I hear the Bible preached. They're here to fellowship with God's people.
And Father, I just pray that you bless every part of the service.
Thank you so much for dying to give us the local church,
where we can come and be with people that believe like we believe,
that are excited about the things of God, that love you.
Father, we can all get together and assemble three times a week,
preaching, singing. Dear God, it's great to be in church.
And Father, I just pray that you would bless now this particular sermon,
and blessed are the years of those that are here.
And in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Now, the part that I want to put was one of my favorite books in the Bible,
one of my favorite chapters I love.
1 Timothy, written to a pastor by his mentor, the apostle Paul.
1 Timothy, Titus and Philemon are known as the pastoral epistles,
written to a preacher, written to a pastor.
But look at the part that begins in verse number 18.
Of course, we're talking about Memorial Day this morning.
The Bible reads,
This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy,
according to the prophecies which went before on thee,
that thou by them mightest war a good warfare.
Now, I want to preach to you this morning on the subject of warring a good warfare.
Now, look at that verse right there.
What does he mean when he says, by them thou mightest war a good warfare?
What is the them referring to?
Well, the them is referring to the charge that he gave to Timothy,
and the prophecies which went before on him.
So he's saying, the purpose of me preaching to you,
the purpose of me writing to you this book,
he says, I want you to take the Word of God,
I want you to take the prophecies of God,
I want you to take the scriptures that God has written,
and I want you to use them to war a good warfare.
And then the next words say,
Holding faith and a good conscience,
which some, having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck,
for whom is Simon, Asa, and Alexander,
whom I have delivered unto Satan,
that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Now turn to Luke chapter 14,
go back to the third book of the New Testament, the book of Luke,
and we'll see what is it going to take for you to war a good warfare.
How are you going to war a good warfare according to the Bible,
according to the prophecies of God,
according to the preaching of men of God?
How are you going to war a good warfare according to the scriptures?
Well, look at Luke chapter 14 verse 28,
and we'll see that number one, in order to war a good warfare,
you're going to have to understand the nature of warfare.
Look if you would at verse number 28.
The Bible reads,
For which of you, intending to build a tower,
sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost,
whether he hath sufficient to finish it?
Lest happily, after he had laid the foundation,
and is not able to finish it,
all the beholded begin to mock him,
saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
Or what king, going to make war against another king,
sitteth not down first, and consulteth,
whether he be able with ten thousand,
to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
Or else, while the other is yet a great way off,
he sendeth an ambisage, and desireth conditions of peace.
So likewise, whosoever he be of you,
that forsaketh not all that he hath,
he cannot be my disciple.
That's not saying you can't be saved,
it's just saying you're not going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
And many people that are saved are not Jesus' disciples.
They're not following Jesus with their life.
But let me tell you something,
war is always costly.
He said, before you go to war,
before you go to build a building,
you better count the cost of what it's going to take to finish.
He's saying, if you're going to start something, finish it.
You know, when you think about this current event, obviously,
you think about the war in Iraq, right?
And this doesn't have a lot to do with the sermon,
but you can't help but think of it when you read this, can you?
Sitting down and deciding, before you do something,
whether you're going to finish what you started, right?
And what's going on right now?
People are, like it says here, if you don't finish,
people are going to mock you and make fun of you.
That's why, you know, President Bush is obviously being mocked and ridiculed
for not being able to finish this war.
I'm not saying it's his or his fault or not his fault.
I'm just saying that the Bible here is saying,
if you start a war and you can't finish that war,
people will mock you.
You start to build a building, you don't finish the building.
Hey, people are going to make fun of you.
You're making a fool out of yourself.
You should have sat down beforehand
and decided whether you're going to do it or not.
Now, whether you're for or against a war in Iraq,
when you start something, you finish it.
You can't do something halfway.
You start something, you get it done, you finish it,
and there's a cost to be paid.
I'm in the airport a lot, I fly a lot,
and I'm sitting in the airport, and I don't watch TV, thank God,
but I'll have a TV, you know, up above my head or something
while I'm sitting in the airport, and they always have CNN.
I'm always flying out of Sky Harbor in the mornings.
It's always CNN on every single TV screen,
and I hear them talking.
Two people died in Iraq.
Three more people have died in Iraq.
Four people.
And I'm just thinking to myself, so what?
You say, what? Why are you insensitive?
No, every one of those people is a human being,
and it's sad, and I wish they hadn't died.
But you know what? That's what a war is.
Why are we even over there then
if we're not going to tolerate a couple people dying?
Hey, in World War II, hundreds of thousands of people died
to fight for our freedom.
Do you think the people we're getting on the news
back in the World War II era every day saying,
100 people died, 125 people died, 257 people died?
I can't believe this. Why are we doing this?
Why are we... Then why are you doing it?
Hey, if you go to war, people are going to die.
Hey, if you go to war, it's going to cost money.
Hey, if you go to war,
there's going to be suffering and pain and sorrow,
so you better decide before you go to war
whether it's worth going to war for
and whether you're willing to pay the price.
Well, Paul is saying to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1,
he says, I want you to war a good warfare.
Jesus said, if you're going to be my disciple,
you're going to have to war a good warfare.
You're building something with your life.
He says, before you decide to follow me,
decide what it's going to cost you
and decide whether you're willing to pay the price.
What's the price? Well, the price is found in verse number 33.
So likewise, whosoever he be of you
that forsaketh not all that he hath,
he cannot be my disciple.
That's kind of a rough verse, isn't it?
He says, you know, it may just cost you everything to follow me.
You have to be willing to give up everything
to be a true follower of Jesus Christ.
You see, in order to war a good warfare for Jesus,
you must understand the nature of what war is.
A lot of people don't understand what war is.
It shocks them when three people die,
when four people die. Hey, that's low.
War is people dying.
War is people suffering.
