In the story, Paul was preaching in Thessalonica, and many people believed.
He was seeing a lot of people saved.
The Jews that believed not in Thessalonica, they stirred everyone up,
they persecuted them to the point where Paul was forced to flee from Thessalonica.
He came to Berea, and the Jews that were there were more noble, it says, than the Jews in Thessalonica,
because they received the Word of God with all readiness of mind,
and searched in the Scriptures daily whether those things were sowed.
That ought to be your response to preaching, by the way.
Be ready to receive the Word of God as it's preached,
and then go home and search the Scriptures daily whether the things you hear across the pulpit are sowed.
That's a great formula for you, by the way.
But look at verse 16.
Paul has now been brought from Berea to Athens.
The people from Thessalonica that were persecuting him had followed him to Berea, persecuted him further.
Now he's taken to Athens.
While he waited for them in Athens, he's waiting for his brethren,
and it says in verse 16,
while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was stirred in him
when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
Now turn if you would to Lamentations chapter 3.
Lamentations chapter number 3.
I want to focus on that phrase, though, where it says his spirit was stirred within him.
His spirit was stirred.
Let me ask you something.
When was the last time your spirit was stirred?
When was the last time your spirit was stirred in you
when you looked at lost souls walking up and down the streets of Tempe,
at your job, in your family?
Hey, has your heart been stirred at the thought of lost souls on their way to hell?
Have you been stirred, or have you become cold and hardened to the reality of the unsaved and the lost
that are wholly given to idolatry, as Paul said here?
We live in a city, in a nation that's wholly given to idolatry.
The Bible says covetousness is idolatry, and the God of the United States is money.
The God of the United States is toys and money,
and the God of the United States is education in many cases.
These false gods, these idols that people worship,
and they worship false gods down at the Catholic Church also.
Hello, the idolatry that's going on at the Catholic Church tonight.
I remember I was stolen a couple weeks ago, I think it was either last week or the week before,
and I knocked on a lady's door and I said,
if you die today, do you know for sure you'd go to heaven?
She said that she did not know.
And I said, may I take just a few minutes of your time
and show you how you can know that for sure out of the Bible?
And she said, I can't, because right now I'm out the door on my way to mass.
She was right on her way to go down to the Catholic Church.
And it was so sad, because here, she doesn't need what's down at the Catholic Church.
She needed to stay right there and hear the truth, preach it out of the Bible.
But she was going down to the Catholic Church, going to mass,
she said, it's all right, don't have any time right now, I must go to mass.
You know what's down at the mass? Idolatry.
Idolatry. Witchcraft. Weirdo stuff.
They've got statues of gold and silver and stone,
and they say that that statue is God.
You know what the biggest statue in the world is?
Who knows, put up your hand if you know what the biggest statue in the world is.
It's not the Statue of Liberty.
It's the statue of Jesus, quote unquote, outside of Rio de Janeiro.
It's a great big giant idol that says that God can be depicted in stone or gold or silver.
That's exactly what Paul is dealing with here.
He said, for then as much as we are the offspring of God,
he said, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like under gold or silver or stone,
granted by art and man's device.
How can man create God? No! God created man!
And yet man thinks that he can create God.
He can form and fashion a God.
Gold, silver, stones, a painting of some long-haired sissy,
some hippie, some weirdo, that they say, this is Jesus.
That's not Jesus. It's a self-portrait of the homo that painted it.
It's not Jesus. It's not God.
You can't depict God. You want a picture of God? Read the Bible, you get a picture of God.
But don't try to carve God or paint God or draw God.
You can't depict God. You can't create God out of your own mind.
And so we live in a day of idolatry.
We live in a day of the unsaved around us, perishing and going to hell.
The idolatry of people, maybe not even at the Catholic church where they have physical idols,
but what about all these other Protestant denominations,
or they have an idol where they've created their own God in their own mind.
Mormonism is idolatry. They've invented their own God with man's device, man's wisdom.
They've formed and fashioned a God in their own mind.
I'm telling you, the United Methodists have formed and fashioned a God in their own mind.
You say, they don't believe in the virgin birth, that's not the God I believe in.
The God I believe in was born of a virgin, Jesus Christ.
They don't believe in the sinless life of Jesus, that's not the Jesus I believe in.
The Jesus I believe in was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.
The Jesus I believe in created the whole world.
We've spoken into existence in six literal days.
The United Methodists don't believe that, they've invented a God in their own mind.
It's idolatry, it's what it is.
Creating your own God physically or mentally is idolatry.
But let me ask you this, is your heart stirred anymore about that?
Or have you just come to the point where you just don't care anymore?
Has your heart become cold to the things of God?
Has your heart become like a stone where you can see the world, given to idolatry,
you can see the condition that our nation's in,
you can see the condition that maybe members of your own family are in,
and it doesn't stir you?
I mean, when you drive up and down the streets of Tempe, are you stirred?
When you see unsaved people at your job, aren't you stirred?
Look if you would at Lamentations 3.
I'll turn there myself, right between the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
Boy, it's a great, great, great book in the Bible, the book of Lamentations.
