Now I want to read, actually I'd like you to turn to one other verse this morning.
Proverbs chapter 16 verse 9, Proverbs 16, 9, and we're going to read just one verse
here in addition to what we read in Jeremiah chapter 18.
Proverbs 16, 9, the Bible reads, A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth
his steps.
I'll read it again.
A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.
Now the story that we read in Jeremiah chapter 18 is a very familiar passage of scripture
about the parable of the potter and the clay, and this parable is alluded to in Romans
chapter 9, and the Bible talks here about how God is the potter, and we're the clay.
And if you look down at your Bible in Jeremiah 18, the Bible says in verse 4, And the
vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter.
So he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
And I turned to Matthew chapter 4.
You see, in Jeremiah 18, God's telling us that he wants to make us into something
different than what we are right now, okay?
He said that the vessel that he was working on was marred, you know, it had a defect.
It was not perfect, and God wanted to make it a perfect vessel, and he wanted it to
be exactly the way that he wanted it, and it was marred, it was, maybe it had a dent
in it, or it was defective, and that would represent the sin in our lives and the weaknesses
that we have.
But God wants to make us into something new.
Look at Matthew 4, 18, the Bible says, And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw
two brethren.
Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were
fishers.
And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
And they straightway left their nets and fallen.
You see, what God's trying to teach us throughout the Bible is that if you'll follow him, he'll
make you into somebody different than you are right now.
Now, people don't understand sometimes the need to change, they say, Well, that's just
the way I am.
I'm just too shy to go out soul hunting, or, Well, I'm just not somebody who likes
reading, and so I don't read the Bible much, or, Well, church just isn't really
my thing.
You see, we might have ideas about who we are, or what we want to be, or the type of
personality that we want to have, but God wants to make us into something that He wants
to make us into.
And here's the thing, I'm not a self-made man.
I wouldn't say, Boy, I picked myself up by my own bootstraps, and I became a preacher.
I became a soul winner.
Look, I didn't make myself into a soul winner.
I didn't make myself into a preacher.
God made me a soul winner.
And God made me a preacher, because I was following Jesus.
You see, when you follow Jesus, He will make you into a picture of man.
Now, if you're not a soul winner, and if you never become a soul winner, one of
two things is true.
Number one, either the Bible is not true, or number two, you're not following Jesus.
Because Jesus said, If you follow me, I will make you pictures of man.
That means that anybody who follows Jesus is going to be made into a picture of man.
And so if you look at somebody who never preaches the Gospel, never wins anybody to
Christ, never gives anybody the Gospel, that person is not following Jesus.
And that's hard preaching, I mean, that's hard to hear, but it's the truth.
Because Jesus said, If you follow me, I will make you pictures of man.
In Jeremiah 18, He talked about the potter and the clay.
He said, I'm the potter, you're the clay.
Now think about it.
Who do you think decides what the pot's going to look like, the potter or the clay?
I mean, the clay doesn't have any decision in the matter, right?
The clay is just limp in the hands of the potter as he forms and fastens it into
what he wants it to look like.
And there could be a mar or a defect, he says, I'll just start over and make it
the way that I want to make it.
And by the way, and what we read in, let me go to Proverbs 16, 9.
The verse that we read in the Lord.
A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his faith.
You know, there are a lot of people who believe that, and they'll take a verse
like this and they'll twist it, and they'll try to say that God is
controlling everything.
You know, that these people are going to be like hyper-Calvinists, and they
think that God is controlling everybody.
Now, I would say this, if God is controlling everybody, why are people
doing such wicked and ungodly things?
And yet people say that God is the one who's causing people to sin, and God
causes people to get saved, and God causes people not to get saved.
Look, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come
to repentance, the Bible says.
God is the savior of all men, especially those that believe.
The Bible says that God would have all men to be saved, and it comes to
the knowledge of the truth.
You see, it's not God's will that anybody perishes, but the masses
perish.
It's not God's will that people go into slavery and bondage around the
world, but they do.
It's not God's will that people commit murder, but they do.
It's not God's will that we live in a nation of violence, but we do.
It's not God's will that's built that's played on television and on the
radio, but it's there.
Because God does not control the whole world.
You see, a man's heart devises his way, the Bible says.
A man's heart, the Bible says, as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.
See, every one of us in our own heart decides what way we're going
to go, okay?
The Bible says a man's heart devises his way.
I'm the one that decided, not God.
I'm the one who decided I'm going to follow Jesus.
Peter and James and John and Andrew, when they were called in Matthew
chapter 4, when Jesus said, follow me and I'll make you vicious
men.
They're the ones who decided to follow.
Because, you know, later on in the book, in Matthew chapter 8,
rather, he says to some other people, follow me.
And they did not follow him.
Matthew 9.
He said, follow me.
And they said, well, I have to go bury my father.
I don't know if I can come.
I have to go take care of some things.
I have to go say goodbye to people.
I have to make sure that everything.
He said, look, follow me.
And it's up to you whether you do that or not.
Now, a man's heart devises his way.
If you go and live a life of sin, it's your fault.
Because you chose to go that direction.
Now, hopefully, because you're here in church this morning,
you made the decision that you want to follow Jesus Christ.
You go in the right direction.
OK.
Now, your heart is the one that has to make that decision.
I can't make that decision for you.
Jesus couldn't make that decision for the disciples.
They had to decide that.
But once your heart devises your way, OK, the Bible says,
but the Lord directed his steps.
Do you see that?
You see, when I decided that I wanted to win souls to Christ.
I mean, when I decided I want to spend my life trying to get people saved.