War is people paying, sometimes, the ultimate price
of laying down their life. Why?
Because they believe in what they're doing.
You think about what Memorial Day is all about.
Memorial Day is about people who died to give us freedom.
Hey, we're taking our hat off today
to every person who's gone to some fourth field
and bled and died and suffered
so that I can stand up this morning
and preach this sermon, live in freedom,
knock doors and go soul winning. Why?
Because somebody purchased the freedom
that I have in the United States of America to do that
because there are places in this world
where people are unwilling to fight
and that's where there's no freedom
because nobody suffered and died
and paid the price to give them that freedom.
See, freedom is always going to cost something.
Fighting a war is always going to cost something.
Building a tower is always going to cost something.
You have to understand what you're getting into.
Now, if you want to be just a half-in, half-out type of Christian
where you just kind of show up for church,
you don't really read the Bible on your own,
you show up for church, you put in your time,
you follow some basic morality,
but you live your life, you know,
90% of your life is pretty much just like everybody else lives.
You know, it's probably not going to cost you very much
to live like that, to be honest with you.
But if you decide, if something's worth fighting for,
if you decide that this war is something
that you feel like you want to get into
because there are people dying and going to hell,
because our nation's changing,
because you care about the future for your children,
because you care about the Jesus Christ
being pleased with you and rewarding you,
well, if you have that mentality,
I hope you'll decide that this war is worth fighting for.
I think I'm going to enlist.
I think I'm going to join up in this war
of warring a good war for Jesus Christ.
But before you do that,
realize that it's going to cost you something.
If it was easy to be a Christian that gives everything to God,
if it was easy to be a sold-out, separated soul-winner
who wins people to Christ, who takes a stand on what's right,
who preaches the gospel to every creature,
hey, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it.
But we see very few people doing it
because it's so expensive,
because it's so costly, because it's so difficult.
But let me ask you something.
Are you willing to pay twice to war
the warfare that God has for you to war in your life?
Or are you going to be like the draft doctor?
Are you going to be the draft resistor?
You know, that's what they call him, the pansy,
who will not go and fight
when his country calls upon him to fight.
He runs up to Canada like Bill Clinton,
you know, dodge the draft.
He's like, why?
Because he doesn't care about anybody but himself.
He's afraid that he might have to pay a price.
He's afraid that he might have to suffer.
And so that's why he dodges the draft.
You see, warring a good warfare
starts with understanding the nature of warfare,
having the right idea about warfare.
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2, verse 3,
Thou therefore, you don't have to turn there,
endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
No man that warth entangled himself
with the affairs of this life,
that he may please him
who have chosen him to be a soldier.
There's going to be some hard times
when you're fighting a war.
Now, look if you would at Psalm 18
in the Old Testament.
Psalm 18.
So we understand first that
if you're going to war a good warfare
like Paul told Timothy,
you've got to understand what war is like.
You've got to understand that the Christian life is a war.
And people who've never seen war
or experienced war
sometimes don't really have a concept
of what war really is.
To them, it's just pictures on a TV screen.
Now, I've never been involved
in a real wartime situation.
I've talked to my grandpa by the hours
and had him tell me just the most hair-raising stories
that you wouldn't believe of what it was really like.
And he said it's a lot different
than the way it's portrayed on the movies.
And I would beg him to tell me the stories.
And I wanted to understand what it was like for him
in World War II fighting the Japanese.
I wanted to understand the warfare that he was warring
so I could relate that to my spiritual life
of the spiritual warfare that we're involved in.
But number two, not only do you need to understand
the nature of warfare,
number two, you have to understand
that warfare is something that you have to learn.
Warfare is something that takes training,
takes practice, learning.
Look if you would at Psalm 18,
the Bible reads in verse 32,
It is God that girdeth me with strength,
and maketh my way perfect.
He maketh my feet like hind's feet,
a hind is a deer,
maketh my feet like hind's feet,
and sendeth me upon my high places.
He teacheth my hands to war,
so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.
Now flip over to Psalm 144 verse 1.
So there the Bible is saying that God
was the one who taught David how to fight.
He's thinking about fighting physically.
He's saying God made my way perfect.
God has girded me with strength.
God has taught my hands to war,
so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.
He said that he had learned at such fighting skill
that he was able to break a steel bow with his bare hands.
This is David in the Bible.
He's a very mighty warrior.
You can read about his exploits in the book of 2 Samuel.
But look at Psalm 144 verse 1.
The Bible says again,
Blessed be the Lord my strength,
which teacheth my hands to war,
and my fingers to fight.
Now you have to learn how to fight.
Now I love fighting sports.
Now this is not what we're talking about obviously.
We're talking about spiritual warfare.
But I love, you know, to see a punching bag.
You know, I love boxing.
I love kickboxing.
I love shooting.
I love learning warfare.
You know, studying fighting skills and so forth.
Anybody who knows anything about fighting,
anybody who's ever done any kind of boxing
or any martial arts or anything like that,
knows that if you take somebody
who has no training whatsoever in fighting,
I mean, they've never gotten any kind of a formal training
in boxing or anything like that.
It doesn't matter how big they are.
It doesn't matter how tough they are,
how strong they are.
Somebody much smaller and much weaker
can easily defeat them
because they don't have the knowledge.
They don't have the skill to know how to fight.
I mean, it's not the big guy
who's going to necessarily win the fight.
It's the guy who knows how to fight.
It's the guy who knows how to box.
It's the guy who knows the skill,
whose fingers know how to fight,
whose hands have been taught to make war,
as it says in Psalms here.
You see, a successful war is not just fought.
We all just run in and shoot a bunch of guns
and just start swinging.
No, a successful war is carefully planned
and systematically designed.
I was thinking about Brother Jimenez.
Of course, his wife is here with us visiting.
Brother Jimenez just went to six weeks of boot camp.
