Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome back to Faith Ward Baptist Church.
Very good to see you all here.
Back for us tonight's service.
If you would please find your seats now.
Grab a song book.
Go to hymn 114.
We'll get started tonight.
Hymn 114.
The great physician.
Hymn 114.
The great physician.
Hymn 114.
We'll start together on that first now.
114.
The great physician now is near.
Hymn 114.
Lift it up on that first.
114.
The great physician now is near.
The
great physician now is near.
114.
The great patient now is near.
The great physician now is near.
He's near.
And we'll get started.
Dr.
Martin.
Dr.
Martin.
Dr.
Martin is on the line.
Dr.
Martin is on the line.
And when, to that bright world above, we rise to be with Jesus,
we'll sing around the throne.
And love is in the name of Jesus.
Sweetest notice ever sung.
Sweetest name on mortal tongue.
Sweetest care all ever sung.
Jesus, blessing Jesus.
Amen. Good start to our singing tonight.
Let's go before the Lord and ask His blessing on this service.
Our brother Fidel Gonzalez, would you do this prayer, please?
Father in Heaven, we thank you for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We thank you, Lord, for letting us lift up our voices to you in praise.
We ask you, Father, to please bless all the expected ladies in our church, Lord.
Please bless Pastor Anderson and Queen with your Holy Spirit
and bless every aspect of this sermon.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Back to hymn number 96.
Hymn number 96.
God leads us along.
Hymn number 96.
In shady green pastures so rich and so sweet, God leads His dear children along.
Number 96.
In shady green pastures so rich and so sweet,
God leads His dear children along.
Where the waters don't flow, may the weary ones meet,
God leads His dear children along.
Some through the water, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the flood,
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song
In the night season and all the day long,
Sometimes on the mounds where the sun shines so bright,
God leads His dear children along.
Sometimes in the valley in darkest of night,
God leads His dear children along.
Some through the water, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the flood,
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song
In the night season and all the day long,
Those sorrows befall us and say to the most,
God leads His dear children along.
Through grace we can conquer, defeat or fall,
God leads His dear children along.
Some through the water, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the flood,
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song
In the night season and all the day long,
Away from the fire and away from the flame,
God leads His dear children along.
Away up in glory, eternity's day,
God leads His dear children along.
Some through the water, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the flood,
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song
In the night season and all the day long.
Thank you for singing.
All right.
Those are 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 at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6.
Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
We're in 2 Chronicles chapter 33 this week.
We've got the soul-winning times listed there below,
as well as salvations and baptisms.
Across the page is the birth announcement for baby Elias.
And so congratulations to the Urban family.
And then below that, we've got the note about donuts and coffee.
Before the service next Sunday morning.
At the bottom there is the note about the donation station over here,
where there's a lot of food frequently over there,
especially on Wednesday nights,
but also sometimes on Sunday mornings and other items that are donated.
So be aware of that.
On the back, keep praying for our expectant ladies
that they'll have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery.
We've got a baby shower coming up in one week,
right here on Sunday afternoon.
This is a great time of fellowship for all the ladies and teenage girls.
Always feel free to come to these.
Don't be shy about coming to these.
If you don't know Lola,
or if you don't know whatever lady is being honored at these things,
just show up and have a good time.
And everybody's always invited to these.
There will be food provided.
Enough said, right?
2 o'clock to 4 o'clock right here.
And so that's a week from today.
And then at the bottom, other upcoming events.
This Friday night, I'm going to be preaching in Oklahoma City
at Anchor Baptist Church, pastored by Brother Dylan Oz.
And so I'm looking forward to that.
And then we've got Pastor Jonathan Shelley coming out here to preach
on February the 19th, Wednesday night.
And then in March, we've got Brother Corbin Russell coming out
to preach as well.
And then of course, we've got the big Bahamas Cruise Mission Strip coming up.
March 23rd through 28th.
And of course, we're open to people organizing other cruise mission strips on their own.
And then we can advertise those.
If people find a really good deal that hits a lot of good soul winning ports,
then you can start something.
We'll advertise it and let people know about it.
And then this one in particular is going to be a really good one
because the Bahamas is one of the best places to go soul winning.
And if you want to get inspired about this, you can listen to the sermon
from the missions conference, not last year, but the year before
when Pastor Shelley preached the sermon about the Bahamas.
And that sermon can get you motivated on just how receptive it is
and how great it is.
Of course, this week also, Brother Daniel Rider and I took a short mission strip
to two places.
We went to the Cayman Islands and went to Jamaica.
And we had a lot of success with a total of 52 salvations between the two of us
out there soul winning in the Caribbean.
The fields are white unto harvest.
And there's a huge opportunity.
The thing that I love about it is that it's close.
So it's cheaper to get there than to go to places that are on the other side of the world.
It's not that big of a difference in the time zone.
So you don't get a really bad jet lag or anything
because you can pretty much stay on Arizona time and be okay
because it's just like two hours different.
And it's just close.
It's easy.
They speak English.
And so there are just a lot of advantages.
And it's really just a mission field that needs to be hit
because even though these places are so receptive, you know, we're in the Cayman Islands,
I walk up to a table of five, six college students and ask them,
do you know for sure if you died today you would go to heaven?
And all six of them are saying no.
Right?
I walk up to a group of three students.
Do you know for sure if you died today you'd go to heaven?
No, no, no.
Ask these people, do you know for sure you're going to heaven?
No, no, no.
Lots of them are Seventh-day Adventists.
Many of them are even Baptists in name but don't even know if they're going to heaven.
You know, but it's a lot of Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists, Protestants.
One of the things I was running into constantly in Cayman Islands was also Episcopalian.
It was just a lot of Anglican, Episcopalian.
Because it makes sense because it's part of the UK, right?
Cayman Islands is part of the UK so there's a lot of that Church of England, you know.
Hopefully their church isn't as bad as that weird lesbian in Washington, D.C.
But anyway, you know, so it's a lot of Protestant, Seventh-day Adventists,
some of it's even Baptist, but I'm telling you, so many people, they're receptive,
they're interested in the things of God, but they do not know for sure they're going to heaven
because they do not understand that salvation is by faith.
They think it's something about the way they're living their lives
and it's super clear when you're talking to them that they are not even close to being saved.
But then they get saved.
And not only do they get saved, not only are they receptive to the Gospel,
but the people that we're talking to in the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas, et cetera,
they really have a genuine interest in the things of God
because even after I would win them to Christ, they would want to keep talking about the Bible
and keep talking about spiritual things.
So I had some situations where I would win a few people to the Lord
and then I would end up sitting and talking with them for another hour, you know.
