that decision.
Look at Luke 14.
It says in verse 28,
For which of you intending to build a tower
sitteth not down first and counted the cost,
whether yet sufficient to finish it,
lest, happily,
after he had laid the foundation
and is not able to finish it,
all that beholdeth begin to mock him,
saying,
This man began to build
and was not able to finish.
Now, every time I read this passage,
I think of this building
that's off the I-10 or the I-17
that I affectionately call the Death Star.
Okay?
Now, there's this building.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
The big silver around?
Yeah.
This is what I think of.
Here's why.
Because there's a church there,
and it's a wicked church.
It's a cult.
We've gone there.
We've knocked every single door,
and it's far from here,
but we've knocked every door between here and there,
and we knocked every door surrounding it,
and the people who go there,
none of them were saved.
They all believed in a total works-based salvation.
This cult is called the light of the world.
They go to church three times a day,
and none of them is saved.
None of them believes the God.
Okay?
And they had all kinds of false teaching,
and they have a building that they meet in,
but then right next to the building that they meet in,
they built this gigantic silver...
I didn't want to call it a dome.
It's like a sphere.
It's like a silver, gigantic sphere.
Who's seen that thing off the freeway?
But here's the thing.
It's never done.
It's been there for years,
and it never changes,
and it's funny because the part that's not done
is the part that's facing the freeway.
Now, you'd think that they'd finished
the part that's facing the freeway,
but they're facing the freeway first
and leave something undone that everybody doesn't look at.
Every day, I drive by there,
and you just see it's not done.
It's got this gaping hole in it,
and it looks weird,
and here's the thing.
Jesus prophesied that people will mock,
and I'm mocking it right now.
Jesus said, look,
when you start to build something and you can't finish it,
it becomes a mockery, doesn't it?
Because they should have thought,
okay, can we finish the dead star?
You know, and then finish it,
not just build this giant silver,
and what is the purpose of a gigantic silver sphere?
You know, what is the deal?
What are you doing?
And our church will never build a giant sphere
or spire or clock tower or what, you know.
It's what we're doing.
That's not what we're supposed to be doing.
But anyway, when you build something,
you're supposed to decide beforehand,
and I'm going to make this up.
Jesus said, decide beforehand,
if you're going to build something,
whether you have sufficient to build it.
Well, we're just going to build it by faith.
Okay, well, let's see what the banks are up to.
But you need to see whether you have enough to build it.
Otherwise, people are going to look at it and say,
well, they began to build and they couldn't finish it.
And this is how our life can be
when we're constantly starting things and not finishing them.
People are going to look at that as a bad testimony
and it's a mockery and it's a joke
when you start something and you don't see it through.
And that's why Jesus said, before you start something,
you should count the cost before you start something.
Because when you start something that's difficult,
it's very important not to be double-minded.
When you start a difficult task,
you must be focused and not double-minded.
And so you have to first decide, you know,
am I sure I want to do this?
And then once you make that decision,
you don't revisit it.
Because there are going to be times when you think
going back to Egypt sounds like a good idea.
But once you've made the decision to follow Moses,
to join that church in the wilderness,
to cross that Red Sea, you know,
you've got to be in it for the long haul.
And you can't be just in it for a trial period.
Look, keep reading.
It says in verse 31,
what king goeth to make war against another king,
sitteth not down first, and consulteth,
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him
that cometh against him with twenty thousand.
Now, that's a pretty serious question.
He has twenty thousand, I have ten thousand.
Are we able to win?
And if we're not able to win,
let's not just lead the troops into a slaughter, you say.
You need to figure out whether you can win.
And if you don't think you can win,
then what he says, or else to all the others,
he had a great way off,
he said it to the ambusage,
and desireth conditions of peace.
Because they can't win, let's not have a bloodbath.
He's saying, you know, let's have peace.
Verse 33, so likewise,
whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath,
he cannot be my disciple.
And so, you need to count the cost of serving Jesus,
count the cost of doing a great work for God,
make the decision, and then don't revisit it.
Just say, we're going to do it.
I mean, look, when you've got ten thousand
and he's got twenty thousand,
you decide before, while he's a great way off,
are we going to fight this battle or not?
Can we win it or not?
Now, once you are already in the battle,
that's not when you decide.
You know, charge!
Wait a minute, wait a minute, hold on.
Stop, I changed my mind.
That, you're really going to get destroyed.