And it was just intense, rigorous training.
I mean, just physical abuse of just pushing your body
to the limits of what your body is capable of.
Learning day and night about fighting.
Right now, he's in training.
I asked her if he gets Memorial Day off.
I said, well, does he get Memorial Day off?
And she said, well, he gets the day off,
but he has to be on guard duty for eight hours.
Okay, so that's the day off, but it's still like,
we go to work for eight hours.
Well, he's on guard duty for eight hours.
You know what he's going to be doing the whole time
during that eight hours of guard duty?
He's going to be studying for these tests
that he has to take on an almost daily basis.
He's studying, he's learning, he's training.
Why?
A soldier, there's a lot for him to learn.
There's a lot of training that's involved.
Now, I've thought a lot about Brother Jimenez
because, of course, he's a good friend of mine.
And so during the course of boot camp,
every once in a while, I would think,
oh, Brother Jimenez is in boot camp right now.
And I'd sit and think about that.
And my mind would wander thinking about that.
And you know what I realized?
I realized that he was probably pushing himself
to the limits a lot more than I was in that particular week.
You know, as I drove up the drive-through
to In-N-Out Burger, you know what I mean?
And I'm working my busy schedule.
You know, I'm busy.
I work a lot of hours for my job and everything.
And I fold up to In-N-Out Burger,
and I'm ordering my food and sitting down, relaxing.
I'm in Southern California.
I got the windows down.
And I'm thinking, boy, Brother Jimenez
has a lot harder than I do right now.
But I began to think about it, boy,
am I pushing myself for the warfare that God has for me
as much as they're pushing him to train
for the physical warfare in the United States?
And I was thinking, what's more important?
I mean, what's more important,
what Brother Jimenez is training to do in the military
or what we're doing as born-again Christians?
I mean, our spiritual battle,
there's nothing against him
because he's fighting the same spiritual battle
that I'm fighting also.
But our spiritual battle here is much more important
than any battle that the United States troops
are fighting in Iraq or anywhere else in the world
or ever have fought.
This is the greatest war.
This is the greatest fight.
And this fight deserves for us to take the time
to do some training.
Now, we expect to just have the spiritual victory in our life.
We just expect to go do battle tomorrow on the job
with our friends and loved ones.
In our own personal life, trying to overcome the sin in our life.
And we think it's going to be a bed of roses.
Look at the example that God's giving here.
He says it's like warfare.
Just like you have to train and learn how to fight,
you have to train yourself to live the Christian life.
You have to train yourself and discipline yourself
to be the kind of warrior that God wants you to be.
I mean, if he can study those books for eight hours,
if he can memorize all the different codes
and all the different rules of the military,
if he can push himself physically and do with little sleep,
and he can push his body to the limits.
That convicted me when I thought of that.
I said, I want to be pushing myself to the same limits
that he's being pushed in boot camp.
I want to push myself to those limits for the kingdom of God.
Can you imagine what Christianity would be like?
Can you imagine the impact that a church would have on an area
if everyone in that church had a mentality of a soldier?
I mean, they had a mentality of saying,
I'm willing to suffer, I'm willing to fight,
I'm willing to push myself, I'm willing to study
and train myself to do the job that needs to be done.
Can you imagine how that church would grow and thrive
if people had that mentality?
I mean, you think about how they study the weapons
to where they actually disassemble their weapon
and put it back together again.
You know, they have to clean their weapon,
they have to take it apart, put it back together.
They blindfold it, take it apart,
put it back together with their eyes closed.
I mean, they know that weapon like the back of their hand.
This is the weapon right here.
How well do you know the weaponry?
How well have you studied the artillery?
When you go out soul winning, you ought to be able,
and obviously you've got to start somewhere with soul winning,
but you ought to be training yourself to where when you go soul winning,
you have the verses memorized.
I mean, you have the Roman's Road memorized.
You know Roman 310, you know Roman 323.
You say, I'm not good at memorizing.
I wonder if every guy in that boot camp is good at memorizing.
They sure memorize what they need to memorize,
or else the drill sergeant is going to scream at them
and throw them on the ground,
and I don't know what they do to them, but beat them up.
Joanne, can you stand up and tell us what they did?
But anyway, the point is, hey, everybody does what they have to do.
Everybody does what's important to them.
And if you approach this thing of soul winning,
if you approach this thing of serving the Lord with your life
like a soldier would approach it,
you're going to understand your weaponry.
You're going to study the Bible incessantly.
You're going to memorize the verses.
You're going to know how to be a soul.
You say, how am I going to learn how to win people to Christ?
You learn by going with us out of soul winning door to door,
and you will learn how to do it.
What is that? It's training.
That's the training ground so that you can go
and win your friends to the Lord,
win your relatives to the Lord, your loved ones,
people that you come into contact with.
That's the training ground.
That's where you're going to learn how to do it.
You're not going to be able to just be a soul winner
People don't just get saved and then all of a sudden
they're just this expert soul winner
and they're seeing people saved every day.
No, that's not how it works.
They must learn how to be a soul winner.
The people who are soul winners,
the people who win people to Christ
have made a conscious effort where they decide
I've got to learn how to do this.
I've got to learn this.
What do I have to do to learn it?
I'm going to study the verses.
I'm going to study the Bible.
I'm going to go with somebody and watch how they do it,
and in the process I am going to learn how to do this.
I'm going to allow myself to be trained to be a soul winner.
You see, that's why we have organized soul winning times.
That's why we have times that we set aside each week.
We don't just say, well, if you get an opportunity,
if the Lord leads, give the gospel to somebody.
No.
Can you imagine that out on the battlefield?
You know, if you see a bad guy, shoot him.
General, what do we do?
Just go about your business.
If you see somebody from the other side, take a shot at them.
You know, what are we going to do today?
Well, there's a couple of tanks over there.
