to work in gold, and in silver, and in grass, and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.
And I, behold I, have given with them a Holy Ab, the son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan,
and in the hearts of all that are wisehearted, I have put wisdom that they may make all that I have commanded."
So, what the Bible is teaching us here is that any kind of talent that anyone has comes from God.
God has a specific job for these men to do, Bezalel and a Holy Ab.
They were supposed to build this temple, they were supposed to build all these ornaments and all these different things,
and the Bible says that God was the one that gave them the wisdom, the cunning, the knowledge,
to be able to do those things, to be able to make these different things.
Look at Exodus chapter 35, just a few pages over, and this is just kind of the introduction, but look at Exodus 35, 30.
The Bible says in Exodus 35, 30,
And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, the Lord hath called by name, Bezalel the son of Uri,
the son of her of the tribe of Judah, and he hath filled them with the Spirit of God,
in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,
to devise curious works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in the cutting of stones,
to set them, and in the carving of wood, to make any manner of cunning work.
And he hath put in his heart that he may teach, both he and a Holy Ab, the son of Ahisamach, and the thrive of the others.
There's many other scriptures on these two men, I'm not going to read for the sake of time.
But if you would, turn to 1 Timothy chapter 1.
You see, every single person in this world has various talents and abilities,
and not everyone has the same talents and abilities, but the first thing you need to understand is that these abilities come from God.
The Bible says every gift cometh from above.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh now from the Father of lights,
with whom is no variable, and is neither shadow nor turning.
God gives different people different abilities.
Not everyone has the ability to teach or to preach.
The Bible talks about certain people being gifted with the ability to teach, the ability to preach.
He said when you're choosing a pastor, or he uses the word bishop or elder, he says they need to be apt to teach.
There's a certain aptitude that someone has to get up and preach.
Other people have an aptitude in music.
Other people have an aptitude to learn a foreign language.
The Bible talks about being able to understand various tongues, or to speak in an unknown language, an unknown tongue.
God has given various people different gifts, different abilities,
and we ought to be using those gifts and abilities that he gave us for his glory,
and not just using them for our own glory or just to make money out in the world.
We ought to be using our talents and abilities for the service of God.
Now, a lot of people would look at somebody who's a pastor,
or look at somebody who's in some other full-time Christian service and say,
oh, that person's serving God with their life.
But in reality, whether you're a carpenter, electrician, plumber, computer programmer, managing a business,
you are to be serving God with your life, and there's nothing unspiritual about working those type of jobs.
Now, me personally, I'm not technically in full-time Christian service because I work in the fire alarm business,
and that's where I make all my money. That's what I do for a living.
And that doesn't make me any less of a Christian.
It doesn't make you any less of a Christian that you go out and work a physical job.
God puts a high premium on work of all kinds.
And the Bible says in Deuteronomy, you don't have to turn there, you're in 1 Timothy, but he said,
Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth,
that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers as it is this day.
So when you go to work, let's say you're really good at your job.
Let's say you're very good at working with wood.
Or let's say you're very good at whatever it is, writing or whatever your occupation.
The Bible says, don't forget that God is the one who gave you that ability.
God is the one that gave you the ability to turn that screwdriver.
God is the one who gave you the ability to make all cunning manner of workmanship,
as he gave to this man Uri in Exodus 31.
God is the one who gives us our talents and abilities,
whether it's to speak, whether it's to play music, whatever the case may be.
And therefore God gave it to us, we ought to be willing to use that for the honor and glory of God.
Look at 1 Timothy 1 verse 12.
Here's Paul, a great preacher, a man who brought the gospel all throughout Asia Minor.
He said, and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me.
You see that? Who gave him the ability to preach?
Who gave him the ability to do all the works that he did?
He said, Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me,
for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.
Look at 1 Timothy chapter 4.
Just a few pages over, 1 Timothy 4, 13, it says,
Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy,
with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
So here's the title of my sermon.
Neglect not the gift which is in thee.
Did you hear that?
Neglect not the gift that is in thee.
You see, every single person has talents and abilities.
You say, well, maybe I can't, you know, preach.
I'm never going to be preached. I'm never going to speak.
But you have other abilities that God could use.
Every single person has abilities, and whatever that gift is,
we ought not to neglect the gift that God has given us.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter number 3.
1 Corinthians chapter number 3.
Just a little bit past the halfway point of your New Testament.
1 Corinthians chapter number 3.
You see, there are many people that I've known.
Let me tell you something.
I've known young men who've gotten up behind the pulpit
and preached a sermon maybe on a teenage youth night
or maybe on some kind of a popcorn preaching at a New Year's Eve night
or a preaching class or whatever the case may be,
and they had a great ability to preach.
I mean, they had a natural talent to be a better speaker than I'll ever be.
They stood up and they preached with ease and they were eloquent,
and many people are gifted in that way.
Some people can just get up and speak and make a speech,
and it comes easy to them.
But then I've seen those people waste that gift
and get more interested in everything else,
not have a desire to preach, not have a desire to serve God,
not have a desire to win souls,
and go waste their life doing something that doesn't matter
when they neglected the gift that was in them.
God gave them that gift.
God wanted them to preach.
God wanted them to serve Him with their life,
and yet they're wasting it.
They're neglecting the gift that's in them.
There are other people who are very good with music,
and maybe they even grow up in church playing church music,
and then they turn 18, 19, 20, and it's just,
oh, they want to go for the, you know, whatever.
Not Hollywood.
What is the music scene?
Broadway.
I don't think that's it.
Nashville.
