The part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on, a great chapter, a lot of great things,
it's filled with great sermons, but the part that I wanted to focus on this morning is
beginning in verse number 19 where the Bible reads,
He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread,
but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.
A faithful man shall abound with blessings, but he that maketh haste to be rich shall
not be innocent.
What I want to preach about this morning is the subject of gimmicks.
Now everybody knows what a gimmick is and especially this time of year you probably
hear about a lot of gimmicks and a lot of gimmicks are coming out because people buy
each other gimmicks for Christmas as a present and people get all kinds of gimmicks for the
New Year.
What is a gimmick?
Well if you think about it, a gimmick is something that people buy or something that people try
in order to find a shortcut to doing things the hard way or doing things the real way
so they get some kind of a gimmick as a shortcut or just an easier way to beat the system or
whatever you want to call it.
Now the Bible here is talking about a man that is hasty to be rich in verse 20 versus
the man that tilleth his land in verse 19.
The illustration here is between one who is steadily working hard, doing something that
has profit, tilling his land and the guy who's just in a hurry to get rich, he's just trying
some scheme, some scam.
Now there are words in the Bible associated with this concept.
The word that's associated with the one who's doing things the right way is the word diligence.
Another word that's associated with that is what we see in verse 20, faithfulness.
A faithful man shall abound with blessings but he to make it haste to be rich shall not
be innocent and so we see diligence and faithfulness on one side of the equation and then on the
other side we have the one who's hasty.
He's in a hurry to be rich.
He doesn't do things the right way.
He's looking for a quick way to make money or he's looking for a quick way to do whatever.
Let's look at some other scriptures on this.
Flip back a few pages to chapter 22 if you would.
Proverbs chapter number 22.
Proverbs chapter number 22, the Bible reads in verse 29, seeest thou a man diligent in
his business?
He shall stand before kings.
He shall not stand before mean men.
Go back one more page to Proverbs 21, verse number 5, the Bible reads in Proverbs 21,
5, the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness but of everyone that is hasty
only to want.
So you see the opposite of diligence is hastiness.
Diligence is when you have the patience to keep working at something, doing it the right
way, getting it done properly, not just in a hurry to get it done.
He says diligence equals plenteousness, hastiness is going to lead to want.
Verse 6, the getting of treasures by a lying tongue.
These are your gimmicks, your infomercial gimmicks lying to you, telling you, hey, it's
really easy.
You don't have to work hard to make money.
Just follow our simple steps and you're going to make all kinds of money.
You know, out of your apartment, you're going to be making $10,000 a month and $20,000 a
month from home without only working more than two hours a day or whatever.
He says in verse 7, the robbery of the wicked shall destroy them because they refuse to
do judgment.
The way of man is forward and strange, but as for the pure, his work is right.
Look at verse, go back to chapter 10.
So it's important that our work be right, that we don't be hasty to be rich, but that
we're diligent in our business or in our labors.
Go to Proverbs chapter 10, verse 3, the Bible reads, the Lord will not suffer the soul of
the righteous to famish.
Famish is like the word famine, it means you're hungry, you're starving.
He says the Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish, but he casted
away the substance of the wicked, substance meaning their money, their goods.
He says, he becometh poor, verse 4, that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent
maketh rich.
Verse 5, he that gathereth in summer is a wise son, but he that sleepeth in harvest
is a son that causes shame.
You see this concept repeated over and over again, look at Proverbs, don't you?
The diligent versus the hasty.
He says in verse 4, he becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand.
A slack hand, think about this, I want to illustrate this for you.
In my business, and you know we all have different trades, a different business we're in, we've
got somebody who's a computer programmer, we've got a plumber, electrician, all different
types of jobs, very different types of jobs represented in our church, different types
of people that do different types of things.
But you know, if you think of a slack hand, what does it mean, for example, if you're
pulling wire or pulling rope and it's, there's a slackening.
What does that mean?
Loose.
Loose, right?
It means it goes loose.
It could be extra, this is loose, hang in there.
It's the opposite of being tight or taut.
Something is slackened or slack when it's loosened up.
So he's talking about basically a slack hand.
He's talking about people that aren't working very hard.
You know, they're loosened up, they're not holding on tightly to something.
You know, it reminds me of often when you're working, you'll have somebody, you'll say,
you know, hold this up.
And then you didn't say you have to pour concrete around or you know, you have to do something.
But you have people, hey, hold this.
And I remember my dad used to have this job for me and I hated this job more than anything.
And this makes me think of a slack hand.
This was the thing I hated more than anything growing up, sorry dad.