Let's go see what happens.
No, that's not what it is.
Man, they've got it laid out.
They've got a plan at 0600 hours we're going to be doing this,
at 0800 hours we're going to be doing this and that.
Hey, we're going to have a plan.
This is what we're doing.
At 0600 hours on Saturday morning, soul winning.
Yes, sir.
At 1800 hours, soul winning.
This is why we're organized.
This is why we have a plan.
I have a plan in my life.
I'm going to go soul winning at this time every week.
We know when we're going soul winning today.
We know where we're going to go.
We have a plan.
We're organized.
This church is not just going to grow overnight by itself,
just by osmosis.
I don't know.
Well, we open up a church and people just started showing up.
That's not how this church was started.
This church was started by me taking several days off from work
and spending the whole day knocking doors, knocking doors all day long.
That's how this church was started.
I got to town on December 22nd on a Thursday.
We had the first service Sunday.
People don't just show up to somebody's house,
some church meeting in a house.
They think it's Jim Jones.
They think it's a cold or something.
It's not easy to get people to come.
It's not easy to start with nothing.
It's not easy to get people to come and sit down with my family
and two other people.
This is church.
That's not most people's idea of church.
But it took a concerted effort.
Now, what's it going to take for us to grow from the point
that we're at right now to grow to the next level,
to where we fill our new building that we're moving into this coming Wednesday?
Do you think it's just going to be,
well, we're just going to kind of keep doing what we're doing
and people are going to just start showing up?
No.
It's going to take an effort where we all sit down and take responsibility.
I want every person in this room to take responsibility and say,
I want to make sure that this church grows, even if nobody else is,
even if Pastor Anderson isn't doing it.
And, of course, I am doing it.
Even if Pastor Anderson isn't doing it,
even if the people around me are not doing it,
I'm going to make sure that I get somebody into this church.
I'm going to make sure that I'm out knocking the doors
or I'm out winning people to Christ.
I'm going to make sure that I'm inviting my friends and family to church.
I'm going to make sure that I'm bringing visitors that I've won to the Lord.
I'm going to make sure that I'm doing what I can to make this thing happen.
Because if every single person in this room decided I'm going to be a part of this,
I'm not just going to sit around and show up every Sunday morning
and go, oh, so do we have a big attendance or a small attendance?
Why don't you make it a big attendance?
Why don't you make it big?
Why don't you make it grow?
That's what I'm trying to do.
I've got people that I'm bringing on Wednesday.
I'm going to be out knocking the doors today trying to get more people fired up.
I was out sending out the letters to everybody that has ever been here,
telling them to be here on Sunday for the big day.
Hey, you've got people that you know.
You've got friends that you know.
You've got loved ones that you know.
And you know that this church is what they need.
Isn't that the truth?
You know that the Savior Jesus Christ is what they need initially.
And you know that if they got in this church, hey, it would change their life,
it would benefit their life.
What are you doing to get them in this church?
You need to be attacking like a warfare, saying, I am going to attack.
I'm going to fight.
I'm going to do everything I can to get people in this church.
I'm going to do everything I can to get my friends and loved ones safe.
I'm going to do whatever training is necessary, where I train myself.
I'm going to pray and spend a time in prayer.
I'm going to go after people and talk to them and put in some work to make this church grow.
I've heard people say, well, God builds the church.
And I believe that.
Jesus said upon this rock, I'll build my church.
But, you know, He uses us as the human instruments to do that.
That's not an excuse for laziness, to sit around and say, well, God's going to build my church.
Boy, that would have done me a lot of good in December 2005, wouldn't it?
God's going to build the church.
I'd be preaching to my own family to this day.
People didn't just wander.
No one has just wandered into this church.
They came because we went and knocked their door.
They came because we went out and invited them.
Or they came because we spent a bunch of money on Yellow Pages ads.
You know, we had some kind of a plan, some kind of a method.
Everybody who comes to this church came for a reason.
Okay? What are you doing to help fight the battle?
What are you doing to help make sure that this church succeeds?
Hey, what are you doing to make sure that people are saved and that the lost hear the gospel preached?
So number one we saw is that you have to understand the nature of warfare.
It's going to take some sacrifice.
There's going to be some pain.
There's going to be some discomfort.
Number two, you have to understand that warfare is something that you need to train.
You need to learn this.
You need to study this.
You need to have an organized system of how you're going to succeed at warfare.
But number three, look at Ephesians chapter 6.
Famous verses in the Bible.
Ephesians chapter 6.
And understand that all warfare is a spiritual warfare.
Look at Ephesians chapter number 6.
The Bible reads in Ephesians chapter 6, verse number 10,
Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord.
I love that statement right there.
Don't be weak.
Don't be so weak that you give in to sin every time it comes along.
Hey, don't be so weak that you can't stand up and give the gospel to somebody.
I mean, don't be so weak in your Christianity that you can't read the Bible daily.
Hey, be strong is what he's saying.
Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
There's a certain armor that you need.
There's certain equipment that you need for this fight.
He says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
Our fight is not against physical people.
Our fight is not with guns.
It's not hand-to-hand combat.
It's not boxing.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world.
We're in verse 12.
Against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore, for this reason is what he's saying,
take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day
and having done all to stand.
Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth
and having on the breastplate of righteousness
and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Of course, the Bible says how beautiful are the feet of men that preach the gospel of peace
and bring glad values of good things.
He's talking about being a soul winner there.
And above all, taking the shield of faith
wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked
and take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God,
praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit.
That's the important part.
And watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints
and for me, pray for me, he's saying,
that utterance may be given unto me
that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel
for which I am an ambassador in bonds
that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
Our spiritual warfare here is defined in terms of soul winning.
He says our feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Our sword is the word of God.
Our weapon is the Bible.