Yeah, it's all of it.
Thank you.
Help me out here.
It's all about Nashville,
and it's all about the fame and the stardom.
Let me tell you something.
I'd rather sit in church and play the piano
while God's people sing than to play in the Grand Ole Opry
or to play on some American Idol somewhere
or Star Search somewhere.
I don't want to be playing for the glory of man
for the accolades of having somebody clap
and praise me and tell me how wonderful I am.
Hey, I'm not wonderful.
God's wonderful,
and I want people to be praising God when I play that piano.
You know, not that I can play the piano worth anything.
You know, I can play a little bit,
but if I were good at piano, let me tell you something.
I'd be using that gift for the glory of God.
You know, and what little ability I do have to play piano,
I use it for the glory of God.
And if I had the ability to sing with a wonderful singing voice,
I'd be singing to the glory of God.
And if I had the ability to preach,
hey, I'm up here preaching right now, preaching God's word.
I'm not trying to become some kind of a political speaker somewhere.
I don't think that would go over anyway.
I'm not trying to be some kind of a Toastmaster or something.
Hey, I want to use my gifts and abilities for the glory of God,
because God is the one who gave them to me.
My former pastor in Sacramento is a very talented preacher.
He has a very good gift for preaching,
and he's also a very talented singer,
and he's also a very talented piano player,
my pastor that I had when I was a teenager, Pastor Nichols,
who, you know, I learned a lot of good stuff from him.
He had a lot of great abilities,
and he talked about when he was a young teenager,
he started to become enamored with the idea of singing
in a country western band.
You know, and he was doing a lot with church,
he was thinking about going to the ministry,
becoming a pastor and this and that,
but he got into this country western band,
and he started to have a lot of success,
you know, singing country western
and playing in this country western band.
And there came a time when he started,
you know, people started to tell him,
you know, you're going down the wrong path here,
you know, with these people that you're running with.
And he actually, get this, and this is,
he'll tell you this, it's true,
he lost his voice literally for two months,
and he felt like maybe it was God trying to show him something.
I gave you, you know, this is the way he took it,
I gave you that voice and I can take it away.
You know, it's not for your glory.
It's not for you to be famous and make money
singing a bunch of worldly music in a bunch of bars
and honky-tonks somewhere.
You know, I gave you that gift
so that you could use it for the glory of God.
He didn't give a Holy Ab and Bezalil the gift
to work in gold and silver and wood
just so that they could, you know,
make some kind of an idol somewhere
or make some kind of a building that people would admire.
He used it for his glory.
He had a plan when he gave them that ability
that they would use it for the house of God.
And that's what they ought to use it for.
And my pastor realized, you know,
I shouldn't be using it for the world.
You know, I should be using my talents
and abilities to serve God.
And he got back on track with wanting to, you know,
start a church and do all the things
that he had formerly wanted to do.
And he told that story because of the fact
that many people neglect the gift that's in them.
And let me tell you something.
No matter how much money you make out there in the world,
if you're not serving God with your life,
you're wasting your life, period, as a Christian.
It's true. It's true.
And any of us can get caught up in this.
My business that I work in, in the fire alarm business,
is so demanding that many times my time is just consumed.
My energy gets consumed in business,
and sometimes I just wake up in the morning
and just business is on my mind.
You know, and it's hard because, you know,
we're living in a time where it's difficult to make ends meet.
Especially my wife is a stay-at-home mom.
It's not easy to make the money that needs to be made.
And so sometimes you wake up in the morning
and just business is on your mind.
You know, you go to bed at night and it's business, business.
But that's not how I want to live my life.
You know, I have to work in business.
I have to do these things.
You've got to put food on the table.
But let me tell you something.
When I wake up in the morning,
I want to have God's word on my mind.
I want to be thinking about spiritual things,
eternal things that matter,
and you have to be able to put off the cares of this world
when you walk into church.
I don't want to have business on my mind when I'm in church.
I don't want to have business on my mind when I'm out sold.
You've got to be able to put that aside and say,
seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness
and all these things will be added unto you.
And say, I'm going to worry about the spiritual
and let God take care of the rest.
Look at 1 Corinthians 3, 11 where I had you turn.
It says, for other foundation can no man lay
than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
And if that's not your foundation,
you know, he's not talking to you.
Those of you that are saved here,
who your life is built upon the rock,
you know, Jesus Christ is your foundation.
He's your savior.
He says, if any man build upon this foundation,
gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
every man's work shall be made manifest,
for the day shall declare it,
because it shall be revealed by fire
and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide which he has built thereupon,
he shall receive a reward.
Just give me one second, I have to turn there
because my notes were running out of ink
when the printer was being printed.
It says in verse number 15,
if any man's work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved,
yet so is by fire.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
And so the Bible is clear here
that you have a foundation of salvation,
of Jesus Christ.
And he says, you decide, you choose
how you're going to build on that foundation.
Are you going to build upon that foundation
with gold and silver and precious stones?
Or are you going to build upon that foundation
with wood, hay, and stubble?
You have a gift that God has given you,
talents and abilities.
Are you going to build upon that talent
gold and silver and precious stones?
Or are you going to build upon that talent
wood, hay, and stubble?
Now, wood, hay, and stubble are not necessarily bad things.
I mean, is there anything wrong with wood?
No.
Wood is a great substance.
Wood is what this pulpit is made of.
Wood is what a lot of this building is made of.
Hay, stubble, nothing wrong with those things.
This is not talking about sin.
This is not talking about living a sinful life.
God's not going to judge us for our sins.