Because look, if you're,
anybody who's read any kind of war history,
and I've read a lot of it.
You know, I've read a lot of histories
of the Revolutionary War, of the War of 1812,
the Civil War, the French Revolution.
You know, I've read a lot of history of warfare,
and one thing that you'll learn,
the most important thing about winning a battle
is that the troops don't flee.
I mean, that's the hardest part.
You know, and I know modern warfare,
it's all like a video game and everything,
but I'm talking about back on warfare
where they're on a battlefield.
You know, the General's job, he had a rally.
The troops, some of George Washington's greatest moments
was, you know, riding on his horse
and getting everybody bold and giving them courage.
And when they saw him arrive, they said,
hey, you know, here's our leader.
We can keep fighting.
We're going to stay tough.
Because when they flee is when it becomes a rout,
when it becomes a slaughter,
when everybody starts running in a different direction
and just screaming and scared.
They've got to stay steadfast and unmovable.
They can't break ranks.
They have to keep that phalanx alive.
And that's one of the most important aspects
of warfare throughout history
is people not being double-minded,
but just saying, we're not going to turn back.
We're going to win.
We're going to keep pressing forward.
You know, that's an important aspect.
And that's what he's saying here.
Don't be double-minded.
Make a decision to fight the battle
or make a decision to make peace.
But you've got to pick one or the other and stay with it
and not keep revisiting that decision.
Now, go, if you would, to Ephesians chapter 4.
Now, let me give you another illustration.
I was thinking about this.
Who's ever seen where in martial arts they break boards?
Who knows what I'm talking about?
You've seen those kind of competitions
where they break boards?
And even if you forget martial arts,
I remember when I was a kid,
we would break pieces of wood for firewood over our knee.
And my dad showed us, you know, here's what you do.
You take the wood and bust it over your knee, okay?
Now, one thing that you'll learn very quickly
whether you're busting firewood over your knee
or whether you're in some kind of martial arts
where you're breaking bricks or breaking wood
or whatever, what you have to understand is that
if you hit that board with all of your might
and it does not break, it hurts very badly, okay?
But if you hit that board with all of your might
and it breaks, it doesn't hurt at all.
So if you take that piece of wood and just bust it over your knee,
if it breaks, it doesn't hurt.
But if it does not break, it hurts very bad.
Now, think about this.
The harder you hit the wood without it breaking,
the more it hurts, right?
If I hit it with half my strength and it doesn't break,
that hurts a little bit.
If I hit it with all my strength and it doesn't break,
that hurts a lot.
If I hit it with all my strength and it breaks,
it doesn't hurt at all.
So basically, this is the way the pain curve goes.
The harder you hit, the more pain, more pain,
unless you get to the breaking point, then there's no pain.
So here's the thing when you're breaking wood over your knee.
You look at the wood and you say, you know what,
can I break this?
You have to count the cost.
You have to evaluate that piece of wood and say,
can I break this?
Now, some pieces of wood you need to just walk away from.
It's too heartbreak.
But once you decide, once you decide, yes, I can break this,
I can do this, you must give it everything you've got.
And it takes faith.
Because if you do it full force and it doesn't break,
you're going to be in a lot of pain.
You might even injure yourself.
So you don't want to wall it, you're coming,
well, I don't know.
Because then you're just going to hurt yourself.
Or you say, well, I'm going to give it 75%.
Because that way, if it doesn't break,
I'm not in excruciating pain,
but I still got a pretty good shot at breaking it.
Now, it's better to just decide.
Can I do it or not?
And if I do it, I'm going to give it everything I've got.
I'm not going to hold anything back.
And if I perish, I perish.
I'm just going to just...
And I never really got it.
That was more of a Tae Kwon Do thing.
I never really did Tae Kwon Do.
But I've seen the Tae Kwon Do fighters,
break a lot of boards and everything like that.
I was more hitting punching bags and stuff like that.
That makes a lot more sense.
But anyway, what I'm saying is,
that's the way it is with a lot of things in life.
You must have a do or die mentality.
By the way, that's the attitude you ought to take into marriage.
And you ought not to get married lightly.
Marriage is a lifelong commitment.
It's something that needs to be thought through very seriously.
You don't want to be like these Hollywood stars
who are getting married, divorced, married, divorced,
married, divorced, married, divorced.
Because they're not really taking it seriously.
And I'll tell you this right now.