Our goal is that utterance will be given to us
that we may open our mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
You see, in a war, think about this for a moment,
in a war there are not just the people on the front lines fighting, are there?
There's the people on the front lines,
and there's all kinds of support, technicians and workers and everything.
I think Brother Jimenez is going to be working on the planes.
He works on the ground equipment for these airplanes in the Air Force.
But think about this.
The only people who are really doing the fighting
are the people on the front lines.
There are all kinds of nurses and their jobs are very important.
There are all kinds of technicians and scientists involved.
The people who are doing the real fighting
are the people that are on the front lines.
Isn't that the truth? I mean, the people right in the front.
That's the hero. You know where the front line is our sword?
The front line is when you've got the sword in your hand.
The front line is when you're taking it to the enemy,
when you're going to the front of the battle
and you are wrestling with the powers of darkness.
You're fighting against the principalities and power.
When you're opening your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,
when the sword of the spirit is in your hand,
the helmet of salvation is on your head,
the breastplate of righteousness.
That's talking about the righteous life that you live.
That's what the breastplate of righteousness is.
It's talking about your right living.
You're following God's rules and guidelines for the way you live your life.
If you have the breastplate of righteousness,
hey, your loins are girded with the truth.
That's what's holding the whole thing together.
And he says, when you're going out and fighting that kind of a battle,
he says, that's where you're on the front lines.
That's where you're seeing the victory.
That's where you're the hero.
That's where you get the Medal of Honor.
No Medal of Honor is awarded to the nurse.
No Medal of Honor is awarded to the guy who's sweeping up the floor.
Now, I'm not disparaging the guy who's sweeping up the floor
or working on the equipment.
He's important too.
There are people who do vital functions in this church.
Wilma's helping us out with the CD.
Hey, that's important.
Holding the invitations is important.
Hey, mopping this floor that we do is important.
Setting up the chairs is important.
Hey, I hope that you're involved and helping us out with those things.
Hey, we're involved with those things,
but I'm going to tell you something.
The front lines is when you're out there soul winning.
Yes, make the CDs and be a soul winner.
Yes, fold the tracks and be a soul winner.
Yes, mop the floor and be a soul winner.
I love the branch of the service that my dad was in,
the CDs, construction battalion.
Their emblem is a bee with a machine gun in one hand
and a hammer in the other hand.
Just like in the book of Nehemiah,
the Bible says every man had a destroying weapon on one side in his hand
and he had his work tools in the other hand.
That's the Christian life in the book of Nehemiah.
He says you fight and you build all at once.
See, don't just get involved with all the peripheral activities.
Hey, get on the front lines and fight for God.
Be a soul winner yourself.
Look back. This is interesting.
I've heard sermons my whole life out of Ephesians chapter 6.
And this is one of the most famous parts of the Bible.
If you've been in church for any length of time,
you've heard about the armor of God.
But have you ever seen the Old Testament scripture that this actually comes from?
Look at Isaiah 59 and you'll see where this quotation is taken from
because this material that Paul is preaching in Ephesians chapter 6
actually comes from the Old Testament.
And he's preaching it to the Ephesians.
It comes from a few different scriptures.
The Bible talks about all of these,
every single one of these pieces of armor
that's mentioned in Ephesians 6 is actually mentioned in the Old Testament already.
But there's one place that I want to particularly show you.
I don't have time to go through all of them.
But look at Isaiah 59 verse 14.
And the Bible will talk about some of the same spiritual armor.
The Bible reads in Isaiah 59, 14,
And judgment is turned away backward.
Isaiah 59, 14,
And justice standeth far off,
for truth is fallen in the street,
and equity cannot enter.
Yea, truth faileth,
and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey.
And the Lord saw it,
and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
And he saw that there was no man,
and wondered that there was no intercessor.
Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him,
and his righteousness it sustained him.
For he put on righteousness as a breastplate.
Does that sound familiar?
He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
and a helmet of salvation upon its head.
And he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing,
and was clad with seal as a cloak.
What was his purpose?
What was the purpose in the book of Isaiah for suiting up in this armor,
for putting on the breastplate of righteousness,
for putting on the helmet of salvation.
What was the purpose?
The purpose was, in verse number 16,
Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him.
See, the Christian warrior is bringing salvation to the lost.
That's why in Ephesians chapter 6,
he follows up the discussion on the armor of the Lord with saying,
I want to preach the gospel boldly.
I want to open my mouth boldly.
I want to have my feet shot at the preparation of the gospel of peace.
And in Isaiah 59 here, he says,
we're going to bring salvation to the lost.
We must put on the breastplate of righteousness.
We must put on the helmet of salvation.
But look at the last piece of armor, if you will.
This is not an armor that's mentioned in Ephesians 6.
This is the cloak, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
So not only do you want to have your loins go to bow with truth,
not only do you want to have the breastplate of righteousness,
the helmet of salvation,
your feet shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace,
but God is adding another piece of armor here.
He's saying, put on zeal like a cloak.
What is zeal?
Zeal is just fervent, aggressive, excitement.
That's what you think of when you think of zeal.
You remember the Bible says about Paul
was persecuting the church with great zeal.
Jesus, when he cast out the money changers out of the temple,
the Bible says that the zeal of thine house had eaten me up,
is what Jesus said.
Zeal is passion, would be probably the word in our modern day.
Passion, enthusiasm, excitement.
A zeal is part of the armor of God.
See, can you imagine somebody going out to a battlefield,
somebody going out to a war,
and their heart's just not really in it?
They're not going to go very far on that battlefield.
I mean, can you imagine just kind of casually,
just kind of carrying the weapon?
No, I mean, you better have some zeal.
I mean, you better be charged, you know, running into battle.
The Bible talks about when David faced Goliath.
You remember that story in 1 Samuel 17?
The Bible said, I love this.
He walked out, all the great men are cowering in fear.