And I would say that the greatest chapter, you know, this is my opinion,
the greatest chapter in the book of Lamentations is chapter 3, I think.
I love Lamentations chapter 3.
It's one of the classic, classic chapters in the word of God.
I would like to read so much of it, I do want to read a good portion of it,
just because it's such a great chapter.
Let's begin reading verse 37.
We're not going to read the whole thing, although I'd like to.
But it says in verse 37,
Who is he that sayeth in it cometh to pass, when the Lord commanded it not?
Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good.
Wherefore did the living man...
Of course, evil there is not talking about sin.
God cannot sin.
Evil is talking about something that's harmful to another person.
Does everybody understand that?
Evil is not a sin.
Sin is transgressing God's laws.
Evil is when you harm someone else.
Is it always wrong to harm somebody else?
No.
If somebody breaks into my house, I pull out a gun and shoot them.
That wasn't wrong with me.
I was protecting myself.
It's still, I did evil to that person because I destroyed them.
Do you understand?
And that's what it's talking about here.
God is the one who would broaden evil upon the children of the southern kingdom of Judah,
is what we're talking about in Lamentations.
Their whole nation has been destroyed.
They've been carried away into captivity.
Jeremiah's been preaching to them and preaching to them and preaching for years.
They would not listen to the voice of Jeremiah, and now they've gone into captivity.
It's all over, and Jeremiah spends these five chapters weeping at the demise of his country.
It'd be like if we live in America, and I preached the Bible and preached the truth,
and warned of God's judgment coming.
And then after it came, enemies from without had destroyed our land,
and it was just up in smoke and in flames, people were starving to death,
and the armies had come in and killed everybody and taken everybody captive to another country.
And I began to weep and pour out my heart to God.
That's what the book of Lamentations is, just so you understand.
Wherefore does a living man complain, verse 39, a man for the punishment of his sins?
He's saying, we don't have a right to complain, we deserve it.
We brought it on ourselves, he's saying.
A man, how can you complain when God punishes you for your sins?
It's what you deserve, is what he's saying.
Let us search and try our ways.
Let's look at ourselves, he's saying, and turn again to the Lord.
Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
We have transgressed and have reveled.
Thou hast not pardoned, thou hast covered with anger and persecuted us.
Thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud that our prayers should not pass through.
Thou hast made us as the off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
Fear and a snare has come upon us, desolation and destruction.
Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water.
So he's crying, he's weeping, he says, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Mine eye trickleth down and ceaseth not without any intermission,
till the Lord look down and behold from heaven.
Mine eye, look at this verse, this will remind you of what we saw in Acts 17.
Mine eye affecteth my heart because of all the daughters of my city.
Mine enemies chased me sore like a bird without cause.
They have cut off my life in the dungeon and cast a stone upon me.
Waters flowed over mine head.
Then I said, I'm cut off.
I called upon my name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.
Thou hast heard my voice, hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.
Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee, thou seest fear not.
O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life.
O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong, judged thou my cause.
Thou hast seen all their vengeance, all their imaginations against me.
Thou hast heard their repose, O Lord, and all their imaginations against me.
The lips of those that rose up against me and their device against me all the day.
Behold, they're sitting down, they're rising up, I am their music.
Render unto them a recompense, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.
Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord.
Well, what a great book, I mean, fascinating book.
It's such a deep book, I mean, you could read it a hundred times,
you couldn't even scratch the surface of what's being taught in this book.
But we see here a man weeping, he's pouring ice all around.
Why? Because he's seen the results of the sins of his people that have destroyed his nation.
And he looks at people that are wandering about now as sheep having no shepherd.
And he says, mine eye affected my heart.
He said, I'm not just gonna look at somebody who's starving to death.
I'm not gonna look at somebody whose family has been killed.
I'm not gonna look at somebody that's on their way to hell and not let it affect me.
He said, my eye is gonna affect my heart.
Do you understand that verse, is that what he's saying?
He's saying, when I see these things, I'm gonna let it affect me.
I'm gonna let it stir me.
You see, there's kind of a cycle that you're gonna go through in your Christian life.
And maybe this isn't true for everyone, but this is what I've found to be true in my life and in other people's lives that I know.
There's a kind of a cycle that goes on.
Let me explain to you a little bit.
You get saved.
Or maybe we're not necessarily just talking about salvation.
Maybe you've been saved a long time, but you just get right with God.
You know, you get into a good church, you get baptized, you start soul winning, whatever the case may be.
You either get saved or you get right with God.
Hopefully a lot of times those things kind of come at the same time.
Somebody gets saved and then they start growing and living for God.
Sometimes there's a disconnect between those two events.
Sometimes somebody gets saved and then it's many years before they begin to live for God and start to do right with their life.
But let's take that starting point.
Okay?
Either salvation or baptism or whenever you start to grow and live for God.
Boy, at first you're excited.
Man, you're coming to church, you're excited to be in church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
You're growing changes.
I mean, every week there's changes in your life.
You're growing rapidly.
Things are changing.
You're learning.
Every service you're learning.
Boy, you stirred every service.
Every time you go soul winning, you're stirred up and you're excited and you're moved.
Sometimes you're moved to tears.
