Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome back to our services tonight here at Faith Forward Baptist Church.
Very nice to see you all here this evening.
Let's all find our seats.
Please take your hymnals.
Go to hymn number 173.
We'll begin tonight.
Hymn number 173.
Love lifted me.
Hymn number 173.
Once you've found your place,
let's sing it out nice and strong on that verse.
I was sinking deep in sin.
Hymn number 173.
Lift it up now.
Love lifted me.
When nothing else could help.
Love lifted me.
When nothing else could help.
Love lifted me.
Soul's in danger.
Look upon.
Jesus completely saves.
He will lift you by his love.
Out of the angry praise.
He's the pastor of the seed.
Fill us his will all day.
He your savior wants to be.
We stay today.
Love lifted me.
When nothing else could help.
Love lifted me.
When nothing else could help.
Love lifted me.
Amen.
I'm going to start the thing tonight.
We want to open up those words in prayer.
So I've asked Father Fidel Gonzalez if he would lead us in prayer, please.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the one true Messiah.
Because it is enough that Jesus died and that he died for us.
Father, we ask you to bless our voices as we lift them up to you in praise.
Please bless Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit, Lord.
And bless this sermon.
It's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Back to 169.
Just a few pages.
169.
Come thou found of every blessing.
Hymn 169.
Do my heart to sing thy grace.
Hymn 169.
Sing it out nice and loud.
Come thou found of every blessing.
Do my heart to sing thy grace.
Streams of mercy never ceasing.
Falls or songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some mellow hiss on it.
Sung by flaming tongues of fire.
Praise the mountains, raise them on it.
Fount of thy redeeming love.
Here I raise my heaven near.
Better by thy help I come.
And I know by thy good pleasure.
Simply I'll arrive at home.
Jesus saw me when a stranger.
Wandering from the fold of God.
Heed to rescue me from danger.
Interposed his precious blood.
Woe to grace, how great a debtor.
Daily I come, strange to be.
Let thy goodness, like a letter.
By my wandering heart to thee.
Grown to wander, Lord, I feel it.
Grown to lead the God I love.
Here's my heart, oh taken ceiling.
Ceiling for thy force above.
All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside we have our service time, Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms.
Birthdays and anniversaries for the month of November are listed across the page.
We've got the yearbook photo coming up for the church group photo out in the parking lot.
Hopefully you already all got your individual photos taken.
I've been seeing a lot of those pop up on social media, all the beautiful pictures.
And so let's give Brother Ramon Ventura a big hand for doing those pictures.
You did a great job.
Well, we're going to be doing one out in the parking lot, the group photo, and that's going to be on November the 19th.
And then on the back, of course, the big thing this week is the missions conference.
So we've got a lot going on, a lot of church services, activities.
And so I hope that you'll be able to participate in at least some of this, hopefully a lot of it.
Who's planning right now? You're saying, hey, I'm going to be at everything. I'm doing it all.
All right. Yes, I love it.
So that's a great attitude.
But obviously, I understand people's schedules are busy and you got work and school and life.
So, hey, whatever you can do, you know, don't don't feel like it's an all or nothing.
Right. Just show up for one, two, three things.
Whatever you want to show up for, show up for anything you want, even if it's just the roller skating, you know, be out roller skating.
And so we want everybody to participate as much as possible.
We have a lot of people from out of town, God willing.
And so we're looking forward to that. And a lot of really just interesting sermons, because all these sermons are about missions, trips that have already taken place.
Things that and it's all stuff that's happened in the last 12 months.
So it's not, you know, stories from back in the good old days.
But, you know, we're not like the Calvinists where we have to go back to like Jonathan Edwards or something to find, you know, one of our people really evangelizing or something.
But so, you know, we're going to be talking about all the different mission strips that have been happening.
It's interesting. You learn a little bit about what's out there in this world, the geography of it.
You know, when I was growing up, I always just loved missions conferences just because, number one, I love soul winning.
I love evangelism, but I also just love geography.
And I just love learning about other parts of the world.
Ethnography, geography. I find it fascinating.
And so I hope that you'll show up for as many of these as possible.
Some super interesting sermons are going to be coming up this week.
And obviously, in addition to just getting inspired and excited about the trips that have taken place and, you know, the prospects for the future.
There's also just a lot of great Bible that's going to be preached.
It's going to be spiritually edifying even for us in our personal lives.
And so I'm looking forward to the missions conference.
I hope you are too.
I believe that that's about it for announcements.
So let's go ahead and count up the soul winning for the past few days.
Going back to Thursday.
OK. Got it. OK.
All right. How about Friday?
Got it. Got it.
OK. And then Saturday.
OK. Got it.
Anything else from Saturday today?
Brother Scott.
Six for the main group with Brother Scott.
Gotcha.
OK.
For the week for North Phoenix.
Gotcha.
OK. Got it.
Anything else from today?
Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning.
And with that, let's sing our next song. Come lead it.
All right. You should find the answer in front of your hymnal of the hymn, I'll go where you want me to go.
If you don't have an answer, please raise your hand.
I'll go where you want me to go. Sing it out.
I'll go where you want me to go.
I'll say what you want me to say, dear Lord.
I'll be what you want me to be.
Perhaps today there are loving words which Jesus would gladly speak.
There may be now the clouds of sin, some wonder whom I shall see.
O Savior, thou will be my guide, the dark and blood in the plain.
My voice shall echo the message sweet.
I'll say what you want me to say.
I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord.
For thou didst play for me.
I'll say what you want me to say, dear Lord.
I'll be what you want me to be.
There's no room somewhere alone in place.
In earth the host feels so blind.
Where I lay in the blue line, short way for Jesus the crucified.
So trust my home until I hear.
I know how God has seen.
I'll fill my bed with a heart sincere.
I'll be what you want me to be.
I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord.
For thou didst play for me.
I'll say what you want me to say, dear Lord.
I'll be what you want me to be.
Hey, man, good singing, everybody.
Let's go on your hymnals now to hymn number 419.
419, sound the battle cry.
Hymn number 419.
Number 419.
Sing it out nice and strong on that first.
Sound the battle cry.
Sing the chorus high.
Raise the standard high for the poor.
Courage your armor on.
Stand firm, everyone.
Rest your cause upon this holy word.
Bowels and soldiers proudly round the banner.
Ready, steady, pass the word along.
Onward, forward.
Shout aloud, Hosanna.
Crisis captain of the mighty throng.
Long to meet the foe.
Marching on we go while our cause we know must prevail.
Shield and banner, right, gleaming in the light.
Battling for the right we dare can fail.
Bowels and soldiers proudly round the banner.
Ready, steady, pass the word along.