Saul, who stood head and shoulders above every other man,
is hiding back at the camp, afraid to face Goliath.
I mean, he's the one that should have been out there against this giant.
I mean, he was the tallest man in the whole nation of Israel.
He should have been out there fighting,
and he's back hiding and cowering in fear.
And what does David do?
He comes out with the sling and the five stones,
and I love when it says that he ran toward the giant.
I mean, he's just running full speed.
I mean, he's swinging that sling around,
running as fast as he can, and lets it go.
And God took that stone and guided it right into the forehead of that giant,
and the Bible says it sunk into his forehead.
I mean, that just takes some zeal.
You know, people when they're in emergency situations,
they get superhuman strength sometimes,
where you see people that lift up a car.
A car falls on somebody, and a man just walks up
and just lifts up the car, and nobody knows how he did it.
I mean, in real life that's true, because of adrenaline and everything like that.
And so probably normally David would not have been able to sling the stone
with that kind of power,
I mean, where he could actually drive the stone into this guy's skull,
into Goliath's skull.
But I think he was just so vehement.
I think he was just so zealous.
I think he was just running toward that giant with such enthusiasm,
running toward him, saying,
you come to me with a sword and a shield,
but he said, I come to you in the name of the Lord.
He said later, the battle is the Lord's.
Some trust in chariots, and some trust in horses,
but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
And he ran toward that giant, and he slammed that rock into his head,
and he won the battle, and what happened?
As soon as that giant fell down,
everybody who had been cowering in fear,
everybody who was afraid,
everybody who was unwilling to fight,
jumped out of the holes and charged into the battle
and fought against the Philistine army,
which was much larger than their army.
All of a sudden, they had zeal.
All of a sudden, they were excited.
All of a sudden, they had boldness.
All of a sudden, they were courageous. Why?
Because it took one person getting up and saying,
I am going to have zeal. I'm going to have excitement.
And boy, when one person has zeal and excitement,
other people will get on board with that person,
if you're a leader.
Now, I was thinking of this.
In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul said to the Corinthians,
your zeal has provoked very many.
When one person, he said, this church in Corinth,
they were so zealous for God,
it got so many other people excited.
You know, the excitement kind of spreads.
You know, the momentum builds up.
I was thinking about,
there was another verse talking about zeal,
but the zeal of the Corinthians provoked many people,
got a lot of people excited.
What about if people could see you excited about church?
What if people would see you zealous and excited?
What if people could see you enthusiastically?
Talking about church, I am so excited.
We're getting in this new building.
People are being saved. People are being baptized.
Well, you've got to come with me
and see my zeal for the Lord,
is what Jesus said in the Old Testament.
He said, get up in the cherry with me
and see my zeal for the Lord.
And what happened? He hopped up in the cherry with me.
He had a great following. He became the king of Israel.
People got on board with him.
People got excited with him.
But see, if it's a Christianity that's boring,
if it's a church that's boring,
if your Christian walk with God is boring,
nobody's going to want to get on board with that.
Nobody's going to care.
Nobody's going to care about your Christianity
if you're half in, half out.
Nobody's going to get so excited when they look at you
that they want to, all of a sudden,
they're going to fight the battle.
All of a sudden, they're going to jump in.
They're going to get on board.
You see, there's people all over the trenches.
I think there are people in the trenches in this city.
I think there are people all over the trenches
all across America who would love to fight the Lord's battle.
But they're just wimps.
They're just scared.
I don't know.
They're just waiting for somebody else to do it, I guess.
And so when you step up to the plate
and you show up for soul winning,
when you come to church and you're talking about,
hey, this is who I had saved this week,
other people are going to see that excitement.
Other people are going to hear that,
and they're going to say,
well, I'm going to do the same thing.
I'm tired of them having all the fun.
I want to get on board with this thing too.
Your zeal can provoke many people.
Zeal, you see, I was thinking about this.
In Ephesians chapter 6, he's talking about the armor
that we're aware of as these warriors that we are
fighting the Christian battle.
But when I think of a cloak,
is a cloak really a necessary part of armor?
I mean, if you went to the battle without the cloak,
do you think you'll be all right?
Because what's a cloak?
A cloak is like a cape, right?
It's a cape or a coat or a mantle is what a cloak is.
And so if you went out to war
and you did not have your cloak on,
do you think you'll be all right?
I think so.
I think you'll be just fine.
I think I'd rather be more worried about having my helmet on
or having the breastplate on.
These are more vital pieces of equipment for everybody.
But when I think of a cloak,
I think of somebody who's a leader.
I mean, think about it.
If you saw somebody on the battlefield
and one guy's wearing a cloak
and nobody else is wearing a cloak,
I mean, everybody's got the armor.
Everybody's got the sword, obviously.
Everybody's got the shield.
Everybody's got the helmet.
Everybody's got the belt on.
But then one guy's got a big, great, grandiose cloak.
I mean, a cloak is more of a decoration,
if you think about it.
I mean, maybe a big magenta cloak
or maybe a royal blue cloak
or some kind of a glorious adornment, a cape.
You know, you picture a guy riding a horse
to battle with a sword and a cape
falling behind him.
What's the purpose of the cape?
It's to identify him as a leader.
It's to put fear into the enemy.
It's to intimidate the enemy.
You see, if you want to be a leader,
and I'm not just talking about the pastor of the church,
to not be your leader, okay?
If you want to be a leader
where you can lead people to the Lord,
where you can lead people to be a soul winner like your soul,
where you can lead people to get involved with church
and to want to follow you
and follow your example and be with you,
you must identify yourself as a leader
by putting on the cloak of zeal.
See, a leader with no excitement,
a leader with no zeal and enthusiasm
is not going to lead anybody.
I mean, he's going to be a failure as a leader.
Leaders must be filled with zeal,
covered with zeal as a cloak.