And I'm talking mainly right now.
And I'm not trying to beat up on people who've already been divorced
and made those mistakes.
But to the single today.
To the young, the single.
When you get married,
you cannot have in the back of your mind,
well, maybe this won't work out.
We'll give it a shot.
You know.
Hopefully it works, but I'm going to have a plan B.
And I've noticed this too.
A lot of godly young ladies will want to do the right thing.
And they'll want to be a stay-at-home wife,
stay-at-home mother.
You know, which is a great thing to do.
The Bible says,
I will, therefore, that the younger women marry,
bear children, guide the house.
And so they have this godly desire
to have the role of a homemaker.
Okay?
And then here's what wicked influences on their life will tell them.
Well, what if things don't work out with your husband?
You need a career to fall back on.
You say, I don't like that preaching.
Well, you know what?
You're wrong.
That is the right preaching.
Amen.
Because you ought not go into it with this attitude of,
well, in case it doesn't work out,
I've got to get my degree and blah, blah, blah.
And you know what?
A lot of divorce would be prevented
if women would not have this career going
that they could fall back on.
You know, their back door to take care of.
You know, what am I going to do if he leaves me
or if I leave you?
It's like, well, why don't you just let that not be an option?
Why don't you just have a do or die mentality that says,
hey, I'm investing my life in this.
Let the chips fall where they may.
If I fail, I fail.
But I'm not going to leave an option for failure.
I'm going to give it everything I've got
and failure is not an option.
And honestly, I believe that even the two most mismatched people
in the world, you know, if they both had an option
that said divorce is not an option,
you know, it might not be fun.
You know what I mean?
They can stay with it.
You make that commitment.
And you know, that's why God lets us choose who we want to marry.
You know, that's why he didn't just assign us with somebody.
You know, you pick who you want to throw in your lot with
and that's who you stay with.
And you got to just have a do or die mentality that says...
And listen, girls, when somebody comes to you and says,
well, what if it doesn't work out?
You need something to fall back on.
Just say it will work out.
Failure is not an option.
Do or die.
I'm burning my bridges behind me because I'm going to make it work.
That's what I believe.
It's the truth.
And whether that's popular preaching or not, that's the truth.
And so you ought not leave yourself a back door
to backslide, to sin, to fail.
Look, get into marriage with an attitude.
It must work.
And you say, well, I don't know if I'm comfortable
making that kind of a commitment.
Well, then don't make that commitment.
Or maybe you're making it with the wrong person
if you don't feel comfortable with that.
But you ought to feel comfortable with that.
You know, another great illustration
or another great example of this is with starting a church.
You know, and by the way, we are in desperate need today
of some men to rise up and start churches across America.
It's a great need today.
I mean, there are so many places
where the doors are just not being knocked,
where the souls are just not hearing the Word of God
and the Gospel.
And we need a generation like we've never needed it before,
a man to rise up and say, here am I.
Send me that would go out and start a church.
And let me tell you something.
Starting a church is a very difficult, daunting task.
It's something that is going to be hard.
It's something that's going to be hard work.
It's not fun or glamorous.
Now, it's definitely rewarding.
It has its blessings.
But honestly, it's tough.
It's hard.
And before you do it, you're going to have to decide,
can I break this board?
Am I in this for the long haul?
But here's the thing.
Once you make that decision,
you can never revisit that decision again.
Because if I look back at the people that I've known
who've started churches, who've tried to start churches,
who've successfully started churches,
you know what it is.
It's the people for whom failure is not an option,
people who are not double-minded at all
who say, this is what I'm going to do.
I know I'm going to do it.
I'm not going to quit.
And they stay with it, and they succeed.
But it's hard.
And there are plenty of times
where you're going to start to think.
And I'll be honest with you.
There were many times when the thought came into my mind,
what am I doing?
Is this the right thing to do?
Am I going to fail?
Is this a failure?
But see, I'd already made a decision,
and I thought through,
just like the guy who's building the tower,
just like the guy who's going to war.
Before I started the church, I thought through the fact
of what the worst-case scenario could be.
And I thought to myself, what's the worst-case scenario?
Nobody shows up for church.
I mean, just nobody's coming week after week
after week after week.
And I keep preaching, and I keep knocking doors,
and I keep pointing souls.
And just the church just doesn't grow.
The church is just a flock.
That's the worst-case scenario.
And you know what?