Thank God our sins are gone
as far as the east is from the west,
God has separated us from our sins.
We're not going to be judged for our sins
at the judgment seat of Christ.
If God brings up our sins,
why did he say their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more?
Why did he say that he casts all our sins
behind his back?
Why did he say his sins should not be mentioned
unto him?
Because the fact that they're paid for,
they're under the blood of Jesus Christ,
we will not have to account for our sins.
Thank God.
Now, the unbeliever will
at that great white throne of judgment
and he'll be punished every man
according to his works,
but here he's talking about
the things that you did in your life,
the things that you built,
the works that you did.
Did you build your life with wood, hay, and stubble
or gold and silver and precious stones?
Now, nothing wrong with wood
and you can build a great building with wood
and you can build a building with wood
that will last for hundreds of years,
but that building's not going to be there forever.
That building will not last forever.
You think about the things in this world
that have been around for a really long time,
they're not made of wood.
You think of Stonehenge,
you think of the pyramids.
You know, it's interesting,
when I was in Germany,
you know, you see a lot of really old buildings.
You don't really see that in America.
First of all, America hasn't been civilized as long
with people that were building things out of stone,
out of brick, out of different substances like that,
but you'll see somebody's barn or something
that says, you know, 1000 some odd AD,
you know, 1067 AD or something.
You know, you'll find these really old stones
that are still in place.
Stonehenge, thousands of years old.
The pyramids, thousands and thousands of years old.
Stones last much longer than wood, hay, and stubble,
and not only that,
but stones can abide through fire.
You can run a stone through the fire,
and it'll come out.
Gold, silver, precious stones abide through the fire.
Wood, hay, and stubble will be burnt up.
And so God is using this illustration
that if you build your life out of wood, hay, and stubble,
you may build a great building,
and that building may even last for hundreds of years.
You may even leave some kind of a legacy behind you
for hundreds of years.
You may even have people decades from now
admiring the works that you've done in your life
or maybe profiting from them.
Maybe you built a great business,
and your children and your grandchildren
and your great-grandchildren
are profiting from that business.
But let me tell you something.
In eternity, it's not gonna matter
what business you built.
In eternity, it's not gonna matter
your custom home that you built.
In eternity, the monuments
and all the different things that you built
will not matter.
Even the physical stone objects of this world
will eventually turn to dust,
whether it be Stonehenge, whether it be the pyramids.
Even they will physically turn to dust.
God is saying here
that our life should be built upon that which is eternal,
not that which is temporal.
It's not that wood, hay, and stubble are bad things.
And let me tell you something.
Everyone's life has wood, hay, and stubble in it,
and there's nothing wrong with that.
I mean, you have to have some wood, hay, and stubble
in your life, because there are certain things
that you just have to do just to function.
You know, you go to work, you work your job,
you buy food, you buy these different things.
Nothing wrong with any of those things.
That's things that we have to do in order to live.
There are times in our day when we do things,
you know, when we brush our teeth.
You know, it's just things that we have to do.
It's just part of life.
But the Bible says here, in verse number 14,
if any man's work abide which he had built thereupon,
he shall receive reward.
So basically, God's gonna take all the works
that you've done in your life,
and he's gonna basically run them through
the sieve of that which is eternal,
that which is temporal.
He's gonna basically try it with fire
and say, okay, this is what you did
that was of eternal value.
This is what was not eternal.
You built a business.
Great, you know, you fed your family.
That's fine, but that's not what he's interested in.
That's gone.
That was just a temporary thing that had to be done.
Nothing wrong with it.
But he says, after your works and your life
go through that fire, he said, whatever's left,
that's what you're gonna receive a reward for that.
He says, you're gonna get rewarded
based upon the things that you did
that were of eternal value,
people that you won to the Lord,
you know, things that you did for the glory of God,
for Jesus Christ.
But then he says, in verse number 15,
it says, if any man's work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss.
Basically, you're losing out on those rewards.
But it says, but he himself shall be saved,
yet so is by fire.
And so basically, what the Bible's saying here is,
you don't have to do any good works to be saved.
He said, even if you just did nothing for God
in your whole life,
your whole life was wood, hay, and stubble,
he said, yet he himself shall be saved.
You'll suffer loss, you'll lose the rewards,
but you'll still be saved,
because the Bible says in Romans 4-5,
but to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness.
Some people will say, well, you know,
you have to have works.
And they might, some people will try to say,
it takes works to get saved.
Some people will try to say,
it takes works to stay saved.
Other people will say, well, if you're saved,
then there will for sure be works
as a byproduct, my friend.
But to him that worketh not,
but believeth.
So you say, well, faith always is accompanied by works.
Hold on a second.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth.
Is that a combination of faith and works?
That's no works plus faith.
Is it possible?
If it were impossible to have faith and works,
or faith without works,
then why would he even say faith without works is dead
if it's impossible to have faith without works?
Stop and think about that.
Wouldn't that be a nonsensical statement?
Faith without works is dead
if faith without works does not exist.
It does exist.
And people will say, well, faith without works is dead.
So do I have to work while I believe?
You say, well, Pastor Anderson,
faith without works is dead.
Okay, well, today is what, March 28th, 2010?
Let's say today,
in fact, let's say this whole week,
I don't do anything for God.
I have zero works.
In fact, everything I'm doing is wrong.
Okay?
According to James chapter 2,
is my faith alive or dead this week?
It's dead because faith without works is dead, right?
So does that mean that I'm going to lose my salvation?
God forbid because God said,
I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.
You can't lose your salvation.