Onward, forward.
Shout aloud, Hosanna.
Crisis captain of the mighty throng.
O thou god of all, hear us frankly call.
Help us, one and all, by thy grace.
When the battle's done and the vict'ry's won,
they weep where the proudly for thy face.
Bowels and soldiers proudly round the banner.
Ready, steady, pass the word along.
Onward, forward.
Shout aloud, Hosanna.
Crisis captain of the mighty throng.
This time we will pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Ephesians chapter number five.
Ephesians chapter five, as we always do, read the entire chapter beginning in verse number one.
Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads Ephesians chapter five, starting in verse number one.
Ephesians chapter five, the Bible reads,
Be therefore followers of God as dear children,
and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us,
and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savior.
But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness,
let it not be once named among you, as become a saints,
neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient,
but rather giving of thanks.
For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man,
who is an idolater, have any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let no man deceive you with vain words,
for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
Be not ye therefore partakers with them,
for ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light,
for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth,
proving what is acceptable unto the Lord,
and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light,
for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
Wherefore ye sayeth, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is,
and be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit,
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church,
and he is the savior of the body.
Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it,
that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.
He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.
For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife,
and they too shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, Lord, for our church.
Lord, thank you for all the souls that were recently won,
and I pray, Lord, you would bless our church and bless our conference
and bless all the preachers that are to come and the pastors that will be preaching for us.
Please, Lord, fill them with your spirit.
At this time, Lord, fill Pastor Anderson with your spirit as well.
Lord, please help him to preach a great message and help us to apply it to our lives
to better honor and glorify you.
And in Jesus' name, amen.
Man, the title of my sermon tonight is Participating in Church.
Participating in Church.
We live in a day where a lot of people are just spectators.
They want to go to church and sort of sit back and watch the show.
A lot of churches that you go to, the singing is something that you sit back and watch,
and there really aren't even a lot of ways to get involved in the church.
It's more just something you do every week.
You watch a performance, and our culture in general is filled with spectators, right?
People are totally out of shape.
They don't play any sports, but they'll pack into stadiums and watch other people play sports, right?
Because they're being a spectator, not a participant.
Well, let me tell you something.
Going to church ought to be something that you participate in, not just watch.
And this is why it's kind of funny today how people will say,
well, I just do church online.
Well, you don't do church online.
You watch church online.
You can't really do church through the screen because you can't participate.
You can only just watch.
But church is an assembly of people.
Part of participating involves fellowship before and after the service,
talking to people, being here present with other people in the same space.
You know, a lot of people will say, well, we're the church.
And it's true that we, the people, are the church,
but we're the church because we're congregated together.
The word church literally means assembly or congregation.
And so when we're out individuals by ourselves somewhere,
we're not the church.
When we're congregated, that's a church.
That's why the Bible talks about church as plural because they are congregations.
And the first point that I want to make this evening about participating in church
is about singing the songs in church.
The Bible says you're there in Ephesians, and we'll look at that in a moment.
But in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 12, it says,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren.
In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
In Psalm 22, 22, where this is quoting from, it says,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation
will I praise thee.
So you see that the word church and the word congregation are used interchangeably there.
That's what the word church means.
And the Bible says in the church, I will sing praise unto thee,
not I will listen to praise unto thee,
but rather I will sing praise unto thee.
When Jesus and the apostles were at the Last Supper,
before they went to the Garden of Gethsemane,
the Bible says when they had sung on him,
they went out into the Mount of Olives.
Notice Peter didn't just stand up and sing a solo while they all listened,
but rather they sang on him.
That means everybody's participating, right?
And this is the standard in the Bible.
Look at Ephesians 5 where you are there in verse number 18.
The Bible says, and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess,
but be filled with the Spirit speaking to yourselves.
Now what does that mean speaking to yourselves?
It's talking about everybody speaking to everybody because everybody is singing.
It says speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
Hey, whether the melody or the singing coming out of your mouth sounds great or not,
hey, as long as it sounds great in your heart, that's all that really matters, right?
You're singing and making melody in your heart.
Maybe there's a little disconnect between your heart and your vocal cords,
but hey, make a joyful noise unto the Lord, the Bible says.
And anybody can do that.
And so you're singing to yourselves.
Let me prove to you that that's what that means.
Let's look at the parallel passage in Colossians chapter 3.
Let's look at Colossians chapter 3.
And I'm going to prove to you that speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns
means that we don't have one person singing and another person listening,
but rather everybody's both singing and hearing the music at the same time.
Look at Colossians chapter 3 verse 16.
It says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,
teaching and admonishing one another, right?
So this is a one another thing. Everybody's singing to everybody,
teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace and in your hearts to the Lord,
and whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.
And so when we come to church, we want to lift up our voices and sing praise to God,
speaking to ourselves, teaching and admonishing one another,
singing and making melody in our heart to the Lord,
we should all be participating in the singing.
In fact, if you study the Bible, you'll find that the most common command
that God gives over and over and over again is this verbal command,
praise, praise the Lord, praise.
I mean, how many hundreds and hundreds of times in the book of Psalms
are we commanded to praise the Lord, right?
Let me read for you a few great passages.
You don't have to turn to these. I'll just go quickly.
Psalm 33, if you want, you can flip over to Psalm 95 and look at that one,
but I'll read these while you get there.
Psalm 33, rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous,
for praise is comely for the upright.
What does comely mean? It means it looks good on you.
It's appropriate. It's what you should be doing.
If you're upright, God wants to hear you praising God.
And it says, praise the Lord with harp,
sing unto him with a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings,
sing unto him a new song, play skillfully with a loud noise.
God emphasizes lifting up our voices and singing loudly
and also playing the instruments loudly, right?
We want to actually praise in a way that is powerful,
not just kind of like, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.
You know, he wants to really lift up our voices
and to play skillfully with a loud noise.
Psalm 66, make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands.
Sing forth the honor of his name, make his praise glorious.
Look at Psalm 95, verse 1.
O come, let us sing unto the Lord,
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
You there in Psalm 95, verse 2.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving
and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms,
for the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods.
And when we hear the word noise, you know,
sometimes we'll jokingly say, hey, make a joyful noise,
even if you can't carry a tune.
But if you really think about what the force of that word is,
why the Bible is saying make a joyful noise,
I think that that word has to do with volume.
You know, make a joyful noise, you know,
it means we need to hear some loud sound.
I think that's what that's saying.
That's the way I interpret that, literally,
as noise like it's loud, singing loud.
Psalm 98, verse 4 says,
make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth,
make a loud noise.
Do you hear that?
That's Psalm 98, 4.
Make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise.