Sometimes you're just moved with joy.
And there's great spiritual excitement and life in you.
But you know what?
After a while, you're going to go through a point where you're growing, you're growing, you're growing, you're growing.
You know, you're going to get to a point where you begin to plateau.
I mean, everybody's going to run into times like this in your life.
You just start to sort of plateau.
And maybe even, God forbid, a little bit of backsliding.
You start to go back and dabble a little bit in some of the things that you, you know,
maybe you got rid of some things.
You start to just go back and dabble in them a little bit.
You start coming to church and the pastor's just kind of like, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.
Or you say, well, I'm going to go to church because it's what I do.
I go to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, I'm not going to skip church.
But you don't really desire to come to church.
And when you're at church, you're not stirred.
You're not moved.
You're just there kind of doing your time.
You're just plateaued out, you know.
You're just in a rush.
Blah, okay, I go soul winning, I read the Bible, blah, blah, blah.
You know, there are going to be times in your life when you get there.
Don't feel bad.
We've all been to a point where you're kind of going through the motions a little bit.
Because you get a little bit cold.
Right?
You just get a little bit cold.
You know, you get a little bit of a plateau.
You hit a little bit of a wall and you may even backslide a little bit.
Okay?
And then what you need is you need some kind of a spiritual jump start.
You know, you need some kind of a shot in the arm.
You need some kind of a, something to happen that's going to shake you or get a hold of you.
Or maybe you can do something to stir yourself up and get back on that upward growth again.
You say, well, I don't see how I can go any further higher.
I mean, I'm just the greatest Christian in the world.
Good night.
You need to learn a little bit more because there's a lot more that all of us could attain to.
As we say in the Bible, we can see a much higher standard than we hold in our own lives.
In all different areas.
But, let me first of all say this.
When you're in that kind of a plateau phase, maybe you're there right now.
Maybe you've been there in the past.
Or, you know what, it's probably coming at some point.
I'll tell you right now.
When you're at that point, you've got to realize that the way to do it is to at least, you've got to just hang in there and stay with it.
You know, sometimes in your Christian life, it's like you're just running forward.
You know, you're just really moving fast.
You're flying through the Christian life.
I mean, you're just making leaps and bounds.
You're just growing.
Other times, it's going to slow down a little bit to a walk.
But, you know what, you've got to just keep moving.
You know, there are some times where I can recognize when I'm in a phase that's kind of a plateau.
Kind of a maintenance phase.
You know, it's not a phase where I'm growing rapidly.
And, when I get in a phase like that, I don't say,
Well, you know, I'm just not excited about church anymore.
It's just isn't the same as it used to be.
So, I'm just going to throw in the towel.
What you've got to do is just realize it and just say,
You know what?
I was running.
Now, I'm just going to walk.
But, I'm going to keep moving forward.
And, you've got to just ride that thing out and stay with it.
You say, Well, I don't feel like coming to church.
Just come anyway.
There are going to be times when you don't feel like coming to church.
No matter how much you love the church.
It doesn't mean that you don't love the church.
It doesn't mean that you don't love Jesus.
It doesn't mean you don't love someone.
There are going to be times when you just get a little cold and you just don't feel like coming to church.
You just don't feel like going.
I mean, who's ever gone soul winning when you didn't feel like it?
Who's ever read the Bible when you didn't feel like it at all?
Who's ever prayed when you didn't feel like it?
Okay, everybody.
But, you see, there are going to be times when maybe you're not as excited and zealous as you need to be.
It's not the end of the world.
What you need to do, though, is just at least, you may not be able to sprint and run like you were.
Just slow it down a little bit and just walk.
And just come to Sunday morning church because it's right to do.
Come to Sunday night because you know you're supposed to.
Come to Wednesday night, go through the motions.
Pick up the Bible and read it.
You say, I'm not getting anything out of it.
Just read it anyway.
Just read it.
Pray when you don't feel like praying.
Go soul winning when you don't feel like going soul winning.
And I'm going to tell you something.
Over time, God will get a hold of you.
He'll bring something to your life.
He'll do something.
He'll shake you up.
He'll show you something.
He'll put something in front of your eyes and you'll get stirred up again.
You'll get excited again.
And then you can say, okay, I'm ready to run.
I'm ready to take off again.
There's a cycle.
Let's just be real about it.
You're not going to always just be sprinting.
I mean, is that how you live your life?
You just run 24 hours a day.
Do you think there's anybody in the world who runs 24 hours a day?
You die.
Right?
If you just never stop running, you just collapse and die.
There's going to be times in your life when you're running.
There's times throughout the day that you're walking.
And then there's times throughout the day when you sit down on your legs.
And there's times when you go to sleep and then you get up and you do it again.
But you don't want to move backwards.
You don't want to backslide.
But there are times, you say, Pastor Anderson, that's kind of where I'm at right now.
I'm on that plateau.
I'm at that point where I feel like I'm even maybe backsliding a little bit.
Your heart is getting hardened a little bit to the preaching.
You hear the preaching of God's Word, it just goes in one ear and out the other.
Trust me, there are people who are sitting here right now and other times when I'm preaching
that the preaching just goes in one ear and out the other.