So I was having conversations that lasted over an hour.
You know, I'd win them to the Lord in like 10, 15 minutes
and then just sit for another 45 minutes and just be talking to them about the Bible,
answering Bible questions, talking about ways to live a better Christian life, to improve spiritually.
And so, you know, that shows that it's not just some, oh yeah, here, you know,
quickly, blah, blah, blah, go through this, pray this prayer.
I mean, you know, the soul winning we do is real.
Okay. We're thorough. We do a thorough job.
They understand the Gospel. They call upon the name of the Lord.
And then in many cases we're even able to impart even more unto them
as we, you know, preach other things to them even just in the ensuing conversations.
So it's a really great experience.
I highly recommend getting out there yourself.
One of our biggest goals this year as a church is we want to try to get
as many of our church members on the mission field as possible.
So I want you to personally, whoever you are, think about the possibility
of maybe you getting out there on one of these trips.
And it might seem like a really wild step for you
or maybe like a really big leap of faith or a crazy thing for you to do.
But step number one is to learn how to go soul winning right here at home
and get some training, get some practice at home.
And we got plenty of people that can teach you how to go soul winning
and get you out on one of these trips.
But if you're already a soul winner, if you already know how to win someone to Christ,
you know, I'd love to see really high levels of participation this year
getting out on the foreign field.
It's going to be cool and I just don't want you to miss out on it, okay?
Because I'm going to go on a bunch of these cool trips, whether you do or not.
But I just want you to have some fun too.
And also to get a taste of going soul winning in a really receptive place
because honestly, soul winning can get a little bit discouraging sometimes
when you're not getting a lot of results or when you're being told no a lot.
And so it's just super refreshing to go soul winning in a place
where people want to hear the gospel.
And it kind of just reminds you of why you go soul winning in the first place,
why you love soul winning in the first place.
It kind of re-energizes you for soul winning.
All right, so that was a big, long announcement about that.
But just want to keep those things on your heart and mind.
And that is about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the last few days.
So going back to Thursday, anything to report from Thursday?
Yes.
Okay.
Got it.
Gotcha.
Okay.
And then how about Friday?
Okay.
Gotcha.
Okay, anything else from Friday?
How about Saturday?
Okay.
Got it.
Okay.
And then how about today?
Gotcha in the back.
Brother Tilson, gotcha.
Okay.
Got it.
Anything else from today?
Oh, Brother Scott.
Gotcha.
All right.
And I'll log those from our trip.
Anything else from today that I missed?
All right.
Keep up the great work on soul winning.
And with that, let's sing our next song.
Come lead us.
All right, you should find the insert in front of your hymnal with rejoice in the Lord.
If you don't have an insert, please raise your hand and we'll sing it.
On that first, God never moves without purpose or plan.
When trying a servant and holding a man, give thanks to the Lord.
Though your testing seems long, in darkness he giveth a song.
For joy is saved by the Lord, he makes no mistake.
We know at the end of each path that I take.
For when I am tried and you're revived, I shall come forth as gold.
I could not see through the shadows ahead.
So I looked at the cross of my Savior instead.
I bowed to the will of the Master that day.
Then peace came and tears fled away.
For joy is saved by the Lord, he makes no mistake.
We know at the end of each path that I take.
For when I am tried and you're revived, I shall come forth as gold.
Now I can see testing comes from above.
God strengthens his children and merges in love.
My Father does best and I trust in his care.
Through purging of food I will bear.
Oh, rejoice in the Lord, he makes no mistake.
We know at the end of each path that I take.
For when I am tried and you're revived, I shall come forth as gold.
We know at the end of each path that I trust in his care.
Once far from God and dead in sin,
No light my heart could see.
But in God's Word the light I found,
Now Christ liveth in me.
Christ liveth in me.
Oh, what a salvation it is
That Christ liveth in me.
As rays of light from yonder sky,
The flowers of earth set free.
So life and light and love came forth
From Christ living in me.
Christ liveth in me.
Oh, what a salvation it is
That Christ liveth in me.
As lives the flower within the sea,
As in the golden tree.
So praise the God of truth and grace,
His Spirit dwell within me.
Christ liveth in me.
Oh, what a salvation it is
That Christ liveth in me.
In walking all my heart is real,
And life in life in me.
As of the wondrous Lord I dwell,
That Christ liveth in me.
Christ liveth in me.
Oh, what a salvation it is
That Christ liveth in me.
All right, this time we'll pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 17.
Matthew chapter number 17, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1.
Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads Matthew 17, starting in verse number 1.
Matthew 17, the Bible reads,
And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother,
And bringeth them up into a high mountain apart,
And was transfigured before them,
And his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.
And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, talking with them.
Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here.
If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles,
One for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.
And while he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.
And behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him.
And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were so afraid.
And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid.
And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only.
And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying,
Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.
And his disciples asked him, saying,
Why then say the scribes that Elias must come first?
And Jesus answered and said unto them,
Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.
But I say unto you that Elias is come already, and they knew him not,
but have done unto him whatsoever they listed.
Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.
Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.
And when they were come to the multitude,
there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,
Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic, and sore vexed,
for oft times he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
And Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation,
how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?
Bring him hither to me.
And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him,
and the child was cured from that very hour.
Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said,
Why could not we cast him out?
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief,
for verily I say unto you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed,
you shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place,
and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Howbeit this kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting.
And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them,
The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men,
and they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again,
and they were exceeding sorry.
And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money
came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?
He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house,
Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon?
Of whom do the kings of the earth take customer tribute?
Of their own children, or of strangers?
Peter saith unto them, Hit unto him of strangers.
Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.
Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them,
go thou to the sea, and cast and hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up.
And when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money,
that take, and give unto them for me and thee.
Thank you, Father, for the opportunity to hear your holy and precious word.
I ask that you fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit,
open our hearts and our ears to receive your perfect word.
I pray this in Jesus' holy name. Amen.
Amen.
And I pray that you believe in Jesus as the intestine of Christ.
And that God's people that we call on when folks don't just want the Lord.
They want the Lord to be someone.
They feel this is Jesus Christ today,
this is Jesus,
Jesus is Jesus.
Jesus was to people.
He came out of heaven.