Sing unto the Lord with the harp,
with the harp and the voice of a psalm,
with trumpets and sound of cornet,
make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King.
Now look, everybody's got excuses why they don't want to sing loud,
why they don't want to sing out, you know.
Well, nobody around me is singing out,
and so I feel like if I sing loud,
it's going to make it weird or something.
First of all, you know, somebody's got to start this thing off
and start singing loud in each section of the auditorium, okay, number one.
But here's the thing about that, you know,
I remember when I was just a teenager,
when I was a young person, I was not pastoring,
you know, I would usually, because I wanted to sing loud,
I would just come and just sit in the very front.
Now obviously everyone can't sit in the front,
obviously people are in the back for various reasons,
a lot of times people have little children and babies and everything,
so they hang back so they can take care of babies and children.
Obviously everybody's got their spot
and people can sit wherever they want,
everybody can't sit up front obviously.
But you know, if you really just have a desire to sing loud
and you just feel like your section isn't loud enough,
you know, why don't you get up here in the very front
and there's so many instruments going on
and the song leader and everything,
you can always belt it out in the front row
and it's going to get absorbed in the wall of sound right here.
Seriously.
And I remember when I was a teenager
going to Regency Baptist Church,
you know, 20 some years ago,
we would, the teenagers would sit in the very front row
and we'd be singing at the top of our lungs,
you know, 16, 17, 18 years old,
we'd be sitting in the front row and we would be belting it out.
And I used to love coming to church
and just singing at the top of my lungs.
I remember when I first started Faithful Word Baptist Church,
you know, I had to do the song leading and the preaching
because it was me, right, starting a church from scratch.
But I kind of got a little bit carried away,
a little bit ambitious,
so not only did I found the church on the first Sunday,
but I founded two nursing home ministries the first Sunday.
So for the first six months of pastoring,
every Sunday I would hold four services
because I held a morning and an evening service at church
and then I would go to two different nursing homes.
And so I would end up leading like 16 songs
and preaching four sermons
and every single Monday I had no voice, just gone.
And if I could have one superpower, and I mean this,
if I could have one superpower,
this is the superpower that I would love to have,
a throat that just never stops being able to sing and preach,
just that I could just preach loud and sing loud
and that it would never stop.
Because, you know, if I sing really loud and preach,
you know, I end up losing my voice, unfortunately.
But, man, it is such a pleasure to be able to just sing out loud
and sing praises to God.
And so whenever I'm a guest at another church
and I don't have to preach, then, you know,
I can just pull out all the stops
and I can just sing it out and sing loud.
It's not about being a good singer.
I'm not a good singer.
That doesn't stop me from singing loud, okay?
And there are lots of people in this church who it doesn't stop them.
No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding.
But the thing is, you know,
God wants to hear his children sing.
And when you hear your children sing as a parent,
you're not interested in whether they're hitting the right notes.
In fact, the more wrong notes they hit, the more fun it is.
And when they're changing the words,
you know, we were just singing Sound the Battle Cry.
I can never sing Sound the Battle Cry
without thinking about how when we were little kids,
we thought it was Christ as Captain of the Mighty Thumb, right?
I mean, you know, everybody loves to hear their kids sing.
And it's not about the quality.
It's just about the heart.
You love your children.
Well, God loves you.
He wants to hear you singing.
And so just make a joyful noise before the Lord,
lift up your voice, sing it out.
And I've been in so many powerful song services over the years
where you pack a small group of people,
or excuse me, pack a large group of people into a small space
and everybody's belting out the singing and it's awesome.
It's powerful.
And, you know, we sing a lot of great songs at our church.
And you say, well, the reason I can't sing it
is because I don't know the songs.
Well, here's the thing about that.
We sing all the verses here.
Now, I remember growing up in church,
they never sang all the verses.
They would typically do just the first and the last
or the first and the second verse.
Maybe they'll do first, second, and fourth.
And I remember when I was a kid,
I used to think that there must be doctrinal problems
in some of these verses because they'd be skipping verses.
As a kid, I would try to find the problem.
I was like, this looks doctrinally sound.
Why are we not singing this third verse?
But it's really just because they wanted to just kind of
keep the service moving.
And so they would just do one, maybe two verses
or something like that.
And I remember one time my buddy and I
were on a work trip together.
And this is before I was a pastor,
but we were talking about this and we said,
you know what, let's get a hymnal right now.
Let's just sing only the third verse of every song.
And we were in our motel room for like two hours
just singing the third verse of every song.
We called it the third verse revival.
Now why do we at Faithful Word Baptist Church,
why do we do this differently than virtually every
independent Baptist Church out there?
Why do we sing all the verses?
I'll tell you why we sing the verses.
Because of the fact that we want people
who don't know the song to be able to learn the song
because if we sing two verses only or one verse only,
then here's what happens.
Just when you're starting to pick up the tune, it's over.
Whereas if you sing all four verses,
by the time you get to the third verse,
you're kind of singing along.
By the time you get to the fourth verse,
okay, yeah, I'm getting it.
I see what's going on here.
But guess what?
Only if you participate.
If you just sit and listen, you'll never learn the song.
You learn by doing, right?
You learn by participating.
So you get in there, you make some tentative noises
maybe on the first verse, and you try to get the gist of it.
You try to get it.
Hopefully you know a little bit about reading music
and can kind of see at least, hey,
is the note going up or is it going down?
At least you know whether to go, ah, you know.
At least get in the ballpark.
But even if you don't, if you try to sing,
usually by the third or fourth verse,
you're starting to get it a little bit.
And that's why we sing all the verses.
If you want to know why, that's why.
So that more people can learn the song and participate.
Plus, not only that, these songs that we sing
are extremely famous songs.
These are all very popular songs.
These are not rare songs that we're singing.
These are songs literally sung by tens of millions of people.
And so these songs are all readily available on YouTube
or wherever you get music.
You're going to find these songs.
These songs are out there.
And we've also produced a lot of recordings of the hymns
that are on the Faithful Word app.
That's not the official app of our church,
but it's an app that has a lot of wonderful materials on it,
the Faithful Word app.
And it's got hours and hours of hymns.
You can learn the songs.
You can sing along.
And so I encourage you to sing in church.
That's number one.
Number two, how do we participate in church?
Number two, by actively listening to the sermon.
Go if you would to Acts, chapter number 17.
Acts, chapter number 17, by actively listening to the sermon.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes, chapter 5, verse 1,
keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God
and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools,
for they consider not that they do evil.
The Bible says be ready to hear when you go to the house of God.
Be actively listening to the sermon.
The Bible says in Acts, chapter 17, verse 11,
these were more noble than those in Thessalonica
in that they received the word with all readiness of mind.