It's impossible to lose your...
I'm saved because of the faith that I had
when I called upon the name of the Lord
when I was six years old and believed on Jesus Christ.
That's when the Holy Spirit moved into my heart
and has been inside of me ever since
and will never leave me nor forsake me.
I am eternally saved and secure.
That doesn't mean that I'm going to do the works this week.
Today, I better decide to build upon that foundation
with gold, silver and precious stones today, this week,
to take up my cross daily,
to deny self daily and follow Him.
That's not a one-time thing.
That's not what it means to be saved.
It's just believing on Jesus Christ.
That's one time.
Then after that, we know we're saved.
The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit
that we're the children of God.
But on a daily basis, we have to decide to do the right thing.
Now, if you go out and do everything wrong
and don't do the works, hey, you'll still be saved.
But you're going to suffer loss
because you're going to get to the end of your life
and God is going to show you your works
and you're going to say, I wasted my life.
Is that what you want to do?
I mean, you say, well, at least I'm going to heaven.
You don't praise God that you're going to heaven.
But I don't want to get to heaven and say,
well, thank God I'm here, but I wasted my life.
I want to say, you know what, thank God I'm here
and I did something with my life that mattered.
So many people waste their life.
They're just going through the motions of their life.
Eat, drink, you know, sleep, work.
They just go through life.
Maybe they're looking forward to the weekend.
They can do something fun.
But they're not doing anything with their life
that is of substantial value, that's of eternal value.
And let me tell you something,
this world will not be here forever.
Now somebody needs to be preaching that
from the housetops today
because many people today,
they think this world's going to be here forever and it's not.
It's not going to be here forever.
You know, this whole thing of, you know,
this obsession that we have today,
this cult and religion around the environment
that's so big in America right now.
I mean, it's amazing
because they believe that this world's going to be here forever.
Now, hey, if I believe that this world is going to be here forever,
I guess I'd probably feel the same way.
You know, we've got to sustain this thing.
But it's not going to be here forever.
God's the one who's controlling it.
It was never designed to be here forever.
It wasn't designed to last forever.
And according to the Bible, we're living in the latter days.
And he said he's going to make all things new.
Okay.
Now, if you don't believe that,
then go, you know, go worship the earth
and preserve it and all these different things.
But I happen to believe that God's the one
who makes the sun come up and go down
and bring summer and spring and fall and winter
because that's what the Bible says.
That's what I believe.
I still believe the Bible.
Call me crazy, but I don't believe in spontaneous generation.
I don't believe animals came from inanimate objects.
It's pseudoscience.
It's false.
I don't believe in spontaneous generation.
It's funny, I was out river rafting yesterday.
You know, just having a little fun.
And this lady was there
and this woman was just this total environmentalist.
Okay.
And get the hypocrisy.
She's talking about...
And she's a very wealthy person.
Okay.
They were very wealthy.
Her and her husband had traveled
to pretty much every country in the entire world.
I mean, they were talking about rafting in Ecuador,
rafting in Argentina, rafting in Mexico.
They were talking about trips to Europe.
I mean, just they've been to virtually every country
in this entire world,
just traveling all over the place.
You know, they weren't even from Arizona.
They were just here in Arizona just to do this trip.
Okay, this whitewater trip.
And this lady,
when she found out what I did for a living,
and I talked about how I do a lot of...
You know, I fly around and do fire alarms.
She said, oh, that's not very green.
She said, don't they have someone locally
that can take care of that fire alarm?
Yeah, that's not very green
that you're flying all over every week to do this work.
And I'm thinking to myself,
I'm trying to make a living.
I'm trying to feed my family,
and you're gallivanting across the globe every week.
How green is that?
You know, but the hypocrisy to say,
oh, that's not very green.
You know, Al Gore doesn't think it's very green
in the car you drive, but his Learjet,
you know, roses come out the exhaust pipe.
Okay, you know?
It's funny how it's always good enough for them.
Hey, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
You know, all of us cattle,
you know, all of us poor people
or middle class or whatever we are,
we need to cut back.
You know what I mean?
But they can go fly out just for a glass of wine.
They can fly to California and whatever
to slosh a little wine in their mouth
and just spit it out.
How green is that?
Hey, at least swallow what you put in your mouth.
How good is it?
You know, how wasteful.
Somebody puts all the energy to make wine,
and then you're going to...
I don't spit out my food or drink.
I chew it and swallow it.
I told her, I just said,
well, the only green I care about
is the green that goes in my wallet
when I get back from a fire alarm trip.
I said, that's the green that I worry about.
She's like, yeah, I know.
Oh, man.
Isn't that just so true, though?
I mean, and she was serious,
pontificating about the environment
while she flies all over the world.
You know?
It's a democracy of today's religion.
And it is a religion.
It's a religion of Mother Earth.
It's been around for thousands of years.
There's nothing new under the sun.
I don't worship Mother Earth nature.
I worship Father God.
But look at Romans chapter 12, if you would.
Romans chapter 12, verse 1.
And while you're turning there,
let me read you a verse on the environment.
And it's funny.
The same lady.
You know, we're going down this river,
and there's like, you know,
because there's a whole bunch of people in the rap,
do you know what I mean?
And we're going down this river,
and by the sides of the river,
there are literally millions of saguaros.
I mean, millions.
We were in a totally uninhabited part of Arizona,
you know, and we're just going down this river,
and there are just millions and millions of saguaros.
And I'm not exactly, I mean millions.
I mean, they look like just toothpicks
Tons of them.