I mean, I just want to get to the end of my life
and at least have somebody, even one person, that's in heaven.
Because I preached the gospel to them.
And then my life was really worth something
because I produced fruit and once I made the Lord.
When I decided that, I didn't know
what would be the necessary steps to become a soul man.
OK.
I just had a desire.
I just devised my way and said, I want to win souls.
I want to call God.
Now, when I decided and I said, you know what?
I would like to spend my life preaching the Bible.
I would like to pastor a church and start a church.
I didn't know what steps it would take me to get there.
My heart devised my way.
But you know what?
God is the one who had to direct my steps to get me there.
Now, the Bible says in Psalm 119,
thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
Now, if you think about this,
if you had a lantern or a flashlight,
what would be the tendency?
You want to shine it way up ahead
and see where you're going, right?
Would you just point it right at your feet
and just walk like this?
No.
You know, you want to have a little bit of foresight
in the future, right?
But that's not the way it is with the Bible
because the Bible says,
thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
God's not always going to show you
what's way down the road.
He's not going to show you every step.
Sometimes he'll just show you the next step, okay?
And so you have to have the faith to say,
I'm going the direction I'm supposed to be going.
I have a desire to do what God wants me to do.
God will, from here on out, direct my steps.
The Bible says the steps of a good man
are ordered by the Lord.
If you try to figure out your whole life
and look forward and say,
well, this is what I'm going to do
and I'm going to do this
and then I'm going to do this
and in a couple of years I'm going to do this.
And look, the Bible says,
God knows not what a day may bring forth.
He says, don't do that.
You can say today or tomorrow we shall live
and do this or that.
He says, you know not what shall be on tomorrow.
And so what God is telling us here
is that if we'll devise to go the right direction,
if we'll follow him,
he'll make us into what we need to be.
He'll take us step by step.
And a lot of people think,
well, I could never win souls.
I could never go out and knock the door
and give somebody the gospel.
I could never live a clean and separated life.
You know, because I'm just addicted to,
you know, alcohol or cigarettes
or television or drugs
or rock and roll music or whatever.
And you say, that's great
the way that you live Pastor Anz.
I'm glad you live clean up,
but I could never live like that.
You know, maybe you're right.
You can't.
But when God makes you into a new creature,
you can't.
Okay.
When God puts you on his pottery wheel
and begins to form you and fashion you
into what he wants you to be,
you'll be able to do things
that you never thought that you'd be able to do.
Now you won't maybe see every step of the way now,
but if you just decide in your heart,
I'm going to follow Jesus.
I don't even know where we're going to stay tonight.
Remember Jesus said,
the son of man, I thought we're going to lay his head.
I don't even know where we're going to stay tonight.
I don't know where I'm going to be tomorrow.
I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow or next week,
but I'm going to follow Jesus
wherever he takes me step by step
and he'll make you into what you need to be.
You see, he called Saul.
And King Saul in the Old Testament was a man
who thought that he was incapable
of doing what God wanted to do.
I mean, God had chosen him
to be the first king of Israel.
God chose Saul specifically.
And Saul thought he was unable to be the king.
And so what did he do?
He went and hid among the stuff.
He was trying to hide
and run away from what God wanted to do
because he felt like he was unable to do it.
But see, Samuel told him.
He said, when you leave here,
you're going to find a company of prophets prophesying.
And he said, thou also shall prophesy with them.
And he said that he would become another man.
You remember that?
He said, Saul, you will become another man.
And so God is able to make you
into what you need to be for him
if you'll decide that you're going to follow him.
Now, Proverbs 3-5, same thing.
The Bible says,
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart,
and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy paths.
Now, what we just read before said,
A man's heart...
Notice the wording.
A man's heart devises his way.
The way is talking about the direction.
That's a broad, big picture.
What way are you going in your life?
Now, a path is much smaller than a way, isn't it?
I mean, a way is a big, giant road
that goes on and on and on.
But the path is a step-by-step
exactly what path you're taking.
And so the Bible says,
Trust in the Lord with all thy heart,
and lean not unto thine own understanding.
He said, you may not understand what you're doing.
You may not understand why things are the way they are.
But he said, in all thy ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy paths.
You see, if you go the way he wants you to go,
he'll direct the paths.
He'll take care of the details.
He'll bring you step-by-step.
He'll make you into what you need to be
if you're going the right direction.
You see, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.
Instead of sitting around and wondering,
I don't know what the next step is,
maybe you should worry about being a good man,
and then God will direct your steps.
Maybe you should just worry about
whether you're going the right direction,
and then God will direct your steps, the Bible says.
Maybe you should just trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and God promises that you will direct your paths.
See, many people don't know what to do in life.
They sit around and they wonder,
what is the next step?
I don't know what I should do.
I don't know which direction I should go.
If you follow Jesus Christ,
God will take you through the particulars
and lead you along,
and when you're done with it all,
you'll say, Jesus led me all the way.
But look at John chapter 15,
and this is part of what I want to get into this morning.
That was kind of the introduction of the sermon.
Look at John chapter 15, verse number 1.
So we see that anybody who's a soul winner,
it's because God makes them a soul winner.
Anybody who's not a soul winner,
it's because they're not following Jesus.
Anybody who's going the right way,
God will direct their steps.
Their own heart is going to have to devise
and decide which way they're going to go.
You notice that Jesus didn't force anybody
to ever follow him.
And people have criticized our church many times
for not doing good enough follow up.
Right?
You know, they say like,
you guys don't do enough follow up.
You win people to Christ,
and you don't follow up with them.