But he would, he was working on his motorcycle and I still don't know what this means to
this day.
But my dad is this, he's just really into motorcycles, he's very good at riding motorcycles.
And he would have his dirt bike just so dialed in, you know, in his words, it was all tricked
out, okay?
And he would have his motorcycle just totally dialed in to where it was just the fastest
more and he could drag race people all the time and he'll climb and everything.
And he'd just ride.
And he had this thing that he would do to the motorcycle.
I still don't know what it means.
But it was called, he would set the sag on his dirt bike.
Does anybody know what that means?
Okay, Chris Broaden knows.
One person knows.
Anyway, he would set the sag and it was something that would take a really long time.
And my dad at this time was a little bit heavier than he is now.
I mean, he wasn't huge but he was a lot heavier than he is right now for those of you who
know my dad.
And he was sitting on the dirt bike and I as a child would have to hold up the dirt
bike, okay, and keep it from tipping over.
I would have to hold the dirt bike while this 200 and some odd man is on the bike and he's
bouncing up and down.
And I had to hold this thing up.
And let me tell you something, I wasn't dealing with a slack hand.
I mean, I would be holding this thing and I mean, I'm shaking, my face is turning red,
sweat is coming off me, you know, just trying to hold it.
And he's like, if you find that balance point, it won't tip over and it won't take a lot
of strength.
If you find that balance, it's going to take a lot of strength.
And I remember just holding it and man, he'd be mad, he'd get angry if it started to tip.
You know, and you think of other people at their job, you know, or sometimes I remember
I'll pull cable in my job, I'm an electrician so I'm using stuff from my own life.
And my job as an electrician, you pull a wire a lot, okay.
And when you're pulling wire, one guy who's feeding you the wire and then another guy
who's pulling the wire forward.
And what will happen is, the guy who's pulling the wire, sometimes he has to do something
else and so there's a little break and the guy who's feeding the wire begins to slack
and he starts looking and then you're pulling it, it's not coming and hey, wake up, you
know, I'm trying to pull this wire.
You know what I'm talking about, Brother Sozy, you know, the guy starts slacking, okay.
And when you're pulling the wire for hours and hours, it's a very tiring job.
Now if somebody's feeding it to you properly, you know, you're not having to pull his heart.
But when you keep running into resistance, because the guy is slacking on the job, then
it makes you a lot more tired, you have to work a lot, hey, you know, wake up, buddy.
And so this is what the Bible's talking about here.
The slack hand.
People who go to their job and they loaf around, they're slow, they don't work hard, this
should not be what a Christian is on the job, the biggest slacker on the job.
Slacking around, fooling around, yawning all day, hands in your pockets all day.
You know, you're supposed to be working hard, serious about the job and look what it says.
It says, he becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand.
But the hand of the diligent maketh rich.
It's not even saying he makes himself rich, he makes others rich, he makes the boss rich,
he makes the company rich because he's working hard.
He's doing a good job for his employer and for the business that he works in.
It says in verse 5, he that gathereth in summer is a wise son.
Somebody who's early to get the work done, not putting everything off till later, not
procrastinating, but in summer when the harvest is just right, he's out there, he's working,
he's bringing in the harvest, he's gathering in the increase.
But he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.
You want your children to grow up and you be ashamed of them?
Don't teach them how to work hard because you'll be proud of your children if they grow
up knowing how to work hard, whether they be male or female because women work hard
in this world too.
I'm not saying they should be out running businesses and so forth, but my wife works
hard as a homemaker and as a wife and as a mother.
Everybody in this world works and she works more hours than I do a lot of the time, she
works hard.
And so the Bible is talking about working hard.
Look at verse, go to chapter 12, just a few pages to write, I mean the Bible talks about
this a lot.
Proverbs chapter 12, we're going to get more into the gimmicks in a little while, but I'm
just showing you the opposite of the gimmick right now.
Proverbs 12, 24, the hand of the diligent shall bear rule.
That's the guy that they're going to make the manager, that's the guy who's going to
be a supervisor, the guy who's working hard, the guy who has the diligent hand, but the
slothful shall be under tribute.
Basically you're paying taxes is what that's saying, we all pay taxes or whatever, this
is written in a different time.
Verse 25, heaviness in the heart of man, maketh it stoop, but a good word maketh it glad.
The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor, but the way of the wicked seduceth them.
Verse 27, the slothful man rosteth not that which he took in hunting, but the substance
of a diligent man is precious.
What does it mean, the substance of a diligent man is precious?
Basically have you ever heard this saying, easy come easy go?