Do you see that?
They received the word with all readiness of mind.
What does that word ready mean, be ready to hear,
readiness of mind?
What are we talking about?
Well, being ready is the idea of being alert, right?
You're paying attention.
You're open.
You're ready to hear.
You're ready to receive.
You're sitting there and channels are open.
Let's go.
Speak.
I'm listening.
Versus being zoned out, not paying attention,
thinking about other things, doing other things.
And look, I understand that sometimes it's easy to zone out
when you're sitting and listening to a sermon for an hour or something.
I can see how you can zone out.
I mean, it's just, we're human, right?
Effort needs to be made to be an active listener.
That's the whole point of what I'm saying.
If you just kind of show up and plop down,
chances are you're probably going to zone out.
And look, I work hard to try to make my sermons engaging, interesting.
I try to keep your attention just kind of like, ah, every once in a while, you know,
just to kind of keep your, somebody just kind of woke up like, oh, what was that about?
I'll have to watch the recording on that one.
You know, I try to be entertaining.
You know, I'm not Ben Stein up here.
You know, I'm not up here just like, you know, dry eyes, you know, red eyes.
Look, I'm up here as a commercial or visine.
But anyway, you know, I'm up here trying to be entertaining.
I'm trying to give the spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down.
I try to make my sermons interesting, okay?
So like if you're zoning out during my preaching, you're not trying, right?
Because there are a lot of churches that will put you to sleep more than me.
I'm not saying I'm the world's most interesting speaker.
I'm not saying I'm the world's most dynamic or exciting speaker.
But I feel like I'm dynamic enough to where if you put forth the effort,
you could stay engaged in the sermon start to finish.
I try to keep the sermon fast moving and I try to keep you with me.
And so pay attention, right?
Actively listen to the sermon.
Now, here are some ways that you could actively listen to the sermon.
Well, it says they received the word with all readiness of mind
and searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so.
Obviously, this is talking about them going home and, you know,
throughout the week they're searching the scriptures daily.
They're looking things up.
But, you know, even while I'm preaching,
one way to stay actively engaged is to turn in your Bible
to the scriptures that I'm talking about.
So if I say, hey, turn to Acts 17 and you turn over to Acts 17
and you get there and you're looking at it and I'm reading it
and you're reading it and you're seeing it and then you're hearing what I have to say,
that's a way to keep you engaged and paying attention and doing it.
You know, if you just kind of sit back and don't ever turn to any of the scriptures,
you could be more likely to zone out in that case
than if you're actually actively participating by turning in your Bible.
And look, even if you don't bring your Bible, we've got all those Bibles back there.
They're free.
You can take them home if you need them and you can always just use it at church
and then just put it back on the shelf when you're done.
So there's no reason for you not to have a Bible.
If you want a Bible, you can have a Bible.
And you can be engaged and actively listening and paying attention to the sermon
to get something out of it.
The Bible says,
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear,
slow to speak, slow to wrath.
Again, the idea of being ready to hear and being swift to hear, right?
Again, it's an alert mind that's paying attention is what we're talking about.
Proverbs chapter 1 verse 5,
A wise man will hear and will increase learning,
and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.
If you would flip over to Luke chapter 8 verse 18.
Luke 8 18.
And you know what?
You can actually learn a lot just by listening.
Just by paying attention.
Showing up to church and just paying attention.
I hope you're reading your Bible on your own.
I hope you're searching the scriptures daily.
But even just showing up and paying attention, you will learn a lot.
Right?
I mean, look, when I was growing up and I was in school,
I did well in school,
but I'm ashamed to say I didn't do a lot of my homework.
You know, I wasn't really that motivated,
and my parents just, you know, they just wanted to see bees or above.
And so that's what I delivered.
But, you know, I was kind of sometimes doing the minimum
because you know how kids are.
They're more interested in just playing and having a good time sometimes
than their schoolwork.
I'm sure none of you kids can relate to that.
But when I was a kid, I wasn't really giving it my best,
and I wasn't really.
But you want to know why I still did well in school,
even though sometimes I'm ashamed to say I was a bit of a slacker.
I'll tell you why I did well.
One thing I did is I did pay attention.
I did listen.
You know, maybe I didn't do the homework like I should have.
Maybe I wasn't doing all the assignments like I should have.
But when I was there, I listened and paid attention.
And it's not that I'm some kind of a genius because I'm not.
I am of an average IQ.
I'm of an average intellect.
But I just nowadays spend a lot of time studying.
Back then, not so much.
But you know what I did, though?
I did listen.
I did pay attention.
And you know what I found is that people who show up to class and listen,
they end up passing the class.
And the people who don't pass the class,
it's usually because they're not showing up or they're not listening.
They're not paying attention.
They're doing something else.
It's just the way it works, my friend.
Well, transfer that over to church, okay?
Hey, if you show up and listen, you're going to get something out of it.
And yeah, you can just chalk it up.
Yeah, I went to church.
I was there.
Yeah, but did you participate in church?
Did you sing the songs and did you actively listen?
Did you turn in your Bible?
Did you think about what's being said?
And here are some other ways to actively listen.
Besides just looking things up in the Bible,
besides just actually being alert and awake and paying attention,
you know, you can think about what I'm saying, right?
You can think about things that I'm saying.
Think about what they mean.
Think about how they relate to your life.
Think about how they could be applied.
Think about what other scriptures they bring to mind
and just actually be interested and take an interest in what we're talking about here.
Because let me tell you something.
We're talking about the coolest subject we could possibly be talking about.
I don't know about you, but to me, everything else in this whole world
is more boring than the things of God.
I mean, look, it just is.
I'm sorry, but the Bible and church and spiritual things,
it's just more interesting than anything that this world has to offer.
I mean, think about all the different subjects that are out there.
You know, what is it that people are just so interested in
that would just really keep them engaged?
What is it that TV shows and radio shows and podcasts talk so much about
that keep people so engaged?
You know, what are some examples?
Sports, right?
People listen to people talk about sports for hours.
And this player and this guy, I've never listened to his.
I don't really know what they talk about.
But I'm guessing it's something like this guy got injured
and now he's back and he got traded to a different team
or he's making a million dollars.
I don't know. What do they talk about?
Like, how much do you say about people throwing a ball around?
What is it?
Oh, so they get into the drama of players' personal lives and whatever.
Yeah.
So, you know, that's a big thing.
Or, you know, what else do people listen to and just they'll spend hours
listening to politics, right?
Oh, the war in Israel, war in Ukraine, the election, right?
Think about how many hours and hours and hours people are going to talk
about the 2024 presidential election.
And people will just listen to it for hours.