Our years of living he came out of heaven soon
to live on life.
and this is a list of sins and it's talking about the fact that these sins
are why people are damned because of the fact that they've sinned, they've got to be
punished for their sins and so we have this list. Now the interesting thing
about the second thing on the list here the unbelieving because that's what I'm
focusing on tonight is the unbelieving is you know why is it nested in this
longer list of sins because duh unbelievers are going to hell right I
mean that's kind of obvious if the one thing that you have to do to be saved is
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ of course unbelievers are damned so why is
unbelieving on this list of sins okay well first of all I think it makes sure
that everyone knows that they are nailed by this list usually it's easy enough to
just get to the all liars and everybody sort of feels like they got nailed by
the list because a lot of times I've shown this to people and you can kind of
watch their face as you're going through it and they're kind of thinking like not
me not me I'm not a murderer not a sorcerer and then it's like all liars
they're like oh man you know I've done that but occasionally some people will
even be stupid enough to try to claim that they've never lied but here's the
thing let's say that a person came along and they had this attitude that said
well you know I don't need salvation I don't need to believe in Jesus because
I'm just a righteous person well here's the thing not believing in Jesus is a
big sin so even if you were righteous in other areas or think that you're
righteous in other areas you are commanded to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and not believing in Jesus is a sin let me give you some scriptural
proof for that first John chapter 3 verse 23 says this this is his
commandment that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ right
so the Bible says this is his commandment that we should believe on
the name of a son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment so
believing in Jesus is not optional right it's a commandment not only that it
makes sense that not believing in Jesus would be a sin because essentially
you're calling God a liar by not believing in Jesus it says in 1st John
5 verse 10 he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself he
that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record
that God gave of his son and this is the record that God has given to us eternal
life and this life is in his son so if you don't believe the Word of God you're
calling God a liar so that makes sense that it would be a sin to do that
however all that being said like I said it's pretty obvious that unbelievers are
damned but the sin here in Revelation 21 8 the fearful and the unbelieving the
abominable murderers that unbelieving there is not restricted only to just not
believing the gospel of Jesus Christ okay obviously that's part of it but
really unbelief could be a reference to not believing anything that God says in
the Bible anytime we don't believe something in the Bible or don't believe
a promise of God that is a sin because we are supposed to have faith in those
things now if you would flip over in or you should already be there in Matthew
chapter 17 because what I want to show you is that not only are we saved by
faith when we initially believe on the Lord Jesus Christ we are also supposed
to be living a life that is characterized by faith going forward
right so when it comes to getting saved we just have to believe that Jesus is
the son of God believe is the Messiah believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as our
hope of heaven but then after that we're supposed to go through life reading the
Bible and learning other promises of God and living a life characterized by faith
in those promises of God and it's possible for a saved person who has
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior to still live a life that
is not characterized by faith where they're doing things that show a lack of
faith after that
ok let me show you some examples this look at Matthew chapter 17 verse 14 it
says when they were come to the multitude they came there came to a
certain man kneeling down to him and saying Lord have mercy on my son for
he's a lunatic and sore vexed for oft times he falls into the fire and often
to the water and I brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him
then Jesus answered and said oh faithless and perverse generation how
long shall I be with you
how long shall I suffer you bring him hither to me and Jesus rebuked the devil
and he departed out of him and the child was cured from that very hour now here's
the key part I want to focus in on then came the disciples to Jesus apart and
said why could not we cast him out
ok now in the past remember the disciples have been empowered by Christ
to cast out devils and the Lord had given them that ability and they've
exercised that ability previously so they're a little bit confused here why
they were not able to cast out this devil and they said Lord why couldn't we
cast him out and look what it says in verse 20 Jesus said to them because of
your unbelief
now look are the disciples unsaved
no of course the disciples are saved of course they believe that Jesus is the
Messiah of course they believe that Jesus the Son of God
that's not the issue here Jesus doesn't have a bunch of unsaved disciples he
only has one that's unsaved which is Judas Iscariot so when he says because
of your unbelief
this is showing that it's possible even for a saved Christian to be exercising
unbelief in a certain situation or to just be sort of lacking faith in other
areas of life even if they believe the gospel and are saved right and so he
says it's because of your unbelief and then he says for verily I say unto you
if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed
ye shall say unto this mountain remove hints to yonder place and it shall remove
and nothing shall be impossible unto you
how be it this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting and so we can look at
ourselves and we are saved because we have believed on Jesus and called upon
the name of the Lord we know we're going to heaven
just like the disciples were saved but are we out there moving mountains with
our faith
not necessarily and so this is something that all of us need to work on in our
lives increasing our faith and living a life that is characterized by faith and
not unbelief
flip over if you would to Luke chapter 17 and we'll find a similar statement
over in Luke chapter 17 because remember revelation 21 8 is a great verse for
showing people why they need to be saved
ok we've all used it or a lot of us have used it many times but in addition to
that it's also a list of things that God doesn't like
it's also a list of bad things which are the reasons why God's wrath is coming
upon the children of disobedience and so therefore we should be striving to live
our lives in a way that avoids these sinful things right
so once we're saved we're already saved we're going to heaven but do we want to
be cowards
no do we want to be faithless or unbelieving and again we're not talking
about salvation we're talking about just living a life where we're not walking by
faith we're walking by sight and we're just not trusting in the promises of God
like we should we're not fully trusting in his word as we go through life
ok obviously we don't want to be murderers or sorcerers or harmongers
just because we're saved
it doesn't mean oh well I'm saved so I'm just going to go out and lie and do all
these things so the reason I'm going through these point-by-point in these
sermons is because we all need to work on these things in our lives work on
number one this morning not being a coward and work on number two tonight
increasing our faith and not going through life being characterized by
unbelief
ok so look what it says in Luke chapter 17 verse 5 the apostles said to the Lord
increase our faith and the Lord said if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed
you might say unto this sycamine tree be thou plucked up by the root and be thou
planted into the sea and it should obey you
so he is explaining to them you have a tiny amount of faith and these are not
bad Christians I mean they're probably better Christians than any of us are
these are the 12 disciples for crying out loud and yet he says to them your
faith is so small
it's not even the size of a mustard seed you have this tiny amount of faith and
so I guarantee you that we probably often have the same problem of
struggling with unbelief or having too little faith to live our lives the way
that we should and do the things that we should if the disciples need to be
admonished to increase their faith
well I think we probably need to increase our faith too and not just
think oh well I'm saved therefore I'm kind of done with faith faith got me
saved now I'm done
well yet you're done being saved but you're not done living the Christian
life and living the Christian life is going to take more and more faith and