People who get money and it's just handed to them for free or it's just really easy
for them to get money, often they don't have a lot of respect for money and so they blow
money because they don't really have a lot of respect for where it came from, but the
hand of the diligent, the guy who worked hard and really put in a lot of hours to make that
money, he appreciates the value of it because he knows the hard work that went into him
because he didn't have everything just handed to him his whole life.
He's been diligent and his substance is precious to him.
The slothful man rosteth not that which he took in hunting.
I mean he'll go out and you know he'll hunt an animal and he won't even cook all the food,
he won't even put it, he won't even preserve it, he won't even get it in the fridge or
the freezer, he won't even get it smelted and hung up and smoked.
He just wastes things, he's very wasteful because he doesn't appreciate the value of
money and substance because he didn't work hard for it and be diligent.
Now there's something else involved in being, and I have some more scripts on being diligent
but you get the idea, there's something else involved in diligence too besides just working
hard and not being a slacker.
It also involves having the patience and taking the time to do things right because if you
remember the opposite of being diligent was what, it starts with an H, being hasty.
Now some people that are lazy or slothful as we see the word over and over again because
they're lazy, they're in a hurry to just get stuff done so that they can relax and
rest and slack.
Diligence is when you take the time to do things right the first time.
And you know when you do things right the first time, you usually end up saving more
time because you waste a lot of time when you do things wrong, you know when you're
in a hurry and you just throw things together, then you got to go back and fix it and figure
out where the problem is, especially when you're doing electrical work or something
like that, you know you'll get the whole thing done and then something doesn't work
and then you got to go hunting and troubleshooting and take days to do that.
Or you can just be really careful, diligent the first time to do it properly, to work
hard, not to do a sloppy job, not to be, you say why are you preaching on this, look this
is important doctrine that you need to learn, I mean how are you going to make it in this
world man, if you don't know how to work hard and be diligent and not be a slacker
and succeed at your job and make the money that you need to make to live and learn how
to be diligent.
But this carries over spiritually too, even if it didn't, even if I was just preaching
about your job, even if I was just preaching to the ladies about your jobs and your homemaking
and whatever you do with your life, whether you go to work or whether you're working in
the home or whatever you're doing, even if I were just talking about that, this would
be a very valuable sermon that you should let it sink down into your ears and live by
it.
But you see people that are slothful in their labor, people who are hasty, sloppy, they're
not diligent, they do things poorly, that's going to carry over into other areas of your
life, it's also going to carry over spiritually.
You know I think of plumbing, I've learned a lot about plumbing ever since I moved into
a house that's like 60 years old and the plumbing is all galvanized and it's all leaking
and I mean I've literally probably had 15 plumbing problems in the last six years.
Sometimes I've fixed it myself, sometimes brother Jerry has bailed me out, actually
a lot of times he's bailed me out and then sometimes I've had to call the plumber out
different times and I've learned a lot about plumbing, I'm finally getting to the point
where I can fix things myself and yesterday I replaced a couple of those bibs all by myself
Jerry, I didn't even call you.
So you know I'm learning a lot about plumbing and let me tell you what I've learned about
plumbing because Jerry has taught me a lot and I finally am getting it down, diligence
is important because I tell you what, if you don't do everything perfect, that water is
just looking for a way out, that water is just out to get you and like you know you'll
get everything done, yeah I'm finally getting this done, it's like drip, drip, it's dripping
and you've got to take it all apart and you've got to do it all again, you've got to be careful
to do it perfectly, it has to be perfect the first time and then it won't leak but if there's
any imperfection, if it's not perfect it will leak and so diligence is important when it
comes to plumbing.
But how does this apply spiritually, go to Isaiah chapter 28 because we're going to talk
about gimmicks today and you know both literal physical gimmicks and also spiritual gimmicks,
what is a gimmick?
Well like I said a gimmick is somebody who's telling you hey there's a really quick easy
way and it's no work at all and it's a piece of cake and like I said this time of year
gimmicks abound, what's a gimmick?
It's that aisle at the store that's called as seen on TV, you know what I'm talking about?
You know I don't want to criticise any specific businesses but I might criticise a few but
anyway you go to the as seen on TV aisle and often now I've noticed that in the stores
and a lot of stores I've been in, they actually set up the TV screens on the rack, who's seen
this?
They'll have a TV screen and then they'll have all the product and you can just walk
by and the infomercial's playing and instead of sending in your easy payments you just
buy it right there off the shelf and it's underneath the infomercial and I'll be walking
by and then on the infomercial it looks great, I mean it's perfect, you know let's say it's
a blender, they're putting in like screws and nuts and bolts and they just turn them
into powder.