Well, you know, I like what brother Dave said.
I like his follow-up method.
Let's just knock every door in the whole city again,
and then we'll be sure to follow up,
because there they'll see us again.
I like that idea.
That's a great idea.
And the teacher says none,
but you know, we'll get it done all these days.
But the point is that, you know,
they say you're weak on follow up.
Now look, I'm just, I'm sorry.
I'm just not going to drag people to church.
I mean, Jesus just said,
don't follow me.
And their heart is going to have to be the one
that decides whether they follow or not.
Now, when I first started this church,
man, I used to follow up like crazy.
I followed up like madness.
And you know what would happen?
I keep bugging people and bugging them
and coming to church, coming to church, coming to church.
And they'd come to church as long as I kept bugging them.
And then as soon as I quit bugging them,
then they quit coming to church.
And I just decided I can't spend the rest of my life
dragging this person along.
Their heart is going to have to devise their way.
And if their heart is not devising the way
that God wants it to go,
and the way that I want it to go,
then they're just not going to go that way.
And so I'm just taking heed unto myself.
And I'm going to preach the gospel.
I'm going to win souls to Christ.
I'm going to go back and, you know,
many times I'll try to confirm the souls
of those that I've won to Christ
and try to get them in church.
And people that I work with and friends and relatives
that I've won to the Lord,
I try to admonish them and push them
and get them into church.
But you know what?
When it really comes down to it,
it's just a two-word command that says,
follow me.
And everybody's got to make their own decision
whether they're going to say yes or no.
And you know, it really is that clear-cut.
It is.
You say, no, no, it's not that clear-cut, Pastor Anderson.
But you should say,
there's many people who come to church
and they're half in, half out.
Hey, those people aren't following Jesus, though,
unless they're a fisher of men.
And anybody who's a fisher of men,
I don't consider them half in, half out.
I consider them all the way in.
I consider them a follower of Jesus Christ.
It's very clear-cut.
There's a very big distinction in the Bible
between who says yes to follow me
and who says no to follow me.
Now, it doesn't have to do with salvation.
Peter, James, John, and Andrew were already saved.
I believe that those men in Matthew 8
were already saved and did not choose to follow him.
They did believe on him.
They were called his disciples,
but they didn't follow him.
And it was just simply because
they decided not to follow him.
And that was their decision.
And Jesus didn't even try to talk him into it.
He just said, follow me.
And he said, are you sure you want to follow me?
He said, foxes have holes in the birth of the air,
have nests with the son of man.
I thought that where the lady said.
He said, consider the cause.
He said, count the cause to follow you
in the book of Luke.
He said, you better decide whether you're sure
you really want to follow me.
It's like Joshua said, choose you this day
whom you will serve.
He said, you can't serve the Lord.
God's a jealous God.
He'll not forgive you transgressions.
He said, you need to decide
whether you really want to follow Jesus 100% or not.
And if you do, you're a soul winner.
And if you're not, you're not following.
That's what the Bible says.
And so it's very clear cut distinction.
The person who never gives the gospel to anybody.
The person who never is trying to
throw off the spiritual fishing pole
and get somebody saved.
It's just not a follower of Jesus Christ.
It's a factor.
It doesn't mean they're not saved.
I mean, all you have to do to be saved
is just believe on it.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and I shall be saved.
You say, well, I don't know how
to win somebody to Christ.
Well, there's a lot of great ways
to learn how to win people to Christ.
Number one, if you come to this church,
you'll hear the sermons from time to time
on how to win somebody to Christ.
Number two, go out soloing with us
as a silent partner.
You will learn how to win people to Christ.
Number three, we even made a DVD
demonstrating how to win somebody.
Watch the DVD.
Learn how to win somebody to the Lord.
Hey, the knowledge is at the steady's are there my friend.
If you'll devise that that's the way
that you want to go in your life.
And people can always make excuses,
but that's the truth.
Now, look at John 15 though.
You see that God is the one
who makes us into what we are.
God's the one who formed us
in our mother's womb.
And when we were born again,
God began to shape and fashion us
into a new person, a different person.
That doesn't happen overnight,
but it's a process where he's molding us
and fashion us and smoothing out
the rough edges in our life.
And what is he trying to make
as a finished product?
A fisher of men, a soul learner, okay?
Now, look at John 15.
And I'm trying to show you
that God is the one who does all this.
It's not us, okay?
God is the one who has to change us.
I can't change anybody else
and I can't even change myself.
I have to be following Jesus Christ.
He'll change me.
But look at John 15 one.
The Bible says,
I am the true vine
and my father is the husband man.
Every branch in me
that beareth not fruit,
he taketh away.
Again, the same thing
about that distinction.
The person who's not a fisher of men,
he says, I'm sorry,
you cannot be my son,
you're not a baller.
But he says,
every branch of me
that beareth not fruit,
he taketh away.
And every branch that beareth fruit,
he purges it,
that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now, of course,
we know what that fruit is.
Everything brings forth
that for its own kind
from Genesis 1 and on.
I mean, apples bring forth apples.
Oranges bring forth oranges.
Lemons bring forth lemons.
And a Christian
brings forth other Christians.
He multiplies.
He's fruitful.
He brings forth fruit.
That means
that instead of one Christian,
now there's two,
because I want somebody to rule.
And that's the person
that I produce through soul weight.
What's that saying about bearing fruit?
But he says,
every branch that beareth fruit.
Now, this is the person,
remember,
that's decided
to give their lump of clay,
so to speak,
to the potter
and say,
God,
make me what you want me to be.