And they're going to be engaged and paying attention.
Look, I'm sorry, but I just feel like the word of God is more interesting
than these things.
You know, I would rather listen to a sermon about the Bible.
I'd rather listen to people talk about the Bible than to listen to people
talk about sports or politics.
I just think it's a great subject.
Not to mention the fact that it's of eternal importance.
Not to mention the fact that actually God created the whole universe
and that everything hinges on our walk with God.
You know, but even just forgetting that,
forgetting the fact that sports and politics don't really end up mattering,
whereas spiritual things do, I personally,
I just find it more fun and interesting to talk about the Bible anyway.
Now, some people would disagree and be like, oh, man, you know,
sports are so much better.
It's like, all right, you big, dumb animal.
All right, anyway, let's move on.
Sorry I said that.
I didn't mean that.
Hear instruction and be wise and refuse it not.
I'm just saying I think the Bible is a cool subject.
I mean, look, Genesis is just a great read.
Genesis is a fun read.
The stories are great, right?
I mean, Judges is a beautiful read.
1 Samuel, 1 Kings, I mean, it's great stuff.
Proverbs, wow, it's a great read.
The four gospels, are you kidding me?
This is a great subject.
And so there's no excuse for just being bored and you know,
oh, you want to go watch your cartoons?
You want to go watch the big men throw the ball around?
You know, you want to go and, you know,
watch acting for ugly people known as politics?
It's not real, folks.
You know, we get all excited.
You know, why don't we get excited about the things of God?
Why don't we sing and shout and get excited and fired up about
the things of God?
You know, I was thinking about what makes me happy in life?
Like at what moments in my life, you know,
I was reading something somewhere with some pamphlet or
something and it was talking about blah, blah, blah.
I don't remember.
But it was like, it was something about like, you know,
what, what activity do you do that makes you feel like the
most fulfilled or you feel the most like, I don't,
I don't remember what it said.
This is a really bad illustration because I don't even
know what it is.
But at the end of the, the thing that matters was the answer.
I was thinking about it and I thought, you know,
the thing that I actually enjoy more than anything,
the times that I'm just feeling the most fulfilled as a person
is when I'm talking about the Bible with people.
When I'm having a conversation with someone like one on one or
a small group and we're sitting around talking about the Bible
or sitting around with lost people and expounding the Bible
to them.
And, you know, it feels great to be talking about something
that matters.
And I love to talk about the Bible.
The Bible is a great subject.
I'm not saying that I'm the most interesting speaker,
but I'm saying that I feel like I'm interesting enough to where
if you want to pay attention, you could.
If you just slap yourself a few times and drink whatever
chemicals you need.
Hear, counsel, and there's even a chemical dispensary back there
for people to get the chemicals they need to stay ready and
alert during the sermon.
Hear, counsel, and receive instruction that thou mayest be
wise in thy latter end, the Bible says.
Listen, hear, go to that learning,
find the instruction, find the one who's teaching,
get that teaching, get that information,
get that knowledge, be wise.
It matters.
The things that I preach about matter.
I mean, it matters, right?
I mean, what was I preaching about this morning?
Raising your children, disciplining your children,
spanking your children.
That matters.
That's huge.
That's important.
I mean, could anybody really walk out of that sermon and say,
well, that wasn't relevant.
That doesn't matter.
Why talk about that?
Look at Luke chapter 8 because some people might have this
attitude of like, well, I don't really need to be an active
listener because I've already been in church my whole life
and I kind of know the drill.
I kind of know it all.
You know, this is easy for sometimes people who grow up in
church to have this attitude of I grew up in church.
I know the stories.
I know the Bible.
I know what's up.
But guess what?
We need to keep listening or we will lose the knowledge that
we have because I have forgotten more than some of you young
children have ever learned yet.
I forget things all the time.
I mean, I go back and listen to my old sermons and I learn a
lot.
And I'm like, wow, I never thought of that.
But then I'm like, well, I must have thought of it because I'm
saying it on this recording.
But I'm like, man, I've never thought of that.
I've literally said to one of my pastor friends like, man, I've
never thought of that.
That was such a great point you made.
And he's like, I heard it in a sermon from you.
And I'm like, what?
No, I never said that.
He's like, yeah, you did.
Folks, our brains are literally designed to forget.
We as humans are experts at forgetting.
And I'm thankful for it because there's a lot of stuff I don't
want to remember.
And so I'm glad that our brain is just hardwired to just throw
memories in the trash like there's this little guy in our
brain and he's just like loading up just this bonfire of just
memories, just getting rid of it.
And so that's why we have to keep reading the Bible, keep
thinking about these things, keep hearing the preaching to
stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance.
Though you once knew these things, right?
The Book of Jude says, you know, I will have you be ignorant,
though you once knew this, how that the Lord having saved the
people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed them that
believe not.
Just because you once knew it doesn't mean you're going to
know it forever.
There are all kinds of things that we learned in the past.
I bet a lot of you took Spanish in high school and you couldn't
even hardly order a taco, you know, at this point in your life
because you just forgot everything.
So look what the Bible says in verse 18 of Luke 8.
The Bible says if you're not careful about how you hear, if
you're not taking heed to how you hear, you will lose
knowledge.
Those who have knowledge and listen are going to gain more
knowledge and those who don't take heed to how they hear, they
will even lose the knowledge that they seem to have.
It will be gone.
You've got to pay attention.
You've got to listen.
So number one, sing the songs.
Number two, be an active listener.
Number three, be friendly to people at church.
Be friendly to people at church.
Come to church ready to interact with people, right?
And this is what you don't get online.
Show up and be ready to interact with people.
Be friendly.
Be nice.
Reach out to people.
Start a conversation.
Be kind.
And take an interest in other people.
Don't just be self-absorbed and self-obsessed.
To where, I'm nice to these people.
Oh, well, wow, you're, you know.
A man that hath friends, the Bible says, must show himself
friendly.
And there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
And, you know, this also includes being friendly to
visitors.
Not just showing up to church and just going to your circle
and only talking to the same people every week, but rather
branch out and talk to some other people and actually meet
some new people and be friendly people.
You know what I've noticed is that when a person's a first
time visitor, they'll often get approached and greeted like,
oh, hey, how you doing?
You know, it's your first time here.
Welcome.
Or where are you from?
And they'll kind of get approached the first time they
show up, right?
But then once a person's been coming for a couple months, it's
like if they don't make friends in that little window when they
first get there, there's like this window when you first show
up this week or two, if you don't make friends, then you
kind of go into this limbo where nobody's approaching you
because, like, you've already kind of been here for a while,
but you didn't really make friends during that window.
So then you're just kind of just in this just purgatory of
just of no one talking to you, okay?