Okay that's an exaggeration but anyway I didn't see them but what I did see, the one with
the kitchen knives, they're cutting pipes with it, who's seen that, yeah all the hands
are filled up, you know they take like a copper pipe and they're slicing it and look at this,
it's great and everything just looks like it's going to be great.
Now I'm sure a few of those products really work, maybe you've had some good experiences
but guess what a lot of it doesn't work out that way, it's a gimmick, you know it looks
so cool and it looks like it's going to do everything that you want it to do and really
they're just, sometimes there is no easy way to do things, sometimes you just have to do
things the hard way and be diligent about it and you can't always be looking for the
shortcut and the gimmick and so forth, go to Isaiah 28, look if you would at verse number
7, the Bible reads in verse 7, but they also have erred through wine and through strong
drink are out of the way, the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, so
this is talking about the preachers and the men of God, it says they've erred through
strong drink, they're swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink,
they err in vision, they stumble in judgment, for all tables are full of vomit and filthiness
so that there's no place clean, that's the result of all the wine and strong drink of
course, and it says in verse 9, whom shall you teach knowledge and whom shall you make
to understand doctrine, them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast, for
precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here
a little and there a little, you see there's no shortcut to the Christian life, there's
no gimmick to spiritual growth and spiritual understanding, you see if you're going to
learn the Bible, it's not just a thing where you know, we'll make you into a great Christian
you know in a week or your money back guarantee, you know 30 day trial, try day 4 Baptist Church
for 30 days and if you're not fully satisfied, all your tithes and offerings will be returned
you know, it doesn't work that way, because spiritual growth and spiritual understanding
and biblical knowledge comes in small doses, it's here a little, it's there a little, it's
line upon line, it's precept upon precept, it's a baby or a baby in Christ or a young
child in Christ growing slowly and learning over time, knowledge, growing in grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, there is no overnight and you'll hear
people talk about this, how they're just living this horrible wicked life and then just, they
went to this one service and they came down the aisle and then just boom, they never never
you know, drank or smoked or did drugs and they lived a perfect life or they're close
to it you know, I mean of course, of course they weren't without sin but you know, pretty
close to it compared to the way they were before, let me tell you, I've never seen that
in my life, I mean I've heard people talk about it, I've never seen it, I don't believe
it exists, I don't believe it's out there, because you've got to grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, he said as newborn babes, desire this
sincere milk of the word that you may grow there, not that you're going to be perfect
the next day, not that you're going to be fully mature, fully grown, fully established
the next day, no, it's a growth process that takes time, it's not going to happen in one
service, it's not even going to happen in one year, okay, now you may grow faster if
you're in a good church, you're growing fast, you've got good spiritual friends, you're
growing fast, you're reading your Bible every day in large amounts, you're going to grow
faster, but I don't know about you, it took me a long time to get to the place I'm at
right now, and it's going to take me a lot longer to get to where I need to be, and it
was never a quick fix or a quick grow, it was line upon line, precept upon precept,
here a little, there a little, little bit on Sunday morning, little bit on Sunday night,
little bit on Wednesday night, I went to church for years and years and years, I went soul
waiting for years and years and years, I preached for years and years and years, and people
think that they can just come in and just boom, and then they're discouraged when they
don't get there, well, it's not a gimmick folks, this isn't as seen on TV, if you've
seen me on TV, well, it probably wasn't positive, it might have been as seen on TV, but anyway,
it definitely wasn't advertising us on TV, so this is not a gimmick, and this is what
people are used to, something easy, a way to learn the Bible without reading the Bible,
put it under your pillow at night, you're going to know everything about the Bible,
look, it's not going to work, it's not going to work in any area of life, but it's
dead sure not going to work for you spiritually, now there's this commercial that I hate,
and I don't have a TV, I don't watch TV, but I hear this on the radio from time to
time, and I hear this commercial, and it's for this company called Rosetta Stone, now
look, I'm not trying to just rip on an individual company here, but that's exactly what I'm
going to do, just because this commercial irritates me, I have a right to say what irritates
me, and this commercial makes me mad, now as someone who loves foreign languages, and
I've studied many foreign languages, and I've taught myself, I've been in classrooms
and learned foreign languages, and I've also taught myself several foreign languages,
to the point where I was able to speak that language, I mean I was able to, I know so
many every week, and I speak Spanish, and I win people to the Lord in the Spanish language,
my wife and I speak German, and I was speaking German to my father-in-law this morning for
a couple minutes on the telephone, and so, you know, I'm able to speak German, I'm
able to speak Spanish, and several other languages that I've learned and been able to speak,
and so forth, it's not easy to learn a foreign language, it's very difficult, and it takes
diligence, you know, you might get excited at the beginning, and oh yeah, this is great,
but in order to really follow through with it, and to really learn the language, it takes
a lot of work, and a lot of diligence, and a lot of motivation, because the newness wears
off, at first it's fun and cool, and then it gets boring, you've got to just keep
plowing through it, keep working at it, working at it, very, very difficult, and there's
this commercial, you know, Rosetta Stone, it's this very expensive product, I mean it's
like 600 bucks or whatever, 700 dollars, and people love to spend money on gimmicks, they
love to spend a ton of money, and they think that that's going to solve it all, you know,
and this thing says, oh, it's so easy, they said, you will learn a foreign language with
no memorization. How does that work? You know, are you tired of all that useless memorization?