Make me however you want me to be,
as it seems good to you, God.
It's the person who said,
I'm willing to follow you, Jesus,
so that you can make me a fisher of men.
It's the person who said,
I've devised in my heart
to follow the Lord
and show God,
I'm trusting you
to guide every step
of the way toward that.
Now, that person
who's decided to put themselves
as a follower of Jesus Christ
begins to bring forth fruit now,
as he begins to make them into
what they need to be.
Well, this branch
that's bringing forth fruit,
the Bible says,
he purges it,
God purges it,
that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now,
our number one goal
is to bring forth fruit.
But once we're bringing forth fruit,
our next goal is to bring forth more fruit, right?
Because if a little bit of fruit is good,
more fruit is better.
And so God says,
okay,
number one,
follow me
and I'll make you a fisher of men.
Number two,
be a fisher of men
and I'll purge you
so that you can bring forth more fruit.
Now, who wants to bring forth more fruit?
Everybody wants to bring forth more fruit.
I mean, I'm not satisfied
with the amount of people
that I've wanted the Lord in my life.
I'm going to tell you right now.
Hey, I hope
that at 26 years old,
I haven't reached the pinnacle
of my spiritual development.
Hey, I hope that there's something
that God can still purge out of my life
so that I can bring forth
more fruit next year
than I'm bringing forth this year.
And so God promises to take the branch
and purge it
that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now, if anybody knows much about trees
and I'm learning a little bit about trees
ever since I began to own my own home,
my wife is declaring me
because she thinks I don't know anything about trees,
but I know more than I did
before I had a house
and had trees to take care of.
And you remember how I trimmed that tree
all by myself?
I thought,
it's funny,
I called my friend,
Jason,
who's a tree trimmer for a living
and I told him,
I said,
Hey, I've got this idea,
I'm just going to run it by you,
I want to talk to you
because, you know,
the city said that the branch
can't hang over the street
up to 14 feet from the pavement.
Which, you know,
14 feet is pretty high, right?
He said,
14 feet, it can't hang over,
we have branches hanging over.
And I told him,
I said,
and I was asking him
because he knows, you know,
where to cut the branch exactly
and how to cut it at the right angle
and all this good stuff.
So he's explaining this stuff to me over the phone.
And I said,
Well, here's my idea, Jason.
I said,
I'm just going to,
I said,
I don't have a big ladder,
you know,
you have a special little bucket truck
and everything to get up there.
I said,
I don't have a ladder like that
or anything that's that big.
I said,
Here's my idea,
I'm just going to climb up the tree
and just cut the limbs
from inside the tree.
I said,
Do you think that's a good idea?
And he said,
Not really, you know.
Actually, that sounds like a bad idea.
And so,
I said,
Well,
can you give me some tips
on doing it anyway?
And he said,
Okay, you know.
So he told me,
he said,
Look at what you do.
He said,
Tie a rope to yourself
and then tie your saw,
because I was using an electric,
reciprocating saw,
you know,
sawzall.
He said,
Tie a rope to you
and then tie a rope
to the other end of the sawzall.
And then he said,
You can climb up the tree
with, you know,
both hands at both feet
and then you can pull the sawzall up.
Great idea,
you know.
So I didn't have a rope,
so I used some fire alarm cable
and tied it around myself
through my belt loops,
you know,
tied it on,
tied at the end of the sawzall,
climbed up into this tree.
I mean,
climbed way up into it,
cut all the limbs off,
and he told me where to cut them
and everything,
and I cut it all off.
And it's funny,
because just,
it took me,
what,
an hour,
hour and a half?
I mean,
it took quite a while
cutting all these limbs.
Well,
I finally get down.
I've been climbing up
and down this tree
for an hour and a half,
swinging from the branch
like a monkey,
okay.
And finally,
I'm getting down,
like,
Okay,
I'm all done.
And on the way down,
that's when I fell,
you know,
of course.
Right when I'm completely done,
I've been doing this for an hour and a half,
I'm just getting down from the last time,
I slipped and fell,
and you were,
weren't you standing right there when I fell?
So I'm sure she got a great satisfaction out of that,
but I slipped,
I slipped and fell,
and I was, like,
hanging by my legs,
okay.
And I had that fire alarm cable
hanging over something,
and what happened was,
there was a branch
with a little sharpie
that was just stacking
right into this part
on the inside of my elbow.
And that's my whole weight
was resting on that.
And I,
I wanted to pull myself up by my arms,
but that just made me just shoot deeper in.
So finally,
I just had to kind of,
like,
go,
and just fall.
I just kind of landed like a cat
and got scraped up and cut up
and everything like that.
Saying,
What's the point?
Because this is why you must trim trees.
Not only because the city says,
trim this tree,
okay,
it's $150.
Okay,
that's not the only reason why.
Okay.
The reason why is because
if you have unproductive branches on a tree,
you'll have branches that are dead.
And while I was trimming that tree,
when I was climbing up in there doing it,
there were some branches
that the weather had snapped.
Okay.
And when the weather snapped it,
it cut off its supply from the trunk
of needed nutrients.
And so what happened is,
it began to wilt and to dry out
because it wasn't getting any nutrients from the trunk.
But then what happened was,
it began to get this black disease.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Have you ever seen this?
It looks like that,
it literally looks like the tree branch is burned.
It's the weirdest thing in the world
because you'll look at it
and it almost looks like there's been a fire.
I mean,
it looks exactly like it's been burned.
And it turns black like ashes.
And it begins to spread.
And it begins to infect the whole tree.