guess what people that have more faith they do greater things for God people
have less faith people have little faith they do less for God because they're
more focused on the here and now and not on spiritual things when trials and
tribulations come along the people with a weak faith end up just falling away
and not trusting in the Lord to get them through those hard times and so then
they end up just trying to fix everything themselves and and you know
putting Christ and his word on the back burner
so we as Christians often have very little faith and that's something that
we need to work on and so there are scriptures on this throughout the New
Testament if you would though flip over to Numbers chapter 20 but for example in
second Corinthians 10 15 the Apostle Paul uses this phrase when your faith is
increased right he's talking about the fact that their faith needs to increase
later in second Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 3 he says we're bound to thank God
always for you brother and as it is meet because that your faith grow with
exceedingly and the charity of every one of you all toward each other bounded so
if he's telling the Thessalonians that their faith is growing exceedingly it
sounds to me like everybody doesn't have the same amount of faith
ok how much faith does it take to get saved
very little very little the only thing is whatever tiny little speck of faith
you have you need to put it all on Jesus you can't put something on Buddha and
some of it on Krishna and whatever it's got to all be on Jesus but it doesn't
take some huge amount of faith to just confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus
just open your mouth and confess the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart
that God has raised from the dead
thankfully it doesn't take a lot of faith to be saved ok but amongst those
who are saved amongst those who are Christians there are varying levels of
faith which is why Paul could tell one church
hey your faith is growing exceedingly you guys are increasing your faith your
faith is being increased and then we can see Jesus telling the disciples oh ye of
little faith wherefore didst thou doubt right or oh you couldn't cast out this
devil because of your unbelief so it sounds to me like some Christians have
more faith than others some Christians faith is growing other Christians just
go through life with very little faith and therefore they do very little for
God so this is something we need to work on now even a godly Christian can
sometimes fail to believe God in a certain situation and and sin by not
exercising faith at that moment
ok and here's an example that life of Moses which is obviously one of the
greatest men who's ever lived
nobody would doubt that Moses is a super righteous godly man that was greatly
used by God and yet he actually fell prey to unbelief at one point because
look at numbers chapter 20 verse 7 the Lord spake unto Moses saying take the
rod and gather thou the assembly together thou and Aaron thy brother and
speak ye unto the rock before their eyes now Moses has previously gotten water
out of this rock by hitting it with his rod so he smote it with the rod water
came out it was a miracle of God this time he's told to do it differently he's
told speak unto the rock before their eyes so you know talk to it in front of
everyone he wants Moses to in front of everybody
speak to the rock and water is going to come out now look this is obviously a
bigger miracle because you know if he's beating it with a stick
somebody could think oh you know he dislodged something he hit it with a
stick and it dislodged this little fountain or whatever underwater aquifer
and water is coming out you know it's a little bit more impressive when you just
speak to it and water comes out right so he's you know he's asking him to do this
for whatever reason and he says thou shalt bring forth to them water out of
the rock so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink and
Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him and Moses and Aaron
gathered the congregation together before the rock and he said unto them
here now ye rebels must we fetch you water out of this rock and Moses lifted
up his hand with his rod he smote the rock twice so he doesn't talk to the
rock like he's supposed to instead he hits it twice and water came out
abundantly and the congregation drank and their beasts also so it still works
but it wasn't what God told him to do he hits it and yeah the water comes out but
that's not what God said God wanted to do a cooler miracle where he speaks to
the rock and the water comes out and the Lord spake unto Moses verse 12 and Aaron
because and this is the key right here look because you believed me not and
again we're not doubting Moses's salvation obviously he believes in the
Lord in general he's saved just like you and I believe in the Lord in general
we're saved we believe the Word of God in general but in this situation he
didn't have the faith right then and there to do what God had just told him
to do by speaking to the rock and so it says because you didn't believe me right
you believed me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel
therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I've
given them and so you can see how there are a lot of different applications here
and look I've preached this passage in different ways at other times lots of
other pastors have preached this different ways because this is a very
deep story that can be interpreted a whole bunch of ways that are all
legitimate there are lots of different things going on here because you could
think about you know the smiting the rock twice could be a picture of course
of the Lord Jesus Christ being smitten he's the rock and the living water comes
from Christ and so you know Jesus is only crucified one time so he's only
supposed to be you know smitten one time we don't want to re crucify Jesus every
Sunday at the mass or something and and and go through this over and over again
and so that's the symbolism of hitting it twice all we really need to be to do
to be saved he's already been smitten one time we just need to speak and just
confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus right call upon the name of the Lord and
be saved so yeah that's a great interpretation and and obviously there
are lots of wonderful things going on in this passage that we could talk about
for hours but you know another thing that we could think about on just a more
surface level is the idea here that sometimes you know we'll we'll do things
a certain way in our life and then sometimes God is asking us to change and
to do something different right and we read something in the Bible that tells
us to do something that maybe we haven't been doing in the past and we need to be
willing to change we need to have the faith to change and do something new if
that's what God's telling us to do and here's the thing you know a lot of
Christians are just in a rut in their lives and many times we need to step out
in faith get out of our comfort zone and do something new and do something
different and not just be in the same rut making the same mistakes over and
over again and so forth it's another thing that you could look at this as you
know that Moses like well I hit it last time so I'm just gonna hit it again
instead of saying well no God's telling you to do things differently you're
gonna need to make a change get out of your comfort zone you know you don't
have to use the rod for every miracle okay you can just speak to the rock and
God can do it and so you know I hope that in 2025 you maybe get out of your
comfort zone a little bit and make some changes in your life to become a better
person and to become a better Christian right and do those changes based on what
the Word of God is telling you because here God's giving Moses a really
specific instruction speak to the rock but we have a lot of specific
instructions right here too about just how to live our lives and I guarantee
you that there are some things in the Bible that are being dictated that we
aren't doing we do them differently or we have our own way that we've been
living our life and when we come across things in the Bible that conflict with
our lifestyle we should be willing to make changes and get out of our comfort
zone and do some new things say well you know I've just never really been into
soul winning you know well maybe it's time for you to get into it well I've
just never really been a big reader you know so I don't really read the Bible
well time to get into it time to get into Bible reading time to get
consistent with Bible reading time to start praying time to start soul winning
time to start being faithful to church time to go out on the mission field you
know time to do some new stuff in 2025 instead of just stagnating as a Christian
and just saying well this is just how I've always done it in the past well
God's telling him you know the way that you've done it in the past isn't gonna
cut it this time I want you to do something different and when we're