Yeah, that's really useless. Memorizing words in a foreign language, that's useless. Well
how else are you going to learn it if you don't remember what the word means? Isn't
that what memorize means? Learn what something means? Oh, it's just so easy, and here's
what they say, it's so easy, it's the same way you learned your first language. You know,
it's like, can I enter into my mother's womb a second time? You know, I'm like, make
a game, it's the same as commercial. It's the same as learning your first language.
Now, I don't know about you, but it took me a long time to learn my first language. This
was so stupid, like, oh, it's so easy, it's just like you learned your first language.
No drills, no memorization, no words, it's so easy. There's no way. So they say, try
the free trial, I tried the free trial. So I just went online and did a little free trial,
and I went through it, and it's just, you know, you can go through it and play their
stupid little games, and I mean, it works, but guess what? Go through it again and you
don't remember anything unless you actually make a point to memorize the stuff, especially
if you use a hard language. I mean, if you try it on some easy language that you already
knew half of, go on there for Russian, you know what I mean? Go on there for Japanese
and then just blow through it one time. No, you're going to have to go through it again
and again and again and again, and then you're going to be like, I need to memorize this.
And that's what you're going to end up doing. Useless memorization. It's a total gimmick,
okay? And they say, oh, it's so easy. You know how long it takes you to learn your first
language? Oh, it's just like you learned your first language. Okay. You know, when you're
one year old, how many words did you really know? I hope I know more than that after studying
a foreign language for one year, I want to talk better than a one year old, okay? And
let me tell you something. When I've studied a foreign language for two years, I want to
talk better than a two year old. Because a child who's two years old can't speak that
well, okay? And it takes until they're three and four and they're still not speaking it
properly. It takes a really long time to learn your first language and you're doing it all
day long. That's all you're doing. The whole day. So maybe that's not the best way to learn.
If it takes you your whole childhood, you know what I mean? To be able to converse pretty
fluently, it's still going to take several years of doing it all day long nonstop. You
want to stare at the computer screen that long? Because I sure don't love Rosetta Stone.
But why do people love Rosetta Stone? Because it costs a lot of money. That's why. Because
people think, oh, this costs a lot of money. This must be good. I'm going to learn this
language. If I can just get this $600 together, I will be speaking Russian and it's going
to be perfect. They think they can just do it the easy way, just pay a bunch of money
and somebody's going to do it all for them. No, it's hard work. You can pick up a book
with white paper and black ink or a CD that costs you $20 or whatever. And look, I'm not
saying Rosetta Stone is a bad product. I'm sure you can learn a foreign language on Rosetta
Stone. But it's still going to take a ton of work and a ton of memorization. And if
you like to stare at computer screens, I don't. I'd rather stare at a book than a computer
screen. But either way, you're going to work hard. It doesn't matter. I'm not saying it's
a horrible product. I'm saying it's going to take a lot of work and they're lying on
the commercial because people are just prone to believe in gimmicks and just an easy way.
You think about the gimmick diets that people get on, you know, this gimmick diet and oh
yeah, this is so easy. You just drink this shake or whatever. You know, you got to order
the special shake from them. And I heard a commercial on the radio. They said this is
the equivalent. If you drink this shake, it's the equivalent of going to the gym for one
hour every day. And this guy's on the radio and he's saying, go to the hour every day
and go to the gym every day for an hour. That's ridiculous, man. Just drink this shake. The
weight's going to fall right off. I mean, what's in it? A tapeworm? It's ridiculous.