And we probably saw, what, less than 1% of Arizona
on a 20-mile rafting, okay?
And we saw millions, and this same lady said,
boy, it sure is reassuring to see all these saguaros, you know?
Because they're endangered.
You know?
So this is really reassuring.
I was thinking to myself, you know,
can I give you, I told her, I said,
you know, I can give you about 100 other places to drive
just to, if you ever start feeling, you know,
I don't know if they're still out there, you know?
I could give you about 100 of them.
You know, you drive down to 87 up to Payson.
You could drive up to 17.
You drive I-10 to Tiza.
You'll see, she's like, you know,
because new homes are going in, and they're cutting them down.
Come on, it's like a drop of water on a hot stove.
Those things are everywhere.
There's millions of them.
Unbelievable.
But let me give you a verse on the environment here.
If I can find it.
This wasn't in my notes,
it's worth reading.
Genesis 8-22 says this,
while the earth remaineth,
now what's implied by that statement?
This world's not going to be here forever.
Jesus said heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my word shall not pass away.
But listen to this.
While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest
and cold and heat and summer and winter
and day and night shall not cease.
So God promised
that seed time, harvest,
summer, winter,
winter, cold, heat.
He said all of those things will continue
while this world remaineth.
So I don't understand how you can be a Christian and say,
I don't know if we can sustain this thing.
You can't, but God can.
And whenever man tries to tamper with it,
he messes it up.
They tried to bring in,
the tour guide was explaining to us
how these plants have taken over the side of the river
because they tried to bring in this certain plant
because they were trying to fix the ecosystem
and the plant got out of control
because they had no natural predators
and they had to bring in this other bug
and then the bug got out of control.
Man thinks that he has to try to
sit in some control center,
some command center somewhere
controlling the weather or something.
There's a command center like that
except it's God that's at the joystick
and he's going to take care of it.
And so that has nothing to do with the sermon
but I don't know why I'm even talking about it.
But I don't know.
This has something to do with using the gifts
that God has given you.
Maybe if you go back and listen to the tape,
you'll figure out how it got on that.
But anyway, Romans chapter 12 verse 1 says this,
I beseech you therefore, brethren,
so he's talking to Christians here,
he's talking to those that are saved.
He says, I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world,
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove what is that good
and acceptable and perfect will of God.
For I say through the grace given unto me
to every man that is among you,
get this statement,
not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think.
You know, some people,
because they're talented, right?
They get puffed up and think,
oh, look how good looking I am,
or I'm such a good speaker,
or I'm so good at music,
or I'm so talented in foreign languages,
or I'm so talented of a worksman
in wood and engraving,
and so forth,
I'm an artist, I'm this, I'm that,
whatever the talent may be,
I'm a great athlete, I can run fast,
I can play basketball, I can do all these different things.
He says, don't think of yourself more highly
than you ought to think.
God's the one who gave you those abilities,
God gave you those gifts,
and you ought to present your body
that God gave you as a living sacrifice to God,
He says in verse number 4,
for as we have many members
in one body, and that body
is referring to the local church,
He says we have many members in one body,
and all members have
not the same office.
He's saying, look, not everybody's the pastor,
not everybody is this, not everybody's that.
Just like the body.
He said in 1 Corinthians 12,
you don't have to turn there.
He said, just because, you know,
the foot is not the ear,
to me it's not part of the body.
You need both.
He said, if the whole body were the ear,
you know, where were the smelling?
If the whole body were the nose,
you know, where were the hearing?
And so we have all these different parts in our body,
and every single one of them has a purpose.
Every single one of them has a function.
Your eyes have a function, your mouth, your nose.
There are so many parts of your body
that you don't even think of,
and sometimes that the doctor wants to remove,
you know, the appendix,
the tonsils, whatever the case may be,
the gallbladder, all of those parts of the body
do have a function.
Now, sometimes they have to be removed
because of infection,
but part of the reason why those things are in place,
and I'm not an expert on medicine,
I'm not an expert on science,
but I will say this, I know that many of those organs
are there just to absorb infection.
Their purpose is to basically absorb
a lot of the toxins in your body,
a lot of the junk in your body.
When people's appendix is removed,
sometimes they'll pull out their appendix
and find all kinds of junk in their appendix,
almost like a waste dump for certain things.
You know, there's a reason why
we may not understand all the reasons.
The tonsils have been removed on so many,
and yet the tonsils stop people's throat
from being infected.
You know, it's kind of the first point.
And my wife, she doesn't have her tonsils,
and she regrets it because she said
that it caused her to get a sore throat
much more easily.
And again, I'm not an expert on that.
And God uses the human body as a metaphor.
He uses it as an analogy of the local church.
It's a body.
Different people in the body have different functions,
different abilities, different talents.
Not everyone teaches, not everyone preaches,
but that doesn't mean that they're any less important
because they have a function in that body.
There's a reason why they have been placed here
in the body, and so the Bible's clear
that we have one body, body of Christ,
every one members one another, verse 6,
having then gifts differing
according to the grace, and what is grace
when you receive something that you don't deserve?
So we have different gifts
differing according to the grace that is given to us,
whether prophecy, let us prophesy,
and that means preaching, of course,
according to the proportion of faith.
Or ministry, that means service, serving.
Let us wait on our ministering,
whatever service you're doing for,
you know, whatever you're doing to serve.
He says, let us wait on our ministering.
He that teacheth on teaching,
he that exhorteth on exhortation,
he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity.
He that ruleth with diligence,
he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.
And so there are all different ways
that you can contribute here, is what he's saying.