And I remember this happened to me when I was a teenager.
We moved across town.
We started going to a new church.
And I walked into the youth group, and there were like 100
to 120 teenagers in the youth group.
And it was like I didn't really make the right connections
those first couple weeks.
And then it just becomes, like I said, where it's like now
people won't talk to you because you're kind of a fixture
and you're not new anymore, so you're not getting greeted.
And I remember dreading, absolutely dreading Sunday
school every Sunday morning for like over a year.
I'm not kidding.
I'm saying, like, I absolutely dreaded going to Sunday school
because we would go there, and I would just kind of sit there,
and my parents kind of had their friends, and I'm in this class.
There's 120 people.
Everybody's laughing and talking.
They all kind of went to school together, or they kind of knew
each other, or they'd been in the church for a while,
and I would just sit there just feeling awkward.
And when you're a teenager, you know, nowadays it wouldn't be
a big deal for me to just sit there and just, yeah, you know, I'm fine.
You know, this is fine.
But when you're a teenager, it's awkward.
You know, and there was one girl in the class that I knew,
my brother's wife's sister, and she would come talk to me sometimes,
but it was like, but she had her own friends and stuff,
so like every once in a while she would mercifully come talk to me,
and it was just like, thank you.
Water, water.
You know, she gave me like a little drink of water every once in a while.
I was like, thank you for talking to me.
But then like the rest of the time I'm just sitting there,
and it was super awkward and embarrassing.
And then what was funny is then, so then we moved again,
and we stopped going to church there,
and then I went to a summer camp with my new church,
and then I ended up making a bunch of friends from that class.
And they're like, man, why didn't we hang out with you?
I'm like, I don't know.
Why didn't you, you know?
They're like, man, if we would have known, you know,
we could have been friends.
A year wasted.
But I'm telling you, this is the way it goes.
When somebody's brand new, sometimes they make friends
because they're new and people see them as new.
They walk in, they're new.
You know what?
Sometimes we might need to reach out to those people
that have been here for a month, two months, three months.
You know, there's no expiration date on walking up and greeting somebody
and just making a new friend and just meeting somebody new.
Now look, I'm talking to the long-time church members and saying,
hey, reach out to some newer people, reach out to some visitors.
Make sure that nobody feels like Stephen Anderson did as a teenager
at First Baptist Church of Elk Grove in that youth group, all right?
You know, because it's awkward.
And look, we want people to succeed in their Christian life.
We want them to have joy.
Look, I would not have kept coming back
except that I was going with my parents.
I would have gone somewhere else where I had friends.
But obviously I wasn't the one making the decision.
So guess what?
If people come and they feel awkward
and they don't feel like anybody cares that they're there,
you know, they might just go somewhere else.
And you and I know that if they come to Faithful Word,
they're probably going to get more spiritual growth here
than at a lot of other places.
You know, if you believe that our church is a good place
for people to be planted and grow,
then let's help make it easy for people to feel comfortable here,
to feel welcome.
Let's bring people into the fold and be nice and friendly.
And some of you are really good about this, and I appreciate it.
You know, that you reach out to visitors,
that you're kind to people, that you're friendly,
that you take an interest.
And so keep that up.
And don't fall into the trap of thinking,
well, that guy's been here for six months.
I can't approach him.
You know, well, if you've never talked to him, you know, go.
And maybe you have tried.
Go try again.
You know, sometimes over the years I've said to one of my kids,
hey, you know, you should reach out to this young person
that, you know, doesn't seem like they have any.
Oh, I tried once, you know, seven months ago.
It's like, well, you know, go strike up another conversation again.
Maybe they were just having a weird day.
Try it again, right?
Maybe they've gotten a few more social skills in the last six months.
Try to spark up that conversation.
And, you know, sometimes you might have to bring all the energy.
Right?
Bring it.
Be a blessing.
Be helpful to other people.
Reach out to other people.
Make them feel welcome.
You know, the Bible says salute every saint in Christ Jesus.
Greet the friends by name.
Greet them that love us in the faith.
The disciples continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine
and in fellowship and in breaking of bread.
Right?
And so, hey, eating with people, spending time with people,
fellowshiping with people.
This is part of the Christian life.
Right?
It's part of the Christian life.
Socialize with church people.
This is something that we do as Christians.
And it makes going to church fun.
You know, I said that I dreaded going to Sunday school
during that year, year and a half at First Baptist of Elk Grove,
you know, just because I didn't really get plugged in
the way that I should have as a teenager.
But, you know, other churches where I did have a circle of friends,
I loved going to church.
I couldn't wait to go to church and go see my friends.
Obviously, I wanted to sing the songs.
I wanted to hear the preaching.
But I also wanted to hang out with my friends.
And by the way, some people show up to church and want to hang out with you.
And then when you're not here, they're real disappointed.
And so be here.
And fellowship.
And that's part of the Christian life.
And so we want to participate by being friendly,
fellowshipping, getting to know people and so forth.
And, you know, I remember when I first started the church,
as the pastor, it was hard because I had to,
I was kind of the only person that knew anyone in a sense.
And it was like I was inviting a bunch of people to church.
They didn't really know each other.
And I would show up to the church and I'd have to try to like,
kind of like spend some time with this guy.
And then I kind of spend some time with this guy.
And, you know, because it's like nobody knows each other.
So I'm kind of just trying to make everybody feel welcome.
It was hard, you know, doing all the singing and all the preaching.
And I had to just be like this, this just fellowship machine.
And I'm just work, as my mom would put it, you know,
I just had to just work the room every Sunday morning and just going around
and just, you know, hey, you know, meeting everybody
and trying to make everybody feel welcome.
It was exhausting.
And I remember it was a beautiful day when it got to the point where people
in the church started fellowshipping with each other.
And I could just kind of sit back and watch it all happen.
And nobody even wanted to talk to me.
And I was like, this is great because, you know, it's all just happening.
But guess what?
When it comes to church, it's not a one-man show where Pastor Anderson does everything
and he's preaching and he's singing and he's reading the scripture
and he's praying and he's doing all the fellowshipping.
Oh, and by the way, it's my job to win all the souls to Christ.
No.
We all participate.
And that leads me to my next point, participate in soul winning.
Participate in soul winning.
You know, when I was growing up, we spent a lot of time in churches
that were not soul winning churches.
So I understand what it's like to go to a church that doesn't have soul winning.
I went to churches like that for years.
And this is the mentality in the non-soul winning church.
The idea is that the way that you evangelize is just you bring someone to church.
Like the biggest thing you can do is just bring someone to church.
And the idea is that you bring them and then the pastor is going to win them to Christ.