I mean, they literally are saying that if you drink this shake, that's the equivalent
of going to the gym for an hour a day. Do you believe that? No. Now listen, going to
the gym for an hour a day sounds like a lot of hard work. You're probably going to get
a lot of results if you do that. You're not going to get a lot of results from drinking
some shake. You know, you're going to make somebody a lot of money and you're going to
drink the shake and you're going to think that you're doing something great and whatever.
But that's what I mean by gimmicks. Everybody see what I'm saying about gimmicks? You know,
it's really easy. You know, now what? Working out? Forget that. Just drink this shake. You
know, that's all you need. You know, I'm in the airplane a lot, or I used to be. I've
flown in years ever since the TSA started their whole grope down. But back when I used
to be flying every single week, I would go to the airport and they'd have the in-flight
magazine. And sometimes I'd be so bored after flying hundreds of flights a year, you know,
I'd finally break down and start to leaf through that magazine after I'd gone through my Bible
and every book and every other fun thing. I'd solve the Rubik's Cube like 20,000 times.
So I get out the in-flight magazine, I'm looking through it, and they have this exercise machine.
It's like $14,000 for this exercise machine. And it was weird because they get the price
and it's like, it was a really weird price. It was like $13,254.92 or something. It literally
was something like that. It had a really odd number of even cents. And that's just real
big on top of that. The price is just huge. It doesn't even say what it is. Just $12,354.92.
And then it explains to you how if you exercise on this thing for four minutes a day, four
minutes. It's the equivalent of 20 minutes of cardio, 20 minutes of weight lifting, 20
minutes of stretching. And I'm not kidding. It lists like an hour and 15. And they're
saying, you won't believe it, but the free trial, the money back guarantee, four minutes
will do all of that. But you've got to shell out 13 grand. That's a gimmick. I don't believe
in it. I'm sorry. It's not going to work. You can't do it in four minutes when you can
do it in an hour and a half. Now some things, yeah, there are ways to do things smarter,
things that could speed up a process. But certain things, come on. It's going to take
work. It's going to take diligence. You can't just be hasty and think that there's just
such an easy way to do everything. Sometimes you just got to roll up your sleeves and work
hard at something in order to achieve a certain goal. And I just, I don't like gimmicks. That's
why I'm preaching against gimmicks. I don't like, and especially I don't like gimmicks
spiritually. You know, spiritual gimmicks. Everybody's got this gimmick. Like, oh, if
you just read this book by brother so and so, how to explode your church and growth
in, you know, in six months, your church will be triple the size. And you've been doing
it wrong all these years, Pastor, and you're saying you don't know what you're doing. And
yeah, you just need to read this book. Now look, I just don't believe it because if I'm
going to sit there and read my Bible and pray and go soul winning and the people in
my church are reading their Bible and praying and going soul winning and cleaning up their
lives and loving God and doing what they're supposed to do, that's how the church is going
to grow. And let me tell you something, it's hard for a church to grow. That's why a lot
of churches are getting smaller. And by the way, our church is never getting smaller.
Our church has been consistently, continually growing. It had to grow when we started because
there was nobody there. I mean, the first, when we started the first service, we had
nine people. You know, I mean, it was just my family and four visitors. So we started
from nothing. And it is consistently every year growing. Now, has it been just explosive
growth? Were we on the cover of a magazine saying, this is the fastest growing church
in America? No. No, it wasn't. But it's consistent, real, bona fide growth. Why? Because we're
just working hard, serving God, preaching the Bible, being insulin season out of season,
knocking doors, you know, preaching holiness, preaching righteousness, preaching the word
of God, you know, doing the best we can. And our church is all in one accord, unified and
we're growing, we're succeeding, we're thriving. But it's not some kind of a, you know, and
I keep waiting for the church to take off and it just never does. And I keep saying,
you know, I think it's about to really take off in size. And it never does. But you know
what, it doesn't matter if it does because it keeps growing and growing and growing and
growing and growing and growing. And years and years from now, it'll be way bigger. But
it's a slow growth. It's consistent. It's real. It's not something where it just, you
know, if we could just find this gimmick, you know, and it's the same thing in your
life. There's no gimmick to make you a great Christian. It's got to be just daily go to
Deuteronomy, actually go to Joshua 22, Joshua chapter 22 in the Old Testament. You see,
for you to grow as a Christian, it's going to be consistent, hard work, diligence and
faithfulness that makes you grow. You know what's going to make you grow? Coming to church
three times a week, reading your Bible every day, you're going to grow and grow and grow.