reading our Bibles sometimes God's asking us to do something different than
what we've done in the past and so we need to be willing to follow him and so
we see here and the main reason I showed you this story though is because I want
you to believe me when I tell you that unbelief is a sin that Christians can
commit right because guess what Christians can be fearful unbelieving
abominable murderers whoremongers sorcerers adulterers and liars please
tell me which of those a Christian cannot commit because guess what a
Christian even after they're saved can and often will commit those things on
that list and so another application of Revelation 21 8 is that these are sins
that we should avoid being a coward being unbelieving you say well you know
I thought all Christians are believers well of course we are basic believers in
the sense that we believe in Christ so was Moses but yet he believed not God in
this instance yeah so were the disciples saved believers but they couldn't cast
out a devil in a certain situation because of their unbelief their faith
was kind of belittled by Jesus actually it just straight was belittled by Jesus
other churches needed to increase their faith so now that we've laid that
foundation let me just give you a few practical applications on how many of
you three practical applications tonight about how to be faithful and not to be
unbelieving as a Christian to be a Christian whose life is characterized by
faith go to Matthew chapter 6 here's three practical applications the first
was in Matthew chapter 6 is that number one if we're going to exercise faith it
means that we are seeking first the kingdom of God and putting God before
everything else in our lives putting God first our lives look at the Bible says
in Matthew 6 31 therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat or what
shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed for after all these things do
the Gentiles seek for your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all
these things but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and
all these things shall be added unto you you see going through life saying oh man
what are we gonna eat what are we gonna drink what are we gonna wear is a lack
of faith because the Bible says the Heavenly Father knows that we have need
of all those things he's going to provide our needs if God so clothed the
grass of the field shall he not much more clothe you oh ye of little faith
look even a saved Christian if they're going through life said oh man what are
we gonna do how are we gonna pay the bills how am I gonna dress how am I
gonna eat what you know the Bible says they have little faith and if you have a
lot of faith then you say I know my needs are gonna be met I know God's
gonna give me food and raiment I know I'm gonna have what I need to survive
the Heavenly Father already knows that I need of all these things and so
therefore my main priority is not going to be just what do I eat what do I drink
it's going to be what do I need to do for God that's number I'm going to seek
first the kingdom of God the number one most important thing is what am I doing
for God what's my game plan for serving God what am I going to do to evangelize
what am I going to do to please God what am I going to do to be a good Christian
see that's number one because I already know that that other stuff is taken care
of how do you know that by faith by faith aren't you worried about all this
other stuff no because God already promised me that it's all taken care of
and I believe him but that's faith right so the person who lives their life based
on faith is going to do more for God because they can easily prioritize God
because they realize hey this is all I need to worry about and then if I worry
about that other things will take care of themselves you say that's not how
life works pastor Anderson things don't just take care of themselves actually
they do because look at verse 34 it says take therefore no thought for the morrow
for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself I mean tomorrow is
literally going to take care of itself you say I don't know if tomorrow can
think I don't know if tomorrow has a brain but the Bible says the morrow
shall take thought for the things of itself sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof and obviously tomorrow is not actually doing any thinking it's a
figure of speech I'm joking but the point is though that yeah things will
take care of themselves if you seek first the kingdom of God now look
obviously I'm not saying hey you don't need to go to work you don't need to buy
clothes you don't need to sew and you don't need to reap and do these things
obviously you know the Bible doesn't say seek only the kingdom of God says seek
first the kingdom of God right so obviously there are other human
activities that we're gonna do throughout the week yes we are supposed
to go to work and do all these things but when it comes to our brain we don't
need to stress and worry about those things we don't need to sit around just
thinking about money all the time just money money money in our thought we wake
up in the morning and check the bank account and think about money and we're
thinking about money in the evening and in bed at night and on Saturday and
we're just thinking about money no no what we need to be thinking about is the
Word of God need to be waking up in the morning and thinking about the things of
God reading our Bible praying going through life where the big goal the big
picture is serving God that's the main thing and you say I don't know shouldn't
you make these other things the main thing now because they're already taken
care of if I seek first the kingdom of God all these other things will be added
unto me but again this takes faith people who are lean on faith they're
gonna be worried stressing about other things and then they're gonna make
decisions that reflect that because they're gonna put God on the back burner
so they can really focus on making money and doing all these other things when in
reality if you'll focus on the things of God you'll find that these other
things are taken care of it's sort of like the story where Jesus tells Peter
when they need to pay the taxes he tells Peter to go out fishing and in the first
fish that he catches if he opens the fish's mouth there's gonna be a coin in
the fish's mouth that he's gonna be able to pay his taxes with okay would to God
we could pay our taxes with a single coin in 2025 but the point is if we did
it'd be like you know a big giant coin that's made out of gold the size of a
pizza but the point is that you know the answer for Peters financial issue was to
go fishing right and so the idea is if we will as a church evangelize then our
churches needs will be met right the coin is in the fish's mouth we win
souls and our financial needs are met we're a fisher of men and then we have
the revenue that we need to do our work as a church I think the most important
component to our church succeeding financially and look we are in our
20th year now at Faith Ford Baptist Church of being successful financially
meaning that we've never run out of money not been able to pay the bills and
we've been able to be extremely liberal not with our doctrine now not with our
interpretation of the Bible now but we've been extremely liberal with our
funds as far as being generous and being able to do a lot of missions and spend
money on winning souls to Christ putting people on the mission field taking trips
to all these Indian reservations where we could do all that great soul winning
and everything and we've been able to spend a lot of money putting out all
kinds of materials for free CDs DVDs of preaching and on and on it goes and
we've always just had plenty of money and we've been able to help out other
churches big time now you wouldn't know that by the way they treat us but I mean
we've helped out a lot of these churches to the tune of five grand ten grand 20
grand I mean frequently frequently those kind of sums we've helped out other
churches have been a blessing to other churches why because we just had an
abundance and let me tell you why we had an abundance is because we are a
soul-winning Church that's why and because you know what first of all God
knows that if money comes into our church it's gonna translate into soul
saved money comes into our church it's more people on the mission field it's
more mission strips it's more souls saved and God knows that so God's gonna
invest in our church because it's a winner as an investment when it comes to
soul winning and spiritually but not only that people know that too people
know if they donate to faithful word it's going to soul winning it's going
toward missions it's going toward reaching people with the gospel and
here's the thing it's true the more money we have the more of us go to the
mission field and the more souls we win and the less money we have we slow down
on those things it's just that simple and so God knows that people know that
we have had a you know I call our financial philosophy the coin in the