I decided.
I said, you know what?
I'm doing this because the Bible teaches
that this is the way to start a church,
the way that I was doing it.
I said, I'm doing this because God said
that these people need to hear the gospel,
that there should be a good church in every city,
the Bible said.
I'm doing this, God's methods, God's preaching.
I'm preaching the whole Bible, even stuff that's not popular,
that most preachers wouldn't preach.
And I said, you know, I know I'm doing it
because I'm getting it from the Bible.
And if the worst-case scenario happens,
I would keep doing it anyway.
And I even told God.
I said, God?
And after a few weeks into it, it wasn't going very well.
You know, there were a few people coming,
but, you know, we were getting somewhere.
But it was not what I...
I have kind of an unrealistic expectation, okay?
I'll just give best to you.
I expected it to grow a lot faster than what it did, okay?
And so I remember getting on my knees a few weeks into it
and praying and saying, God,
I don't understand why things are not happening
the way that I expected them to happen,
but I'm just telling you, God, I will not quit,
and I will not change my methods,
and I will not change my preaching,
and if these methods don't work,
then I'm going to keep doing them
for the rest of my life anyway,
and when I get to heaven,
I'm going to ask you why you told me to do it
if it didn't work.
Because I'm just following your word,
and I'm not going to change.
I don't care what other people say.
You know, and that's the attitude you have to have
because there are plenty of times
when it looked bleak starting this church.
And I look at other people that started a church
that my sister used to go to.
It was a thriving, soul-winding church in New Mexico.
That pastor, you know, for the first few years,
he had almost no one coming to the church.
You know, you'd have a few people coming.
They'd quit coming.
He was preaching to mainly just his own family.
You know, just barely anybody's coming
because he's in a small area and he's trying.
He worked hard.
Now that church has grown and built up,
you know, because he stayed with it.
The only way to fail is to quit.
Either go forth and weep at very precious seed
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing
and bringing his seed with him.
You know, and my good friend,
Brother Roger Jimenez in Sacramento, California,
he just started a church a little less than two years ago.
Very Baptist church.
You know, they started out in his house.
Okay?
They started out small.
They started out humble.
I mean, just a few people coming.
And there were times when the church would start growing
and it seemed like, man, a troll's taking off.
And then other times it would dip.
And it would seem like there were very few people coming.
And it was up and down.
Right.
Well, you know, today they're going into their new building today.
You know, they're getting into a building.
They're finally getting out of the house
and getting into a building.
Their attendances have been great.
They've been growing.
They've been thriving.
People are being saved.
People are being baptized.
People's lives are being changed.
That church is thriving and succeeding,
but it's been a long, hard road.
And, you know, there were many times
when he could have quit along that road.
It would have been easy to quit.
Many times.
But he didn't have an attitude of, I'm going to try this.
His attitude was, do or die.
His attitude was, put your hand in the plow and never look back.
His attitude was, I will not waver.
I will not be double-minded.
I will be steadfast and unmovable.
That's why he's succeeding today where others have failed.
Okay.
And it's because he knew what he was doing.
And so, look, I strongly encourage, of course,
for young men to pray and to read the Bible
and to search their own soul
and to decide if they could be used by God
to start a church in a town, a city that needs a church
because there's so much need out there.
There's so much great work that can be done for God.
But I'll say to you this.
Don't fail.
And you will not fail if you're not double-minded
because if you ask the Lord for anything, he'll do it.
But he says of the double-minded man,
let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
Did you hear that?
The man who goes to start the church and he's not double-minded,
he gets on his knees and prays and says,
God, you said upon this rock you would build your church
and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it.
You said, except the Lord built the house.
They labored, they even built it.
God, answer my prayer.
Please, help me.
But the one who's double-minded and prays that prayer,
God's not really that interested in answering that prayer
because he doesn't take you seriously
because you're not taking the job seriously.
And so it's so important for those that would think...
And, yeah, I know I'm speaking to a minority
when I talk about starting a church someday,
but you know what?
It's important enough for me to preach it, though,
to everyone in the room because it needs to be heard
because it's critical, it's crucial today
that those would go out and start churches
because honestly, you know, one church is not God's plan.
Sorry, Catholic, Universal Church.
God's plan is church-eds,
and God's plan is a church in every city, the Bible says.
And there are many gaps today.
Who will stand in the gap?
Who will go for us?