And you ought to be the leader
if you want to lead your children,
and we're talking about just leading in any area,
leading people to the Lord,
leading people to want to live for God.
You must be excited and zealous about what you're doing.
Whenever I preach a sermon,
I only preach sermons that I'm excited about.
Sometimes I'll have an idea for a sermon
or somebody will tell me an idea
that they want me to preach on some,
and I'll write the sermon.
I'll just think, you know what?
I'm just not really that excited about this today.
Not that it's a bad subject,
not that it's a bad idea,
but I just think, you know,
I'm not that excited about it.
If I'm not excited about the sermon that I'm preaching,
are you going to be excited about it?
There's no way.
Okay, but see, when I'm preaching this morning,
I think it's what we need right now.
I think it's what this church needs to hear right now.
I think it's the most important thing
we could be hearing right now
is that it's time to stop dallying around.
Hey, this is the time to step up to the plate.
Hey, we don't know how much longer we have.
We're living in the last days.
Hey, we're living in dark days in our country.
Things are radically changing right now.
We don't know how much longer we've got.
Hey, it's time to get on the horse.
It's time to suit up in the armor of the Lord.
Hey, if there was a time to put your helmet on,
it's right now.
If there's a time to put on the breastplate,
it's May 27, 2007.
Hey, if there was a time to put on the zeal as a cloak
and say, we've got to lead others.
We've got to build this army.
We need to increase the size of our army.
We need to increase the size of this troop.
And let's go out and do something for God.
Hey, if there was ever a time
when that sermon's needed, it's right now.
It's May 27, 2007.
Let's take this church to the next level.
It's not going to happen by accident.
We were talking about this this week.
We're talking about doing another soul-winning marathon
like we did last year
when Brother Jimenez was here in the summer.
And Brother Dave wasn't here back then.
That was before he started coming to our church.
And I told him, I said, well, yeah, you know,
he asked if we were going to do that again.
I said, well, you know, we're going to do it again.
And I said, we have to do that in order to reach our goals.
I told him, I said, you know,
going soul-winning week after week
is something we do all the time.
But I said, in order to have as many people saved
as we had last year, I mean,
there were times throughout the year last year
when I took time off from work
and just dedicated it to soul-winning.
You know, I'm not saying that you need to do that at all.
But all I'm saying is that we had to sit down and make a plan.
At the end of last year,
we wanted to have 200 people saved in the year 2006.
We got toward the end of the year,
we were short of that goal.
I think we had like 183, 184.
I sat down and I figured out, okay,
how many hours have I gone soul-winning this year
versus how many people have gotten saved.
Okay, so it takes about this long just on average
to get somebody saved on soul-winning.
And I took the time off from work and said,
I'm going to go out soul-winning this many hours
because I want to make sure we hit that goal.
See, there's got to be planning.
You know, it's like a war.
There's got to be some kind of a system.
There's got to be some kind of a method to the madness
if you're going to accomplish something.
You've got to set a goal.
You've got to work toward achieving that goal.
And I ended up, you know, God really blessed me
in those last few days of 2006.
I had set aside a certain amount of time
and I ended up seeing enough people saved
to where I actually didn't even have to do the last few hours
and I didn't do them.
I was like, once I hit that goal, I was beat.
You know, I was done.
But I'm going to tell you something.
I had a plan.
And I told Brother Dave, I said,
if we're going to hit, you know, good salvation numbers
and if we're going to see our church grow in number this year,
there may be some times when we go out and do that
where we go soul-winning all day long, you know,
or just obviously it's just voluntary, you know.
It's going to force you to do it.
You know, where we go out and just knock the doors
and work hard and get it done.
Hey, you've got to do that if you want.
You want to succeed in business.
You've got goals.
In my business, I have numbers that I have to hit each month
of production of how much revenue we do each month.
And if we don't hit those numbers,
hey, the last few days of the month,
I'm working hard trying to hit those numbers.
I'm putting in the overtime.
I'm staying up at night getting it done.
If we can do it for money,
if we can do it for a physical battle,
if we can do it for the Air Force,
if we can do it for the Army,
if we can do it for the Marines,
if we can do it for all these branches of the service,
hey, I think that what we're doing
is the most important thing in the world.
I think you getting your loved ones safe
is the most important thing in the world.
I think that this church
is the most important thing in the world.
Jesus Christ died for the church.
There are churches like this on every street corner.
There's not a church like this in every town in the valley.
You couldn't go through all the lists of Peoria, Sun City,
Avondale, Tolleson, Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, Phoenix,
Apache, Johnson.
You think there's a church like that
in every town in this valley?
You think that there's churches like this
in every part of Tucson?
You think there's churches like this
in every town in America?
There aren't.
They're going to the rock concert this morning.
They're going to the dead as a doornail
First Baptist Church of the deep freeze
where nobody gets saved, nobody gets baptized,
and if the same sermon warmed over
for the five millionth time,
hey, there are churches like this on every street corner.
I think this church is important.
I think the people in this room are unique.
I think that our church needs to rise up
and go to the next level and build this church
because I think that this church is important.
I don't want my kids to grow up in a phoenix
where there's no big war Baptist church.
I want my kids to grow up and have a good church to go to.
That's why, with the help of God,
we're building it for them.
We're building it for this area,
and we're building it so that we can say to others,
go thou and do likewise, and win souls, preach hard on sin,
fight the battle, put on the armor of the Lord,
and put on the cloak of zeal.
Nobody wants to go to a boring church,
and I'm going to tell you something.
It's not the preaching necessarily that determines
whether a church is boring.
The pastor could scream, yell, and swing from the ceiling fan
and yell and break things.
The boring church is where it's the same people every week,
and you don't have people getting saved.
The boring church is where people are not being baptized.
The boring church is the church that just doesn't go anywhere.
The boring church is the church that doesn't have zeal
and excitement and enthusiasm about what they're doing.