mouth economics is what we do here right you know because that's a stupid
name I'm just kidding but the point is that our economic philosophy is just
based on let's just go out and catch a bunch of fish and the coin will be in
the fish's mouth we don't need to think about money we need to think about
fishing right think about winning souls and the money will take care of itself
seek first the kingdom of God and the financial needs will be met but also
that doesn't apply for the church it applies for your personal life as well
if you will be faithful to serve the Lord he will meet your needs as well
financially so number one seek first the kingdom of God putting God before
everything else go through the second chronicles chapter number 20 the second
practical application so practical application of having faith not just to
be saved but exercising faith throughout our lives is number one it takes faith
to not worry about other things and to really seek first the kingdom of God and
put put that first but number two also it takes faith to fight the Lord's
battles to stand with the man of God and to stand with the people of God that
takes faith to do that to make those kind of stance fighting the Lord's
battles look at second chronicles chapter 20 such a beautiful passage I
know I preached on it recently with second chronicles but it bears repeating
because it's such a great passage verse 17 you shall not need to fight in this
battle set yourselves stand ye still and see the salvation of the Lord with you
Oh Judah in Jerusalem fear not nor be dismayed tomorrow go out against them
for the Lord will be with you right that's a pretty powerful promise from
God verse 18 and Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground and all
Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord worshipping the
Lord and the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of
the Korhites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high
and as they rose early in the morning and went forth into the wilderness of
Tekoa and as they went forth Jehoshaphat stood and said now look at the words of
Jehoshaphat hear me oh Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem believe in the
Lord your God so shall you be established believe his prophets so
shall you prosper right and so the idea here is that in order to make a big
stand here because they're facing enemies of the neighboring nations that
are coming against them Moabites Ammonites and people and they need to
make a stand with the man of God Jehoshaphat with the people of God those
of Judah and Jerusalem and they have to take a stand here and they have to trust
God and God says look you're not even gonna need to fight in this battle I'm
gonna fight for you but you have to show up you have to be present you have to
take the stand and Jehoshaphat says hey believe in the Lord your God believe
that he's able to do this believe that we can win believe his prophets so shall
you prosper right believe the preaching believe the Bible and show up and stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord right and here's the thing a lot of
success in the Christian life is just showing up showing up to church right
and standing with the people of God by showing up at a real and by the way show
up at a real church not some little watered-down little fake little you
know baby Church come to big boy Church get the real stuff the real preaching
and the real soul winning not down at door hanger Baptist not down at repent
of your sins Baptist where we can't even keep the statement of faith and the
tract and the guest speakers from teaching heresy like how hard is it to
just keep the statement of faith the guest preachers and the tracts in the
back of the building from containing heresy like is it really that hard is it
really that hard to just make sure nobody gets up and preaches work
salvation because you know what I've been pastoring now I'm in my 20th year
of pastoring and I've had all kinds of guest preachers you're not gonna believe
this none of them has ever taught workspace salvation from the pulpit
never never has a guest preacher in 20 years gotten up and preached work
salvation is it really that hard or how about this if a preacher does get up and
and preach work salvation how about we rebuke him and call him out and tell him
he can't come back and kick him out and run him out of town on a rail how about
that and how about if the tracks are teaching a false doctrine and a turn
from your sins and turn over a new leaf kind of salvation how about we just burn
them all how about that how about we just throw them in the trash how about
we just send them through the shredder how about that how about we make sure
that the statement of faith is a statement of faith not a statement of
repent of your sins you see what I did there how about a statement of faith
alone for salvation you know and it kind of cracks me up how supposedly one
of the mottos of the Protestant Reformation is sola fide which is Latin
for only faith faith alone sola fide and then you got these people adding to the
gospel that well believing is not enough you also have to do these other things
and clean up your life or at least be willing to clean up your life and turn
from this sin and turn from that sin it's bogus you know but it's like hey
it's sad today that so many churches are compromising on the thing that matters
the most the gospel and so if you have the opportunity to go to a real church
that's actually strong on the gospel and actually strong on soul winning then you
know what you should take that opportunity and not go to some confused
mix and isn't it funny that the same churches that are a little mixed up on
the gospel or maybe like their tract rack is a little mixed up or their guest
preachers are a little mixed up or their statement of faith a little mixed up
isn't it interesting they're also the same ones that are not aggressive about
soul-winning well you know what I wouldn't be aggressive about soul-winning
either if I were confused about what the plan of salvation is right I mean if I
can't even keep the plan of salvation straight in this building then I guess I
wouldn't be super zealous about sharing a message that I can't even seem to keep
straight myself let me tell you something being solid on the doctrine of
salvation is also something that goes hand in hand with aggressively spreading
that doctrine right because when you're confident when you know salvation is by
faith alone when sola fide isn't just a slogan for you it's actually what you
believe you know what you'll be out there preaching that message with a lot
more confidence than the one who's like well I don't really know what
repent means or what you know just confused or bringing in confused guest
speakers and having a confused tract rack and then and then you wonder why
it's just a door hanger and by the way going so winning frequently will also
prevent you from getting confused about the guy you know here's the thing I
presented I can't even count how many times I presented the gospel in the last
seven days I'm not confused I don't have a hmm okay let me think salvation
because I've been preaching the gospel to person after person after person
ever soul winning will do that for you you know what I mean it's like how can
you not be just super clear super sharp super ready with salvation if you're
out so winning all the time it's all just right there and you've had all
these conversations and you've heard all the bozo unbelievers say stupid things
to you cuz they're not saved and then you're trying to help them get saved and
then some of these guest preachers in old IFP churches you're like yeah this
sounds like the crap that I heard from the door from unsaved people you know
what I'm saying like you recognize it and you're like yeah I've heard this
before last time I talked to an unsafe person fight the Lord's battles stand
with the man of God stand with the people of God and you know what it takes
faith to go to a real church you know why because going to a real church
sometimes involves persecution fights drama there's gonna be problems you
know oh there's too much drama at faithful word yeah that's because
there's so much action happening at faithful word you know what the word
drama literally means like you know I I really like to geek out on language and
words and everything you know you because it's a Greek word you know you
go back to the actual root meaning of that word drama and it literally means
work you know so it's like you know obviously that's not what drama means
but I'm saying that that's where it originally comes from it comes from a
word that means work you know we still call it a dramatic work or a work of art
or something like that but it actually comes from the word that means to do or
to work and I'm not drawing some theological conclusion here I'm just
drawing a just a reasonable observation that churches that actually do stuff
have more drama than do nothing be nothing say nothing churches but hey at
least there's no drama there hey look at look at look at all these perfect