I mean, I can get up and preach about how great it is to go to heaven,
how bad it is when people go to hell, how important it is to go solely,
how wicked the television is.
And to them, it just does not stir them.
It doesn't move.
Paul was a man who had his heart tender and warm to the things of God,
to where when he saw people that weren't saved, his heart was stirred.
Now, are you going to be that way all the time?
You want to try to be that way all the time.
But sometimes you have to just inject something into your life.
Sometimes you have to just push some kind of a reset button in your life.
You want to get off that plateau that you're on.
Now, the plateau is going to come.
We already established that.
There are going to be those downward cycles.
But when you're at that point, when you're stuck in a rut,
when you're on a plateau, it's time to do something to shake yourself up.
What did Jeremiah do?
He went out and looked at what the situation was, and it stirred him.
Think about Ezekiel.
I'm not going to turn there, but I believe it's Ezekiel chapter 4.
Where Ezekiel, his heart was very angry.
He was very angry at his nation.
He was angry at the children of Israel.
He was mad.
He was enraged.
His heart was burning inside of him.
And he was so mad.
He was so angry.
And he said, I don't care about these people.
And the Bible says that the hand of the Lord was very strong upon him.
But he said, I went in anger and the bitterness of my spirit.
I was just bitter, mad, disgruntled, disenchanted.
Have you ever been there?
Disenchanted, disgruntled, who cares?
Next to everybody, a bunch of idiots anyway.
Hey, I feel that way sometimes.
I'm not kidding.
I mean, I feel that way sometimes about America.
What are we even doing?
What is the point?
Who cares?
Let them all go to hell, a bunch of idiots.
You know, sometimes I've felt that way before.
I don't feel that way right now.
Well, no, I'm just kidding.
I don't feel that way right now.
But there have been times when I've felt that way, when I've been frustrated,
when I've been angry.
You're going to go through phases where your heart is cold.
Is it right to be that way?
No.
But sometimes your heart's going to get cold like that.
And so what did Ezekiel do?
He said, I sat where they sat.
He said, I went down by the river of Kibar and I just sat where they sat.
And I saw the condition that they were in and I started to feel bad for them.
I started to love them again because I looked at them,
because my eye affected my heart,
because I spent time putting myself in their shoes for a while.
And I started to have compassion.
You know, don't ever get so hardened to people.
Turn, if you would, to Titus chapter 3.
And I'll show you this.
Titus chapter 3, right toward the end of the New Testament.
Now, I believe in being, I mean, you heard the sermon this morning.
I believe in being a mover and a shaker, you know, a runner.
I believe in running through the Christian life at 100 miles an hour,
gaining as much ground as you can.
Just doing great exploits for God.
And so, in order to run hard, I mean, good night.
In order to really run and win a race, you've got to really want to win.
I mean, you've got to have a heart that's in it in what you're doing.
You can't be half-hearted about it.
And you can't be half-hearted about the Christian life either.
And so, when you get in these downward trends, in this plateau,
you've got to find a way to stir yourself up.
And sometimes we can get bitter, like I was saying,
but look at this verse in verse 3 of Titus 3.
Here's a good verse for Ezekiel.
It says right here,
to speak evil of no man, verse 2,
to be no brawlers, but gentle,
showing all meekness unto all men.
Why?
For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived.
Can you ever look back at the time of your life when you were foolish,
when you did things that were stupid?
I can.
You were foolish, disobedient.
We've all been there.
Deceived?
Yes.
Serving divers lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another?
But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to His mercy He saved us
by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that being justified by His grace we should be made heirs according to hope and trouble.
What's a good way to keep your heart warm,
to keep your tender heart,
not so that you're hard-hearted and cold and uncaring and unloving,
to where you can see somebody that's on your way to hell and doesn't bother you,
doesn't stir you, you don't care?
I mean, are you stirred when you see somebody that's not saved?
Or do you not care?
You know, one of the things that will help you to keep a warm heart
is to remember that, you know, you used to be like that person that you're looking at.
When I see these punk teenagers,
the way they're dressed, the way they act,
these punks that walk out of high school,
I don't look at them with disgust and hatred at all.
I look at them and say,
boy, you know what, that reminds me of me when I was a teenager.
And I wonder if I could get the Gospel to that kid and teach him the Bible.
I wonder if they could be preaching someday like I'm preaching.
I wonder if they could be soul winning like I'm soul winning.
I wonder if they could love God like I love God.
You see, you have to remember, that's what you used to be like.
Get off your high horse and realize that all the things that you look at somebody else and you,
how could they be so dumb?
We've all been dumb like that.
I used to dress like an idiot.
I mean, I used to dress like one of these stupid teenagers.
I mean, you should have seen how goofy I used to dress.
I mean, I'll show you a picture sometime.
You should have heard the music I used to listen to.
I mean, you should have known me back then.
We've all been foolish, disobedient, deceived.
And so remember that you yourself used to be like that.
Don't be bitter.
Don't be mad.
Understand and have a heart of love that says,
I'm going to be stirred when I see somebody who's unsaved and needs the Gospel.
Or even a carnal Christian.