And Jason told me,
if you don't cut that off,
it'll kill the entire tree.
Because that infection will find its way back
to the main branches
and could even find its way to the trunk
and to the roots
and kill the entire tree.
And so whenever you have a dead branch,
you have to cut it off
or else it'll begin to infect the whole tree.
Because when it's dead,
here's the thing,
you can't snap a living tree
that's productive and bearing fruit.
You know, it just bends, right?
You can't break it.
But a tree that's not producing,
a tree that's dried out and dead,
the wind will blow on it,
it'll snap it.
And then when it snaps,
it'll begin to become infected
because it wasn't cut at the exact right spot.
And it'll begin to turn black and burned
and it'll destroy the whole branch.
It can destroy the branches right around it first.
And it makes it kill the whole tree.
The tree will die
and do irreparable damage.
So, and here's another thing.
Whenever you become ill in your body,
what happens?
When you become ill
and when your body's trying to stay alive
or maybe if you're starving to death,
your body stops giving nutrients
to your extremities first.
You're not going to bite your fingers
and your toes.
Like for example,
when somebody's in the snow
and they're doing frostbite
and they're really cold,
their body can only keep so much warm
and just decides to just keep this part warm.
And pretty soon your fingers
and your toes begin to get really cold
and they begin to lose circulation.
You see, it's a waste of your body's energy
and it's a waste of the tree's energy
to pump a bunch of nutrients into a tree,
into a branch that's dying
and not bearing any fruit.
And so in order for a tree to produce fruit,
it must be pruned and purged.
You have to cut out all the dead branches.
You have to cut out every dirty infection.
You have to cut them off
and you know where you have to come up?
Right at the connection.
It's called the cambium
where the branch meets the main branch or the trunk.
That's exactly,
you have to cut off right there
and leave no trace of it.
You have to cut off right there
and it'll heal normally.
But if you leave like,
let's say you leave three inches of the branch,
it'll begin to rot.
I mean, if you cut a branch
and leave just three inches
and it stops,
it'll turn black and it starts to rot back into the tree.
That's what Jason taught me
and I saw it in my lemon tree.
That exact phenomenon.
So he said,
what are you trying to say?
What I'm trying to say is that
in order for you to be productive,
there are some things in your life
that God must cut out.
And not only that,
He has to cut them all the way out.
I mean, you can't leave any of it.
That's why God's using this illustration.
That's why when you cut trees,
you have to cut the whole branch off
or don't even touch it.
I mean, you can't leave a little bit left
because it'll rot and destroy the branch.
You must cut off the whole branch right.
You have to lay the axe to the root of the branch
and get rid of it in your life
if you're going to produce the most fruit possible.
Now, many people are not winning the souls
that they could win.
They're not following Jesus
like they could be following Jesus
because of dead and rotten branches in their life.
I mean, if that tree represents your life,
okay, and you're not a tree of course,
you're a branch.
But branches have branches, okay.
And so here's your branch.
It's bearing fruit.
But God says I need to purge it.
That means I need to cut off
some of your branches
that are not productive,
that are slowing you down
and holding you back.
You'll never be the soul that you need to be.
You'll never be following Jesus
and his disciples like you need to be
while you just let sin run rampant in your life.
Now look, there are whole religions and denominations
and there are whole groups of churches in this country
that think,
and this is what they're called,
New Evangelicals.
And this is what they think.
They think that they can live a life
of worldliness and sin
and still produce fruit.
It's alive.
Now, number one,
you're not going to produce more fruit
until you get rid of sin and worldliness.
But number two,
eventually the sin and worldliness
will rot its way back
and destroy you from producing any fruit at all.
It's funny, I was on an airplane last night
and the lady that was sitting next to me,
I said there was something I was,
I talked to her about salvation
and it turned out she was already saved.
And so I was talking to her about something
and I used the word worldliness.
Worldliness.
She said, wow.
She said, I haven't heard that word since I was a little kid.
She said, I've never heard anybody say the word worldliness.
She said, man, when we were kids,
we used to hear that all the time in church.
Don't be worldly.
Don't do that.
It's worldly.
Worldliness.
She said, I haven't even heard that.
She lives by these plans,
like this scholarship to hear the word worldliness.
And I told her, I said,
well, let me tell you what,
you never heard the word worldliness.
I said, because pastors who are worldly
don't get up and preach against worldliness.
Because people would start to look at them and say,
well, wait a minute, you're worldly.
And so people have this philosophy.
They think I can be a soul winner.
I can live for God.
I can do what God wants me to do.
And God's going to help me to win my friends
and loved ones to the Lord.
And I'm going to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
And God's going to use me in a great way,
but they want to keep all the sin in their life.
It's not going to work.
Something's got to go according to the Bible.
And you say, well, I can't get rid of it.
God's the one that's going to purge it from you.
God's the one that's going to take it away from you.
But you have to decide and divide your heart.
I want God to take it away from me.
I want to stop the sin in my life.
I want to clean up my life.
And then God can help you to do it.
But the question is, do you want it bad enough?
Have you devised your way
and set up going the way that leads to cleanliness
and godliness and righteousness
and not worldliness and loose living?
And let me give you a perfect example.
Drinking.
Now look, if you're going to be a great soul winner,
drinking must be cut out of your life.
Yes, it must, because the Bible says,
be not drunk with wine wherein it exists,
but be filled with the Spirit.
You see, it's one or the other.
Nobody is under the influence of alcohol
and filled with the Holy Spirit to thank God.
And yet the Bible commands us to be filled with the Spirit.