Contribute through preaching, teaching,
giving, ministering, exhortation,
showing mercy, all these different things.
Notice one thing that's not in the list, soul winning,
because that's something that's commanded to every Christian.
You know, it's like, well, I have the gift of Bible reading.
No, you're commanded as a Christian to read the Bible.
You're commanded to pray.
You're commanded to go out into all the world
and preach the gospel to every Christian.
You say, prove it. Acts chapter 2.
He said, it's come to pass in the last days, sayeth God,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
He said, your young man shall dream dreams,
your old man shall see visions.
And the context there was when they were out
soul winning on the day of Pentecost,
and 120 people, male and female,
saw 3,000 people get saved and baptized.
He said, this is the fulfillment,
this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel.
It shall come to pass in the last days, sayeth God,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
Now he wasn't talking about daughters getting up and preaching in church,
because the Bible says that a woman should keep silent in the church,
but is not permitted unto them to speak.
He said that they should learn in silence.
They should not be preaching in church and teaching in church.
He said, I suffer not a woman to teach,
nor do you serve authority over the man, but to be in silence.
But yet, out there, outside these four walls,
God said, I want to pour out my Spirit upon women
that will preach the gospel.
And we have so many ladies in our church
that go out and knock doors and win people to Christ.
Glory to God, I've been in many churches
where the women are not part of the soul winning,
and it's not right.
It's the men that are doing the soul winning,
and the women sit by.
I like what Paul said in Philippians chapter 4.
He said, I beseech Euodia and beseech Syntyche
that they be of the same mind in the Lord,
and I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow,
help those women which labored with me in the gospel,
with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers
whose names are in the book of life.
And so he basically said those women
have labored with me in the gospel.
He didn't say they labored with me, you know, cleaning.
They labored by cooking for the polly.
He said they labored with me in the gospel.
You see, it's the job, according to Acts chapter 2,
of every man, woman, boy, and girl to preach the gospel,
to win souls, to get people saved.
Anyone can do it.
I don't care if you say, I don't have the ability to speak.
I've seen people who stammer and stuttering
and get somebody saved.
I've seen it many times.
I've seen people so nervous that they drop their Bible,
but they got people saved.
It's true.
I've seen people stammer and stutter in a foreign language
and get somebody saved.
I've done it.
I've stammered and stuttered in a foreign language
and got somebody saved.
Because it's not about being the most talented
when it comes to soul winning.
That's something that's for everybody.
But there are other things that are not for everybody.
It's not the best thing, it's for everybody.
Because that's the most glorious thing there is.
That's the greatest thing in this church.
Not preaching on Sunday morning.
The greatest thing in this church is being out there,
being a soul winner.
That's the greatest thing.
Whoever you are.
Preaching is not for everybody.
Not every boy is going to grow up and be a preacher.
Not every boy is going to grow up,
or every girl is going to grow up and play piano,
or lead the singing, or do things in music.
Some people just don't have musical ability.
They just don't.
Now, they can sing, they sing,
and we all sing together in the congregation.
I think every single person should sing.
But do you think every single person should be leading the singing?
Because that would be like the blind leading the blind sometimes
if certain people were up here leading the singing.
Sometimes I'm trying to just,
especially when we don't have the piano,
you're trying to keep everybody on the same key of E flat or whatever.
Because some people just tend to just kind of,
I don't know if it's some modern music style
that kind of bends the realm of what keys are and everything.
No, I'm just kidding.
But what I'm saying is,
not everybody has the ability to lead the singing.
Not everybody has the ability to play a piano.
Some people just don't have the rhythm.
You know, even if they could physically learn how to push the keys,
they don't have that internal clock that's going tick tock,
you know, keeping them in rhythm.
You know, they're just too white.
They just don't have the rhythm to be able to,
one, two, three, four,
and they can't stay on pace.
They can still sing in the pew, but they're not going to lead it.
You see how certain people have been given ability?
Some people just sit down at that piano,
sit down at whatever instrument,
and can just play it really well.
Come on, you've known people who have that kind of talent.
And I've known people who took lessons for years
and they were just mediocre at best.
I've known other people who just taught themselves
to sit down and just start,
you're like, wow, that's amazing.
That's a talent that comes from God.
Same thing with foreign languages.
The Bible talks about this as well,
being able to speak in an unknown tongue.
I've known people who study and study and study
and, you know, they're going to still not be able to speak that language.
They can't get any kind of an accent right.
And, you know, part of this is learning when you're young.
But, for example, I didn't study any foreign languages until I was about 17.
So I'm never going to have a perfect accent in the languages I speak
because I spoke nothing but English until I was about 16, 17.
But I do have an ear to pick up a lot of language more than some.
There are others who are more talented than me in that area.
There are others who are a lot less talented than me.
That's an ability that God gives.
And if you have that ability to learn and speak a foreign language,
that is something that you could use for the glory of God.
That's something that you could use if you have the ability to learn Spanish.
You can go out and speak Spanish and see people saved all over this area
who otherwise would not hear the gospel because you'd knock on their door
and they'd look at you like, hey, I don't speak English.
And it says, all right, adios. Okay?
But if you have the ability to learn and it's a lot of work, it's hard work,
it's going to take dedication and studying and work.
But if you learn that language, that will eventually pay off
when you can use that to see people saved.
I mean, I studied Norwegian for years and accomplished nothing with it.
Nothing.
I mean, as soon as I asked myself, why did I learn that?
Because I'd never spoken to anyone.
But then finally I got to go to Norway and have nine people saved in Norway
using the Norwegian language.