A Christian maybe was saved, but they're not living for God.
They don't love God.
Hey, are you stirred to want to take that person and take them under your wing
and confirm them in the faith and help them to grow up and be a soul winner and live for God
and to do something with their life?
But you see, sometimes we can get a hard heart
and there's nothing wrong with going through the cycle, like I said,
where you get a little bit of a plateau.
You're kind of going through the motions a little bit.
You know, you're not feeling it, so to speak.
You're doing it because you know you're supposed to do it.
But I'm going to tell you something.
You better not make a pact.
You better not get stuck there, is what I'm saying.
You're going to go through a little phase like that.
But you know what, if you're stuck like that week after week,
you've got a problem and you need to change something.
I mean, if you're coming to this church week after week
and you come to church and the preaching doesn't stir you,
either I'm doing something wrong or you're doing something wrong.
Period.
I mean, if I can get up here and preach the Bible,
if I can read Lamentations chapter 3,
if I can get up and preach and say that people need to be saved,
we've got to give them the Gospel, we've got to do something,
and you don't even care about that, that doesn't stir you,
that doesn't move you, something's wrong.
It's either me or you or the Bible or God or something's wrong.
It's not God. It's not the Bible.
I don't think it's me. I mean, maybe it's me.
But you know what, it's probably you because your heart's hard.
Don't get in some kind of a rut.
You say, how do I get out of the rut?
What am I going to do?
You're going to need to do something to break yourself out of that rut.
What are some ways to do it?
Why don't you have an extended session of prayer?
That would be a good way to get out of that rut that you're in.
Spend an hour in prayer.
Why don't you go out so many next week double what you went?
Just to get a little bit of a spiritual...
And you know, for me, I'll be honest with you,
I get sometimes when my heart gets hard
and I get a little bit cold
and I get a little bit callous.
You know what does it for me is soul winning.
I mean, that's the big one for me.
I mean, when I go out soul winning
and I knock on people's doors
and I go through the whole gospel with somebody
and give them the gospel and they don't get saved,
boy, that stirs me. That moves me.
That makes me fired up about living for God and doing something.
Or when I go through the whole gospel with somebody and they do get saved.
That excites me. That thrills me.
That recharges my spiritual battery
and it'll get me out of that rut.
You know what I mean?
Maybe you need extra Bible reading.
Whatever it is.
But don't go week after week cold hearted
and in a rut and in a plateau and backslidden.
You can't do it.
You've got to snap out of it.
Because if you get stuck in that rut, you'll be stuck there forever.
I know people that go to church for 20, 30, 40 years.
They don't grow.
You could get up, the pastor could do a headstand.
He could be swinging from the sandaliers.
He could throw the Bible and it hit him in the face
and nothing will stir them.
Nothing will get their attention.
Honestly, I mean, there are some people, my friend,
who've been in church for decades
and the pastor could get up and say anything.
He could turn to any scripture.
He could say anything and it will not move them.
Because their heart is just like stone.
Is that what you want to be?
Do you want to be that person?
You know, you ought to thank God if you walk out of church
feeling a little bit guilty sometimes.
Thinking, man, the pastor really, you know,
he really ripped on my sin tonight.
Well, the pastor really, he really rang my bell tonight.
He really hit the nail on the head.
Boy, God was really speaking.
You know, I love that feeling of going to church,
having somebody preach to me and walking out feeling guilty.
I love it.
I thrive on it.
I remember me and my friend, Brother Jimenez, would say like,
we used to say it when we were young.
He said, man, I just love when the pastor just preaches something
because he said, we were saying how like,
the longer you're in church, the more things you get right.
You know, they're preaching this.
It's like, okay, I'm going to do that.
And then the pastor will be preaching this.
It's like, okay, I'm going to do that.
And at first, it's like every sermon is something
that you're not doing, that you need to change.
But after a while, you've already changed everything,
you know, or most everything.
And you're just like, come on.
Preach against something that I'm doing, you know?
You just long for that feeling of conviction and guilt.
You know, like, come on, rip my face off.
Come on, tear me up.
You know what I'm saying?
Who knows what I'm talking about?
You know, you just, come on, kick me.
Say, that's weird.
No, because you love to grow.
That's why.
Because you want to learn something new.
You want to take it to the next level.
And if there's anybody here that thinks that you're already
alive, you're wrong.
You're dead wrong.
You're not even close.
I'm not even close to what I want to attain in my life.
I mean, if I think about my whole life ahead of me,
I'm in my 20s, you know?
I think about my whole life ahead of me, I'm thinking to myself,
man, this is where I want to be like 10 years, 20.
I mean, I want to grow so much spiritually.
I'm just getting started right now.
That's the way I feel.
That's the way you ought to feel.
And so you got to break yourself free from that rut.
Don't be one of these people that just comes week after week.
Just ask God when you sit down in the pew,
when you get to church, say, God, would you speak to me tonight?
God, please, would you have the pastor preach against something
that I'm doing so I can change it?
Please, have the pastor preach on something that I'm not doing,
that I need to start doing so I can change something about my life,
so I can get out of this rut that I'm in,
so I can get out of this plateau that I'm stuck on,
so I can get out of this merry-go-round that I'm stuck on.