The opposite of being filled with the Spirit,
being under God's influence,
is being under the devil's influence throughout all.
Now let me tell you something.
We live in a day where social drinking
has become acceptable among Christians
and it's the biggest lie of the devil
to think that you can cut the branch off
and leave a few inches of drinking
and you're going to be all right.
No, it'll destroy you.
Now look, why don't you ask somebody
who's quit smoking?
Okay, why don't you ask them
if it'd be possible to just cut down
to just one cigarette a day?
You know, go from smoking two packs a day
to just one a day.
No way.
There's no way anybody's going to smoke
just one cigarette a day, are they?
I mean, they're either going to smoke a pack a day
or they're just going to have to quit smoking.
I mean, you're not going to be able to just smoke one a day.
It's not going to work.
You can't leave anything on that branch.
You must cut it off completely
or it will destroy you.
But alcohol, people say social drinking is acceptable.
The Bible says,
look not on the wine when it is red,
when it giveth its color in the cup,
when it moveth itself right.
For at the last it biteth like a serpent
and staineth like an adder.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women
and thy mouth shall utter perverse things.
You say, well, I believe it's okay to drink a little.
God said, look not on the wine when it's red,
when it giveth its color in the cup
and moveth itself right.
He said, don't look on a certain kind of beverage.
Agreed?
He didn't say, don't look on it
if you're in this situation.
He said, don't look on the wine when it's this type of wine.
Now, you see, Pastor Ryan,
do you understand what he means by that?
The red, he gives his color in the cup,
moves himself right.
To be honest with you,
I don't have a clue what that means.
You know, I don't think it's saying to drink Chardonnay
and don't drink red wine.
Okay, I don't think so.
Now, I'm not an expert on wine.
I'm not an expert on distilling alcohol.
I don't know what beer tastes like.
I'm not an expert on,
but I'll tell you one thing.
The Bible says there's a type of wine
that you're not even supposed to look at.
I think we all agree with that, right?
There's some type of beverage where he says,
don't look at it.
And then the converse is true.
There's a type of wine that's okay to drink.
Okay, that's what the Bible says.
Now, you say, oh man,
you don't even drink wine?
Well, no, because the word wine in the Bible
can also just refer to juice.
Like for example, turn to Isaiah 65,
I'll show you this quickly.
But in Isaiah chapter 65,
we'll see that wine does not always refer
to an alcoholic beverage.
It could just be referring to juice.
And I'll prove that to you in the Bible.
I don't want you to just believe me,
but I'd rather that I have you see it for yourself.
Because when you see things for yourself,
your faith does not rest in man,
but in the word of God.
And so I'm going to show you in Isaiah 65,
let me find the verse here.
Otherwise, you're just going to have to take my word for it.
Isaiah 65, the Bible says,
Thus saith the Lord,
as the new wine is found in the cluster,
and one saith, destroy it not,
for a blessing is in it,
so will I do for my servants' sakes,
that I may not destroy them all.
Now, let me ask you something.
What is a cluster referring to in reference to wine?
What do you think?
Anyone?
A cluster of grapes, right?
So he says that the wine is in a cluster of grapes.
Now, no grape juice that's still inside of a cluster of grapes
has alcohol in it.
Okay?
You don't get drunk from eating too many grapes.
I mean, you don't have to show your ID at the grocery store
when you come out with, you know, too many pounds of grapes.
Okay?
And so obviously when God used the word wine,
and I think the word juice is only used one time in the entire Bible.
Okay?
Because he usually uses the word wine to refer to any kind of grape juice.
And, you know, there's so many,
so many ways to prove that.
I don't want to spend the whole sermon on this.
But the point is that from Proverbs 23,
he says,
Look not on the wine when it is red,
but give it the skull of the cup,
and move it so bright,
we can ascertain,
and just use simple logic here,
there's a type of juice that you shouldn't even look at,
and there's one type that's fine to drink.
Because Jesus made water into wine, right?
I mean, Jesus gave wine to his disciples
and said take and drink.
He said drink it all, Luke chapter 22.
And yet the Bible says in Habakkuk 2 15,
woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink.
Okay?
And so we see that there must be a good wine and a bad wine.
Now you say,
Well, which one's the good one, which one's the bad one?
Think about it.
What kind of a beverage would God say,
Don't look at it, and the other one's fine.
Where do we draw the line?
What percentage of alcohol content?
Obviously, we're talking about alcoholic versus non-alcoholic.
I mean, anybody who's not biased will see
that there's two types of wine.
One has alcohol, one doesn't.
And one of them is okay to drink,
and one of them you shouldn't even look at.
But people think it's okay to drink socially.
Well, let me ask you this.
How much do you have to drink before you're drunk?
Let me ask you that.
You say, well, it varies for the individual.
Well, that's kind of like all God's rules, right?
They all kind of vary from person to person, don't they?
No, they don't.
God's rules are the same for everybody.
You say, well, it's kind of a gray area.
God doesn't have any gray areas.
God's rules are always simple and easy to understand,
that even a child can understand them.
So where is the line of what is too much to drink,
and what is okay?
Where, what is it that makes you drunk?
Is it the DMV that's going to tell us?
That is, or what is it, MVD here?
DMV, MVD, BMD, whatever it is.
Are they going to tell us what blood alcohol concentration?
That's not Bible doctrine.
And so let's say you say, well, two beers and you're drunk.
Well, then if you drink one beer, you're half drunk.
That's true.
You say, well, you know, if you drink three drinks,
you're drunk.
You're one and a half and you're halfway to being drunk.
You're half drunk.
And you know what?