And that's a great need,
but it's a very serious commitment
that people need to make,
and it's not something to be taken lightly.
Did I return to chapter 4?
Go to verse 11.
He says here,
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,
till we all come in unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God
unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Here's the part I want to focus on, verse 14.
That we henceforth be no more children.
And doesn't this remind you of the wavering man,
the wave tossed to and fro
and carried about with every wind of doctrine
by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness
whereby they lie in wait to deceive?
He says,
We have a pastor and a teacher and a church
and we have evangelists and we have these men of God.
In those days they had apostles.
We do not today,
but we have the words of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ
in the Black Book that I'll carry with you.
But he's saying that the purpose of the preaching,
the purpose of the teaching of God's Word,
the purpose is so that you won't be a child spiritually
that is tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine,
but rather that you would be rooted and grounded
in what you believe so that you can grow up
and be a mature, solid believer.
You see, the tree, when it first begins to grow,
it can be uprooted when it's very young and tender.
Can it not?
But you can't uproot a giant tree.
I mean, it has roots that are so deep
and that's what God's trying to teach us here.
You know, children are very easily deceived, aren't they?
You know, this kind of thing?
See?
Okay, listen, kids, all kids here,
I want your attention for a moment.
Okay?
See my thumb right here?
I'm going to take my thumb off my hand, okay?
Everybody looking?
See how my thumb goes?
See?
Whoo!
Now, look, some children will fall for that.
None of the children are true to their problems.
You know, children will believe in this.
How'd you do that?
You know, or you'll say,
oh, I got your nose.
You know, I took your nose.
Hey, give it back!
You know, when I was a kid, I fell for it.
Everybody, you know, it's easy to trick children.
And God is saying, you know, spiritually,
you know, John MacArthur comes along,
the blood doesn't save you.
You know?
He said, don't be an idiot.
You know, you need to grow up, man.
You know, they come at you with Calvinism.
They come at you with their dispensationalism.
They come at you with their false doctrine and lies.
And, you know, you're just like,
oh, wow, that's really interesting.
Instead of being rude and drab,
saying, no, you're lying.
The Bible says this.
Here's what the Bible really says.
It's easy to be deceived when you're a child.
And look, we need to not be double-minded doctrinally.
And when I say being double-minded doctrinally,
I mean, there are people out there today
who literally have been in church for this long,
and some Calvinist will start spewing his garment,
and I don't know if I'm not sure whether that's right or not.
And this is what they call being open-minded.
I'm kind of open-minded about whether they're good or not.
I'm kind of open-minded about whether there could be
other answers to 2 plus 2 besides just 4.
You know, you fundamentalists are just, you know,
you're just so narrow, like 4 is the only right answer.
Like what, so there's no other, like 3?
What's wrong, you know?
But this is the stupidity of just saying,
well, you need to be open-minded.
No, no, no, I'm not open-minded.
Like, I don't revisit every week
whether I believe salvation is my faith.
Every time I read my Bible, I'm not looking to see,
is it my faith?
Can you lose your salvation?
Is hell really eternal?
You know, because here's what I did.
First, I made sure that I dug into the Bible
and established what I believe about these things.
I didn't just flippantly just,
oh, that's what the pastor said, so I'm going to believe it.
I mean, I dug into the Word, I decided what I believe,
I listened to the preaching, I read the Bible,
I decided what the Bible teaches,
and then I don't just keep revisiting that, okay?
Because I'm already rooted and grounded on that.
You know, people will tell me, you know,
are you sure you're, you know, people will tell me,
I mean, I've been King James only
for like 13 years or something,
and then somebody comes up to me and tells me,
hey, you know, just read this book.
They tell you why these other versions are fine.
And I'm just thinking to myself, I'm not going to read that book.
Amen.
Well, what, are you afraid of it?
No, because I don't know what I believe about that.
Now, some people get rooted and grounded on stuff
that there's no biblical evidence for.
That's bad.
And then you try to show them and they won't listen.
That's bad.
That's being closed-minded.
Okay, but when you have just clear,
crystal-clear evidence of something in the Bible,
you don't need to just keep revisiting it all the time
and not sure what you believe about this,
not sure what you believe about this.
And, you know, when people quit our church,
and look, people are going to quit our church.
You say, no, whatever quits.
No, people will quit our church.
And when people quit our church and go to another church
that's an independent Baptist church
that preaches the King James Bible and has soul in it,
you know what, it doesn't bother me.