I want to grow to higher ground.
I'm pressing on the upward way.
New heights I'm gaining every day.
Still praying as I'm overbound.
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
Oh, man, I hope I come to church and the pastor doesn't rip on me.
Why?
Then why are you even here?
What's the point of even coming?
The pastor can just pat you on the back for everything that you're already doing?
Read the Bible every day.
Well, I do that.
You know, keep patting you on the back.
That's why I'm always searching the Bible,
trying to find things that I can change, that I can improve on,
that you can improve on, because I want to grow and you should want to grow.
How am I going to get out of the rut, Pastor Anderson?
Well, give it a little bit of a boost in your Bible reading or prayer or soul winning
or whatever the case may be.
Whatever it takes to stir you up, get out of that rut that you're in.
Get off that plateau that you're on.
Get stirred up.
You say, how do I get out of the rut?
You know what would be a great way to get out of the spiritual rut that you're in?
Why don't you give up that sin that you've been hanging on to for so long?
Give it up tonight.
That'll bring new life into your Christianity.
You say, well, I don't have a sin like that.
Good night.
Come on.
I'm sure you can think of something.
That sin that you've been unwilling to give up or that you're hanging on to,
why don't you give that up tonight?
And then that'll bring some new life into you spiritually.
Boy, that'll take you out of your comfort zone tomorrow and the next day
and the day after that.
You won't just be in your little rut, your routine.
Boy, when I've given up sins in my life, I didn't feel like I was in a rut.
Because you feel those growing pains.
You know you're growing because you feel the pain that comes with growth.
I mean, if you go to the gym and you feel the burn,
that's when you know that you're growing.
That's when you know you're doing something.
I mean, you go to the gym and you're just like,
Hey, it's time to put a little more weight on the bar.
Alright?
If you're throwing the bar up in the air and catching it again,
it's time to add a little bit of weight.
And you know, some of you, that's the way your Christian life is.
You come to church and you do this.
Alright, go us opening.
Okay, I pray.
It's too easy.
You're just cruising through the Christian life.
God said, I would that thou were cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot,
I will spew thee out of my mouth.
It's what makes me sick when people are just all cozy,
like this Goldilocks Christianity.
You know, these Goldilocks Christians, they come visit our church.
You know, a little Goldilocks fundamentalist comes to our church.
And she sits down and they tell you,
Oh man, I'm so tired of all the liberal churches in Phoenix.
Oh, these independent fundamental baptismists are so liberal.
They're just too liberal.
And then they sit in our church and they're like,
This church is too fundamental.
This is too radical.
Wow, this is too conservative.
So that one's too liberal and that one's too fundamental.
And this one's just right.
I could be like Goldilocks with a chair that's just right.
And my little porridge that's not too cold and it's not too hot,
it's just right.
Look, Goldilocks is not my kind of Christianity.
I want to be like Papa Bear with this big bad hardwood bed
and this big bowl of hot pours that burn his mouth like puss in mouth.
That's who I want to be.
Goldilocks down my road mile, I want to be like the father bear.
Or at least be like the mother bear or the kids bear
that had the softy bed and the ice cold porridge.
Hey, if that's how you want to be, fine.
I don't want to be like that.
I want to be hot.
I don't want to be lukewarm.
No offense to you, Luke, all right?
I know it's your name.
But we've got guys, their name's Luke and they're lukewarm.
And there's church right now.
But anyway, the point is, you don't want to be lukewarm.
And whenever you're comfortable, you're lukewarm.
You say, how do I know if Revelation 3 is applying to me
when it talks about lukewarm Christianity?
If you're comfortable right now, you're lukewarm.
That's how you'll know.
Because lukewarm's comfortable.
Cold is uncomfortable and hot is uncomfortable.
Let me ask you this, Brother Dave.
Were you comfortable your first time at the nursing home ministry,
getting up there, leading the scene, running the service, preaching?
Were you comfortable?
That's because you're growing, right?
That's because he's burning.
That's because he's a burning and shining light down there.
That's because he's growing.
But you know what? There's probably going to come a time, Brother Dave,
down the road when you're going to become just very comfortable with doing that.
And you know what? That's fine and dandy. That's great.
But it's going to be time to turn up the heat somewhere else in your Christian life.
Because you always got to be a little bit uncomfortable.
Because as soon as you get too comfortable,
you're going to get sunk down into that lukewarm bed
and your porridge and your lukewarm chair,
you're just going to get too comfortable.
You're just not going to want to get up again.
I mean, when you sit down like this lazy boy here,
you sit down on that lazy boy too long, you don't want to get up again.
That's why we have all these other uncomfortable chairs.
But the point is, you get too comfortable,
you're going to get real used to being comfortable.
You're going to start to like it a little bit too much.
It's kind of like this.
You talk to people and they say,
oh, we don't have any more kids.
And I'm one of these that just says, bring them on.
As many as I can.
Everybody that asks me, so are you done after this one?
I just say, I'm going to have as many kids as I can.
So, are you going to try for another one?
I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. I'm not going to change anything.
Thanks for asking me about my personal life.