Actually, a couple of them spoke English.
So I had about seven people saved in the Norwegian language
and about two others in English.
Am I mixing that up?
There were ten people saved altogether.
One of them was on the airplane. Nine of them was in Norway.
Four of them was the pastor. One of them was in English.
So I guess five people that I actually wanted to lure in Norwegian.
You say, well, that's not very many.
You know what? It's enough.
In fact, just one would have been enough for all the work that it took to learn.
If one person got saved, it would have been enough.
It's true.
I mean, if I spent years learning it and got one person saved.
And I also got to teach while I was there.
I taught a lot of people how to go soul-willing too
and help them with their soul-willing a little bit.
So it was worth it to me.
And maybe I'll get to use it again in the future more later on. Who knows?
But the point is that if God has given you an ability for anything,
whether it be language, whether it be music,
whether it be speaking ability,
the ability to stand up and preach, the ability to speak eloquently,
whether he's given you the ability to go out and work hard in your job
and make things and build things,
find a way to not have your whole life be wood, hay, and stubble,
but to use those talents.
And yes, we all go soul-willing,
but you should also be using your talents for the glory of God.
I think of Scott is very talented with Internet.
Brother Dave, very talented with computers.
And both of them have contributed to this ministry their abilities.
Brother Scott, through designing our website.
Brother Dave, through designing a different website.
Brother Dave, through doing other uploading of the sermons
and converting them and all these different things that he does.
That's hard work that he does every week with that.
But see, he's using an ability.
A lot of people, if I explain to them how to upload those sermons
and convert the files and everything,
would not be able to figure it out.
How to do the RSS feed?
Brother Dave types on this.
It's like a notepad document with all these words and everything.
And I'm the one who wrote the RSS feed.
And that took a long time to do,
to figure out how to write that crazy thing.
And thank God that I have somewhat of an ability with computers a little bit.
But here's a couple of guys who have an ability with computers
and they've used that to further God's work.
And you ought to ask yourself,
what talents and abilities do I have?
Because I guarantee you that you have abilities,
no matter who you are.
And try to say, you know what?
First of all, I want to do the big thing,
the souls and that and so forth.
But how can I use my talents and abilities for the glory of God?
You say, well, how do you use your fire alarm ability for the glory of God?
I guess I just use it to go out and make money
and then I could use some of that money to further God's kingdom.
He didn't give it.
That's one way that I could use it.
Also, there was one time when I did a fire alarm for a church
and helped them out with it.
Because I was able to do it.
I needed a fire alarm when I was able to do it.
That felt good to be able to use an ability that I had
to further God's work because that ability came from God.
And don't just think that God only gives people
quote-unquote spiritual talents.
Because here's a guy, Uri, who had a gift with woodworking.
And it came from God and it was used for God.
Here's another guy who was an engraver.
He was an artist when it came to engraving stone.
God used him. God created him.
With that purpose in mind, before he was even born,
God created him and gave him that talent.
But what if he would have been off doing something else?
His talent would have been neglected.
And that's why he said, neglect not the gift that is in thee.
These men had talents and abilities that we would not normally
maybe think of when we think of a spiritual talent or a spiritual ability.
You don't think of electrical work.
You don't think of being able to bend conduit.
You know, as being a spiritual thing.
But it is. Right, brother Chris?
Alright, that's right.
So, whatever it is, the ability to bend conduit comes from God.
Okay? This is a really doctrinal sermon.
Okay? It's true.
God gave you your abilities.
You've got to ask yourself, am I using my abilities for the glory of God?
Here's one more place. Look at 2 Chronicles 5.
2 Chronicles 5.
And really it just comes down to this.
What do you want out of life?
What are you trying to accomplish in life?
Just make as much money as you can?
The Bible says, after all these things do the Gentiles seek.
But your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask.
He said, take no thought for the morrow saying,
what shall we eat, what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
He said, behold the fowls of the air.
So not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet I say unto you,
He said, that your heavenly Father feedeth each one of these.
I messed that up, that quote there for some reason.
And He said, consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
They toil not, neither do they spin.
He said, and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
I didn't mess that one up.
Wherefore God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
So therefore, God is going to take care of the physical needs if we seek first the kingdom of God.
So we have to ask ourselves, what is my main focus in life?
Is it just about how much money I can have?
How many trips to California I can slosh around wine and spit out of my mouth?
Can I travel to every single country, every single state, and see the Taj Mahal?
Just look at a picture of it and do something for God with your life.
You could probably take a 3D tour of it on the internet or something.
But I realize it's not the same, and I like traveling myself.
But the point is, my life is not just about how much fun I can have, how much money I can make,
how big my business can be.
You know what? My business will be gone and forgotten someday, and it's not going to matter at all.
A thousand years from now, my business will matter nothing.
What kind of food I ate, what kind of car I drove, will all not matter.
But those people that I won to the Lord last week on Sunday out on soul winning, that's going to matter.
That will matter 10,000 years from now.
Look at this, 2 Chronicles 5.11, it says,
And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place,
for all the priests that were present were sanctified, and did not then wait by course.
Also the Levites, which were the singers.
So notice the singers.
All of them of Asaph, of He-man, of Jaduthen, with their sons and their brother,
and being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and saltaries and harps,
stood at the east end of the altar, and with them 120 priests sounding the trumpets.
And it came to pass that the trumpeters and singers were as one,
that means they were playing together in sync,
to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord.
And when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music,
and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good, for His mercy endureth forever,
that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord,
so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud,
for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.