Or some other staff member or something is going to win them to Christ.
Whereas in our church, we have a philosophy that's a biblical philosophy of all of us,
man, woman, boy and girl, all of us going out and preaching the gospel to every creature,
all of us winning souls to Christ.
But look, let me say this, I'm 100% for you bringing visitors to church.
Go ahead and bring an unsaved visitor to church.
Amen.
But you know what's better than bringing an unsaved visitor to church?
It's even better if you win that person to the Lord
and then bring your saved visitor to church that you won to Christ.
Now both kind of visitors are great.
But we don't want to have a mentality that only the church can get them saved.
Only the pastor can get them saved.
No, you can get them saved.
Participate.
And if you'll actually participate in soul winning, you'll be able to bring your saved visitor to church.
And here's the thing about soul winning is that by going out and participating door to door,
you are learning a powerful skill.
By going out door to door, you're learning how to present the gospel.
And then that carries over into situations where you want to witness to someone at work,
where you want to witness someone at school,
where you want to witness to someone in your family, in the neighborhood.
You already know what you're doing.
You've already had the practice.
You know the verses.
You know how to preach.
You've had the experience.
And so participating in soul winning allows you to actually be a soul winner
and actually evangelize and not just only rely on the pastor and the church to do everything, right?
Look, I'm glad to evangelize an unsaved visitor.
And I love it when I can take aside an unsaved visitor,
give them the gospel before or after the service, and win them to Christ.
I'm glad to do it.
I love it.
But here's the thing.
You know, think about how few people our church would get saved if it were just me doing all of it by myself.
You think that we would get the amount of people saved that we get saved?
No way.
It wouldn't even be humanly possible.
The way that we get so many people saved is through a team effort where hundreds of people,
literally in our church, hundreds of people are actually presenting the gospel themselves.
That's how we're able to get a lot of people saved is because everybody's participating
and pitching in and getting people saved.
And here's the thing.
I'm not interested in gearing my sermon toward one unsaved visitor.
Look, I've been to a church before where I walked into the church,
unsaved visitor shows up, and the pastor literally put aside his sermon that he was planning on preaching.
Like he had a sermon ready for the evening.
He put that sermon aside and just preached a salvation sermon just for that visitor or group of two, three visitors,
because, oh, it's a visitor, put my sermon aside, the gospel.
Now, here's the thing about that is that, you know, I don't know about you,
but like I'm already saved, you're already saved, and there's other stuff we need to learn about the Bible.
And so I would have rather heard that other sermon that he had, you know, to, to actually feed the flock.
I'm not, I'm not upset or criticizing what he did.
I'm just saying that's not our philosophy.
I'm never going to say, oh, visitor, let me change my sermon for them.
Why? Because I don't even know who they are.
I don't know if they're ever going to be back.
And if I want to give them the gospel, here's a more effective way to do it.
I could walk up to them after the service and take 10, 15 minutes and give them the gospel
and still preach to the flock what the flock needs to hear.
You know, it's like, hey, I got this sermon about corporal punishment, right?
Hey, parents need to hear that.
Kids need to hear that sermon.
And then it's like, oh, never mind, salvation again.
Let's go.
Salvation, another salvation sermon.
Well, no.
The church is for the edification of the body of Christ.
It's for the ministry of the saints.
It's about getting the saints fed what they need.
And so I'm not going to change my whole summer with visitors, you know.
But here's the thing.
That being said, I want you to bring visitors to church, both saved and unsaved.
But here's the thing.
Let's say you bring your unsaved visitor to church and let's say the sermon is not about the gospel.
It could still be a great sermon for your visitor to hear.
It's still the word of God.
And here's what I find.
I find that very few people show up to church, hear a sermon about the gospel, and get saved
as a result of hearing that sermon.
The vast majority of people get saved when the gospel is explained to them one on one.
I've gotten up and preached sermons that were all about salvation, walked up to somebody
45 minutes later after the service and said, do you know for sure if you die today you're
going to have, oh, I think so because I, you know, I've lived a pretty good life or I'm
a good person or I'm trying.
And you're like, excuse me, were you here for the last hour when I literally spent the
entire hour saying that that's wrong?
Now of course I didn't say that to them.
I'm saying that's what's in my mind.
And then I've literally taken the Bible, shown that person the gospel, and had them get saved
and understand it and totally get it.
It's just more effective to talk to people face to face, one on one, and give them the gospel.
It's just more effective that way.
Okay.
And here's the thing.
What, this is a little bit of a rabbit trail, but I'm going to go ahead and take it because
I've pretty much said everything.
Those are my four points.
I'm done.
I got a few minutes here.
Let me just go on a little rabbit trail.
You know, don't be ashamed or embarrassed or shy about bringing a visitor to church.
You know, I take that personally.
I'm just kidding.
I'm just saying, you know, why would you be like, oh man, I don't know if people can
handle coming to faith the word Baptist church.
Look, folks, people can handle a lot more than you think.
Think about all of the gnarliness that people are hearing on the radio, the gnarliness that
people watch.
Do you think everybody just sits around watching G-rated Disney classics and then they show
up and they hear Pastor Anderson preach?
It's like, ah!
They can handle it.
And look, I remember I used to bring my teenage friends and probably, you know, at least half
the visitors I brought were unsaved.
They were usually people that I was working on trying to get saved, but a lot of times
they wouldn't get saved.
They wouldn't receive the gospel.
And sometimes I would bribe people to come to church with me by working their shifts
at Round Table Pizza.
They'd need a shift off on a Friday or Saturday night.
I'd be like, hey, I'll work your shift if you promise to come to church with me on Sunday
morning.
And so I did that tons of times.
And so I'd always be bringing just these absolute heathens to church that weren't even really
interested.
They just wanted me to work their shift.
So I'd be bringing absolute heathens to church.
And I was never ashamed of like, oh, you know, Pastor Anderson.
I was like, man, I hope that he really lets it rip this morning.
I wasn't like, oh, man, you know, hopefully Pastor.
And look, Pastor Nichols was ripping face.
And I would bring visitors and some.
But most people loved it, whether saved or unsaved.
They're like, yeah, that was that was kind of cool.
That was kind of interesting.
You know, you know, they enjoyed the sermon.
They liked his energy.
They liked the passion.
They liked the fire.
So what if they're a little offended about something?
Go cry about it.
It is what it is.
It's the word of God.
It's true.
And, you know, I'll bet some of you the first time that you heard this kind of preaching,
you were who would say the first time I heard, you know,
new IFP preaching or faithful word preaching or just, you know, hard preaching in general.
I was a little shocked by it and maybe a little offended.
And I was like, yeah, I don't know about this.