There's no such thing as a social drinker anyway.
I remember when I was a kid, we had these people
that were Christians and they said, well, they said,
we drink, but we don't, we don't,
we believe it's a sin to get drunk.
We believe it's okay to drink.
And I remember I went to their house and spent the night
and they had their, they had just a few friends
over us that were four adults.
And we, we woke up in the morning
and there were 24 empty beer containers in the sink.
So that means that each adult had approximately,
you know, six beers each.
Now, is that not drunk?
I mean, I don't know.
I'm not an expert on beer or alcohol, but that's okay,
right?
To drink a six pack and with your wife and, and,
and your friend and his wife and the four of you
just get together and each of you downs a six pack.
That's okay.
That's not drunkenness.
I mean, it's ridiculous.
These people who say I drink, but I don't get drunk.
You'll see them drunk soon enough.
You'll watch them act like an idiot sometime
when they're drunk.
It's funny.
I was on the airplane last night.
I was, I was giving the gospel to a girl
that was sitting next to me.
Or not a girl.
I mean, an adult lady.
I was giving her the gospel and, and it's funny
because as I was giving her the gospel, you know,
I smelled, she had a little bit of beer on her breath.
But you know, I gave her the gospel and I was
giving her, she was really listening and, and,
and paying attention and everything like that.
But then she ordered, while we were on the plane,
she ordered a bottle of wine.
You know, these little bottles that they
have, these little individual size of some Chardonnay,
you know, whatever.
And they gave her some bottle of white wine.
And I mean, when she drank that wine, it was just,
it was pretty much worthless time after that.
I mean, after that, I was sitting,
I was trying to give her the gospel and just playing
to her.
And she's just like, had to keep reading it,
like three, what's that verse say?
And she had to read it like three times.
She's like looking at it and getting mixed up
and changing the side of the mix, you know,
and just acting like a goofball.
And I'm just thinking to myself,
I want, how many people are going to go to hell?
Because they were drunk.
And I've given the gospel to people who are drunk many times.
You go swimming in the ghetto and you go out there
on Sunday.
You'll be talking to people when they're drunk
and you've been going to the gospel.
I wonder how many people are going to go to hell
because they were drunk and they couldn't even
understand the gospel because they were too drunk.
And look, I've sat on airplanes and, you know,
next week I'm going to be on eight airplanes next week,
OK?
Because I'm taking two round trips
and it's connecting flights the whole way.
So I'm going to fly on eight airplane rides next week, OK?
And on these eight airplane rides,
I will watch people that are drinking alcohol every time.
There are always, people just love to drink on planes
because I guess they're just bored
and they just have nothing else to do.
So they sit there and just drink.
And it's amazing how you'll listen to people talk
and the conversation will be totally clean, totally normal,
totally friendly, and as they begin to drink,
they'll begin to say filthy, dirty things.
It's the truth.
God promised that it would happen if your eyes
would behold strange women.
Or if you're a woman, I guess your eyes
would behold strange men.
And your mouth will let out perverse things.
Look, alcohol is wicked and you ought to just decide
I'm going to let God purge me of alcohol in my life
completely and I'm never going to touch it.
I don't want anything to do with it.
I've seen the effects of it.
I don't want to be halfway affected it
or 25% affected by it.
I'm going to have alcohol cut out of my life.
You know what?
The same thing goes for the dirty stuff
that people watch on television.
You know, everybody draws this little line
on their television, right?
With what they think is acceptable and what is not.
Look, you need to just cut out the worldly television,
just get rid of it completely.
Because if you leave a little bit
and you know people say,
Oh, I just watched the news.
I just watched the weather.
I just watched the Andy Griffith Show.
I just watched the, uh,
what's that one that I'll say?
Little Office on the Prairie, you know?
I just watched this show or that show or the other.
You know what?
No, they never don't.
Oh, I just watched the History Channel.
Oh, I just watched the Nature Channel.
I've never known anybody who had a TV
where that was true,
where that's all they watched.
I mean, they're going to surf onto something else.
They're going to get on something else for a while.
They're going to watch the whole spectrum.
And you know what?
Once the TV is there,
and let me just, let me just be honest with you.
Okay.
Today, TV is not really a temptation for you
just because I haven't even watched this junk in years.
And I can't even imagine what TV is like anymore
because when I quit watching TV,
it seemed like everybody on there was a queer
and every woman was dressed like a hoochie mama.
I mean, that's the way I remember being, you know?
And has it gotten better if they cleaned it up?
Have they cleaned up the television the last five years?
Okay, I didn't think so.
But the thing is, I'm going to tell you something.
And if you would have come to me five years ago
or even four years ago,
and installed the TV in my house
and had it hooked up to all the channels,
you know what?
I would have watched it if it was in my house.
Because eventually, you're just going to sit down, be tired.
And I remember a couple of times when I was first married,
you know, just you're worn out, you're beat,
you're so used to growing up, watching all this junk on TV,
just sitting down and saying,
hey, you know, let's just watch this movie.
We'd go to my parents' house
because they had a TV in a VCR.
And we'd go over to my parents' house
and sit down and watch a movie.
It was always something dirty about it.
It was always something dirty thing.
I mean, we got this movie one time.
It was PG-rated, you know?
And it was a totally clean movie.
We sat down and watched it.
And I got three quarters of the way through.
And one of the characters was this,
it became apparent it was a queer.
Like, came out of the closet in the movie.
And you know, why?
Because it was there.
And you know, today, if I had a TV in my house,
I'd just spit on it every time I walked by it
or kick it or something.
But you know what?