I'd rather be playing in that ensemble right there.
Think about being back in that day.
This is when the temple had been built by Solomon, and he dedicated the temple.
That's the ensemble I want to be playing in right there,
when that glory of the Lord filled the house.
What do you think is going through their mind?
Is they played skillfully, and by the way,
do you think they just walked in and picked up an instrument and just started playing skillfully?
They'd practiced, they'd worked, they'd studied, they'd trained,
so they all played as one.
This group of instrument players and singers,
they were all singing and playing as one.
That takes a lot of work, that takes a lot of practice.
And yet I'd rather be playing in that band than to be playing in Cardinal Stadium,
packed out with screaming, cheering fans.
Or in some orchestra hall somewhere, playing and singing songs that don't matter.
That will never matter.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we love you and thank you for the opportunity to be in your house, dear God,
and thank you for the wonderful blessings that you've bestowed upon us.
We thank you for the gifts that you've given us, dear God.
There are certain things that you know and I know, dear Lord, that I have zero ability in.
And there are other abilities that you have given me.
And every single person in this room is like that.
They have abilities and they have weaknesses.
But Father, help us to take the gifts that you've given us and to use them for your glory.
Help every single person to let this message sink into their ears and stop and think,
wait a minute, where am I going in life? What is my purpose here?
And let's just help us all to serve God fully.
And dear Lord, thank you for dying on the cross for us and saving us,
not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to your mercy.
And we love you and thank you, and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, let's quickly go through our announcements here before we go.
You want to help me pass these out, gentlemen?
And we'll go through our announcements in the bulletin.
And then we'll just sing one quick verse of one song before we go.
But the announcements, service time, Sunday mornings at 10.30,
Sunday nights at 6.30, and then Wednesday nights at 7.00.
This week is our Bible study in Psalm 29.
The Spanish class is on Sunday mornings at 9.45.
Soul winning opportunities are listed below.
Salvation, baptisms, offering totals.
And then the Mother's Day tea party.
Do you have the location on that or is it in here or what?
No, I'm waiting to confirm, but I do need a definite head count
from the next two weeks.
Okay, did you hear that?
She's going to need a definite head count probably within the next couple of weeks
because they're going to a special tea house.
Who knows if these businesses even existed, but they're tea houses
and they're a really fancy, nice place for ladies to have their tea party.
And this is not the tea party you were talking about, okay?
So don't get mistaken here.
This is actually like tea and crumpets and white gloves and everything.
Anyway, this is on Saturday, May 8th for Mother's Day.
And then the Bible memorization, so please let her know within the next week or two.
Let her know, hey, I'm coming and I'm bringing two people with me
so that she can get a head count for the restaurant on that.
And then the Bible memorization, and of course it's free of charge as everything we do is.
And then the Bible memorization, 2 John.
Who's memorizing this chapter of the Bible?
Put up your hand.
And who's up to date with it as in you have the first eight verses done?
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
All right, great.
And then there's about seven more who are working on it.
So get caught up, folks.
You're doing good with that.
And then on the back, the greatest announcement of the whole year,
the church camping trip.
This is the funnest thing that we do, July 22nd through 24th.
Preaching, singing, fellowship, outdoor fun, hiking, kayaking.
We have fun with this.
Sleeping in tents.
Some people bring all these comforts that kind of defeat the purpose,
but no, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, we've got tents, food, fun.
It's free.
Of course, we paid for the campsite,
but you're responsible for kind of having your own food and equipment together.
There's a lot of food sharing that goes on,
but you still are going to want to basically bring your own stuff.
But don't let it stop you if you don't have the right equipment,
because we can help you get the right equipment together.
We can help you get the deals.
And a lot of us have extra stuff, too, where we can say,
okay, you can use my tent, or we have a sleeping bag you can use.
So just talk to us, and we'll help get you outfitted for this.
And if you need a ride up there.
Now, if you can get the days off, this is Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
so much the better.
But if you can only come up Friday night or something,
just come up Friday night and spend one night.
It'll be worth it.
And you might just be able to stay in somebody else's tent
if you're only coming up for one night.
And we'll work things out for you.
We'll figure it out.
But we have a blast at this thing.
And guys that preach, you know, start getting your sermons together.
Stuckey's sermon is already done,
but he's way ahead of the game until I preach it tonight.
No, I'm just kidding.
So let's go ahead and just sing one quick song,
and then we'll be out of here.
Birthdays and anniversaries coming up in April.
Are there any birthdays or anniversaries coming up in April?
We can put them in.
Garrett, your birthday's in April.
What day?
Thirteen.
All right.
Okay.
Anybody else?
Thomas is on the thirteenth too.
Thomas is on the thirteenth too?
Okay.
Anybody else?
Oh, yeah.
Twenty-third and thirtieth.
Twenty-third and thirtieth?
Well, you guys are really compatible, huh?
Yes, Annette?
Fifteenth anniversary.
Your anniversary's on the fifteenth?
All right.
How many years?
Fifteen.
Fifteen years on the fifteenth?
I guess there's something good about tax day.
Oh, you got married on tax day?
That's weird.
No, I'm just kidding.
Oh, man.
All right.
Anybody else with birthdays?
I'm going to give this to you before I lose it.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mixed it all up and encrypted it for you.
All right.
Let's go ahead and sing one quick song before we go.
Let's sing song 315.
We'll just sing one verse only.
Three hundred and fifteen and then we'll be out of here.
Three, one, five.
Let's sing it on the first verse.
Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of thy love.
All right.
We're dismissed.