But yet here you are.
You know what I'm saying?
Like people can hang.
Give people some credit.
OK.
And plus also give God some credit that God in his providence works out circumstances
where a lot of times the exact sermon gets preached on the day that you bring the visitor.
You know, I mean, I can't count how many times I brought a visitor and I thought, like,
man, this was a perfect sermon for them to hear, you know, God.
I sure hope God is leading me because I'm praying and asking God to lead me as I pick
a topic and as I preach a sermon.
And so sometimes I've seen people walk in that door and I knew that they had a certain
issue that they were big time wrong about.
And I know that's what my sermon is about.
I'm not like, oh, man, I better switch this.
I just thought, well, I guess God really wants to sock it to this person today because
here they are.
And, you know, it's time for me to serve it up.
You know, God in his providence can work it out that your visitor shows up on the right
day where the word that they need to hear gets preached.
And, you know, I'm preaching to hundreds of people, but yet a bunch of people will come
up to me and say, wow, I was just talking about this yesterday or this is exactly what
I needed to hear or whatever.
You know, God can work and we just need to trust God and faithful Word baptism.
There's nothing to be embarrassed about our church.
You know what would be embarrassing?
Let me tell you what would be embarrassing.
If you brought people to church and people were like falling on the ground and rolling
in the aisles like a Pentecostal church, that'd be embarrassing.
And that'd be like, I don't blame you why you're embarrassed.
You know what else would be?
It'd be embarrassing if people showed up and I will wear an address and had a big giant
cross around my neck and was, you know, sprinkling poofoo dust everywhere and acting like an effeminate.
That'd be embarrassing.
Right?
What else would be embarrassing?
I don't know.
What's that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is what would be embarrassing.
If I'm some like overgrown 42 year old teenager, you know, in skinny jeans trying to be all
hip and everything.
I mean, look, yeah, you know, or nowadays you'll even see these evangelical pastors
and even IFB pastors where they're like this Elton John lookalike where they have like
neon colored glasses like matching their shirt, matching their neon shoes and their neon belt.
Just looking like an absolute faggot.
Just look like a flaming faggot.
You know, I'd be embarrassed to bring a visitor to a church where the pastor looks like just
an absolute sodomite.
Right?
It'd be embarrassing.
It'd be humiliating.
Oh man, you know, well, you know, just listen to what he has to say.
You know, I know he looks like freaking Elton John.
That's embarrassing.
Right?
Like what is embarrassing about Faithful Word?
Oh, Pastor Harrison might, you know, he might rip on the home.
Every normal person thinks homos are gross.
So what?
And if they don't, then they need to start thinking that.
Get over it.
Right?
Big deal.
Oh, wow.
I mean, what am I going to say that's so scary, that's so bad?
You know, look, I'm not up here just saying outrageous things, my friend.
And even when I do say something that this world would consider outrageous, I'm typically
turning to the scripture and saying, hey, let's read Leviticus 20-13.
Here, we just read it.
Everybody see that?
Okay.
Here's what it says.
Here's what it means.
And anybody who comes would, if they had a brain, they'd realize it's not really Pastor
Anderson I'm mad at.
It's Leviticus 20-13 I'm mad at.
It's Romans chapter 1 I'm mad at.
And you know, if people are offended by the Word of God, there's really nothing I can
do about that.
And so I really hope that you don't have this thought of like, well, I'm ashamed to bring
my friend or whatever, or, you know, well, you know, I've been dating my girlfriend for
six months.
I think she's finally ready for a Pastor Anderson sermon.
It's like, what in the world?
Let's get her exposed to it.
You know, hey, I used to take every girl that I was interested in to Regency Baptist.
I mean, that was like step one or two.
You know, it was like, you know, like Pastor Anderson, I know like you, that was, that
was my motto.
You know, like Pastor Nichols, I know like you, you know, if people just, if they just
absolutely hated, you know, I brought this one girl and she's like, what is his problem
with Ellen?
And, you know, cause that was the big thing back then.
Ellen degenerate.
Man, what was his issue with Ellen?
And it's just kind of like, it's like that meme where she's then like on the sidewalk
and I'm driving away, like she got dropped off.
No, I didn't drop her off, but you know, clearly things aren't going to work if you, you know,
if you're offended by the preaching of God's word, things aren't going to work cause guess
what?
I'm serving the Lord, baby.
Get in or get out.
Right.
That's where we're going.
This train is bound for glory.
Right.
So therefore, you know, why not bring people to church?
Bring your friends to church, bring them saved, bring them unsaved.
Hey, I think it's great to bring visitors to church, but we don't want to have an attitude
that, well, we only bring unsaved people to church to get them saved.
We also want to have an attitude that we can go out and get people saved out there because
this building is not required for their salvation, right?
We just need to just bring them the gospel where they are.
And so all that to say this, be a participant in church.
Uh, you know, if anybody's watching this sermon online, I hope that they will find a church
in their area and actually get there and participate in it.
Show up to an actual brick and mortar place of worship.
Why?
Because the building is the church.
No, because the group of people in that building is the church and it's November and so it's
pretty much going to be happening indoors everywhere in America and probably almost
everywhere else in the world.
And so therefore you go to church, sing the songs, actively listen to the sermon, be friendly,
get involved in fellowship, talk to people, meet new people, and get involved with winning
souls.
Participate in the program of the church.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
We thank you for the church that you've given us, this, this wonderful institution where
we can get together and be with like-minded people a few times a week.
Lord, thank you that we're not just the lone wolf commandos out there just in the wilderness
on our own, Lord.
Thank you for giving us like-minded people and Lord in particular, thank you for faithful
word Baptist church that we have literally hundreds of like-minded people and great opportunities
for fellowship.
Help us to take advantage of the opportunity to sing, to hear your word, to bring visitors,
to win souls, and to fellowship and make friends.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen, let's take our hymnals please.
Go to hymn number 306.
306, have thine own way, Lord.
Hymn number 306.
306, lift it up together now.
Have thine own way, Lord.
Have thine own way.
Thou art the fodder, I am the clay.
Mow me and make me after thy will.
While I am waiting, yield me and still.
Have thine own way, Lord.
Have thine own way.
Search me and try me.
Faster today, wider than snow.
Watch me just now.
I will have presence, only I bow.
Have thine own way, Lord.
Have thine own way.
Wounded and weary, help me now.
Wounded and weary, help me I pray.
Power of power, surely is thine.
Touch me and heal me, save your divine.
Have thine own way, Lord.
Have thine own way.
Hold o'er my knee, absolute sway.
Fill with thy spirit, till all shall see.
Christ only always living in me.
Amen. Excellent singing tonight. You are dismissed.
.