And I've noticed a lot of people sometimes, they get real excited about church and they
get in here and they get all fired up and they go nuts with it for a couple of months
and then they fall away. They're not diligent. They're hasty. They want it all now. They
don't have the patience to continually come to church, read their Bible and to think in
terms of decades, not in terms of weeks or even months, to think in years and decades,
okay, when they think of their Christian life and to get a bigger picture and to get in
it, not a 30-day trial of faithful work. Because if you try a 30-day trial of faithful work,
you're going to want your money back. And sorry, I'm not giving you a refund, you know.
And the thing is, if you get into it with that attitude, anything of the things that
God's not going to work out, you've got to get into it with an attitude of, hey, I'm
buying a lifetime supply here. You know, I am signing up for the season pass and for
the outer season pass, you know, instant in season and outer season, okay. And you've
got to be in it for the long haul. Look at Joshua 22 verse 5. The Bible reads, But take
diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged
you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments,
and to cleave unto Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul. There
you go. That's it. No gimmick. Diligently, every day, take heed. Go back to chapter 1
of Joshua. Diligently, every day, taking heed, doing the work that he told you to do, loving
Him, serving Him, obeying Him, it's that simple. I don't have some magical truth that
I can preach to you this morning, some gimmick sermon that's just going to turn your whole
life around. It's not out there. What's going to turn your life around is what I just read
to you in Joshua 22. And some of you are probably scratching your head saying, well, what does
that verse even teach? It teaches everything that you need to know in your whole life.
That's what it teaches. If you would obey that verse, you're done. But it will go right
over your head. Where's the gimmick? What do I do? Well, just read the Bible. Just obey
what it says. Just come to church. Just sing the hymns. Just memorize verses. Well, that's
not cute. That's not a gimmick. That's not the cool, new thing. But it's what works.
It's the only thing that works. And is it easy? Is it going to be really easy and fast?
No. It's going to be hard and slow. It's going to take a long time. It's going to be
frustrating. And that's why you have to be steadfast and unmovable. You have to have
patience and diligence to be a Christian and to serve God. Look at verse 8, this book,
chapter 1, verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt
meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that
is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have
good success. So how are you going to prosper and have success? Well, it's real easy, right?
Just meditate on God's word day and night. That's not easy. That's really hard. That's
extremely hard. And that's what it takes to succeed. Now, is it complicated to succeed?
It's not complicated. It's just really hard. It's not complicated to dig a hole in the
ground. It's just really hard work. You know, you just got to work for a long time and keep
doing the same thing over and over. There's nothing complicated about it. It's just hard.
It just takes a lot of work. That's what it's like serving God. That's what it's like to
succeed. You've got to be diligent. You've got to stay at it. Go if you would to Deuteronomy.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter 17. Back a few pages to the left in your Bible. Deuteronomy 17.
Deuteronomy chapter 17. Everybody's looking for the easy way, the quick way, the fast
way, you know. Be a great Christian in 90 days. No, it's going to take 90 years. It's
going to take 90 months. It's going to take a long time. Look at Deuteronomy 17 verse
18. And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write
him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests, the Levites.
And it shall be with him. And he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he
may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes
to do them. Now, here's the gimmick that's found in verse 19 for you. Are you looking
for a gimmick? This is going to revolutionize your Bible reading. You've been struggling
in the past to read your Bible every day? Who's struggled with that, reading your Bible
every day? Well, probably every hand you go up your eyes. You know, you struggle time
to time reading it every day. This verse contains the gimmick that you'll never struggle with
that again. It's in the first words there. It shall be with him. There it is, folks.
If you have the Bible with you, you're more likely to read it. Take it with you everywhere
you go. Put it in your pocket. Put it in your lunchbox. Strap it to your body. Do whatever
you need to do. Put it in the car. Buy a big stack of Bibles. Put one in all the rooms
of the house. And hey, you know what? Somebody told me, they said, you know what revolutionized
my Bible reading, Pastor Anderson? Revolutionize it. I'm like, what is it? What's the gimmick?
Somebody told me this. I'll not say it in any names. But he said, this revolutionized
my Bible. He said, I'm reading my Bible more than I've ever read it. I'm getting more out
of it. I'm learning it. He said, I've never read my Bible like this in my whole life.
He said, I just realized that instead of magazines on the toilet, I just switched it out for
a Bible in the bathroom. Instead of Bible back there. And he said, I'm reading more
Bible than I've ever read. That's the closest thing that you're going to get to again. And
it's true. I mean, this is one thing that's true. Having it with you, having it in every
room of the house, having it on the coffee table, having it in the car, having it in
the lunchbox, having it on your phone in an electronic format, having it everywhere you
go, that's great. Are you kidding? You know what I mean? Getting the Bible on CD, just
having it with you everywhere you go, but you still have to read it. I mean, it's still
going to be work. But I think this is the key. If somebody just said, what is the key
to Bible reading? I think it's the first word there. It shall be with them. That's
the biggest tip right there. That's my biggest tip on Bible reading. Keep it with you. What's
your second tip? Read it. What's your third tip? Don't read it with a bunch of other gimmicks.