families at the church that does almost nothing for God isn't it great you know
I wonder I wonder how many awards are gonna be handed out when we get to
heaven least drama you had you least drama in your house well done good and
faithful servant you had so little drama in your family you got along with your
siblings so well you didn't what you never want you know you didn't win
anybody the Lord you went soul any once in a blue moon and you sucked at it
because you were just doing a door hanger you know what I mean it's like
but boy did you did you have a sharp looking you know family photo and boy
you just got along with everybody so well and boy it was just so nice that
Christmas play that you had like it like what what do people think that
we're here on this earth to do just to let you know and you know I'm going off
on a little bit of a tangent here but here's what I call it the cult of the
perfect life the cult of the perfect life you know what I mean like like
that's the goal that's what we're all serving right because that's what cult
means like you're serving something right so the cult of the perfect life
worshiping the perfect life having all your little ducks in a row and oh it's
such a pretty church building and all the music is so pretty and everybody has
their perfect little pretty lives and we're all just gonna live this perfect
little pretty life well you know what here's the thing the people in the
Bible I want to know this did the great men and women of God in the Bible live
perfect pretty little lives because they lived some gnarly lives look look man
and you say oh you're just saying that because your life be a little gnarly
sometimes well here's the thing guess what yeah you know what my life does get
a little gnarly sometimes my life has gotten a little ugly sometimes but you
know what I follow the Bible I'm not a perfect person but you know what I am a
Christian that follows the Bible in general I love God I serve God and I do
write by God I'm not saying I'm perfect I'm far from it but I've served God
consistently for decades and I've won souls consistently for decades but you
know what yeah my life has never been perfect I've never been perfect I'm
never gonna be perfect but you know what my goal is not to have this little
perfect little life oh it's so perfect oh let me send out a little Christmas
letter to tell everybody how perfect it is let me send out a little letter about
our church how perfect our churches no it's it's a church that produces results
results my friend and you know what I am a person that produces results okay and
guess what the people in the Bible who produce results they weren't perfect
either and today instead of being serious about serving God and preaching
the Bible every word of God and letting the chips fall where they may and
preaching hard and preaching true and preaching clear and doing the work of an
evangelist and going out there and when he beaucoup souls to Christ what do we
have instead the cult of the perfect life and you hear it all the time hey
you just need to slow down on serving God and just you know just kind of wake
up in the morning and get you a little cup of coffee and you get in the
kind of fetal position on the couch with your cup of coffee and do your
little devotions with the Lord and whatever it's like okay that's great and
I'm all for you curling up on the sofa with your hot chocolate and your
devotional with the Lord but you know what are you gonna go out and do any
soul-winning or what yeah you know and I say to these pastors are you gonna get
up and preach the hard sermons or what are you gonna go out and do the big
works for God or what and it's so funny how people like well you know that
faithful word Baptist Church yeah they do win a ton of souls I appreciate the
fact that they're winning tens of thousands of people Lord but you know
here's our here's all the criticisms of it it's amazing how much God uses you
know a bad church is like faithful word and then these really good churches do
so little for God it's kind of ironic there's really good churches with all
these little perfect people and the perfect little special churches just do
like nothing for God and reach so few people in fact they're filled with with
converts that we reached you know and it's like they're doing so little and
then it's like you know well pastor answers is bad but yeah he wins souls
but he's a bad man he's a very bad man well here's the thing about that you
know I don't know I guess if I'm such a bad man maybe we need some more bad
pastors maybe we'd actually evangelize the whole stinking world we probably
evangelize the whole stinking world if we had some more bad pastors like bad
pastor Anderson and look I'm not saying that I'm a bad person because I'm not
I'm saying they claim that I'm some bad pastor I'm bad like the power glove was
but no I'm just kidding I'm just saying you know it's just it's just stupid like
these people are stupid the tree is known by its fruit and you know what I'm
not trying to live a perfect life I'm not a member of the cult of the perfect
life and you know what's so funny is these pastors out there and Christians
out there that claim that oh you know you can guarantee that all of your
children turn out right and that they all turn out right I'm thinking myself
you know what God needs to flood the world again except with you as Noah
right think about it God flooding the world was a great idea you just picked
the wrong person right think about it because I mean God flooded the whole
world and Noah and his family are the only ones on the boat and we know that
out of those three sons one of them was super wicked but you know what the other
two probably weren't that great either because within a hundred years
everybody's building the Tower of Babel the whole the whole world is united in
doing something ungodly a hundred years later it's all the children and
grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Noah are all doing the wrong thing but
it didn't take long did it they get off the boat and before ham even does
whatever weird stupid thing ham did in Genesis 9 obviously a subject of debate
God's already saying the moment that Noah gets off the earth God's already
saying you know what I'm not gonna flood the earth again because I've just made
and I'm paraphrasing but he says I've just kind of made peace with the fact
that the imaginations of man's heart are just evil from his youth from his youth
human beings just have an evil imagination and so I'm just gonna accept
that and I'm not gonna flood the earth again but you know what I think would be
what we need in 2025 is we need one more global flood okay right like we need
another global flood except this time instead of you know sucky Noah right
because no we know Noah was a terrible person because just look at ham it's
obviously a bad father right I mean come on but if we had you know one of these
other you know know it all pastors that just guarantees that oh if we flooded
the world and just let him and his perfect family survive we could have
everything fixed right now so it what the flood was not a bad idea it was just
Noah was the wrong guy right amen no because this is stupid I hope you know
I'm kidding right now this is so stupid because guess what God picked Noah who
was an awesome guy and it still didn't work because Noah can't guarantee that
his adult children are gonna do right just like he can't guarantee that his
adult grandchildren are gonna do right and God could have picked any person he
could have done the same thing in any generation he could do it with me he
could do it with you he could do with Abraham he could have done it with David
he could have put David on the boat he could have said alright let's flood the
world one more time let's put David on the boat just David and his family you
know what you would have gotten the same outcome and you know these bunch of
little perfect little pastors and perfect little people with their
perfect little families guess what if you flood the world and put them on a
boat they're gonna screw it up too unless I guess they're just all better
than Noah and better than Samuel and they're better than Abraham they're
better than Isaac they're better than Jacob they're better than everybody
they're just so freaking awesome and yet they seem to do so little to evangelize
the world and their churches seem to grow so so slowly and they seem to have
so little effect in their works for God isn't that interesting it's too bad that
God just keeps using the wrong people and putting the wrong people on the boat
and and blessing the wrong people's soul winning and blessing the wrong people's
missions it's just you know it's just okay all right I'm done
all right number three second Samuel chapter number 22 verse 31 is the last
verse we'll look at tonight I'm sorry I'm just not a member of the cult of the
perfect life you know I would rather live a super messed up life and I'm not
talking about a sinful life my friend I don't live a sinful life again not
perfect I'm not without sin but I don't live a sinful life like I'm not just out