That's a little personal. I'm not changing anything.
I'm going to have as many kids as I can.
But these people, that's what they say.
We're done with diapers.
That's what they'll say. We're done with that phase of our life.
We're not having any more.
They've got their boy and their girl, so they're done.
They've got their little two kids and white picket fence.
They've got their two and a half children, they're done.
And they don't want to have any more kids.
You say, well, what does that matter?
That matters because it's a command of God in the Bible
to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. That's why.
It matters because the only man in the Bible who ever used birth control,
God personally killed him. His name was Onan.
Read your Bible. Read the book of Genesis.
The only birth control you'll find in the Bible.
It matters because while the Mormons are having ten and twelve kids
that they brainwash into their cult,
we have two kids that we bring up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
We hardly even replace ourselves for the next generation, physically.
And we win souls and everything else to try to multiply as God has commanded us.
But you know what? I think it'd be great if every born-again fundamental Baptist in America
had a whole bunch of kids and trained them to live for God.
Maybe we could turn this country around.
But instead, they're out serving money.
But this is what they say. They say, we're out of that diaper phase.
No more diapers.
Well, see, here's my secret.
You want to know Pastor Anderson's secret?
To just keep having more kids and not worry about it?
I just never get out of the diaper phase.
Because the problem is, if you have your kids and you get out of the diaper phase,
you don't want to go back to diapers.
You get too used to not messing with diapers.
Does this make sense to anybody?
But here's what we do.
We already have the next one while the one we just had is still in diapers.
So this is what we do.
We go from one kid in diapers and then for a short time,
we'll usually have two kids in diapers.
Our kids are about two years apart is about how they're spaced.
That's how they're naturally spaced by God, by the way.
Not by any artificial means.
And so our kids are about two years apart.
So when the next one's born, we still got one that's kind of phased in out diapers,
but they're still in diapers.
And then we go back to just one kid in diapers.
And then when the next one comes, we still got one diaper.
We don't know what it's like to not have diapers in our house.
I mean, the last time we didn't have diapers in our house was over six years ago.
I mean, it's been six and a half years of just non-stop diapers.
I mean, I've changed diapers.
I'm one of these husbands that changes some diapers.
I'm a hands-on dad.
All right?
She's crying.
Tell you about it.
I guess I put the diaper on wrong.
But anyway, hey, for the last six and a half years,
almost every day that I was at home, other than being out of town,
I changed diapers.
I've changed diapers all the time.
My wife has changed countless thousands of diapers.
And I'm used to paying for the diapers.
Do you know what diapers cost?
When you get to the bigger size, they're like 25 cents each.
Did you know that?
Can you imagine that?
It's like you just put it on and they, boom, they ruin it.
About 10 seconds later, you're like, thanks, that was another 25 cents.
There goes another 50 cents, a dollar, $2.
I mean, it's expensive diapers.
But you know what?
It's just part of our budget because we've never had a time
when the diaper budget was zero.
You see, when you get used to being comfortable, being lukewarm,
being diaper-free, you know, or whatever the case,
I mean, that's just an illustration of how you get comfortable with something.
You don't want to go back.
You've had little kids.
Now your kids are grown.
They're helping around the house.
They're an asset more than a liability.
You're like, I don't want to go back to that,
being up in the middle of the night in diapers and everything.
Hey, we just live there all the time.
Me and my family, that's just where we're at all the time.
And you know, in your Christianity, you'll get lukewarm a little bit of time.
At times, you know, a little bit of a plateau.
It will come to you.
It's probably come to you already.
But at that point, you've got to find an area in your life,
whatever area it is, to turn up the heat, to get stirred.
Something external is going to have to stir you.
Or from the inside, you're going to have to find a way to get stirred.
You're going to have to take on some new challenge,
whether it be taking on a new ministry,
taking on additional Bible reading or memorization,
quitting that sinful habit.
Whatever it is, something that will turn up the heat on you
and take you out of your comfort zone.
Maybe you're not a soul winner.
Maybe it's for you to start going soul winning,
get out of that comfort zone, turn up the heat a little bit in your life.
Or maybe you've been out soul winning as a silent partner.
Maybe it's time for you to start doing the talking.
Maybe it's time for you to open your mouth boldly
and make known the mystery of the Gospel.
You see, you've got to do what it takes to give yourself that boost,
give yourself that little heating up that you need
so that you get out of your lukewarm condition.
I'm not going to lie to you and say that I don't go through phases
where I'm tired, I'm worn out, I'm frustrated, I'm disgruntled,
I don't necessarily feel like coming to church,
I don't necessarily feel like going soul winning,
but I do it anyway and I go through the motions
and then I stop and say, you know what, I'm not going to keep going through the motions like this.
Now I'll do what I have to do to keep things rolling.
But I say to myself, what do I have to do to turn up the heat now?
I'm going through the motions, I'm a little bit lukewarm, I'm on a plateau.
I understand that, I recognize the problem for what it is
and now I'm going to pick something new to take on.
I'm going to give myself a new challenge, some kind of a spiritual boost.
What is it in your life that you could turn?
You say, well right now Pastor Anderson, I'm already going full speed ahead.