If we were in a church where the pastor's excited
and everybody else is not excited,
people will come in and they'll sense that,
and this is what they'll think.
They'll think, well, this is just a show that we watch.
We watch Pastor Anderson stand up
and flip out three times a week and yell and scream.
It's fun.
Yeah, we learned the Bible.
But see, when people come in
and they see the pastor get up and preach,
but then they see you with your visitors
and they see you excited about what you're doing,
that speaks volumes.
That is so much more powerful.
I'm going to close with this.
I remember the first time that I went to
an independent fundamental Baptist church,
and we went to Regency Baptist Church.
This is the first time I've been since I was a little kid
to that type of a church.
We went to Regency Baptist Church
in Sacramento, California, and what happened?
The pastor was ill right away.
And we went there the first Sunday morning,
the pastor preached, but then he got very ill,
he went to the hospital,
and he didn't preach for the next few weeks.
And we were just brand new to this church.
And I remember different men in the church
were filling the pulpit.
Some of the deacons and everything
were filling in for the pastor.
And I remember my dad saying to me,
as we got in the car, he said,
you know what, this is a really good church.
And he said, this is why it's a good church.
He said, I've been in so many churches throughout life
where just the pastor, he was straight down the line.
But man, the deacons were deader
than last year's Christmas tree.
The deacons were just these,
he called them moss back deacons.
Like they're so old and dead and don't move
that they have actual moss growing on their back.
So he called them these moss back deacons,
is what he used to call them when I was a kid.
And he said, I love this church because he said,
not just the pastor is excited,
but he said, even when the pastor's gone,
the place is full.
And he said, even these guys that are coming in
and filling the pulpit, just the men of the church,
you know, not the pastor,
but just laymen and people that work jobs
and they're just men in the church.
He said, when they get up and preach,
man, they're preaching better than the pastor
at the church we were at.
They're getting up and preaching hard.
They're on board.
They're excited.
They're shouting, amen.
And they believe in what's going on.
See, we recognize right away, he said,
this is the church that I want to go to.
We went there for many years.
He said, this is the church I want to go to
because it's not just a one man show.
It's a church.
You know, it's a group.
It's not just the general.
It's a whole artillery unit here.
It's a whole battalion.
See this, and you know, that is how this church is already.
It's already like that.
Everybody in this church gets his name.
I mean, everybody in this church is doing something
and a part of it.
That's what makes this church great.
That's how we need to continue to be great.
And everyone in this church needs to decide
that the cloak of zeal is not just for Pastor Anderson.
The cloak of zeal is something that you need to put on
when you walk out that door.
Don't get apathetic.
Don't get bored with church.
Don't get bored with soul winning and the things of God.
There can be times when it maybe seems a little redundant to you.
Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
Romans 3.10, Romans 3.23, John 3.16, John 3.18.
Hey, don't ever get tired of pulling the trigger.
You're not going to make a very good soldier if you get tired.
It's so boring, I just keep shooting all day.
This is stupid.
Look, hey, the battle, it's not pulling the trigger.
It's the battle that's worthwhile.
It's that one more person that you can see saved.
Hey, put on the cloak of zeal.
Don't walk out to your car and say,
ho, hum, another Sunday morning sermon.
Yeah, I guess we'll be back tonight.
It's going to mess up our barbecue.
And everybody's coming over for hot dogs.
Oh, man, I can't believe.
Why don't they just, hey, go out of here and say,
man, I'm excited.
I need to be trained.
I need to study the Bible.
Man, I want to get somebody saved.
Man, I want to get one person saved this week.
Man, I want to have a visitor on Wednesday.
I'm going to make sure that I have my visitor on Wednesday
until I break the record.
I'm excited about it.
Don't get excited about American stupid idol, American idolatry.
Don't get excited about some sporting event, your team.
We went soul winning last week, and a whole house was painted
bright yellow with green trim.
And it had the Green Bay Packers symbol on their house.
I mean, this is your house that you live in.
And then they had a truck.
And he can tell you that I'm telling the truth.
The truck was green with yellow stripes on the side.
Green Bay Packers.
And I said, I don't know.
I mean, I don't think this guy works for the Packers
because the Packers, you know, Green Bay's in Wisconsin, OK?
And I'm thinking, we're in Arizona.
I think this guy's a little bit over the top here
in his worship of the Green Bay Packers.
Hey, why is he so excited about the Green Bay Packers?
I want to be 10,000 times more excited about church and God
and the Bible and loving God and loving people, helping people,
getting people in church, seeing their lives turned around,
seeing people saved, baptizing people in the backyard.
Hey, I'm more excited about that than he's excited about the Green Bay Packers
or else something's wrong with me.
I need to put on the seal of God as a cloak and be a leader.
Everybody in this church needs to be a leader.
Everybody in this church needs to rise up and war the good warfare
that God has for us to war.
But let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for the holiday of Memorial Day
when we can stop and think about those who paid the price
to give us the freedom that we enjoy.
We live in such a beautiful country.
We live in a country where we have freedom.
God, thank you so much for every single soldier
and every man who spilled his blood on the foreign field somewhere
who willingly gave his life and said,
I'm willing to give my life for America.
I love America.
Well, we have another citizenship that's far more important
than our citizenship to America, to the Kingdom of God.
We have a flag that we fly that's much more glorious,
and that's the Holy Bible.
Father, please help us to realize
that if we're going to win the war in this country,
if Faithful War Baptist Church is going to win our personal war here in Tempe,
it's going to be because we're trained.
It's going to be because we're zealous.
It's going to be because we have the right equipment.
It's going to be because we're suited up in the armor
that we need to be suited up with.
It's going to be because we know what we're doing.
It's going to be because we have a plan and a strategy, dear God.
Please, Father, help us to get serious about the things of God
and not be casual, but help us to just...