I just look at that and just say, well, oh, well, that's fine.
Our church wasn't for them.
You know, that's fine.
At least they're serving God in another church.
Praise God, they're still serving.
And I can think of a lot of people like that.
Lots of people who left our church,
maybe they even got saved and baptized here,
and they went to another independent Baptist church
and they're serving God over there.
Hey, God bless them.
Praise the Lord.
So what?
It doesn't matter whether they go here or there.
You know, obviously I think this is the best one
or I wouldn't be here.
But the thing is, you know, at least they're serving God.
So what?
But you know what really breaks my heart
is when I see somebody leave our church
and go to one of these liberal, you know,
some NIV preaching, liberal rock and roll,
New King James, Calvinistic, no soul.
You know, that's just like, what?
What are you doing?
Why are you double-minded?
Didn't you decide that you weren't going to be that guy?
You know, that you weren't going to be that watered down
type of Christian.
You know, I thought that you were on the Lord's side.
What happened?
Or worse yet, when people quit and don't go to church at all.
Well, I can't even decide if this is worse.
I mean, it's probably, you know.
At any church anyway, in God's eyes.
That fun center.
You know what I mean?
But it just, you know, you've got to just decide.
You know what?
Hey, even if you're not going to be at this church
for the rest of your life.
You know, hey, I think this is a great church.
But even if you just decide, you know,
I'm going to stay with the Bible.
I'm going to stay with soul in it.
You know, and look, this church someday
could be liberal over my dead body, but it could happen.
Right?
I mean, definitely.
Good.
That's reassuring.
But anyway, you know, it could happen.
And then it is time to leave.
You know, if this church started bringing in
phony Bible versions and phony preaching, then yeah.
Because, you know, I'm not asking you to be loyal to me.
I'm not asking you to be loyal to the name
or the words, faithful word Baptist church.
But what we ought to be loyal to is Jesus Christ.
And not just a vague Jesus Christ
that everybody calls him, but the Jesus of the Bible.
The Jesus that said, come follow me
and I'll make you fishers of men.
The Jesus that preached hard on sin.
The Jesus that was nailed to a cross
because he preached hard on sin.
And that's why the Bible says,
you can say they hated him because of your own opinion,
but the Bible says the world cannot hate you,
but me hate it because I testify of it
that the works thereof are evil.
That's what Jesus said.
Ask Jesus, why did the world hate you, Jesus?
Oh, they hated him because he was so loving.
Look, he was the most loving ever.
He is love, but he said they hate me
because I testify that the works of this world are evil.
That's why they hated me.
That's what Jesus said in John 7-7.
And so we see that we need to be loyal
to the Jesus of the Bible,
which stood for preaching against sin,
which stood for salvation by faith,
alone in his shed blood, his death, his burial,
his resurrection, which stood for righteousness, godliness,
which stood for winning souls, being a fisher of men,
not playing games with your Christianity,
but being serious about it.
That's what you ought to be loyal to.
Don't be double-minded.
Don't say, let's give it a shot.
No, don't give it a shot.
Say, let's do it till we die.
Let's do it for life.
Let's never quit.
That's the one that will succeed.
That is the one that will be here 10 years from now,
20 years from now, or they'll be somewhere else,
but they'll be serving the Lord.
They'll be on fire.
They'll be winning souls.
Yeah, they'll go through lots of ups and downs
between now and then, but they already made their decision.
They're not turning back in their heart to Egypt.
They are steadfast and unmovable.
We need to get any double-minded spirit
out of our hearts today and just make some decisions
and just say, you know what?
Let's do this.
Let's not go back to the old bar room days.
Let's not go back to the rock concert days.
Let's not go back to the party days and the fornicating days.
Let's just decide, you know what?
We are in this for life, and we will not change.
We will not quit.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much, dear God,
for being that rock of our salvation
and that we can build our houses upon a rock
and that we don't have to build upon the shifting
sands of our world, Lord.
Please just help us to be wise
and not to build any part of our life
on any kind of a shifting foundation,
but rather help us to be founded on the rock,
help us to drive in our stakes deep
and not say, well, we might move.
You know, why don't we just drill down and say,
I'm standing here, one life to live,
and this is where I'm going to spend it.
This is what I'm going to do, serving the Lord.
Help us to have that kind of commitment and faith
and not to waver.
And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.