I believe there are people in this room right now that are going 100 miles an hour right now.
They're at the top of their spiritual cycle right now.
They're at the top man, they're flying.
They're zealous, they're seeing more people saved,
they're getting more out of their Bible, they're loving every minute of church,
but then there are other people who are down here on this part of the cycle.
What is it that you can do?
What concrete thing can you decide right now and say,
this is how I'm going to break free of the rut that I'm in?
I'm telling you man, most churches that I've been to,
it seems like 90% of the people are in a rut.
They've come to a point in their Christianity that they're comfortable with.
They've grown as much as they want to grow.
They're at the point that they want to be.
They've just settled in and gotten comfortable in the lazy boy of life.
And what I feel like doing is just taking their lazy boy
and just dumping them out on the ground.
Man, if somebody picks their picture of somebody sitting in the lazy boy,
you just call the manager and say, shut up.
And you say, well, that's not nice.
Yeah, but look, that's what God did to these people.
That's what God did to Jeremiah.
That's what God did to Ezekiel.
He upset Jeremiah's apple cart.
He flipped over his lazy boy, so to speak.
And if you don't stir yourself up, sometimes God will try to stir you up.
But it's easier just to stir yourself up.
Because sometimes God tries to stir people up and they just won't get stirred.
And they just are worthless.
They just go through life just not ever growing, not ever doing anything.
And they're just another body in the church house.
We don't need a bunch of bodies in this building.
Why do we need a bunch of bodies in here so that we'll need a bigger building?
That just costs more money.
Now I'd love to have this place filled up with soul-winners.
I'd love to have this place filled up with people who are growing, who love God.
I'd love to have it filled up with people who are learning.
But if you've got somebody who just comes, we've got who we can.
They never change.
They never grow.
Nothing ever changes.
Why are they even here?
They're just taking up space.
They might as well go somewhere else.
I mean, this church is here to change you.
Remember God said in the Old Testament.
He said that if you enter the house of God from the south, you exit by the north.
Do you remember that?
And he said if you enter by the north, you must exit the south side.
Because it had four different gates.
And what's God teaching there?
It's a picture of, hey, don't go out the same way that you came in, is what God's saying there.
Don't come in and walk out the same way.
Don't walk out tonight the same as you did when you walked in.
Don't walk out on Wednesday night the same as you came in.
Walk out loving God more.
Walk out more zealous.
Walk out more with a heart of compassion and a warm heart.
So that when you see that person this week that's unsaved,
when you see that person that's on the wrong path,
you could be like Paul was in Acts 17 and say, man, my heart is stirred.
And what did he do?
Because his heart was stirred.
He wasn't planning on it.
He wasn't planning a sermon here.
He wasn't even planning on solving it.
He was waiting for some friends that he was meeting in town.
But because he was stirred, because he had a warm heart,
he was able to stand up and preach.
Totally unexpected.
You know, this is you when you're not at his soul any time,
but you're just in your daily life, Monday through Friday.
And you run into somebody and you get that opportunity to preach the gospel.
You get stirred.
And believe me, opportunities come to us throughout the week.
And you could be stirred if your heart's right.
Otherwise you won't care.
Your heart will be stirred.
You can get up and preach like Paul preached.
You could preach the gospel.
You could win souls.
And then look at the last verse.
You don't have to turn there, but Acts 17, 34.
At the end of this great sermon by Paul, it says,
Howbeit certain men clave unto him and believe.
Among the witch was Dionysius the Areopagite,
and a woman named Damaris, and others with him.
Many people got saved because his heart was in the right place
where he could be stirred by God at any time.
That there was a need.
It was stirred.
And this great man, I mean, God gives his name
because he was obviously a man who was influential.
Somebody that people who were reading the book of Acts at that time
would probably have heard of.
He said, did you know that this is when Dionysius the Areopagite got saved?
This is when Paul preached here.
Did you know that that's when Damaris,
this lady who was probably a great soul winner
or some great Christian, that's why she's being brought up,
Damaris got saved?
That was when he was there at Mars Hill in Athens.
And he said, and also there were just a lot of other people
that got saved the same day.
Keep your heart right.
Don't worry if you're in the downward cycle.
Don't let it bother you. Don't throw in the towel.
Oh, man, this is not the same as it used to be.
If you'll stay with it, it's like the pedals on a bicycle.
If you'll stay with it, you'll be back up on top again.
You just got to shake yourself free.
You got to keep moving.
As long as you keep moving, you'll come back up top again.
Just don't get stuck at the bottom.
And don't think, well, I'm never going to be excited about church.
Boy, I used to love this church, now I'm just not excited about it.
Man, I stole it and it used to be so exciting, now it's boring.
It'll get exciting again if you stay with it, I promise you that.
I've been in times where it was a little boring for me.
But I'm going to tell you something.
It's never been more exciting to me than it's been in the last year of my life.
Stay with it and shake yourself tonight.
Shake yourself out of that rut that you're in.
Break free. Do something.
And grow and advance and get yourself in the hot seat for God.
Now, get out of this Goldilocks plate and get on the hot seat.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, please help us to be stirred up.
Help us not to be stirred up.