there doing all this stuff you know relatively speaking I strive to live the
clean straight laced Christian life and here's the thing about that is that I
would rather live a messed up life and I'm not saying a sinful life I'm just
saying a messed up life like a life filled with problems and drama right I
would rather live a life filled with problems and drama and headaches and
heartaches and to do a great work for God and reach beaucoup souls for Christ
then to live a little perfect Christmas card life and be a big nobody now look
if you're a layman and you want to be a nobody well that's kind of lame of you
but hey whatever I guess that's why you're you know whatever but here's the
thing but for a pastor to have that attitude it's really sad it's really sad
for a pastor and I'm thinking of a particular pastor by the way who you
know God should flood the earth and put him on the boat because he'll fix
everything and this pastor literally said to me he said you know Abraham was
willing to sacrifice his son for the Lord but he said I would never do that
he said I would never do I would never give up my son for ministry because he
said my family is the most important thing I'm just thinking like what the
heck like you're a pastor the Bible literally says he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me he that loveth father or mother more
than me is not worthy of me the Bible literally uses Abraham sacrificing
Isaac as an example of what you're supposed to do and I can understand a
layman who's just kind of admitting hey I'm not that spiritual so you know I'm
just gonna just put my family first because all I can see is just what's
right here in front of me I don't have the faith well guess what no we're
supposed to be willing to sacrifice everything for Christ okay and if doing
something great for Christ means that we're gonna have more persecution more
of a target on us more affliction more trials more tribulation more problems
more so-called drama then bring it on because I'm not gonna live my life as a
nobody and last time I checked you want to have a pastor that's willing to put
it all out there and to give it his best to give it everything oh never mind you
want to go down to some little sissified Church down the road that won't preach
hard on sand that can't figure out whether salvation is by faith alone or
not they can't get their statement of faith right they can't get their guest
preachers right they can't get their tracks right and they're out there doing
a door hanger you know what go there if that's how you feel because oh it's so
beautiful the building and oh the Christmas cards are so glorious but
number three here's what's gonna take faith living your life God's way living
your life God's way because here's the thing the world has got their ideas and
their opinions about the way that you should live your life and we're
constantly being told by the so-called experts and people of this world how to
live our lives but what does the Bible say in 2nd Samuel chapter 22 verse 31 it
says as for God his way is perfect the word of the Lord is tried and and and I
love that phrase the word of the Lord is tried because if you think about it
the word of the Lord has been around for thousands of years and people have been
doing it and it works and in the long run people who followed the Bible were
successful and people who didn't follow the Bible failed in the long run but in
the short term it doesn't always feel that way does it in the short term you
don't always get the payoff right away because if it was that easy that every
time you did something good you're just immediately blessed and every time you
did something wrong you're just immediately curse well then it wouldn't
be any faith required would it but in the short term sometimes the world's way
can appear superior to those who have little faith but the word of the Lord's
tried we're not new at this folks it's 2025 years after the birth of Christ and
we've had Christians and Christians and Christians doing what the Bible says
staying true to the word of God and it has worked his way is perfect the word
of the Lord is tried it's not new it's been tried and it's been proven and it's
been tested and it works he is a buckler another word for a shield right he's a
buckler to all them that trust in him you know you if you have the faith and
trust in the Lord you understand God's way is perfect so that means we're gonna
do marriage God's way child-rearing God's way run a business God's way be an
employee God's way take care of your physical body God's way and when you
don't do it God's way and you do it the world's way you know what that is I got
a word for you unbelief unbelief I'm not saying you're not saved but I'm saying
that in that area you are practicing unbelief rather than belief because
belief says well I got to do it God's way his way is perfect his way is tried
he's a buckler to those that trust in him versus well this other way seems
like you know it's working for the people around me well in the short term
maybe it is but in the long term God's way is tried that's the way to do it and
so all that to say this you know what what are we talking about with the
unbelieving the unbelieving are damned right why are they damned well they're
damned because the one thing you have to do is believe in Jesus and they're not
doing it if they're unbelievers in that regard why else are they damned because
disbelieving anything the Bible says is a sin just like being a coward is a sin
just like being a murderer is a sin just like being a liar is a sin we as
Christians yes we are saved and we're eternally secure nothing can separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord we are on our way to
heaven but even though all our sins are forgiven and as far as the East is from
the West so far God has separated us from our sins we want to live lives that
please God and guess what if God is sending people to the lake of fire for a
list of sins those are a list of things that really do not please God cowardice
unbelief right and tonight we're focusing on unbelief so how do we live
a life characterized by faith instead of unbelief number one trust the Word of
God trust the Word of God prioritize the things of God number two stand with the
man of God and the people of God and fight the Lord's battles instead of
saying well it's too much drama I don't want to fight I just want to have peace
and and quiet well then go to be nothing do nothing door hanger Baptist and
lastly do things God's way study the Bible figure out how to do things
according to the Word of God do it his way and you say well how do you know
that that's the right way to do because that's what the Bible says yeah but oh
it looked like this other thing worked for this person and this other thing
didn't work for this person and you know that's just just that's what the
Bible says I'm done I'm done here it's all the information I need you know you
could come out with a bunch of studies and graphs and charts and tell me that
I'm wrong but the end of the day I'm going to do what the Bible says and if
it ends up being wrong then God's gonna have to explain to me when I get to
heaven why the Bible didn't really mean what it said but that's not that
conversation is never gonna happen because we've already been here for
thousands of years and people have been doing it God's way and it's been working
in general you have to do things God's way and why why do I do things God's way
because I believe with all my heart that everything in this book is true and so
therefore we should avoid the sin of unbelief right if when you when you feel
unbelief creeping in say nope I'm not gonna be a coward and I'm not gonna be
unbelieving I'm gonna increase my faith and really lean on what God is saying
and prioritize him and his word let's prioritize in a word of prayer father we
thank you so much for your word Lord we thank you so much for not flooding the
world again and killing us all Lord because you understand that we are
human and that we are imperfect Lord and obviously Lord this world is is full of
sinful people and Lord God help us to reach as many of them as we can with the
gospel so they can be saved but Lord help us to also teach people that are
saved to observe all things whatsoever you have commanded help us to do
something big with our lives and Lord help us to do that because we have a big
faith increase our faith Lord and help us to grow in faith and in Jesus name we
pray amen amen all right ladies gentlemen if you need to him know 468
isn't he wonderful number 468 we'll sing this one twice and be dismissed 468
isn't he wonderful isn't he
Oh
wonderful wonderful wonderful
My Lord, wonderful.
High steps he who is that burden's way,
coordinating God's Word.
Praise Him, Jesus.
My Lord, wonderful.
Make a good scene tonight for the artist's list.
Praise Him, Jesus.
My Lord, wonderful.
High steps he who is that burden's way,
coordinating God's Word.
Praise Him, Jesus.
My Lord, wonderful.
High steps he who is that burden's way,
coordinating God's Word.
Praise Him, Jesus.