Most people, if they have a TV in their house,
you're going to just turn it on and start watching it.
And the next thing you know,
you're going to look through watching it.
You've been three hours letting the devil program you
and teach you all this garbage.
Now look, the way sin is that you can't play with it, okay?
You can't have these branches in your life
that are corrupting you.
You got to just cut them off right at the base.
Alcohol, cut it out completely.
Cigarettes, cut it out completely.
The drugs, cut them out completely.
Pornography, cut it out completely.
Worldliness, watching the world's television
and all the worldly movies and stuff.
You say, I don't think there's anything
to walk wrong with television.
Look, go ahead and watch all the television.
Go ahead and watch all the movies.
And at the end of the day,
let's see who brought forth fruit and who didn't.
That's the reality of it, my friend.
You can sit down and say,
you can give me all the arguments you want
about why it's fine to watch all this TV
and why it's fine to go to the movie theater
and watch all the movies
and why it's fine to listen to all the worldly music
and the rock and roll and the Beatles
and The Doors and Jimi Hendrix
and the modern music of Britney Spears
and Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez
and tell me all the reasons why it's okay to listen
to your country western rockabilly
and so-and-so's been on the cheating side of town
and she does bed with another man
and listen to all that garbage.
Go ahead and tell me all the reasons
why it's fine to listen to it.
But at the end of the day,
you're gonna see who has brought forth fruit and who hasn't.
It's gonna be the separated, purged, sanctified Christian
that brings forth the fruit
and it's gonna be the worldly, half in, half out,
permissive, anything goes Christian
that doesn't bring forth anything.
Hey, I was smart enough when I was 18, 19 years old
even though I thought rock music was fine, TV was fine.
I mean, I was 18, 19.
I went to the movie theater.
I was watching Star Wars episode one
and I was watching movies and TV
and I was listening to all the rock and roll
and everything like that
and I thought it was all fine.
But when I was 18, 19 years old,
I was just smart enough to look at other people,
watch them bring forth fruit
and they didn't watch TV.
They didn't listen to the rock and roll
and I just thought to myself,
I'm not bringing forth fruit.
They are.
Maybe I need to be purged, okay?
And that's the place you're gonna have to come to
in your life
and I can't make you want to win somebody to Christ.
I can't make you want to live for God.
I can't make you want to follow Jesus.
But if you'll devise in your heart
that you want to follow Jesus,
hey, God can take you step by step,
turn you into another man,
he'll change your desires,
he'll change what you want to do,
he'll change what you want to be
and he'll make it a delight for you to do what's right
and you won't even want to do what's wrong
because God will purge you of that in your life.
But you gotta decide that you're gonna purge all of it.
Say, wow, you're really strict.
I'm not strict because somebody who's strict
is somebody who's telling other people what to do
and very strictly, you know, policing them and whatever.
I'm not strict.
The only person I'm strict on is myself and my own family.
That's all.
You know, but you know what?
God's strict because God will enforce his rules
and his laws.
And I'm gonna tell you something.
You gotta decide this morning right now
and say, I want to win souls to Christ.
I want to be the Christian that God wants me to be.
It doesn't matter what I want to be.
I'm gonna let God make me into what he wants me to be.
I'm gonna let God purge me.
I'm gonna let God direct me.
I'm gonna let God decide where I go
and when I go there and when I do.
And if you'll decide that and say,
God, I want you to purge me
so I can bring forth more fruit.
He will help you to get rid of the sin in your life
that's hindering you and holding you back.
I mean, I've explained it to people this way.
I remember when I worked at a pizza place
or this wasn't a pizza place.
Where was it?
At an advanced sound electronics in Sacramento
when I worked there.
People are like, you don't watch TV?
You know, you're crazy.
So that's weird.
So that's the weirdest thing I've ever heard.
And I said, let me ask you a question.
I said, what if you could push a button?
I was talking to a Christian.
I said, what if you could push a button right now?
I said, what if I held out to you a button?
And I said, if you could push this button
then you would never want to watch TV again.
And you would have no desire
to ever want to watch any TV or movie again.
I said, would you push that button?
And he said, I'd push that button.
Because I said, it would make you a better Christian, right?
You have all this extra time in your day, right?
I said, you wouldn't see all these
bunch of half-naked women
and listen to Jesus being mocked and cursed.
You wouldn't listen to all the worldly newscasters
tell you about Barack Obama and John McCain,
how wonderful they are.
And then all this garbage
that they pump down your brain.
I said, if you could push that button,
would you do it?
And he said, yeah, I would do it.
I said, so you want to be like me?
I said, God can make you
not even want to watch all the junk that's on TV.
God can get you to the point
where you don't desire to drink anymore.
God can get you to the point
where you just don't want to go to the bar anymore.
I mean, I don't every day say,
man, I wish I could go to the theater.
Man, I wish I could go to the bar.
Don't go to the bar, don't do it, don't do it.
Oh, don't turn on,
you know, every time I go to a dough room,
it's not this battle that goes on around my neck.
Trying to turn on TV.
Trying to turn on an interview.
Because God has changed me, okay?
And God's still changing me.
And I'm still growing.
And I hope God's gonna purge me even more
so I can bring more fruit.
That's the Christian life.
If you think the Christian life
is just coming to church
and, you know,
give somebody a gospel every once in a while,
it's a life where you just
put yourself completely at God's disposal
and say, cut any branch off that you want, God.
Mold me and make me after thy will
while I'm waiting for you to be yielded in the field.
That's what the Christian life is.
But let's go to R.I.D.S. Network, perfect.