Put away all your little gimmicks, your little Bible devotional booklet study teen encouragement
to read it. It's like a kid jumping off a cliff with a skateboard. The extreme study
Bible. You know, he's like jumping off the cliff. He's like skydiving while reading it.
Yeah, I'm extreme. You know what would be extreme is if you just sit down and shut up
for a couple of hours. It's some extreme Bible reading. Yeah. I'm going to sit down
and read it for hours. Yeah. That's extreme. And you get these study Bibles and half the
page is not even God's word. You open the Bible and it's like God's word stops here.
And guess what? The bottom part with all the notes, it looks a lot cooler than what's at
the top. It's got pictures and diagrams and graphs and charts. And you're like, oh man,
you get all into that. You don't even do that much Bible reading. I'll tell you right
now, the best Bible you could get is the one that's just plain. I mean, this is as radical
as I get. You know, where it says at the top of the page like the three yearly feasts.
That's already too much information. I'll read that. I'll figure that out myself. I
can count to three. You know what I mean? I can figure out those three. You know, David
prayeth for help. Oh really? You know what I mean? Obviously I can read it myself. That's
already too much for me. But I'll put up with that because you can't even hardly find a
Bible that's just plain. But this is the best I could find. I like this Bible because it
just has very little information. You know, the whole page is just like Jerusalem upgraded.
You know, okay. Jesus is upgrading Jerusalem. So what I'm saying is that you need to read
the Bible. It's hard work. It takes attention. It takes diligence. It takes patience. And
you need to put aside the gimmicks. Oh, once I got the women's study Bible, now I can read
it so much better and understand it. Now that I have the cross reference version for, you
know, Chinese women in their 40s. You know, the Bible's specifically designed for me.
Look, just get a Bible. It's the same for everybody. That's a gimmick version. Just
get a Bible, King James Version. Get as plain as possible. Tear out the picture in the photo
of the long-haired Jesus. Tear out the map in the back that shows them crossing the Red
Sea like on dry land, except the whole thing's dry land because they're not even in the Red
Sea. And just read the words of God. Read the Bible. Keep it simple. Study it. Keep
it with you. Take it with you everywhere you go. That's your gimmick, folks. And I'll
finish up with this. Go to Proverbs Chapter 4. Proverbs Chapter 4. Proverbs Chapter 4.
And look, maybe I might even be saving you some money right now, you know? Just so you
can buy a bunch of stupid gimmicks for fitness or dieting or, you know, I don't know, some
rag that just wipes everything, you know, wipes the paint right off your car or whatever.
Look at this thing. It's amazing. You know, you put this little dish, you put this little
soap in the washer and you can put stuff in there that's been stained for years and it's
covered in dirt. You know, what kind of a weird chemical is that? I mean if it can really
do that, you know, the guy who's like stirring it in ice water and it comes out like perfectly
clean, what kind of an acid are you putting? I wouldn't want this stuff anywhere near my
body. And so, you know, it's probably just going to take a lot of soap and warm water
and just a lot of work to clean off those clothes. But anyway, Proverbs Chapter 4 verse
20 says, My son, attend to my words. Incline thy ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart
from thine eyes. Keep them in the midst of thine heart, for they are life unto those
that find them and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out
of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a forward mouth and perverse lips, but
far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on and let thine eyelids look straight before
thee. Ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the
right hand nor to the left. Remove thy foot from evil. Simple, but difficult to do. Hard
work. That's what it is to be a believer, to be a saint, to live the Christian life.
It's just work hard, stay at it, don't turn to the right hand or the left, go straight
ahead. Consistency, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little,
Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, reading your Bible every day, praying, growing,
soul winning, consistently out soul winning, this is what it takes. And there's no gimmick,
there's no easy quick fix. Father we thank you so much for your word dear God and thank
you for the fact that we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us to guide us and direct
us and to lead us in all truth. Help us to realize that just as a little baby takes a
long time to grow into an adult, it's going to take time for us as babes of Christ to
grow and mature spiritually into spiritual adulthood. Help us to be consistent and to
grow and to stay the course and to be diligent, to be patient and not to get sidetracked or
to fall away or to get bored. Help us to be consistent. In Jesus' name we pray.